There is a Flame

There is a flame that is burning within my soul,
It is calling me to dance,
It is calling me to life,
It is calling me to trust. 

There is a flame that is burning within my soul,

It is making the gospel come to life,
It is making the words of Christ real,
It is making the journey unfold.

There is a flame that is burning within my soul,
It is lighting the path,
It is lighting the darkness,
It is lighting the way of truth.

There is a flame that is burning within my soul,

It is the same one that engulfed Francis,
It is the same one that engulfed Clare,
It is the same one that engulfs the Franciscan family.

There is a flame that is burning within my soul,

It is wrapping me in light with courage and strength,
It is opening me up to hope, joy and promise,
It is encouraging me to persevere and love.

There is a flame that is burning within my soul,

It is at the very heart of me,
It is God at work in me,
It is Christ walking with me,
It is the Spirit stirring within me.

There is a flame that is burning within my soul,

It says come and follow me,
And I do so each day,
As I walk deeper with Saint Francis
By embracing the Gospel of Christ.

 My heart is ready God, my heart is ready!

 

 

Over the past week as I continue to wait for visa issues to get handled (they are much closer) I have been on a second retreat. The Journey Towards Center, the Place of Heart was our theme. While my Brother Novices journeyed on retreat at our Novitiate House, I journeyed here at our Retreat Center in Western Canada. It was a good week: a mix of quiet, prayer, reflection, daily chores, and being part of the community here and at the Novitiate (thank goodness for Skype).

Sunrise - last week of August

 

The beauty of journeying towards the center of who we are, is that we encounter Christ there. Francis himself journeyed to his center and profoundly encounter Christ. It was good for me to be able to enter this journey and encounter a small portion of what Francis discovered. Throughout the week the line, ‘My heart is ready God, my heart is ready!’ kept playing through me over and over again. I see it as an anthem of what this Novitiate Year is continually unfolding for us Novices. I see it as the anthem of my prayer life deepening and my relationship with Christ engulfing me. I see it as the anthem that captured the life of Francis and Clare and that stirs within me.

The poem I opened with, is one I wrote this spring, it seems to best describe this past week for me. I wrote it during my hermitage, it seemed unfinished when I wrote it, until I read it at the end of this week. It is amazing to me how the journey continues to intertwine and draw me in more and more. Christ definitely continues to enflame my center.

 

 

In God we move and have our being

for we are spouses, parents, siblings of Christ,

and because of this we are dwelling places of

holiness and hope,

we are temples of prayer

and the gospel brought to life!

 

My heart is ready God, my heart is ready

and Your flame burns more brightly deep within my soul.