“Trust in God’s Love” by Colleen O’Sullivan

“Trust in God’s Love” by Colleen O’Sullivan 

Memorial of Saint Pius of Pietrelcina, Priest

(G)ive me neither poverty nor riches; provide me only with the food I need  (Proverbs 30:8bc)

 

He said to them, “Take nothing for the journey, neither walking stick, nor sack, nor food, nor money, and let no one take a second tunic.  Whatever house you enter, stay there and leave from there. And as for those who do not welcome you, when you leave that town, shake the dust from your feet in testimony against them.” (Luke 9:3-5)

Piety

Suscipe

-       St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556)

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,
my memory, my understanding,
and my entire will,
All I have and call my own.

You have given all to me.
To you, Lord, I return it.

Everything is yours; do with it what you will.
Give me only your love and your grace,
That is enough for me.

For a beautiful vocal version of the Suscipe, listen to John Foley’s Take Lord Receive,  sung by Natalie Lelyo.   

Study

The writer, in our reading from Proverbs, asks the Lord to provide him only with sustenance for the day at hand.  Don’t make me wealthy, Lord, he writes, for I might become enamored of money and forget all about you.   On the other hand, don’t cast me into poverty, either. Abject poverty might cause me to do unthinkable things to survive.  I ask only for what I need today, for this moment in which I find myself, nothing more and nothing less. 

If only we all had that much trust.  It would be wonderful if we could echo the words of the Suscipe prayer and mean them.  God, your love and your grace are enough for me.  Every day I pray that one day I might say those words and truly mean them.  In the meantime, it’s a struggle to have that kind of faith and trust in our God.   

In today’s Gospel, Jesus sends his disciples out on their own for the first time.  They depart with practically nothing, not even a scrap of food.  All they are allowed to take along is the power given them by Jesus to cast out demons and heal illnesses, as well as some advice on knowing when to leave a place and move on.  They go out unencumbered and discover that Jesus had given them all they needed!  They were able to heal in Jesus’ name.

Action

In the Our Father, we ask God to “give us this day our daily bread,” enough to sustain us for the next 24 hours.  I often feel like a fraud when I pray those words.  Yes, please give me what I need, but, Lord, there are other things I’d like to ask you for, as well. 

Maybe the disciples were initially afraid to go out into the villages with so little.  They did as Jesus asked, however, and discovered that Jesus’ words of empowerment, hist love, and grace were sufficient for their needs.  They came home full of joy! 

Sometimes we equate God’s love and grace with everything going well in our lives.  When we look back over our faith journeys, though, I think we discover that God’s love and grace often are manifest through the sufferings in our lives as well.  That was true for the saint we remember today, St. Pius of Pietrelcina or Padre Pio, as he was and is commonly known.  His life wasn’t easy.  He lived through the hardships of both World Wars I and II.  He suffered at times from poor health.  For many years, just as with other saints, his experiences were treated with great suspicion.   He was examined by church authorities more than once on account of the apparitions he saw and the stigmata inflicted upon him.   

It’s tempting to want to control our lives.  But God is the one in control, and God asks us to trust in the divine love and grace bestowed upon us.  That’s a thought to ponder during our prayer time today.