Ruth - Chapter 6: What is the Authentic Life?
The beginning of ch. 6 starts off saying that we should humbly turn to God in our hearts and ask, “How may I serve? What work do you wish for me to do with my life? What is your will for my life?” I believe that the answers to these questions will be different at different points in our faith life with Christ. I continually pray, “Here I am Lord, send me” and “Lord make and remake me into the woman you want me to be.” ... How I want to become “the-best-version-of-myself.”……………On page 59 Matthew talks about making our day and all our activities a prayer….praying constantly When I was a child one of the ways we were taught to do this was by making a “Morning Offering” and meaning it thus making everything a prayer. I liked how Matthew pointed out (p.60) that even tedious tasks “can be turned into spiritual exercises that draw us nearer to God.”……………What is our essential purpose? (p.61) Did this remind any of you that we were “made to know, love and serve God in this world and to be with him in the next.” I learned that as a child but I wonder if many of today’s children have any idea of their purpose……..Did Matthew’s view of holiness match yours? Do you feel drawn to be holy or do you feel like it is unattainable? …. I think of holiness on two different levels. Yes I feel called to holiness and am striving for it but yet my own nature limits the level of holiness I so desire or attain. Yet, I think that the saints probably felt the same sense of “wanting to walk with and be closer and closer to the Lord”…always with a view of their own sinfulness. On page 66 Matthew states, “The surest signs of holiness are an insatiable desire to improve oneself and an unquenchable concern for unholy people.” I think our fundamentalist Christian brethren have nurtured the concern, for converting to Christ, unholy people more than we currently do. We need their concern and zeal. ……….On p. 71 it states that the Church desperately awaits a few brave souls who will stand up and remind us of our great spiritual heritage by redirecting us toward the goal of the Christian life” ….which is our quest for holiness. I think that Mother Teresa and Pope J.P. 2 does this but so does Fr. Dan when he encourages us to live up to our vows as he strives to live his vows and so do others who by their very presence at daily Mass tell me they are striving and I should do the same. Lord, give us “holy moments” (p.66) and do not let us “become unholy” by being less than we are called to be and help us to work on the defects of our character (p.66). Like Mary, whose last recorded words were, “Do whatever He tells you, “ I want to bring Christ to others by carrying Him within myself.
- posted by Ruth @ 3:46 AM