Our Longing for Abundance
December
12, 2023
Hi! How is each and every one? We have just
celebrated last December 8, The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the
Blessed Virgin Mary. God planned Mary,
His chosen woman, to be the mother of His only begotten Son. Hence He made sure Mary would be conceived
and born immaculate since she is the chosen mother of Jesus.
Theologians have
frequently come up with similar reasons to explain in some way the meaning of
the abundant graces showered upon Mary and culminating in her assumption to
heaven. They put it this way: “It was fitting; God
could do so; therefore he did.” This is the clearest reason why our Lord
granted his Mother, from the very moment of her immaculate conception, all
possible privileges. She was free from
the power of Satan. She is beautiful, tota pulchra, spotless and pure in soul
and body. (St.
Josemaria, Christ is Passing By, no.
171).
December 8 is one of the
three days of holyday of obligation that the Church has proclaimed. The other
two days being December 25, The Solemnity of the Nativity of Jesus and January
1, the Solemnity of the Motherhood of Mary, Mother of God.
Today is the Feast of Our
Lady of Guadalupe, after whom I was named and of course I am not deserving of
the name and yet I greatly appreciate my name.
It has become a human device to address our Lady every time my name is
mentioned aside from her being addressed.
In one of our meetings
with a young girl after she came back from a three day seminar in an activity
venue, she commented on how her she with other young friends wondered why every
room has an image of Our Lady. Why so
many images of Our Lady? How would you
answer that? I thought but of course,
she is Mother of Jesus and our mother as well, she is the mother of mankind; In
the same way that in every house there are family photos and even a painting of
the woman of the house, of the mother of the family.
In an interview with/or
of Jordan Peterson, the Canadian Psychologist, author, and media commentator, I
heard him mention that a man loves his wife because he sees the divine feminine
in her. This comment stuck to my mind and I find it very true indeed! God is in each and every person just by the
mere fact that the person is, otherwise he or she wouldn’t be and so is our
Lady in him and her in grace, she being our mother as much as the mother of
Jesus. You and I can bring these thoughts into our quiet moments of
conversation with God and our mother.
They will tell us more things.
Let us continue learning
how we can work out our longing for abundance against pride or self-love (From
Broken Gods, Hope, Healing, and the
Seven Longings of the Human Heart, Gregory K. Popcak, Ph. D. Ch 2)
Pride,
the first of the capital sins
Pride
represents a distortion of the divine longing for abundance, the longing each
person has to live a full, meaningful, and rewarding life. This longing for abundance is an innate gift
from God. Jesus tells us that we were
created to live life more abundantly and that he came to show us how (see Jn
10:10). We can learn to experience this
longing for abundance as a gift from God, as something that God has given us to
facilitate our divinization, something that reminds us that true fulfillment
can be attained only when our restless hearts rest in God.
Pride distorts this longing for abundance by making
me believe that I, and only I, have the ability to determine what living a
full, meaningful, and rewarding life means.
Pride tells me that attending to anyone but myself will diminish my
happiness and fulfillment. Beyond this,
pride tells me that I must not use my gifts in a way that serves others. To live my version of an abundant life, pride
tells me I must use whatever advantage I have to set myself apart from everyone
else.
Despite the lies pride tries to sell us, our longing
for abundance can be satisfied only by practicing the heavenly virtue of
humility, which has nothing to do with running ourselves down, degrading
ourselves, or denying our talents or abilities.
Instead, cultivating humility enables us to make peace with the fact
that we need to cooperate with God and others if we want to live in
abundance. Humility enables us to learn
from God’s instruction and other people’s experience. Further, humility empowers us to use the advantages
we’ve been given to work for the good of those around us, strengthening our
relationships and enabling us to work together to achieve our fullest
potential.
See you
in the next post,
“May tomorrow be a perfect day; may you find love and
laughter along the way; may God keep you in his tender care; ‘til He brings us
together again.”
Affectionately,
Guadalupinky
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