Articles of Interest

The Holy Spirit - Michael Fallon msc-

Being a Male in the Church - Michael Fallon msc-

Prayer for Advent - Chris McPhee msc -

The Holy Spirit

Prayer is a communion in the prayer of Jesus. The more we surrender to his love, the more we open our hearts to the gift of his Spirit, the Spirit who is his bond of love with the Father. It is this Spirit who draws us into the communion which we call prayer. On every page of the gospel we see Jesus offering his healing and sanctifying Spirit to all who are open to receive him, but it is especially from the cross, when he gave himself to us in a final act of love, that the fullness of his Spirit was poured out over the world from his pierced heart. The Beloved Disciple speaks of this as his 'hour of glory'.

Jesus continues to offer his Spirit to anyone who wants to be open to his love, for his one desire is to draw us to enjoy the love which is the fount of his own life. In prayer we experience a love which wells up from God who dwells in the depths of our being; we are touched by a spark issuing from the fire of love which is God's Holy Spirit dwelling in the depths of our soul. Jesus gives us his Spirit so that we might share his life (Romans 8:9).

The more we allow ourselves to be led by this Spirit the more we allow ourselves to be taken into the heart of God, the more we enjoy the communion in love for which we are created. Paul prays for the Christians in Ephesus: 'I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love'(Ephesians 3:16-17).

'God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us'(Romans 5:5). It is Jesus' Spirit who inspires and directs our contemplation: 'The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit'(Romans 8:25-26). It is Jesus' Spirit who transforms us through love (2Corinthians 3:17-18), till we can say with Paul: 'It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, loving me and giving himself for me'(Galatians 2:20).

As early as the second century we have evidence of Christian writers speaking of the 'seven gifts' of the Holy Spirit. The number seven is symbolic and signifies fullness. The traditional list comes from the Greek, and later, the Latin versions of Isaiah: 'The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and piety [the Hebrew text has 'fear of the Lord']. His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord'(Isaiah 11:2-3). Saint Ambrose, towards the end of the 4th century, wrote ( On the Mysteries 7,42): 'Recall that you have received the spiritual seal, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of right judgment and courage, the spirit of knowledge and reverence, the spirit of holy fear in God's presence. Guard what you have received. God the Father has marked you with his sign; Christ the Lord has confirmed you and has placed his pledge, the Spirit, in your hearts'.

God's love is all-embracing and so there is no limit to the ways in which we are graced by God's Spirit of love. There is value, however, in following tradition by reflecting on the ways in which God's transforming grace acts in our hearts through the seven gifts which, according to the thirteenth century theologian, Thomas Aquinas, dispose us to respond promptly to God's inspiration. They may be compared to seven sails given us by God to enable us to pick up the divine breath. They enable us to give ourselves over to God's action and so to move in accordance with the mysterious motion of God rather than our own will, however determined and obedient. Aquinas quotes Psalm 143:10: 'Let your good spirit lead me on a level path' and adds:

'No one can inherit the land of the blessed unless he is moved and drawn by the Holy Spirit' (Summa 1 2 q. 68, a 1-2). We are created for communion with God, and so we have a natural openness to God's Spirit. Through the fullness of the outpouring of Jesus' Spirit, our natural openness is greatly enhanced and we are strengthened against the forces which resist the inspirations of grace.

In speaking of the gifts of the Holy Spirit as seven we are not dealing with a central dogma of faith. There is no need to be too precise in distinguishing between the various gifts, nor should we think of the list as exhaustive. The traditional seven gifts do, however, express significant aspects of the way in which we are graced by God, and they represent a time-honoured way of reminding us of the fullness of God's gift of his Spirit to us. In the Rite of Confirmation n. 25 the Bishop invokes the outpouring of the Spirit in these words:

'All-powerful God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, by water and the Holy Spirit you freed your sons and daughters from sin and gave them new life. Send your Holy Spirit upon them to be their helper and guide. Give them the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of right judgment and courage, the spirit of knowledge and reverence. Fill them with the spirit of wonder and awe in your presence. We ask this through Christ our Lord.'

Let us examine more closely the seven traditional aspects of the full participation of the graced soul in the life of the Blessed Trinity: seven effects on the soul of the living flame from the lamp of fire which is God's love.

1. Divine Wisdom.

Human wisdom is an acquired skill in judging the best way of acting in the changing and often complex circumstances of life, and in putting decisions into operation. What interests us here is that special wisdom which concerns the purpose of life itself and the way in which we relate to the source of life, God Himself. To have this kind of wisdom we need to be graced by God in a way that is beyond the capacity of our nature. This is the gift that is most relevant to prayer, for it gives us a special sensitivity and openness to receive God's revelation of himself to us. It enables us to savour and relish the divine.

When Paul claims that God alone is truly wise (Romans 16:27), he is speaking for the whole of the Biblical tradition. Divine Wisdom is God Himself present in creation and in history, gracing all things and 'ordering all things in harmony'(Wisdom 8:1). The Book of Proverbs tells us that God 'rejoices in the inhabited world and delights in the human race'(Proverbs 8:31). The prophet Zephaniah has God dancing to the music of the spheres and the harmony of nature 'renewing his people in his love, exulting with loud singing as on a day of festival'(3:17). 'Wisdom renews all things, passing into holy souls in every generation making them friends of God. God loves nothing so much as the person who lives with wisdom'(Wisdom 7:27-28). It is through God's gift of himself to us, the gift of this Spirit of Wisdom, that we 'learn what is pleasing to God'(Wisdom 9:10). We are assured that if we earnestly seek this divine wisdom we will find it, for we will find God (Wisdom 6:12).

Jesus is the incarnation of divine Wisdom (1Corinthians 1:30), the Word of God made flesh (John 1:14). He invites all who are thirsty to come to him and drink (John 7:37). He invites all who are walking in darkness to come to him, the light of the world (John 8:12). He invites all who labour and are overburdened to come to him and he will give rest to their souls (Matthew 11:29-30). Saint Paul exclaims (Romans 11:33-36):

How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counsellor? . For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen'.

O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counsellor?......For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.

All things are from him, for God is the origin and source of all wisdom. All things are through him, for it through God's action that we participate in divine wisdom. All things are to him, for all wisdom is directed towards God, the goal of our existence. It is by keeping our eyes on Jesus and by opening our souls to receive his Spirit that we learn wisdom: 'There is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist' (1Corinthians 8:6). In contemplating Jesus we see who we really are and we learn how to respond to the action of divine Wisdom in our lives. By his Spirit we are transformed, so that the life of Jesus becomes our life, his thoughts become our thoughts, his responses become our responses, his prayer becomes our prayer.

To speak of divine Wisdom is to speak of God's design for the world. Each of us is created and held in existence by God to be part of the beauty of this design. We will fulfil our purpose only by being open to the inspiration of grace. If we choose to resist grace, God can use even our resistance to further his mysterious designs. What a personal tragedy it would be for us not to enjoy being part of the beauty of divine communion. With the gift of contemplative prayer comes an invitation to surrender to God's loving action in our souls. If we respond in faith and allow the initiative to come wholly from God, then, and only then, all that we are and all that we do becomes suffused with divine Wisdom. Then we can begin to say with Saint Paul: 'I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me'(Galatians 2:20).

It is a journey of faith, for we journey in darkness. Our eyes are unable to take the brightness of God's light. It is a journey of hope, for now we have only touches of the embrace for which we are made and for which our hearts long. It is a journey of love, for it is in being in trusting communion with God that our souls find peace.

2. 'Fear of the Lord'

A frequently recurring motif in the Hebrew Scriptures is expressed in the following assertion from the Book of Proverbs: 'The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom' (Proverbs 9:10). To fear the Lord is to realise that one's whole welfare is dependent upon one's relationship with God. Communion with God, which is dependent upon doing God's will, is the source of all our good. All evil is the result of being out of communion with God. 'The eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love'(Psalm 33:18). 'Praise the Lord! Happy are those who fear the Lord, who greatly delight in his commandments'(Psalm 112:1).

Coupled with a sense of profound wonder and awe in the presence of God is a deep fear of sin and our capacity to jeopardise our communion with God through our failure to abide by the wise commandments given us by God. A person who is obedient to God has no need to be afraid of God, but we must always fear our capacity to sin: 'Do not be afraid. God has come only to test you and to put the fear of Him upon you so that you do not sin'(Exodus 20:20).

In the presence of the transcendent and absolute Other, we are brought face to face with our own complete dependence upon God as well as our mortality and sinfulness. 'Fear of the Lord' is a foundational religious attitude of living one's life in the presence of God and according to God's will. In the following experience, Isaiah is profoundly moved by the holiness of God. Note the corresponding fear, based on his sense of his own sinfulness (Isaiah 6:3-5):

And one seraph called to another and said: 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glore.' The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. And I said: 'Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!'

In the Hebrew Scriptures God is an object of fear. This fear is reinforced by an understanding of the world which saw God as directly intervening to assert his control. Sickness, premature death, crop failure, victory and defeat in war and all natural phenomena were seen as indications of God's favour or disfavour. In a world of reward and punishment there was a constant need to appease an angry God. A radical shift in our attitude to God comes with the revelation of God's unconditional love brought to us by Jesus. His premature and untimely death forces us to rethink our ideas of success and failure. His attitude to sinners forces us to re-examine our idea of a punishing God. We have come to see that it is wrong to claim that whatever happens is God's will. We have come to see that God respects human freedom, and that God loves the world. God does not control it. We have come to see the effects of sin as being exactly that and not an extra punishment loaded upon us by an angry God.


At the same time, knowing God's amazing love highlights the awful nature of sin and in no way weakens our fear of what our capacity for sin can do. Jesus warned us of the consequences of sin. God will never reject us, but God's unconditionally offered love does need our welcome for it to be received, and if we stubbornly reject love we cannot find life. Perhaps rather than speak of fear of the Lord we should speak of fear from the Lord. In any case the fear is not of God but of our capacity to reject God.

The point of departure for great mystical ascents is always the intense activity of the gift of fear. People like insisting on the "filial" character of this fear, but this presupposes a perfectly clear view of everything, which by definition keeps us in an abyss of nothingness below our heavenly Father. Harmless, artificial insults to your self-esteem are not going to make you humble. Humiliation has its compensations in religion: an 'edifying' acceptance of it raises our prestige and ministers to our vanity. But the Holy Spirit will deprive you of self-esteem from inside, by contrasting God's grandeur and your baseness by its light: to the point perhaps of making you cry for mercy in horror of your abjectness: 'Alas for me, I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips' [Isaiah 6:5].

3. Piety

Piety speaks of the relationship between parents and children. The Hebrew Scriptures speak of God as a tender father, a compassionate mother, holding a child against the cheek, bending down to feed us, and lovingly embracing us (Hosea 11:3-4). Such an image is central to Jesus' way of looking upon God, and the gift of piety disposes us to be 'poor in spirit' (Matthew 5:3), to be 'humble like a child' (Matthew 18:4), and to cry out to God as our father, our mother, the source of all we are and have: 'God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our heats, crying 'Abba! Father!' (Galatians 4:6)

4. Understanding

This gift is especially active in theologians, catechists, teachers, and in parents, who are graced to teach their children the ways of faith. It enriches the capacity of our minds to grasp the implication of revealed truth and the meaning revelation has for our lives. The Holy Spirit disposes us to integrate our faith into our lives and to gain insight into the ways in which other areas of knowledge take on a more profound relevance when seen in the perspective of faith.

5. Knowledge

The grace of the Holy Spirit also disposes us to grasp truth more richly and more readily by guiding our judgment to assert truth and to reject error. Our judgments are true to the extent that our understanding is in conformity with the way things are. The gift of knowledge helps us to judge truthfully in the knowledge that nothing can be properly understood without grasping its relationship to the source of all being, God himself.

6. Counsel (right judgment)

This gift enriches our judgment as regards how we should respond most creatively and in a way that is most responsive to grace in the changing circumstances of our life. the Holy Spirit disposes us to make moral decisions under God's inspiration.

 

7. Courage

The Holy Spirit is always offering us all the love we need to do God's will and to tend towards the perfection of love in which holiness consists. the gift of courage disposes us to receive this support and sustenance from God in our trials and so to endure to the end and find salvation (Matthew 24:13). It helps to keep us trusting and alert to God's grace even when our circumstances tend to reduce us to fear and impotence.

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The Fruits of the Spirit:

The gifts of the Holy Spirit make it possible for us to give ourselves over to God's love and to experience contemplative prayer. Their presence in our life is a sign that our prayer is genuine. Teresa of writes (On the Song of Songs 7.3):

When the active works arise from this interior root, they become lovely, very fragrant flowers. For they proceed from this tree of God's love and are done for him alone, without any self-interest. the fragrance of these flowers spreads to the benefit of many.

In her Interior Castle IV.2.8, she writes

The will must in some way be united with God's will. But it is in the effects and deeds following afterward that one discerns the true value of prayer. There is no better crucible for testing prayer.

Saint Paul describes some of the fruits of living our lives according to the Spirit of Jesus: 'the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering in doing good, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control' (Galatians 5:22-23). It is to this way of life that we are led when we are drawn into prayer. If our prayer does not produce this fruit we can be certain that it is not being inspired by God's Spirit.

The first fruit of the Spirit is love. Paul is not referring to the spontaneous feeling that one associates with one's spouse or family; nor is he referring to passionate desire, or the affection experienced between friends. He is speaking of the recognition one has of the value of another person in the light of what God has revealed in Christ. He is speaking of the decision to give one's life for others the way Christ gave his life for us. 'Love', as used here by Paul, speaks of faithful commitment to others whatever feelings circumstances may cause to arise within us; it refers to our sharing in the love of the heart of Jesus. Prayer is communion in the love of God and its first fruit is a deepening of love in every dimension of our lives.

The second fruit of which Paul speaks is joy: the joy of having Christ living in us; the joy of experiencing his Spirit in our hearts (Galatians 4:6); the joy of knowing that we are heirs to the promise (Galatians 3:29); the joy of experiencing the love of one's brothers and sisters in the faith. Paul expresses this feeling often in his First Letter to the Thessalonians (2:19-20; 3:9). He also speaks there of the joy of knowing that 'we shall always be with the Lord' (4:17; See 5:9). This gift of the Spirit can be experienced while undergoing all kinds of affliction (1:6).

The third fruit is peace: the peace we experience when we are in a right relationship with God and are living the life of Christ. It is highlighted in the post-resurrection Gospel narratives (John 14:27; 20:19). It is a harmony which is experienced in every dimension of our lives as Christ's redeeming love gradually transforms our heart and mind, our soul and body. It finds expression in the community when differences are no longer sources of injustice or insecurity, but variations which enrich the community as various instruments enrich an orchestra. It will be complete only when all creation unites in a cosmic hymn of praise.

The fourth fruit is long suffering in doing good. This is sometimes translated as 'patience'. It is not the patience of bearing the burdens which life places upon us. Rather it is the patience of continuing to do good even when it is hard and causes us to suffer, and when we do not see the fruits of our good deeds. Paul is speaking of the passion of love that is determined and persistent and cares enough not to stand back while others are destroying themselves through sin. It is a fruit of the Spirit because it can come only from God; it is a sharing in the passionate and persistent caring that is revealed most persuasively in Jesus' giving of his life for us on the cross.

The fifth fruit is a kindness: whatever is pleasing, desirable, useful, lovely, valuable or morally good. Matthew associates it with the yoke of Christ as against the yoke of the law (Matthew 11:30), and for Luke it is characteristic of God who is 'kind to the ungrateful and selfish'(Luke 6:35). Closely associated with kindness is the next fruit, goodness: a disposition by which one is ready to do good to others (see 1Thessalonians 5:15). God is faithful: his love and his promises will never be withdrawn. One who lives by the Spirit of Christ shares also in this quality, as also in the gentleness characteristic of the heart of Jesus (Matthew 11:28-29). Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit in that the mastery over one's wayward desires is not something we achieve on our own. Rather, it comes from belonging to Christ. Paul is speaking not of control by the self, but of giving over control of the self to the Spirit of Jesus.

Looking back over this list we become conscious of an important and fundamental dimension of Christian morality. Paul does not take away the Jewish law to replace it with a Christian equivalent. The command is not directly to follow certain precepts: it is to 'walk by the Spirit'(Galatians 5:16), to be 'led by the Spirit'(Galatians 5:18). If we do this, the Spirit will cause the above fruits to grow in our lives. We are reminded of Paul's words to the Thessalonians: 'He who calls you is faithful, and he will do it'(1Thessalonians 5:24). Rather than our struggling to obey a law etched on stone, we are to open our hearts and minds to the call of the Spirit, and allow Christ to live in us.

Christian morality is a morality of love, the love revealed by Jesus on the cross. It is not an achievement of the self; it is a fruit of the Spirit. It is not possible without faith, but it is possible with it, and it is here that Paul places his emphasis. If we are concerned that we are sinning, the answer is not to subject ourselves to a system imposed from outside. That will not give us the life we seek. The answer is to become more and more a 'slave of Christ'(Galatians 1:10), more and more allowing his Spirit to penetrate every aspect of our life. To 'belong to Christ'(Galatians 3:29) demands, of course, that we die with him on the cross (Galatians 2:20), dying to our selfishness (Galatians 5:24) and giving our lives in love for others. It is to live 'in Christ'(Galatians 2:16-17; 3:26-28; 5:6). It is to 'put on Christ'(Galatians 4:6). It is to have Christ as my Lord (Galatians 1:3,10) and my Redeemer (Galatians 1:4; 2:20; 3:13; 4:4-5; 5:1). It is to live by his Spirit (Galatians 4:6).

In prayer we surrender ourselves to God's love. this is made possible by the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of love that binds Jesus to his Father. this gift bears fruit in a life which is an overflow of the communion of love into which God graciously invites us. We have reflected on the early stages of prayer in which we learned to respond to grace in preparing ourselves fo communion (Chapter 10). We have reflected on the change that comes about when we begin to entrust the control of our prayer to God (Chapter 17). We are ready now to follow the great masters of mystical prayer as they share with us what happened to them in their prayer as they responded to the Spirit of Jesus inviting them to enter more deeply into communion with God.

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Being Male in the Church and the World: ~
Talk given at Yarralumla 26 November 2003.

1.Importance of the subject

The amount of glorified violence, compulsive addiction, individualism and unbalanced competitiveness in our world, as well as the widespread breakdown of relationships that are fundamental to a healthy society, alerts us to the obvious fact that in society at large being male is not working well - certainly not well enough. There have always been wonderful, men around and that is still the case, but as a species, I wonder if we have ever managed to be good males. It doesn't seem that Christianity has improved things. Is this partly because it was domesticated by a Roman military culture without basic conversion of how we are to be males? Is it partly because we lived for so long with the false notion that new life came from the male seed, and that the female's role was only to provide the nurturing garden for its growth?

My impression is that, in a societal sense, being male in a healthy way is something we have to learn, perhaps for the first time, and that it is the breakthrough for women that offers us the opportunity to do so. The long history of male dominance in the public arena, and the relatively recent breakthrough by women has left males confused and threatened - which, of course, simply leads to more abuse of power. But this need not be so. In fact, it provides the opportunity for male liberation

2. It must be possible for a society to nurture healthy males

We are told in the Book of Genesis that God made us in God's own image, that God made us male and female, and that God saw that we are very good. This should inspire us with hope. There is also the fact that Jesus was male and that he expressed the beautiful intimacy he had with God (an intimacy shown in the way he related to people) by calling God 'Abba!' (Father). There surely is something very good about being male if we can learn from Jesus how to do it well.

3. The problem

The first step is to recognize and name the problem. It has something to do with the way males exercise power. There is something in the male that instinctively feels the need to protect. This engages fear when confronted with something that is seen as more powerful (normally a male). To avoid this fear we try to use what power we have to control, which unless it is constantly guided by love, leads inevitably to the abuse of power - something that women and children suffer from, adapt to, and often in a co-dependent way maintain. Males are seduced into being 'success-objects'. We are educated to contain our emotions. We feel obliged to control the future as much as we can by planning - which often means we are not really connecting in the present. A significant symptom of the male problem is homophobia - which is the fear of the suppressed part of the male that we associate with the female - fear of the very element we need for our healing.

4. In God's name

An especially inhibiting factor has been that our images of God have been almost exclusively only male. It is beautiful to follow Jesus in calling God 'Father' - for whatever our experience we all long to have a father - especially one like the God shown us by Jesus. But to never call God 'Mother' is to skew and distort. It also fails to challenge whatever is unhealthy in the way are male in our culture.

5. Jesus

We have an extraordinarily attractive male to help us, and we have a mission to share him with the world. I am speaking of Jesus who showed us a male who gave himself to others in love-communion. He was not into control. Furthermore - though this truth has hardly penetrated our consciousness - he showed us that God is not into control, but is love. One of Jesus' most enlightening statements was when he was encouraging his contemporaries to love their enemies. He wanted them to be like God who is 'compassionate'(Luke 6:36). He used a word that speaks of the compassion which a woman has for the child in her womb.

We males, like Jesus, have our own male way of nurturing life, security, daring and creativity in the people whom we love. God does not control the world. God loves the world. This is the only power that is truly creative. Jesus shows us this and is a perfect model for us males. If we learn to love, if we dare to love, if we risk the surprise, the pain and the insecurity of love, we have nothing to fear. Did not Jesus say to Pilate 'You have no power over me'. The power we have as males is the power to give ourselves in love in such a way that those whom we love can open, like a flower, free from fear and free to become themselves.

6. It is not good for the male to be alone

There were good reasons why in the past organisational leadership in the Christian community was exercised only by males. There were good reasons, too, why the community looked to celibate men for the fathering of the community. Today, however, we have witnessed a quite wonderful blossoming of women who have extended their nurturing role to society at large in almost every arena. Would not our church community be richer, and the males within it better nurtured, if we complemented male leadership with female leadership, and if we complemented celibate leadership with leadership that has been nurtured through the experience of marriage and family? After all we are all baptised into Christ. In the words of consecration at baptism, we are all called to be priests, and prophets, and to bring about the reign of God's will in the world. It is hard to see how the church community can continue to present Jesus to the modern world in a way that will witness to mature and nurturing maleness without the rich harmony that opens up organisational leadership to all who are recognised as being graced with this gift.

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Prayer for Advent

Prayer at some level involves a search for peace, tranquillity and serenity….

And as this Christmas season becomes more frantic, we need to find within us that God of the Sabbath, that God of rest and peace… a place where we can rest and relax and just be in the presence of the God who loves.

A major task for us then, is that while we pray we need to learn to let go of tension, to calm down, to surrender to him in faith, to allow him to feed us with the bread of life… So that at his word storms may cease.

Centrally, it is so we become alert and attentive, not with a violent effort, but by gently letting go of all tension, excitement, anxiety, worries, the heat of desire, the venom of hatred, and the weighing down of self pity.

The word that is often used is concentration… this concentration or attentiveness is not the result of a mighty and tense effort; it is a gentle letting go of things, a relaxing of our nervous grip on people and situations and the release from worry and anxiety.

While all these flow out of us, there remains only one thing: attention to Jesus, awareness of his presence… the one who is the giver of life, the giver of bread, the giver of peace, and the giver of love…

In that, we can let go of everything precisely because God is present… as I have said before, when we pray to God, all we ever get is God…. Think about that!!!

When we come to that awareness, nothing really matters; all things are in his hands… tension, anxiety, worry, frustration, all melt away before him… and as I read… as snow before the sun.

Finally, when ever you pray to God all you ever get is God.