#reflect on this

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The Holy Spirit renews us in baptism through His godhead, which He shares with the Father and the Son. Finding us in a state of deformity, the Spirit restores our original beauty and fills us with His grace, leaving no room for anything unworthy of our love. The Spirit frees us from sin and death, and changes us from the earthly men we were, men of dust and ashes, into spiritual men, sharers in the Divine Glory, sons and heirs of God the Father– who bear a likeness to the Son and are His co-heirs and brothers, destined to reign with Him and to share His glory. In place of earth, the Spirit reopens heaven to us and gladly admits us into paradise, giving us even now greater honour than the angels, and by the holy waters of baptism extinguishing the unquenchable fires of hell.

We men are conceived twice: to the human body we owe our first conception, to the divine Spirit, our second. John says: “To all who received Him, who believed in His name, He gave power to become children of God. These were born not by human generation, not by the desire of the flesh, not by the will of man, but of God.” All who believed in Christ, he says, received power to become children of God– that is, of the Holy Spirit, and to gain kinship with God. To show that their parent was God the Holy Spirit, he adds these words of Christ: “I give you this solemn warning, that without being born of water and the Spirit, no one can enter the kingdom of God.” [But through that same Spirit, He has given us both the power and means to accomplish this.]

Visibly, through the ministry of priests, the [water of the baptismal] font gives symbolic birth to our visible bodies. Invisibly, through the ministry of angels, the Spirit of God, whom even the mind’s eye cannot see, baptizes into Himself both our souls and bodies, giving them a new birth. Speaking quite literally, and also in harmony with the words of water and the Spirit, John the Baptist says of Christ: “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” Since we are only vessels of clay, we must first be cleansed in water and then hardened by spiritual fire – for God is a consuming fire. We need the Holy Spirit to perfect and renew us, for spiritual fire can cleanse us, and spiritual water can recast us as in a furnace, and make us into new men.

Saint Didymus of Alexandria

Amid the challenging prophecies of persecution for His followers comes Jesus’ promise of the witness of the Paraclete, The [Holy Spirit Himself, Who] is to be the backbone or mainstay of the [nascent] Christian movement as [either] the substitute for, or [altered] Presence of, the physical Jesus. [Initially] the help provided by this ‘Advocate’ concerned the truth of the [internalized] message: the Paraclete would make clear to the disciples the implications and the fullness of the message of Christ. Now, [this depth being grasped,] the Paraclete faces outwards in bearing witness to that truth.

‘Paraclete’ is obviously a sort of work-name for the Spirit. In the Book of Judges, the spirit of God – not yet understood as a separate Person – comes suddenly upon God’s chosen agent (Gideon, Samson, Saul), giving power to lead Israel to confront enemies and conquer them. Here, however, [coming upon those chosen by the Son,] the Spirit bears witness by giving the strength to confront opposition and speak out boldly, as we see the apostles doing in the Book of Acts. [The Holy Spirit remains willing and able to bestow this strength upon all Christians facing spiritual warfare, both within and without,] but we still retain free will, and no strength will come from the Paraclete unless our own spirit is moved to stand firm. In the daily calls to bear witness by putting ourselves out [onto the front lines], by risking loss of ease, credit, or comfort, let alone actual pain, [injury, or even death], our own resolution is needed too.

Dom Henry Wansbrough; Commentary on John 15:26

The parable of the sower is plain. The seed sown is the word of God. The sower is our Lord Jesus Christ, by Himself, or by His ministers. Preaching to a multitude is sowing the corn; we know not where it will light. Some sort of ground, though we take ever so much pains with it, brings forth no fruit to purpose, while the good soil brings forth plentifully. So it is with the hearts of men, whose different characters are here described by four sorts of ground. [Yet the sole quality] that distinguished the good ground was fruitfulness. By this true Christians are distinguished from hypocrites. Christ does not say that this good ground has no stones in it, or no thorns; but [only that it had] none that could hinder its fruitfulness. All [hearts] are not alike; [yet nevertheless, for love of God] we should aim at the highest, to bring forth most fruit. [Even if we begin with stones and thorns, if we recognize them, we must not let them hinder God’s Word within us– for neither stones nor thorns are permanent fixtures, and we may implore the Gardener to aid us in tending and protecting His grain of the Gospel until harvest. Thus with all diligence] let us look to ourselves, that we may know what sort of [ground] we are.

Matthew Henry; Commentary on Matthew 13:23

The description of the New Jerusalem, the bride of Christ, [is] highly symbolic. The twelve gates (drawn from Ezekiel’s prophecy) face the four quarters of the compass, to show that it embraces the whole universe and is four-square solid. They symbolise the twelve tribes of Israel and so also the twelve apostles. The richness and contentment [thereof] is hinted by the sparkle of precious stones, not only diamonds but many others too. The dimensions of the city are vast: a cube of 1,500 miles in each direction. [For scale, that measures approximately from present-day Jerusalem to Afghanistan and Ethiopia! Yet even across all this space, there is] no need for the light and warmth of the sun, for the Lord God and the Lamb provide a single source of its nourishment and illumination. [And there is] no need for a sacred area, for the presence of the Lord God and the Lamb make the whole city a sacred area.This [description, as a whole,] is the ultimate goal of Creation, when all is absorbed into God, the ultimate fulfilment of ‘Thy Kingdom come’. The Letter to the Ephesians expresses it as the whole universe ‘headed up’ into Christ– [restoring His rightful position of universal authority as a head to the body, or a groom to a bride– and thus] making sense of Creation and bringing Creation to its completion.

Dom Henry Wansbrough; Commentary on Revelation 21

jondenden:

“Never be afraid of your Bibles. If there is a text of Scripture you dare not meet, humble yourself till you can. If your creed and Scripture do not agree, cut your creed to pieces, but make it agree with this book. If there be anything in the church to which you belong which is contrary to the inspired word, leave that church.”

Charles Spurgeon

This, right here, is the powerful heart of Christian living, the true fire of Charity.

The Bible contains many “hard sayings,” many difficult commands, and plenty of convicting truths. Being the Holy Book, it will inevitably point out our unholiness with piercing accuracy. Don’t run away. Don’t let pride make you hide! That Biblical cutting-down-to-size is what cuts out our sinful habits, if we humbly accept that we both need and deserve the process.

Likewise, some of your personal beliefs, opinions, preferences, ideas, etc., being formed by the world, will stand opposed or contrary– however minimally– to what it says in God’s Word. You may laugh this off as mistranslation or “outdated doctrine” or the like, trying to justify yourself and validate all your thoughts instead, forgetting that you are terribly fallible and prone to commit error every moment. When your viewpoint clashes with that of Scripture, you get off that high hill of yours and seek a different vantage point. When your own “book” of rules disagrees with the one Good Book, you tear your tome apart at the very spine. I use brutal language because we cannot be mincing or hesitant in these matters. There is One Truth that is God, and if we encounter opposition to it in ourselves, however “minor,” it is still a lie in the face of God and it must be removed and replaced.

Lastly, we live in the last days. The Church, though her heart is safeguarded as the Bride of Christ, nevertheless is maintained by thousands of human sons & daughters who maim their Lord’s teachings by their own errors, by gutless lies and social pride and moral laxity. Your local church is not exempt from this plague. You must keep your eyes & heart fixed on God’s Word, vigilant for any missteps or malice both within yourself and in your worship community, and like a devout soldier, always ready to defend your Lord’s honor and guard His Church from the enemy, the Liar. Be gentle but firm, courageous but meek, merciful but just– and start with yourself. Get the beam out of your own eye, by the grace of God! Only in true humble piety can you discern dangers in the church, which includes you. If you aren’t properly living as a sheep of His flock, you won’t recognize the impropriety of a wolf… and a true sheep knows their Master’s Voice: a Voice we learn to love through His Word.

Never be afraid of the Bible. Yes, it is full of fearful power, but that power is meant to save! Such is the nature of holiness. Its fire is meant to purify and enlighten! Every word within it has been given for Good. Trust in its heart, and read it constantly. Let it define your entire life, for when this life ends, only the soul who has loved God’s Word will know the Way to life eternal.

At Sinai the voice of God spoke from the midst of the fire, an event that foreshadowed the great advent of the King and Lawgiver Himself, when the Eternal Word would become flesh and dwell with us. Any theology that regards God as entirely transcendent (i.e., God is beyond any analogy with the finite) will have a problem with divine immanence (i.e., God is inherent within the finite), since the highness, holiness, and perfection of God will make Him seem distant, outside of us, far away, and unknown… Incarnational theology, on the other hand, manifests the nearness of God to disclose the divine empathy. Indeed, the LORD became “Immanuel,” “God with us,” to share our mortal condition, to know our pain, and to experience what it means to be wounded by sin, to be abandoned, alienated, forsaken. The “Eternal made flesh” bridges the gap between the realm of the infinitely transcendent One, and the finite world of people lost within their sinful frailty. We therefore celebrate the giving of the Torah both at Sinai and especially the giving of the “Living Torah” at Bethlehem with the birth of Messiah. We rejoice that God is indeed the King and Ruler over all, but we further affirm that God’s authority and rule extends to all worlds– including the realm of our finitude and need.

John J. Parsons

The vine had long been a beloved symbol of Israel… in the Last Supper discourse, on the way to Gethsemane, it acquires a new dimension, the pain of pruning. However, the suffering of Jesus is not the principal point here: [rather, it is that all] disciples of Jesus must be prepared to bear the pain of pruning. The image is a powerful one. To an uninstructed onlooker, the wretched, seemingly lifeless twigs left on the vines appear totally unable to burgeon in a few months into the rich harvest of grapes. The most powerful of all the aspects of the symbol is the sap pulsing through those apparently dead branches. There is all the difference in the world between those docked shoots [still thriving within], and the dead twigs scattered on the ground, [their wild growth availing nothing.Humble] adherence to the vine, to Christ himself, alone gives life to the Church.

Dom Henry Wansbrough; Commentary on John 15

The word ‘commandment’ often implies coercion and regimentation, and ‘obedience’ implies an unwilling or even a sulky child. In the case of God’s commands, however, a commandment is a gift, indicating the way in which love can be expressed; and obedience is a way of seeking to draw closer to God by imitation. The lover seeks to act like the beloved, to be modelled on the qualities which are loved and admired. The commands of God are not random or domineering, but are indications of the ways in which we can draw just a little nearer to the infinite qualities which are seen in the creating and redeeming God. The generosity seen in the beauties of nature and humanity, in the beauty of tolerance and forgiveness, are reflections of the divine qualities. This [humble, constant, compassionate “reflecting”] is how Jesus kept His Father’s commandments and remained in His love, and how we too may do the same.

It might even be said that Jesus needed to suffer so that we might see that God too can endure suffering. Suffering and the supreme suffering of death are human experiences which cannot [derive from] God, [nor can they be said to reflect any quality of divine perfection, for sin and death only entered the human experience through sin]. And so Jesus Himself took them on to share and ennoble these also, [transmuting death itself into a door to life– a paradox only God Himself could accomplish]. Jesus showed His love of the Father and His love of humanity by adopting and enduring the experiences which cannot touch an impassive God– [by being so touched, He proved His tender heart forever.] Such is the full meaning of the love expressed by ‘as the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you.’

Dom Henry Wansbrough; Commentary on John 15:9-17

The prophet Samuel tells the people of Israel that sacrifices and burnt offerings are not what God desires most. What God is really looking for from His people is obedience, not showing off with public spectacles of religion. [Centuries later,] God [still] asks us simply to obey Him, [except now He has also given us,] to follow, Jesus’ model of love, mercy and humility. [His example of obedience is perfect; we need only imitate Him through love. We couldn’t have simpler directions! Nevertheless,] we live in a time when churches can get sidetracked [from simplicity, becoming preoccupied] with putting on events or running programmes that are focused ‘inwards’– [prioritizing their own immediate needs over any acts of mercy]. Perhaps these are the bold 'burnt offerings’ of today? [After all, no matter how impressive the architecture, financial resources, public image, or social life of our church may be, if these things are not being used to actively obey God’s person-focused commandments, they mean nothing to Him.]

[Today, consider God’s true wants from us and ask:] How do we live out our faith in a practical way that pleases God most? [Have we done so today?] How do we become outward-facing churches and Christians, [making the service of God and His people the ultimate motive and end goal of all our choices?] God is looking for Christians who are willing to reach out to those in need [whenever we encounter their needs, not just when it’s 'convenient’]. How do you respond when you see those who are a pariah, [someone rejected or ridiculed even by fellow members of the faith? How do you meet the sick, the imprisoned, the homeless, the addict, the refugee? How do you act to soothe those who are afraid, lost, hopeless, disabled,] poor or in pain? [Do you see them all as people, or as projects for your pride? We cannot please God if we are thinking about what will make us look good.] What would it look like for you to look outwards and [selflessly] serve those who are in need of God’s love? After all, how we serve the poor and follow the example of Jesus is the real litmus test for churches and for us as individual Christians. [God’s commandments are to love and serve one another, not to help ourselves].

Mercy Ships

Notice how God chose to reveal Himself to Elijah – “a tiny whispering sound.” Elijah first perceived loud wind, earthquake and fire. But when he heard the tiny whispering sound, he knew the difference. He probably knew the difference by the application of the gift of discernment. The servant of God knew the attributes of his Master.

Seek First Community; Commentary on 1 Kings 19:12

To love Jesus means to keep His commandments. [Such keeping] is not a matter of mere obedience but of loving imitation. [Try as one might, it is impossible to honestly obey anyone unless one also loves them; neither pride nor indifference can even feign the virtues of humility and dedication required to observe another’s commands. On the other hand,] if I love a person, I want to keep that person’s commandments, both out of loyalty and out of respect for that person’s qualities: [for as one who loves will easily discern,] the commandments [given] will reveal and mirror that person’s qualities. So, the Law given by Moses reveals God’s nature by what He commands. Just so, the actions of Jesus reveal His and the Father’s nature: He heals, He loves, He judges, He forgives, He commands. To obey the commands [given by our loving God] is a response in love, [not legalism. To keep them, like a gift, is the natural and necessary consequence of our personal relationship to Him]: we need to do just that.

Dom Henry Wansbrough; Commentary on John 14:15

‘If you ask for bread, your heavenly Father will not give you a stone.’ The sages call this a kal va'chomer inference (i.e., קַל וְחמר, “light and weighty”), namely, that if a light condition is true, then a heavier one is certainly true. Jesus used this kind of reasoning all the time: If God cares for the needs of the birds of the air, how much more (kal va'chomer) will He care for your needs? (Matt. 6:26). If God so clothes the grass of the field, how much more (kal va'chomer) will He clothe you (Matt. 6:30)? If your heavenly Father knows the number of hairs on your head, surely He knows the state of your soul. And if God wants us to walk in righteousness, kal va'chomer does He want us to know His  love. Only God can give to us the love for Him that He fully knows we so desperately need; only God can deliver us from our “disordered loves” to take hold of what is truly essential. All we can do is ask, and keep on asking- even as we struggle on, despite ourselves- until we begin to understand what we really need.It’s as if we are constantly being asked, “Is this what you want?” and our choices confess the truthof what we believe. Only God does the miracle of real change within the human heart- only God can give life from the dead!

John J. Parsons

Not being welcome is your greatest fear. It connects with your birth fear: your fear of not being welcome in this life; and your death fear: your fear of not being welcome in the life after this. It is the deep-seated fear that it would have been better if you had not lived.

[So] here you are, facing the core of the spiritual battle. Are you going to give in to the forces of darkness that say you are not welcome in this life? Or can you trust the voice of the One who came not to condemn you, but to set you free from fear? You have to choose life. At every moment you have to decide to trust the voice that says, “I love you. I knit you together in your mother’s womb” (Psalms 139:13).

Jesus offers you His own most intimate life with the Father… Everything Jesus is saying to you can be summarized in the words “Know that you are welcome.”

Henri J. M. Nouwen

The [Christian] community at Antioch was the first established community of which we hear outside Judaea and Samaria… [and it is in Antioch] that the group received a name, and so became a coherent recognisable entity. [This was an] important step forward in the development of the Church; [after all, even the first] Adam had to name the creatures before their creation could be completed! The Greek name Χριστιανούς (“Christianoi”) has the shape and sound which suggests slight contempt, a sort of nickname. It means, of course, ‘Messianists’, those who distinguished themselves from their fellow-Jews by thinking that the Messiah had actually come.

Dom Henry Wansbrough; Commentary on Acts 11:26

The context of the annual Festival of Dedication of the Temple gives a special meaning to Jesus’ claim [of His divinity in John 10:30]. On this festival of the return of the LORD to his Temple (after its desecration by the Syrian King Antiochus Epiphanes) Jesus is claiming that He Himself is the abode of God. [Indeed,] throughout the Gospel, Jesus has been making His own the institutions of Judaism. At Cana, He takes over the jars of water for Jewish rites of purification, making them the wine of His wedding-feast. Then He goes to Jerusalem and [functionally] replaces the perishable Temple with the Temple which is His Body. He makes the Sabbath His own by working on it as only God may do. He, rather than the manna provided by Moses, is the life-giving Bread from heaven. At Tabernacles, the festival of light and water, He declares that He is the Light of the world and the Source of Living Water. Finally, He will make the Passover His own at the Last Supper, and as the paschal lamb. It is this [record of so acting and speaking with Divinely transmutative religious authority] which gives the context and significance to the claim that ‘I and the Father are one.’ [Tragically, even though] the hostile question of the Jews [sparked] off Jesus’ sayings, [they are still unwilling to accept His unchanging response] and immediately after this passage they take up stones to throw at Him, [only misunderstanding] His claim to be one with the Father as blasphemy [rather than Truth].

Dom Henry Wansbrough; Commentary on John 10:22-30

[Acts 11:1-18] is not the actual [or ‘real-time’] narration in Acts of the conversion of Cornelius– [that is recorded in 10:1-29–] but Peter’s rendering of it to the community [of Jewish converts to Christianity] when he is justifying his action [of not only visiting but also eating with the Gentiles]. Like the story of Paul’s conversion, this story therefore occurs three times in Acts– [first as narrative, then twice again as speech–]showing the importance of this moment when the first gentile is received into the Church, [and the need to continually proclaim this universal heart of the Good News]. Nevertheless, Peter is humble and witty enough to include his little tiff with the Voice from heaven, whose liberalism so scandalised him, and which [therefore] ended up by roundly ticking him off for his criticism of God’s creation [as 'unclean’]! Peter also amusingly stresses that the Holy Spirit, and not himself, was responsible for the acceptance of the first gentile: in the original account the Spirit merely 'interrupted’ Peter (10:44), whereas now Peter [himself] says, [in effect, that his speech was neither a requirement nor a cause for grace– emphasizing that] he hardly had time to begin speaking when the Spirit poured down!

Dom Henry Wansbrough; Commentary on Acts 11:1-18

What has Adam’s guilt got to do with us? Why are we held responsible for his sin, when we were not even born when he committed it? Did not God say: “The parents will not die for the children, nor the children for the parents, but the soul which has sinned, it shall die.” How, then, shall we defend this doctrine [of original sin? Let us begin by affirming that] the soul [which] has sinned [shall] die. We [all] have become sinners because of Adam’s disobedience in the following manner: After he fell into sin and surrendered to corruption, impure lusts invaded the nature of his flesh, and at the same time [his nature was infected,] the ‘evil law’ of [all future mankind’s] members was born. For our nature contracted the disease of sin because of the disobedience of one man, that is, Adam, and thus many became sinners [by nature]. This was not because they sinned along with Adam, because they did not then exist, but because they had the same nature as Adam, which, [by failing to honor the law of God,] fell under the law of sin. Thus, just as human nature acquired the weakness of corruption 'in’ Adam because of [his] disobedience, [whereupon] evil desires invaded it, so the same nature was later set free by Christ, who was obedient to God the Father and did not commit sin– [restoring & preserving forever, through His sharing in human nature, the righteous purity that Adam lost].

Saint Cyril of Alexandria

When a man is born, he is already born with death, because he contracts sin from Adam. [Thus] everyone, even little children, have ‘broken God’s covenant’, not indeed in virtue of any personal action, but in virtue of mankind’s common origin in that single ancestor, in [whose corrupted nature] all have sinned. As infants cannot help being descended from Adam, so they cannot help being touched by the same sin, unless they are set free from its guilt by the baptism of Christ, [the new Adam]. All men for whom Christ died, died in the sin of the first Adam, and all who are baptized into Christ die to sin, [and to that carnal life ruled by it]. No one is born without the intervention of carnal concupiscence, which is inherited from the first Man, who is Adam; and no one is reborn without the intervention of spiritual grace, which is given by the second Man, who is Christ.

Saint Augustine of Hippo; Commentary on Romans 5

How [do] we have access to grace through our Lord Jesus Christ? The Savior Himself tells us: “I am the Door,” and “No one comes to the Father except by Me.” …This Door is the truth, and liars cannot enter in by the door of truth. Again, this Door is righteousness, and the unrighteous cannot enter in by it. The Door Himself says: “Learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart.” So neither the irascible nor the proud can enter in by the door of humility and gentleness. Therefore, if anyone wants to have access to the grace of God– which, according to the word of the apostle, comes through our Lord Jesus Christ, and in which Paul and those like him claim to stand– it is essential that he be cleansed of all [vices, for all are opposed to Christ]. Otherwise, those who do what is contrary to Christ will not be allowed to go in by that Door, which will remain closed [against such corruption,] and [so justly] keep out those who are incompatible with Him.

Origen of Alexandria

What does it mean to have peace? Some say that it means that we should not fall out with one another because of disagreements over the law. But it seems to me that [to be at peace truly] means… that we should stop sinning and not go back to the way we used to live, for that is to make war with God. How is this possible? [Believe that] not only is it possible, it is also reasonable. For if God reconciled us to Himself [through Christ] when we were in open warfare with Him, it is surely reasonable that we should be able to remain in [such] a state of reconciliation [by remaining also in Christ].

Saint John Chrysostom

cassianus:

There are operations in the supernatural order in which we work with our Lord and cooperate with Him in them. But there are others of a very intimate nature in which the one thing He asks of us is that we do not hinder Him. And in order that we do not impede Him, He gives us a spiritual anesthetic — that is, desolation, since it is a kind of paralysis of the spirit which renders us helpless.


In time of spiritual dryness, souls often think as follows: “I go to prayer, and I do nothing, absolutely nothing.” The soul does nothing, but God does a great deal, although the soul may not be aware of His secret and mysterious operations. But when the period of trial passes, we find that we are different. Without our knowing how or when, a profound change was wrought in us: our love is more solid; our virtue has become stronger. According to the familiar expression, we have come out of the trial “as new.” What does it matter that those afflictions may endure for years on end, if finally the soul emerges as new, fit to be united with God and to realize fully the role it was destined to fill on earth?


Desolation, then, is the indispensable means whereby the soul attains its transformation in Jesus, the supreme goal and the perfection of holiness. We think, perhaps, that transformation in Jesus is something that we can achieve with God’s help. But no. Simply having God’s help is not sufficient. God alone can accomplish it, and the only help that we can give Him is to allow Him a free hand, not to impede Him.


We must make our choice: either we choose transformation, and then we also accept the desolation without which it cannot be arrived at; or we refuse desolation, and then we must also reject transformation and thus give ourselves over to dragging out our life in a common mediocrity.


Desolation is a cross, but one of the most precious, one of the most divine. It is not wrought by the hand of men, but by God Himself. It is a work of the Holy Spirit. The trial, therefore, is made in accordance with the measure of each soul, perfectly fitted to its circumstances, requirements, and mission, and to the degree of perfection to which God has destined it. Hence, trial possesses an eminently sanctifying power.


Let us open our arms to it, then, and salute it with the same cry as the Church uses: “Hail, O Cross, our only hope!” In this way, by reason of all that has been said concerning spiritual afflictions, this truth is once more established: God’s ways are not our ways.


Servant of God Archbishop Luiz Martinez

“Worshipping the Hidden God”

Spiritual desolation is terrifying; God feels utterly absent, distant, unreal; all memories of consolation become untranslatable or inaccessible. The heart becomes dry and hollow; prayer suffers, joy withers, peace disappears. How, then, can this profound numbing of the soul benefit us? How can such a chasm of emptiness possibly do us any good?

That’s what this quote clarifies. That’s the paradox. It doesn’t.

Desolation is the anaesthetic. That’s it’s true job. But God is the surgeon.

When we are desolate, we still know God is real; we still have faith burned into our being, even if we feel nothing, even if doubts and fears plague us nonstop. We hope against hope. We cling to what we cannot even sense anymore, and yet we cannot ever deny it outright. Even collapsed under the weight of our cross, we know Someone gave it to us for a Good Reason, and if that raw fact is ALL we have to go on as we hobble on to Calvary, then so be it; it is enough. It must be enough, if it is all we were given. God knows. We don’t. That’s the point.

We forget that we’re not the ones doing the work. When we are anesthetized, desolate, we cease striving after our own notions of success. We stop taking on more than our share, we abandon ambition, we no longer try to guess or even edit God’s plan for our life. We are like unruly yet beloved children, who genuinely want to help Him with the home repairs but keep losing the tools and touching all the wet paint… we don’t understand when He says “no,” even though He says it with love. We can’t quite grasp the truth of our “not knowing”– of our not even being able to know. We just want to help. Come on, Dad, let me plug in the wires. Let me hold the drill. It looks so easy! But pride is lurking, and ultimately the only way to humble our childish enthusiasm is to give us a time-out. Out of the room, away from Dad, unable to interfere. Out of love.

Soon enough, He will come and get us, and show us what beautiful work He has done… all for us! Allwithin us! So we must doggedly hold on to faith, and hope, and charity, even if just with our feeble will– no feelings, no fervor, just a weak but honest resolution to not give up on God. Wait one more day. One more. One more. Keep waiting. Keep trusting. He remembers you, of course! He is working on you, remember? You’re just under anaesthetic for a while. The numbness is not permanent. Be patient, beloved. Carry the cross with gratitude. It is, truly, our only hope, even in this.

Transformation requires desolation. Remember that. So it was with Christ; so it must be with us.

Re-read the Archbishop’s words and take them deeply to heart. You need this understanding, this acceptance. Sometimes, for the greatest good of our souls, all we can do is let ourselves be put aside so God can do His work. This takes immense trust, and love, and humility. Tell God you are willing. Pray fervently for the grace. Then… well, “count backwards from 100”, as they say. Let God decide when to work. Do not impede Him, even in good will. Surrender to that sanctified numbness. And wait on the Lord.

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