Forgotten Gifts
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February 17, 2016. Wednesday
of the First Week of Lent
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Luke
11:29-32
While still more people gathered in the
crowd, Jesus said to them, "This generation is an evil generation; it
seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah. Just as
Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this
generation. At the Judgment the queen of the south will rise with the men of
this generation and she will condemn them, because she came from the ends of
the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and there is something greater than
Solomon here. At the Judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this
generation and condemn it, because at the preaching of Jonah they repented,
and there is something greater than Jonah here."
Introductory Prayer: Lord Jesus, in this Lenten season, I want to draw closer to
You. I believe that You truly became one of us to save us as an act of love
beyond all human understanding. I know I can count on You to carry me
through each day. I know that in all circumstances You are with me. I want to
love You more than myself and say “yes” to Your will in every moment. I trust
totally in Your grace. Thank You, Lord! This Lent, I want to learn to love
You more, as you deserve . I want to be the person You want me to be.
Petition: Lord Jesus, help me to re-discover all the gifts You have
given me and help me to use them to bear fruit.
1. Re-Discovering the Familiar: We all know the saying, “familiarity breeds
contempt.” In today’s Gospel, Jesus’ contemporaries were in that situation
regarding Jesus himself. He had already worked miracles, and his preaching
and holiness of life were totally exceptional. Yet, some people were not
satisfied, and Jesus rebukes them for seeking more signs. It’s all too easy
for us to fall into this same attitude with our faith. Instead of
appreciating the riches conserved in the tradition of the Church, many still
look for extraordinary signs . The Beatitudes, or the Gospel accounts of
Jesus raising people from the dead might seem boring, but private revelations
and possible apparitions capture our imagination. Lent is a good time to go
back to the basics, and re-encounter Our Lord in the Scripture and in the
Mass, as if for the first time.
2. The “Sign of Jonah” Is a Sign for Me: Despite his harsh tone in the Gospel, Jesus
actually does promise to give them a sign – “the sign of Jonah.” By this he
means his death and resurrection, as he explains in the Gospel according to
Matthew (12:40) . There could, in fact, be no greater sign than this and the
celebration of the Pascal Mystery is the true climax to which the period of
Lent is directed. The penitential character of these forty days can seem to
belie their true meaning as a season of hope. Really, we’re purifying ourselves
to participate in the death and resurrection of Christ!
3. Sharing Our Blessings: Jesus says to his listeners that they will
be judged because they are not appreciating the gift they have before their
eyes. It’s an invitation for us not only to appreciate all that we have
received in the Church, but also to share it with others. The truths of our
faith, which we commemorate and re-live in Lent and Easter, are not intended
for us alone but for all humanity. Whether or not that message gets out depends
on each one of us. What are we doing to share the true meaning of Lent and
Easter with those around us?
Conversation with Christ: Lord Jesus, help me to appreciate the great
gifts You’ve given me in the Church – Your presence in the Eucharist and in
sacred Scripture, the sacraments, the testimony of the holy lives of so many
saints – and in my own life through the work of Your grace in my soul. I
don’t need any more signs! Help me to share these gifts with the people I
encounter by living what I profess – and by having the courage to speak about
my faith.
Resolution: Today I will focus on what I am doing when I
pray, read the Scripture, or participate in the liturgy. I will raise my
level of awareness as if I were doing it for the first time.
Excerpts from the
DIARY of Saint Faustina Kowalska
303 Great love can change small
things into great ones, and it is only love which lends value to our actions.
And the purer our love becomes, the less there will be within us for the
flames of suffering to feed upon, and the suffering will cease to be a
suffering for us; it will become a delight! By the grace of God, I have
received such a disposition of heart that I am never so happy as when I
suffer for Jesus, whom I love with every beat of my heart.
Once when I was suffering greatly, I left my work and escaped to Jesus and asked Him to give me His strength. After a very short prayer I returned to my work filled with enthusiasm and joy. Then, one of the sisters [probably Sister Justine] said to me, "You must have many consolations today, Sister; you look so radiant. Surely, God is giving you no suffering, but only consolations." "You are greatly mistaken, Sister," I answered, "for it is precisely when I suffer much that my joy is greater; and when I suffer less, my joy also is less." However, that soul was letting me recognize that she does not understand what I was saying. I tried to explain to her that when we suffer much we have a great chance to show God that we love Him; but when we suffer little we have less occasion to show God our love; and when we do not suffer at all, our love is then neither great nor pure. By the grace of God, we can attain a point where suffering will become a delight to us, for love can work such things in pure souls.
324 The next day, I felt very
weak, but experienced no further suffering. After Holy Communion, I saw the
Lord Jesus just as I had seen Him during one adoration. The Lord's gaze
pierced my soul through and through, and not even the least speck of dust
escaped His notice. And I said to Jesus, "Jesus, I thought You were
going to take me. "And Jesus answered, My will has not yet been fully
accomplished in you; you will still remain on earth, but not for long. I am
well pleased with your trust, but your love should be more ardent. Pure love
gives the soul strength at the very moment of dying. When I was dying on the
cross, I was not thinking about Myself, but about poor sinners, and I prayed
for them to My Father. I want your last moments to be completely similar to
Mine on the cross. There is but one price at which souls are bought, and that
is suffering united to My suffering on the cross. Pure love understands these
words; carnal love will never understand them.
328 O purest Love, rule in all
Your plenitude in my heart and help me to do Your holy will most faithfully!
343 True love is measured by the
thermometer of suffering. Jesus, I thank You for the little daily crosses,
for opposition to my endeavors, for the hardships of communal life, for the
misinterpretation of my intentions, for humiliations at the hands of others,
for the harsh way in which we are treated, for false suspicions, for poor
health and loss of strength, for self-denial, for dying to myself, for lack
of recognition in everything, for the upsetting of all my plans.
Thank You, Jesus, for interior sufferings, for dryness of spirit, for terrors, fears and incertitudes, for the darkness and the deep interior night, for temptations and various ordeals, for torments too difficult to describe, especially for those which no one will understand, for the hour of death with its fierce struggle and all its bitterness. I thank You, Jesus, You who first drank the cup of bitterness before You gave it to me, in a much milder form. I put my lips to this cup of Your holy will. Let all be done according to Your good pleasure; let that which Your wisdom ordained before the ages be done to me. I want to drink the cup to its last drop, and not seek to know the reason why. In bitterness is my joy, in hopelessness is my trust. In You, O Lord, all is good, all is a gift of Your paternal Heart. I do not prefer consolations over bitterness or bitterness over consolations, but thank You, O Jesus, for everything! It is my delight to fix my gaze upon You, O incomprehensible God! My spirit abides in these mysterious dwelling places, and there I am at home. I know very well the dwelling place of my Spouse. I feel there is not a single drop of blood in me that does not burn with love for You. O Uncreated Beauty, whoever comes to know You once cannot love anything else. I can feel the bottomless abyss of my soul, and nothing will fill it but God himself. I feel that I am drowned in Him like a single grain of sand in a bottomless ocean.
371 Jesus, King of Mercy, again
the time has come when I am alone with You. Therefore I beg You, by all the
love with which Your Heart burns, to destroy completely within me my
self-love and, on the other hand, to enkindle in my heart the fire of Your
purest love.
389 Love must be reciprocal. If
Jesus tasted the fullness of bitterness for me, then I, His bride, will
accept all bitterness as proof of my love for Him.
502 Only love
has meaning; it raises up our smallest actions into infinity.
513 Love is flooding my soul; I am
plunged into an ocean of love. I feel that I am swooning and becoming
completely lost in Him.
589 Love casts out fear. Since I
came to love God with my whole being and with all the strength of my heart,
fear has left me. Even if I were to hear the most terrifying things about
God's justice, I would not fear Him at all, because I have come to know Him
well. God is love, and His Spirit is peace. I see now that my deeds which
have flowed from love are more perfect than those which I have done out of
fear. I have placed my trust in God and fear nothing. I have given myself
over to His holy will; let Him do with me as He wishes, and I will still love
Him.
890 Love is a mystery that
transforms everything it touches into things beautiful and pleasing to God.
The love of God makes a soul free. She is like a queen; she knows no slavish
compulsion; she sets about everything with great freedom of soul, because the
love which dwells in her incites her to action. Everything that surrounds her
makes her know that only God himself is worthy of her love. A soul in love
with God and immersed in Him approaches her duties with the same dispositions
as she does Holy Communion and carries out the simplest tasks with great
care, under the loving gaze of God. She is not troubled if, after some time,
something turns out to be less successful. She remains calm, because at the
time of the action she had done what was in her power. When it happens that
the living presence of God, which she enjoys almost constantly, leaves her,
she then tries to continue living in lively faith. Her soul understands that
there are periods of rest and periods of battle. Through her will, she is
always with God. Her soul, like a knight, is well trained in battle; from
afar it sees where the foe is hiding and is ready for battle. She knows she
is not alone-God is her strength.
947 Sometimes there are whole
hours when my soul is lost in wonder at seeing the infinite majesty of God
abasing Itself to the level of my soul. Unending is my interior astonishment
that the Most High Lord is pleased in me and tells me so Himself. And I
immerse myself even deeper in my nothingness, because I know what I am of
myself. Still I must say that I, in return, love my Creator to folly with
every beat of my heart and with every nerve; my soul unconsciously drowns,
drowns... in Him. I feel that nothing will separate me from the Lord, neither
heaven nor earth, neither the present nor the future. Everything may change,
but love never, never; it is always the same. He, the Immortal Mighty One,
makes His will known to me that I may love Him very specially, and He himself
makes my soul capable of the kind of love with which He wants me to love Him.
I bury myself more and more in Him, and I fear nothing.
Love has overtaken my whole heart, and even if I were to be told of God's justice and of how even the pure spirits tremble and cover their faces before Him, saying endlessly, "Holy," which would seem to suggest that my familiarity with God would be to the detriment of His honor and majesty, [I would reply,] "O no, no, and once again, no!" In pure love, there is room for everything: the highest praise and the deepest adoration, yet the soul is immersed in Him in deepest peace through love; and the words of people, speaking from the exterior, have no effect upon that soul. What they tell the soul about God is but a pale shadow in comparison to its own experience of Him; and it is often surprised how other people can be struck with admiration at what someone else says about God when, for this soul, it is nothing special, as it knows that what can be put into words is not yet that great. So this soul listens to everything with respect, but has its own special life in God.
989 My Lord and my God, You know
that it is You alone whom my soul has come to love. My soul is entirely
drowned in You, O Lord. Even if I did not accomplish any of the things that
You have made known to me, O Lord, I would be completely at peace because I
would have done what I could.
990 I know well, O Lord, that You
have no need of our works; You demand love. Love, love and once again, love
of God-there is nothing greater in heaven or on earth. The greatest greatness
is to love God; true greatness is in loving God; real wisdom is to love God.
All that is great and beautiful is in God; there is no beauty or greatness
outside of Him. O you sages of the world and you great minds, recognize that
true greatness is in loving God! Oh, how astonished I am that some people
deceive themselves, saying: There is no eternity!
1030 + O my Jesus, give me wisdom,
give me a mind great and enlightened by Your light, and this only, that I may
know You better, O Lord. For the better I get to know You, the more ardently
will I love You, the sole object of my love. In You my soul drowns, in You my
heart dissolves. I know not how to love partially, but only with the full
strength of my soul and the total ardor of my heart. You yourself, O Lord,
have enkindled this love of mine for You; in You my heart has drowned
forever.
1685 During Holy Hour today, I
asked the Lord Jesus if He would deign to teach me about the spiritual life.
Jesus answered me, My daughter, faithfully live up to the words which I
speak to you. Do not value any external thing too highly, even if it were to
seem very precious to you. Let go of yourself, and abide with Me continually.
Entrust everything to Me and do nothing on your own, and you will always have
great freedom of spirit. No circumstances or events will ever be able to
upset you. Set little store on what people say. Let everyone judge you as they
like. Do not make excuses for yourself; it will do you no harm. Give away
everything at the first sign of a demand, even if they were the most
necessary things. Do not ask for anything without consulting Me. Allow them
to take away even what is due you-respect, your good name-let your spirit
rise above all that. And so, set free from everything, rest close to My
Heart, not allowing your peace to be disturbed by anything. My pupil,
consider the words which I have spoken to you.
1686 O my Love, my eternal Master,
how good it is to obey; because when obedience infuses the soul, it brings
with it power and strength to act.
1702 Towards the end of the Way of
the Cross which I was making, the Lord Jesus began to complain about the
souls of religious and priests, about the lack of love in chosen souls. I
will allow convents and churches to be destroyed. I answered,
"Jesus, but there are so many souls praising You in convents." The
Lord answered, That praise wounds My Heart, because love has been banished
from convents. Souls without love and without devotion, souls full of egoism
and self-love, souls full of pride and arrogance, souls full of deceit and
hypocrisy, lukewarm souls who have just enough warmth to keep them alive: My
Heart cannot bear this. All the graces that I pour out upon them flow off
them as off the face of a rock. I cannot stand them, because they are neither
good or bad. I called convents into being to sanctify the world through them.
It is from them that a powerful flame of love and sacrifice should burst
forth. And if they do not repent and become enkindled by their first love, I
will deliver them over to the fate of this world...
How can they sit on the promised throne of judgment to judge the world, when their guilt is greater than the guilt of the world? There is neither penance nor atonement. O heart, which received Me in the morning and at noon are all ablaze with hatred against Me, hatred of all sorts! O heart specially chosen by Me, were you chosen for this, to give Me more pain? The great sins of the world are superficial wounds on My Heart, but the sins of a chosen soul pierce My Heart through and through...
(Diary of Sister Faustina Kowalska
Notebook-I-303, 324, 328, 343, 371, 389)
(Diary of Sister Faustina Kowalska
Notebook-II-502, 513, 589-590, 947, 989-990)
(Diary of Sister Faustina Kowalska
Notebook-III-1030)
(Diary of Sister Faustina Kowalska
Notebook-VI-1685-1686, 1702)
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