Tag: pray and obey

Duty of the Moment

At every moment you must be just as I would have you be; at every moment you must do just what I would have you do.

Blue Book #1

I like to use Lectio Divina when doing spiritual reading of any kind. It helps me to pick out what is for me at this moment, and with the Holy Spirit’s guidance through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I’m enlightened and guided gently and step by step. The message then is not a general message to the world out there, but becomes a very intimate request for me specifically at this moment. Then together with other readings, encounters with others, random life occurrences, and prayer… it all starts to come together.

I’m currently doing the Catechism in a year with Fr. Mike, and encountered the word pedagogy… perhaps not for the first time… but it made enough of an impact now for me to get inquisitive. It means a teaching plan. God has a divine pedagogy in guiding us, and materials such as the Blue Book can be part of it.

Another book that has come to my attention as I was preparing to restart this journey was Catherine Doherty’s ‘Grace in Every Season’. The spirit of the Madonna House, seems very much in line with the messages of the Blue Book. She emphasizes the ‘duty of the moment’ … which is something very near and dear to my heart, so I’m going to be reading it also. It’s set up in daily bits, and perfect for this type of study and reflection.

The kitchen routine of preparing food in its ordinariness is feeding the hungry in the reality of everyday life.
I hope and pray that you, now and in the coming tomorrows, will remember the holiness of little things done well over and over again for the love of God. Every task, routine or not, is of redeeming, supernatural value because we are united with Christ. We must be recollected and stay aware of this truth.

Grace in Every Season

So what does Our Blessed Mother ask of us… well, first and foremost she tells us to do whatever Jesus tells us… and in the kernel of that command is our obligation to the duty of the moment.

In todays Second Reading we hear “He went about doing good and healing all those oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.”

I too seek to “go about” my own life doing good… because God is with me, and I have a lot of heavenly helps at my disposal.

Wisdom

2518 The sixth beatitude proclaims, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”307 “Pure in heart” refers to those who have attuned their intellects and wills to the demands of God’s holiness, chiefly in three areas: charity;308 chastity or sexual rectitude;309 love of truth and orthodoxy of faith.310 There is a connection between purity of heart, of body, and of faith:

The faithful must believe the articles of the Creed “so that by believing they may obey God, by obeying may live well, by living well may purify their hearts, and with pure hearts may understand what they believe.“

3112519 The “pure in heart” are promised that they will see God face to face and be like him.

312 Purity of heart is the precondition of the vision of God. Even now it enables us to see according to God, to accept others as “neighbors”; it lets us perceive the human body – ours and our neighbor’s – as a temple of the Holy Spirit, a manifestation of divine beauty.
Catechism of the Catholic Church



This faith and obedience, the two sides of the same coin is something that I learned early on in my ‘reversion’ to the fullness of the Catholic faith. I remember shortly after falling in love with the Lord anew. I was in my bedroom and had finished praying and was attempting to meditate on the days readings. So I just sat there for a while and spoke to Him. I plainly asked Him ‘so what now’? This sitting around in prayer thing still seemed pretty ‘boring’ to me at the time. I was wondering if this was it…did leading a Catholic Christian life simply mean sitting around praying all day.

His answer was so profound that even after two decades I remember it still. He told me…”you’ve prayed, now be attentive to ME and obey what I ask of you.” Well, let me tell you, my life has been anything but boring. Obeying Him has lead me on the most amazing adventures…my life to the reader may not seem very adventurous…I’m simply a homeschooling mom…but the path that lead me here was totally and completely amazing. It reminds of the following poem

This poem reflects the beautiful relationship that He wants with us.

At first, I saw God as my observer,
my judge,
keeping track of the things I did wrong,
so as to know whether I merited heaven
or hell when I die.
He was out there sort of like a president.
I recognized His picture when I saw it,
but I really didn’t know Him.

But later on
when I met Christ,
it seemed as though life was rather like a bike ride,
but it was a tandem bike,
and I noticed that Christ
was in the back helping me pedal.

I don’t know just when it was
that He suggested we change places,
but life has not been the same since.

When I had control,
I knew the way.
It was rather boring,
but predictable . . .
It was the shortest distance between two points.

But when He took the lead,
He knew delightful long cuts,
up mountains,
and through rocky places
at breakneck speeds,
it was all I could do to hang on!
Even though it looked like madness,
He said, “Pedal!”

I worried and was anxious
and asked,
“Where are you taking me?”
He laughed and didn’t answer,
and I started to learn to trust.

I forgot my boring life
and entered into the adventure.
And when I’d say, “I’m scared,”
He’d lean back and touch my hand.

He took me to people with gifts that I needed,
gifts of healing,
acceptance
and joy.
They gave me gifts to take on my journey,
my Lord’s and mine.

And we were off again.
He said, “Give the gifts away;
they’re extra baggage, too much weight.”
So I did,
to the people we met,
and I found that in giving I received,
and still our burden was light.

I did not trust Him,
at first,
in control of my life.
I thought He’d wreck it;
but He knows bike secrets,
knows how to make it bend to take sharp corners,
knows how to jump to clear high rocks,
knows how to fly to shorten scary passages.

And I am learning to shut up
and pedal
in the strangest places,
and I’m beginning to enjoy the view
and the cool breeze on my face
with my delightful constant companion, Jesus Christ.

And when I’m sure I just can’t do anymore,
He just smiles and says . . . “Pedal.”

— author unknown

You can go to this page—> Jesus My Lord and Savior to read more about faith and obedience and how both are required.

Meekness

Meekness is about putting ego a side. We often can think of this as an instruction to ‘stay within our own lane’. But in some ways it’s actually the opposite. It’s about fully realizing that this grand plan of God goes way beyond us and that He’s fully in control, regardless of our limitations.

When we see people out there doing some pretty amazing things we can be tempted to think ‘what an ego maniac’, but how about the person who pulls back and doesn’t follow through on what God is putting in their heart because of not wanting to be seen as foolish? Isn’t the ego way more at work there?

716 The People of the “poor”87 – those who, humble and meek, rely solely on their God’s mysterious plans, who await the justice, not of men but of the Messiah – are in the end the great achievement of the Holy Spirit’s hidden mission during the time of the promises that prepare for Christ’s coming. It is this quality of heart, purified and enlightened by the Spirit, which is expressed in the Psalms. In these poor, the Spirit is making ready “a people prepared for the Lord.”88

(Catechism of the Catholic Church)