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.
Continue reading “Week Eighteen. Fortitude to Love. Keys to My Heart”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.
Continue reading “Week Eighteen. Fortitude to Love. Foundation of Trust”Let us ask for the grace to feel that we need mercy. This is the only way that the salvation of God acts within us. Pope Francis.
Continue reading “Week Eighteen. Fortitude to Love. Mercy and Kindness”It takes a lot of fortitude to love myself the way God loves me. As humans, we are filled with irrationality and contradiction and are never predictable. Our past behavior tells us more than anything about how we may behave in the future, but we are prone to self-defeating patterns of behavior rather than remembering and dealing with the underlying conflict associated with them. We are victims of self-deception. We sacrifice our health to make money, then sacrifice money to recuperate our health. We are anxious about the future so that we don’t live in the present. We live as if we aren’t going to die and then we die not having fully lived. All this is to say, as humans we are a mystery.
Continue reading “Week Eighteen. Fortitude to Love. Mystery”
Looking for God’s Goodness in contemplation and prayer. For a Type-A overachiever like me, patience doesn’t come without a lot of deep breathing, yoga, meditation, and instrumental new-age music. I have to actively remind myself to practice patience. When I feel myself getting impatient, I first ask myself, Is this situation within my control? If the answer is yes, then I actively try to change the situation, so it is less stressful for me.
If the answer is no, and I can’t seem to let the stress go, I move on to a breathing meditation like the following Breath of Patience.
Continue reading “Week Seventeen. Patience. Looking for God’s Goodness and Weekly Reflection Summary”Do you ever feel like you have mastered the virtue of patience and then are taken by surprise and explode! The illusion of being the most patient person in the world just vaporized before your very eyes. Patience is so important that Jesus Christ, our model in all virtues, said: “By your patience you will save your souls.” St. Augustine prayed in desperation: “Lord, give me patience and right now!”
Continue reading “Week Seventeen: Patience. An Important Virtue”We all need a little patience. I’m learning that impatience is a key indicator that shows me that something within needs attention. Something is brewing in my heart.
Continue reading “Week Seventeen: Patience. Peace of Heart”The Christian’s journey toward wholeness in the image of Christ for the sake of others progresses by means of spiritual disciplines. The first stage of this journey is the awakening, or waking up to the fact of how unlike Christ I am.
Continue reading “Week Seventeen: Patience. Awake Not Anaesthetized”Me: “Life is pretty good!”
Also, me: “More! More! More!”
A friend recently articulated well my journey with life at times. When life is going well, I want more but this can keep me from living in the flow of God’s desires for me. God always wants good but good doesn’t always mean easy. In our undisciplined, comfort-seeking culture, it’s easy to get lulled into a false sense of reality. As I’ve matured both in life as well as spiritually, I realize that “no pain, no gain,” doesn’t just apply to my time in the gym. If I want to get better at something or achieve a difficult goal, it usually requires me moving out of my comfort zone. It also requires moving into a space of suffering, maybe a little, or a lot.
Continue reading “Week Seventeen: Patience. Gift of Discomfort”Patience is necessary. However, it is a difficult virtue because it requires us to control our emotions and passions.
Continue reading “Week Seventeen: Patience. Divine Providence”
Smitten With Goodness 