Pain intensifies joy

Remember that your pain intensifies your joy, for only through pain may you grow strong enough to bear the joy that God plans for you in marriage!

If only I were a goose…

An old lady looked out her window at the geese outside in the blizzard. If only I could get them into the barn, they could be warm and safe! she thought.  So she bundled up and went outside to try to herd them.  They scattered and flew a few paces away, a few took flight over the trees.  If only I were a goose! Then I could tell them that the barn is warm and a safe haven from the storm!  Suddenly she understood the Incarnation.  Our God tried to bring us to His shelter in the storm of the world, but we would not listen because we did not understand.  He became man, that He could be one of us, that we would understand and come into His protection.

Doubt

Zaccariah heard the good news and doubted.  Mary heard the good news and believed, even though she did not understand. 

Pray that you may be like Mary! That you may believe with all your heart and soul and mind and body that His promises are true! Then you will conceive divine life within you.

A husband needs a wife

A husband needs a wife.  Not just a mother for his children, but a wife, a spouse who will bring him to heaven, who will be his resting place, who will attend to him and love him. 

Likewise, a wife needs a husband.  Not just a provider, but a husband, her path to heaven, to be her fortress and rock and protector, who will attend her and love her.

All day you are giving giving giving—make sure that at the end of the day you have reserved a part of yourself to be a gift to your spouse.  You must have something left! Your vocation should be your top priority in the world, because it is your path to God, who is Alpha and Omega.

Trust each other

If you cannot trust your spouse, then you are heading for a cliff.  You must choose to trust him/her.  You must trust God to guide each of you and trust in His ability to heal anything.  You cannot control the other, because they have been given free will by God, and given that free will so that they can choose to love.  To love them means to allow them the freedom to choose to love you. 

Your vocation is your spouse

Your vocation is your spouse.  It is your spouse who is your path to heaven.  Your priorities should be 1. God  2. Spouse  3. Children.  God created lovers, not baby-producers.  A part of being lovers, and of imaging God through our sexuality, is of course celebrating the fruitful creativity of your love.  You are called to love your children and raise them to be men and women of God, but the purpose is that they may find their own vocation, their own path to God.  Loving your children more than your spouse, or sacrificing your spouse’s needs for those of your children is wrong.  Your vocation is to get your spouse to heaven, and to allow them to bring you to heaven. 

You can see, in today’s career woman, the end result of this.  Women of the past have put their children above their spouse, but then find themselves lacking meaning and purpose and true fulfillment, especially apparent when the children leave the home.  Over time women realized this, but rather than correcting themselves and putting their focus and attention back on their vocation, they chose to pursue careers.  Now they have placed themselves over all three things which are meant to be top priorities, and are emptier than ever.  They have found themselves in the situation of ambitious men who have failed to keep God, their wives and the fruits of that love the center of their attention.

If you love God, you will love your spouse. 

If you love your spouse, you will love your children. 

If you love your children, you will love your neighbors.

This cannot be inverted.

Growing desire

"The more God wishes to bestow on us, the more does He make us desire.” –St John of the Cross

So you have a deep desire for virtue and God? Good! Do not let this sensitivity to sin cause you to despair of your goodness.  God would not put such deep desires in your heart if He was not calling you to sainthood!