Humility of heart and confidence in God

By Amanda Rose

Ukranian Icon (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons).

We needn't be afraid of our weakness, our nothingness. Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen explains in my favorite book, Divine Intimacy:

"...for it is the consciousness of our nothingness which leads us to put all our confidence in God, and the greater this confidence becomes in us, the more convinced we are of our nothingness....I have to acknowledge new failures every day; daily I must begin anew.
The more we suffer because of our wretchedness, the more we should run to Jesus, with full confidence in the power of  His Redemption... Let us not be discouraged; if we can humbly acknowledge our failure instead of feeling annoyance because of it, the failure itself will turn into victory."

It sounds like such a little step to "humbly acknowledge our failure instead of feeling annoyance," but how difficult it is when we struggle with the same challenges time and again! The words of the psalmist in Psalm 37:24-25 have been a great encouragement to me over the years as I struggle with myself: "Though I may fall, I do not lie prostrate, for the hand of my God sustains me."  I continue to fall, but He keeps me from falling too far and is ever ready to reach out His own hand to pull me back to my feet, or maybe (more humbly) to my knees. He is ever patient with me while I am pridefully impatient myself. Humility of heart grows as we accept our failures as being part of our human condition, repent with true contrition, and then move right along rather than wasting time beating ourselves up, regretting, or rehashing.
 

Continue reading at Amanda's blog Little Steps Along the Way.

Jesus and the jar of pickles--distractions at prayer

By Amanda Rose

Washing of the Feet (artist unknown; photo credit: Wikimedia Commons).

I admit it. I am not a "morning person." Morning prayer times were not fruitful for me for many years. By "not fruitful," I mean that I would fall asleep whenever I attempted mental prayer in the morning. Even if I was sitting in an uncomfortable pew after morning Mass and wanted to stay for a bit with the Lord, my head would nod and I would startle awake, only to nod off again. I could pray in the afternoon, or late at night and stay awake, but not in the mornings. I read and was told that it was preferable to have a morning prayer time, but I just couldn't stay awake through one!

Well, I have been quite pleased with myself for faithfully praying Morning Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours the past months – and staying awake. Maybe it's because I pray the Liturgy of the Hours from my phone using the Laudate App and electronics really do keep us awake? Or maybe it's just - cough, cough – middle age? Whatever the grace, I was doing so well that my spiritual director suggested I add the daily Mass readings to my morning prayer time, and that was a nice thought - a little time to meditate on the scriptures before starting the day.  

Maybe I shouldn't have been quite so pleased with myself and my success. After all, Proverbs 16:18 says, "Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall." I was feeling a little proud, kind of full of myself. Should have known better and remembered - it's all a gift, not me at all, whether I am awake or asleep, it's a gift from God. But I forgot and this week in my exuberance I added in a little something extra in the morning instead of waiting til later in the day. I read the verse of Jesus washing the feet of the disciple, meditating on it and praying for the grace of humble servitude.


Read the rest at Amanda's blog Little Steps Along the Way.

Can you love God for just one minute?

by Amanda Rose

In Prayer by Schurig (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons).

 

We want to do great things for God, but sometimes it is the little things that make all the difference. Fr. Rick Pilger gave a small challenge to the parishioners of Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church  a couple of weeks ago - spend one minute a day telling God you love Him. Just one minute and no one was off the hook. He explicitly said that those who already practice other devotions or prayers should still do this. It's just one minute, after all.

It doesn't sound like much does it? In fact, it sounds like such a little thing that it isn't even worth doing. How can one minute loving God be anything but a waste of time? "Bring on a bigger challenge that is worthy of our greatness," says our pride.

But here is the secret: That one minute is like a tiny seed, planted so quickly and then forgotten. But it grows unseen, finally sprouting above the surface into something beautiful. Just as it isn't a waste of time to plant a seed, our time loving God isn't wasted either. Each minute has an effect on our lives and souls beyond what we can imagine and as much as we permit.


Continue reading at Amanda's blog Little Steps Along the Way.

Infinite Goodness stoops over man

by Amanda Rose 

 

Deus Caritas Est (from the Church of Santa Sabina, Rome; photo by Fr. Lawrence, OP).

 

 

"Man's wickedness may accumulate sin upon sin, evil upon evil, but overall, God's goodness will remain unchangeable. The shadow of evil will not mar it; instead, God who is always benevolent, will bend over the evil to change it into good, and to draw a greater good from it. Thus, infinite Goodness stooped over man, the sinner, and made an immensely superior good come from Adam's fall: the redemption of the world through the Incarnation of His only-begotten Son. This is the distinctive characteristic of God's goodness: to will the good, only the good, even to the point of drawing good from evil. "  Section 232, Divine Intimacy 

 

God with His infinite Goodness stoops over us as we suffer in our brokenness here on earth. It's not so hard to acknowledge this truth intellectually, but it's much more difficult to remember the transformative nature of God's goodness in the midst of one's own suffering.

Yet clinging to this truth brings some small comfort, for in the midst of darkness there is a light of hope in remembering that our Good God is stooping over us in our misery and that He will draw good out of even the most awful circumstances. Nothing is wasted, there need be no pointless suffering. God's goodness is unchangeable, even though we don't always see it at the present moment.

 Faith tells us: God is Good. Faith tells us: "All things work together for good…" Romans 8:28.

And so we believe, we hope, we trust.


This was originally posted at Amanda's blog  Little Steps Along The Way

God humbles and He exalts

by Amanda Rose

Hannah Praying, Bibliothèque nationale de France

"My heart exults in the Lord: he humbles and he exalts." 

1 Samuel 2:1

 

So often we think that "being humbled" is a bad thing. It may be a painful thing, but for a Christian it is most certainly a good thing, particularly when it is the Lord our Good God humbling us. Being humbled by God helps us to see who we really are, it strips away the protective pride that surrounds us.

Only as we see more and more who we really are can we appreciate who God really is. Our littleness contrasts to His greatness. It is not bad to be little and weak. It is in this weakness, this littleness that He will exalt us, lift us up to Himself. Our hearts will exult and rejoice in Him as we realize that as much ugliness that we see in ourselves, it is not all that we are, it does not define us. Our true identity lies in the loving gaze of our Good God upon us. His love for us shines as He gazes upon us, and this bright gaze transforms us to become more of who He created us to be.

And somehow the smaller we are, the more joy our hearts are able to contain. As we grow smaller in what we think of ourselves, our hearts are able to expand. It is Christ's love growing within us.

Let us not be afraid of being humbled, of seeing our weaknesses, our sinfulness. It is like wiping the grime off the lenses of a pair of glasses we are wearing. We will be able to see God more clearly, and we will know His joy more fully. We will be able to see, really see, as more of the grime is removed.

Let us exult in Him, let us lift up our hearts to Him! He humbles us but, He always reaches down to lift us back up. Amen!



Amanda originally posted this at her blog  Little Steps Along the Way

Feelings come, feelings go: loving God anyway.

by Amanda Rose

 

Photo by Fr. Lawrence Lew, OP via Flickr

St. Francis de Sales observed two common mistakes among spiritual people. "The first is that they measure their devotions by the consolations and satisfactions that they experience in the service of God; so much so, that if theses are lacking at times, they feel that they have lost all their piety. No, this is nothing but a sensible devotion."  

We usually think of "sensible" as meaning "practical," but in the spiritual life it is used to describe something that is experienced by the senses, through our bodies. Sensible devotions are sometimes called consolations and may be feelings of love, tears of contrition or joy, sensations of warmth, or other spiritual delights He gives us as beginners in prayer to encourage us and to help us to understand His love for us.

St. Francis is describing souls who feel like they have lost their devotion to God when those good feelings go away. Many of us have experienced this very real pain of thinking that we no longer know God, that He is gone, that we are doing something wrong. But St. Francis says, "The true and substantial devotion does not consist in these things, but in having a will that is resolute, active, prompt and constant in not offending God and in fulfilling all that which appertains to His service."

We begin our spiritual journey drawn by our feelings, and then we must use our will to make choices that can at times be like engaging in a battle with ourselves. It can be so hard to really believe that prayer, our relationship with God, is deeper than than the feelings we have or the consolations we experience. Our feelings and emotions so often create our reality, but God is calling us beyond those feelings to allow Him to create our reality anew.

Read about the second common mistake at Amanda's blog  Little Steps Along The Way.