“Perfection consists in doing His will, in being what He wills us to be.” (Saint Therese of Lisieux).
In my family there are no favourites.
When I was growing up, my mother and father were very very careful not to display any sort of favouritism to any one of their children. Their intention was to keep peace and harmony in the home and family by making sure that nobody felt that they had been favoured or exploited more than anybody else.
My husband and I have tried to mirror that approach with our own children. And it is at times a struggle. After all, as is normal, sometimes, one child or another will behave in a manner that is more challenging to deal with. Sometimes one child or another will cause problems for the rest of the family through their choices and behaviours that mean that the rest of the family must work extra hard to remain equally loving to them and to others.
And the other day I was reading the words of Saint Therese of Lisieux and it got me thinking about favouring…
“I wondered for a long time why God has preferences, why all souls don’t receive an equal amount of graces. I was surprised when I saw Him shower His extraordinary favours on saints who had offended Him, for instance, Saint Paul and Saint Augustine, and whom He forced, so to speak, to accept His graces. When reading the lives of the saints, I was puzzled at seeing how Our Lord was pleased to caress certain ones from the cradle to the grave, helping them with such favours that they were unable to soil the immaculate beauty of their baptismal robe. I wondered why poor savages died in great numbers without even having heard the name of God pronounced.
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Jesus deigned to teach me this mystery. He set before me the book of nature; I understood how all the flowers He has created are beautiful, I understood that if all flowers wanted to be roses, nature would lose her springtime beauty, and the fields would no longer be decked out with little wild flowers. And so it is in the world of souls, Jesus’ garden. He willed to create great souls comparable to Lilies and roses, but He has created smaller ones and these must be content to be daisies or violets destined to give joy to God’s glances when He looks down at his feet. Perfection consists in doing His will, in being what He wills us to be.”
And I have been thinking about that today, because it seems that there are such wonderful examples – even in my own little family – of the wonderful opportunities for Grace that god has bestowed on the world.
And when I look around at the children in my own family, and consider that there are none among them who I favour – though each one is treated differently to ensure equality – I can see a little something of the majesty of my Beloved. And as I think about that today, I give thanks. For how wonderful a gift to be able to see my Lord and God, even in my interactions with my children…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.