Ave Maria Meditations
It is easy to say, “I believe in God.” But to say that “I believe that God is in control” can be very hard really to give him the evidence of the heart, of the soul bowed down before him, sometimes in confusion at what he seems to be doing (and not doing) and sometimes in real anguish – and to believe. This is the evidence he is asking of us. We tend to think of faith as a lovely thing. Faith is not just a matter of speaking, but it is a matter of believing when it is difficult to believe …
Saint Claude de la Colombiere, the apostle of hope, said: “I hope, and I will always hope. And I will never cease hoping. When it is clear that there is no longer any reason to hope, then I will hope all the more.” But in his determination to give all his anxieties over to God, even he had to discover, as we do, that this is very hard to accomplish. We do not really want to let go of them. They are debilitating, they are degenerative of our forward action, and yet it can be very hard to let go of our anxieties. We ask: “But how is it going to turn out? It is getting more confused all the time; the skeins are more tangled all the time.” Hope is such a strong thing, because it is hope in the face of almost everything not presenting human reason for hope.
+ Mother Mary Francis PCC
Put your hope in the Truth, the Way, and the Life and consecrate yourself to Mary, Queen of Heaven. And then watch while the world, the flesh, and the devil pull out every conceivable and trifling little fault there may be in the manner in which you place your hope. Because your hope, and your faith, and your love, as flawed and stained by imperfection as it may be, will in the words of St. Louis de Montfort “bring the odour of death to the great, the rich and the proud of this world.” And it’ll happen, chance it to say, right in the middle of your parish/diocesan community. And then ask, am I ready to do all of this to gain entry into the Kingdom of Heaven. The Gospels tell us that “few” are and “many” aren’t.