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Fransalian International

"Be what you are, Be at its best!"      - St. Francis de Sales

Editorial  Fr. General invites... A joyful commitment  SFS Fr. J. Charriere  Suvidya soars high Mkuza  Itaga  Missions for the youth We want to see the Lord Ongha in Namibia My ministry in America Three special ministries  Chile  Update & Renewal  SJTI Blessing and Inauguration  Bhusawal and Badnera In collaboration with the SW Province Poland Mission  Farewell, Fr. Antony Jubilarians  New Priests         Vol. 6  2004

Fransalian International

Prayer is genuine when its light chases away our ignorance, its warmth moderates our emotions and passions and its power makes us Christ-like. Prayer should lead to a profound experience of God. Every believer desires it. The path to it is not so easy. A variety of means are offered. Which is the best, the shortest way to deep experience of God?

Hi-tech Syndrome

Namaan was angry when the prophet Elisha asked him to go and have bath in the Jordan seven times. How could he be healed of his leprosy? The remedy was not costly enough for a man of his stature. So he murmured: Are there not better rivers in Damascus? Still persuaded by his servants, he went, had bath in the Jordan seven times and was healed. Similarly, where modern advanced medical science fails, just a few doses of herbal medicine heals.

There is a multiplicity of high techniques and means offered by God-men and spiritual authors to experience God. This is a hi-tech syndrome searching for extraordinary and costly means often with no effect. On the contrary, along with meditation, St. Francis de Sales, offers some very simple, extremely simple and effective means of growing in the experience of God.

Awareness of Divine Presence

God is present everywhere above, below, around, within, without. Such awareness of divine presence makes us cry out with the Psalmist: If I climb up to heaven, O my God, you are there; if I go down to the world beneath, you are there (Ps 139:8). No one can escape God's presence: God is in everything and everywhere, there is no place or thing in this world where he is not really present. Just as the birds always find air wherever they fly, so wherever we go or wherever we are we find God present.  This truth is known to everyone, but not everyone is attentive to it to be conscious of it. (Introduction Devout Life, Part II, Chapter 2, p. 89)

Awareness of Divine Presence Within

Cultivating an awareness of God deep within us is another simple means leading to experience of God: God is present not only in the place where you are, but that he is very specially present in your heart and in the very centre of your spirit. He enlivens and animates it by his divine presence as the heart of your heart and the spirit of your spirit. (Introduction to the Devout Life, P.89-90) God is present not only in the place where you are, but that he is very specially present in your heart and in the very centre of your spirit. He enlivens and animates it by his divine presence as the heart of your heart and the spirit of your spirit. (Introduction Devout Life, Part II, Chapter 2, pp. 89-90)

This is simple truth, reality. "Do you not know that you are the temple of the Holy Spirit,” cries out St Paul. Delightful is this loving, tender, compassionate presence in our being filled with the light and glory. And it emanates, spreads out from the centre, from the innermost depths into every part of our being. How true St Augustine was when he said, "I was searching for you outside but all the while you were within me." Such awareness makes us thrill with joy, peace, and serenity. Undoubtedly, simple means, based on absolutely simple truth, are more effective than complicated methods and techniques.

(Fr. Antony Mookenthottam msfs)