Excerpt from Wings Album by our Mother Foundress

“Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.”  (Mk 10:15)

We need to learn to ask questions like children do. We need to learn to know we don’t know anything. And we really don’t. We ask God all the time, “What do You think, Lord? Father, what is Your mind? What is Your will? What should we do? What shouldn’t we do?” He wants us to know. He wants us to be led just as Jesus was always led by the Spirit. This is another incredible mystery. Jesus was Incarnate Wisdom and yet He was always led by the Spirit. Incarnate Wisdom being led by the Spirit of Wisdom. Isn’t that amazing? He didn’t do His own thing – ever. He didn’t make His own decision. He did only what the Father wanted. “I only do what pleases the Father” (Jn 8:29). Jesus went off into the deserts. He went to mountain-tops. He had that time alone. He was not in the dark, was He? He knew what the Father wanted at all times. We too are constantly led by these beautiful gifts of the Spirit.

The pillar of contemplative spirituality which is very important here is the pillar of prayer itself. This pillar forces us to go to God constantly in prayer – to ask, to listen, to learn. There is no way we can carry out Our Lady’s mandate at Cana if we are not listening. She said, “Do whatever He tells you” (Jn 2:5). Whatever. And to do this we must be asking and listening constantly.

When we say that the pillar is prayer, we are talking specifically about contemplative prayer. Contemplative prayer is listening prayer. We don’t do the talking. We are in the presence of Someone so much greater than ourselves. We want to learn from Him. We want to know His thoughts now – His mind, His ways. And this is what He wants also.

The New Testament is filled with Jesus telling us what to be doing and what not to be doing. It is all based on love. The fruit of this kind of love is obedience. So if we really love God, we’re going to be doing what He says. That’s love power at its best.

“He said to them in reply, ‘My mother and my brothers are those who hear the Word of God and act on it.’” (Lk 8:21)