Mary TV Daily Reflection 2/8/2011

Those who live in God's image! Blessed Mother Theresa and Servant of God John Paul the Great!

February 8, 2011 St. Jerome Emiliani, St. Josephine Bakhita Dear Family of Mary! "Dear children, you are gathering around me, you are seeking your way, you are seeking, you are seeking the truth but are forgetting what is the most important, you are forgetting to pray properly. Your lips pronounce countless words, but your spirit does not feel anything. Wandering in darkness, you even imagine God himself according to yourselves, and not such as he really is in his love. Dear children, proper prayer comes from the depth of your heart, from your suffering, from your joy, from your seeking the forgiveness of sins. This is the way to come to know the right God, and by that also yourselves, because you are created according to him. Prayer will bring you to the fulfillment of my desire, of my mission here with you, to the unity of God's family. Thank you."  (February 2, 2011) Proper prayer, from the heart, motivated by our deepest desires and needs, is the way to come to know the "right God."   Our Mother has already told us in this message that we "imagine God himself" according to ourselves when we wander away from proper prayer.  We begin to think that God is like us in our fallen state, angry, vindictive, vengeful, lazy, unresponsive, uncaring, and aloof.  We read into God all the fears and weaknesses we have ourselves, and assume that He will act in ways similar to us.   I suppose this is natural if we are not praying, and have not been in touch with the Lord at a deep level.  How can we know someone if we don't spend time with Him?   Today's first reading for Mass is from Genesis, Chapter one.  In the midst of the entire creation story, on the sixth day, God created man.  Verse 26 reads:  "God created man in his image: in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them."  How many times have we heard this incredible revelation! God created us to be like Him!  And yet I wonder if we aren't guilty of turning it around, as soon as we hear it and assuming that God looks like and acts like us!  Since we are in His image, and we can't see Him, He must be like us.  And so we imagine Him to be as capricious and limited as we are!   Our Lady is trying to break us of this habit.  We can't turn it around.  We are made in God's image.  He is the Original.  He is the Form, the Perfect One.  But if we want to know what it means to live in fidelity to that image, we have to go no further than this.  "You even imagine God himself according to yourselves, and not such as he really is in his love."   God is Love.  To know God is to know Love.  This is who God really is.  And if we are true to Him, we will be Love as well.  That is His true Image!   As we encounter the "right God" in prayer, at the deepest levels of our needs and suffering, we will experience His love, healing and forgiveness.  That encounter with Love will reveal to us our very selves because as we experience Love, we will know ourselves to be loved, and in our joy, we will learn to love as well, "because [we] are created according to him."  We are created for Love, by Love Himself.  And we are most fully ourselves when we are loving - loving God and each other. Imagine that!!!    (See Pope John Paul II - Theology of the Body)  Being created according to God is such a wonderful thing.  We will never plumb the depth of that beautiful reality.  We are created to be like our Creator, to love as He loves, to serve as He serves, to give ourselves as He gives Himself, and to rejoice with Him forever!!  Incredible! Unbelievable!  May we dive into "proper" prayer, seeking an encounter with our loving and beloved God.  In doing so, we will discover our true selves as well. In Jesus and Mary! Cathy Nolan     www.marytv.tv

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