The greatest grace we can receive is to trust in God

Our loving God sees our sorrows and torments and takes no pleasure in them. He loves us perfectly, and He loves also those with whom we disagree. He knows our struggles and failures, and is always ready to forgive, heal, and restore.

 The greatest grace we can receive is the grace to trust in God. All other benefits and benedictions are secondary to this most desirable of all spiritual and temporal treasures. O the struggles to attain this trust! Cease from striving and let the goodness of His divine love come to you in stillness and silence. His own peace ('shalom' - supernaturally imparted goodness, consolation, prosperity, contentment) is His gift to us. Perhaps our circumstances won't change immediately; but our inner disposition can in the will to trust with childlike dependence. 

 To thee, O Lord, have I lifted up my soul. In thee, O my God, I put my trust; let me not be ashamed.

 Psalm 24, 1-2

Originally posted 22 February 2017

Keeping ourselves in the love of God

Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, unto life everlasting. 

- St. Jude, 21

I never thought about "keeping myself in the love of God" until recently. It must be possible, or the Apostle here would not command it. St. Paul teaches that "it is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance" (Rom. 2:4) - repentance being a cooperation between us and the grace of God. This cooperation continues as we keep ourselves in the love of God. 

How often have I dwelt on everything but the love of God! Nowhere is this love more profoundly communicated than at Calvary, where our Lord offered Himself for sinners. While meditation on the cross rightly stirs in us feelings of contrition and shame for our sins, it's work is only complete when we recognize the great love with which God has met us in Christ, at the point when we are most helpless, most unworthy of grace.

Lord, teach me how to keep myself in your love, and to trust in the mercy St. Jude tells us will come to us at our death or your return.

(personal meditation from 2013)

Mighty is your God to save!

Blessed are those engaged in spiritual combats with the vile demon,

For mighty is your God to save!

The same God who spoke all things into existence by His all-powerful Word upholds you now and through our God, we shall do valiantly!

The same God Who promised that the Seed of the Woman would crush the seed of the serpent now crushes his head in your battle through the intercession of the Holy Virgin Mother of God!

The same God who opened the Red Sea for Israel to escape Pharaoh and his armies will fight for you and grant you also a supernatural deliverance!

The same God Who gave the head of fierce Goliath in battle to little David will strengthen you against the giant evils Satan confronts you with!

The same God who gave us His only begotten Son as the priestly sacrifice to deliver us from the guilt of our sins now gives us forgiveness, healing, justification and benediction through the same sacrifice on our altars around the world!

The same God that raised Jesus Christ from the dead will raise us up with Him at the last Day, and by His resurrection power will smash all the power that death holds over us!

O death where is thy sting?

O grave where is thy victory?

Blessed be Jesus Christ Who causes us to triumph in Him!

Although wicked demons are more powerful than we are, and their lies penetrate and menace our minds, and their bitter condemnations and accusations pierce our souls, yet Christ in us is all-powerful to destroy the works of the devil. Though their merciless temptations lure and oppress us, Christ within us is the hope of glory and the strength we need to resist temptation and live in chastity, purity, and holiness.

O holy blood of Christ, cover us!

O Holy Ghost, divine breath, defend us from within!

O mighty angels, ministers of the heirs of salvation, fight for us!

O Mother of Jesus Christ, Destroyer of Heresies, crush the head of the devil!

Blessed are those engaged in spiritual combats with the vile demon, for mighty is your God to save!

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Originally posted 19 September 2017

Loneliness

And the Lord God said: It is not good for man to be alone: let us make him a help like unto himself.

Genesis 2,18

Loneliness.

Even Adam, the perfect man in a perfect world with a perfect relationship to his Creator experienced loneliness.

How could this be?

Did this mean that "God wasn't enough"? 

No, for even our Lord greatly desired the companionship of His disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane where he sweat great drops of blood in agony.

Loneliness is a great mystery, one which few if any of us can say we are not intimately acquainted. 

Loneliness does not sting like a laceration or cause us to tremble as does fear; no, loneliness corners us in our interior life and reveals to us a gaping, cavernous emptiness that the Creator intended to be filled with human companionship. 

The absence of this companionship can be fertile ground for both personal growth and demonic temptation. 

When loneliness is the result of abandonment or personal rejection, the ache is intensified by the silent voices of accusation.

Surely I deserve this; my sins have caused it. 

I am most unworthy of love; I am unlovely and unlovable.

We hear the same voice accuse Christ: if you are the Son of God, command stones to be bread. If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.

The Prophet Isaias saw Him far off: 

"Despised, and the most abject of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with infirmity: and his look was as it were hidden and despised, whereupon we esteemed him not." (Is. 53,3)

No, loneliness is the lot of all the sons of Eve.

For some, it is a crushing weight driving them to despair of hope; for others, a severe trial intensifying feelings of alienation and insecurity.

For others loneliness is the source of crippling shame.

What if others knew how much I hurt and long for another to listen patiently and enter - even briefly - into this dark valley of sorrow with me?

Facing ourselves alone can be frightening. Intimidating. Cruel.

Yet the promise of our Lord Who knew and understood loneliness better than any man is that we need not ever face ourselves alone.

He is with us always, and will never abandon us to ourselves. 

He loves each of us as though there were only one of us.

He sends the Holy Spirit into our hearts crying, "abba! Father!"

He makes us temples of the same Spirit.

He lovingly commits an angel to each of us which always sees the face of God.

Loneliness.

Don't be ashamed.

Don't be afraid.

Its okay to be lonely.

Its a big part of our broken human existence after the Fall.

Nothing I have written here ends the bitter pangs of loneliness for anyone.

My hope is that disclosing the universality of loneliness will make someone feel less estranged, alienated, or awkward.

Maybe we can be lonely together.

🙂  God love you.

Originally posted 26 September 2022

Faith during storms

Are you passing through a tumultuous storm in your life? These mysterious seasons seem to overwhelm us at times, and we are tempted to despair. We go to God our Creator, Christ our Redeemer, the Holy Ghost our life in grace, and pour out our hearts. We humble ourselves, confess our sins and faults, and beg for mercy. We place our trust in God and not man, reaching up to Him with childlike dependence. And yet the fierce waves relentlessly batter our little vessels, the capricious winds menace us, the cold darkness envelops us and we ask, "why, Lord? Don't you care?" Instead of consolation, we hear only silence and the echoes of our deepest doubts.

It is these times that we sit alone in the company of our fears with only naked, raw faith. Yet that faltering faith, unabetted by any consolation at all is a great praise and worship of the Triune God, who is nearer to us than our own breath though we feel completely alone and abandoned. Our Blessed Lord Himself prayed that the hour of His passion might pass from Him. It was after He surrendered to the Divine will, accepting His Cross that the Father sent angels to minister to Him.

I find that act of surrender more difficult than death. It is utterly unnatural for me to yield to what I KNOW will bring me misery. Perhaps that is why the angelic consort is so infrequently sent to me. God be merciful to me, a sinner.

Originally posted 18 February 2016

Life didn't turn out the way I expected

Life doesn't always turn out the way we expected. 

Nor the way we'd hoped.

God became man and was hated, persecuted, tortured, and crucified.

So what then can we lay claim to but the same, or worse?

Yet He has not punished us as our sins deserve, but regards us rather as children - HIS children.

Pain, misery, agonies, loneliness, and rejection all take their toll on us. We are, humanly speaking, dying from the time we are born.

Yet we are likewise called to a higher life, a new life divinized by union with Christ Jesus, the God-man. 

We struggle between this death and the promise of this divine life; we admire the beauty of creation but are admonished to detach from creatures.

What does that mean?

I don't know, and my ignorance cannot excuse me from my attachment to this world, this life, and the good things God has given me to enjoy.

As I look back on a long life that seems to have flown by like a sped-up film, God has been exceedingly good to me.

My ingratitude, pride, and lust for pleasure has blinded me to seeing what was there all along:

the goodness of God the Father endowing me with a living soul made in His image and likeness.

The mercy of God the Son sacrificing Himself for the chief of sinners, I.

The wisdom of God the Holy Ghost imparting to me supernatural grace to know and love this Triune God of all compassion and holiness.

No, life did not turn out at all like I imagined as a young man.

But that can only be for my good.

The heavenly Father Who ordains all things for my good and His glory knows best.

May He grant me faith to accept that nothing that happens to me can separate me from His eternal love and empire of mercy.

May we learn to appreciate His gifts without undue attachment to them, but through them render humble thanks to the Giver.

Lord deliver me from my own vain desires, and teach me to trust in you like a little child.

Originally posted 2 October 2020

Cast all your care upon Him

Anxiety is a form of fear. God is not the one who terrifies us, but rather a distortion of God manipulated by demons, false teachers, or a malformed conscience.

Adam and Eve knew no disordered fear until they sinned and their consciences were troubled. 

St. Paul teaches, "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear: but of power, and of love, and of sobriety." (II Tim. 1,7)

We must combat fear by faith and reason. God is love, and His perfect supernatural charity expels all fear (1 John 4,18) in the believing heart. 

Fear can assume many forms but fear associated with personal guilt is the most menacing. Here Satan, the accuser of the brethren (Apoc. 12,10) marshals all manner of condemnations against us, exploiting our wounds and weaknesses. 

To this end we have the wonderful gift of the Sacrament of Confession whereby our priests in persona Christi absolve us of our sins and Christ infuses supernatural charity into our souls. We must have confident trust in our Lord's words to the Apostles: "Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained" (St. John 20,23). 

We are loved by God - what more could we ask? Yet as a father, He pities us and has enormous compassion for us knowing our lack of trust and courage intimately. He has no interest in frightening us who wish to belong to Him; it has been counted that the phrase 'fear not' or 'do not be afraid' appears 365 times in the Bible. 

St. Peter counsels us to "cast... all your care upon him, for he hath care of you" (1 Peter 5,7). Bring your fears to God Who loves you and desires to grant you peace that passes all understanding. The Psalmist feared, but obtained peace and courage through his prayers. So may we. 

"A thousand times a day cast your whole heart, your soul, your anxiety on God with great confidence, and say with the psalmist, I am yours, Lord; save me" (St. Francis de Sales).

He will.

Originally posted 8 October 2019