In the Battle of Thermopylae (480 BC), a group of 300 Spartan soldiers were guarding a pass in the mountains against thousands of invading Persians. They were sent a message from the Persians informing them that the Persian army was so numerous that their arrows would block out the light of the sun. One of the Spartan generals sent back the reply, “Good, then we get to fight in the shade.”
When Mother Cecilia heard this story, she immediately saw it as an analogy of the spiritual life. The enemy (the devil and his demons) fill the sky (the mind) with intrusive thoughts and temptations, but we are empowered by the grace of God to continue praying and loving "in the shade." A fruit of Mother Cecilia's prayer, this song is woven with Scripture passages.
The Great Fast (Lent) is a time of greater temptation and spiritual struggle, as we, like Jesus, are led by the Spirit into the "desert" for forty days. We are called during this time of the liturgical year to engage in the struggle of setting aside some of our own desires at the Lord's invitation, to train ourselves to be unattached to them and to give God more space to come and love us and transform us. As we do this, the spiritual struggle intensifies. This is because the devil wants to impede this work, and God allows the devil's arrows in order to strengthen us (by means of our struggle) and prompt us to turn to Him for shelter and help, thereby helping us to grow in communion with Him. Our ascetical efforts are not ends in themselves; they are means to greater communion with God. In addition to fasting, we are called to an increase in prayer and almsgiving, which allow us to encounter the love of God for us and to love Him and our neighbor with the fountain of living water which is His presence within us. We become springs of water in the desert—the desert of the world that thirsts for God, and the desert that is our own struggle.
When we feel discouraged by our failures in our Lenten practices and resolves, let's turn to our loving God and recall that even a failure in the "means" doesn't necessarily mean a failure to reach the "end," which is love. Even if we are standing in the shade of the arrows of the enemy's accusation, we are still with the Lord, who Himself hung on the Cross "in the shade."
Lyrics by Mother Cecilia
Music by Mother Cecilia and Gina DeFilippo
Produced by Gina DeFilippo
