From Light to Darkness

     “He came to His own, and His own received Him not.” John 1: 11

     I was suffering! Suffering for Our Lord and suffering for myself, or so I thought!

PLEASE SAVE ME FROM MYSELF!!!!!

      “Mary’s childlike trust consists in giving a full yes to God – without knowing everything this yes implies. This complete yes is full of trust, not of detailed knowledge of what is to come. In his encyclical on Mary, Pope St. John Paul II captured this dimension of her faith: ‘To believe means ‘to abandon oneself’ to the truth of the word of the living God, knowing and humbly recognizing ‘how unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways’ (Rom. 11:33)’ (Redemptoris Mater, no. 14). Mary teaches us how to say yes, too, with her childlike simplicity and trust, even when the full truth often lies in darkness.”                                                                                                                                                                                                 Icon of Trust – Fr Slawomir Szkredka

     Unlike our Mother Mary, I have been struggling with giving my full yes to God.    

     I feel like I have been living under “the cloud of unknowing” for the last year and a half. I wrestle with God Who asks for my full and complete trust.

The Purifying Furnace of the Sacred Heart

     “One should not say that it is impossible to reach a virtuous life; but one should say it is not easy. Nor do those who have reached it find it easy to maintain." St. Anthony of the Desert

     I had been in such a good place: filled with peace, easily dying to self, accepting all that God set before me and truly living in the spirit!

     I am not there anymore, and I’m not quite sure when I reached “this state.” I could no longer find contentment or peace.

Make Crooked Ways Straight

     “I will lead the blind on their journey; by paths unknown I will guide them. I will turn darkness into light before them, and make crooked ways straight. These things I do for them, and I will not forsake them” (Isaiah 42 vs. 16).



     We all have loved ones who are not currently practicing their faith. The reasons vary from person to person: some out of ignorance, not realizing the gifts and treasures of their faith; some stemming from hurts and disappointments for which God is blamed; others are indifferent and don’t see the importance of a relationship with God; still others have stopped believing in God and look at their childhood faith as a myth, likened to believing in Santa.

Stand in hope

“Hope is patience with a lamp lit”                                                 Tertullian


     Something stirred within my heart when I read Tertullian’s words,  “Hope is patience with a lamp lit.”       I felt as though I was engulfed in darkness – without any light. His words caused me to entertain the idea that, just maybe, there was a dim flicker of which I was unaware until that moment. The possibility that hope was present in the burden that plagued my soul began to dawn on me.