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October 24thAdult FaithJesus warns us today in the Gospel of self-righteousness. It is far better to be humbly & contritely aware of one’s sinfulness than to be without sin and then be self-satisfied and judging toward others. “I do not know which has sent me weary-hearted to bed and desperate in heart to morning work, that has made my plans miscarry until I am a coward, that cuts me off from prayer, that robs the sky of blueness and the earth of springtime, and the air of freshness, and human faces of friendliness—this blasting sin which perhaps has made my bed in hell for me so long,--this can be conquered. I do not say annihilated, but, better than that, conquered, captured and transfigured into a friend: so that I at last shall say, ‘My temptation has become my strength! For to the very fight with it I owe my force.’” By W.C. Gannett from Daily Strength for Daily Needs St. Julian of Norwich (late 1300’s) was an English anchoress, living in prayer & seclusion in a hut near her town church. She had visions of God as pure Love, and had these beautiful words to say about those times when we fail: “Grace transforms our failings full of dread into abundant endless comfort; grace transforms our failings full of dread into a noble glorious rising; grace transforms our dying full of sorrow into holy, blissful life.” And “If there be anywhere on Earth a lover of God who always kept safe from falling, I know nothing of it—for it was not shown to me. But this was shown—that in falling and rising again we are always held close in one love.” |