THE  BEAUTY  OF  GOD

"It is therefore, nothing strange for the soul to desire to die by beholding the beauty of God in order to enjoy Him for ever.  If the soul had but one single glimpse of the majesty and beauty of God, not only would it desire to die once in order to see Him for ever, as it desires now, but would most joyfully undergo a thousand most bitter deaths to see Him even for a moment, and having seen Him would suffer as many deaths again to see Him for another moment"
 Spiritual Canticle [Stan X1] St John of the Cross

 

I THIRST FOR YOU

" Behold, I stand at the door and knock.....[Rev. 3,20]

It is true. I stand at the door of your heart, day and night. Even when you are not listening, even when you doubt it could be Me, I am there. I await even the smallest sign of your response, even the least whispered invitation that will allow Me to enter.
I want you to know that whenever you invite Me, I do come - always, without fail. Silent and unseen I come, but with infinite power and love, and bringing the many gifts of My Spirit. I come with My mercy, and My desire to forgive and heal you, and with a love for you beyond your comprehension - a love every bit as great as the love I have received from the Father; "As much as the Father has loved Me, I have loved you.....[John 15:9]
I come  - longing to console you and give you strength, to lift you up and bind all your wounds.  I bring you My light, to dispel your darkness and all your doubts. I come with My power, that I might carry you and all your burdens; with My grace, to touch your heart and transform your life; and My peace I give to your soul.

I know you through and through. I know everything about you. The very hairs of your head I have numbered. Nothing in your life is unimportant to Me. I have followed you through the years, and I have always loved you - even in your wanderings. I know every one of your problems. I know your needs and your worries. And yes, I know all your sins. But I tell you again that I love you - not for what you have or haven't done - I love you for you, for the beauty and dignity My Father gave you by creating you in His own image.  It is a dignity you have often forgotten, a beauty you have tarnished by sin.  But I love you as you are, and I have shed My Blood to win you back.
If you only ask Me with faith, My grace will touch all that needs changing in your life, and I will give you the strength to free yourself from sin and all its destructive power.  I know what is in your heart - I know your loneliness and all your hurts - the rejections, the judgments, the humiliations, I carried it all before you.  And I carried it all for you, so you might share My strength and victory.

 
I know especially your need for love - how you are thirsting to be loved and cherished. But how often have you thirsted in vain, by seeking that love selfishly, striving to fill the emptiness inside you with passing pleasures - with the even greater emptiness of sin. Do you thirst for love?  "Come to Me all you who thirst...[John 7:37].  I will satisfy you and fill you. Do you thirst to be cherished?  I cherish you more than you can imagine - to the point of dying on the cross for you.

[extract on meditation on the spiritual teachings of St Teresa of Calcutta]
  

WHAT  DO  YOU  WORRY  ABOUT?

What do you worry about? What makes you anxious? Do you wake in the middle of the night fretful and in dread?  Many of us do.  Although we believe in God we are subject to the curse of fear, anguish and anxiety.  We tend to console ourselves with the thought that we can't help it and it's only human. Indeed, it is only human but help it we can or, to be more precise, God can.

We don't tend to see worry and anxiety as sinful or wrong. We see it as simply just part and parcel of being human and caring - if we didn't care, we wouldn't worry, goes the refrain. There is some truth in this, of course. Who doesn't worry about their children or grandchildren? Who doesn't succumb to the anxieties of life? God knows we all do, but what if God didn't want us to? What if God wanted us to know a living sense of his presence and offer up all our worry and anxiety to him?

The truth is, freedom from worry and anxiety is a birthright of our baptism. Sir Winston Churchill said: "When I look back on all these worries I remember the story of the old man who said on his death bed that he had had a lot of trouble in life, most of which never happened". The Holy Spirit can help us write a book called How to stop worrying and start living.

So how do we set ourselves free from the tyranny of worry and start living in the power of the Spirit? The first thing we need to do is study and reflect on the Word of God. Try this verse for a starter: "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God" [Phil. 4:6 NIV]. Here we have the first step towards not being weighed down by anxiety: offer it up to the Lord. Have you noticed how this instruction from Paul comes with a promise? "And the peace of God which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" [Phil. 4:7 NIV]

Lord, I repent for all of my worry and anxiety and turn to you, laying down all my burdens. By your grace fill me with the peace of Christ which will transcend and surpass my understanding. Amen
[ Taken from reading on June 18th 2016 from Bible alive]

ST ALPHONSUS LIGUORI

St Alphonsus Liguori [1696-1787] Bishop, founder of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer [Redemptorists] and Doctor of the Church. Born into a noble family in the kingdom of Naples, Alphonsus was a child prodigy, receiving his Doctorate in Law from the university of Naples by the age of 16. Practising law by the age of 21, he was one of Naples' leading lawyers. Publicly humiliated in a high profile case, Alphonsus turned his back on the legal profession, and on hearing an interior voice inviting him to leave the world, resolved to follow a religious vocation. Ordained priest in 1726, Alphonsus laboured for six years preaching in missions throughout Naples.

In 1732 he founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, dedicated to the service of the Redeemer and the most abandoned souls, through missions, spiritual exercises and renewals, with houses established in England [1848] and Ireland [1853]

FROM A TALK BY ST ALPHONSUS
"To Live well, To Love God....... In order always to live well, we must store up deeply in our minds certain general maxims about eternal life: Everything in this life, whether it be joy or sorrow, passes away, but in eternity nothing passes away. What good is all the greatness of this world at the hour of death? All that comes from God, whether it be adverse or prosperous, all is good and is for our own welfare. We must leave all to gain all. There is no peace to be found without God. To love God and save one's soul is the one thing necessary. We need be afraid of nothing but sin. If God is lost, all is lost.  He who desires nothing in this world is master of the whole world. He who prays is saved, and he who does not pray is lost."

Easter Weekday - Thursday 12th May 2016: reading: Acts 22:30, 23:6-11

Moving house is very high on most people's list of major life stresses, but so too is public speaking. Most of us would run a mile from having to speak before a large audience. Some are gifted in this area and despite suffering from a degree of nerves are able to pull it off. Such people, however, are not the norm: it is more common to be terrified at this prospect.

Although we tend to think that Paul was one of those who found speaking in public easier than most, the Acts of the Apostles reveals that he, rather like us all, needed God's courage. We know this because on the occasion recorded in today's passage the Spirit encouraged him with the words:  "Take courage, for as you have testified about me at Jerusalem, so you must bear witness also at Rome"[v.11]. God knew that for Paul to testify in front of the hostile Sanhedrin needed great courage and conviction.

God also knows that whenever we are called to witness or testify for our faith, it takes great courage and conviction. In such situations we don't need to rely on our own words but rather the wisdom of the Spirit, although this requires both faith and courage. Blessed Charles de Foucauld said "One of the things we absolutely owe to Our Lord is never to be afraid". But of course, we often are and in realizing this we are humbled. What is it we are afraid of? Of being laughed at, mocked, ridiculed, ostracized or, worse, the cold draft of indifference. 

In one sense we don't need to defend our faith - our faith is big enough to stand up for itself. What we do need to do is to be willing to share the reason for the hope we have. We simply need to share sincerely and with conviction what God means to us and how grateful we are to have him in our life. But there is no getting around the fact that it takes courage to take a stand for what we believe. Nevertheless, something not often realized is that people are crying out to hear the gospel, and they respond when it is presented with goodness and love in our heart.
    " Do not be held back by doubts or fears. Say yes with courage and without reserve.....[St Pope John Paul 11] 
[Taken from Bible alive]  

DO   NOT   WORRY

Never  look forward to the future with anxiety. "Be not solicitous. Consider the lilies."  The present is the will of God. Therefore no over-compunction for past faults, no worrying over the future, no anxious peerings into the darkness. "Watchman, what of the night?" We can safely leave all that in God's hands. They are the hands not only of a clever, but of a wise architect, and all power is in them. In our Lord's last hour, when he seemed utterly forsaken, and gave that cry, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

Even then he yet realised that it was by his Father's will that he suffered, and presently, when dying, again cried out, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit."
Whatever happens to us through God's will is always the best possible thing for us. God is not only good, very good, supremely good, but the only good. Therefore his will is and must be always the best for us....
So we see that all circumstances, however adverse they seem to be to us, are always favourable to God's plan, always, always, as to the blind man, the best thing for us. His hands are strong and powerful hands and we can confidently rest there. Can we not sometimes see in the hands of a clever artist, or surgeon, the strength and deftness expressive of the mind that directs their action? But with God, they are not only the hands of wisdom, but of love, and it is only when we leave all things in his hands that we find complete serenity; and then a great peace shall come into our souls.

( Father Bede Jarrett, O.P.) Father Jarrett, died 1934 was a Dominican priest from England renowned for his preaching, his lectures, and his many books on theology and spirituality.