Duty and Love

Dry duty is a cold and hard master who does not console anyone and who is terribly boring. Speak to me of loving God, that I may fulfill with joy the duty he assigns to me, and keep the great joy of love which is sacrifice.

LOUIS VEUILLOT

Hardness of Heart and God’s Image Within Man

There is a hardening of the heart that cannot always be measured merely by the number and gravity of one's sins. A relatively upright life in the eyes of the world can nevertheless conceal a layer of cold egoism that is thicker than the one possessed by an avowed sinner. Man is made in the image of God, and, even if only in the deepest part of his being, he always retains some sense of the divine life. Because man is the bearer of that reflection of the God who is Love, he is always capable of being attracted again to that Love.

YVES DE MONTCHEUIL, SJ Problèmes de Vie Spirituelle

Silence and the Call to Holiness

The call to holiness is accepted and can be cultivated only in the silence of adoration before the infinite transcendence of God: we must confess that we all have need of this silence, filled with the presence of him who is adored: in theology, so as to exploit fully its own sapiential and spiritual soul; in prayer, so that we may never forget that seeing God means coming down the mountain with a face so radiant that we are obliged to cover it with a veil; in commitment, so that we will refuse to be locked in a struggle without love and forgiveness. All, believers and non-believers alike, need to learn a silence that allows the Other to speak when and how he wishes, and allows us to understand his words.

SAINT POPE JOHN PAUL II Vita Consecrata

Justice and Mercy

Attend to mercy and justice. Do not imagine that these two can be separated in God in any way. They may at first seem to be mutually opposed so that whoever is merciful would not uphold justice and whoever adheres unconditionally to justice would forget about mercy. But God is omnipotent: he neither lets go of justice in showing mercy nor of mercy in judging justly.

ST. AUGUSTINE 

Discernment as a Filtering Process

Discernment can be described as a filtering process that takes place as one asks of every stimulus, activity, or relationship: “how does this help me achieve my goal of living a spiritual life, of seeking God in everyone and everything?” Filtering thus helps cope with sensory overload and our culture's fascination with what is “different.”

GAIL FITZPATRICK A Monastic Vision for the 21st Century

Renouncing Self-Sufficiency

This means we put ourselves fully at God’s disposal. We overcome the difficulties of life by trusting ourselves to God who asks and who knows what he is asking for, without envisaging a success rate on the basis of our own possibilities and natural gifts. It is never impossible to obey. When this does seem to be the case, a great opportunity arises for the conversion of our heart and mind to the infinite possibility of God. So far as we place ourselves at God's disposal, we become a space in which divine omnipotence can move.

CRISTIANA PICCARDO Living Wisdom: The Mission and Transmission of Monasticism

To Whom Shall We Go?

Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?” Simon Peter answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”  John 6:67–69

Today’s Gospel comes at the end of the Bread of Life Discourse in which our Lord taught clearly, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.” At the beginning of today’s Gospel, upon listening to Jesus’ new teaching, many of His disciples murmured among themselves saying, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” This teaching of Jesus is “hard” in the sense that it requires a profound faith to understand completely. But just because something is hard to accept does not mean that we should not accept it.

Peter’s statement quoted above gives us the words we should say whenever we find God’s will or His teaching difficult to accept. When that happens, we must hear Jesus ask us the same question He asked the Twelve: “Do you also want to leave?” Jesus will not try to manipulate us. He will not back down when He sees we are struggling. He will not lessen the requirement of being His faithful follower. Instead, He will give us the freedom to either believe or leave. And when we feel like leaving, we should always remember Peter’s words, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”