Category: Spirituality

Sometimes I feel that there is a huge hole in my heart that nothing on earth could ever fill. Not wealth, not power, not fame, not even the love of a special person. This hole is so huge I could easily fall within in. Many times, in the course of daily life, I somehow forget. But when I remember, what terrible pain is there! What hunger and what emptiness. I have a thirst within me not even all the oceans of the world could possibly fill.

I’m reminded of what St. Teresa of the Andes told her father once:

“I wanted to be happy and searched for happiness everywhere. I dreamed of being very rich, but I saw that over night rich people can become poor. And even if at times it doesn’t happen, one sees that on the one hand riches abound, and on the other hand, people are overwhelmed by poverty of affection and unity. I’ve thought of happiness in the affection of a perfect young man, but the very idea that some day he might love me with less enthusiasm or that he could die, leaving me alone in the struggles of life, makes me reject the idea that by marrying I’ll be happy. No. This doesn’t satisfy me. For me, happiness is not found there. Where, then, I ask myself, is it to be found? Then I understood that I hadn’t been born for earthly things but for eternal ones. Why go on denying this fact any longer? Only in God has my heart found its rest. With God my soul found itself fully satisfied, so that I desire nothing in this world but to belong to Him completely.” (St. Teresa of the Andes to her father, Letter 73)

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”
The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. So where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his children and his livestock?”
Jesus answered her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
– John 4:10-14, WEB-BE

When you are beginning to be scrupulous again, remember what sin is really all about. Sin is not a technicality. Sin is not a transgression against a whimsical rule set by a tyrant. Sin is something that violates our nature to love. Sin is something we do that creates a wound not only upon the soul of the one we transgress but also and more so upon our own soul. When we sin like that, let us ask for help from Him who has redeemed us by His wounds of love. Let us ask for forgiveness, and then let us trust Him to be who He is- a compassionate, just and merciful God.

So many images of Jesus depict Him as One who is suffering, as the Lord with a wounded heart. Is this not the image of the Sacred Heart? There were times when I wondered why it should be like this. Why couldn’t He just be a Lord of joy? After all, that’s what I also want – to be happy.

But then I’ve realized that it was the way Jesus chose so that He could reach me. Have you ever noticed how lonely people find it hard to open up to those who often tell them to cheer up and just be happy like them?

Lonely people find it easier to approach those to whom they can relate to, people who have also experienced heartache and pain, people who also know suffering.

I think that’s what Jesus does. To let us know that He Himself has suffered, and that is why we can trust Him to hear the deepest cries of our hearts.

“The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart,
and saves those who have a crushed spirit.”
– Psalm 34:18, WEB-BE

Today, I’d like to share some very inspiring quotes from the movie “Full of Grace.” The movie is about the life of the apostles after Jesus ascended to heaven. It has wonderfully shown how the first Christians looked towards Peter for guidance, and how Peter himself has looked to Mary for inspiration and wisdom.

Here are the quotes from the movie:

“Do you think the Lord has left you? He has gone away so we will find Him. He has gone away so we will seek Him.”

“You never met him. You never heard him speak. You never even saw him from afar. Yet you… have more faith than most people. How is that possible?
‘Mary took me in as her own… When I look into her eyes, when I watch how she lives. That’s how I know that it’s all true. I see him in her. I hear him because of her.'”

“Perhaps remembering where it all began will help you figure out where it ends.”

“Seek him in all things and failure will be impossible.”

“Nothing is impossible with God.”

“You cannot let the weight of this world outshine the light that you carry within.”

“Perhaps you do not believe that He exists in you in the same way. When you said yes to Christ, you brought him forth in your heart into the world, your heart beating with His for eternity.”

“The question is not whether we will struggle. We will struggle greatly. The question is, to whom do we look to in the struggle?”

“Faith is not about explaining things. It is about living, and breathing and walking in that light that is upon us. But we will suffer in the light. Sometimes our souls will be squeezed to dry down to the very deepest roots. We will wither and grow weary to where we cannot take one step more. The light will fade to the faintest glimmer. Nothing more than a grain of sand upon the shore. But the light will never disappear. This walk of faith comes with a promise. The promise that we will never be abandoned.”

“My children, if you do nothing more in this life, remember the moment He first looked upon you… Remember that moment and everything you do will glorify the Lord.”

“What now? We do exactly what she (Mary) did. We remember the good grace that brought us here today. And we listen, we follow and we trust. Come. It’s time to tell the world the good news.”

You may also want to read “Things I Must Remember During Very Difficult Times.”

Watch the trailer of the movie “Full of Grace”.

I was recently watching the Korean drama series “Legend of the Blue Sea”. In the movie, the female lead is a mermaid and has the power to erase other people’s memories. (Spoiler alert!) Towards the end of the series, she has decided to use her power to erase the memory of her human boyfriend because she needed to return to the sea and she doesn’t know if she could ever come back to him.

What’s amazing though was that when she finally returned after three years, she was surprised to know that her boyfriend has never forgotten her. When she asked how, he answered that long before she erased his memory, he was able to journalize everything about her. When she left, he kept on reading his diary, a diary that contains all about their love and their relationship. He read it over and over so he would never forget!

I was reminded of our relationship with God. While it is true that we cannot see Him yet in this life, He has left us the Bible so we can always read about Him, so we may never forget. Let us take this opportunity to always remember God’s Love for us – how Jesus came humbly as a little child, how He took up His cross and offered His life to save us, and how He lived again on the third day to give us hope.

Let us not have the kind of spiritual amnesia that forgets about the things of God. Instead, may we always remember Him in everything. Let us use every reminder that can make us recall His love for each one of us.

You may also want to read:
To Satisfy the Heart/ Sometimes I Forget