God is wonderful

God is wonderful. It is easy to become stuck focusing on errors in one place or details on another thing, and then to lose focus on the glory of God. The mysteries of the faith are not simply to be learned, but to be leaned so that one may return to them every day, every hour, every minute! (If at all possible!) If one considered anything that takes one's attention or is a source of contentment, one would do well to think of God who possesses its goodness more perfectly and wants to share it! Everyone enjoys hearing love stories, being in love. The greatest love story is that of God for his creatures. So great is the passion in involved that it is called The Passion! And it is not just another story. It is our story! My story. Your story. Everyone is somewhere in the plot. Either at the beginning where he loves you, but you take no notice of him; or already you have received all his gifts and retuned with all of your love; or perhaps there has been a break and you avoid any reminder of the divine love; and so on. How wonderful to know that God is the greatest lover and to respond! St. Teresa of Jesus (her religious name itself indicates that she is His possession) talks about how the holy soul "checkmates" God:

You have asked me to tell you about the first steps in prayer; although God did not lead me by them, my daughters I know no others, and even now I can hardly have acquired these elementary virtues. But you may be sure that anyone who cannot set out the pieces in a game of chess will never be able to play well, and, if he does not know how to give check, he will not be able to bring about a checkmate. Now you will reprove me for talking about games, as we do not play them in this house and are forbidden to do so. That will show you what kind of a mother God has given you -- she even knows about vanities like this! However, they say that the game is sometimes legitimate. How legitimate it will be for us to play it in this way, and, if we play it frequently, how quickly we shall give checkmate to this Divine King! He will not be able to move out of our check nor will He desire to do so.
It is the queen which gives the king most trouble in this game and all the other pieces support her. There is no queen who can beat this King as well as humility can; for humility brought Him down from Heaven into the Virgin's womb and with humility we can draw Him into our souls by a single hair.
(The Way of Perfection, ch. 16)

So then reading Psalms becomes reading odes of love, and the Gospels and the Eucharist become our only comforts while Christ is in the heavenly places before the Father, preparing a room for each of us. Teresa when advising on how to pray the Our Father says at the very least to remember who taught it. Think of Him and your prayers are that much more pleasing to God. How sweet then will be the company of saints and angels who are his friends. Yet we love the sinners too, perhaps even more than saints, for we know that Christ rejoices over that one lost sheep more than all 99! Friends are unite by what the love, so our love and the love of Christ must be the same, in object and (with divine help) in strength.


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