In yesterday’s post, we discovered that New Year’s resolutions often fade and fizzle early on for two reasons:1) They are resolutions we determine for ourselves.
2) They are solely dependent upon our own human efforts to be accomplished.
Traditionally, the beginning of the New Year is a time for resolutions.However, fewer and fewer people are engaging in this age-old custom. Perhaps most feel the effort is useless. How many resolutions have we made throughout our lives only to find we break them within the first few weeks of their institution? Indeed, Archbishop Fulton Sheen once said that “Resolutions, like the good, die young.”
Every time we profess the Nicene Creed, we affirm our belief that Jesus Christ is inseparably true God and true man. "For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven; by the power of the Holy Spirit, he became incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and was made man."
One of my favorite books for Lectio-Divina (see Week One of the Advent Study) is Divine Intimacy, by Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene.This book provides meditations on the interior life for every day of the liturgical year. I have found it to be very efficacious.
One of the meditations offered by Father Gabriel for the fourth week of Advent is entitled, The Call to the Apostolate.
In it, he offers an insightful perspective of the Christian call to evangelization based on the words of St. John the Baptist, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord" (Luke 3: 4). In the end, he tells us that "Jesus has need of us." When I read these words, they infused me with zeal.
Because I found this meditation so spiritually benefiicial, today I'd like to share with you what Father Gabriel presents.
St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (St. Edith Stein) wrote, "On the question of relation to our fellow men -- our neighbor's spiritual need transcends every commandment. Everything else we do is a means to an end. But love is an end already, since God is love."These words express a great truth and they should be at the heart of every action we perform for another, especially as we seek to enter more deeply into the very heart of God given to us through His Son, Jesus Christ.
St. Augustine wrote,"Love has hands to help others. It has feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. This is what love looks like."
"May the Lord make you overflow with love for one another and for all, even as our love does for you. May He strengthen your hearts...At the coming of our Lord Jesus..." -- Thes. 3:12-13 Toy collections, food drives, charity bazaars -- all common activities in communities and parishes during the Christmas season. And they are good. They help fulfill Jesus' mandate to "love your neighbor as yourself" (Mark 12:31).
However, this command of Jesus is subordinate to the one preceding it -- "you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind."
Love of neighbor flows from love of God, and love of God is a prerequisite for a charitable action. There is a profound difference between a humanitarian act and an act of charity.
A humanitarian action, admirable as it may be, is limited in potential. Rooted in human compassion and accomplished through human incentive, it goes only as far as the individual's generosity and goodwill carry it.
"Three years ago the first Women of Grace Foundational Study was presented at Sts. Peter and Paul Parish in Doylestown Ohio. That group of 12 women decided that after each Foundational Study concludes an invitation would be sent out to every woman who has attended the study previously. The celebrations includes a cover dish dinner and the greeting of the new sacred sisters who just finished the study and are receiving their WOG certificate of completion.
While it is necessary for our physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being for us to extend forgiveness, it is just as necessary that we seek forgiveness when we have offended another.
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