Today I was inspired to go back to a book that I have used in the past for prayer, "Divine Intimacy".
A friend posted something that she had read, that was so touching, that I pulled it off the shelf and decided to use it to start my year.
The passage that she posted was for December 31st:
Time passes and does not return. God has assigned to each of us a definite time in which to fulfill His divine plan for our soul; we have only this time and shall have no more. Time ill spent is lost forever. Our life is made up of this uninterrupted, continual flow of time, which never returns. In eternity, on the contrary, time will be no more; we shall be established forever in the degree of love which we have reached now, in time. If we have attained a high degree of love, we shall be fixed forever in that degree of love and glory; if we possess only a slight degree that is all we shall have throughout eternity. No further progress will be possible when time has ended. "Therefore , while we have time, let us work good to all men" Gal 6:10, "We must give every moment its full amount of love, and make each passing moment eternal, by giving it value for eternity" (Sr. Carmela of the Holy Spirit). This is the best way to use the time give us by God. Charity allows us to adhere to God's will with submission and love and thus at the close of life we shall have realized God's plan for our soul; we shall have reached the degree of love which God expects from each one of us and with which we shall love and glorify Him for all eternity.
The last paragraph on the page for today, January 1st, provided such a wonderful image that I just had to post it:
"I think of this new year as a white page given to me by Your Father, on which He will write, day by day, whatever His divine good pleasure has planned. I shall now write at the top of the page, with complete confidence: Domine, fac de me sicut vis, Lord do with me what you will, and at the bottom I already write my Amen to all the proposals of Your divine will. Yes Lord, yes to all the joys, the sorrows, the graces, the hardships prepared for me, which you will reveal to me day by day. Grant that my Amen may be the Paschal Amen, always followed by the Alleluia, uttered wholeheartedly in the joy of a complete gift. Give me Your love and Your grace, and I shall be rich enough." (Sr. Carmela of the Holy Spirit O. C. D.)
I pray for the Charity, Perseverance, Fortitude and Generosity to run the race this year.
Please pray for me, as I will pray for all of you, that this year, whatever it brings, is one of walking in His will and growing in His grace.
