Child

It occurs to me today to ask for the Grace to be pleasing to my Beloved – King of the Universe – for it is only in pleasing Him that I could ever be his worthy Child and Temple…

Baptism of Christ in the River Jordan by John (David Zelenka)

I have three children on this earth and one little one in Heaven. And if God had allowed me the grace to have more children, I would have had them very gladly.

I am perhaps not the best mother in the world – and I make many many mistakes. But I am the most well intentioned – albeit the most imperfect – mother in the whole world.

And I have been thinking about my role as mother as I have been thinking about my role as a child today…

You see, in Baptism I became a child of God… Through baptism, the Holy Spirit came into my soul and took possession of it, making me His temple. And I have been thinking about that today.

I would never, for example, walk into a church and stand in front of the Blessed Sacrament and swear or gossip. I would never speak of immoral things or act with malice towards another inside a Holy Church. And I have been thinking about that today, because it occurs to me that though I would never disrespect my Lord and God inside His Holy Church, I very often do just that inside my own heart and soul. And I do it in a way that the Holy Spirit bears witness to inside the Temple of my soul, which is HIS TEMPLE through the sacrament of Baptism.

In “The Forge at 622, Saint Josemaria wrote, “Baptism makes us fideles, faithful. This is a word that was used ‑‑ like sancti, the saints ‑‑ by the first followers of Jesus to refer to one another. These words are still used today: we speak of the faithful of the Church. Think about this.”

And I remember that I am a child of God and that means that I have a duty to be constantly vigilant of my thoughts and words and deeds. After all, if I show respect to the Almighty God when He is outside me and I am inside His Holy Church, how much more respect do I owe Him when He lives INSIDE MY SOUL, which He has made HIS TEMPLE?

And it shames me to think how often I shut Him out and pretend that He is not within me. It shames me to think of how many times I close my mind to my Beloved because it would rather just sin. It shames me to realise how many times I willingly offend Him in my thoughts and words and deeds, simply because I can.

And it occurs to me today to ask for the Grace to be pleasing to my Beloved – King of the Universe – for it is only in pleasing Him that I could ever be his worthy Child and Temple…

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.