Monday, June 4, 2012

For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain!

Many who would willingly let themselves be nailed to a Cross before the astonished gaze of a thousand onlookers cannot bear with a Christian spirit the pinpricks of each day! Think, then, which is the more heroic.  ~St. Josemaría Escrivá

Ave Maria!  The above thought of St. Josemaría appeared in my mail box first thing this morning.  "Ah," I said to myself with a wry smile, "my marching orders for the day!"  No delusions of grandeur or flights of fancy here, not with this particular holy man of God along with so many other saints who, through the grace of God, learned to "get over" themselves and "get it."  They totally grasped what our Beloved Lord Jesus meant when He instructed us to take up our cross each day and follow Him, and they gladly died to themselves and all their hopes, dreams and expectations to do what their Master commanded.  We can do likewise this very day, moment by moment.  What's more, if we don't do it here and now, in the daily grind, it will never happen, not even and especially not if the opportunity presents itself for us to "be nailed to a Cross before the astonished gaze of a thousand onlookers." 

"I will fill him with length of days," we hear in the Psalms (91:16).  Dear Lord, let me use these days well, each and every precious moment, to live and to die for You alone and so give glory to our loving Father.  Amen.

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