“Let us love God, but with the strength of our arms, in the sweat of our brow.” (Saint Vincent de Paul).
I have been reflecting on voluntary sacrifices.
You see, it is Lent, and I am – and always have been – terrible at voluntary sacrifices. I can never quite manage to “stick with it” so to speak. Of all the people in the world, I start off with the best of intentions, and then – inevitably – I completely lose direction and find myself unable to proceed with anything useful or sensible when the time comes to actually make a move…
And I have been thinking about that today.
You see, with all the best of intentions, I begin Lent promising to abstain from meat on certain days, or to fast in the mornings, or to offer up my bad temper and anger and be productive rather than reactive. And within a day or two, I have “fallen off the wagon” so to speak, and I am either completely attuned to the opposite of my intention, or I have completely given up on my ability to complete even the smallest voluntary sacrifice.
And I have been reflecting on this today, because I recently read the words of a wonderful Saint – Saint Vincent de Paul, who said, “Let us love God, but with the strength of our arms, in the sweat of our brow.”
And I have been reflecting on the wisdom in those words. You see, there are plenty of voluntary sacrifices that I can make in the involuntary elements of my life. For example, as a wife and mother, I could always use an added dose of patience. And what a sacrifice it could be to actually BE patient when everything in my being screams out to lose my cool…
Imagine, if I could do my work mindfully and with precision, with all the efforts of my tiny human heart, as an offering to my Beloved. Imagine, if instead of worrying about cutting out this or that from my diet, I could ADD something back in – something like patience, and kindness, and discipline and mercy and compassion. Imagine what a SACRIFCE such as thing as that could be!
For I feel that if I could only do that, I could easily follow the advice that Saint Therese of Lisieux gave in her publication, “Meditations with the Little Flower” at page 87, when she said, “Yes, my heart’s dear one, Jesus, is here with His cross. Since you are one of His favourites, He wants to make you into His likeness; why be afraid that you will not have the strength to carry this cross without a struggle? On the way to Calvary, Jesus did indeed fall three times and you, poor little child, would like to be different from your spouse, would rather not fall a hundred times if necessary to prove your love to Him by getting back up with even more strength than before your fall!”
And it occurs to me today, that if I simply try to add something in, God in His strength and power will do the rest…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
Comments