When we take the time daily to meditate on the goodness of Jesus, it becomes so much easier to be who He desires us to be. We begin to realize that everything He asks of us is for our own good.
But first, we have to be still in order to know.
Be still and know I am God. Psalm 46:10
Lord, help me be still. Help me know that You are God. Let me be still, calm, peaceful, and open to Your presence.
Sometimes we struggle knowing how to pray. I hope the following wise words give you permission to let go and just be with God.
Remain at rest, in peace and truth, in the presence of our God. Force nothing. Do not aim to make any thoughts and resolutions. Be in God‘s presence as a child with their parent. Think of yourself as belonging to God that God may do with you whatever God pleases. Avoid a lot of words. Separate yourself from all things and direct your gaze at God. Be content to look at our God to whom you belong.
Venerable Francis Lieberman, C.S.Sp.
This year’s theme for Smitten with Goodness is prayer. In the previous post, Prayer is Allowing God to Love You, there are many ways we can connect with God. Sometimes we need to slow down and go back to the basics. This helps us to open our minds and hearts to God.
In Matthew 6:9-15, Jesus teaches us how to pray. Focusing on the Our Father, presents us with a great opportunity to go back to the basics of prayer. Meditating on this prayer allows us to open our minds and hearts and be in communion with God.
Our Father,
Who art in Heaven,
hallowed be Thy name;
Thy Kingdom come,
Thy will be done
on earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
Amen.
If the Gospel is a message of Joy, then it is one we should be eager to pursue. We can do this by diving into a deeper, prayerful encounter with Jesus Christ this year. He will teach us to pray.
Its almost a new year a good to time to take stock of our lives. I hope you will take a few minutes after the busy holiday season to take a few moments to see what has worked for you and the areas where you might need improvement. One thing we can all integrate in our lives is peace. The work we do to bring our own peaceful heart to the world will sow many dividends.
All of us have been wrestling with the hate in the world, and I would like to suggest that we take a stand for peace in the new year. We are not taught much about peace we are taught about war. Sustainability is one of our premier global challenges and war is inimical to sustainability. Peace is a part of a sustainable future.
Lets start a new conversation, a new direction , a new ethic, and peace might offer such an opportunity. Take in the words of poet and environmental attorney Jim Blackburn and artist Scurry Chapman as you find peace on your journey.
Peace – an excellent state of being,
Peace – a goal worth achieving,
Peace – a faraway place
Peace – let me argue its case.
Peace – why is it so hard?
Peace – no holds barred,
Peace – put down the guns,
Peace – let’s protect our sons.
Peace – I love the idea,
Peace – but is it panacea?
Peace – always out of reach,
Peace – is it what we teach?
Peace – between friend and foe,
Peace – no war no mo
Peace – I want it now
Peace – but we don’t know how.
Peace – should be in our books
Peace – it gets many looks,
Peace – will it come on my watch?
Peace – It takes more than Scotch.
Peace – we need to work today,
Peace – we must find a way,
Peace – oh such a dream,
Peace – just watch me beam.
Peace – between Jews and Palestinians
Peace – between Pakistanis and Indians,
Peace – between Republicans and Democrats
Peace – between luddites and technocrats.
Peace – for the sake of the Earth
Peace – a value with worth,
Peace – will the dream come true?
Peace – it’s up to me and you.
So welcome to Earth Church,
Where doves land on your pew,
And we take the pledge
To bring peace to you.
A new year, a natural time for new beginnings. How about striving for a peaceful heart. With all the darkness of our world right now, will you let Christs light shine through you?
The Saints are good role models to help us sharpen our focus to whats truly important. St. Alphonsus Liguori gives us some good food for thought as we look forward to a fresh start of new beginnings.
“An excellent method of preserving interior silence is to keep exterior silence. . . even in the world, each one of us can make his own solitude, a boundary beyond which nothing can force its way unperceived. It is not noise in itself that is the difficulty, but noise that is pointless; it is not every conversation, but useless conversations; not all kinds of occupation, but aimless occupations. In point of fact, everything that does not serve some good purpose is harmful. It is foolish, nay, more, it is a betrayal to devote to a useless objective powers that can be given to what is essential. There are two ways of separating ourselves from almighty God, quite different from one another but both disastrous, although for different reasons: mortal sin and voluntary distractions—mortal sin, which objectively breaks off our union with God, and voluntary distractions, which subjectively interrupt or hinder our union from being as close as it ought to be. We should speak only when it is preferable not to keep silence. The Gospel does not say merely that we shall have to give an account of every evil word, but of every idle thought.”
“If we do not risk anything for God we will never do anything great for Him.”
–St. Louis De Montfort
Recently I’ve risked being satisfied.
Savor was my focus word last year. A time where I slowed down enough to really, see, enjoy, taste, smell and touch what was before me. In essence I was practicing the sacrament of the present moment.
The stillness of the present moment is where we find God. It’s a place where we find joy, connection and be thankful. We are nourished and satisfied.
God revealed how in my striving and doing, I lost sight of satisfaction. Through my distrust, I turned to my will rather than His, where forcing my solutions rather than trusting and waiting on His became my norm. Like quicksand, the shaky ground I stood on was one of lack and scarcity. Through allowing God to heal my heart, I now realize I am standing on a solid foundation of trust and abundance.
What a gift this is to be satisfied and share my peaceful heart with others. It’s actually a miracle and Gods visible work today.
How will you risk growing with God this new year?
The longer I live in the light of God’s holiness, the more I become aware of the subtle, deceptive sins of my heart, the nagging idolatries, and the places where I lack godly character. As I walk with the Lord, I become increasingly aware of the labyrinth pathways of sin that course through every area of my life.
I simply cannot stand before the searching light of the glory of God’s holiness with an open heart and walk away proud.
The longer this light shines on me, the louder my cry for grace grows. The longer I live in the presence of God’s holiness, the more I become aware of the depth and extent of my sin, the more I am dependent on God’s grace, and the more I am amazed by his patience.
How beautiful God designed it this way. Lifting the veil to my neediness. Bringing me to humility and my knees, turning me to right order my desires and give my gifts to my Savior, divine born man in the most humble way on Christmas Day.
Giving me, and us all, the gift of love.
Read: For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11
Reflect: Living in the Theological Virtue of Hope. Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ’s promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit. . . . “The Holy Spirit . . . he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life.” The virtue of hope responds to the aspiration to happiness which God has placed in the heart of every man; it takes up the hopes that inspire men’s activities and purifies them so as to order them to the Kingdom of heaven; it keeps man from discouragement; it sustains him during times of abandonment; it opens up his heart in expectation of eternal beatitude. Buoyed up by hope, he is preserved from selfishness and led to the happiness that flows from charity. By hope we desire, and with steadfast trust await from God, eternal life, and the graces to merit it.
The past must be abandoned to God’s mercy, the present to our fidelity, the future to divine providence.
St Francis de Sales
Respond: God, relying on your infinite goodness and promises, I hope to obtain pardon of my sins, the help of your grace and life everlasting, through the merits of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Redeemer.
Read: Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1
Reflect: Living in the Theological Virtue of Faith. Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that he has said and revealed to us, and that the Holy Church proposes for our belief, because he is truth itself. By faith “man freely commits his entire self to God.” For this reason the believer seeks to know and do God’s will.
Poor human reason when it trusts in itself substitutes the strangest absurdities for the highest divine concepts.
St. John Chrysostom
Respond: God, I firmly believe that you are one God, in three Divine Persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost; I believe that your Divine Son became man and died for our sins and that He will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe these and all the truths which the holy Catholic Church teaches, because you have revealed them, Who can neither deceive nor be deceived.
Read: Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8
Reflect: Living in the Cardinal Virtue of Temperance. Temperance is the practice of self-control. The virtue of temperance gives me self-restraint and orients my body to God’s desires for me. When I love my body and keep it clean and pure, moderate what I eat and drink, continent in the use of touch and pure in all my senses, I possess self-restraint. Infused with faith, hope and love, I bring modesty, self-control and chastity into the world. I live with a pure heart.
As too great care for bodily things is reprehensible, so reasonable care is to be commended to preserve health for the service of God.
St. Ignatius of Loyola
Respond: Lord, let me use the gifts I have received and pass on the love that I’ve been given.
