Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom for the future. The human mind may devise many plans but it is the purpose of the Lord that will be established. Proverbs 19:20-21
On Friday I went to a Latin Mass, which our Bishop has approved to continue for our Diocese. My friend was making her first communion. I was reading the prayers in the Latin Mass booklet and I noticed something different, something different from the Novus Ordo that is prayed after the Our Father. Now I know there are many different things, but there were two things that struck me about this particular prayer. One was a word. The word was “disquiet.” It is prayed by the Priest and we have a similar prayer in the NO Mass, but the word used there is “distress”. The other thing that struck me was the encapsulation of time, past, present and to come. The prayer is of course prayed in Latin, but here is what it says in English;
Deliver us, we beseech Thee, O Lord, from all evils, past, present, and to come, and by the intercession of the blessed and glorious Mary, ever Virgin, Mother of God, together with Thy blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and Andrew, and all the Saints, mercifully grant peace in our days, that through the bounteous help of thy mercy we may always be free from sin, and safe from all disquiet.
I pondered for awhile that word, disquiet. It is similar to distress or anxiety, but to me it connotates something more spiritual and less psychological; Powers and Principalities who create noise in our minds. It is a deprivation of peace.
The next day I went to a retreat at Our Lady of the Caves in Horse Cave, KY. My cousin, Father Joel Rogers, CPM was hosting a women’s retreat on the Eucharist, and what he called the co-worker of the Eucharist – confession.
During the talk my cousin said of the Eucharist that Jesus in the Eucharist is quiet, He is still, He is vulnerable. There was the opposite of disquiet, it was quiet. I pondered all of these things.
When Adam and Eve fell in the garden, it was brought about by the serpent, speaking noise at Eve. Disquiet. The fall of man was an infinite offense against God. Because God is infinitely good, this offense echoed throughout eternity and it is why we are all born with original sin, because of the infinite offense against the infinitely good God. Baptism wipes away this original sin. But we are still left with concupiscence. This is our tendency towards sin, our tendency to listen to the noise. We are left with disquiet. Our desires battling against the desires of God listening to the noise of the evil one and depriving us of peace.
The Eucharist is the infinite reparation to purify us. The representation of Calvary at every Mass drawing us into the Triduum which ends with ressurection. Each time we behold the Lamb of God and receive in a state of grace the resurrection becomes a closer reality and we move closer to a new heaven and a new earth. Because time is held within the Triduum we are either personally moving towards this or away from it. We move away from it when we receive in mortal sin and drink judgement upon ourselves. We can live like the days of Noah, or we can live like the days of Pentecost. It is profound to ask to be protected from all evils, past, present and to come. We are asking to be lifted out of concupiscence and into Divine Life seeking what God seeks. We are called into the stillness and quiet of the Eucharistic Sacrifice.
Saints did understand this. It is why they confessed often and received the Eucharist in a state of Grace as often as they could.
In the quiet we see who we are and we bow down to the Thrice Holy God. It is why I truly believe that an illumination of conscience will cause silence in heaven and on earth. The disquiet paused so we can see who we are in front of the Infinite Good. And we can see how what we did echoes throughout time.
We are living in a time where Pride is rampant. Humility is scarce, even among believers. Now is the time to purify our hearts. We need to look inward to root out our selfishness and we need to surrender to the infinite goodness of God. He will lift you higher and you will see miracles.
“Be still, and know that I am God!
I am exalted among the nations,
I am exalted in the earth.” Psalm 46:10
Veil of Veronica 
Thank you Susan,
A while back, I became very much aware that I’d been feeding from the “Tree of Knowledge” a great deal (too much) as I “tried” to grasp or understand the many “conspiracy” theories that had become the focus of the media for quite some time now, but particularly (perhaps even catapulted) since the dawn of the current pandemic.The info that is offered is filled with intrigue, (some) truth, biblical stories, even scripture itself. The “New World Order” is a topic of fascination that can tickle the mind easily…and hold its interest indefinitely…with a (false) promise of satisfaction if only one would “follow” the trail…all the way to the “top” of the Catholic Church…
At one point, the Lord gave me the awareness that i was wasting so much of my precious time on food that only leads to dissatisfaction and “death” rather than life. He showed me that I should spend my time feeding from the “Tree of Life” instead, and helped me to understand that the “Tree of Life” is in fact JESUS, Who is ALWAYS present in the nearest Catholic Church – in the Blessed Sacrament. Since I was given that awareness, I have increased the time that I spend in prayer at church in the “quiet” Presence of Jesus, before, during, and after mass. Hours fly by these days in His Presence. There are no (adequate) words to describe the satisfaction that I get from this food. Jesus IS the Tree of Life. Everything else is indeed DISQUIET, as you have so eloquently put it!!!
My spiritual director once told me that children spell love “T-I-M-E”. I think Jesus spells it that way too!