Catching Fire, Becoming Flame E-Book

Albert Haase

• Herausgeber: Paraclete Press
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

Fire up your spiritual journey with the revised and expanded edition of beloved spiritual director Albert Haase, OFM's bestselling guide to a vibrant, fulfilling spiritual life!   Ever wonder how some people become enthusiastic and on fire about their relationship with God? In thirty-eight power-packed, concise chapters, Albert Haase gives you the tools and kindling to prepare for the spark of God in your life – and then shows you how to fan it into flame until you are set ablaze. This book glows with time-tested wisdom as an experienced spiritual director shares the secrets of the saints. Feel cold? Or maybe just smoldering? With supplemental reading suggestions and reflection questions, this eminently practical book functions like a personal, spiritual retreat.  Catching Fire, Becoming Flame — 10th Anniversary Edition: A Guide for Spiritual Transformation: - Features a new introduction, 5 brand new chapters, and thoroughly revised and updated content throughout the book. - Gives you the practical tools and time-honored techniques to grow your relationship with God. - Shows you how to respond to God's fiery passion, how to engage it, and, most important, how to be changed by it. - Features purposely short and concise chapters, allowing you ample time in one convenient sitting not only to read it, but also to reflect on its questions or practice the presented technique. Catching Fire, Becoming Flame is designed to be a handy resource for expanding your knowledge and practice of ancient and contemporary spiritual practices. It will fuel your creativity and appreciation for myriad ways to fall in love with God—which, in the end, is what being on fire is all about.  

Leseprobe

2022 First Printing This Edition

Catching Fire, Becoming Flame: A Guide for Spiritual Transformation Tenth Anniversary Edition

Copyright © 2023 by Franciscan Friars of the State of Missouri

ISBN 978-1-64060-861-0

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture references are taken the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition copyright © 1993 and 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America, and are used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture references marked MSG are taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Two paragraphs of Chapter 6 were taken from Albert Haase, OFM, Becoming an Ordinary Mystic: Spirituality for the Rest of Us (Downers Grove IL: InterVarsity Press, 2019), 48–50 and one paragraph from Albert Haase, OFM, Soul Training with the Peace Prayer of Saint Francis (Cincinnati, OH: Franciscan Media, 2020), 38–39.

The Paraclete Press name and logo (dove on cross) are registered trademarks of Paraclete Press, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in an electronic retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Published by Paraclete Press Brewster, Massachusetts

www.paracletepress.com

Printed in the United States of America

Abba Lot went to see Abba Joseph and said to him, “Abba, as far as I can, I say my little office, I fast a little, I pray and meditate, I live in peace and as far as I can, I purify my thoughts. What else can I do?” Then the old man stood up and stretched his hands toward heaven.

His fingers became like ten lamps of fire and he said to him, “If you will, you can become all flame.”

—The Sayings of the Desert Fathers

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION TO THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY EDITION STILL BURNING

INTRODUCTION GOD’S PASSION, OUR ENTHUSIASM

The Spark From God AN INTRODUCTION TO THE SPIRITUAL LIFE

1. A PROCESS OF TRANSFORMATION

2. DESIRE AND SPIRITUAL AWAKENING

3. THE THREE STAGES OF THE SPIRITUAL JOURNEY

4. IMPERFECTIONS VERSUS SINS

5. BREAKING BAD HABITS

6. THE LIVING FLAME OF LOVE

KindlingBASIC SPIRITUAL CONCEPTS

7. DOES YOUR GOD LOVE YOU?

8. PRINCIPLES OF PRAYER

9. THE ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE

10. THE DIVINE MILIEU

11. ME, MYSELF, AND I: TRUE OR FALSE?

12. GOD AND SUFFERING

Catching FireMETHODS OF PRAYER

13. THE EXAMEN

14. MEDITATION AND CONTEMPLATION

15. THE JESUS PRAYER

16. LECTIO DIVINA

17. IMAGINATIVE PRAYER

18. WONDER-ING WITH CREATION

19. PRAYING THE STATIONS OF THE CROSS

20. THE LORD’S PRAYER ANEW

Fanning The FlameDISCERNMENT

21. DISCERNMENT OF SPIRITS

22. GOD’S WILL AND DECISION MAKING

23. DRYNESS, DARKNESS, OR DEPRESSION?

24. SPIRITUAL DIRECTION

25. SELF-CARE AND WELLNESS

26. DEVELOPING A RULE OF LIFE

Becoming All FlameDYNAMIC COMMITMENTS

27. AN EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE

28. THE CHALLENGE OF FORGIVENESS

29. INNER HEALING

30. RESISTING TEMPTATIONS

31. SURRENDER AND ABANDONMENT

32. REVEAL EVERYTHING TO GOD

33. SILENCE AND SOLITUDE: THE RETREAT

34. SABBATH REST

35. PILGRIMAGE

36. HOSPITALITY

37. LIVING IN THE PRESENT MOMENT

38. SOUL TRAINING

CONCLUSION: A PRAYER AT THE HEARTH OF THE HEART

POSTSCRIPT TO THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY EDITION:A PERENNIAL METAPHOR

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

NOTES

INTRODUCTION TO THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

STILL BURNING

■

This tenth anniversary edition of Catching Fire, Becoming Flame: A Guide for Spiritual Transformation has given me cause to pause and ponder. Why has this book and the two DVDs (now streaming videos) associated with it, Catching Fire, Becoming Flame: A Guide for Spiritual Transformation and Keeping the Fire Alive: Navigating Challenges in the Spiritual Life, been so immensely popular? Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think they would become the bestsellers they have become.

I still remember the woman who gave me the idea for the book and videos. I was giving a workshop on the spiritual journey at a church in the suburbs of Chicago. During the lunch break, she approached. “Father,” she said, “your presentations today are so enlightening and informative. For years I’ve been hankering for spirituality resources. Many churches offer Bible studies for their parishioners and that’s wonderful. But some of us are interested in spiritual formation and spirituality studies. Just look at all these people who have shown up for your workshop today. Why don’t you think about putting your knowledge and experience with the spiritual life into a book and maybe even film some videos that people interested in spirituality could watch together?”

This woman was fanning some embers deep within me. I too had often wondered why there were no spirituality resources available for people like myself who burned with an interest in the spiritual life. That very night, after returning to the friary, even though I was dead tired and mentally exhausted, I turned on my computer and started listing topics that I thought would be essential and helpful for someone interested in the spiritual life. It took me two weeks to decide on the material that should be included. I thought of this emerging book as a “literary” spiritual director that people could turn to as they explored their relationship with God. I also wanted it to be a compendium of what I had learned about the spiritual life after fanning God’s spark since my teenage years.

Over the past decade, I’ve given workshops on the contents of this book across the United States, Canada, and Singapore. I’ve also received hundreds of emails thanking me for this book and its streaming videos. I’ve been told they have been used as an alternative to Bible studies in both Catholic and Protestant churches. They’re currently being used in training programs for permanent deacons and spiritual directors. Seminaries are suggesting them for the formation of people preparing for ministry, and many religious orders are using them in the formation of their novices.

I was humbled and delighted when Paraclete Press approached me about the possibility of offering a tenth anniversary edition of this book. Over the years as I have returned to the original edition, I saw some gaps that needed to be filled. As a result, I have included five additional chapters to this anniversary edition that deal with the living flame of love, the Jesus Prayer, inner healing, hospitality, and living in the present moment. I also have tweaked the content of some chapters since my understanding of the spiritual life and spiritual formation has shifted and hopefully matured.

I made the decision to delete the “Go Deeper” section that concluded each chapter of the original edition. Some of the recommended resources have gone out of print while others are so old that it would be impossible to retrieve them. The chapters in this tenth anniversary edition reflect the latest insights and perennial wisdom found in those suggested resources.

Jesus said, “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” (Luke 12:49) It is my hope that the tenth anniversary edition of this book will help you prepare kindling in your hearth that will catch fire with love for the things of heaven, the wonders of creation, and the people of earth. May we never tire of fanning that flame and keeping it burning.

Albert Haase, OFM

Feast of Pentecost

INTRODUCTION

GOD’S PASSION, OUR ENTHUSIASM

■

My friend Helen is the mother of two daughters. She’s a retired executive assistant for a senior partner in a global financial services firm. She’s a good wife, an honest woman, and a faithful friend. She’s also dedicated to her faith and committed to working on her relationship with God. I nodded in agreement when I heard someone say, “You can feel her fire in everything Helen says and does.”

Helen is an ordinary person who enjoys babysitting her grandchildren, raising African violets, and meandering down the grocery aisle looking for bargains. But in her enthusiasm, I think she’s extraordinary. Her love for God moves her to pause and pray at the site of a beautiful sunset over the ocean—and drives her presence when volunteers are needed for the annual church cleaning. Her passion for the homeless fuels the care and concern she exudes as she pours an extra ladle of meat sauce on spaghetti at the local soup kitchen. Her gratitude glows in the many thank-you notes she deliberately handwrites every month to friends and neighbors.

Eight hundred years before Helen, Francis of Assisi was also consumed with a godly enthusiasm. His love for God burned so ardently that he became a living image of the crucified Christ, branded with the five wounds of the stigmata—something rarely experienced among us today. But, much like my friend Helen, he showed what happens when a person responds to God’s longing for us.

Throughout history hundreds of thousands of people have known the fiery passion God has for being in a relationship with us. The sparks from God’s longing catch fire in their lives, and by engaging and responding to it, ordinary people like Helen and Francis become beacons of light who blaze by day and shine brightly by night.

Catching Fire, Becoming Flame: A Guide for Spiritual Transformation gives you the practical tools and time-honored techniques to do the same. It shows you how to respond to God’s fiery passion, how to engage it, and, most important, how to be changed by it. Each of its chapters is purposely short and concise, allowing you ample time in one convenient sitting not only to read it, but also to reflect on its questions or practice the presented technique.

This book is designed to be a handy resource for expanding your knowledge and practice of ancient and contemporary spiritual practices. It will fuel your creativity and appreciation for myriad ways to fall in love with God—which, in the end, is what being on fire is all about.

As you practice the spiritual methods of Catching Fire, Becoming Flame and make them your own in a distinct way, you will find the flames of godly enthusiasm leaping up in your own life as they do in the lives of all holy people. You will also find yourself gradually transformed into your truest identity: a little Christ—which is what the word Christian literally means—sent to lovingly respond to the unmet need or required duty of the present moment.

Albert Haase, OFM

Feast of Pentecost

The Spark From God

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE SPIRITUAL LIFE

God initiates the process of spiritual transformation by throwing a divine spark into our lives.

God then waits for our response.

CHAPTER1A PROCESS OF TRANSFORMATION

■

Sr. Elena was eighty-seven years old, blind, and spent her days in a wheelchair. I didn’t notice her when I began preaching the weeklong retreat at the retirement home where she resided. But on the afternoon of the second day, she asked someone to push her to me.

“Father, I have a secret to tell you,” she said.

I leaned over and she whispered in my ear, “God l-o-n-g-s to turn you into a saint!” Her face lit up as she added, “If you respond to God’s yearning, you’ll be amazed at what happens.”

Though it’s been more than two decades since I heard Sr. Elena’s secret, I can still feel the ardor and passion that accompanied her revelation. In one short moment, Sr. Elena taught me that God’s longing to be in a relationship with us spreads like wildfire in the hearts of people who respond to it. They can’t contain what becomes like a fire in the belly, a burning in their bones (see Jeremiah 20:9). No wonder their devotion is memorable and contagious.

Let’s take a broad, quick overview at the process God uses in preparing and then setting people on fire with divine love.

A Process

Catching and crackling with the fire of godly enthusiasm is a lifelong process. It starts with God throwing a divine spark on the tinder of the heart. I’ll describe that spark in greater detail in the next chapter. For now, it’s helpful to know that it often comes out of nowhere and can take many different shapes and sizes. It might be an attraction or religious sentiment that grips the heart. It might be an event or situation that stirs your devotion. It could even be a word spoken by a friend, colleague, or relative that gets underneath the skin and stings your conscience.

If we fan the spark to flame and then stoke its fire with spiritual practices, it will ever so gradually transform us into beacons of light for the world. Sometimes it might flare up, shooting its sparks elsewhere as it did with Sr. Elena.

Because this is a gradual, ongoing process, we must resist the temptation to aim for perfection. Perfection is never attained this side of heaven. When we seek perfection, we quickly become discouraged since most of us are burdened by our imperfections, weaknesses, and sins. Discouragement brings us to that slippery slope where we might be tempted to abandon the spiritual journey altogether. And that’s what the deadly sin of acedia is all about: throwing water on our smoldering spiritual embers, covering them with dirt, and walking away.

It’s more realistic to aim for progress rather than perfection. We daily try to move just one step away from the ego. We daily try to move just one step out of the limelight. We daily try to move closer to those in need.

We also must resist the temptation to look for a single book, program, practice, or guru that will cause spontaneous combustion; there are none. How many times have I been tricked into thinking that by reading the most recent book by a favorite author or practicing the latest spiritual craze, I’ll become a saint? A wise spiritual director once said to me, “There’s no spiritual microwave oven you can put yourself in and come out sixty seconds later as a saint. You must be willing to jump into the crockpot called your life and simmer a lifetime.” Catching fire takes patience and perseverance; it’s hard, fatiguing work. It also requires a daily commitment to nurturing and tending the fire once it’s been lit.

It’s important to remember that the process of catching fire and becoming flame will be different in each person’s life. A third temptation we must resist is trying to live another person’s process. There is no “cookie cutter” approach to holiness. The spiritual tradition offers us the saints to stir our inspiration, not our strict imitation.

I still remember the day I was so discouraged as a young friar. I had been trying to imitate Saint Francis as perfectly as possible—and I kept falling short. I was seriously considering leaving the Franciscan Order. When I confessed this to my spiritual director, he asked in amazement, “What on earth do you mean?”

I replied, “Saint Francis saw God in all creation. He would walk in the woods, and when he heard the birds chirp, he would bow in adoration of the God who created them. When he came upon wildflowers, he said a prayer of praise for the God who created them. When I walk in the woods, I don’t see God anywhere. I just return with bird droppings on my shoulder and poison ivy on my hands!”

My spiritual director wisely counseled me, “Albert, God does not want another Francis of Assisi. He already has one. What God would love to have—and doesn’t have just yet—is just one Saint Albert Haase of New Orleans. Find your own path to holiness, follow it, and never apologize for it.”

In his 2018 apostolic exhortation, Rejoice and Be Glad: On the Call to Holiness in Today’s World, Pope Francis makes a similar point: “There are some testimonies that may prove helpful and inspiring, but that we are not meant to copy, for that could even lead us astray from the one specific path that the Lord has in mind for us. The important thing is that each believer discern his or her own path…. ”1

In Community

Paradoxically, our own unique process of catching fire does not occur in a hermetically sealed jar, apart from our roles as spouses, parents, colleagues, and friends. There are no lone rangers or independent contractors when it comes to growing in holiness. We catch fire and become the flame of love for God and others as we live in families and rub shoulders with our friends and colleagues.

A story from the Carmelite tradition hits the nail on the head. One day, a friar was complaining to Saint John of the Cross about a certain member in the community. “I don’t know why God put this man in our midst. He’s such a troublemaker.” Saint John of the Cross quickly replied, “To help us grow in holiness.”

Transformation

As God tries to spark our hearts into flame and we actively respond with spiritual practices, we are transformed. Note the passive voice. Saint John of the Cross compares this process of transformation to a log catching fire. The heat of the fire initially expels the log’s moisture and other inconsistencies, blackens the wood as the fire burns on the log’s exterior, and then gradually transforms the log into flame as it burns from within.2 That’s why we can look back some ten or fifteen years, reflect on our lives then and now, and ask with embarrassment, surprise, or disgust, “Who was the person who did that? How could that have been me?” This gradual transformation occurs not only on the exterior and cosmetic level of our actions, but also, and more important, on the interior and cardiac level of our thoughts, feelings, and desires.

The Work of the Spirit

Living with a blazing fire does not happen on our own by sheer willpower. As the words spirituality, spiritual life, and spiritual formation suggest, we have to rely upon the Spirit of God and divine grace working on us and in us. The Spirit, and the Spirit alone, is the flint for all holiness. The Spirit then also becomes the fuel for our enthusiasm. Without the Spirit, our spiritual lives as Christians flicker out and become cold; with the Spirit, we are sent forth as zealous torches of devotion.

How do I know if the Spirit is setting me on fire? I might think visions and apparitions or growth in other worldly virtues betray the work of the Spirit. That answer couldn’t be further from the truth. As the Spirit ignites the embers in my heart, I am driven deeper into this world and into relationships with others. This is how Saint Paul states it: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22–23). The Spirit sets me on fire for this world, not another one.

The Image of Christ

Catching fire is not supposed to be a flash in the pan. And it becomes just that if we do not spend time tending and stoking the fire set by God’s spark. It will easily flame out if we do not commit daily, monthly, and yearly to myriad and varied spiritual practices that the Christian tradition offers, and which are discussed in this book. Fire needs tending just as grace needs a response. There is no other way.

As someone responds to the Spirit’s action, he or she is ever so gradually transformed into the image of Christ. That’s the essence of the spiritual life: we are called to become who we profess to be by virtue of our baptism. We are “Christian,” which literally means “a little Christ.”

The waters of Baptism along with their gift of the Holy Spirit fuel a spiritual transformation that requires a lifetime of surrender. This gradual transformation of our identity is not a mime act, a caricature, or playacting. Rather, as in John of the Cross’s log metaphor, the fire of God’s love purifies our egos; it ignites our minds, words, wills, and actions so that we can say with Jesus, “Not my will but yours be done” (see Luke 22:42). It is then over time that we reach spiritual maturity, “the full stature of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13). Like Christ, who came “to bring fire to the earth” (Luke 12:49), we challenge institutional religion’s insensitivity to the outcast and marginalized by becoming arsonists of divine love and compassion.

Respond to the Unmet Need or Required Duty of the Present

For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.

Matthew 25 : 35 – 36

As we respond and slowly grow into the image of Christ, our hearts expand, and the Spirit enlarges the circle of our relationships. Our fire cannot be restrained or suppressed in the hermetically sealed container of a single life for the sole purpose of our own personal sanctification. “No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket” (Matthew 5:15). That would indeed quench the flame. Rather, through the daily discipline of prayer, the weekly practice of sharing our time, treasures, and talents with others along with attending church services, and the monthly commitment to spiritual practices such as Scripture reading and journaling combined with a yearly retreat, our godly enthusiasm becomes like a wildfire, moving us beyond ourselves, focusing our Christlike lives on others, for others, and with others. It leads us right into the heart of a suffering, needy world where we are sent to lovingly respond to the unmet need or required duty of the present moment. As we cook meals, change diapers, and commute back and forth to the office, discovering who we are and how to stoke our godly enthusiasm, we become torchbearers of God’s mercy to the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the sick, the naked, and the imprisoned. Without a sense of mission, godly enthusiasm fizzles into bogus piety.

I remember myself in my late teens and early twenties as a needy, selfish, egotistical young adult. I often used humor to control people and situations. I still recall attending a party in my sophomore year of college and spending the entire evening desperately trying to get people to laugh so I would be considered the life of the party. Some forty-five years later, through the generosity of God’s grace and a commitment to daily prayer and other spiritual practices, I am no longer obsessed with other people’s affection and attention. I no longer use humor as a subtle form of manipulation. Something has changed inside of me, and my selfishness and need to control gave way to a decade of missionary service to Catholics in mainland China. I know from my own experience that from her darkness in the wheelchair, Sr. Elena illumined a great truth: you will be amazed at what gradually happens over a lifetime if you respond to God’s longing.

God yearns to set us ablaze. As we open ourselves up to this divine love, we discover a fire being ignited and then glowing and sometimes raging in our lives. We experience the communal process of being transformed by the Spirit of God to the image of Christ sent to lovingly respond to the unmet need or required duty of the present moment.3 God’s longing and call for this process to begin sometimes come in and through our deepest desires and attractions.

■ REFLECT

Fire is one image that captures the intensity of God’s yearning to be in a relationship with us. What other images speak to you?

Which Pauline fruits of the Spirit are active in your life? Which are inactive?

How have other people helped you catch fire?

CHAPTER2DESIRE AND SPIRITUAL AWAKENING

■

While I was being interviewed on a national Catholic talk radio show, Stacey, from Austin, Texas, called into the show.

“Father, I’m a happy stay-at-home mom with two small children. Lately, though, I’ve been restless and feeling a strange attraction to prayer. But I must be honest: my husband and I are not regular churchgoers. So I’m wondering if I’m just imagining this. And my jobs as a mom and wife don’t allow me the freedom to walk away and hide beyond the walls of a monastery. I’m calling to ask your advice. What am I supposed to do?”

I tried my best to show Stacey the special invitation she was being offered.