I am going to send an angel in front of you, to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. Be attentive to him and listen to his voice. Exodus 23:20-21
When we walk in the desert of life, we are more attentive to the signs that lead to survival. Our senses are naturally sharpened by fear and desperation. And yet, in order to act with wisdom and love, we must be attentive to the right voices, the ones God sends our way. If not, we might, like the Israelites, wander in the desert of our hearts for a very long time, parched and near death.
Besides my guardian angel for whom I give thanks for today as we celebrate our guardian angels, I also give thanks for angels like Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, patroness of missionaries and most beloved of my parish, Church of Saint Teresa.
I liked this reflection taken from the app Laudate yesterday, the feast day of Saint Thérèse, for it really says it all for me:
What makes St Thérèse so special?
We have grown used to the idea that just as there are people with talents for sport or scholarship, and the rest of us can only admire them without trying to keep up, so there are people with a talent for holiness and heroic virtue, and the rest of us can only bumble along as best we can. We can’t do better because we’re not designed to do better, so there’s no point in trying. We sink into a consoling mediocrity.
Thérèse wrecks this. She was physically weak and psychologically vulnerable. For her the great saints were giants, they were inaccessible mountains, and she was only an “obscure grain of sand;” but she was not discouraged. St John of the Cross taught her that God can never inspire desires that cannot be fulfilled. The Book of Proverbs told her, “If anyone is a very little one, let him come to me.” If you only look, Scripture is permeated with images of our littleness and weakness with respect to God, and of his care for us in our insignificance.
Thérèse’s “Little Way” means taking God at his word and letting his love for us wash away our sins and imperfections. When a priest told her that her falling asleep during prayer was due to a want of fervour and fidelity and she should be desolate over it, she wrote “I am not desolate. I remember that little children are just as pleasing to their parents when they are asleep as when they are awake.”
We can’t all hug lepers or go off and become missionaries and martyrs. But we all do have daily opportunities of grace. Some of them may be too small to see, but the more we love God, the more we will see them. If we can’t advance to Heaven in giant strides, we can do it in tiny little steps. Our weakness is no excuse for mediocrity.
Like Saint Thérèse, I can be weak and ordinary with just one talent and I can aspire to be a saint, and that is to have an extraordinary love for God.
Saints like the Little Flower are signposts that point out to us the way to the Father. They inspire us to make good decisions every day, to attune our hearts and minds to the Almighty. Like our guardian angels, they can bring us to where God is leading us if we pay close attention.
There are many voices in our lives, especially when we are tired, discouraged, angry, bitter, lonely and afraid, so it pays to pray daily for our guardian angel to light and guard, to rule and guide. Then listen in the stillness to hear the one true voice of our angel.
NB In his morning homily at mass, Pope Francis encourages us to listen with the attitude of a child so that we can hear our guardian angel with an open and docile heart. See: http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/pope-s-morning-homily-consult-your-guardian-angels
When we walk in the desert of life, we are more attentive to the signs that lead to survival. Our senses are naturally sharpened by fear and desperation. And yet, in order to act with wisdom and love, we must be attentive to the right voices, the ones God sends our way. If not, we might, like the Israelites, wander in the desert of our hearts for a very long time, parched and near death.
Besides my guardian angel for whom I give thanks for today as we celebrate our guardian angels, I also give thanks for angels like Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, patroness of missionaries and most beloved of my parish, Church of Saint Teresa.
I liked this reflection taken from the app Laudate yesterday, the feast day of Saint Thérèse, for it really says it all for me:
What makes St Thérèse so special?
We have grown used to the idea that just as there are people with talents for sport or scholarship, and the rest of us can only admire them without trying to keep up, so there are people with a talent for holiness and heroic virtue, and the rest of us can only bumble along as best we can. We can’t do better because we’re not designed to do better, so there’s no point in trying. We sink into a consoling mediocrity.
Thérèse wrecks this. She was physically weak and psychologically vulnerable. For her the great saints were giants, they were inaccessible mountains, and she was only an “obscure grain of sand;” but she was not discouraged. St John of the Cross taught her that God can never inspire desires that cannot be fulfilled. The Book of Proverbs told her, “If anyone is a very little one, let him come to me.” If you only look, Scripture is permeated with images of our littleness and weakness with respect to God, and of his care for us in our insignificance.
Thérèse’s “Little Way” means taking God at his word and letting his love for us wash away our sins and imperfections. When a priest told her that her falling asleep during prayer was due to a want of fervour and fidelity and she should be desolate over it, she wrote “I am not desolate. I remember that little children are just as pleasing to their parents when they are asleep as when they are awake.”
We can’t all hug lepers or go off and become missionaries and martyrs. But we all do have daily opportunities of grace. Some of them may be too small to see, but the more we love God, the more we will see them. If we can’t advance to Heaven in giant strides, we can do it in tiny little steps. Our weakness is no excuse for mediocrity.
Like Saint Thérèse, I can be weak and ordinary with just one talent and I can aspire to be a saint, and that is to have an extraordinary love for God.
Saints like the Little Flower are signposts that point out to us the way to the Father. They inspire us to make good decisions every day, to attune our hearts and minds to the Almighty. Like our guardian angels, they can bring us to where God is leading us if we pay close attention.
There are many voices in our lives, especially when we are tired, discouraged, angry, bitter, lonely and afraid, so it pays to pray daily for our guardian angel to light and guard, to rule and guide. Then listen in the stillness to hear the one true voice of our angel.
NB In his morning homily at mass, Pope Francis encourages us to listen with the attitude of a child so that we can hear our guardian angel with an open and docile heart. See: http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/pope-s-morning-homily-consult-your-guardian-angels
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