Path
“Have you ever thought how you would prepare yourself to receive Our Lord if you could go to Communion only once in your life?” (Saint Josemaria, “The Forge”, at 828).
There are so many things that I want to do. I have all these plans about where I want to land in business and at home and among my family and friends.
Sometimes I am impatient that I cannot get to where I am going quickly enough – I am certainly a very fast worker when I put my mind to it…
Very often I get to decide that I will be ready for the next big thing. And yet, God is the One who is in control.
Years ago, when I first started working for myself, I asked Saint Padre Pio to direct me. If the work I was doing would bring me (and my children) closer to God I wanted more of that work to come my way. If; however, the work was going to bring me further from eternal salvation then it is very important to me that I am moved away from what I might be tempted to see as opportunities.
Sometimes when God does move me in a different direction, I can become very overwhelmed and worried, but I have found – following my conversion, which occurred while I was praying for my little niece who was so sick, through Grace and no merit of my own – that God does not lead me astray. I know this better now – in my soul and not just in my head. And that means that I can be better suited to accepting God’s Will as something to aspire to rather than something to try to argue my way out of…
Saint Josemaria wrote in “The Forge” at 828, “Have you ever thought how you would prepare yourself to receive Our Lord if you could go to Communion only once in your life? We must be thankful to God that he makes it so easy for us to come to Him: but we should show our gratitude by preparing ourselves to receive Him very well.”
And I have been reflecting on that today.
You see, very often I am not prepared to receive my Beloved. Very often I am distracted or confused. Very often I am annoyed by something that someone said to me before or planning what I shall do following. I am not present in the moment or ready for my Beloved.
And there He remains – quietly, silently, patiently. He does not shout out to me because I am ignoring Him and focusing on nothing. He does not berate me or chastise me. He waits for me. He stays inside a little tiny bit of bread and some inexpensive wine. And He waits inside a dark little box inside an empty little church. And He waits there for me to walk in. All the Angels of the Universe stand guard around Him and adore Him in the Tabernacle, and still – for me – He waits silently.
And I have been thinking about that today as I have been thinking about how much my Beloved loves me, and I am ashamed, for I have placed so many distractions on my path to eternal life…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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