| About Us | |||
| May 2009 Chronicle | |||
| • | A Message From Fr. Jim | ||
| • | Dominican Connection | ||
| • | Friends of St. Jude Report....What God Has Done | ||
| • | May Novena Guest Preacher | ||
| • | Wondrous Silence | ||
| St. Jude Chronicle Archive | |||
| From our gift shop | |
|
St. Jude Oval Sterling Medal |
| See more gift shop items > | |
Join our mailing list
Our newsletter, The St. Jude Chronicle, is sent in advance of our five solemn novenas and contains articles on the spiritual life.
Sign up >
Prayer for the Friends of St. Jude
Dear God, I can get very caught up in my own problems. After all, they are real and cause me a lot of pain. But I remember that I am part of a large human family, your family, and we all have problems. I expand my awareness to include all people, especially the many others who approach Saint Jude with their concerns. I move out of myself to embrace them in prayer and ask that your grace may flow through every one of them.
About us
The Dominican Friars, the Province of St. Albert the Great, are Roman Catholic priests and brothers. We are part of the global "Order of Preachers," the Dominican Family of priests, brothers, sisters, nuns and lay people, who live and pray today in a holy tradition that dates back to time of St. Dominic, the thirteenth century.
Our mission is to communicate the Word of God through preaching, theological education, and the promotion of justice and peace. This mission in the Body of Christ demands a vowed community life, liturgical prayer and life-long study.
May 2009
Dear Friends,
My friends, imagine beautiful flute music flowing from under a tree near you but at the same time, close by, a building being demolished. You would be unable to receive the beautiful notes being played for you. At our very center a flute is being played all the time: God’s flute. We can miss it because of all the noise around us and within us.
The “sound of God’ within us is not made up of musical notes, even if you are a composer! It consists in a “Sensed Presence” beyond all thoughts, words, feelings or sounds. I have found this sensed Presence to be a great comfort to me especially during anxious times. This Presence is my home which comes with me wherever I go. It is a loving Presence that I begin to see abiding at the center of every person whether they are aware of it or not.
I think this “Presence in the Silence” is the most wondrous experience we can have. From it comes all inspiration and stunning creativity. My friends, many of us have been taught, especially by example, to flee from this silence at all cost. Perhaps the reason is because while we can enter it, we can never control it. Many of us come home and immediately click on the television. The vastness vanishes. I am becoming more convinced that when we give our attention to television for an hour, even if the programs are good, this medium sucks us out of our deepest conscious selves into what is scripted before us.
Many times what leads us away from sacred silence are the conversations we are having in our heads. My friends, there is such a huge difference between talking “with” ourselves and talking “to” ourselves. When we are talking “with” ourselves we are having an intrapersonal dialogue. This happens best in silence and I find it to be a sacred experience. It involves having a close, respectful friendship with myself. When we talk “to” ourselves we become ungrounded. We are unconsciously yacking away to ourselves or at someone else who isn’t even there!
Friends, I ask you, right now, to be silent. Take a nice big breath and release yourself into the quiet realm within you. Step back from your busy thoughts. They may continue and that’s fine. What’s different is that you are not identifying with those thoughts and thereby energizing them. You have made a noticeable space between them and yourself.
In Psalm 46:10 we read, “Be still and know that I am God.” When our minds see this, they panic and yell, “I can’t do that! I have to grab on to something. There’s too much to do.” Don’t be tricked by this monkey-like mind. It doesn’t know what it’s talking about. Your deepest Self is drawing you to abide within your silence for awhile. It is from here that peace, harmony, and love flow.
Your brother in St. Dominic, Richard, O.P.
Dominican Shrine of St. Jude Thaddeus
© 2003-2009 • 1910 South Ashland Avenue • Chicago, IL 60608-2904 • Directions to the Shrine
Phone 312.226.0020 • Fax 312.226.6440 • E-mail info@shrineofsaintjude.com • Website terms & conditions • Privacy policy