“Far away on the horizon heaven seems to meet the earth. Do not forget that where heaven and earth really meet is in the heart of a child of God.” (Saint Josemaria, “Furrow”, page 309).
Sometimes it is really hard to try my best. Sometimes I just really get irritated with someone or with the task itself. Sometimes I am tried or hungry or lazy or bored. And when that happens, I just sometimes do not feel like really putting in a decent effort to get things done. And because I am not putting in a decent effort, the result is that I rarely get things done in a manner that is acceptable. When that happens, I make mistakes that I would not otherwise have made. I get more impatient, and I get more careless and sloppier, and the end result is always less than satisfactory.
And this applies if I do this with my disciplining of my children, or my listening to my husband, or cooking a meal or completing a task at work or for a loved one.
And I have been thinking about that. You see, the Blessed Virgin lived a very ordinary life. She did not look like the Queen of Heaven when she walked the Earth. She looked like a wife, then a widow, and a mother. She cooked the food and cleaned the home and followed her Son.
And yet, for those who really knew her she would have looked so different. Because everything that she did, she did with GREAT love. The Blessed Virgin put all her love into every single activity that she completed. She put all her love – without reserve – into the washing and the cooking and the fetching the water. She put all her love – without reserve – into listening to others and helping them when they needed it. She put all her love – without reserve – into every moment of every thing in her everyday life.
Saint Josemaria wrote in “Furrow” at page 309, “Far away on the horizon heaven seems to meet the earth. Do not forget that where heaven and earth really meet is in the heart of a child of God.”
He added further, “I assure you, my sons and daughters, that when a Christian carries out with love the most insignificant everyday action, that action overflows with the transcendence of God. That is why I have told you repeatedly, and hammered away once and again on the idea that the Christian vocation consists of making heroic verse out of the prose of each day. Heaven and earth seem to merge, my sons and daughters, on the horizon. But where they really meet is in your hearts, when you sanctify your everyday lives.” (Saint Josemaria, “Conversations”, p.116)
And this is significant. Because it means that when I am holding onto the last shred of my patience and when I am trying my best to hold something in reserve so that I will not lose my sanity in the everyday life of giving, I should instead look to the example of the Blessed Virgin, who left nothing in reserve, and who continues to love eternally – with everything that she is…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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