Month Five. Fortitude to love myself, expands my hope and kindness.
There is nothing for us to fear except refusing God’s mercy. When our Lord foretells His own betrayal, it is because He still loves Judas. It’s as if Jesus is saying, “I already know what you are planning to do; I know your problems, your evil intentions, your secret sins. Yet still I am here with you. Since I already know, why continue in this way? It is not too late.” And when the others heard the prediction, instead of becoming defensive and proud, they might have said: “Don’t let it be me! Lord, by your mercy sustain me! Give me your grace, Jesus, I love you!”
Month Five. Fortitude to love myself, expands my hope and kindness.
How often do I resist events, the situations, and the many people who come into my life each day that block my opportunity for growth? As I realize that every moment of every day is offered to me as a gift, I see my life through a different lens. I stop resisting my reality —the gift of awareness of other people, awareness of our natural surroundings, awareness of our own personal impact on creation. And in awareness comes our growth as women.
In this post from the Center for Action and Contemplation, Cynthia Bourgeault, states the heart of Jesus’ ministry is summed up in the way He radically surrenders Himself for the sake of love: [Jesus’] idea of “dying to self” was not through inner renunciation and guarding the purity of His being, but through radically squandering everything He had and was. In life He horrified the prim and proper by dining with tax collectors and prostitutes, by telling parables about extravagant generosity, by giving His approval to acts of costly and apparently pointless sacrifice such as the woman who broke open the alabaster jar to anoint Him with precious oil; by teaching always and everywhere, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth.” John the Baptist’s disciples disapproved of Him for drinking and banqueting; the Pharisees disapproved of Him for healing on the Sabbath. But He went His way, giving Himself fully into life and death, losing Himself, squandering himself, “gambling away every gift God bestows.” It is . . . love utterly poured out, “consum’d with that which it was noursh’d by,” in the words of Shakespeare’s sonnet—that opens the gate to the Kingdom of Heaven. This is what Jesus taught and this is what He walked.
Month Five. Fortitude to love myself, expands my hope and kindness.
Lately I’ve been seeing how narrow the space is between some of my thoughts. How quickly hope can turn to despair, gratitude to ingratitude, patience to impatience. A simple critical thought or a moment without love, mercy, and compassion can turn hope into hopelessness. It is a very fine line.
Month Five. Fortitude to love myself, expands my hope and kindness.
How well do I listen? As I grow more aware, I see the subtlety between the two voices that play out in my head. The distinction is sometimes minuscule between the two yet can have very different trajectories.
Month Five. Fortitude to love myself, expands my hope and kindness
Looking for God’s Goodness in contemplation and prayer. Our society shows all the signs of classic addiction, and it is helpful to think about this as a metaphor for what the biblical tradition called “sin.” In Breathing Under Water, Richard Rohr draws the connection between the Gospel and the Twelve Step Program. It is helpful to see sin, like addiction, as a disease, a very destructive disease, instead of merely something that was culpable, punishable, or “that makes God unhappy.” If sin indeed made God unhappy, it was because God desires nothing more than our happiness and wills the healing of our disease. The healing ministry of Jesus should have made that crystal clear; healing was about all that He did, with much of His teaching illustrating the healings—and vice versa. It is rather amazing that this did not remain at the top of all church agendas.
Month Five. Fortitude to love myself, expands my hope and kindness
My Lord, My God.
These are four of the most powerful words I can say. In our throwaway culture and a culture of lies, it’s easy for me to get paralyzed and overwhelmed by fear. This is exactly where Satan, the father of all lies, wants me. Evil constantly whispers the lie that things are hopeless.
Month Five. Fortitude to love myself, expands my hope and kindness
Sometimes I wonder if I’m afraid to forgive myself for being human. I’ve been contemplating lately my resistance to living in radical trust and forgiveness and truly loving myself. As I live in a space within me that accepts me as I am, where I am fully known and loved, the pretenses that diminish my genuineness dissolve. I am emptied of the masks and facades that blind me to who I am that keep me deceiving myself and others.
Month Five. Fortitude to love myself, expands my hope and kindness
As I contemplate God’s boundless mercy and integrate this divine love throughout my body, mind, and soul, I’m brought to my knees with gratitude and joy. Allowing this mercy to shower over me, I’m cleansed from the thoughts and behaviors that hold me hostage within my own heart. These are the moments I accept that God is God, and that I am His beautiful creature.
Month Five. Fortitude to love myself, expands my hope and kindness
How many times do I place obstacles within my heart as a barrier to God‘s mercy? God‘s love and mercy so desperately want to work in my heart but I must first open the door. How do I close the door to this love and mercy? By thinking I don’t need God, thinking it’s all up to me to change others or situation, being unaware that God is ever present. Even my pain and suffering can blind me to trusting in God‘s mercy.
Smitten With Goodness 