Fr Panero, what was your main source of inspiration for writing this book? What do you intend to communicate to readers through these meditations?
"In the tent of the convention" comes from preaching. Only after some time did I decide to give these meditations the form of a small book (144 pages), noting how they could also do good to others.
The book is built around a single, comforting truth of faith: the presence of God in the soul. The title "In the Tent of Meeting" refers to the mobile meeting area set up by Moses to house the Ark of the Covenant. After all, our soul is the tent of meeting where our union with the Lord is realised. The whole book simply develops this profound truth of our faith, described allegorically in the image of the tent and its furnishings.
If taken seriously, this conviction of faith sheds a fascinating light on the entire Christian life. What a joy, in fact, to know that we can live uninterruptedly in friendship with God, spending time with him without leaving ourselves! This is the true joy of our faith! If this little book could help anyone rediscover it, I would be so happy.
Why do you suggest using this book during Lent?
"In the tent of meeting" is a book to be read gradually. I thought of it as a travel companion introducing us to the beauty and depth of our faith, suggesting various directions for meditation in this regard. This is why each chapter is divided into paragraphs of just two or three pages, suitable for a daily meditation.
Lent is the propitious time to embark on this inner journey, discovering how the divine presence dwells in us. With the consolation, then, that this Presence will never fail, exactly like that of the Lord Jesus in his Church in the aftermath of Easter and Ascension.
What other topics are addressed in the book?
Each chapter reviews some of the furnishings kept in Moses' tent, described in the book of Exodus. Thus, the reader is gradually introduced to the fundamentals of the spiritual life: prayer in its various forms, adoration, the way of approaching the Eucharist, union with God, asceticism and self-offering, but also governing our thoughts and seeing to relationships, the main diseases of the soul, the emotional life and the most recommended spiritual strategies.
The text also addresses the issue of loneliness, emphasising that we are never alone when we are with God. How important do you think it is for young people to experience this?
Loneliness is nowadays "the great misunderstanding", because it is treated as a problem to be removed. On closer inspection, a certain amount of loneliness is innate to the individual and even in the happiest and deepest relationships there remains a distance that must be respected. And this is a good thing, indeed it is the condition that makes true communion of love possible.
In the depths of our soul, however, we discover that our solitude is inhabited by God, so we are never truly and completely alone. God is the lord and keeper of our depth! And friendship with him often passes through the door of loneliness of the heart.
How important it is, especially for a young person, to know that you have this precious space in you, which can only be filled by God. The external world tends to saturate this space, filling it with a thousand things and contacts to the point that silence and solitude are scary. The use of social media, in fact, often responds to this flight from self, and the desperate need of external confirmation.
How many things change, on the other hand, when a baptised person, a young person, discovers that they always have this inner room within them, in which to spend time with God without separating themselves from others! Often, this awareness ushers in a new and more mature phase of the spiritual life.
Do you have practical advice for readers who wish to progress in the spiritual life, as outlined in the book?
In the chapter dedicated to "diseases of the soul", I point out one that seems really ruinous to me: the lack of small good things. The spiritual life is made up of "little things", details and strategies. How much a small act of mortification, a brief but cordial prayer, a visit to the Blessed Sacrament, a hidden gesture of charity, a sincere act of devotion is of value in the eyes of God, of Our Lady, of the Saints! This was we do not end up neglecting the the least and losing what is of most value.
If one measures the life of faith and apostolate with the empirical criteria of efficiency, then the account doesn't really add up. Hence, throughout the 9 chapters of "In the Tent of Meeting" there are abundant concrete examples and references to simple practices of the Christian life, within everyone's reach, but capable of introducing us to the greatest good of all: friendship with God and care for our spiritual life.
