“…I am now once taking this opportunity to exhort you to live in harmony with the mind of God.” Ignatius in his Epistle to the Ephesians c105 A.D.
What a beautiful way to express it. Today we have WWJD - what would Jesus do? Ignatius does not tell us to ask ourselves questions before we take action, but rather to direct our lives so to be in step with God always. His words are peaceful, flowing, continuing. WWJD suggests an existing disharmony, that we would have to ask ourselves in a situation what would be right. If we were ‘living in harmony with the mind of God,’ we wouldn’t need to ask WWJD. We would know; it would be part of our being. The question would become “Why would we not do what Jesus would.” Instead of having to stop and think about what was the right thing to do, our actions would come as natural as taking a breath. Mother Teresa did not ask if it was right to minister to the dying or what the advantages to her would be; she just did it because she ‘lived in harmony with the mind of God.’ We tend to live most of our hours without thinking of God, without considering what God wants us to do, how God wants us to live. Usually we think of God when there is a problem-WWJD. (The image of Gomer Pyle always trying to adjust his step while marching comes to mind.) To live in harmony with the mind of God - a description of sainthood - a description of where we ought to be spiritually.
"What matters in life is that we are loved by Christ and that we love Him in return. In comparison to the love of Jesus, everything else is secondary. And without the love of Jesus, everything else is useless." St. John Paul II
+++++++++++++++++++++God's timing is not our timing, but He is never late.+++++++++++++++
"If we're open to it, God can use even the smallest thing to change our lives." Donna Van Liere, The Christmas Shoes
"If we're open to it, God can use even the smallest thing to change our lives." Donna Van Liere, The Christmas Shoes
Layers - in the knowledge of God and the path to holiness
Learning about God is like unwrapping a head of lettuce, pealing back one leaf at a time. Always there is another leaf below. We will eventually reach the center of the head of lettuce; but we will never unwrap everthing there is to know about God.
The path to holiness is like pealing an onion. God shows us what is sinful and convicts us that we have sinned. No matter how sweet the onion, there are always tears in the peeling. No matter how sweet the grace of repentence, there are always the pain of letting go of the sin. As the peeling of the onion reveals another layer, so God shows us what we lack in holiness, drawing us ever closer to "be(ing) perfect even just as your heavenly Father is perfect." Matthew 5:48
The path to holiness is like pealing an onion. God shows us what is sinful and convicts us that we have sinned. No matter how sweet the onion, there are always tears in the peeling. No matter how sweet the grace of repentence, there are always the pain of letting go of the sin. As the peeling of the onion reveals another layer, so God shows us what we lack in holiness, drawing us ever closer to "be(ing) perfect even just as your heavenly Father is perfect." Matthew 5:48
What I Believe
Why I am and always will be a Catholic. "So Jesus said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. Tthe living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever." John 6:53-58 The words and actions of man cannot sanctify. Only the priest, empowered by his ordination, can invoke the Holy Spirit to transform the bread and wine into Jesus so we can receive Him - Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity into our bodies and souls. This is the core of the Catholic Church; without this there is no purpose or meaning to the Catholic Church. There are other ways to holiness, to grow in grace; there is no better way than union with Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist.
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