American Catholics have been caught up in the heresy of good works, This heresy denies the power of prayer, especially contemplative prayer, and is the main reason why I cannot get my house started in certain areas of the world.
The heresy of good works denies that all actions which build the Kingdom of God, whether charitable or benevolent groups, or active religious orders, or even priests, must be founded on a basis on prayer.
Don Jean -Baptist-Chautard, whose book, The Soul of the Apostolate, I highly recommend to all my readers at this time, puts the words, THE HERESY OF GOOD WORKS, in large caps. People in America have told me that praying a lot during the day is a waste of time when there is so much to do.
These people do not understand that the battles which are not seen are greater than those which are seen.
Americans have told me that one needs a business model to begin a small lay or religious order. As I have written here, these people do not understand that God does not work in business models, but in organic models. One begins small and slowly, like a little plant from a seed.
One of my personal patrons is the greatest of all saints from Moscow, Basil, the Blessed, canonized in 1588 by the Orthodox. Let me quote from a book a reflection by Anna Vicini, on a icon of Basil, naked and looking up to Mary and Baby Jesus, who reach down to him.
On the fools for Christ, she writes,
"The folly for Christ will make a comeback and be a constant in the history of the Church in every age and culture where the 'signs of the times' require that there be a re-asserting the Christianity cannot be reduced to ethics, to liturgical, pietistic, or moral forms, or to social practices favored generally by the culture that dominates."
A prime characteristic of the life of these saints is their extreme freedom, which allows Basil to talk to anyone, to embrace the least or the greatest, the czar, to reproach them and correct them in a fraternal way starting from the one foundation which is the love of Christ."
Contemplatives understand fools for Christ, as they live in contradiction to the world. While healthy people eat whole grain wheat bread, they eat white bread which is the cheapest to identify with the poor, or make their own simple breads.
While the world feeds, because of the sins of novelty and curiosity, the news and gossip of newspapers and magazines, they only read what is essential.
While some Catholics brag about "my ministry", they follow simple rules of silence and the hidden life.
While people accumulate goods, they wear simple clothes, and have few, sharing what is important, such as spiritual books, prayers, silence.
I again plead for the small house of prayer. One reason why Catholicism continues to be weak in America, England and Ireland, is the lack of constant prayer, rising up above the din, to God, imploring him for the graces needed for those who need to be active.
Fr. Chautaud notes, "... in the earliest centuries came the contemplative orders, whose ceaseless prayer and fierce penances were such a powerful aid in the conversion of the pagan world...."
I hope to inspire readers and others to understand that pagan America, with the Rainbow House in Washington, will not be converted unless we have the shock troops of contemplatives in the world
I only ask for a small heart of prayer in a diocese which welcomes those who understand the message of Christ to Martha concerning Mary.
My life has been like Basil's for four and one-half years. Some people have understood that this has been the result of God's call to be a sign of contradiction in the world
May the next step occur in God's plan, a lay contemplative group.
