All for the Glory of God!

As I pen this few lines to you, on the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus – which I feel is possibly the REAL “Valentine’s Day”, I can indeed feel the surge of love in my heart for my Saviour “who loved me and gave His life for me” (Gal 2:20).

The surge of our hearts, however, must be accompanied by the equal and opposite reaction of our hearts recoiling from sin as we cry the words from the book of Hosea, “My heart recoils within me” when confronted by the thought of ‘going against love’ … which effectively is what sin is.

In the recent past our newspaper and electronic media are buzzing with the news of corruption scandals and fasts. As we reflect on these goings on, and try to discern what the Spirit is saying to us through this, two verses spring out from Scripture;

“You will not let your holy one know corruption” (Ps 16:10)
“Is this the fast that I seek” (Isaiah 58: 5)

While the former Scripture verse refers to bodily corruption, the same can be applied to spiritual corruption as well. If we truly walk in the way of the Lord and yield to His Will then the Holy Spirit shall keep us from all corruption.

The “fast” that the Lord seeks from us, is not only abstinence and fasting from food products, but also one of depriving our ego and starving our pride… so that we can truly be the bread broken for others.

Both these are the essence of the Lord’s Prayer on which we reflect and pray throughout this month. Obedience, flowing out of love, to the Will of God and the readiness to die for love of neighbour, are the two elements that make us “alter Christus (other Christs)”. “On these hang the law and the prophets” (Mt 22:40)

This July, let us therefore, truly make the Lord’s Prayer, “our prayer”… so that the “our” in the “our father” comes alive by the power of His Spirit. So that we have the willingness to fast from elements that the Spirit shows us – my pride, my attitude, my desire to jump to conclusions, my stinginess and lack of charity, my eagerness to rush to judge and condemn others, my criticizing nature, my desire for self-glory, etc.

I urge us all, myself included, to spend a few extra moments each day when you pray, to ask the Holy Spirit to show you the areas of “corruption” in your life that need His burning and purifying love. Pray also for the grace to fast from areas of pride and self; that truly the Lord will “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil’ as we journey on the path to holiness, which is Christ Himself.

May all we do be for the “Greater Glory of God” and may St Ignatius and the other saints whose feasts we celebrate this month, pray for us. Be with us Mary along the way.