Wise Words on Wednesday: Trusted or loved?
To be trusted is a greater compliment than being loved.
George MacDonald
Tag: Trust
Occasionally, weep deeply
This John Piper quotation is really speaking to me today:
Wise Words On Wednesday: He Leadeth Me
“There remains deep down in each of us a little nagging doubt, a little knot of fear which we refuse to face or admit even to ourselves, that says, ‘suppose it isn’t so.’ We are afraid to abandon ourselves totally into God’s hand for fear he will not catch us as we fall. It is the ultimate criterion, the final test of all faith and all belief, and it is present in each of us, lurking unvoiced in a closet of our mind we are afraid to open. It is not really a question of trust in God at all, for we want very much to trust him; it is really a question of our ultimate belief in his existence and his providence, and it demands the purest act of faith.”
– Fr. Walter Ciszek, He Leadeth Me
Forgetting our fears
We will risk curling up in the lap of God and forgetting our fears, knowing them to be but deceptive shadows
– The Divine Embrace
Trust
They said there was a working gardener who gave away all his profit in alms, and kept for himself only enough to live on. Later on Satan tempted him and said, “Store up a little money, as a provision to spend when you are old and infirm.” So her made a store of coins in a big pot.
It happened that he fell ill, and his foot became gangrenous, and he spent all his coins on doctors, but grew no better. An experienced doctor told him, “Unless we amputate your foot, the gangrene will spread through your whole body.” So they decided to amputate it.
But the night before the operation, the gardener came to his senses, and was sorry for what he had done, and groaned and wept saying, “Lord, remember my earlier good works when I worked in the garden and served the poor.”
Then an angel of the Lord stood before him and said, “Where is your store of coins? Where has your trust in them gone to?
Then he understood, and said, “I have sinned, Lord, forgive me, I will not do it again.” Then the angel touched his foot, and it was healed at once. He got up at dawn, and went to the fields to work. At the appointed time the surgeon came with his instruments to amputate the foot. The people told him, “He went out at dawn to work in the fields.” The doctor was astonished and went out to the field where he was working, and he saw him digging, and glorified God who had restored his health.
– De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V
Sunday Lectionary: A Father who keeps His Promises
Third Sunday of Easter: 22nd April, 2012
Happy Easter! Yes, it’s still Easter! This week we celebrate the third Sunday of the Easter season as we continue on the road towards Pentecost.
For our Gospel Reading we hear another resurrection account, this week from St. Luke. In it, the Lord appears to His disciples and demonstrates to them that He has risen bodily from the dead. He then “opens their minds” to see how all that had come to pass was the will of the Father, His plan and His promise from the beginning.
In our Responsorial Psalm, David speaks of a God who comes to the rescue, bestowing light and peace to those in trouble. God’s rescuing love finds its fullest expression, of course, in the coming of Jesus Christ and in our First Reading we hear St. Peter proclaim this Good News to the crowd. Peter explains that through Christ’s saving sacrifice can be saved and in our Second Reading St. John reflects upon this and upon our call to respond in obedience to this great love of God.
As I carry this cross…
I’ve pretty much had this song on loop all day:
“Pain is a forest we all get lost in, between the branches hope can be so hard to see. And in the darkness we’ve all got questions, we’re all just trying to make sense out of suffering but You say I am blessed because of this so I choose to believe. As I carry this cross…”