“Always loving, believing and hoping, and never forgetting that Our Lord will work all the miracles we need, if and when we need them.” (Saint Josemaria, “Friends of God”, at 105).
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I recently had a conversation with a friend who told me that his wife was experiencing extreme anxiety. She is very very worried. And that worry is expressed as her fear of all the possible things that could go wrong in her life. And because this fear and this worry is so significant she is unable to continue to live a normal life because she is constantly held-back and fixated by her worries…
And although this news was very sad for me to hear and although I have not had the same experience in my life, there is a part of me that understands this worry.
You see, I am a natural worrier. And so is my second son. Now, we do not have clinical anxiety, but we certainly do tend to worry about things.
The other day we were at the beach, and my second son suddenly began to worry that there were sharks in the water. And for a few moments there he was too scared to step foot in that water.
So, we did what we always do when things are frightening, we turned to God. And I prayed with him – a quick little prayer – to his Guardian Angel for protection. And armed with that protection he spent a day in the ocean without a care in the world.
And I have been thinking about that today. Saint Josemaria wrote in “The Way” at 702, “You are worried. Listen: happen what may in your interior life or in the world that surrounds you, never forget that the importance of events or of people is very relative. Take things calmly; let time pass; and then, as you view persons and happenings dispassionately and from afar, you will acquire the perspective that will enable you to see each thing in its proper place and in its true size. If you do this, you will be more objective and you will spare yourself many causes of anxiety.
Because I have come to realise that all fear is from the Evil One and all peace is from God, who is the “Way, the Truth and the Life.” (John 14:6). And in this way, we can know that we are with God who is “always loving, believing and hoping, and never forgetting that Our Lord will work all the miracles we need, if and when we need them.” (Saint Josemaria, “Friends of God”, at 105).
For those miracles surround me like stars in the sky. And the world is a wonder, and my life is a gift and my worries are worthless. For my Beloved is looking after me in a way that I could never possibly imagine and in a way that I could never look after myself. And when I think about that today it seems to me that I am blessed. Because my God is an awesome God!
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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