Sitting with Jesus

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Sometimes I think God refuses to give up on his efforts to get his message across.

I’ve been out of sorts for a while now, and can’t get back on track. I know what changes I need to make, but haven’t done them. I’d like to say I’ve taken the matter up with God in prayer, but he didn’t seem to pay heed to the quick muttering I did while my mind was on other things.

On Saturday I learned God has in fact heard me. The May 21 reflection by Macrina Wiederkehr, OSB in Give Us This Day was a poem titled “Do Not Lose Heart” that contain the lines “I, too, am stumbling/under the burden of my not-enoughness./My unfinished cries/for recognition/for love/for acceptance.”

Reading that, my soul cried, “Aha! I’m not alone.”

And what to do about it? The answer to that question came from The Little White Book, which was continuing a series of reflections on the parable of the 10 bridesmaids. That May 21 entry pointed out that having good intentions isn’t the same as carrying them out. “… [I]t takes common sense and some practical planning to make that commitment more than words,” the book says.

I read those words, nodded, and went to work, which that day included a talk at St. George Catholic Church on the Eucharist by Cy Kellett, host of Catholic Answers Live.

It may not be a coincidence that Kellett talked about his transformation from “a grumpy young man” who was angry at everyone into a calmer, more loving person.

At the time of which he spoke, Kellett worked for the late Bishop Robert Brom of San Diego, who suggested that his staff “go sit with Jesus in the Eucharist,” Kellett said.

Their workplace held a chapel where the Eucharist was reserved, so Kellett began to “sit with Jesus” every day, he said.

“The miracle that happens when you go sit with Jesus in the Eucharist is nothing,” Kellett said. “He doesn’t say anything, he doesn’t do anything. I mean, I would have been very entertained if maybe angels had showed up, or I’d had visions, or maybe I had a tremendous emotional experience of intimacy with God.”

But nothing happened, he said. “It wasn’t a bad experience. I liked sitting there. I liked talking with him. I liked just being quiet. I loved not doing work.”

However, after several months, “I began to realize that spiritually I could do things I couldn’t do before,” he said. For example, he had been angry about one particular thing “that didn’t deserve all the anger that was attached to it, and I found that I could forgive it easily. I could let it go.”

More and more people are discovering that Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is spiritually productive, he said. Monks and nuns in monasteries have done practice for centuries, but recently it has become more popular with the laity, he said, especially after Pope John Paul II encouraged it.

“Eucharistic adoration, I think, is a modern phenomenon that is very powerful because Jesus wants to heal us,” Kellett said.

“With Jesus, you don’t have to do anything” except sit quietly in his presence, he said. Or, if you choose, you can talk to the Lord, or follow the example of St. Teresa of Avila and do some spiritual reading in his presence.

It wasn’t until hours after Kellett’s presentation, while thinking over the day, that I remembered how much spiritual healing I’d felt years ago when I was regularly sitting in silent prayer. Somehow I lost that habit, but now with these three reminders I’m going to do what needs to be done to get the oil for my lamp so that I will be prepared should the bridegroom come.

Marie Mischel is editor of the Intermountain Catholic. Reach her at marie@icatholic.org.