God the Father is sending me to show you the way of salvation, because He, my children, desires to save you and not to condemn you. That is why I, as a mother, am gathering you around me, because with my motherly love I desire to help you to be free of the dirtiness of the past and to begin to live anew and differently. I am calling you to resurrect in my Son. Along with confession of sins renounce everything that has distanced you from my Son and that has made your life empty and unsuccessful. Say 'yes' to the Father with the heart and set out on the way of salvation to which He is calling you through the Holy Spirit. Thank you. I am especially praying for the shepherds, for God to help them to be alongside you with a fullness of heart." (May 2, 2011) "Say 'yes' to the Father with the heart and set out on the way of salvation to which He is calling you through the Holy Spirit."
The way of salvation is the way of holiness. God calls each of us to holiness, according to His plan for our individual lives. My way and your way will look very different, because we are each unique, each having our own set of circumstances and challenges, gifts and crosses that shape our way. And so it is essential that each of us be led by the Holy Spirit on the way of salvation.
I recommend highly a book by Father Jacques Philippe entitled, In the School of the Holy Spirit. It is a short book, very simple but very profound, in which Father Philippe discusses what it means to follow the Holy Spirit. I find that I can read it over and over, and find new and deeper insights each time. Here is one of my favorite passages: "A second reason why we don't become holy simply by drawing up a plan for ourselves is that there are as many forms of holiness, and hence also ways to holiness, as there are people. For god, each person is absolutely unique. Holiness is not the realization of a given model of perfection that is identical for everyone. It is the emergence of an absolutely unique reality that God alone knows, and that he alone brings to fruition. No individual knows what his own holiness consists of. Holiness is only revealed to us by degrees, as we journey on, and it is often something very different from what we imagine, so much so that the greatest obstacle on the path to holiness may be to cling too closely to the image we have of our own perfection. "What God wants is always different, always disconcerting; but ultimately it is infinitely more beautiful, because only God is capable of creating totally unique masterpieces, while we humans can only imitate. "The uniqueness has an important consequence. To reach holiness, we cannot be content merely to follow the general principles that apply to everyone. We also need to understand what God is asking of us in particular, which he may not be asking of anyone else. How can we discover what it is? In different ways, naturally: through the happenings of our lives, in the advice of a spiritual director, and in many other ways as well. "Among these ways, there is one that is so fundamental and important that it merits an explanation: the inspirations of divine grace. In other words, the inner promptings, the movements of the Holy Spirit in the depths of our hearts by which God makes known to us what he is asking of us, and at the same time gives us the strength we need to accomplish it, at least if we consent. How we should discern and receive these inspirations will be discussed later. "To become holy, to become saints, we must of course try as hard as we can to do God's will as it comes to us in a general way that is valid for everyone: through Scripture, the Commandments, and so on. It is also indispensable, as has just been said, to go further: to aspire to know not only what God demands of everyone in general, but also what he wants more specifically of us individually. That is where the inspirations referred to above come in. These inspirations are necessary eve
Image by loswl via Flickr
n to know God's general will for us. "The first reason for this is that if we aspire to perfection, we have so many things to tackle, so many commandments and virtues to practice, that it is impossible for us to fight on all fronts. And so it is important to know at any given moment which virtue we should give priority to, not according to our own ideas, but according to what God actually wants of us, because that is what will be infinitely more effective. And it isn't always what we may think. It can happen that we make superhuman efforts to improve on one point, while god is asking us for something else. For example, we may be making a supreme effort to correct a character defect, while what God is asking us to do is accept it with humility and gentleness toward ourselves! The inspirations of grace are invaluable in enabling us to direct our efforts correctly, among the many battles we have to wage. Without those inspirations, there is a serious danger that we may either let ourselves off too easily on certain points, or demand of ourselves more than God is demanding of us, which is just as bad, and more common than we might think. God calls us to perfection, but he is not a perfectionist. And perfection is reached not so much by external conformity to an ideal as by inner faithfulness to God's inspirations. "There is a second reason, shown by experience. Even though we know that God's will and commandments apply to everyone, we do not always have the strength to fulfill them. Now, every time we respond faithfully to a motion of the Spirit, out of a desire to be docile to what God expects of us, even if it's something almost insignificant in itself, that faithfulness draws grace and strength down on us. That strength can then be applied to other areas and may make us capable of one day practicing the commandments that up until then we had not been capable of fulfilling entirely. This could be seen as one application of the promise made by Jesus in the Gospel: 'Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much.' One can deduce a fundamental 'spirit law" from it: We will obtain the grace to be faithful in the important things that at present we find impossible, by dint of being faithful in the little things within our grasp especially when those little things are the ones that the Holy Spirit asks of us by calling to our hearts with his inspirations.
"Finally, there is a consideration of capital importance that can motivate us to want to be faithful to these inspirations. If we decide to make an effort to achieve some spiritual progress according to our ideas and our own criteria, we are by no means sure to succeed. As we have seen, there is sometimes a big difference between what God is actually asking of us, and what we imagine he is asking. We won't have the grace to do what God is not asking of us. But for what he is asking, he has promised us his grace: God grants what he commands. When God inspires us to do something (if it really is God who is the source of that inspiration), at the same time he supplies the ability to do it, even if it is beyond our capacity or scares us at the start. Every motion that comes from God brings both the light to understand what God intends and the strength to accomplish it: light that illuminates the mind, and strength that gives power to the will." (Rev. Jacques Philippe. In the School of the Holy Spirit. New York. Scepter Publishers, 2007. p. 17-21) I know this is long. But it is so helpful in understanding Our Lady's message. She wants us to receive the inspirations of the Holy Spirit in our daily lives so that we can be completely attuned to the will of God. God's will comes to us in the practical, nitty-gritty of life. It comes in those everyday moments when we have to decide how to respond to a family member, what to say to a coworker about a situation, or when to do a chore. These little choices may seem inconsequential, but they can be very much a part of the plan God has for us. If we are listening, we will hear God's voice, moving us one way or another, and we will find much good fruit in it. "Say 'yes' to the Father with the heart and set out on the way of salvation to which He is calling you through the Holy Spirit."
In Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and John Paul II!
Cathy NolanPS. You can purchase this little book, In the School of the Holy Spirit, by Jacques Philippe, through Scepter Publishers (http://www.scepterpublishers.org/ ), or you nearest book store.
"Finally, there is a consideration of capital importance that can motivate us to want to be faithful to these inspirations. If we decide to make an effort to achieve some spiritual progress according to our ideas and our own criteria, we are by no means sure to succeed. As we have seen, there is sometimes a big difference between what God is actually asking of us, and what we imagine he is asking. We won't have the grace to do what God is not asking of us. But for what he is asking, he has promised us his grace: God grants what he commands. When God inspires us to do something (if it really is God who is the source of that inspiration), at the same time he supplies the ability to do it, even if it is beyond our capacity or scares us at the start. Every motion that comes from God brings both the light to understand what God intends and the strength to accomplish it: light that illuminates the mind, and strength that gives power to the will." (Rev. Jacques Philippe. In the School of the Holy Spirit. New York. Scepter Publishers, 2007. p. 17-21) I know this is long. But it is so helpful in understanding Our Lady's message. She wants us to receive the inspirations of the Holy Spirit in our daily lives so that we can be completely attuned to the will of God. God's will comes to us in the practical, nitty-gritty of life. It comes in those everyday moments when we have to decide how to respond to a family member, what to say to a coworker about a situation, or when to do a chore. These little choices may seem inconsequential, but they can be very much a part of the plan God has for us. If we are listening, we will hear God's voice, moving us one way or another, and we will find much good fruit in it. "Say 'yes' to the Father with the heart and set out on the way of salvation to which He is calling you through the Holy Spirit."
In Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and John Paul II!
Cathy NolanPS. You can purchase this little book, In the School of the Holy Spirit, by Jacques Philippe, through Scepter Publishers (http://www.scepterpublishers.org/ ), or you nearest book store.
Zemanta helped me add links & pictures to this email. It can do it for you too.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please no anonymous comments. I require at least some way for people to address each other personally and courteously. Having some name or handle helps.
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.