Persistence
November 26, 2024
Hi! How is each and every one? Happy Thanksgiving Day!!! This year we are also thanking God for the 42nd Anniversary of the Prelature of Opus Dei on the same day of the 28th. On 28 November 1982, St. John Paul II erected Opus Dei as a Personal Prelature by means of the Apostolic Constitution "Ut sit." He encouraged its faithful, laity and priests, to fearlessly pursue its perennial mission: "It is time to put aside all fear and pursue daring apostolic goals." Some features of the charism of Opus Dei as explained by St. Josemaría: doing everything out of love, understanding all people, praying for the Church and the Pope, sharing one’s vocation, being a family, imitating Jesus Christ, being a temple of the Blessed Trinity wherever we are, and sanctifying work.
St. Josemaria: “Make it a
habit to raise your heart to God, in acts of thanksgiving, many times a day.
Because He gives you this and that... Because someone has despised you… Because
you don’t have what you need, or because you do have it.
“And because He made his
Mother, who is also your Mother, so beautiful. Because He created the sun and
the moon and this animal or that plant. Because He made that man eloquent and
left you slow of speech…
“Thank Him for everything,
because everything is good.” (The Way, no. 268. The original note was dated 28 December
1931).
Gratitude is a super habit.
It is fruitful because it generates more blessings. The more
grateful one is the more she receives from the giver who is God Himself.
Following is the
continuation of our divine longing for peace (From
Broken Gods, Hope, Healing, and the
Seven Longings of the Human Heart, Gregory K. Popcak, Ph. D. Ch 6).
The
Heavenly Virtue of Diligence: The
Antidote to Sloth
Diligence is the virtue that both defeats sloth and helps us actualize our divine longing for peace by activating our gifts to respond to the problems we face, and by helping us stay the course when inevitably, things don’t go as smoothly as we planned. As St. Charles Borromeo reminds us, “If we wish to make any progress in the service of God we must begin every day of our life with new eagerness. We must keep ourselves in the presence of God as much as possible and have no other view or end in all our actions but the divine honor” (Boston Catholic.org (n.d.)).
When we are confronted by threats to our peace rather than exercising
diligence, we often experience the sense that “there’s nothing I could possibly
do about this.”
Brenda was estranged from her adult daughter, Maddie, who was living with
her boyfriend. Brenda felt a deep sense
of shame about her daughter’s betrayal of the values she had been taught and an
even deeper sense of frustration that her daughter seemed to be pushing her
away, especially when Brenda tried to give her any advice. can’t accept the way
she’s choosing to live, but nothing I say makes any difference to her. I feel like giving up.”
Instead of giving up, Brenda came to me for counseling to deal with the
sadness and anger she was feeling over the breakdown in her previously close
relationship with her daughter. I
suggested that she might reclaim a sense of power by backing off from her
attempts to argue her daughter into submission and, instead, focus on
rebuilding her relationship
“I don’t know what to do,” Brenda said.
“I just feel so powerless. I in
whatever ways her daughter was willing to allow. She took my advice, and over the course of
several months tried to spend time with her daughter in whatever ways her
daughter was open to. They went to
lunch. They saw a movie together. They talked on the phone. Although it practically killed her, Brenda
refrained from bringing up Maddie’s cohabitation. Instead, she prayed that the Holy Spirit
would work through her witness and through the relationship she was
cultivating. She gave the situation to
God, and when she found that her feelings were causing her to take the
situation back onto herself, she would hand it over to God again.
After several months of this, Brenda came back to me to share her joy
that she and her daughter were in a much better place and that Maddie was
coming around on her own about faith issues.
Maddie started asking Brenda about church. Their conversations led Maddie to look into
RCIA (the process by which a person comes into the Catholic Church as an adult)
for both her and her boyfriend. Brenda
was beside herself.
“There’s still a long way to go, I know,” Brenda said, “but I’m just so
happy to see that she is open.
I’m so glad God got us to this better place and was able to use my
relationship with Maddie to do something good in her life.”
When Brenda first came to me, she was ready to give up on her
relationship with her daughter. She felt
powerless. She felt that the only thing
left to do was to cut her daughter off and isolate herself. Yet her willingness to be diligent in the
face of this temptation enabled her to discover that being present with Maddie
was a gift she could give to her daughter.
By opening up her heart and continuing to persevere in prayer despite
the frustration she experienced, Brenda was able to be a conduit of grace in
Maddie’s life. It ended up that as
Maddie and her boyfriend went through RCIA they decided to live apart for a
time, at the pastor’s suggestion, while they discerned marriage. Eventually, they decided to get married in
the church shortly after they were both received into the church.
Not every situation works out so perfectly. That’s not the point. The true purpose of this story is to
highlight that when we refuse to give in to the temptation to act as if we’re
powerless and instead remain diligent, we open up channels of grace through
which God’s spirit can work. When we do
this, transformation occurs not just in our environment but in our hearts and
in the hearts of those around us.
Brenda’s situation didn’t involve open conflict but even when we are
involved in open conflicts we are called to be diligent instruments of grace.
Yes! Let us be challenged to stay the course; hold
the line; and trade with the talents God has given you and me and continues to
give us as we persevere in fighting a good fight; finishing the race; and
keeping our faith in God and His graces.
I find
myself in situations every day that call for the above struggle and I am
enjoying the challenge because I realize that when you are determined to be
consistent and constant in preserving the blessings God has showered on you, He keeps doing so every
step of the way without let up.
Ordinary
life is beautiful, good and fruitful with God and Our Lady leading the way and
we follow suit.
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
Comments
Post a Comment