Hidden Contemplatives: Karl Rahner

Wednesday, 31 December 2014

Karl Rahner - Light The Candles

Light The Candles

And now God says to us what he has already said to the world as a whole through his grace-filled birth:

"I am there. I am with you. I am your life.
I am the gloom of your daily routine. Why will you not bear it? I weep your tears - pour out yours to me, my child.
I am your joy. Do not be afraid to be happy, for ever since I wept, joy is the standard of living that is really more suitable than the anxiety and grief of those who think they have no hope.
I am the blind alleys of all your paths, for when you no longer know how to go any farther, then you have reached me, foolish child, though you are not aware of it.
I am in your anxiety, for I have shared it by suffering it. And in doing so, I wasn't even heroic according to the wisdom of the world.
I am in the prison of your finiteness, for my love has made me your prisoner.
When the totals of your plans and of your life's experiences do not balance out evenly, I am the unsolved remainder. And I know that this remainder, which makes you so frantic, is in reality my love, that you do not understand.
I am present in your needs. I have suffered them and they are now transformed but not obliterated from my heart....
This reality - incomprehensible wonder of my almighty love - I have sheltered safely in the cold stable of your world. I am there. I no longer go away from this world, even if you do not see me now.... I am there.

It is Christmas. Light the candles. They have more right to exist than all the darkness. It is Christmas. Christmas that lasts forever."

Karl Rahner

"Wishing you a New Year filled with surprises. Poverty or riches, good health or sickness, joys and sorrows, let us receive all with faith, hope and love, mindfully aware it is all God's gift to us."

St. Mary's Cistercian Abbey, Glencairn.

Image courtesy of Christmasstockimages.com

Hidden Contemplatives

"There are many .... who serve God with great purity of soul and perfect self-sacrifice in the active life. They know how to find God by devoting themselves to him in self-sacrificing labors in which they are able to remain in His presence all day long.

They lead lives of great simplicity. Without realizing it, their extremely simple prayer is, for them, so deep and interior that it brings them to the threshold of contemplation.

Although they are active labourers, they are also hidden contemplatives because of the great purity of heart maintained in them by obedience, fraternal charity, self-sacrifice, and perfect abandonment to God's will in all that they do and suffer."

Thomas Merton

Profile

Anne Marie Maguire is a T'ai Chi and Qigong teacher, Herbalist and Naturopath, with special interests in the mystical traditions, energetics, plant medicine, and the inherent rhythm found in Nature. She currently teaches T'ai Chi and Qigong, with a focus on meditation and spirituality.

She has a BA in European Studies & Languages, and completed an MBS in 1995 in Dublin City University with her thesis exploring Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

She has worked for Irish, German and Australian multinationals writing informational, promotional and spiritual material.

She has travelled extensively, with periods of time living in Germany, France, and more recently, New Zealand and Australia. She wrote a spiritual travel blog throughout that latter time. She now lives in Ireland, her home country. She is a lay Associate of St. Mary's Cistercian Abbey, Glencairn, Ireland.