I Am Loved
Dear Lord, recently I read of someone who felt that other people’s profiles were drawn in strong black, or in colour with magic markers, but hers was sketched only in light pencil. I sometimes feel like that woman, almost invisible, unimportant. Maybe it goes with seniority! Psychologists tell us that to be truly alive, someone else’s loving gaze is needed: otherwise we can never blossom to our full potential. I know you do your best to provide everyone with good parents, they’re a great blessing to a child, but of course this doesn’t always happen. You also send us good grandparents, relatives, friends who help us to believe we are worthwhile. They are escorts of your loving care. You want us to receive your great gift, the conviction that we are OK, that we are loved and that we matter.
May your word today convince me that I am good, worthwhile, lovable and wonderful; that I am your beloved, your unique creation, the apple of your eye. May I believe that, no matter what, you love me
infinitely, that you embrace me tenderly and live within me and that you have dreams for me that go way beyond my own. For you, I will always be important! My core identity is that I am your beloved! You are, so to speak, part of my DNA.
Excerpted from I Am Infinitely Loved by Brian Grogan SJ
Read moreRelational Love
We live in an age that is fascinated by identity. There is ongoing debate on gender identity.
To understand who we are is a deep and healthy human need. So many people are not at home in their own skins and the application of labels can be deeply unhelpful. All of this sounds like serious inner
work – and it is! But the Christian believes we need to turn outwards, not gaze inwards at the self. In the age of the selfie, this is quite a challenge.
We start from a basic belief that every human being is made in the image of God; in this case, a relational God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Trinity). At the very heart of God are mutual relations between the three. From what I gather, neuroscience also holds that the brain is deeply social. Babies’ brains take shape when they sense and experience loving interaction. They are intensely social little people. Their journey to self-discovery is always made in the company of others. Often we hear people talking about ‘my other half’, or somebody who is or was ‘a part of me’. The way we speak about love is always relational. Unconsciously we use the language of the Trinity; we sense that somebody else makes us complete. Two people together are exclusive, but add a third, equal love and what do we have? A
community, a communion of love that is inclusive. You will have many glimpses of the Trinity in your life … just be open to them.
Excerpted from The Sacred Heart Messenger, December 2021, Tom Cox
Read moreThe Comfort of Knowing that God is Near
I knew a man who fought cancer to the end. He took to every type of possible healing. We had all been told it wouldn’t work. I know another who just opened himself to it all and wouldn’t even take chemo. These are different approaches to suffering. One fought it and the other accepted. I admired the both of them.
Many people go into hospital wondering about their illness, and worry that death might be close. That’s part of life. As for Jesus: it’s a fearful time, confusing, and sometimes draws us into more faith. We can transform our pain into suffering, and find some great graces in it. There is the challenge to find new life in it. Pain becomes suffering. Jesus doesn’t want the chalice of the garden, but he allows it become fully part of him so that his inner strength is big! It doesn’t mean a simplistic approach, rather it means an acceptance of darkness in life.
Jesus found in his passion that God the Father is near. This can be our way and we can find that through helping each other. We can help people at times of suffering – listening, being present. We find this in
our hearts, not in books – we find that we can grow through suffering and we realise on a bad day that peace invades the soul, or that there is a bright light in the darkness.
Excerpted from Gospel Reflections for Sundays of Year B by Donal Neary SJ
Read moreA ‘Flavour’ of the Gospel
During the month of October, we are invited to examine how we can be missionary disciples, sending out a message of faith, hope and love. In other words, what does it mean for our lives to have the ‘flavour of the Gospel’? The Gospels offer a blueprint for all those who consider themselves followers of Christ. Do we have a ‘taste’ for God, an ability to savour God’s presence in the world and God’s goodness in all those we meet? To love as Jesus loved, to have a ‘flavour of the Gospel’, means to see everyone through the eyes of our loving God and to treat them as Jesus did with immediate and generous welcome. We will notice in particular that Jesus is always on the side of those who are marginalised, those whom society wants to condemn.
Excerpted from The Sacred Heart Messenger, October 2021, Jane Mellett and Tríona Doherty
Read moreThe Importance of Saying Yes
Good often comes from a ‘Yes’ approach to life, a can-do approach. Part of the growth in wisdom we are invited to develop is knowing how to discern between what should be said ‘Yes’ to and what should be said ‘No’ to.
In our Christian tradition we recognise and magnify Mary’s ‘Yes’. She said ‘Yes’ to God and her only question was ‘How will this be done?’ No preconditions, no worries, no bargaining, no self-indulgence. She took a ‘Yes’ approach to life, and what a life that was!
Excerpted from Emerging from the Mess by Brendan McManus SJ and Jim Deeds (p. 64)
Read moreLife as a Gift
Why do we so often fail to see everything and everyone we are given as gifts? Why do we so easily mistreat others as though their love, loyalty and usefulness are somehow owed to us? I believe this failure of sight is our way of avoiding the vulnerability of love: Whether we are falling in love with a person, a community of people, a job, or a way of life, love makes us vulnerable. It is scary to fall in love and even scarier when I recognise that another person is not mine but God’s. Even the most faithful spouse is not mine forever, because it is possible that he may die before I do. My sweet toddler will grow up to have an independent life. My best friend could move away. When we let go of what we believe we are owed and focus instead on ourselves as recipients of unearned gifts, we become freer to forgive. Relationships stop being about what we are owed. Rather, they become interactions freely offered and freely given. This frees us to forgive.
Excerpted from The Ignatian Guide to Forgiveness by Marina Berzins McCoy (p.60)
Read moreHeart, Intelligence and Will
In the search for what is really important, heart and reason are not incompatible. Will also has its place. Discernment presupposes a whole balance between these three human facilities.
Experience shows us that not every pleasant feeling is a reliable signpost. Conversely, it turns out that unpleasant feelings can sometimes point the way to greater happiness. What do you do when you are in crisis and you yo-yo from one feeling to another and back again? Is discernment something that is practised only at major stages of life? Or is it something you can also do in everyday life? What do you do when you disagree with your loved ones about a particular problem and yet you have to come to a decision? As a parent, how can you help your child to discern? Can you discern when in doubt?
Excerpted from Trust Your Feelings by Nikolaas Sintobin SJ (p.11)
Read moreThe ‘Slow Work of God’
The Good News is that the spirit dwells within each one of us and we are all pilgrims on a journey to God. The spirit is continually at work in our lives and every experience is an opportunity for growth and for a deepening of life within us. However, the problem can be that sometimes we don’t recognise that ‘God comes to us disguised as our life’ (Richard Rohr) and we can’t believe that our experience could be the place of divine encounter, having meaning. Often, too, we face enormously challenging situations of illness, suffering and loss, that seem initially too awful and distressing to have any other significance. Finding God in the messy bits and pieces of our lives is enormously challenging. Many prefer to escape in sanitised, blissful and ‘holy’ experiences far removed from the daily hubris that surrounds us. The challenge remains to believe that God is with us and while not causing life’s chaos and unpredictability, works powerfully to shape and mould us through these experiences.
Excerpted from Discover God Daily by Brendan McManus SJ and Jim Deeds (p.6)
Read moreDealing with Mistakes
There are lots of examples of where Jesus, when faced with imperfections of those around him, showed mercy and compassion and willed that the person learned from their mistakes and grew into a better way of being. In other and more modern words, he cut them a break and looked kindly on them.
No day is perfect. No person is perfect. Mistakes and failures are part of the journey. We grow and learn much more in the face of being cut a break and looked on kindly than judgement and being shut out.
Excerpted from Emerging from the Mess by Brendan McManus SJ and Jim Deeds (pp.30-31)
Read moreWhat You Really Want or Desire
We have lots of wants; we always want things that we think will make us happy, but these are often not our deepest desires. My deepest desires are not about wants. Wants often come from ‘the surface’ and can be superficial. They usually involve ‘things’. The more important question is about our deepest desires, our dreams, what will bring us true happiness. They come from a place way below the surface or the superficial things. They come from a place we sometimes don’t even really understand.
Ignatius said that we can find God in our deepest desires. That’s a remarkable statement if we carry it through to practice. Spending time dreaming about our deepest desires might just bring us into a sacred space.
Excerpted from Emerging from the Mess by Brendan McManus SJ and Jim Deeds (p.44)
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