{"id":6204,"date":"2020-02-08T06:27:24","date_gmt":"2020-02-08T11:27:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/?p=6204"},"modified":"2020-02-08T06:33:53","modified_gmt":"2020-02-08T11:33:53","slug":"at-home-with-yourself-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/at-home-with-yourself-3\/","title":{"rendered":"At Home with Yourself."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

W. B Yeats called it the ever \u201cwidening gyre\u201d *. The\nimage was of a falcon and the falconer who calls the bird\nto its roost. The bird has flown to a distance it can no\nlonger see or hear its master. \u201cThe falcon cannot hear the\nfalconer. Things fall apart. The center cannot hold.\u201d The\npoem refers to the forces of history or culture that take a\nperson and a civilization away from their true self.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Something like this happens in every age of history. Its\neffects appear in our culture today and our young people\nare most severely affected. We\u2019re losing a sense of our\ncenter, our true selves, and what is most disconcerting – –\nwe don\u2019t sense the loss. The forces that separate falcon\nfrom falconer are many and complex. To keep it simple\nwe can point to an imbalance of the \u201cinner world\u201d and\nthe \u201cexternal world\u201d.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The inner world refers to that realization a person has of\nhimself. His center. His likes and dislikes, personality,\ncharacteristics and values. It\u2019s our soul, our center. It\u2019s\nthe \u201cme\u201d that turns when I hear my name called.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201couter world\u201d of course, is that environment outside\nourselves; events, persons, circumstances in which we\nact and are acted upon. Some have called it \u201cthe daily\ngrind\u201d.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between these two poles, my human life happens. I go out of myself to encounter the world and the people it brings. Then I return to the inner world and the conversation begins. \u201cWhat was that? Why did that happen? Did I do the right thing?\u201d, etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These two poles of life, the going out and the returning \u201chome\u201d, need to be in balance. The problem is the world with its unending chatter of social media, news and entertainment, overwhelms the \u201cinner person.\u201d There\u2019s no home in ourselves to return to. We are in turmoil. Things fall apart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In those rare moments when television or internet are\nturned off, we can grow restless or slightly embarrassed\nto be \u201calone with ourselves\u201d. The sudden quiet catches\nus off guard and in the silence a weird feeling of being a\nstranger to ourselves comes over us.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To meet ourselves in such a moment can even frighten us.\n\u201cWho is this person? It\u2019s ME!!\u201d Oh dear. Me. \u201cWhat am\nI going to do with me?\u201d\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so we check our email, text someone, see what\u2019s on\nTV, phone somebody . . . anything to avoid being with\nmyself.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This estrangement from ourselves has sad consequences\nfor our relationship with God. How can we hear the voice\nof God if we can\u2019t hear the voice of our own conscience.\n(that inner voice urging us to \u201cdo this.\u201d Or, \u201cdon\u2019t do\nthat\u201d Or, \u201cgood job!\u201d Or, \u201cshame on you.\u201d)\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remember Jesus telling us \u201cwhen you talk to God (pray), go to your room. Close the door. And pray to your Father in secret.\u201d Mt. 6:5,6<\/a>? Why in secret? Because the way God chooses to speak to you is as a friend. And friends give each other their full attention. A friend speaks personally to you like no other, many times quietly, just between the two of you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the quiet, over time, we return to ourselves and begin\nto hear things in our heart once again. I remember one\nyear on retreat at a monastery walking down a country\npath. Suddenly it happened . . . I heard the wind blowing\nthrough the trees. I mean I HEARD THE WIND. I heard\nit because I was LISTENING.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later on, if you continue to listen, you can hear the things\nyour heart has wanted to tell God. \u201cLord, it\u2019s me. I just\nwant to tell you . . .\u201d Many times it\u2019s just being aware of\nyour feeling and giving them to God \u201cwho sees.\u201d\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So how to end this? Get quiet. Put down the iphone. Come home to yourself. Reacquaint yourself to what you\u2019re feeling, thinking, loving, fearing. Then. . . turn to Him. Speak anything (anything!) you want to get off your chest, be grateful for, need help with. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is there. \u201cYour Father who hears in secret. . . knows what you need.\u201d Mt. 6:8<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is a promise from Christ. Trust Him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fr. Tim <\/p>\n\n\n\n

*W.B. Yeats, The Second Coming <\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

W. B Yeats called it the ever \u201cwidening gyre\u201d *. The image was of a falcon and the falconer who calls the bird to its roost. The bird has flown to a distance it can no longer see or hear its master. \u201cThe falcon cannot hear the falconer. Things fall apart. The center cannot hold.\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weekly-column"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6204"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6207,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6204\/revisions\/6207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}