Be Steadfast

December 3, 2024 

Walking with Purpose

 Hi!  How is each and every one?  We are now joyfully awaiting the birth of the Child Jesus.  On the last day of November, Saturday this year, we started a novena to the Immaculate Conception, praying to Our Lady for many others to accompany us in preparing the way for her and St Joseph to find the place where the child Jesus chooses to be born. Yesterday, December 1 started the weeks of Advent. We learned that there were many others who started the same novena and each and every group had different projects reaching out to the people among whom the child Jesus would want to be.  They are the children and their parents in the hidden corners of the city streets; the families in the provinces devastated by the recent storms; others who are alone with no families around them. In the evening, we lighted the Advent wreathe and sang O come, O come, Emmanuel. 

Isn’t this the spirit that must inspire and spur vigilance and joy among us in these weeks of anticipation for the coming of Jesus into our midst. It is as though we are all infanticipating Jesus in our hearts while Our Lady has him in her womb. This is what Christmas is all about; Christmas season is the joyful anticipation of the birth of the Child Jesus, our Lord and Savior, King of the Universe.  Christmas is the birthday of Jesus.

Following now 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).

Diligence and Staying the Course

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 Peter came to counseling because he wanted to fix his troubled marriage.  At least part of the problem was that while his wife, Fiona, had very strong opinions about how things should be, Peter was content to check out of the relationship and let her make all the decisions.  In time, Peter learned how to find his voice and start giving her the feedback Fiona said she wanted.  But his efforts didn’t pay off as he had expected.

“We had another huge fight,” Peter said.  “All these years I’ve had to hear about how I never have an opinion and how Fiona wants a partner, but God forbid I actually say something.  Then there’s all kinds of hell to pay.  She’ll never be happy.”

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First I asked Peter whether the goal was making Fiona happy or becoming a healthier person and a better partner.  I explained that if it was the former, then he might spend his life jumping through hoops, since people are often more fickle where he needed to help Fiona become the partner she said she wanted to be. than we’d like them to be.  On the other hand, if his goal was to learn to be healthier person and a better partner, he needed to admit to himself that he was on the right track, and maybe this was the point in the relationship.

He acknowledged that there was something to what I was saying.  “Fiona’s parents argued constantly,” he said.  “I never saw them agree on any decision.  Now that you mention it, I suspect Fiona would like us to be partners, but she doesn’t really have much more of an idea of how to create that than I do.  Neither of us grew up in that kind of home.”

With my encouragement, the next time Fiona got upset at Peter for expressing his opinion, Peter reminded her that she used to constantly complain about wanting a partner.  “I told her, ‘Look I’m finally trying to be the person you always said you needed me to be, and you’re killing it.  I need us to work together to learn how to…well, work together.”

Peter invited Fiona to join him in marriage counseling, and together they were able to learn how they could use each other’s opinions to create new, mutually satisfying solutions to whatever challenge they faced.

Making changes isn’t easy.  Peter felt tremendously justified in being angry that Fiona wasn’t following through on what she claimed to want for their marriage.  Emotionally, it would have made sense for him to give up.  But by making a commitment to remain diligent, both he and Fiona grew in the virtues that enabled them to have both a more meaningful and a more intimate marriage.

Diligence and Divinization

Proverbs 4:23 reminds us, “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.”  Any good goal worth pursuing requires persistence and diligence to achieve, so the goal of becoming partakers in God’s divine nature requires even more of the same.  When we look at life with eyes of faith, we see that diligently and faithfully responding to the mundane challenges of everyday life has eternal ramifications.  In the words of Archbishop Fulton Sheen, “Every moment comes to you pregnant with divine purpose!” Conventional wisdom tells us not to sweat the small stuff, and while it is true that we must be careful not to turn common trials and challenges into catastrophes, that’s different from acting as if nothing matters. 

In every moment of every day, God is working mightily to use every means at his disposal to transform us into the divine beings we were meant to be so that we might share eternity with him.  Our divine longing for peace will be fully satisfied only when we are reunited with God, and the original harmony that existed between God and humanity is restored.  We can at least begin working toward that union by diligently offering our gifts and talents to every situation we encounter.  Every time we choose to reject sloth’s temptation to powerlessness and instead diligently act in a manner that intentionally brings God’s grace to bear on the situations we face, we take a step toward restoring the order in which God intended us to live.  In doing so, we experience a tranquility that satisfies our divine longing for peace.

How true, very true, indeed!  Isn’t that wonderful? This is what I am experiencing ever so often when I do as stated above.  In fact, it was a very recent realization.  Everything since birth that God has allowed to happen in my life are gifts and talents I have to trade with all throughout life that they may bear more fruits of more good habits and virtues; more gifts and talents in others.

Once again let us bring up the above ideas into our silent moments of dialogue with God in prayer and reflections that we may open our hearts to listen and heed whatever He tells us.  Let us enjoy these moments with our Lord.

December 8 is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  It is one of the only three days of holyday of obligation in the Catholic Church.  But since this year December 8 falls on a Sunday of Advent, the celebration of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception is celebrated on the next day, the 9^th.  Whatever the situation of each one, love always conquers when and what it wills.

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