Why I Write: A Visitation Experience

We are part of God’s communication system. We don’t have a choice! It is part of our job description given at Baptism. Jeremiah tried to keep quiet and the words of God burned within him and he had to speak. Whenever God communicates anything to us it is not for ourselves alone. The Spirit is guiding the Church by inspiring the Church! That’s us!! We are called to be evangelizers, to share our faith.

When the apostles and disciples experienced God in Jesus, the Spirit drove them to share that experience. “Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.” That sharing, that evangelization, was initially spoken and then written down in the words of the Gospel, other New Testament writings and the writings of the Fathers of the Church. As a result we have three ways we can come to know God:

1. direct experiences of God in religious rituals, interior communications from God in prayer, experiencing God in nature and God acting in the events of our life;

2. hearing the words of another’s experience of God from family members, through hearing scripture, sermons, faith sharing, incidental words of another and formal classes, and

3. reading the written accounts of another’s experience of God in the Scriptures, catechisms, lives of the Saints, religious writings and even novels.

Keep in mind that the spoken and written words can never convey the depth of the experiencebut they can be an experience of grace for us. Remember the disciples on their way to Emmaus whose hearts burned within them when they heard the Words. Consider Peter’s words to the cripple in the temple begging for alms. “I have neither silver, nor gold, but what I have I give you. In the Name of Jesus stand up and walk” and the man leapt for joy! St. Anthony heard the words of the Gospel as spoken to him, “Go sell what you have, give to the poor and come follow Me” and he became the father of monasticism in the desert. St. Augustine heard a voice say “Take up and read,” and he read the first words of Scripture his eyes fell upon and they were the words that brought him to conversion. John Henry Neumann was convinced of the Catholic Faith by reading the Early Fathers of the Church. Words, spoken and heard - written and read in faith,open us to God’s Spirit, making them an experience of God for us. That is what happens in Lectio Divina, Divine Reading, we pray to the Spirit before we read to be open and ready for God to speak to us. Some saints would read Scripture or other spiritual books on their knees before the Blessed Sacrament.

Becoming aware of the above insights, I finally understand why a professor at Creighton University teaching a course on the Carmelite Mystics, said that we all have the obligation to write. He felt that anyone who has the privilege to study and experience God, as we did in our courses on Christian Spirituality, were being given a gift for the Church and it had to be shared. I have to say those words have haunted and inspired me for some 35 years. I have done my share of writing and speaking my faith during my years of ministry in the Church. I have written hundreds of poems. My journals are full of words. I have briefcases of articles I’ve written up in my spare bedroom. I have a file on my computer with ideas for books and articles. I am good at stocking the warehouse, but the distribution end of it has been stuck. Lately I’ve felt compelled, that whenever I receive an insight in prayer, the next occasion I give a talk or talk with someone, I share it. When I do that, the insights seem to multiply. Now I feel compelled to write.

Mary knew what to do with the grace and the Word she received. “She set out in haste to the hill country” to visit her cousin Elizabeth, to share her Good News, to share with another the great and marvelous work God had done in her. And in her sharing she brought an experience of God to Elizabeth and young John in her womb leapt for joy.In this Visitation experience Mary is our teacher and patroness in our efforts as a Church to evangelize.

Theotokos
You, Godbearer! Life quickens within!
Listen and feel the Word gently and lovingly awaken.
Sense the quiet power of His movements and exclaim!!
Bring forth the Word in loving presence to make life leap for joy in another!
- Bernice Dumitru

I am so grateful to Catholic 365 for giving me a way to fulfill my obligation to write. I pray that our dear Mother, Mary, guide me and the Spirit speak through my words to make life leap for joy in you. That is why I write!!