“What a man desires, if he worships it, is to him a god. A vice in the heart is an idol on the altar.” St. Jerome

How many idols do we truly have on our altars? We may not see or acknowledge them as idols. But what we give our heart to without God being the center is truly an idol. That is why any habitual sin is not only a vice but an idol. We desire that more than we desire God. We give our allegiance to acting on the vice than we do to God. This was the judgement God had against the Chosen People. They gave lip service to him but their hearts to injustice and oppression, to greed and trusting not upon the Lord. We are called by God to put aside all idols and to cling to him and him alone as the Lord of our lives. Otherwise, the idols remain.

 "Always be impartial and just in your deeds. Put yourself into your neighbor's place, and him in yours, and then you will judge fairly....Frequently, therefore, examine your heart, whether it is so disposed towards your neighbor, as you would have his disposed towards you, were you to change places; for this is the true test." St. Francis de Sales

Jesus said it this way: "Treat others as you would have them treat you." He didn't say treat others as they treat you, but as you would want them to treat you. If the other is disrespectful to you or is angry with you, that does not give you a right to be disrespectful and angry in response. Or to put it another way, treat the other as you would have God treat you. We desire his mercy and love, not his justice and rejection. We are not about changing another's life, but not giving the other the power to change our life. We are called to a higher level of relationship with God. Don't let our response to another's action bring us done to the other's level.

 
"God allows us to give rise to the practice of two beautiful virtues: perseverance, which leads us to attain the goal, and constancy, which helps us to overcome difficulties." St. Vincent de Paul

There are human virtues and there are spiritual virtues. The former are part of our natural, human state. The latter are gifts from God to go beyond what our human ability alone can achieve. Sometimes the task before us seem impossible to reach. Praying for the grace of perseverance enables us to have a spiritual boost of energy to push forward. The grace of constancy or steadfastness enables us to keep our eyes on the Lord, rather than on the struggle. God' help is always available to us. All we have to do is believe and ask for it, relying on him in all things.

 "My past, O Lord, to your mercy; my present, to your love, my future to your providence." St. Padre Pio

What is the central, common factor? I and everything dealing with my life belongs to the Lord. Once we realize and embrace this truth, then the next step is to release everything to the Lord.  We will then experience a new freedom from the past and future to live in the present moment. Regrets for the past and fear of the uncertainty of the future are diabolic traps that centers on ourselves and not God. 

 
"God asks little, but he gives much." St. John Chrysostom

Reflect on this. What does God really asks of us? What does he gives us? He asks that we seek his will in our lives so that by doing it in love, we may one day be with him sharing his glory. He gives us his love, blessing, grace, guidance, summed up in the gift of himself. He overwhelms us throughout our lives with his mercy, forgiveness, compassion, understanding. Our response is so little in comparison. It is the ocean compared to a pond. He is infinite and we are finite. Therefore, what he does for us is overflowing in abundance. It should move us, not to respond in kind, which we can't, but in the one gift we have, our will freely united to his.

 “True and substantial devotion consists in serving God without experiencing any sensible consolation. This means serving and loving God for His own sake.” St. Padre Pio

How often we desire consolation from the Lord, especially when we are in desolation! At that moment God desires us to continue to be faithful to him, to seek his will and to choose to do it in love. Consolation will come not when we plea for it, but when God desires to give it to us. For trusting in him in times of desolation comes from his grace, which means that in those times he is present to us, walking with us, even though we do not feel him. Jesus experienced desolation on the cross, the desolation of the weight of our sins, but he was not alone. That is why he could say, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit."

 "On the last day, when the general examination takes place, there will be no question at all on the text of Aristotle, the aphorisms o Hippocrates, or the paragraphs of Justinian. Charity will be the whole syllabus." St. Robert Bellamine

Intelligence and wisdom, popularity or wealth will not be important on that important day of our existence. What will matter is did we love in response to the many graces God gave us throughout our life. God will flash before us the many ways he loved us. His question will be did we love  in return? Everything will hinge on that one answer. But before we respond, he will also show us our whole life, the times we did or did not love.  There is only one grade that will be given: eternity with him or alienation away from him. Knowing this ahead of time, how should we prep for the final examination?

 "In proportion to the size of the vessel of faith, brought by us to the Lord, is the measure we draw out of his overflowing grace." St/ Cyprian

The amount of grace God desires to pour forth on us is limitless. The amount of grace we receive is limited by the depth of our faith in God. .How often Jesus said, "Be healed according to your faith." Is our faith superficial or is it all-in-faith? Do we keep asking for signs and wonders from Jesus, like the people of his day? Is our faith in Jesus, who he is or in what he can do for us? "Blessed are those who have not seen and still believe." The sign and wonder God manifests to us may be the grace of the present moment, which only in faith can we perceive. 

 
"Any time spent before the Eucharistic presence, be it long or short, is the best-spent time of our lives." St. Catherine of Genoa

I know that with today's hectic pace, time before the Eucharistic presence is difficult. But with a rearrangement of our weekly schedule, we can make this happen, if we see this as a high priority in our walk with God. We make time for all kinds of activities and people in our lives, but do we make time for the Lord, besides weekly Mass. Who has loved us so totally? Who has given us the greatest treasure we can ever possess? Is he not worth the effort on our part to spend time before his Eucharistic presence? He has so much more to give and do in your life. He waits for your openness and your availability. 

 "No matter how just your words may be, you ruin everything when you speak with anger." St. John Chrysostom

Anger is like vinegar in comparison to honey. The former is sour and hard to swallow; the latter sweet, going down easier. Speaking the truth is important and necessary. But when it is done in anger, the truth falls on deft ears. Sometimes, we feel that if we say something with greater force and emphasis it will be acted on. Wrong. The same truth spoken with the calmness of love, is more readily heard. Anger is a fault and a vice; love is a virtue and a grace. So, if you want to be heard, then speak the truth in love rather than in anger.

 "Every man is the painter and the sculptor of his own life." St. John Chrysostom

God provides all the tools we need to shape our life. He even gives us his Son as our model. Even though we share many of the same tools, the life that flows is uniquely different from everyone else. At the same time, God is not uninterested or absent in what we are becoming. When we mar our image through sin, he recreates us and gives us a fresh new start.  He inspires us with his grace. But the ultimate person I become depends on how I use the tools and grace given to me. Be responsible and meticulous. The ultimate me will either be with God eternally or alienated from him.

 "To love God as he ought t be loved, we must be detached from all temporal love. We must love nothing but him, or if we love anything else, we must love it for his sake." Anonymous

This is agape love, which God calls us to strive for. This is the love we will experience in eternity when we are in the presence of the All in All. Agape love involves love of others but only because of him. Thus, the two Commandments: Love God totally and love neighbor because of God. This love is not impossible. It comes from grace and our desire to do the will of God, which is love. That is what the Saints discovered as they fell in love with God, but still served and loved others. It is not a matter of exclusion, but priority.

 "Should you fall even fifty times a day, never on any account should that surprise or worry you. Instead, ever so gently set your heart back in the right direction. St. Maximilian Kolbe

Falling into sin is not something to become immune to. But doing nothing about it is dangerous. God is offended by our sin but more offended by our indifference and failure to return to him with our heart. To an extent that was the double sin of the Chosen People. They did not immediately repent but remained in their darkness. Underlying this was their thinking that God will always care for them no matter what they did. How easy for us to fall into the same mindset. God gives us the grace to avoid sin. When we do sin, he gives us grace to sincerely repent and return to him. God overlooks our sin in a sense when he forgives us. But he does not overlook our apathy and indifference to remain in sin for a long time.

 "What great profit you gain from God when you are generous! You give a coin and receive a kingdom; you give bread from wheat and receive the Bread of Life; you give a transitory good and receive an everlasting one. You will receive it back, a hundred times more than you offered." St. Thomas of Villanova

How often we fail to appreciate the generosity of God in response to our token gifts done in love! God is benevolent while we are short sighted. We think the little we give is extremely generous on our part. But in comparison to the blessings we receive from God, our gift pales. In God's eyes, the amount is not the point. It is the love with which we give. How often God desires to take our offering of a few loaves and fish and multiply them to care for the many in need? Be generous with what you are given by God and see his wonders.

 "Let my future be as God wants it. I leave it in the hands of Him who cannot operate but for the good of all. And this is enough to make me happy." Blessed Giovanni Battista Mazzucconi

How often we seek to control our future. We make decisions that are not consistent with the will of God for us. For the most part the result is unhappiness. But we try the same thing again and again, hoping that things will change. It is hard for us to entrust our lives into the hands of God. Will he come through for me? It really depends whether I truly believe he loves me more than I can love myself. If I do, then he knows what is best for me, even if it means purification and pruning. He wills my eternal salvation and glory with him. And in his infinite wisdom he knows what is best for me. Surrendering to him is freedom to become whom I am meant to be.

 "None lose you except those who depart from you." St. Augustine

Because God has blessed us with intellect and free will out of love and redeemed us out of love, God will always love us. That is his nature. Even when we forsake him as our God, going after other gods. While the light remains, when we depart from the light, we enter into darkness. Like the Prodigal Son, we can choose to deny and leave the Father, The Father always remains ready to receive us back. But if that is our last choice at the time of death, then we remain frozen in that choice. Still the Father loves u, even in accepting our free choice of darkness over the light.

 "You don't climb a mountain in leaps and bounds, but by taking it slowly." Pope St. Gregory the Great

 We must begin by getting out of the unhealthy environment of selfish preoccupations. There are people who live sad and tormented by memories of the past, by what others think of them in the resent, and by what happen to them in the future. Let them forget about themselves and worry about others, about doing them some good, about serving them, and the gray ghosts will disappear. Happiness does not depend on the outside, but on the inside."  St. Augustine

When a person is in the will of God, trying to live the way that is pleasing to the Lord, then he can experience peace and happiness. This is not what the Evil One wants for us. To distract us from our real purpose, he places stumbling blocks in our path. These are the temptations that are self-centered. Each fall is a victory for him. But thanks be to God, while the temptations are from the Father of lies, God gives us sufficient grace and strength to lift our eyes to the needs of others instead. To the extent of our love and service of others, to that extent we can begin to experience what real happiness. This is what being selfless is.

 "The word of God does not belong to him who hears or speaks it, but to him who puts in into practice." St. Giles

One of the judgments of God against the Chosen People was not that they had not heard the word, but that they did not put it into practice. It was the same in Jesus' time. The religious leaders refused to accept the word he shared with them., Recall the scribe who came to Jesus seeking to know the most important Commandment. Jesus said it came down to Love of God totally and love of neighbor. When the scribe acknowledged this, Jesus said he needed to take the next step and live it. It is not that we don't know what God has spoken to us through his word. It is that we don't always act in accord with his word. That is because like the people of old, we hear with our ears and know in our heart but we choose not to act on it less we have to change our ways.

 "Whatever a man prefers to God, that he makes a god to himself.? St. Cyprian

What are the gods of our heart and hands? We may not consciously think that we have other gods. But when we try to serve God and mammon, in reality we are serving the latter, giving lip service to the former. God has made it clear that if we want to be in relationship with him, our hearts must be rooted in him primarily. We can't substitute the God we can't see for gods we can. Scripture says that God is a jealous God. He has a right to be. He has created us in his own image and likeness and has predestined us for himself. We belong to him. To make other created things gods is to deny our relationship with the one, true God. We must choose whom we shall serve.