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Posts Tagged ‘Mercy’

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Gireesh Gupta: Prayer is a gift from God to us

In 07 Observations on 2012/10/11 at 9:11 AM

gupta-gareesh

Prayer is a beautiful and polite way to talk to our Maker. Prayer is a way to cultivate our personal relationship and friendship with God. Prayer is the way to connect to God. Prayer is our direct link to God’s Kingdom. Prayer is the quality time that we spend in the company of God to feel close to Him.

Prayer is also to praise and thank God for His beautiful creation and for His merciful protection of us. Prayer is to ask for God’s blessings, guidance and direction to lead us on the right path and to be true to ourselves and to others. Prayer is a time to ask for God’s forgiveness for our wrongdoings and plead for His mercy. Prayer inspires us to help those in need and brings us closer to God, because serving the needy is to serve God. Prayer cultivates the love of God’s creation and helps us to be thankful. Prayer puts us on the path that leads us to our Creator.

God gave us the gift of prayer with many benefits in return. Prayer calms our minds in times of despair. Daily prayer helps us to focus on what’s important each day amid all of our daily activities and tasks. Prayer brings relief from stress, pain, sorrow and anxiety. Prayer engenders peace in mind and body, and cultivates love for others and for God’s creation. To forgive is divine, and it is the daily practice of prayer that brings out the divine in us and gives us the strength and will to forgive those who have hurt us. Prayer subdues our conceit and fosters humility. Prayer enables us to subjugate our material attachments and elevates our spirituality. Humility and spirituality are two important traits to foster in order to lead a life of contentment, gratitude, happiness and love.

Churches are the sacred and formal places of prayer for Christians, synagogues for Jews, mosques for Muslims, and temples for Hindus. Praying formally with a congregation in these places has the power of uniting people and fostering a community of brotherhood and sisterhood.

However, prayer can be offered at any time and in any place, as many times each day as we wish. We can pray briefly before getting up in the morning and before going to sleep, while working in the office, while doing chores around the house, and even while walking or jogging.

Some of us pray and plead for God’s mercy only when we are needy, sad, fearful or sick. But God wants us to think of Him in a humble manner at all times, especially during the good times and not just the bad times. Just as parents love when their children share their happiness and not just their sadness, we should share our happiness with God our Father in prayer as well.

Our prayers may be simple or short, because praying from the heart is what is important. It is not important how long we pray for, or how formally we pray. A short prayer with a pure and innocent heart will win blessings, but a long prayer without heart is meaningless.

I encourage you to pray with a sincere heart and to pray often, to cultivate your personal relationship with God and seek closeness to Him.

Gireesh Gupta is an associate professor of computer information systems at Belmont Abbey College in Belmont.

Reprinted with permission for the Catholic News Herald

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“The only possible measure for the love of God is to love without measure”

In 01 Daily Meditations on 2012/02/28 at 9:11 AM

You fulfill a demanding plan of life: you rise early, you pray, you frequent the sacraments, you work or study a lot, you are sober and mortified, but you are aware that something is missing. Consider this in your conversation with God: since holiness, or the struggle to achieve it, is the fullness of charity, you must look again at your love of God and your love of others for his sake. Then you may discover, hidden in your soul, great defects that you have not even been fighting against. You may not be a good son, a good brother, a good companion, a good friend, a good colleague. And, if you love your “holiness” in a disordered manner, you are envious. You sacrifice yourself in many small personal details, and so you are attached to yourself, to your own person. Deep down you do not live for God or for others, but only for yourself. (Furrow, 739)

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches his divine command of charity to all who are ready to listen with an open mind. At the end, by way of summary, he says, ‘Love your enemies, and do good to them, and lend to them, without any hope of return; then your reward will be a rich one, and you will be children of the most High, generous like him towards the thankless and unjust. Be merciful, then, as your Father is merciful.’

Mercy is more than simply being compassionate. Mercy is the overflow of charity, which brings with it also an overflow of justice. Mercy means keeping one’s heart totally alive, throbbing in a way that is both human and divine, with a love that is strong, self‑sacrificing and generous. Here is what St Paul has to say about charity in his hymn to this virtue, ‘Charity is patient, is kind; charity feels no envy; charity is never perverse or proud, never insolent; does not claim its rights, cannot be provoked, does not brood over an injury; takes no pleasure in wrong‑doing, but rejoices at the victory of truth; sustains, believes, hopes, endures, to the last.’ (Friends of God, 232)

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“God does not lose battles”

In 01 Daily Meditations on 2011/11/30 at 9:11 AM

If you fall, get up with greater hope. Self-love alone is incapable of understanding that an error, when put right, helps us to know and to humble ourselves. (Furrow, 724)

Forward, no matter what happens! Cling tightly to Our Lord’s hand and remember that God does not lose battles. If you should stray from him for any reason, react with the humility that will lead you to begin again and again; to play the role of the prodigal son every day, and even repeatedly during the twenty‑four hours of the same day; to correct your contrite heart in Confession, which is a real miracle of God’s Love. In this wonderful Sacrament Our Lord cleanses your soul and fills you with joy and strength to prevent you from giving up the fight, and to help you keep returning to God unwearied, when everything seems black. In addition, the Mother of God, who is also our Mother, watches over you with motherly care, guiding your every step.

Holy Scripture points out that even ‘the just man falls seven times’ [1]. Whenever I read this phrase my soul trembles with love and sorrow. This divine indication shows us Our Lord once again setting out to meet us and speak to us about his mercy, his tenderness and clemency that know no limits. Be sure of this: God does not want our wretchedness, but he is aware of it, and indeed he makes use of our weakness to make saints of us…

I prostrate myself before God and I state my situation clearly. Immediately he helps me, he reassures me, and I hear him repeat slowly in the depths of my heart, meus es tu! [2], I know the way you are, as I have always known it. Forward! (Friends of God, 214-215)

[1] Prov 24:16
[2] ‘You are mine’ (Is 43:1

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Beatitudes Vocabulary

In 06 Scripture & Theology on 2011/07/30 at 6:56 AM

Pure in Spirit/Simplicity

The poor in spirit are those who remember that all they are and have is from God and give back to Him whatever He wants of them. We live the virtue of simplicity when we maintain the proper intention in our love for Our Lord.  Simplicity, which is close to humility, will lead us to ask forgiveness often; it leads us to admit and correct our mistakes.

The  spirit of divine sonship means being completely dependent on our Heavenly Father  by abandoning ourselves confidently to his loving Providence, just as a child entrusts everything to its father.  A child does not hold grudges, is ignorant of duplicity or fraud, does not deceive, does not seek revenge, easily forgets, does not store up grievances and has no deep sorrows.

Simplicity is one of the principal manifestations of spiritual childhood. It is the result of becoming defenseless before God like a vulnerable and trusting child before its father. Spiritual childhood always holds to the freshness of love in a soul by not dwelling on adverse experience.

The simple person is not naive yet neither suspicious, prudent but not distrustful. He lives the teaching of the Christ, being wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Thus, the most sublime doctrine becomes accessible to the most simple souls.

The real cause of egotism and selfishness is pride.  It looks at everything from our its own viewpoint and it’s own agenda.  Pride inflates one’s own abilities, aggrandize one’s own qualities and demands the attention of others to them.  Consequently, proud people are egocentric and selfish, not really knowing how to love anyone but themselves, loving only for what they can obtain from others for themselves.

To conquer this vice, we must fix our gaze on Christ, admitting our mistakes and correcting them. Thus, we will grow in humility, thanking God for all the benefits received from Him, allowing ourselves to be helped, seeking advice, stopping excusing our sins and failures, asking forgiveness of those we offend.

MEEKNESS / HUMILITY

Meekness is rooted in spiritual strength, and it is really the meek who are truly strong. Meekness blunts the sharp arrows of anger like a protective shield.  Meekness ignores impatience, irritation, bad tempered and hateful attacks, actions which reveal fundamental weakness.  Meekness sets its face against those pointless displays of violence which at the bottom are really signs of weakness.

Meekness does not waste energy on anger and passes it by in silence or with a smile that is a disarming weapon of defense.  A meek person suffers unjust persecution, remaining serene and humble, not giving way to resentment or discouragement.

A lack of humility and interior peace are at the bottom of irritability.   Explosive irritability corrodes love.  It destroys peace in prayer because it broods over perceived injuries and forgets about God to whom it should appeal for help.

The lack of meekness comes from pride.  To master one’s self is to prevent quick and wounding responses.  Thus, the meek will inherit the earth because they will not be slaves to impatience and bad temper.  Instead, they will be serene in the possession of God with their souls seeking Him in prayer. Through kind-heartedness and understanding the people around them, they will, instead, win friendship and love.

We learn to be humble by meditating on the Passion of our Lord who suffered so many humiliations and by considering His humility in the Holy Eucharist where He waits for us to visit Him and speak with him.  Therefore, we can walk the way of meekness accepting humiliations, accepting our defects and struggling to overcome them.  Then, we will find in Him, who carries the greatest portion of our burdens, a yoke that is easy and a burden that is light.

PURE OF HEART

To be clean of heart means to be selfless, viewing all from God’s point of view rather than our own.  This singleness of purpose is putting God first, without self-deception or compromise, keeping the heart healthy and clean so as to please God.

In order to be pure of heart, we need to remove all obstacles. One’s whole being is defiled by what occurs in the heart.  Evil desires and intentions are conceived in the heart before they become an external reality.  It is in the heart that God is either loved or offended.  It is what we speak from the heart that defiles us. We must look for God in every circumstance and purify ourselves by asking forgiveness for our sins and errors.

God himself and His creation can only been seen by those whose intentions and attitudes are good.   God is looking for each one so that a Christian who sincerely searches for Christ will find him because Christ is searching for him.

MERCY

We will only have mercy in our hearts when we offer mercy, when we forgive, our enemies from the example and with the help of Christ.

Mercy is not simply a matter of giving alms to the poor, but also of being understanding of other people’s defects, overlooking them, helping them not only to cope with them but to love  them despite whatever defects they may have.  Mercy also suffers and rejoices with others.

PEACEMAKER

Peace is a clear sign of God’s nearness and closeness to us.  St. Paul consistently exhorted the first Christians to live in peace, saying that the God of love and peace would be with them. True peace results from holiness. St. Augustine also describes true peace as the tranquility of order.

True peace means being concerned about others, being interested in their plans and projects, their joys and sorrows.  God wants us Christians to bring peace and joy with us wherever we go.  Then, we can say as St. Paul ends his first letter to the Corinthians: “My love be with you in Christ Jesus.”

All the Beatitudes express in figurative language the promised reward of heaven.

So, in conclusion, what does the spirit of the Beatitudes mean to the Christian?  It means viewing the world as Christ views it and then reacting to circumstances as Christ Himself would react.  For us, the real Christian spirit is summarized in the eight Beatitudes and in the life of Our Master to whose likeness we desire to be transformed.

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“Learn how to do good”

In 01 Daily Meditations on 2011/06/29 at 11:11 AM
When you are with someone, you have to see a soul: a soul who has to be helped, who has to be understood, with whom you have to live in harmony, and who has to be saved. (The Forge, 573)

I like to repeat what the Holy Spirit tells us through the prophet Isaiah, learn how to do good…

Charity towards our neighbor is an expression of our love of God. Accordingly, when we strive to grow in this virtue, we cannot fix any limits to our growth. The only possible measure for the love of God is to love without measure; on the one hand, because we will never be able to thank him enough for what he has done for us; and on the other, because this is exactly what God’s own love for us, his creatures, is like: it overflows without calculation or limit.

Mercy is more than simply being compassionate. Mercy is the overflow of charity, which brings with it also an overflow of justice. Mercy means keeping one’s heart totally alive, throbbing in a way that is both human and divine, with a love that is strong, self‑sacrificing and generous. (Friends of God, 232)