Rita’s Consolation

It was a moment of angst and mourning for the parish, as it was slated for closing along with dozens of others in the archdiocese. The parishioners gathered in town-hall fashion to process the loss or see what could be done to save the 60-year-old parish. As a lay parish leader, Rita struggled to make sense of what would follow. Speaker after speaker stood to complain about the unfairness, the implausibility, and the tragedy of the historic parish closing. Rita turned inward, quietly asking God for answers, or at least the guidance to offer consolation to her fellow parishioners.

The words came to her as she rose to deliver them.

“I am also devastated by the news,” she began. “But the kingdom of God is not this building or even this parish. The kingdom of God is here on earth, all around us. We are being asked to leave and join another community to spread the kingdom and God’s will.”

She sat down. The mood shifted. The congregation prayed together. The kingdom of God would survive this painful separation from the parish.

Rita, who has been praying the Spiritual Exercises since last fall, listened with an open heart to discern the presence of the Holy Spirit. She recalls how the Holy Spirit offered her the words in that moment, words of consolation.

St. Ignatius identified consolation as the lingering feeling of peace and contentment he felt whenever he moved toward the Lord and away from temptations. The Holy Spirit is the good spirit, called Advocate, Comforter, Counselor, Holy Ghost, and Spirit of Truth. We know it as the whisper, the silent voice, the intuition, or the knowing in small and large matters. Rita would attest to hearing the words as she stood, that her message came from somewhere else; the Holy Spirit provided them.

Each spiritual life encounters both consolation and desolation. Neither movement is a permanent state of being. Consolation feels like an incredible grace, a deeply felt spaciousness, or a flow with the Spirit. It is the peace that surpasses all understanding. When consolation arrives amid periods of uncertainty, pain, compassion, and need, it is a grace for which to be thankful. We are not alone in this. God is taking care of us.

Rita felt tangibly that her experience of praying the Exercises had come to life in her parish town hall. She couldn’t change the profound sense of loss for her fellow parishioners, but she felt a deep sense of consolation that God was with them and alongside them as they came to grips with what lay ahead of them. God doesn’t always give us what we want, Rita thought. He gives us what we need.

Growing in awareness of how the Spirit is working in us deepens the sense that our prayers matter and that we can surrender the hard things to the Almighty and exhale the feeling that the burden is on our own shoulders to resolve.

Image by Florian Pircher from Pixabay.