{"id":22787,"date":"2024-10-31T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-31T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/?p=22787"},"modified":"2026-02-09T08:28:03","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T14:28:03","slug":"loved-to-excess","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/2024\/10\/31\/loved-to-excess\/","title":{"rendered":"Loved to Excess"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As I was cleaning dishes at the kitchen sink, I overheard my 5-year-old daughter talking to my 2-year-old son. They were sitting at our little dining table, eating berries and toast. JoyAna\u2019s enthusiastic and entertaining monologue had somehow pivoted from a princess-dinosaur story to the wonder of grapes to this: \u201cEli, did you know that God loves you more than two full timers\u2019 worth?!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For context, JoyAna was right in the midst of transitioning her midday rhythms from nap to \u201crest time.\u201d This meant that if she couldn\u2019t fall asleep after trying for a while, we would give her a full-hour timer wherein she could listen to books on tape, play pretend with toys, color, etc. At the beginning of this transition, JoyAna found it excruciating. She was restless, unaccustomed to the sense of waiting and not getting whatever it was she wanted right when she wanted it (certainly not exclusive to children\u2026a terrain with which I\u2019m very familiar).<\/p>\n\n\n

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Photo by Marcelo Leal<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

 One full timer\u2026one whole hour\u2026is the longest time anyone should have to endure anything\u2026ever. And so, it is hard for me to imagine a stronger articulation of the inexhaustible, infinite reality of God\u2019s love than for JoyAna to equate it to \u201cmore than two full timers\u2019 worth.\u201d And this is, in fact, the deepest reality of all of our lives. This is the ground of our existence. God loves you and me more than two full timers\u2019 worth. This is the center from which we live and move and have our being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, whose feast day we celebrate on November 8, is a herald of the contemplative way in the Christian tradition. Born in France in the late 19th century, Elizabeth became a Discalced Carmelite<\/a> at an early age. She insisted upon the reality of the indwelling Trinity, proclaiming that God is always at home in the human soul and praying for God to make her soul His heaven and to give her the grace to \u2018never leave [God] alone there.\u2019 Elizabeth displays for all of us the foundation on which contemplative life rests \u2013 God\u2019s ever-present, intimate dwelling in the depths of the human person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

O my God, Trinity whom I adore, help me to forget myself entirely that I may be established in You as still and as peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity. May nothing trouble my peace or make me leave You, O my Unchanging One, but may each minute carry me further into the depths of Your Mystery. Give peace to my soul; make it Your heaven, Your beloved dwelling and Your resting place. May I never leave You there alone but be wholly present, my faith wholly vigilant, wholly adoring, and wholly surrendered to Your creative Action.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(a portion of St. Elizabeth\u2019s Prayer \u201cTrinity Whom I Adore,\u201d November 21, 1904)<\/p>\n\n\n

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St. Elizabeth of the Trinity<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

One of the recurring phrases she would use in her writing to describe this indwelling God came from Paul\u2019s letter to the Ephesians: \u201cThere is a word of St. Paul that is like a summary of my life and that could be written on each moment of it: propter nimiam charitatem<\/em>. Yes, this torrent of grace shows that \u2018He has loved me excessively.\u2019\u201d She was found constantly reiterating that God loved her to excess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seems to me that Elizabeth of the Trinity and my daughter, JoyAna, are gesturing to the same superabundant, immeasurably great nature of God\u2019s love. Two full timers\u2019 worth is quite excessive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And for Elizabeth it is significant that we have access to this divine excess \u2013 this \u201cabyss of love.\u201d It is available to us, experienceable through the Holy Spirit in Mass, Scripture, prayer, common life with others, and the most mundane tasks of our daily lives. \u201cYou find the Good Lord at the laundry room as well as at prayer. There is nothing but Him everywhere. You live Him, breathe Him,\u201d she wrote in a letter to her sister Marguerite. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Elizabeth this stemmed from her commitment to live interiorly, present to the Presence of God within her depths. She remained in touch with the divine indwelling through recollection that safeguarded an inner attentiveness and availability to God. From this she encountered (and was transformed by) the presence of Jesus in all her work and relationships and the movements of her soul. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So how can we remain in touch with the divine indwelling in our own lives? Parker Palmer describes contemplation in all its forms as anything that \u201cpenetrates illusion and helps us touch reality.\u201d In my own life, a silent notice walk, centering prayer, lectio divina, the daily office, works of mercy<\/a> and friendship with those made periphery in my community, even the boisterous and playful care of children \u2013 these are all channels of return along the way. Perhaps most significantly in this season of my own life, a simple pause in the middle of the day for a 10-minute prayer, quiet, or psalm-reading can re-ground my presence in the mystery of divine indwelling.\u00a0My mid-day moments of recollection these days are often accompanied by this “Mystery Hymn.”

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