that you fall in love with Him
“Dear children! Also today, I am calling you to return to prayer. In this time of grace, God has permitted me to lead you towards holiness and a simple life – that in little things you discover God the Creator; that you fall in love with Him; and that your life will become a thanksgiving to the Most High for everything He is giving you. Little children, in love, may your life be a gift for others and God will bless you; but you, witness without interest – out of love for God. I am with you and intercede before my Son for all of you. Thank you for having responded to my call.”— Our Lady of Medjugorje’s November 25, 2016.
Children before they become untrusting, which sad to say happens to the vast majority, live simple lives and do not feel the need to hide from others. In our world to become untrusting of others is often necessary for simple survival. Even in the best of situations, there is a certain level of wariness that has to be kept up. This is armor that is put on often unconsciously; it is there because of pain felt from the past done by others.
Prayer allows us to stop and simply be present to the ‘moment’, which is pretty much all that we have. This moment and then the next….then underneath the fear of the future and the effect of the past keep us from being present to ourselves, to God and to others. We can lose to a greater or lesser extent our ability to discover the ‘Infinite’ in the simple ‘little’ things and events that are before us. We can fail to see the ‘giftedness’ of life, we can’t even begin to accept a gift if we can’t see it.
When we begin to try to be thankful for our lives, we begin a journey of going deeper and allow past events that were painful to surface. This is our gift to God, the releasing all that keeps us from being truly childlike and trusting. Do not be deceived, for an adult to become childlike it takes self-knowledge, humility and a letting go of fear that keeps us in a small insecure world. Yet to even desire this will allow it to happen for grace works from deep within and slowly shows itself at work in our everyday lives.
Then we can be a gift to others, a light that shines from beyond ourselves and in that God can use us. Mary is our true spiritual mother, her role is to show us how to be like her, to give our total “Yes” to God’s will in our lives, to makes us all into living temples of light, filled with the Holy Spirit and pregnant with God’s love…..in that we become once again little children.
Br. Mark Dohle, OCSO
Holy Spirit Monastery
