Are you feeling restless or with a spirit of dis-ease always wanting more or something different. Do you need to feel satisfied? Satisfaction comes as we await the promise of God and the fullness of all that is good in heaven. If we yearn for the good things in this life, we will lose those which are heavenly and eternal. We are to use temporal things properly, with gratitude and detachment, but always desire what is eternal.
Temporal things never fully satisfy. We were not created to enjoy them alone because our blessedness and happiness lie only in God.
Lord, help me keep my eyes on you and the things that actually matter. You are the One who has made all things from nothing. Let me seek my satisfaction in You. Amen.
How many times do I let my small soul cover up the image of God within me by living from the narrow spectrum of my fearful desires? Lord have pity on me. Summon the depths of my being and call the great soul within me to rebirth and reconfiguration.
Like Bartimamaeous, the blind man begging to be healed, let me refuse to be silent in my need. Let me come with joy into the presence of the Lord.
Gracious and loving God, grant us humility, that we may know our own blindness. Convict us with perseverance in prayer as we call on your son to convert our hearts. With each dawn, let us see your glory with new eyes and with each evening let us rest in peace.Through Christ, our Lord, Amen
The reward for our self-denial begins in this life and has its culmination in the life to come. The difference between one and the other is that in this life there are also persecutions. In this life we enjoy both the love of Christ and suffering persecutions for his sake. This life is a life of purification of our love, purification of our intentions. By proving our love now, we will enjoy life with Christ for all eternity.
Lord, you know how attached I am to myself, my possessions, and my comforts. Help me to give up what I need to give up—out of love for you and your Gospel, not out of love for myself or what I might get out of it. Help me not to be afraid to deny myself for the sake of drawing nearer to you. Today, I will give up something that keeps me from drawing closer to you. Amen
Reward is not given only to those who simply give things up, but rather to those who give things up for the sake of Christ and for love of the Gospel. Sacrifice for the sake of sacrifice—or for that matter, sacrifice for a selfish reason—is worth nothing in God’s eyes. Sacrifice has value only when it is done for the sake of Christ and his Gospel, for love. It is our gift to God. Our intention in self-denial must be to glorify Christ or to witness to the Gospel message.
Is this the real motivation of my self-denial?
Lord, help me to have a pure intention in my acts of self-denial.
Peter began to say to Jesus, “We have given up everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come. But many that are first will be last, and the last will be first.” Mark 10:28-31
At first glance Peter seems to be selfish, as if he were saying, “We have given up everything, now what’s in it for us?” His question is not prompted by selfishness, but rather is a response to Jesus’ previous statement that it is very hard for a rich man to enter heaven. In light of the difficulty of riches, Peter wants to know what the chances of entering the Kingdom of God will be for someone who has given up everything to follow Christ.
How detached from material possessions must we be in order to be assured a place in heaven?
Jesus does not give us a concrete answer to this question, but he does tell us that those who have given up everything will not only receive a reward of eternal life in the age to come, but also ample reward in this life.
Lord, I come to you to pray. Even though I cannot see you, I trust that you are present and want very much to instruct me in your teachings. In the same way that you demonstrate your love for me by spending this time with me, I want to express my love for you by dedicating this time to you with a spirit of faith, confidence, and attention. Here I am, Lord, to listen to you and respond with love. Amen
God is constantly inviting us to perfection whether we are aware of it or not. Not as the world defines perfection but perfect as the mirror of Christ. We are to be light in a dark world. All monotheistic religions are drawn into this state of being.
As Christians, we need to be serious about striving for perfection which is perfect, agape love. Essentially, the perfection of the Christian life consists in charity, first and foremost, in the love of God, then and the love of neighbor. Our call is to use whatever state of life we are in to reach this perfection by renouncing ourselves in order to allow Christ to do all things in us. In every prayer, we say, and every reaction we perform, and every suffering we endure, and our every act of love, we must come to realize that we are a member of Christ, and that Christ wishes still to pray, act, love, and suffer in us. He thirsts for this, to create the Mystical body of Christ living our vocation to form Christ in others.
Let us strive to allow Christ to transform us rather than the arduous task of our will, imitating Christ and being so consumed by the fire of God’s love that we say, “I live, now, not I: but Christ lives in me” Galatians 2:20
Dear Jesus, help me to spread Your fragrance everywhere I go. Flood my soul with Your spirit and life. Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly, that my life may only be a radiance of Yours.
Shine through me, and be so in me That every soul I come in contact with may feel Your presence in my soul. Let them look up and see no longer me, but only Jesus!
Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as You shine, so to shine as to be a light to others; The light, O Jesus will be all from You; none of it will be mine; it will be you, shining on others through me.
Let me thus praise You the way You love best, by shining on those around me.
Let me preach You without preaching, not by words but by my example, by the catching force of the sympathetic influence of what I do, the evident fullness of the love my heart bears to You.
Why is it so easy to be drawn into the negative rather than find what is good? Or focus on lack and what we don’t have instead of being grateful for what we do have and the abundant life we live. Paul offers us a powerful antidote: to intentionally focus our minds on what is good, true, and beautiful. When we see charity and love before us, we can use it to draw us to more. Let’s remember: Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. (Philippians 4:8)
Let’s pray a prayer for more love and charity in our life.
O Lord, give us more charity, more likeness to you. Make us kindly in thought, gentle in word, generous in deed. Teach us that it is better to give than to receive, better to forget ourselves than to put ourselves forward, better to minister than to be ministered to. And to you, the God of love, be all glory and praise, now and forever. Amen
Walking in the joyful mysteries and the sorrowful mysteries of life is a place where I look around me and see the reality before me — the divine within each of us. Where somehow I am given the courage to help carry a person’s cross with them. It might be be through a smile, a spot on scripture or prayer or giving up my schedule to help someone in need. It was taking a break from my career to help carry my husband’s cross of illness.
These times build my house of prayer and by my acceptance become my joyful mysteries.
They are my praise. They help me know myself and identify my needs. I become Christ’s hands and feet to support others on their journey. They help me advance in learning how to love.
Lord, thank you for drawing me into your school of love. I’m grateful you show me how to fully live in the joyful, sorrowful and glorious mysteries of life. Living life with your presence. Amen
Today we celebrate Memorial Day, a day where we pause, reflect and honor those who have given their lives to our country. These individuals, drawn outside themselves to a larger mission and purpose, served and protected our country’s liberties and freedom.
Yesterday in the Church, we celebrated the Holy Trinity, where we remembered and celebrated the fundamental mystery of our faith: One God in three persons, God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This divine circle of love, of which we are a part, is our summons to mission and call to action. We are to draw people into the dynamics of divine life.
How deeply do you dive into this mystery and remember whose you are and how much you are loved? It is only through this identity we can draw others to divine love. It is by giving and trusting God with our whole heart we are able to love, taking our narcissistic self interests out of the equation.
Our ability to love others is connected with our ability to receive God’s love. Authentic love is of one piece and how we love anything is how we love everything. Let us always remember the power we have participating in this divine love. A love that serves as a beacon, drawing the lost, brokenhearted or hurting souls towards safety, freedom and honor.
Lord, all power in heaven and earth has been given to me through You. Energize me with zeal to go and make disciples of all who cross my path, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that You have commanded. Help me remember and hold dearly, that You are with me always, until the end of the age. You will not, do not and cannot abandon me and all Your creation. Glory and honor is Yours, now and forever. Amen
In his passion to set right a disjointed universe, God broke open his own heart in love. The Father sent into the dysfunction of the world, not simply a representative but his own Son, so that he might gather that world into the bliss of divine life.
God’s center—the love between the Father and the Son—is now offered as our center; God’s heart breaks open to include even the worst and most hopeless among us. In so many spiritual traditions, the emphasis is placed on the human quest for God, but this is reversed in Christianity. We do not believe that God is “out there,” like a mountain waiting to be climbed by various religious searchers. On the contrary, God, the hound of heaven comes relentlessly searching after us.
Because of this questing and self-emptying divine love, we become friends of God, and sharers in the communion of the Trinity. This is the essence of Christianity and living the love of the Holy Trinity. Jesus tells the apostles, including you and I today, to “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
We need to understand the radical power this bestows!
Blessed be God the Father, and the Only Begotten Son of God and also the Holy Spirit, three persons, one God, for he has shown us his merciful love. Amen
Smitten With Goodness 