GrowHoly.com

“Live at God’s side and you will become a saint, since heaven is nothing other than the presence of God.”

Today I was praying for sanctity. Then failed greatly again – with food and work. Am I not able to do it?

However, I was thinking, being in the church, that there is gold and wood. I don’t want to be like a golden calich, I would prefer to be a wooden… cross.

Lord, please, give me the strength and the patience. Let me get to that goal one day.

“Consider the greeting of the angel: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!” (Lk 1:28), and the greeting of the Church: “The Lord be with you.” Aren’t these greetings full of profound significance and capable of changing your life?”

Today I was reading about the two guys going to Emaus. Jesus appeared to them on their way. Do we need Jesus to appear, or are we able to recognize Him in every day life?

What is it that we sometimes forget about the source of our life? How can we make ourselves available to Him all the time, instead of letting us being taken over by our desires, egos and greed?

Lord, please, let me feel Your presence along the way. Let me be with You, let me have You inside of me.

“The pealing of a bell or the spire of a church is a reminder that Jesus is in a tabernacle nearby. Then raise your heart toward that place to worship and love God.”

Today I was thinking about the meaning of prayer. Should I spend an hour in prayer every day, or should I rather focus on helping people and finishing my hundreds of projects?

The following ideas come from Nguyen Van Thuan’s excellent book “The Road of Hope – A Gospel from Prison” and I recommend it strongly to anyone looking to grow in holiness.

407. Your possessions will bury you if you wear them on your head or close to your heart. They will be your footstool if you stand on them.

408. ‘Be poor in the place you live, be poor in the clothes you wear, be poor in the food you eat, be poor in the things you use, be poor in the work you do‘ (Pere Chevrier).

409. The person who asks for little is always content because he considers himself to have sufficient. The person who demands much is extremely miserable because he keeps feeling deprived.

410. Looking at yourself, you feel deprived, you feel that you are the most miserable person in the world. Take a look around you and see how many people are really worse off than you are.

411. To have no possessions while still yearning for them is not poverty. Having possessions, but being detached from them, is a sign of poverty in spirit.

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“Do you think that children are not yet able to do anything for the Church or that the sick can no longer do anything for the Church? No, not at all. After the official prayer of the Church, the prayers of children and of the sick are most pleasing to God. They should often be reminded of this.”

Yesterday I went to a confession and the priest didn’t have a lot of time, because it was just 4 mins before the mass he was serving… So I didn’t get a chance to even say all my sins on the list… And he gave me that forgiveness and that was it.

Afterwards, I was thinking, that maybe it really doesn’t matter what way I approach God. I think it doesn’t matter if I make the cross at the beginning of my prayer in the right way. Maybe it doesn’t matter whether I kneel on my knees or whether I am on my bike – just be myself and talk to God as I am.

Lord, I love Your openness for us – poor people looking for You, and being unsatisfied until we dwell in Your presence. Please, let me live my life in front of You – in Love, all the time.

“As a sinner you dare not stand in the presence of God, but the words of the Church bid you to be reassured: “Through Christ Our Lord.” How could you think that all the sufferings of Jesus and all the good works of his Blessed Mother and the saints would not be sufficient to encompass your little prayers?”

Lord, here I am again in front of You, not having done what I had promised to You, and what I had resolved to do… Now it’s up to You what You are going to do with me – please, forgive me all the sins and let me start anew.

Thanks.

“Why are there crises in the Church? It is because people do not take prayer seriously anymore.”

Yes, and maybe not only prayer, but also fast.

Yesterday it was the Good Friday – one of two days in the year when the Church requires fast – just once a day we are “allowed” to eat until we are satisfied – and no meat at all.

But that’s a way too little. In the time when we’re used to having a Big Mac every day, followed by a good bit of Snickers DUO and a pint of Coke. Times when if you say that you eat only veggies and fruits – they will look at you as at an alien. Times when people who fast on bread and water two times a week, are considered saints.

But hey, what did Luke write about the first Christians in the Acts? Fasting and prayer were on their normal schedule. It was an essential part of their lives.

And me? What about me? The same Christian, the only difference is in these 2000 years – but how does it really matter?

Look at what they were able to do – how many people found faith through them, how many sick they were able to heal, what miracles they performed – they even spoke in the tongues of the Holy Spirit – on a daily routine – and we?

What am I able to do now? If I bring one person to rethink their life – what a great achievement will that be?

Why are we so poor these days? Does it mean that Christianity doesn’t work any more?

Or maybe we just don’t pray and fast any more?

“The prayers of the liturgy are very pleasing to God, because they are the words of the bible, they are the prayers of the Church which is the Mystical Body of Christ. Use a missal, a book of the psalms or prayer book to help you to pray.”

Yesterday we had a discussion with my husband about going to church and praying. And he brought me back to the very basic idea - love is all what matters.

You know, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs – and the top two ones – recognition could actually mean the need to be loved, and self-actualisation could mean the need to love somebody.

Therefore, maybe it doesn’t matter a lot, how much you pray, but even more importantly, how much you love.

““Where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there in the midst of them” (Mt 18:20). These words of Our Lord are fulfilled especially in those many communities that pray whilst living thousands of miles from a priest. They still organize themselves to pray together and to hold firmly to this practice in the midst of their difficulties and isolation.”

Yes, and yet many of us, who have 2 million priests at hand, we who can choose to which church and at what time to go – every day – yes, we are not willing to participate. We tend to stay passive, we don’t take it seriously, we don’t use the gifts we got!

Currently I am living together with 7 people who claim to be believers. They all go to a mass more than once a week, apart from one. They pray hours every day.

And yet I am so slow to talking with them about faith. I wouldn’t pray with them so easily. Why? I don’t know. I am just not used to talk to people about faith. Maybe I am afraid of being revealed. Maybe I am just shy. Or maybe, I just don’t know what to say.

Anyway, we need to get together and pray together. What if we started to meet once a week to pray a rosary? I will suggest this on Saturday when they all are at home.

“When you proclaim, “for God and for the Church”, stand silently in the presence of God and honestly ask Him, “Lord, do you see me working completely for you? You are the essential object of all that I do. I should be ashamed to admit that there were any other stronger motive.””

Yes, this has been my issue for a reasonable time. What is my motivation? Is it love? Is it service? Is it eternal life? Why should I serve somebody who I cannot even see?

And love was not strong enough motivation for me.

Now I still cannot say that I would be too passionate about God’s works. I am still too lazy and greedy – and that’s what keeps my eyes closed when I could see His marvels; I also close my ears instead of listening to His rich quietness.

But how to switch off all that background music, all that noise in me which keeps saying, this is great, I will gain this and this from doing this? How can I ensure that my motives are always clear and honest? How can I make sure that when I talk to people, I will never want to promote myself, but to do something purely for their sake and the sake of God?

God is the one who does everything for me. Without Him, I cannot do anything. So with this in mind, I can be sure there is no reason I should boast about anything, no reason to gain anything except God’s grace for all I do.

No reason to want anything else. Because all I need is good standing in His eyes. A nice place in the Book of Life. Nothing else matters.