Reading The Imitation of Christ this morning, I came across this:
My God and my all! What more can I have and what more can I desire than You? O sweet and delightful Word! Sweet to him who loves the Word and not the world, nor those things that are in the world.
How many people choose the world with all its shiny allurements that can never satisfy the hungry heart? As St. Augustine says, and he who loved the world so much is a true witness, "You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”
God is not a spoilsport who hates us to have fun! He could have made all the necessities of life natural drives without pleasure, but he loves to give His children delights. The Garden of Eden was full of them!
He gave us the senses of taste and smell so that we could enjoy food not just eat to stay alive, but to celebrate and feast and enjoy the company of others. He filled all man's necessities with pleasure. Unfortunately, man often makes pleasure the goal and end instead of a holy means.
Think of all the feasts in the liturgical calendar and all the special treats associated with them. Think of God's commands in the book of Leviticus to decorate the worship tent in beauty to delight the eye. What an invitation to contemplation it is to go into a magnificent cathedral or even a little country church decorated to glorify God!
We have a Savior whose first miracle produced a choice wine to keep a party going and remind us that marital love pleases Him.
Let us choose the Word and not the world. How can we not choose to throw that L to the wind and embrace the Word who became flesh to govern our lives and lead us to heaven?
The world, the flesh, and the devil all have that L. Truth, goodness, and beauty do not. May we make this Lent a time of prayer and mortification, moving the world's L to its proper spot.
May Jesus Christ be praised.
This morning, I read in ‘The Imitation of Mary’
ReplyDeleteby Alexander De Rouville,
“At the time when the angel was sent to Mary, Augustus and Herod occupied royal thrones. Everyone vied in calling them great, powerful, liberal. But who were these kings in God’s sight, Who alone is the judge of true greatness?
A young virgin, hidden in the solitude of Nazareth, was infinitely more worthy of such praises and truly deserved all these laudatory names.
True greatness in not measured according to the empty norms men use but according to the norms of God. Of what value are all the heroes the world admires, as compared with the great men religion produces through the practice of virtue?
It is a more splendid thing to conquer one’s own passions than to conquer nations. It is much less difficult to conquer others than to conquer oneself.”
O Lord, what poor use I have made of creatures! Pardon me, O Lord!