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J.M.J.
December 13, 2012
St. Lucy
Dear Family of Mary!
"Dear children! In this time of grace, I call all of you to renew prayer. Open yourselves to Holy Confession so that each of you may accept my call with the whole heart. I am with you and I protect you from the ruin of sin, but you must open yourselves to the way of conversion and holiness, that your heart may burn out of love for God. Give Him time and He will give Himself to you and thus, in the will of God you will discover the love and the joy of living. Thank you for having responded to my call." (November 25, 2012)
Fr. Wilson emphasizes often throughout his book, "Pardon and Peace", that we do not understand the great mercy of God, and so we don't understand what He is giving us in Confession: He writes:
We must try to realize the practical implications of the fact that God's love is infinitely greater than our own. We must also try to appreciate the practical implications of the Incarnation and Redemption. That fault, which has suddenly upset us, was foreseen by Jesus and, instead of being embittered by it, He actually made atonement for it in advance. Such is our faith. By childish worry about our fault, we are implicitly saying: "But, surely, He didn't really know how bad it is?" Let us not imply by our conduct that we think that our savior did not know what He was doing when He redeemed us. Let us not fix limits to the infinite mercy and goodness of God. If we are to face our faults with tranquility, we must dig deep and real foundations for our hope.
We cannot make ourselves safe by our own devices and become independent of the Mercy of God. Often-times scrupulous people and "safe-siders" are really proud, independent characters who are willing to accept God's help as an additional security, but only when they have first secured themselves. They are unwilling to be forced to trust solely to the Mercy of God, and because they cannot make their position safe without God, they fret and fume, and, as the ancient philosopher said, spend one part of their time in doing wrong, another in doing nothing at all, and the rest in doing the contrary of what they should do.
We have not, and cannot have, assets with God; none whatever, only liabilities. Our confidence, however, should be based on our liabilities and helplessness. If we could manage by ourselves, there would be no particular reason for God to help us. Because we are helpless and hopeless "of ourselves, as of ourselves," He is bound to help us, provided we do not obstruct Him by pride; otherwise He would not be giving us a square deal. Our title to His help is that, by His ordinance, we are helpless.
One claim I have upon Thee,
Which Thou wilt ne'er deny,
In the bounds of Thy creation,
No one needs Thee more than I.
Misery is the lodestone of mercy. The saints were actually glad when they discovered a new fault in themselves, because they believed that they had found a new claim on God's help.
Alack, thou knowest not
How little worthy of any love thou art!
Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee,
Save Me, save only Me? (Francis Thompson, "the Hound of Heaven")
Because He loves us infinitely more than we love ourselves, He can be patient with us even when we find it impossible to be patient with ourselves. (Fr. Alfred Wilson, C.P. "Pardon and Peace" p. 91)
We need to hear these words over and over again, because our mercy is so puny compared to God's mercy, that we just can't conceive of His great love for us. We just can't imagine such forgiveness and acceptance. Mother Mary wants us to draw close to that incredible mercy during this Advent, so that we will be ready to receive it in person, in The Person of the Infant Jesus!
Come, Lord Jesus!
In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
©Mary TV 2012
PS. Don't forget Fruit of Medjugorje tonight!! 8:00 PM EST! We have a talk given by Fr. Svetozar to pilgrims in Medjugorje just this week! It is an awesome preparation for Advent and Christmas! So don't miss it!! Tonight at www.marytv.tv
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