... and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her" Gen 29:20
Today, our love usually does not reach this depth. We love enough that years seem like DECADES, but we do not love enough that years feel like DAYS. Oh, that God would grant us the pure love of Jacob!!
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Saturday, June 27, 2009
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth...
... The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters." Gen 1:1-2
The Spirit of God is always moving over the face of our souls, seeking to recreate us without blemish, that His Kingdom may come to earth.
The Spirit of God is always moving over the face of our souls, seeking to recreate us without blemish, that His Kingdom may come to earth.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
The father of lies
The devil is indeed the father of lies. Beware of his deceit!!
Adam and Eve were made in the image and likeness of God. They were like God. But what was it that the devil tempted Eve with? Becoming like God! The devil tempts us by convincing us that we lack the very thing that God has given to us.
When we are tempted to think we lack something-- be it purity, patience, peace, confidence--let us be assured that in fact it is one of the treasures that God has already given to us. It is written: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, as He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before Him." (Ephesians 1:3-4) God is constantly granting us EVERY SPIRITUAL BLESSING IN THE HEAVENS!!!!!!!!! All we must do is open ourselves to His grace.
Adam and Eve were made in the image and likeness of God. They were like God. But what was it that the devil tempted Eve with? Becoming like God! The devil tempts us by convincing us that we lack the very thing that God has given to us.
When we are tempted to think we lack something-- be it purity, patience, peace, confidence--let us be assured that in fact it is one of the treasures that God has already given to us. It is written: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, as He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before Him." (Ephesians 1:3-4) God is constantly granting us EVERY SPIRITUAL BLESSING IN THE HEAVENS!!!!!!!!! All we must do is open ourselves to His grace.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
The devil and anxiety
St Francis de Sales tells us that "anxiety is the greatest evil that can befall us, sin excepted... when we are troubled and restless we lose our power to maintain the virtue that we have acquired."
However the devil uses anxiety not merely to remove virtue from our souls-- this is his side entertainment. What he is really after is our loss of faith and confidence in our Lord, for this makes our prayer impotent. Our prayers are answered according to our faith; if our anxiety eliminates our confidence and faith in God, then the devil has succeeded in cutting us off from grace. We must in moments of anxiety begin our prayer with a statement of confidence in God, for it is our faith that allows Him to act in us. What is the power that maintains virtue? It is God's grace. If we are no longer open to the grace, if our anxiety has caused us to no longer trust that He is Mercy and Love, we have lost our power. Losing virtue is the result of impotence of anxious, faithless prayer.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
The Bridgroom Adorns His Bride
"The loss of a sense of His presence, the loss of His inner reassurances, and the loss of the joys of His service may be sent to us to ensure that we love Him and not His gifts, to ensure that we are indeed stripped and poor and naked and are not pretending to ourselves that we love Him when in reality we love only ourselves" --Fr Gerald Vann, O.P.
God chooses to adorn His bride with many graces and blessings. He laid down His life that He might present her to Him spotless and without blemish (cf Ephesians 5). How glorious this graces are when He lavishes them upon us, His bride, that we may be found pleasing to Him! We must never turn away from these graces, no matter how overwhelming or undeserved; our love for Him must be so complete that we abandon ourselves to His whims to be made pleasing to Him, trusting that He is Goodness and Mercy.
If God will remove these graces to ensure that we love Him and not His gifts, how much more so will He remove them to prove to us that He loves his bride, not His gifts!!!!!!!!!! This is the immeasurable blessing of spiritual dryness: that we can KNOW, without a shadow of a doubt, that He loves us as we are, weak and miserable. So much so that He adorns us with His grace that He may unite us to Himself and give us His perfect Joy and Love!!
This is true then also in marriage; the fading of the honeymoon "love" allows man and wife to truly love the other, and not themselves. A true Christian should rejoice at this first opportunity in marriage to ensure a true, holy love that is an act of total self-donation to the other without self-love intermixed, thanking God for the privledge of the opportunity to love each other as He loves them, weak and miserable.
God chooses to adorn His bride with many graces and blessings. He laid down His life that He might present her to Him spotless and without blemish (cf Ephesians 5). How glorious this graces are when He lavishes them upon us, His bride, that we may be found pleasing to Him! We must never turn away from these graces, no matter how overwhelming or undeserved; our love for Him must be so complete that we abandon ourselves to His whims to be made pleasing to Him, trusting that He is Goodness and Mercy.
If God will remove these graces to ensure that we love Him and not His gifts, how much more so will He remove them to prove to us that He loves his bride, not His gifts!!!!!!!!!! This is the immeasurable blessing of spiritual dryness: that we can KNOW, without a shadow of a doubt, that He loves us as we are, weak and miserable. So much so that He adorns us with His grace that He may unite us to Himself and give us His perfect Joy and Love!!
This is true then also in marriage; the fading of the honeymoon "love" allows man and wife to truly love the other, and not themselves. A true Christian should rejoice at this first opportunity in marriage to ensure a true, holy love that is an act of total self-donation to the other without self-love intermixed, thanking God for the privledge of the opportunity to love each other as He loves them, weak and miserable.
The Dignity of Man
Work gives dignity to the human person. We were not put upon this earth to languish in the sunlight, but rather given charge to tend creation. The fall introduced the pain and tedium of it, but work itself was created as a good. Let us never forget the dignity of any moral work-- no matter how little or unimportant it may seem.
Falling in love
Falling in love is like falling at the top of a mountain. You keep tumbling and tumbling... at first it is grassy and the sun is out and you are frolicking... then you start to hit the rocks and trees, and see the cliffs coming in the distance... but we must trust in the Lord, for every bit farther you roll, the love grows deeper and deeper, and you fall more and more in love not in spite of but as a direct result of the painful experiences. For it was that painful passage that brought you farther down the mountain, deeper into love. And after the first cliff, the pebbles feel like down from a chick.
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