“Look at me on the cross, see how I keep my gaze fixed on the Father” (Inner Word).
Both during His earthly life and at the hour of His death, Our Lord kept His gaze fixed on the Father. Everything was centred on Him: the Father: He carried out His mission to the end to accomplish the Father’s work, and His longing was to return to Him.
“Do what you can, ask for what you cannot, and God will give you so that you can” (St. Augustine).
Once we have set out on the path of following the Lord, our Father takes us into His service and gives us great responsibility. We should never give up in the face of difficulties that may come our way and which tend to “puff up”, appearing bigger than they really are. This also applies to situations that seem insurmountable. Here we are invited to put into practice St Augustine’s phrase: we go as far as we can and at this point we ask our Father for the grace to face in the right way what lies before and beyond us.
‘Thy Kingdom come’ (Mt 6:10).
Is the establishment of the Kingdom of God here on earth only a beautiful dream or a pious wish? Is it a promise yet to be fulfilled or a mere memory of a Paradise lost?
Jesus taught us to pray in this way, and this petition rises up from every corner of the world. It cannot, therefore, be a mere illusion, but a plea to God that His Kingdom, which already exists in heaven, may also be realised on earth.
“I love you more than you love me” (Inner Word).
Even if love for God has already awakened and begun to burn in our hearts, we must always remember that He loves us infinitely more than we love Him. It is an ‘ocean of love’ that surrounds us completely, without forgetting for a moment His other children and creatures. This is the love that nourishes us, and when we let it into our lives and open the doors of our hearts to it, we ourselves become a source of this love.
“You can entrust everything to me and always pour out your heart to me” (Inner Word).
How much it would help people to respond to this invitation of our Heavenly Father! Isn’t that what we are longing for? Aren’t we looking for someone we can trust without reservation, someone who will listen to us and understand us?
“How can we ever thank You enough, O Beloved Father, for Your love and Your infinite mercy” (Hymn of Praise to the Most Holy Trinity). Read More
“Abide in my love” (Jn 15:9).
The love of our heavenly Father surrounds us, dwells in us and forms us into the image of Christ. Once we have come to know and accept it through faith, this love will always want to remain in us and will never leave us. It is divine love and therefore unchanging. It is a gift that we receive freely, but our task and our joy is to remain in it. And this is not difficult because God, for His part, never withdraws His love from us. Only we can turn away from it if we neglect to cultivate it and turn our love in a disorderly way towards the created, thus turning away from God.
“Whoever wants God to listen to him, let him first listen to God” (St. Augustine).
No matter how much God speaks to us, we will not understand Him unless we learn to recognise His voice, unless we assimilate His word and put it into practice. It is the Holy Spirit who reminds us of all that Jesus said and did (Jn 14:26), but He can only do this if we are willing to listen and pay attention to the Lord. That is to say, the right disposition on our part is necessary.
“It is better to limp along the straight path than to stray from it with a firm step” (St. Augustine).
On the path of following the Lord, we are not always carried on “eagle’s wings”. There are stages where we progress with difficulty and which require a lot of patience, especially when it comes to carrying a cross. Our Father allows this so that we never forget that all grace comes from Him. If we were always moving forward in leaps and bounds, with great agility, we might be tempted to put our own merits first and forget that it is the Lord who sustains us.
