We have come to the end of the liturgical year and are in the last weeks of this year!
All our projects or wishes formulated at the dawn of 2017 may not always have materialized according to our desires and this leaves us with a bitter taste or even some real disappointments. Or, on the contrary, let us be joyful because our projects have been realized beyond our expectations!
However, as recalled by Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart Bernaud, founder of the Guard of Honor, the most important is that in every event and situation lived or to come, happy or unhappy, we correspond in every respect to Grace and God’s will !
At this time of Advent, that gives substance to a sincere assessment of the year that ends … also offers great prospects for the future!
The generous correspondence to Grace
The years succeed each other, but the benefits of God do not stop. If we could calculate all the graces received since we were born, the number of our heartbeats would not be enough! Now it is not time itself that has value, it is the grace of God that it contains and the use that has been made of it. It does not matter what years accumulate until you become 100 if you neglect to use them with the grace of God.
What is grace? A light that enlightens us? A flame that warms us to the most intimate of ourselves? A hand that guides us? A taste that takes us to the heart, a magnet that attracts us? Yes, no doubt, but much more is the very life of Jesus.
The principle of divine life that animated Jesus also operates in us, but not without our will. It is enough for us to want it and this principle of life accomplishes in us wonders. Alas, too often, we refuse our help to these graces, and God respects our freedom. He leaves us full and complete responsibility to accept or disdain them.
What a misfortune to lose a single grace since it is the price of Jesus’ blood shed for each one of us! What a misfortune for our soul too! There are decisive graces that can not be denied without seriously compromising his perfection or even his salvation, like the rich young man of the gospel who did not accept the invitation of Jesus.
Fear, says St. Augustine, to see Jesus pass and go away never to return. When Jesus is no longer there, it is emptiness, desolation and death. When God no longer lives in a nation, in souls, or in a time, misfortunes arise.
Let us be attentive to the graces God wants to give us. The dissipated soul does not hear the voice of the Lord but to the recollected soul, It reveals itself by a light breath, a murmur, a look. Everything speaks of God to a faithful heart. It is a work of two to undertake to correspond to the Grace, it only requires our good will! The forces, the lights, God will give us everything. To Him will come all the honor but to us the profit! Let’s correspond to Grace!
Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart Bernaud