Each day until Divine Mercy Sunday on April 7th, I will email you one thought from that day’s brief reading from Fr. Michael Gaitley’s fine book, 33 Days to Merciful Love. I render full credit for these thoughts, respecting copyright laws, to Fr. Gaitley. Each reading ends with a prayer, which I ask you to pray with me for this intention: the conversion of our parish.
Day Twenty-Three
We have come to Holy Thursday in our 33-Day pilgrimage, three days before Easter and ten days to Mercy Sunday. I sang the “Tenebrae” chants in a dark church this morning, and this week’s section title is “Into the Darkness.” Today’s topic: “spiritual blindness.” All of us are in the dark regarding the state of our own souls. One day St. John Vianney prayed to see himself as he really was. “Never ask that of God,” he later said. “It almost killed me.” Most of us are “good people,” by God’s grace, but we are nothing compared to God’s perfect goodness and beauty. And yet, Jesus commanded us to “be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
St. Thérèse was “the greatest saint of modern times,” but she knew she was “very little” in relation to God. And she rejoiced in that littleness. Thérèse knew that she had never committed a serious sin, but that before God she was “the greatest of sinners.” She realized that “for me to love You as You love me, I would have to borrow Your own love.” She would first receive His love and then return His own love back to Him. It’s kind of like when you are sad or grumpy, and a little child smiles sweetly at you, or puts her arm tenderly around you. Your heart melts, and you return the child’s own love back to her with a big smile yourself.
We receive God’s smile simply by letting Him look at us, and by returning that loving gaze. One of my friends spends many hours in our Eucharistic chapel, right in front of Jesus, but her eyes are usually on her cellphone. I go for a ride every day in the splendid natural beauty around San Francisco, but when I stop to rest under the magnificent sky or beside the wondrous Pacific ocean, I usually don’t see it: I pull out my phone to check texts and emails. We simply don’t look at God, or think of Him, very much. And that’s our essential spiritual blindness.
Prayer
Come, Holy Spirit, fire of mercy. Open the eyes of my heart that I may see my need for your Merciful Love.
Day Twenty-Three
We have come to Holy Thursday in our 33-Day pilgrimage, three days before Easter and ten days to Mercy Sunday. I sang the “Tenebrae” chants in a dark church this morning, and this week’s section title is “Into the Darkness.” Today’s topic: “spiritual blindness.” All of us are in the dark regarding the state of our own souls. One day St. John Vianney prayed to see himself as he really was. “Never ask that of God,” he later said. “It almost killed me.” Most of us are “good people,” by God’s grace, but we are nothing compared to God’s perfect goodness and beauty. And yet, Jesus commanded us to “be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
St. Thérèse was “the greatest saint of modern times,” but she knew she was “very little” in relation to God. And she rejoiced in that littleness. Thérèse knew that she had never committed a serious sin, but that before God she was “the greatest of sinners.” She realized that “for me to love You as You love me, I would have to borrow Your own love.” She would first receive His love and then return His own love back to Him. It’s kind of like when you are sad or grumpy, and a little child smiles sweetly at you, or puts her arm tenderly around you. Your heart melts, and you return the child’s own love back to her with a big smile yourself.
We receive God’s smile simply by letting Him look at us, and by returning that loving gaze. One of my friends spends many hours in our Eucharistic chapel, right in front of Jesus, but her eyes are usually on her cellphone. I go for a ride every day in the splendid natural beauty around San Francisco, but when I stop to rest under the magnificent sky or beside the wondrous Pacific ocean, I usually don’t see it: I pull out my phone to check texts and emails. We simply don’t look at God, or think of Him, very much. And that’s our essential spiritual blindness.
Prayer
Come, Holy Spirit, fire of mercy. Open the eyes of my heart that I may see my need for your Merciful Love.
The spring flowers at one of my biking rest stops. I pulled out my cellphone to check texts, but then decided to take this picture of God's beauty right in front of my eyes.
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