Living Without School: Faithfulness and Perfection.

Saturday, April 05, 2008

Faithfulness and Perfection.

The Sacrament of Reconciliation is so helpful to me. Especially as a convert. I find it incredibly satisfying to go through an examination of conscience, to think about my vocation, about my relationship with God and with others.

Then the time in the confessional brings peace. Even if I sometimes don't want to hear what the priest has to say!

Pondering today, after Confession, I began to think of being faithful.

Am I a faithful wife? Sure, I am not having affairs but is there a mental faithfulness?

Am I faithful to my vocation of motherhood? To the other areas in which I feel called to work and serve and live?

Reading on the net tonight about faithfulness, I found this blog and a post on being faithful rather than being perfect.

In our own lives too, being faithful implies living a life of faith in response to God’s calling (Rom. 8:28-30), and not merely living a life of moral perfection.

Pope/St. Gregory the Great wrote about the qualities of a faithful servant of God in leadership in his book Pastoral Care. “Indeed, a servant is guilty of adulterous thought, if he craves to please the eyes of the bride when the bridegroom sends gifts to her by him,” he wrote, comparing those of his priests who would compromise the truth in order to win their parishioners’ favor, to an unfaithful servant of the Bridegroom who seeks to use the gift to win the bride’s heart for himself (Pastoral Care, Part II, Ch. 8). Faithfulness to God and to others often means working to win their hearts for God and not for self, sometimes even at the cost of losing their favor for oneself.

Faithfulness implies service to the One whose glory we want more than we want our own. It implies even giving up having a reputation for perfection in the eyes of other people in order to live a life of faith in response to God.

Hmm.

1 comment:

Ria said...: We are terribly good at putting the horse before the cart aren't we? Moral perfection at first glance is easier to aim for than faithfulness. One is conditional upon the external help of an often times intangible God, and the other upon our own strength.

Romans 1 tells us in verse 15 that 'obedience' comes through 'faith'. It would seem that we would need the faith, to be faithful and thus to be obedient.

It really removes the reliance upon our own ability and puts us safely back in the hands of graceful God who leads us to obedience as a result of our faith/fulness.; 4:27 am

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Prayer of Consecration of St. Maximilian Kolbe

O Immaculata, Queen of Heaven and earth, refuge of sinners and our most loving Mother, God has willed to entrust the entire order of mercy to thee. I, N___, a repentant sinner, cast myself at thy feet humbly imploring thee to take me with all that I am and have, wholly to thyself as thy possession and property. Please make of me, of all my powers of soul and body, of my whole life, death and eternity, whatever most pleases thee. If it pleases thee, use all that I am and have without reserve, wholly to accomplish what was said of thee: "She will crush your head," and, "Thou alone have destroyed all heresies in the whole world."

Let me be a fit instrument in thine Immaculate and merciful hands for introducing and increasing the maximum in all the many strayed and indifferent souls, and thus help extend as far as possible the blessed Kingdom of the most Sacred Heart of Jesus. For wherever thou enters, one obtains the grace of conversion and growth in holiness, since it is through thy hands that all graces come to us from the most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

V. Allow me to praise thee O Sacred Virgin.
R. Give me strength against thy enemies.

Prayer of St Bonaventure

Pierce, O most Sweet Lord Jesus, my inmost soul with the most joyous and healthful wound of Thy love, with true, serene, and most holy apostolic charity, that my soul may ever languish and melt with love and longing for Thee, that it may yearn for Thee and faint for Thy courts, and long to be dissolved and to be with Thee.Grant that my soul may hunger after Thee, the bread of angels, the refreshment of holy souls, our daily and supersubstantial bread, having all sweetness and savor and every delight of taste; let my heart ever hunger after and feed upon Thee, upon whom the angels desire to look, and may my inmost soul be filled with the sweetness of Thy savor; may it ever thirst after Thee, the fountain of life, the fountain of wisdom and knowledge, the fountain of eternal light, the torrent of pleasure, the richness of the house of God.May it ever compass Thee, seek Thee, find Thee, run to Thee, attain Thee, meditate upon Thee, speak of Thee, and do all things to the praise and glory of Thy name, with humility and discretion, with love and delight, with ease and affection, and with perseverance unto the end.May Thou alone be ever my hope, my entire assurance, my riches, my delight, my pleasure, my joy, my rest and tranquility, my peace, my sweetness, my fragrance, my sweet savor, my food, my refreshment, my refuge, my help, my wisdom, my portion, my possession and my treasure, in whom may my mind and my heart be fixed and firmly rooted immovably henceforth and for ever. Amen.