Our Health and Well-Being
We're Invited!
Photo By: Flickr/Lawrence OP
“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest,” said the Lord [Matthew 11: 28]. What a beautiful invitation and just what we need! Have we accepted or are we skittish about getting close to Our Lord?
God knows we need Him, especially as we are being pulled apart from one another due to the coronavirus pandemic and social unrest. By coming to Jesus and following His way, we can find the way to come together and heal. Certainly, now is the time to unmask ourselves before Our Lord and embrace His love.
To Live and Thrive
To unmask is to come to terms with the truth about ourselves. We need God’s love to survive and thrive. A simple truth, yet many find it hard to accept. Any attempt to live without God’s love risks hardening of the heart. Are we not seeing evidence of that today?
To embrace God’s love is to embrace the graces we need to heal our wounds that tear us apart internally and from one another. With God’s loving graces, we have His everlasting mercy. How else can we preserve and protect our humanity?
Humanity is suffering greatly and this suffering is harder to overcome as society grows more secular, more distant from God. To reject Our Lord’s invitation is to reject our lifeline to Heaven. That lifeline joins us to all that is good. “All good giving and every perfect gift is from above” [James 1:17]; all of which is offered for humanity’s redemption and salvation.
The Trinitarian Life
By accepting Christ’s invitation, we encounter God the Father and the Holy Spirit. We enter into the intimacy of the Trinitarian life and receive the gift of Heaven’s graces. When we share those graces by the way we live and treat one another, we have Heaven on earth. The more we share, the greater the presence of the Holy Trinity in our daily living and our world.
In other words, Christ invites us into His life so that we are never alone and never separated from the love of God. What a comfort and a joy! The guiding Spirit of the Lord takes us by the hand and leads us on our journey through life and all of its challenges. In unity with the Holy Trinity, we can rise above our trials and temptations and experience the transforming power of faith, hope, and love.
Sadly, many today have lost their invitation. They have lost touch with God’s loving hand and guiding Light of Life. Remember, the trials we face come from human hands, not God’s hand. Therefore, joined with Christ, in unity with God the Father and Holy Spirit, we can work as one through our burdens without losing heart or hope.
Dear Lord, in these difficult times, help us to say Yes to your invitation just as Mary the Blessed Virgin said Yes at the Annunciation. May we embrace your loving mercy and feel the healing power of your love that mends our broken heart—giving us the strength to share your graces and bind the wounds that divide us. Amen.
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About the Author
For 15 years, Carol has been the writer/editor of Journey to Our Lady, a spiritual publication that helps readers seek out a closer relationship to our Blessed Mother, who draws the faithful closer to the Holy Trinity. From her Journey, Carol has authored the prayer book, Heavenly Mother Help Me; Prayers, Poetry and Prose for Daily Living, as a companion for individuals trying to live their faith every day.
Carol is an independent writer and speaker. Her article on Marian devotions is featured in the May 2017 issue of Catholic Update and Liguorian magazine.
Carol’s spiritual reflections, poetry, and prayers can be found on her web site: www.journeytoourlady.com and on Twitter: Carol Monaco @journey2ourlady.
Carol also is a member of the World Apostolate of Fatima (USA) and a member of Association Jeanne Jugan, a Catholic lay organization that provides individuals with an opportunity to share in the spirituality of the Little Sisters of the Poor.
