417th Meditation
“Remember that you are not alone: a Father thinks of you and offers you a share in the unfathomable privileges of His love” (Father’s message to Sr. Eugenia Ravasio).
Our Father exhorts all people to think of Him. These words of His remind us of the exhortation that St. Benedict addressed to His monks, calling them to do everything in the presence of God.
It is advice given to us by all the masters of the spiritual life, for it is invaluable for the unfolding of our relationship with God.
Too often and too quickly, we allow ourselves to be carried away by the dynamism of events, forgetting the presence of our Father and becoming easily distracted. As a result, we find it more difficult to contemplate given situations in the light of God and to find the right solution to them, which the spirit of counsel shows us when we remain open to God’s guidance. Moreover, the loss of spiritual vigilance entails the danger that we hardly perceive the subtler motions of the Holy Spirit and, therefore, act more according to human criteria and inclinations of our nature than according to the wisdom of the Spirit.
On the other hand, when we become aware of the loving presence of our Father, His love penetrates more and more into our hearts and we become accustomed to a trusting relationship with Him, that relationship which He so desires and which is our greatest joy. Thus our relationship with our Father takes on a glow of that joyful naturalness with which human beings lived with God before they fell into sin and which awaits us in eternity.
That is our Father’s intention, for He knows well that human beings can stray tremendously from the source of love and thus lose their way in life. That is why human beings must learn that they have an incomparably good Father, who not only is not far from them, nor is He the great unknown, but who, moved by love, makes Himself known to them and even wants to dwell in them, making them sharers in His fullness.
In this way, thinking of His presence is not only a spiritual exercise to counteract dispersion, but leads us to know that we are beloved children of the Heavenly Father, whom He accompanies along the path of life, without ever denying them His love.