Father God, help me feed on righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit…

 
Romans 14:17-29

 
Looking after my 4 yr old granddaughter, who prefers carbohydrates over protein, requires creativity as well as patience. So it is for Father God, the Father of Creation and patient Love, who witnesses his beloved children engaging in destructive, rather than life-giving, things. How to guide his daughters and sons away from participating in gossip, absorbing social media, reaching for quick fixes of entertainment and titillation, and ingesting large amounts of dubious human ‘research’? God, our Father, provides for us the best soul-food in the world: The accounts of the righteousness words and deeds of holy humans, both previous and present, who have known and loved their Creator, like Jesus the Son -  to contemplate. Deep Peace that the world cannot give, given by Christ Jesus first to his disciples, and by extension to us living in the world today, a peace that is the fruit of God’s mercy, power and wisdom – to savor; And joy in the Holy Spirit, that provides the living water of life to refresh, wash and restore our hearts, minds, souls and strength whenever we choose to find and receive it, whether from the delights of the natural world, through the exercise of prayer and thanksgiving, that is Eucharist, and in receiving Christ wholly in Holy Communion – to feed on. Will I, like a 4 year old, insist on ingesting the ‘carbohydrates’ of life, that are the ‘goods’ and the dictates of this world and my flesh? Or will I, as a spiritual adult listen to my Father in Heaven and choose to take into my heart, mind, soul and strength the ‘proteins’ of Righteousness, Peace, and Holy Joy – in the spirit of the Holy Spirit?  Father God, help me feed on righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.  
 
 May you be filled with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding to live in a manner worthy of the Lord…      (Col 1:9-10))
 
Let us do all things with the conviction that God dwells in us.
St Ignatius of Antioch
 
Soli ad gloriam Dei
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