jan 2022 faithposting

“Oh my God, forgive what I had been, correct what I am, and direct what I will be.”

— St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

This is a beautifully brief yet powerful prayer. To plead these few words with ardent sincerity– how many other petitions it encompasses! What soft humility, what soaring hope it enkindles! This little prayer is a jewel to always carry in our hearts, letting the light of God sparkle within its many facets, so that our souls may shine ever more sweetly with His grace.

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"While he was still a long way off..." (luke 15:20)

This verse staggers me. God our Father is watching for our return, with all yearning love, even when we are that far away, and He runs to meet us even there. And He kisses us!! The unfathomable love of that melts my heart every time.

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"Why love what you will lose?
There is nothing else to love."

Louise Glück, Poems 1962-2012

 

Only on this side of eternity, beloved.

This quote is powerfully true, but it is not complete. There is one thing we cannot lose, and ironically, marvellously, that thing is love itself– that is God.

Think upon that paradox. Yes, in this life, we will ‘lose’ everything and everyone we love. But one day we, too, will be 'lost’ to inevitable death, and then what? Oh, then what? If we all go on, shall we not meet again, in the very bosom of the love that breathed us into being?

Do not fear loss. In the end, at the very end, nothing loved is ever truly lost. In the end, love remains, forever. That is the “something else” hidden at the very center of all passing precious things.

So love, love always, love recklessly, love because every created thing is fragile and temporary and yet at its heart it is so beautifully, joyously eternal.