"When they walk through the Valley of Weeping, it will become a place of refreshing springs. The autumn rains will clothe it with blessings." Psalm 84:6 (NLT)
Meditation: Why must we walk through a valley of tears? Why is suffering necessary? Why do the innocent suffer?
Sometimes suffering is our own doing. We overeat, drink too much, smoke, etc., and then we wonder why we have diabetes or cancer. But what about the loss of a child? The child did nothing to deserve death. Perhaps God knew that he would lose that soul if she lived longer. Perhaps the family would move closer to God in their grief. These answers may be true, but they are unsatisfying.
Why do people die so young or so old? Why do some people suffer so much and others live a happy and blessed life? St. Joseph, Jesus' stepfather, died before Jesus began his public ministry. Herod had innocent babies killed to eliminate the Christ child. Many martyrs died young.
Father Ron Roth, a former Catholic priest and founder of Celebrating Life Ministries, had a series of strokes, but he recovered. He said that God revealed to him that he was supposed to die, but was given a few more years to complete his work. If that is true, we must assume that each of us has a job to do, a task to perform for the Lord, whether we are someone of great importance like the President of the United States or the Pope, or just an average person trying to get by. We really do not realize the impact our life may have on others. Perhaps it was something we said or did, or something we caused to happen or not to happen. We may never know.
Why are we born? I've come to believe that God has a plan and all of us have a part to play in that plan. The problem is we don't understand the plan. And since we are not God, we are not meant to.
In the Lord's prayer we pray the words that Jesus taught us: "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." In other words, let us trust that God knows what he is doing, even when events do not always make sense to us. That is easy to say, but hard to do. As I used to tell visitors at the Seton Basilica in Emmitsburg, "Just do your best and let God do the rest." Or as Mother Seton said, "There can be no disappointment if the soul's unique desire is to meet God's will and do it."
I have discovered that there are three rules to follow if you want peace in this life: love God with all your mind, soul and heart; love others as he loves us; trust in God for he always has our best interests at heart.
Let us take to heart the promise of this psalm: our Valley of Weeping will become a place of refreshing springs, if not in this world, then in the next. Amen.
Sometimes suffering is our own doing. We overeat, drink too much, smoke, etc., and then we wonder why we have diabetes or cancer. But what about the loss of a child? The child did nothing to deserve death. Perhaps God knew that he would lose that soul if she lived longer. Perhaps the family would move closer to God in their grief. These answers may be true, but they are unsatisfying.
Why do people die so young or so old? Why do some people suffer so much and others live a happy and blessed life? St. Joseph, Jesus' stepfather, died before Jesus began his public ministry. Herod had innocent babies killed to eliminate the Christ child. Many martyrs died young.
Father Ron Roth, a former Catholic priest and founder of Celebrating Life Ministries, had a series of strokes, but he recovered. He said that God revealed to him that he was supposed to die, but was given a few more years to complete his work. If that is true, we must assume that each of us has a job to do, a task to perform for the Lord, whether we are someone of great importance like the President of the United States or the Pope, or just an average person trying to get by. We really do not realize the impact our life may have on others. Perhaps it was something we said or did, or something we caused to happen or not to happen. We may never know.
Why are we born? I've come to believe that God has a plan and all of us have a part to play in that plan. The problem is we don't understand the plan. And since we are not God, we are not meant to.
In the Lord's prayer we pray the words that Jesus taught us: "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." In other words, let us trust that God knows what he is doing, even when events do not always make sense to us. That is easy to say, but hard to do. As I used to tell visitors at the Seton Basilica in Emmitsburg, "Just do your best and let God do the rest." Or as Mother Seton said, "There can be no disappointment if the soul's unique desire is to meet God's will and do it."
Let us take to heart the promise of this psalm: our Valley of Weeping will become a place of refreshing springs, if not in this world, then in the next. Amen.
Here is the 44th prayer from my book, 100 Prayers of Purity for the Mission of Our Lady of America. Enjoy!
Prayer 44
Madonna in Glory1
No new heart ever throbbed with its pulsations of Divine life in one whose lips have never sought in prayer with contrite spirit, that precious boon of a perfect heart of love and cleanness. God never has put His Spirit into the realm of a human heart which had never invoked by ardent praying the coming and indwelling of the Holy Spirit. A prayerless spirit has no affinity for a clean heart. Prayer and a pure heart go hand in hand. Purity of heart follows praying, while prayer is the natural, spontaneous outflowing of a heart made clean by the blood of Jesus. Amen.88
1"Madonna in Glory." Web. 18 May 2016.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ File:Dolci_ Madonna_ p1070185.jpg>
88"The Possibilities of Prayer." Web. 7 July 2016.
<http://www.whatsaiththescripture.com/Voice/Possibilities.of.Prayer.html>.
Copyright © 2010 by John P. Gross. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this material must be done in its entirety with the copyright notice intact. This book is not for sale, but is offered to the public free of charge in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary and for the glory of God.
No comments:
Post a Comment