“He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love with kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
Micah 6:8
For Reflection:
Today, will follow these words in specific ways. What can I do to show justice, to love with kindness, and to walk humbly with God? Dear Lord, Please present me with opportunities to follow through on my resolution to do so today.
Plurism entered my daughter’s car the other day as she drove my six year old granddaughter to school. After hearing some especially disheartening news on the radio, my daughter turned to Julia and said, “Julia, you are growing up in a very difficult world. Keep Jesus in front of you and stay the course.”
Julia chewed on these words for a moment and then she said, “Mommy, I know. __________ told me that she doesn’t believe in God. She told me her mommy told her God was a monkey.”
“Julia, that’s too bad, isn’t it? We know there is a God and He is no monkey!” responded my daughter.
“I know that!” Julia retorted. “He’s a Lamb!”
While this story shows us that Julia has given attention to the Agnus Dei we pray at Mass, and has obviouly given attention, too, to the stained glass window in our Church depicting the Lamb of God, none of this innoculates her against the winds of heresy that blow all too liberally in our culture today.
It also points out the false ideologies many of our children’s playmates and classmates are being taught in their homes. One can only wonder at the world they will experience in their adult years.
What are we to do? I think my daughter gives us good example. Make certain our children know the truth. Continue to use every opportunity to tell them the truth (Rom. 10:17). Reinforce that truth. Make them present to the truth by participation in the Faith. Exemplify the truth in your own life. Finally, but preeminently, entrust them to the One Who is the Truth — and the Way and the Life as well.
If we are willing to do so, deep roots will grow and truth will flourish in our children’s hearts. I know this to be true. Those words of advice my daughter gave to her daughter were the very words her father had given her throughout the 26 years of her life that he had lived. Apparently, they had sunk in and were being passed on to the next generation. As Proverbs reminds us, “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6).
A monkey. Really? Even a monkey would be shocked.
Gabriel Sullivan, age 8, came home from school with a freshly completed art project — a paper dinosaur.
But this was no ordinary dinosaur.
This paper dinosaur stood on its own with the help of a special aid rigged by Gabriel himself. He had glued his green creature to the cardboard core of a roll of toilet paper to make his antediluvian reptile stand erect.
And Gabriel loved his dinosaur.
According to his father, Tom Sullivan, Gabriel carried his dinosaur with him everywhere. He placed it on the floor when he was playing. He sat it on the table when he was eating. He even perched it on the back of the couch to have it near while he watched his favorite show and he treated it to a trip to the restaurant when the family went out to dinner.
Dad Tom asked Gabriel what it was that so attracted him to his dinosaur. Gabriel simply responded, ” I made it.”
I loved Gabriel’s answer. It brought a smile to my face and joy to my heart. It made me think of God.
Like Gabriel, God’s e
yes are always upon us (Psalm 33:18; Deut. 11:12). We are never out of His sight. We are the “apple of his eye” (Psalm 17:8, Deut. 32:10), the center of His vision.
I am thinking if we asked our Heavenly Father why he keeps us in His gaze, His answer would be the same as Gabriel’s: “I made you,” He would say.
And then He would add “… and I love you; you are mine (Jer. 31:3).”
“Let us strive to do penance in this life. How sweet will be the death of those who have done penance for all their sins and need not go to purgatory!”
St. Teresa of Avila
For Reflection:
What is my attitude toward penance, reparation, and fasting? Does my life, choices, and decisions reflect an attitude of remorse, sorrow, and contrition?
“Fast from bitterness – feast on forgiveness.
Fast from self-concern – feast on compassion for others.
Fast from personal anxiety – feast on eternal truth.
Fast from anger – feast on patience.
Fast from words that destroy – feast on words that build up.
Fast from discontent – feast on gratitude.
Fast from discouragement – feast on hope.”
Susan Tassone
For Reflection:
What “fast” should I engage? What are three practical ways I can employ its antidote today?
At Judgment:
“The soul sees what God intended it to be. And the soul sees what obstacles it erected – its selfishness, its cowardice, its shallow satisfactions, its perversions of God’s graces and His gifts. All this came between God and the soul in life.”
Susan Tassone
For Reflection:
What will I see at the moment of my particular judgment? Will I see that I have created obstacles between my soul and God? What might they be? I pray for the grace to dismantle these obstacles in this life so I will not take them with me to eternal life.
(See tomorrow’s Grace Line for some helpful hints on how to do this.)
“The soul’s true life and repose are to abide in God.”
St. Albert the Great
For Reflection:
Ultimately, our hearts were made for God so that we might spend all eternity with Him in heaven. How do I evaluate myself in light of this truth? Is Heaven my true “north star?” What about my actions say so? What about my actions say not? Am I willing to make necessary adjustments beginning today?
“Stop judging, that you may not be judged. For as you judge, so will you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you.”
Matthew 7:2- 3
For Reflection:
In the particular judgment, I will be judged in the same way I pass judgment on others? What do I think is the difference between “judging” in the scriptural sense and making healthy conclusions based on the behavior and example of others?
“I assure you, on judgment day people will be held accountable for every unguarded word they speak.”
Matthew 12:36
For Reflection:
Ouch! How many unguarded or idle words have I spoken in my life? How many did I speak yesterday? How many have I spoken already today? Lord, put a sentinel at my mouth and a guard around my lips that I may hold my tongue when it ought to be held. Amen.
“If on the last day we would receive a merciful judgment, we must begin here below to be merciful to others.”
Bishop Fulton Sheen
For Reflection:
Do I show mercy to others? In what ways? Is there someone who needs to experience my mercy or forgiveness at this moment in my life? Who? How willing am I to extend it now? Will I? Why or why not?
