When we adopt the virtue of Christian Charity, everything is clear and we can offer any sacrifice for a neighbour.
I have been praying often for so many souls and intentions, that if this were a mere human enterprise, the stress of this endeavour would be so great that I would drown under the weight of the burden.
Perhaps, those of you who pray with me can understand the comfort in knowing that the burden of prayer is no burden at all – it is a blessing that relieves the mind rather than overwhelming it. I am given rest in knowing that my prayers do nothing other than surrender my subconscious to God – to place my life (and yours) into His hands and to trust in His power in that moment (and all the moments of my life).
God takes care of everything – my job is only to ask it of him.
When I say that I now have faith that did not exist before, it does not mean that I did not believe in God or the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Of course I did!
Nobody continues to take their children to weekly Mass and the sacraments (and drag their unwilling partner there as often as possible) if they do not believe in God. But what I mean by this new-found faith, is that I have faith in God’s GOODNESS, MERCY and LOVE. I actually believe – even without seeing – that God will work everything for the Good. I can FEEL it.
My only job in this lifetime is to place all my trust in God. He will work this for the GOOD. He will direct my thoughts and prayers to whichever of the multitude of intentions of which I am a petitioner, and he brings to mind whatever he wishes me to focus on. What a relief for me – a person used to organising everything in my life and that of my family – to have the comfort and peace, of being able to rest in the merciful embrace of God!
This rest that I seek and gain through prayer does not mean that I offer to pray for people and then promptly forget about those offerings and the people for whom they are made. Rather, it means that I am fearless in offering my prayers for any intention at any time for any length of time.
This is because, God does not call the Qualified. He qualifies the Called (Corinthians 1:27-29).
My prayers, in relying totally, entirely on God, are devout, fervent and humble in thought, word and deed. All God wants from me is to place myself at his feet. Saint Therese of the Infant Jesus wrote of being a child of God content to rest at his feet as a little child. Imagine if I could emulate such an example of faith and willingly place myself at the feet of God to take rest and refuge there, handing him all the concerns of this Earthly life (mine and yours) and surrendering them to HIM!
Now, since the Grace that I have been so fortunate to gain through prayer and no merit of my own, I can at last rest – now I can leave it to God to take care of the details.
And as I rest here at God’s own feet I remember something very important about the sacred feet of God... They are nailed to the Foot of the Cross.
When my beautiful niece was sick, and when Saint Baby Charbel was enduring his passion and death, someone asked me how I could believe in a God who could allow an innocent child to suffer so unfairly.
My answer was plain. Those children suffer for me as Christ Himself suffered for me.
That suffering is the personification of Christian Charity.
That first child taught me Christ’s first commandment – to love the Lord my God above all else; and the second child taught me Christ’s second commandment – to love my neighbour as myself.
These chosen few. These suffering ones. These for whom we pray – Nancy, Vanessa, my niece, Saint Baby Charbel’s family, Raphael, the unborn children – Luka and others, the Holy Souls, the dying and all of our families and friends – they are crowned as Christ was.
In this Earthly life their crown is made of thorns, but when they pass through the thin veil that separates this world from the next, their crown of thorns will become a halo of Grace and it shall shine brighter than all the rest.
Because these chosen few bring the rest of us to God.
People like me and you pray for those chosen ones, because in loving our neighbour as ourselves, we pray for their souls as though they were our own. Their burden is Christ’s burden. A part of their soul is Christ’s soul – for is not the creator in every part of His creation?
That is why the prayers will never end and God will always direct me on who to pray for – because it is our job to follow those chosen few to Heaven. Our only job!
So, for that reason, which is Christian Charity, we stay close beside them – these strangers, these neighbours – because they help us far more than we could ever know.
And how could we ever repay them for that?
The answer is simple – we cannot.
So, we pray – because luckily for us… God, who is INFINITE JUSTICE, MERCY and LOVE sees all, and just as He MERCIFULLY granted me the Grace I did not deserve; so too will He grant JUSTICE to those who suffer so in this Earthly life – and through JUSTICE they will wear a crown of stars for eternity!
And I know this because with prayers for a multitude of intentions, everything is clear.Here.At the Foot of the Cross.