Interior Life

Those who are nearest are the first to be heard. That is why you must get close to God and be intent on becoming a saint.

I like to compare the interior life to clothing, to the wedding garment the Gospel speaks about. The cloth is woven from all the habits or acts of piety which, like threads, together give strength to the cloth. And so, just as a torn dress is rejected even though the rest of the material is in good condition, if you pray and work but re not penitent (or the other way round) your interior life is not (so to speak) complete.

When will you realize that your only possible way is to seek sanctity seriously. Make up your mind—don't be offended—to take God seriously. That levity of yours, if you do not fight against it, could end up by becoming a sad and blasphemous mockery.

You sometimes allow the bad side of your character to come out, and it has shown itself, on more than one occasion, in an absurd harshness. At other times, you do not bother to prepare your heart and your head so that they may be a worthy dwelling for the Most Holy Trinity. And you invariably end up by remaining rather distant from Jesus, whom you know so little. 
Going on like this, you will never have interior life.

Iesus Christus, perfectus Deus, perfectus Homo—Jesus Christ, perfect God and perfect Man. 
There are many Christians who follow Christ and are astonished by his divinity, but forget him as Man. And they fail in the practice of supernatural virtues, despite all the external paraphernalia of piety, because they do nothing to acquire human virtues.

Personal sanctity is a remedy for everything. That is why the saints have been full of peace, of fortitude, of joy, of security.

Until now you had not understood the message that we Christians bring to the rest of men: the hidden marvel of the interior life. 
What a wonderful new world you are placing in front of them.

How many new things you have discovered! And yet you are sometimes rather naive and think you have seen everything, that you have found out everything already. As time goes by, you will be able to reach out and touch the unique and unfathomable treasures of the Lord, who will always show you new things, if you respond with love and sensitivity. Then you will realize that you are only beginning, because holiness consists in identifying oneself with God, with that God of ours who is infinite and inexhaustible.

It is through Love rather than study that one comes to understand the things of God.
That is why you have to work, you have to study, you have to accept illness, you have to be sober-lovingly.

Here is a point for your daily examination. Have I allowed an hour to pass, without talking with my Father God? Have I talked to him with the love of a son? You can!

We should make no mistake. God is no shadowy or distant being who created us, then abandoned us; nor is he a master who goes away and does not return. Though we do not perceive him with our senses, his existence is far more true than any of the realities which we touch and see. God is here with us, really present, living. He sees and hears us, he guides us, and knows our smallest deeds, our most hidden intentions. 
We believe this—but we live as if God did not exist. For we do not have a thought or a word for him; for we do not obey him, nor try to control our passions; for we do not show that we love him, and we do not atone... 
Are we going to continue living with a dead faith?

If you had presence of God you would remedy many things that have apparently "no remedy".

How are you going to live in God's presence if you are only looking around everywhere? —It is as if you were drunk with novelties and futilities.

It is possible that you might be frightened by this word: meditation. It makes you think of books with old black covers, the sound of sighs, and the irksome repetition of routine prayers. But that is not meditation.
To meditate is to consider, to contemplate God as your Father, and yourself as his son in need of help. And then to give him thanks for all that he has given you and for all that he will give you.

This is the only way to get to know Jesus: speak to him. You will always find in him a Father, a Friend, an Adviser, a Helper in all the noble deeds of your everyday life. 
And getting to know him will give rise to Love.

From Furrow by Josemaría Escrivá
Scepter Publishers, Princeton

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