{"id":5938,"date":"2019-11-23T06:49:42","date_gmt":"2019-11-23T11:49:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/?p=5938"},"modified":"2019-11-30T08:05:04","modified_gmt":"2019-11-30T13:05:04","slug":"all-of-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/all-of-me\/","title":{"rendered":"All of me."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m thinking of a spiritual lesson I\u2019ve had to learn over\nand over in my life. It\u2019s the simple fact that God wants\nall of me.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a tension here. Everything I have has been given\nto me: parents, siblings, personality, talents . . . all gifts.\nThe problem is I forget my very existence is given to me\nby God. I start thinking I\u2019m in charge. It\u2019s MY <\/strong>life. . .\nand I\u2019ve got plans for me.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All this can work well so long, as my father used to say,\n\u201cIt squares with the Home Office\u201d. In this case that\u2019s\nGod!\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chaffing under these limits to freedom, don\u2019t we try to\nstrike a deal with God? \u201cLook Lord, I\u2019ll keep the 10\nCommandments as best I can, Mass on Sunday when\nschedules permit, and, what the heck, I\u2019ll throw in a few\nbucks for the CMA.\u201d\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut . . . don\u2019t ask me to give you my habits or my preferences. I\u2019ve spent a lifetime developing them: my bedtime, my cocktail, my personal time, a particular hobby, etc., all these are mine. I\u2019ll do what I want with them.\u201d \u201cGot a problem with that?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

So God is patient. He lets us have our way. But see what happens. Habits and preferences (even the good ones) start to protect themselves. To the point where they start to run the show. We start living in a way that expects our habits to have no interference. (\u201cWhat do you mean the plane is delayed?\u201d OR \u201cNo coffee!!? That\u2019s impossible!\u201d OR \u201cTake a walk? Can\u2019t you see the Bills game is on?\u201d) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once again God lets us have our way. And I don\u2019t know about you, but every time I start thinking \u201cI\u2019m a good guy–I don\u2019t need God\u2019s will to tell me what to do\u201d… things get muddy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s weird. I start out wanting a little \u201clife for myself\u201d. God won\u2019t mind. And now I discover there\u2019s a growing part of me that doesn\u2019t want God interfering with my habits at all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And look what\u2019s happened to God. God becomes \u201cthe\nLaw\u201d, the cop in my rearview mirror. Our loving Creator\nis now a kill joy, someone to flee.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poor God. How we twist things about Him. How we make Him out to be some grumpy boss who loves to order people around. Our vision of life slowly changes. Happiness is something to be grasped by ourselves. God is someone to flee. Adam and Eve hid themselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what went wrong? We did. We failed to give God everything. Call it what you want . . . mistrust, selfishness, pride, arrogance . . . it\u2019s all the same. It\u2019s a voice that says, \u201cNOBODY IS GOING TO TELL ME WHAT TO DO.\u201d <\/strong>Quietly God calls to us but we\u2019re not in the mood to listen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ever have that feeling? Ever hear yourself saying that?\nWelcome to this fallen world.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve forgotten that God loves us. We\u2019ve forgotten that, in His knowing love, He knows us better than we know ourselves. (If God had granted every wish or prayer I\u2019ve made, I dread what I would have become!) And, get this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

God\u2019s will is <\/strong>our true happiness! St. Ignatius of Loyola,\nfounder of the Jesuits, prayed this prayer (The Suscipe)\nfor God to have all of him. See what you think.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take, O Lord, and receive my entire liberty, my memory, my understanding and my whole will. All that I am and all that I possess, Thou hast given me: I surrender it all to Thee to be disposed of according to Thy will. Give me only Thy love and Thy grace; with these I will be rich enough and will desire nothing more. Amen. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next Week Advent. We start all over! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fr. Tim <\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m thinking of a spiritual lesson I\u2019ve had to learn over and over in my life. It\u2019s the simple fact that God wants all of me. There\u2019s a tension here. Everything I have has been given to me: parents, siblings, personality, talents . . . all gifts. The problem is I forget my very existence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weekly-column"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5938"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5942,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5938\/revisions\/5942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}