“God
Is with Us” by Melanie Rigney (@melanierigney)
Thus says the LORD of hosts: In those
days ten men of every nationality, speaking different tongues, shall take hold,
yes, take hold of every Jew by the edge of his garment and say, "Let us go
with you, for we have heard that God is with you." (Zechariah
8:20-23)
God is with us. (Zechariah
8:23)
On the way, they entered
a Samaritan village to prepare for his reception there, but they would not
welcome him because the destination of his journey was Jerusalem. When the
disciples James and John saw this they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call
down fire from heaven to consume them?” Jesus turned and rebuked them, and they
journeyed to another village. (Luke 9:52-56)
Piety
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| Wikimedia: scansione effettuata da me medesimo [Public domain] |
I do not well see what more I shall have in Heaven than now.
… I shall see the good God, it is true; but as to being with Him, I am wholly
with Him already upon earth. (Therese of Lisieux, Story of a Soul)
Study
My favorite St. Therese story comes
before she went to Carmel, before she named her philosophy The Little Way, and
long before anyone beyond her family gave much thought to the girl with the sad
eyes.
Therese was spoiled, which is
understandable. She was the youngest of the five Martin sisters, and her mother
had died of cancer before Therese was five.
At Christmas 1886, she was almost
fourteen, well past the age when most French children had stopped putting out
their shoes for gifts. But Therese was, well, Therese. She liked presents, the
household in many ways marched to her tune, and so out the shoes went.
Therese was upstairs when she heard
her father say he hoped this would finally be the last year for this custom.
She was ready to default to drama, but one of her sisters advised her to wait a
minute. And in that minute, Therese’s heart and soul were changed.
When she went downstairs, she gave
no indication she had heard the comment. She was kind, pleasant, playful, and
grateful. Within two years, Therese would be a Carmelite postulant.
The opportunity for conversion
always lies within us. The Lord holds out His hand again and again and again,
regardless of the number of times we reject it. He never tires of gently asking
us to grow closer to Him. And I think if a willful, pampered child can say yes
to resisting her kneejerk reaction to a challenging situation… so can I.
Action
Wait a minute
today before reacting to a thoughtless comment. Later, pray for the person who
made it.
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