It’s counterintuitive to my self-reliant heart the freedom of surrendering to my neediness. Not a popular stance by the world’s account but oh how I see the joy on my Savior’s face and the warmth of love radiating from His sacred heart when I do.
Breathe holiness in me. Put fresh winds in my sails. Unbutton my lips, dear God and I’ll let loose with your praise
I need you, Lord, I need you. Every hour I need you my one defense my righteousness oh how I need you. Amen
What spiritual battle are you facing today? I don’t know about you, but I’m in a season where I need to surrender and be strong in the Lord. My strong self reliance coupled with evil whispering it’s ok to do whatever you want beckons me towards excess rather than rely on the strength of God’s temperance and moderation. I’m meditating on Ephesians 6:10-13:
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
Amen
Lately I’ve been meditating on the quote, “Love respects the freedom of others. Love does not expect more from others than they can provide.” In relationships we can want more than another person is able to give. When my needs aren’t being met, I have a choice to be angry and resentful or take my feelings to prayer. By turning to prayer rather than my tricky emotions, God is healing the wounds of my heart that so desperately want respect, love and attention. Spiritually this allows me to love rather than resent and give mercy as I’ve been given mercy.
In its essence, love is an act of the will—more precisely, the willing of the good of the other as other. To love is really to want what is good for someone else and then to act on that desire.
Real love is a leaping outside of the narrow confines of my needs and desires, and an embrace of the other’s good for the other’s sake. It is an escape from the black hole of the ego, which tends to draw everything around it into itself.
Lord, thank you for showing me the path of love, a narrow and challenging one for sure but totally worth it. Love always wins. Amen
How well do you know the Holy Spirit?
The person of the Holy Spirit guides us in our spiritual depth of relationship with God. Attuning our ears to listen, our mind to understand and our hearts to obey God’s word. The quality of our prayer life will always go back to the disposition of our heart and whether we are open to the movements of the Holy Spirit.
I take comfort in the fact that the Lord leads us all by paths and in ways pleasing to him, and each of us responds according to our heart’s resolve and the personal expressions of our prayer. However, Christian Tradition has retained three major expressions of prayer: vocal, meditative, and contemplative. They have one basic trait in common: composure of heart.
If we want to prepare our hearts for our life of prayer, we need to frequently turn to the Word of God and frequently practice the presence of God.
Prayer doesn’t simply “happen” to most of us and we need to train our heart to listen to God’s voice. When we successfully prepare our heart for moments of prayer, we will experience a profound union with God that is a foreshadowing of the ultimate union with God in Heaven.
Lord, help me seek you first, giving you my best and not what’s leftover. Guide my attention to focus on you and turn away from the evil of distraction. Let me live for an audience of one so I can carry out your holy will. Amen
The Spirit is present wherever people live by love, witness to the truth, act in solidarity, and practice compassion. Wherever such realities are manifest in human beings, anywhere in the world, it is a sign that the Spirit has come upon them and is active within them.
We all need the Holy Spirit.
This world needs the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit has a specific, overarching mission. His task is to teach us about Jesus. He is the invisible presence of God on earth, inviting us to take his hand and walk towards purification to live eternally.
Holy Spirit, renew the hearts of your people. Light a fire in our hearts. Amen
As a convert, I grew up in a divided household where my stepmother believed that the pope wasn’t Christian and that Catholics wrongly worshiped Mary. How this lens skewed the truth for me for many years. My husband however was raised catholic and had a true devotion to Mary. She is his gracious protector. How beautiful is that!
It is through his example I was drawn to develop my own relationship with Mother Mary. First through praying the rosary which showed me the way to a deeper relationship with her Son through this daily practice. Next, by walking with Mary as my Saint Buddy and learning more about her story. I continue to grow in relationship with her today through Hallow and reading daily meditations from A Year With Mary.
In Jesus’ last words he gives Mary to us as our mother. She is Mother of the Church, Mother for us all. We need Mary! May we all go to our Spiritual Mother whose only desire is to make us holy and lead us to her son.
Lord, you are always with Mary, and Mary is always with you. She can never be without you, because then she would cease to be what she is. Let me surrender to this realization that I am nothing without you. Amen
Today is Pentecost Sunday, celebrating when the Holy Spirit was poured forth at Pentecost, Christ’s Paschal Mystery was brought to completion, and the Church was fully equipped to carry on his redemptive work in the world. At Pentecost, it is revealed that we remain always intimately united to our heavenly Father, who will shepherd his people home to the glory of heaven. Let’s live in this knowledge that our help is here and find strength and purpose in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Veni, Sancte Spiritus
Come, Holy Spirit, come!
And from your celestial home
Shed a ray of light divine!
Come, Father of the poor!
Come, source of all our store!
Come, within our bosoms shine.
You, of comforters the best;
You, the soul’s most welcome guest;
Sweet refreshment here below;
In our labor, rest most sweet;
Grateful coolness in the heat;
Solace in the midst of woe.
O most blessed Light divine,
Shine within these hearts of yours,
And our inmost being fill!
Where you are not, we have naught,
Nothing good in deed or thought,
Nothing free from taint of ill.
Heal our wounds, our strength renew;
On our dryness pour your dew;
Wash the stains of guilt away:
Bend the stubborn heart and will;
Melt the frozen, warm the chill;
Guide the steps that go astray.
On the faithful, who adore
And confess you, evermore
In your sevenfold gift descend;
Give them virtue’s sure reward;
Give them your salvation, Lord;
Give them joys that never end. Amen.
Alleluia.
In the western world, it is engrained to be independent. But to live fully we need community and connection. Perhaps this independent mindset feeds our struggle with loneliness and anxiety.
I need others in order to really see and know myself. Otherwise, I will listen to my own arguments, believe my own lies, and buy into my own delusions. If I am going to see myself clearly, I need others to hold the mirror of God’s Word in front of me.
As Christians who still have pockets of spiritual blindness, we need two character qualities:
First, we need the loving courage of honesty. We need to love others more than we love ourselves, and so, with humble, patient love, help them to see what they need to see. Second, we need the thankful humility of approachability. We need to forsake defensiveness, be thankful that God has surrounded us with help, and be ready to receive it—every day!
I need to wake up in the morning and say, “God, I am a person in desperate need of help. Please send helpers my way and give me the humility to receive the help you have provided. Lord, make me willing to help someone see themselves as you see them today.”
We need to live in humble, honest, intrusive, and intentional community with one another, where personal ministry that goes both ways is part of our daily culture.
God, would you send helpers my way and give me the humility to receive the help you have provided? And Lord, would you make me willing to help someone see themselves as you see them today? In your name, amen.
Clutter isn’t only those piles of belongings on floors or shelves that serve as barriers to comfort and serenity in your home. The clutter between my ears causes me the most stress: all those things that take up space that I really don’t need anymore. My brain can be a messy place, an interesting place, and, without a doubt, an overcrowded place.
We can pare down our thoughts through therapy and mindfulness practice. Just as we make a practice of cleaning up our physical space, we can regard and contemplate the piles of thoughts that we’ve created in our head, and decide what we need to keep and what we can throw away.
Lately, I’ve been throwing out self-judgment and harshness. I’ve reorganized outdated ideas about what I need to be doing with my days and my life, scrapping fear and insecurity. Clearing out the negative mental clutter has created a lot more space for curiosity, positivity, and creativity. How do you sort through your clutter? What are you making room for?
Lord, thank you for helping me hang on to thoughts that serve me and that are made of your truth, allowing me to chuck the rest. Amen
The mutual love of the Father and the Son, which Jesus gratuitously extends to us as his friends, should bear fruit in charity. The first Christians took very seriously Christ’s command of charity. It was their distinctive mark. It set them apart from the peoples among whom they lived. It was the magnetic force that attracted so many to join their ranks.
The command to love each other is the logical result of our personal worth as people loved by the Lord. If Jesus loves my brother or sister so much that he gave his life for him or her, can there be any excuse for me not to show respect and deference on their behalf? Charity is the badge of every true Christian. How can I better live Christ’s commandment of love, starting within my own family?
Jesus, I pray that I will never cease to be astonished by the depths of your personal love for me. You call me your friend even though I have not always lived up to the demands of this calling. I want to be a better and truer friend of yours. As a signal of my intention, I will show a simple act of kindness to a member of my family today. Amen
Smitten With Goodness 