A Trio of Truths

The basics, the building blocks, the foundation, call them what you would like, they are always worth remembering, As you continue on your journey this week, consider returning to the basics if you found that you have strayed from them. Don’t let the evil one keep you from the One who loves you.

Adore, don’t ignore

God is God. Because He is God, He deserves to be adored. He is Lord of all, creator of all, sustainer of all. He alone is worthy of worship, He alone is worthy of praise. To ignore God is to please Satan. Even in the midst of great trials of temptation or harassment, your primary focus should be on God and His grace and mercy. 

Adoration of Jesus is more than keeping your eyes on Him, though. It is seeing the Lord through the eyes of faith and worshipping Him in His Eucharistic Presence as if He stood before you in the flesh. 

Do you realize that Jesus is there in the tabernacle expressly for you, for you alone? He burns with the desire to come into your heart. Don't listen to the demon, laugh at him, and go without fear to receive the Jesus of peace and love. 
Saint Therese of Lisieux

Pray, don’t delay

Prayer is the means by which you keep in touch with God and He with you. Satan will seek to do whatever he can to interfere with this connection because he knows prayer is such a powerful weapon. He will annoy, harass and distract you to the point of frustration if you allow him. Do not panic, do not be anxious, do not grow weary; simply pray now, pray unceasingly. Do not give into the fear or frustration; rather, with the help of God’s grace, continue in prayer. If you can’t pray, stay in prayer until you can pray. Praise Him, thank Him, and then petition Him.

In the midst of triumph or tragedy, the extraordinary or the ordinary, pray. 

Through fear, some souls grow slack in their prayer — which is what the devil wants — in order to struggle against these movements, and others give it up entirely, for they think these feelings come while they are engaged in prayer rather than at other times. This is true because the devil excites these feelings while souls are at prayer, instead of when they are engaged in other works, so that they might abandon prayer.
Saint John of the Cross

Praise, don’t grumble

To give God praise is to be humble. To give God praise is to acknowledge that God is God and you are not. The power of praise is profound. Grumbling is the anti-praise, it is the language of the prideful. When you praise God, you deflect all earthly glory and honor to God who is all good. Keep no glory for yourself. “Thank God,” and “Praise God,” should always be on your lips. When you engage in praise you tend toward humility allowing you to better accept God’s will. 

It is not enough to just accept God’s will; He calls you to do so gracefully. Satan will attempt to goad you into grumbling. He’ll push your buttons if you let him. He’ll be glad to point out how things are unfair or inferior; he’ll be happy to prod you into fault finding. His target is your wound, whatever it is.  Leave your grumbling behind and Satan will have once less point of entry and less leverage to get you to commit sin.

The great enemy of the virtue of obedience is grumbling. Grumbling is the compensation self-love resorts to in its powerlessness in the face of authority.
Blessed Columba Marmion

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