“Constancy that Nothing Can Shake”

March 11, 2025

Hello!  How is each and every one? Before anything else, give me this moment to express my gratitude and appreciation to each one of you for all the prayers and warmest birthday greetings last Saturday, March 8.  I am confident we kept each other much in mind as it was also International Women’s Day.

During this Season of Lent that we just started last Wednesday, we are challenged to be more constant in our chosen struggles to maintain and sustain our desires to practice prayer, fasting and almsgiving. How are you and I going to succeed bit by bit within and during these days of the Lenten Season?  Allow me to share with you some ideas I gathered from The Way, best seller among the writings of St. Josemaria.  Challenges against the title of today’s post are the following:

Discouragement is an enemy of your perseverance.  If you don’t fight against discouragement you will become pessimistic first, and lukewarm afterwards.  Be an optimist. (TW, 988).

Constancy that nothing can shake.  That is what you need.  Ask it of God and do what you can to obtain it:  for it is a great safeguard against your ever turning from the fruitful way you have chosen. (TW, 990).

You cannot ‘rise’. It’s not surprising:  that fall! Persevere and you will ‘rise’. Remember what a spiritual writer has said:  your poor soul is like a bird whose wings are caked with mud.  Suns of heaven are needed and personal efforts, small and constant, to shake off those inclinations, those vain fancies, that depression:  that mud clinging to your wings.  And you will see yourself free.  If you persevere, you will ‘rise’. (TW, 991)

Give thanks to God who helped you, and rejoice in your victory.  What deep joy you feel in your soul, after responding to grace!  (TW, 992)

Already we can see that we are being helped given the season we are currently living through as we tackle this topic on our divine longing for well being.  The above ideas are pre-empting some alternatives you and I could consider to spice up our resolve to win over our tendencies to excess or defect regarding gluttony in order to acquire the virtue of temperance.

Shall we now look into the end or conclusion of the topic on our divine longing for well-being (From Broken Gods, Hope, Healing, and the Seven Longings of the Human Heart, Gregory K. Popcak, Ph. D. Ch 9).

Satisfying Your Divine Longing for Well-Being:  An Exercise

PRAY:  Lord Jesus Christ, I give you every part of my life.  I give you my health, my relationships, my work, my quest for meaning, and my pursuit of enjoyment.  Teach me to live my life in balance that I might praise you and glorify you with the choices I make.  Teach me to be temperate in all things, that I might allow your grace to develop every part of me to my fullest capacity so that one day I may be perfected through that grace and be made worthy to fulfill my destiny to partake in your divine nature.  I ask this in the Name of Jesus Christ, Lord of every part of my life. Amen.

COAL:  Fuel for Change

As you reflect on ways you can satisfy your divine longing for well-being, take a moment to consider how COAL can help fuel the changes you would like to make in your life.

CURIOSITY AND OPENNESS

Ask yourself:  Where did I learn that food (or managing my relationship with food) was the primary means to fulfillment?

Who taught me this response?

What situations impressed this lesson on me?

Do I want to continue to allow these experiences to rule my life?

Do not judge or edit yourself. Receive your answers in a spirit of openness and grace.

ACCEPTANCE

 

Say, “These are the experiences that have shaped my struggle to satisfy my divine longing for well-being.  I accept my past even as I accept God’s call to change and grow.”

LOVE

Loving myself means working to become the person God wants me to be.  I know that I can fulfill my deepest longing for well-being only by being temperate and tending to each part of my life so that I may live and grow in balance.

What specific areas of my life do I feel drive my less healthy relationship with food (e.g., my physical, psychological, social, spiritual well-being or how I pursue pleasure)?  What could I do to pay more attention to these areas of my life?

What obstacles would I have to overcome to achieve this goal?

What help, resources, or support might I need to overcome these obstacles?

Say, “I will love myself and accept God’s love for me by choosing this path of temperance over the temptation to gluttony.” 

Review these loving resolutions each morning.  Imagine a time in the coming day when you might be tempted to gluttony.  Imagine responding instead with temperance by identifying the real hunger and meeting it instead of over focusing on your relationship with food.  Ask for God’s help to remember this more loving response in those times when you are feeling tempted to be overly concerned with eating or with managing your relationship to food.

Practicing Temperance:  Action Items

 IF YOU TEND TO OVEREAT

Before you eat, offer up a brief prayer:  “Lord, fill me up.  Remind me what I truly hunger for and help me to refrain from using food as a means of distracting myself from meeting my deepest needs.”

Ask, “What am I eating for?”  “Am I hungry?”  If “no,” then ask yourself, “How might my time be better spent?”

Give up your membership in the clean plate club.  Practice leaving a little bit of each item on your plate.  Or, if you are serving yourself, put the regular amount you would take on your spoon or fork and then, before putting it on your plate, put a little bit back in the pot or serving dish.

Eat more slowly.  Put down your utensils between bits.  Thoroughly chew all your food. Swallow and wait a second before picking up your utensil to take another bite.  Remember what you learned in the chapter on wrath.  Slowing yourself down improves your self-control.

Of course, fasting is an ancient and important practice.  Skip a meal once in a while and donate the equivalent cost of the meal to a charity of your choice.

IF YOU TEND TO BE MORE PRECIOUS ABOUT YOUR FOOD CHOICES

Unless your diet has been restricted by a physician or certified nutritionist, realize that your food preferences are just that, preferences.

Realize that at mealtime, being good company is more important than guarding your food choices.  Eat as close to what your company is eating as possible.

By all means, feel free to follow your food preferences at home.  But unless your doctor or nutritionist has restricted your diet, when you are eating at the home of a friend or family member, eat what you are served without complaint.

At restaurants, as above, be conscious of your doctor’s orders.  But having chosen the most agreeable meal, eat it as it comes without requesting special attention or fuss to be made over you or your meal.  Care more about the people serving you than about your food preferences.

 The Divine Longing for Well-Being:  A Promise

In the Gospels, Jesus was often called “Rabbi” or “teacher.”  Let God teach you to live your life in balance, to slowly heal from your tendency to use your relationship with food as the primary way you achieve comfort or control in your life (either in terms of how much you consume or how much you care about what you consume).  By seeking to live a more temperate life, you will allow God to perfect union with him.  You will discover the secret to thriving, that is, the secret to developing every aspect of yourself and practicing temperance to keep those aspects of your well-being working in harmonious, joyful balance.

What else can I share with you in this post that will help us all in our resolve to become the person God wants you and me to be? How about Mother Teresa’s “Anyway”.

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered; forgive them anyway.  If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway.  If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; succeed anyway. If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; be honest and frank anyway.  What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; build anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; Be happy anyway.  Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.  The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; Do good anyway. You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God; It was never between you and them anyway.

Agreed?  Noted?  Well taken?  Done! Let us together do our best to be the person God wants you and me to be every step of the way from now onwards. And how do we go about that?  Well, as usual talk to the good God, our Father and Lord, about all the above and what is happening to us in our hearts, feelings, mind and body. Open wide our hearts to God in those quiet moments of conversation with Him every day, every moment.  He will surely tell each one of us how to go ahead and lead each one of us personally step by step in our daily life.

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