The Light Which God Intends to Kindle

 

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Spiritual Reading - selected by Deacon Steve

“Humanity, made in God’s image, is placed in the paradise of the world, a world which is still paradise, but which we have lost, by becoming alienated from ourselves and from the Creator.

In this world from which we are alienated, humanity can come to find ourselves and recover our right relation to the world, and to God, by the work which God has given us to do. Our worship, our liturgy, should rightly be not only worship but a theology of life, a theology of work, planting in us the seeds of understanding and wisdom which will flower in our work. But this means that our work must be purified of titanism, of self-will, of aspirations to self-assertion and power. And this means that it must be delivered from obsession with what we are not, with our past and future, what we have ceased to be and have not yet become and is based on what we are in our present reality. For only in the present can we come in full contact with the truth willed for us and in us by God. Thus, creation will become once again a lampstand, and humanity the lamp will be placed on it in order to be lit with the light of truth. For this is the light which God really intends to kindle in us. When we are in communion with other people and with the cosmos by our will, the light of truth is kindled in us.

The Book of Proverbs says: ‘The light of God is the human spirit, penetrating to the depths of our being.’ (Proverbs 20:27)”

from Merton, Thomas, “Seasons of Celebration” p. 132 – 133, Ave Maria Press, Notre Dame, 2009

Titanism: 
A spirit of revolt or defiance, like that of the Titans, against established order, social conventions, etc.

 

Questions for reflection:

As Vincentians, what is our "work" that needs to be purified?

Am I stuck, trying to live according to an identity locked into my past, who I used to be?

Am I pretending to be someone I would like to be in the future?

… or am I OK with letting people see me for who I am right now, warts and all, not perfect, but beloved by God?

Do I really believe that God loves me now, as I am?

Do I consciously remind myself that God deeply loves each of the families we serve, as they are?

What people remember - and forget

 

Become a Light

 

Reflection selected by Deacon Steve.

Easter - the resurrection of Christ. The feast of feasts! The final proof of Christ’s divinity! Easter the first feast of the early Church, around which all the other feasts grew like stars around the sun.

We celebrate Christ’s resurrection as something absolutely, fantastically beautiful that has happened and is still happening. The fact there is an Easter is something to be grateful for. Now death has become a passage. A passage to what, to where, to whom? It is the passage of you to God and me to God.

Yes, Easter is the apex of feasts, the feast of all feasts- Christ is risen! …It is eternal – it picks you up and drops you into eternity. 

God loves me. He loves me when I am good and when I am not so good, because he loves sinners. He forgives them too. His mercy is infinite and so is his love, his goodness, his forgiveness. My hand nestles easily in the immense hand of God, and I shiver with delight. 

Christ is risen! Let us love one another as Christ loved us. Then we are clothed in the shining garments of one who is baptised, one whose garments shine from far away and even through the night. Then we become a light to our neighbour’s feet.

- Catherine Doherty, “Season of Mercy; Lent and Easter” Madonna House Publications, 2011, Combermere, p. 92 – 95