“The same fire burns the lost – and the saved.” (Saint Augustine of Hippo).
Saint Josemaría Escriva said, “When you approach the Tabernacle, remember that He has been waiting for you for twenty centuries”.
And I have been reflecting on those words today… You see I do a lot of praying. And what that really means is that I do a lot of begging. I ask for loved ones to be healed, for my own sinful nature to be improved. I pray for my husband and my children, my siblings and my parents. I pray for those who have nobody to pray for them and I pray for those who pray for others.
Sometimes, I run through a list of the people who I have promised to pray for and at other times, I simply open my mind to God and allow my Beloved Holy Spirit to inspire me with the prayers needed and the people for whom I am required to pray…
In the Catechism of the Catholic Church we are told that we should pray by saying “Thy Will be Done” so that the Will of God will be done. And I have been reflecting on that today, because it seems – at first – that such a prayer is pointless. After all, God’s Will is unchanging and therefore, His Will could not be moved by my own prayers…
And yet, the Catechism explains at number 2611, “When we pray, ‘Thy will be done’, we do not change or strengthen the will of God, but we do change and strengthen ourselves. Such prayer disposes our hearts to do the will of the Father.”
Thus, though my human nature wishes to say “MY will be done” such prayer as that conditions me to be able to say instead “THY Will be done”. Christ demonstrated this struggle to us in the Garden of Gethsemane when he resisted the natural human instinct for self-preservation, the natural human dread of pain and death. “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.” (Matthew 26:39).
For Heaven is not open for everyone… “Not every one who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).
And I have been thinking about that, because Saint Augustine of Hippo said, “The same fire burns the lost – and the saved.”
And that fire is the fire of God’s Will. Should I chose to surrender myself to the Holy Will of God, then I shall burn with the fire of suffering and experience the salvation that is only possible on the Cross. But… Should I resist the Holy Will of God, then my soul shall burn in an eternal pit of fire and shall never be saved.
And when I think about that today, it occurs to me that my prayers should never be to avoid the fire – instead, according to the Holy Will of God, my prayers should be to receive the Grace to be able to endure the burning…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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