Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path. (Psalm 119)
Esther 14:1-14 Anxiety can indeed seize my thoughts, words and actions and become deadly to my being. When I am anxious out of desperation I am compelled to fight against the tide of life, to freeze my consciousness or submit to oppression through depression – or flee the situation. But where to flee? The world, the flesh and the devil entice me with various forms of temporal refuge: drugs or alcohol to numb the pain, hyper-acivity to keep paralysis at bay, human saviours to ‘fix’ me, or ‘vacations’ of comfort or ease that will allow me to check out of life. Any of these alternatives is only a stop-gap measure that provides a superficial and a quick solution that might jerk me into liveliness for a time, but in reality can drop me even deeper into an seizure of anxiety. The Holy Spirit on the other hand calls me to flee to God for divine wisdom and lasting help that is able to lead me through any situation. No matter how desperate or fear-full life seems to be, with God’s help I can find true faith, hope and love that untangle me from the chains of panic and fear. When I become anxious about any circumstance of life, will I flee just anywhere, or will I flee to God? Holy Spirit, when I am seized with deadly anxiety, help me flee to the Lord. The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. (Psalm 138) If there is anywhere on earth a lover of God who is always kept safe, I know nothing of it, for it was not shown to me. But this was shown: that in falling and rising again we are always kept in that same priceless love. Julian of Norwich www.gospelmysteryoftheday.ca & Gospel Mystery of the Day on Facebook Soli ad gloriam Dei
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AuthorBeverly Illauq lives in Kemptville, Ontario, where she greets each morning by seeking the Gospel Mystery of the Day - the Word of the Lord for direct and practical application to the specific challenges & joys of the day. Archives
March 2024
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