Let's Talk Therese/Ep 4: Unending mercy, abounding grace
- Nicole
- Feb 10, 2020
- 3 min read
Updated: Mar 1, 2020
I’ve felt a stab of guilt recently while praying the rosary as I’ve realised I tend to rush through some parts of the prayer, making me feel that I’m not praying “well”. It worried me a little, until I watched a recent video from Ascension by Father Mike Schmitz on praying unceasingly. In the video, he explains that its not how we pray or what it seems to be “on the outside”, but rather, that we continue to pray without losing our “spiritual momentum”. Therese echoes this view,
God does not ask us to pray “well”, but he does invite us to pray without getting tired of it or becoming discouraged.
It made me realise that prayer is an incremental process, with multiple stops and starts. We may start on a routine for prayer, falter along the way and then pick ourselves up again. There is no definitive “failed” prayer. Prayer is prayer, regardless of how we “feel” about it. Therese acknowledges the imperfect nature of our prayer lives, in that we may fall and fumble along our way.
People who do mental prayer don’t become saints overnight, they fall from time to time, but they will always have the grace to get up again, and from each fall they will spring up higher.
As prayer strengthens us for the road ahead, I am reminded of the stark reality we live in, a world characterised by negative reactions of fear, worry, defense mechanisms, resentment, selfishness, duplicity, politicking and calculation. We may find it difficult to live out our faith in such a harsh environment. Yet Therese presents a simple message to us in return
Through simplicity, trusting self-abandonment, humility, faithfulness to prayer…. God looks after out hearts when we give them constantly to Him.
I have found it difficult sometimes to practice patience with the people around me, to see the good in them when they resent me and I have fallen into the temptation of impatience and closing my heart off to the needs of those around me. The struggle has been real for many of us as we battle our human inclinations to take the easy way out and to run away from disagreements or difficulties or to respond negatively. We have been tempted to lock ourselves in, for fear of being hurt. In these difficult moments, however, the graces we receive from Him and even more abundant and even more powerful. It’s like the sides of your heart are being stretched like an elastic band and the space inside your heart can accommodate more and more. Our capacity to love can still increase, only if we rely on Him!
And it is vital that our trust should rest not on our personal achievements but only on God’s love, his tenderness, his infinite mercy, on the fact that he is our Father and can never abandon us.
The feelings of discouragement and disappointment that tend to plague us today are a clear sign that we have placed our trust in ourselves and not in God. We persist in tackling life’s challenges on our own, instead of running into the arms of the Father, with childlike trust. And herein lies the beauty of letting go and being enveloped completely by His infinite mercy.
God promises an outpouring of the Holy Spirit who purifies us and gives us a heart capable of loving.
The inner transformation begins with a recognition of our failings and the desire to return to Him fully in confidence. It means asking forgiveness for our sins and to more importantly, to fully receive and believe in it. We may feel guilty over our faults, yet through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, we have been fully purified and our sins have been forgotten. Perhaps it is time for us to be reconciled with Him and to head for Confession?
A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
Let’s consider 2 questions in closing,
1. What are some struggles you experience when it comes to prayer?
2. How can you become more childlike in approaching the Father?
My reflection is adapted based on the following book, I highly recommend you give it a read!
The Way of Trust and Love: A Retreat Guided by St. Therese of Lisieux
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