Voluntary Attachments

From Divine Intimacy, #79

"'To be perfectly united to God by love and will, the soul must first be cleansed of all appetites of the will, even the smallest.' (Ascent of Mt Carmel I, 11,3)... There is a real mushroom-bed of 'appetites' and disordered inclinations from which the soul will not free itself, precisely because it is attached to the meager satisfaction which it finds in these wretched things. It is 'attached' to them; that is why it cannot make the decision to give them up completely. These are precisely the 'habitual voluntary appetites' of which St. John of the Cross says, 'One single unmortified appetite is sufficient to fetter the soul.'"

"My God, give me the light necessary to recognize in myself all that keeps me from union with You. Grant me the light to recognize all the attachments which still bind me to creatures, and especially those which are most displeasing to You because they proceed directly from pride and self-love. In the secrecy of my heart You teach me sweetly and gently, You show me clearly that I am still far from conforming my will to Yours, in all things and for all things....You know, O Lord, that I have great need of Your help, for I am too attached to myself to be capable of struggling against my disordered affections, of giving up so many little pleasures which feed my egotism. I love myself too much to sacrifice what separates me from You. Then, let me present myself to You, O Lord, as a sick person to a surgeon; plunge the knife into my soul, cut away and destroy all that displeases You and that is not in accord with Your will."

Our Lady of Lourdes

"Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared; Then will the lame leap like a stage, then the tongue of the dumb will sing. Streams will burst forth in the desert, and rivers in the steppe. The burning sands will become pools, and the thirsty ground, springs of water." Is. 35:5-7

There are special graces offered on feast days. Ask and you shall receive...
Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes 2-11

Interior Life

"God has promised that we will always have access to all the help we need...If He permits us to experience great temptations or setbacks, the Lord will give us still greater help to overcome them. Then those things that seem to retard our struggle for holiness, or even make succeeding in it seem impossible, will become the cause of spiritual progress...Lord, we say to him in our prayer, make us thirst for you even more intensely than the man dying in the desert thirsts for water!" (p. 139)

"There are various reasons that cause us to make scant progress in the interior life, and even to lose ground and give way to discouragement. However, these reasons can be reduced to just a few: carelessness, negligence in little things connected with service to God and friendship with Him; drawing back from the sacrifices He asks of us." (p.140)

--from In Conversation With God, Vol.3

The Kingdom at Hand

The Christian life is first of all a personal relationship between each one of us and God. I believe...that the Christian life is essentially a friendship, a love, that each one of us has been called by his name, and that at the beginning of every conversion there is this encounter...an encounter with an adorable being, demanding, tenacious, whom nothing discourages, and to whom we prefer so many creatures whom we shortly forsake or who forsake us. But he is always there, never so close to us as when, we believe him to be absent, awaiting his hour which, in the case of many men, is unfortunately the last, when there is no longer any possibility of betrayal.
-Magnificat: January 23, page 323

Unity

Disharmony is the great curse of mankind. It is present to some degree in all institutions and human relationships. This is true even of the Church. But Christ prayed that all his people might be one (Jn 17:11). Let us be people of unity and reconciliation in the Chruch, in the world, and in all our relationships.
-Magnificat, 1/22/11 pg 311

Where is your God?

"Deep calls to deep in the roar of your torrents. All your waves and breakers sweep over me. At dawn may the Lord bestow faithful love that I may sing praise through the night, praise to the God of my life."
--Psalm 42: 8-9

The answer to those who reproach the psalmist with "Where is your God?" -- He is busy, in the depths of my soul. He is about a work in me that my intellect would only hinder, so he goes deep where the mind cannot follow, and there He restores my soul. Like Job, I can know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end He will reign upon the earth. Herein lies my hope and therefor I will praise Him.

Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, in The Mystery of God’s Word
p. 67:…”reflecting on, or contemplating, the Word (the fixing of our gaze,” of lingering over the Word). In this we assimilate the Word of God, we interiorize it, we enter into living, personal contact with it, we allow it to permeate us through and through, to illuminate our entire interior universe with its light: our thoughts, affections, and desires.”

p. 72: “All the Scriptures were written for this purpose: that human beings might grasp how much God loves them and grasp it so as to become inflamed with love for him.”

p. 72: “Knowledge of God without knowledge of self leads to presumption; knowledge of self without knowledge of God leads to despair.”

p.72: “a continual purifying of the heart is needed for us to welcome the Word.”