Do-it-yourself Divine Mercy retreat (lowest price available)) |
EDITOR'S NOTE: The following is Day 1 of 33 Days to Merciful Love: A Do-It-Yourself Retreat in Preparation for
Consecration to Divine Mercy, the new book by Fr.
Michael Gaitley, MIC. We are posting the first week of this retreat with the
hope that, together, we can consecrate ourselves to Divine Mercy on Divine Mercy
Sunday, April 3. We recognize not everyone will have Fr. Mike's book in hand by
the end of this first week. If that's the case, keep in mind two things: If
you're late in ordering the book, then, upon receiving it, simply read until
you're caught up with us. Or, simply begin the do-it-yourself retreat whenever
you are ready to begin. Father Michael does recommend coordinating your start date in
order to consecrate on a feast day of the Church. If you're just tuning in, follow along with the series. Without
further adieu, let's begin:
+ + +
For St. Therese, it's all about trust. But what is trust? That's
what we're going to ponder this week, using Sacred Scripture and its giants of
trust. (By the way, I'm going to be using the words "trust" and "faith" pretty
much interchangeably because in Therese's teaching, they're more or less the
same.) Next week, we're going to start learning about St. Therese and her
spiritual doctrine, which builds on this week's scriptural foundation.
DAY 1
Eve of Darkness4
We begin in the beginning with Eve and the fall of humanity, the Eve who reveals
the opposite of trust, the Eve who caused the time of darkness.
Now, Eve's first mistake was that she listened to a liar -- the Father of Lies.
And what did he tell her? Of course, he told her a lie:
[The serpent] said to the woman, "Did God say, 'You shall not eat of any tree of the garden'?" And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'" But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil" (Gen 3:1-5).5
"You will not die." The serpent boldly contradicts God's Word. For God had told
Adam and Eve that if they ate from the forbidden tree they would die (see Gen
2:17). So, Satan, the Father of Lies, makes God look like a liar. And he goes on
to make God look jealous, selfish, and conniving: "For God knows that when you
eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God ... ." In short,
Satan casts doubt on God's goodness, making him look evil and untrustworthy.
We know the rest of the story. Eve disobeys God and leads Adam along the same
path. But the key here is to notice how it all began: It began with a lie, a lie
about God's Word, a lie that cast doubt on God's goodness and trustworthiness.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church, commenting
on the first sin of Adam and Eve, gets to the heart of it all:
Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust in his Creator die in his heart and, abusing his freedom, disobeyed God's command. This is what man's first sin consisted of. All subsequent sin would be disobedience toward God and lack of trust in his goodness.6
So, according to the Catechism, it's all about trust. More precisely, it's
all about our lack of trust. To one degree or another, as sons and daughters of
Adam and Eve, we all have a trust problem. We tend to distrust God. In other
words, just as Adam and Eve hid from God when they heard him walking in the
garden after their sin, so we, too, tend to hide from God, especially when our
sins weigh heavily upon us. This is one of the effects of original sin, one of
its "tragic consequences."7 And so, what the Catechism says about Adam and Eve, to one degree or
another, applies to us all: "They become afraid of the God of whom they have
conceived a distorted image ... ."8
And what has become distorted about our image of God? His goodness. We tend to
doubt God's goodness. And when we don't fully believe that God is good, then we
don't fully trust in him -- and that's a problem. Why? Because, again, as the Catechism teaches, all sin involves a lack of trust in God's
goodness.
To help heal our trust issues with God, on the initial day of this retreat,
let's turn our attention to one of the great apostles of mercy for our time, a
kindred soul to St. Therese: St. Maria Faustina Kowalska. Let's "visit" this
humble nun and listen to her advice, as one of her own religious sisters once
did:
On the initial day of the retreat, I was visited by one of the sisters who had come to make her perpetual vows. She confided to me that she had no trust in God and became discouraged at every little thing. I answered her, "It is well that you have told me this, Sister; I will pray for you." And I spoke a few words to her about how much distrust hurts the Lord Jesus, especially distrust on the part of a chosen soul. She told me that, beginning with her perpetual vows, she would practice trust. Now I know that even [some] souls that are chosen and well advanced in the religious life or the spiritual life do not have the courage to entrust themselves completely to God. And this is so because few souls know the unfathomable mercy of God and His great goodness.9
Today's Prayer:
Come, Holy Spirit, fire of mercy.
Help me better to know the great and unsurpassable goodness of God.
ENDNOTES:
4 Some of the content from this day's reflection comes from my book The Second Greatest Story Ever Told, pp.
17-18.
5 Emphasis added. (Unless otherwise indicated, as in this case, all emphasis in
citations is original.)
6 English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: Modifications from the Editio Typica (Washington,
D.C./Vatican: United States Catholic Conference, Inc./Libreria Editrice Vaticana,
1997), 397. Emphasis added. 7 Ibid., 399.
8 Ibid.
9 Diary, 731.
If you're just tuning in, follow
along with the series.
[resources: Retreat, Michael Brown in St-Louis-southern-Illinois, April 23]
[Note: Spirit Daily pilgrimage announced for Guadalupe]
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