LETTING GO OF GOD’S GIFTS

All gifts from God are supposed to be geared towards the ultimate goal of our transforming union with God through Jesus Christ.

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The following is the transcript from a rosary meditation in the AMEN app from the Augustinian Institute.

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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.

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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.

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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 make us like Him forever.

But we can only receive all these if we are willing to let go of clinging to lesser things.

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LETTING GO

The more God wants to give us, the more we must let go.

That is why St John of the Cross wrote:  “The immense blessings of God can only enter and fit into an empty and solitary heart.”

Why was Jesus born in a stable that was a cave?  Because the inn was full and couldn't receive him and the cave was empty.

Our danger is to be so full and attached to God’s gifts that we are not open to receiving God.

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TAKE STOCK

The whole point of Advent is to take stock - why do we really want most?  

Do we want God more than anything, or will we cling to the  lesser things and watch them all dissolve before us?

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THE WORLDLY GIFTS WE WILL LOSE

All the worldly gifts we have will all be taken away.

As we get older, we will lose our capacity for bodily pleasure, our looks, the nimbleness and flexibility of our mind and body, the influence and reputation with  together people, finally we will lose the capacity to live.  

But that’s okay, because there is only one reason that God allows these things to depart, because he will give us something greater.

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GOD TAKETH

God will take away some of the goods of this life, but only to prepare us for the supreme joy of transforming union with God in heaven.

The key is not to cling to the temporary things and lose the eternal.

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CELEBRATE WHAT THE GREATER

We don’t want to spend all our time mourning what is lesser when we could be celebrating what is greater.

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CULTIVATING A DESIRE FOR  GOD

The way to not fear the future, to become not attached to the things we know we cannot hold on to - the only way to do this is to cultivate a desire for God.   

We need to increase our desire and our longing for Jesus.

Whenever God gives us some delightful, earthly goods, say thank you to Him, but realise it isnt God and it wont ultimately satisfy us and it wont last for ever, and tell the Lord to give us Himself.

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BE EAGER TO POSSESS JESUS

Spend time with Jesus in silence and in prayer. Prayer is the most immediate way to reach God.

The more eager we are to possess Jesus completely, the less we worry about the imperfections and flaws of the world here on earth.

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