Gratitude & Thanksgiving

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end.  Nor do I really know myself.  And the fact that I think I am following Your will  does not mean that I am actually doing so.  But I believe that the desire to please You  does in fact please You.  And I hope I have that desire  in all that I am doing.  I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.  And I know that, if I do this,  You will lead me by the right road,  though I may know nothing about it.  Therefore I will trust You always  though I may seem to be lost. And in the shadow of death.  I will not fear,  for You are ever with me.  A nd You will never leave me  to face my perils alone.  Amen. – Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude, page 79.

We are often unable to decide, unwilling to choose, unwilling to commit, because we are afraid. We are afraid of choosing wrongly. How can we be sure we are making the right decisions? ———————  The following is the transcript from a rosary meditation in the AMEN app from the Augustinian Institute. ———————  It’s a common occurrence for us to be unable to make a decision . We just can’t seem to commit to a course of action.  Sometimes this is called analysis paralysis . “I can’t make up my mind.” It’s a kind of procrastination , beating around the bush. “I can keep putting off the big choices. I just don’t know what God’s calling me to.” ———————  KNOW THAT WE CANNOT BE 100% SURE We can’t have certainty in prudential decisions.  We can know with certainty what not to do (for example, we know we should never murder anybody, and you should never blaspheme), but we can’t know with certainty what we should do in any given situation.  That’s because, in any ...

Today’s Scripture talks about delighting in the law. “ I, the Lord, your God, teach you what is good for you.  I lead you in the way that you must go.  If only you had been alert to my commands, your happiness would have been like a river….”  Isaiah 4:8 “ Happy the man whose delight is in the law, who ponders his law day and night .”  Psalm 1 ———————————- Below is the transcript from a sermon by St John Henry Newman. ———————————- OUR CONSCIENCE AND SCRIPTURE It would have been strange if the God of nature had said one thing and the God of grace taught us another; if  the truth which our conscience taught us without the information of Scripture, were contradicted by that information when obtained.   But it is not so - there are not two way of pleasing God.   What conscience suggests, God has sanctioned and explained. ———————————- DUTIES OF THE GOSPEL & THE LAW To love God and our neighbour are the great duties of the Gospel as well as the law. ...

All gifts from God are supposed to be geared towards the ultimate goal of our transforming union with God through Jesus Christ . ———————————- The following is the transcript from a rosary meditation in the AMEN app from the Augustinian Institute. ———————————- GOD GIVETH All the good things given to us are supposed to be pathways to a relationship with God, not substitutes for that relationship. God wants to make us sharers in His divinity and offers us a Kingdom that never ends. ———————————- WE BUILD OUR IDENTITY IN THE WRONG THING He gives us so many good things - life, education, professions, business achievements, spouse, family, kids, grandkids, intelligence, freedom, physical strength and beauty, comfort, pleasures…. But this is the precise problem - we build our identity, our self worth, our happiness on these things. ———————————- HE WANTS TO GIVE US SO MUCH MORE God wants to give us so much more - He wants to give us Himself.  He wants to flood us with His divine life and m...

“ The immense blessings of God can only enter and fit an empty and solitary heart. ” St John of the Cross We must be empty to be filled by God. ———————————- The following is the transcript from a rosary meditation in the AMEN app from the Augustinian Institute. ———————————- THE FRUIT OF SUFFERING God does not send suffering.   God allows it and turns it to our favour.   The fruit of this experience is that we can be totally stripped of every earthly thing we relied upon.   ———————————- BEING EMPTY TO BE FILLED Beibg empty of all things, we surrender ourselves totally to God. We let God do what God wanted to do through the people and events in our life. Once we are empty, God floods our soul with the river of living water, His divine life. ———————————- NADA - JOY-FILLED ABANDONMENT The word that encapsulates St John of the Cross’ teaching is the word “ Nada”. Nada means to be unconditionally surrendered to God.  It means having a joy-filled to the abandonment of the g...