Just yesterday, I was telling my girls that we needed to bail out our sandbox. It was brimming with mucky, standing water. Moss growing, toys molding, simply a mess! I explained to them that we needed to gather some cups and buckets and work together to scoop out the muck, cup by cup, discarding the filth that has grown over time. Aren’t our souls the same way, in need of a decontamination? We allow the sources that previously brought us life and beauty, build up, causing sin and impurity to build up, mucking up our once clean souls.
We need to bail out and remove the excess. We turn to confession, we seek the sacraments, we dash to Our Lord. We establish time to be with him, in Adoration or simply through our day. Then, we talk with God, beseech Him to help us recognize necessary changes and identify practices that need to be castoff. Often, this begins by simply listening and being with Him. A spiritual spring cleaning! A refocusing on the Lord in the manner He asks of us.
There is an over-saturation in this world, a plethora of resources, an abundance of activities, good and bad. We are bombarded with people to serve and deeds to do. We labor to weed through and choose the tasks that will serve and please the Lord. However, even the seemingly good can muck up our souls and clutter ours lives so we are unable do all the Lord asks of us. We are pulled in so many directions, divided and debilitated.
A few years back, I was at a transformative time in my spiritual life. I was struggling just to keep up my daily prayer and communication with Our Lord. I was in a dark place spiritually, but understood He wanted me to grow in that place, to really delve deeper and learn to lean on Him and be with Him. God wanted me to build a relationship with Him, not the checklist prayers I had previously called a full spiritual life. He was letting me know there is more. He desired an inmost connection from me. God knew I was capable and yearning for intimacy with Him.
So what did God do? The Lord called me, He literally whispered my name in the darkness, as I restlessly slumbered in my bed. I awoke to the sound of His deep voice repeatedly whispering my name. God beckoned me and persisted, predawn after predawn, until it was clear to me it was my Heavenly Father. He helped me to clearly grasp and embrace that He is my Lord, my Father, and I am His beloved daughter. The Lord showed this love to me, as He does to all, by calling me individually, by name, to Himself. I firmly believe that is what He is rendering currently, in the midst of this pandemic. It is a call to act! He is beckoning each of us to rise to the call, listen to His voice, and focus on Him and what God is asking of us each uniquely.
Lent and Easter are the perfect seasons to examine your commitments, both in your prayer life and your undertakings for yourself and your family. This year we are afforded more down time, with the Coronavirus impacting our busyness and engagements. The calendars are clear, making it easier to navigate without all the muck from the world. The excessive noise and pollutants the modern world produces and surrounds us by are currently cleared away. It is simple to hear God and follow His way. How do we do this in our prayer lives and active family life?
Paul wrote to the Ephesians encouraging them with these words,”that you should put away the old self of your former way of life, corrupted through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created in God’s way in righteousness and holiness of truth.” Ephesians 4: 22-24.
Trim the excess, even if it is tough, bail out your soul, bogged down by too many commitments, including wrote prayers, novenas, offerings, books to read. Simplify, allowing your prayer to become more pure and your eyes and heart to rest on Our Lord and what He asks of you.
Call to Act: Where is Our Lord asking you to trim or discard? Clean out the overgrown and outgrown and start fresh. Most importantly, where does He desire your focus to be? What is your mission, the task or endeavor He has asked of you, his faithful servant? Take it to prayer this week.
Allow Him to reveal where He wants your focus and time to be spent. Eliminate other commitments or allow them to lay in wait while you discern. Consider beginning journal or short walks to grant yourself space to reflect and listen. Mediate on the gospel for the day, choosing a line that really speaks to you, tugging at your heart. God utilizes His Word to speak to us, but He also employs those near to us, who will reiterate the right path each step of the way. Listen to Him, slow yourself and be alert.
Grant His will be done through you. God is calling you by name, out of love and a longing to have you near. As Gary Ault wrote in his song, “Speak, Lord,” “Speak Lord, I’m listening, plant your Word down deep in me. Speak Lord I’m listening. Please show me the way!”
St. Faustina, pray for us that we may know and understand the will of Our heavenly Father. Ask him to embolden us to shed the excess in our lives, allowing us to truly serve him in all that we endeavor. We seek His divine mercy and love as we discern His unique desires for each of us. Allow us to act in accordance with His will. We ask this through Our Lord and heavenly Father. Amen.
St. Faustina
Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska of the Blessed Sacrament was born in Poland in the 1905 to a poor peasant family. She was uneducated but was able to hear Our Lord speaking to her. Jesus beckoned her to have a painting created of the Divine Mercy image with Jesus’s heart exposed. He gave her the image clearly in her mind and she was to convey the details to the artist. Distraught Faustina was displeased with the final result, yet God assured her the image was all He asked of her and would lead others to Him. Faustina was directed by Jesus to keep the messages He had spoken to her in notebooks, which are now compiled and published, know as the Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska. This book speaks of our Lord Jesus’ mercy for sinners. Read more about her here.
Beautiful! Thank you.
Great job, Sarah! You are so inspirational. I look forward to your blogs.
Wow Sarah, this is so beautifully written and it speaks to me right now on this Good Friday morning! Thank you for sharing your love of our Lord and your pure faith! Miss seeing you!