Love your spouse as yourself

You must constantly work to grow in holy love of yourself.  You are called to love your spouse as yourself; now then, if you do not love yourself, how well can you love your spouse?

Fallen before, begin afresh

If you have fallen in the realm of purity, you must ensure that you have broken all habits pertaining to your fall.  If you have gone farther than you should have, then ensure that whatever actions, patterns or routines you had acquired are destroyed and that you do not bring them with you into marriage! Every action must be a self-gift and allow the other to be a self-gift to you. 

Pray for your future spouse

When you are single you must pray ceaselessly for your future spouse.

Women: this is especially true for you.  Your future husband’s battles are such that you cannot understand or imagine.  Pray for him!

Marriage and the Eucharist

You would not approach the Eucharist if you are not in a state of grace; how dare you approach your spouse! You cannot give yourself to the other if you have left part of yourself in sin.  Go to confession, be cleansed and healed by God, that you may once again be one with your spouse.

Choose your friends

Husband and wife: choose your friends together.  Choose wisely who will be a part of your family.  Male friends of the family should be closest to the husband; female friends should be closest to the wife.  Unfaithfulness can be emotional as well as physical.  Respect each other: if one of you is uneasy with another’s friend or acquaintance, discuss until there is resolution, either in an end to the friendship or pace with it.  There must be total communication in this realm to attain complete unity and trust.  When there is lack of transparency, one cannot trust the other.  There is no reason you cannot reach agreement other than your failure to communicate and listen to each other.

Confident body

“Therefore my heart is glad and my soul rejoices, my body, too, abides in confidence, because you will not abandon my soul to the netherworld, nor will you suffer your faithful one to undergo corruption.” –Psalm 16: 9-10

You need not shrink from your body.  It too, as the expression of your soul, should be filled with confidence in the glory of the resurrection.  It will be raised on the last day, not just your soul!  Our God has taken on our flesh, that it too may be divinized with His Son.

You are nothing

“Neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who causes the growth.” 1 Corinthians 3:7

You are proud that you have advised another soul.  You are proud that your friend has taken steps closer to God.  Be humble! For only the Lord has accomplished anything.  You have been His servant, planting seeds and watering them, but planting and watering is nothing compared to the growing.  The growth is all the Lord’s.

Forgiveness

If you truly wish to forgive, you must pray for God to work this miracle in your heart.  Pray also for perseverence! It will take time for your heart to fully release its grip on the pain and allow the Lord to heal it.

Compassion

If you have been wounded, you must turn your pain over to the Lord.  Ask Him to transform your pain and anger into compassion.  A compassionate heart will offer its pain and suffering to Him as intercession for its assailant and allow itself to be healed.

Keep still

“The Lord Himself will fight for you; you have only to keep still.” Exodus 14:14

Soul, be still! Leave your anxiety behind.  Quiet your soul.  If you allow your Lord to fight by staying still, He can protect you.  If you insist on running about in chaos, how is He to fight off the enemy without injuring you as you dash into the line of fire?

Protect us from all anxiety

There is only one emotion which we pray to be delivered from in the liturgy of the Mass: anxiety.  Consider then the importance of taming this emotion and guarding against the devil which goads it! 

By calm you shall be saved

“By waiting and by calm  you shall be saved, in quiet and in trust your strength lies.” –Isaiah 49:5

Be calm! You have fooled yourself that worry and anxiety will prevent you from falling.  Fool! In worrying and being anxious you have fallen, for you have lost your trust in your Lord.  You have abandoned your love for Him and denied His love for you.  Your best defense is not worry, but trust.  Here you will find your strength.

Faith and works are one

You cannot truly believe and not perform the works.  If you perform the works, then it is because you believe in love, goodness, beauty, mercy, and therefore you believe in God.  For God is Love, Goodness, Beauty, Mercy! Faith and works are one and the same.

Your mother

Jesus has espoused you.  Therefore, His Father is your Father, and his mother is your mother.  Take them into your heart as your own.  In the Holy family there are no in-laws, only family.

Lay down your life

In marriage, your must lay down your life with the same love and eagerness with which you lay down your body.  In this is love.

Be grateful for your tiredness

I hear you are tired.  Rejoice! Be grateful! It means that you have been faithful to the work the Lord has set before you.

To love fully

To love fully you must have restraint and discipline.  Without these, you are incapable of love, because you are incapable of putting another in front of yourself.

Last moment

Live as if it is your last moment.  Forgive.  Love.  Surrender.

Pray for Wisdom

No one is invulnerable to being deceived.  Pray for wisdom and ask that you may be delivered of your Deceivers.  Meditate on the might of God and His glory and beauty, for these are wisdom.  (Wisdom 7:25)

Wisdom requires purity

“For Wisdom is mobile beyond all motion, and she penetrates and pervades all things by reason of her purity.  For she is an aura of the might of God and a pure effusion of the glory of the Almighty; therefore nought that is sullied enters her.” Wisdom 7:24-25

This reveals the importance of frequent confession.  Without the purity of soul it offers, one cannot fully enter into the Wisdom of God.  Without this wisdom, how difficult to discern your life and to act with virtue! 

Dialogue with God

When you seek God’s opinion, go to Jesus and inquire of him as you would a friend.  Ask questions until you fully understand how He feels, what He thinks.  This requires a dialogue, not repeatedly asking the same question and tallying the response.

Desire quenched by desire

“It is hard for the human soul not to love, and it is necessary that our mind be drawn into some sort of affection.  Love of the flesh is overcome by love of the spirit. Desire is quenched by desire.” –St Jerome

You must cultivate a deep desire for true love, in all its purity, to truly know another and to be known.  Cultivate the desire not only to want what is best for the other, but to be that good that they need.  These desires will quench the desire of the flesh.

Hierarchy of Servanthood

The Church indeed has a hierarchy, but it is not one of power.  It is a hierarchy of servanthood.  Each tier requires a greater and greater degree of self-renunciation.  The Pope then, is not a king… unless you refer to the words written over Christ on the cross.

Banality of Evil

Evil has infiltrated every aspect of life.  It is everywhere and is accepted as the norm.  Evil is not only in the extraordinary events of the world but in the everyday, ordinary, daily activites, thoughts and sights.  There is only one way to combat this: the Army of Simplicity.  Only through a battalion of soldiers who sanctify their every thought and mundane action can the banality of evil be overcome.  Evil must be omitted from even the simplest, smallest of tasks. Yes, you can combat evil while taking out the trash. You are not called to greatness, but to smallness.  Fulfill your duty.

So you do not believe you can be made clean…

Gaze upon Jesus, nailed to the cross.  See His chest heave in agony, His tortured limbs strained and bloodied.  He gave His all, His very self, that you may be His spotless bride.  See how He loves you.  Receive His gift of new life.

Yes to God

You must teach yourself, in the little things, to say no to yourself.  If you cannot say no to yourself then you cannot say yes to God.

Loveable

Beware of making it your life’s goal to never make a mistake.  If you are constantly in fear of a mistake, then you are doubting God’s love for you and striving to fill the void in your heart with self-love. Do not try to make your soul loveable to God.  Just love God.  His love for you is unchanging no matter how “good” or “bad” you are.

Make an act of humility

If you catch yourself in sin, immediately perform its antidote—an act of humility.  Whatever it may be—admitting you were wrong to a friend, cleaning the dishes, holding a door for someone—find something that is immediately doable and perform it without delay! This will help to right your ship.

Humble enough to begin again

Be humble enough to begin again, with Peter as your model.  He was quick to admit to his mistakes, ask the Lord for forgiveness and begin again, in love with His Lord.  You must do the same! Do not be like Judas, who in his pride believed that his sin was unforgiveable, and handed his life over to Satan.  No sin is too big or too aggregious to make a soul mortally wounded when the Divine Physician is the doctor on call!  He created you.  He can always heal you.

Perfect Weakness

Little soul, you must mirror Mary’s perfect weakness.  The more you fight and struggle and wrestle with temptations and emotions the more you hold them to your soul.  You must be still, limp, that our Lord may take them from you.

Lover as Friend

God is your lover and bridegroom.  This is an essential relationship to understand and live.  But do not lose sight of God as your friend! The same is true for your earthly lover… passion and romance are beautiful and good, but do not lose sight of its foundation: friendship.  It is in the friendship that the trust and commitment are fostered that light your passions on fire!