Mary TV Daily Reflection 1/4/2011

January 4, 2011 Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Dear Family of Mary! "Dear children; Today I call you to unity (communion) in Jesus, my Son. My motherly heart prays that you may comprehend that you are God's family. Through the spiritual freedom of will, which the Heavenly Father has given you, you are called to become cognizant (to come to the knowledge) of the truth, the good or the evil. May prayer and fasting open your hearts and help you to discover the Heavenly Father through my Son. In discovering the Father, your life will be directed to carrying out of God's will and the realization of God's family, in the way that my Son desires (wishes). I will not leave you alone on this path. Thank you."  (January 2, 2011) As I read and re-read this message I was reminded of a passage from the first letter of St. John.  St. John was constantly aware of God as his Father, of being a child of God.  He knew that relating to God was a family affair.  It was not a matter of master and slave or employer and employee, but of Father and child.  Jesus had made this Father/Child relationship abundantly clear.  He constantly addressed God as Father, and He related to the apostles and disciples as His brothers and sisters.  Jesus lived with them as family, as is clear from this passage from Matthew:  "But he replied to the man who told him, 'Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?' And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, 'Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother, and sister, and mother.'" (Mt 12: 48-50) But I think we can lose sight of the family bond that should characterize our relationship with God and with each other.  All too often, we fall into the functional, robot-like way of acting in which we live our lives as only one job or activity after another, devoid of the intimate, heartfelt relationship that was meant to be.  We are supposed to be family! Well, back to the passage from St. John.  He wrote: "See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every one who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure." (1 John 3:1-3) We are children of God.  We are beloved children of God.  It may not be visible right now; we may not look like children of the Mighty Creator of the Universe!  We may be pretty ordinary and humble, but we are God's children.  And we will find out someday what that really means!  The day we see Him face to face!  In the mean time we need to purify ourselves, as St John says, to be as much like our Father as possible.  Isn't that what Our Lady is asking in this message?  We need to get in sync with the Father's will for each of us.  We have so much to look forward to.  Our Father is God!  And He has plans for us.  Wow!  In Jesus and Mary! Cathy Nolan www.marytv.tv

 

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