Falling in love with Christ
Friday night Adoration: All are invited to spend at least a few minutes with Jesus in the Eucharist this Friday in the SAA Church from 7-8 pm.
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"I know what the Lord has done for all of us and yet there is some resistence to say the rosary, go to the Eucarist, go to Mass and all it is plain laziness nothing more. How can I overcome this?" I greatly appreciate this question from an anonymous blogger that strikes a cord for all of us more than we'd like to admit.
During my college years, I had great trouble waking up in the morning (I love sleep!). When I first started to go to Adoration as a junior at Maryland, I committed to the 6-7 am hour on Thursdays (in those days, St. Mark's in Hyattsville had Perpetual Adoration - this is when Jesus is exposed in the Blessed Sacrament 24/7 - at least one person has to be there every hour of the day). I woke up every Thursday morning at 5:30 to be there by 6...a minor miracle! I was highly motivated to spend time with Jesus. It was the best hour of my week, outside of Mass!!
The spiritual life of any Christian is all about a relationship with Christ. If it's on this level, I really can't imagine someone being lazy for too long. If you fall in love with someone, you WANT to be with them. So it is with Christ. When we enter into a friendship with Him and try to get to know Him better (which is different from knowing about Him), we find ourselves falling in love with Him. We fall in love with the peace and joy that only He can give us. We fall in love with the Truth that he brings us. We fall in love with Him who is Love.
If we have a REAL experience of His peace and joy, then we want more. An example of this involved a woman from another parish. I was walking her to the rectory door after our meeting, and as we walked past the door to the rectory chapel, she asked, 'what is in there?'. I said 'Jesus'. We went into the chapel, and prayed in the presence of our Lord for a few minutes. Something happened to her in those brief moments. She experienced a REAL presence in that chapel. She experienced a REAL peace that moved her. Since then, she has spent many hours with Christ in chapels around town, and at one point said, "I just want to be with Him all the time!"
I would suggest to a person suffering from laziness, then, that he/she make a commitment (no matter how small) to consistently spend time with Christ. An idea would be to come to what we're doing now at St. Andrew's on Friday nights: Adoration! We will expose the Eucharist on the altar in Church every Friday from 7-8 pm. Make a commitment to stop by and spend at least a few minutes with Christ each week with an open heart and mind. Trust me, He will reward you.
"If but a pin is given in homage, and given with a good heart, it will be enough for Jesus, Who loves only the good will" - St. Louis de Montfort.
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"I know what the Lord has done for all of us and yet there is some resistence to say the rosary, go to the Eucarist, go to Mass and all it is plain laziness nothing more. How can I overcome this?" I greatly appreciate this question from an anonymous blogger that strikes a cord for all of us more than we'd like to admit.
During my college years, I had great trouble waking up in the morning (I love sleep!). When I first started to go to Adoration as a junior at Maryland, I committed to the 6-7 am hour on Thursdays (in those days, St. Mark's in Hyattsville had Perpetual Adoration - this is when Jesus is exposed in the Blessed Sacrament 24/7 - at least one person has to be there every hour of the day). I woke up every Thursday morning at 5:30 to be there by 6...a minor miracle! I was highly motivated to spend time with Jesus. It was the best hour of my week, outside of Mass!!
The spiritual life of any Christian is all about a relationship with Christ. If it's on this level, I really can't imagine someone being lazy for too long. If you fall in love with someone, you WANT to be with them. So it is with Christ. When we enter into a friendship with Him and try to get to know Him better (which is different from knowing about Him), we find ourselves falling in love with Him. We fall in love with the peace and joy that only He can give us. We fall in love with the Truth that he brings us. We fall in love with Him who is Love.
If we have a REAL experience of His peace and joy, then we want more. An example of this involved a woman from another parish. I was walking her to the rectory door after our meeting, and as we walked past the door to the rectory chapel, she asked, 'what is in there?'. I said 'Jesus'. We went into the chapel, and prayed in the presence of our Lord for a few minutes. Something happened to her in those brief moments. She experienced a REAL presence in that chapel. She experienced a REAL peace that moved her. Since then, she has spent many hours with Christ in chapels around town, and at one point said, "I just want to be with Him all the time!"
I would suggest to a person suffering from laziness, then, that he/she make a commitment (no matter how small) to consistently spend time with Christ. An idea would be to come to what we're doing now at St. Andrew's on Friday nights: Adoration! We will expose the Eucharist on the altar in Church every Friday from 7-8 pm. Make a commitment to stop by and spend at least a few minutes with Christ each week with an open heart and mind. Trust me, He will reward you.
"If but a pin is given in homage, and given with a good heart, it will be enough for Jesus, Who loves only the good will" - St. Louis de Montfort.
posted by Fr Greg at
1:14 AM
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