“God will never fail us.” This is the message of our readings today. “I will not leave you neither I will forsake you.” This promise will not be broken. God is true to what he says. That’s the reason why John the Baptist was not even disturbed by the consequences of his action – to preach the truth about Jesus and his mission on earth. He may also had uttered these words: “The Lord is my helper. I will not fear what man shall do to me.” And in our Gospel today, John sacrificed his own life for the glory of God. Indeed, he did not feel fear and worries about what will happen to him and what Herod and his royal family would do to him, because he absolutely believe and trust with God had promised: “I will not leave nor forsake you.”
In our everyday life here at Our Lady’s Hill, we strive to approach God in many ways. And in approaching Him, we believe in His great power to give us strength and courage to face the many challenges of the religious formation. We learn to trust, and in trusting God, we learn to surrender and we appreciate all His graces, great and small as we continue to search for His will. Trust indeed is very important in our discernment.
To trust is to have faith, and to trust God is to have faith in Him. In many worries and concerns that we have, faith is definitely the answer. St. Paul said” “Faith is the substance of things to helped for, the evidence of things not seen. Faith makes so present and so certain future goods.” In the book of the prophet Jeremiah, the Lord said: “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose hope is the Lord. He is like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream: it fears not the heat when it comes; its leaves stay green; in the year of drought it shows no distress but still bears fruit.”
When we decided to apply at Carmel and now that we are part of the postulancy formation, we already shown our willingness to surrender ourselves to God. We surrender because we trust. We submit ourselves to the formation trusting and hoping that as we give ourselves to God, and as we surrender our whole being to Him, we will be used for righteous purposes.
Brothers, as we end the postulancy formation this month, let us praise God and exult his name for all the experiences that we had shared, for every wonderful and challenging things that had happened to us while staying here at Our Lady’s Hill, for all the graces that we have received everyday. There’s a lot of graces that we should be grateful for to God. Let us thank the Lord for the grace of responding to his amazing love and mercy everyday, from the rising of the sun to its setting, from the moment that we woke up until sleeping time. Let us thank Him for giving us the grace to give ourselves to Him gradually, not out of fear or obligation, but in love, because we believe that “He first loved us!” Let us thank the Lord for giving us the grace to surrender to God our worries and concerns, for not letting those worries and concerns to keep us apart from trusting Him, but allowing us to truly feel and experience His love in our everyday life here at Our Lady’s Hill, and for being faithful to the structure, for building our community and for sharing our experience of God to others – in our apostolate in particular.
Let us be grateful to God for giving us the grace to trust his love, believing that we will never be out of His sight, that he cares about every detail of our lives, that he will continue to give us the capacity to enjoy all kinds of pleasure, that he had great plans for us; that he will forgive us for our frailties and sinfulness and that he will be lovingly patient with us always.
Brothers, let us always be grateful for every grace that we received from God. These graces are the fruits of our faith to Him. We may have different personality type and God gives us always the grace not because we are number one or number 8 and so on, but because we are loved by God. Every struggle that we encounter everyday is an opportunity for us to renew our faith and continue to trust Him, and that this struggle will always give us the grace to understand its purpose for our personal maturity.
Let me end with a prayer.
“Loving Father, we thank you for showing us always your love and mercy. Continue to inspire us to develop in us a trusting heart and an enduring faith. Focus not on our human frailties but on our eagerness and on our effort to grow your love and hope. Remember not our flaws but our openness to nourish and cultivate the gifts that you have given us. Give us the grace of understanding every struggle that we encounter and learn to trust you all the times. Instill in our hearts your words of assurance that “you will never fail us; that you will never leave us nor forsake us.” And give the strength and courage to preach the truth and not be fear of what others would do to us in doing so, just like what John the Baptist did. Amen.
From My Spiritual Journal
02/04/2005
In our everyday life here at Our Lady’s Hill, we strive to approach God in many ways. And in approaching Him, we believe in His great power to give us strength and courage to face the many challenges of the religious formation. We learn to trust, and in trusting God, we learn to surrender and we appreciate all His graces, great and small as we continue to search for His will. Trust indeed is very important in our discernment.
To trust is to have faith, and to trust God is to have faith in Him. In many worries and concerns that we have, faith is definitely the answer. St. Paul said” “Faith is the substance of things to helped for, the evidence of things not seen. Faith makes so present and so certain future goods.” In the book of the prophet Jeremiah, the Lord said: “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose hope is the Lord. He is like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream: it fears not the heat when it comes; its leaves stay green; in the year of drought it shows no distress but still bears fruit.”
When we decided to apply at Carmel and now that we are part of the postulancy formation, we already shown our willingness to surrender ourselves to God. We surrender because we trust. We submit ourselves to the formation trusting and hoping that as we give ourselves to God, and as we surrender our whole being to Him, we will be used for righteous purposes.
Brothers, as we end the postulancy formation this month, let us praise God and exult his name for all the experiences that we had shared, for every wonderful and challenging things that had happened to us while staying here at Our Lady’s Hill, for all the graces that we have received everyday. There’s a lot of graces that we should be grateful for to God. Let us thank the Lord for the grace of responding to his amazing love and mercy everyday, from the rising of the sun to its setting, from the moment that we woke up until sleeping time. Let us thank Him for giving us the grace to give ourselves to Him gradually, not out of fear or obligation, but in love, because we believe that “He first loved us!” Let us thank the Lord for giving us the grace to surrender to God our worries and concerns, for not letting those worries and concerns to keep us apart from trusting Him, but allowing us to truly feel and experience His love in our everyday life here at Our Lady’s Hill, and for being faithful to the structure, for building our community and for sharing our experience of God to others – in our apostolate in particular.
Let us be grateful to God for giving us the grace to trust his love, believing that we will never be out of His sight, that he cares about every detail of our lives, that he will continue to give us the capacity to enjoy all kinds of pleasure, that he had great plans for us; that he will forgive us for our frailties and sinfulness and that he will be lovingly patient with us always.
Brothers, let us always be grateful for every grace that we received from God. These graces are the fruits of our faith to Him. We may have different personality type and God gives us always the grace not because we are number one or number 8 and so on, but because we are loved by God. Every struggle that we encounter everyday is an opportunity for us to renew our faith and continue to trust Him, and that this struggle will always give us the grace to understand its purpose for our personal maturity.
Let me end with a prayer.
“Loving Father, we thank you for showing us always your love and mercy. Continue to inspire us to develop in us a trusting heart and an enduring faith. Focus not on our human frailties but on our eagerness and on our effort to grow your love and hope. Remember not our flaws but our openness to nourish and cultivate the gifts that you have given us. Give us the grace of understanding every struggle that we encounter and learn to trust you all the times. Instill in our hearts your words of assurance that “you will never fail us; that you will never leave us nor forsake us.” And give the strength and courage to preach the truth and not be fear of what others would do to us in doing so, just like what John the Baptist did. Amen.
From My Spiritual Journal
02/04/2005
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