Devotional thought of the day:

“Put your head frequently round the oratory door to say to Jesus… I abandon myself into your arms. Leave everything you have—your wretchedness!—at his feet. In this way, in spite of the welter of things you carry along behind you, you will never lose your peace.”   (1)

As I review some of my history, in preparing for the remembrance of the Reformation, I dare wonder what would happen if Martin Luther and St. Josemarie Escriva would meet.  (Some Lutherans and some Roman Catholics could not see this occur, yet I wonder)  For both seem driven in their lives –  to connect people to Chrsit, to reveal to them the love of God, that they may live and love Him in return.

Among all the things that they have in common, from being called beasts of burdens, to their dedication to connect people to Christ, to these incredible words – this idea of being abandoned to God, to be stripped of all that isn’t of Christ. It is not an obligation, bu an invitation to an incredible blessing!

It sounds painful, yet Escriva would tell us that can we be released of all that would constrain us, we would know peace.  The words of Hebrews 12 encourage the same…

“With so many witnesses in a great cloud all around us, we too, then, should throw off everything that weighs us down and the sin that clings so closely, and with perseverance keep running in the race which lies ahead of us. ² Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, who leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection: for the sake of the joy which lay ahead of him, he endured the cross, disregarding the shame of it, and has taken his seat at the right of God’s throne.”

Hebrews 12:1-2 (NJB) 

He has taken his seat there, our Advocate, our Paraclete, given us the Holy Spirit, and is our Lord, our Master. Not to reign over us like a dictator, but to care and provide for us, the head of our family, the Spirit being the “giver of life” and that life the one acquired for us.

My friends, abandon yourself to His mercy, to His grace, to His work redeeming and restoring us to the Father, to His work so beautifully described in Ephesians 2,

^2:10 We are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus for the good works which God has already designated to make up our way of life.
Ephesians 2:10 (NJB) 

Let Jesus strip you of that which causes anxiety, that which causes shame and guilt and despair,the sin and idolatry, including self idolatry….. and know His peace and joy, as yourself in His presence.

AMEN

(1)Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 1235-1238). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.