{"id":7269,"date":"2020-07-08T19:22:47","date_gmt":"2020-07-09T00:22:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/?p=7269"},"modified":"2020-07-08T19:31:38","modified_gmt":"2020-07-09T00:31:38","slug":"lonely-of-course-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/lonely-of-course-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Lonely? Of Course."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is not good for man to be alone.\u201d These remarkable\nwords are spoken by God in the Book of Genesis as he\nseeks for a way to brighten things for a sad and lonely\nAdam. So God creates Eve, and she and Adam became\n\u201cpartners\u201d.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Problem solved? For awhile. But then it happened. Our\nfirst parents chose to walk away from God who created\nthem. And that\u2019s when the sadness and loneliness of life\nsettled in. They can no longer look at each other. They\ntake up wearing leaves to hide their nakedness.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Loneliness is born. Oh dear.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a tear in our hearts. We want to connect with others, but who is there we can trust to know us completely. (Haven\u2019t many of us at some time assumed we\u2019d found \u201cMr. or Ms. Wonderful\u201d? Finally, we meet someone who is endlessly fascinating and fun and who delights in our every thought. How soon we discover they (and we) are not as perfect as we thought.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you begin to see the peaceful co-existence of the world\u2019s peoples hangs on the common conviction that we are created and saved by God who calls us His children? Without the assurance of the love of God, upholding creation and calling humanity to Himself, we\u2019re left with a profound mistrust of one another. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not even friend, lover, husband or wife will put to rest our craving for love and completion in this broken world. God created the human creature whose ultimate purpose is to know and love our Creator. He is our ALL. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

So what do we do? Here\u2019s where people can get lost. Some people will medicate their loneliness (food, alcohol, pills, etc.). Some will try to fill it with people and constant activity. Some go shopping! Why not travel? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why not accept your loneliness? It\u2019s part of life. It goes\nalong with all the other moments humans experience.\n\u201cThere is a season and a time for every purpose. A time\nto be born, a time to die, a time to laugh, a time to\nweep\u201d . . . . . . a time to be lonely\u201d.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, loneliness can add an unexpected blessing in our\nlives. It can force us to know ourselves, to truly embrace\nwho we are (the good and the bad, the happy and sad).\nWe stop running away from ourselves. Being alone is not\nso bad. (Maybe you\u2019ve learned a little of this in these\ndays of Covid isolation).\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best of all, loneliness can invite me to reach out to God in prayer. To confide in God what you\u2019d speak to no other . . . . knowing that he hears and understands all of you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Do you know who the loneliest guy in the world is? It has\nto be Jesus.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who on earth could possibly understand who he was? Who could ever know the weight his mission placed on his shoulders? What must have been his loneliness in the garden that terrible night? Who could ever comfort Jesus? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But he was never alone for he knew his Father. (How\noften the scripture refers to Jesus spending the night\nalone in prayer to his Father \u201cwho sees in secret\u201d.)\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lonely? Of course. Embrace it. Make friends with it (\u201cSister Loneliness\u201d, St. Francis might say). You\u2019ll be surprised how it will make you a better person; it can make you aware of the loneliness of others. It\u2019s called compassion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last thought. There\u2019s no loneliness in heaven. God will permeate every speck of our being. \u201cFor now we see as through a glass darkly, but then face to face: now I know in part, but then I shall know even as I am known.\u201d 1 Cor.13:12<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

God sees you . . . and loves you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u201cIt is not good for man to be alone.\u201d These remarkable words are spoken by God in the Book of Genesis as he seeks for a way to brighten things for a sad and lonely Adam. So God creates Eve, and she and Adam became \u201cpartners\u201d. Problem solved? For awhile. But then it happened. Our […]<\/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-7269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weekly-column"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7269","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=7269"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7277,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7269\/revisions\/7277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}