Category: Spirituality

I used to think of Psalm 23 as a very comforting set of Bible verses. After all, it begins with a verse reminding us that the Lord is our Shepherd and it’s quickly followed by images of green pastures and still waters. It gives an initial impression of ease and rest.

It was only later on that I’ve realized how challenging it truly is, especially the following verses:

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for you are with me.”
– Psalm 23:4, WEB-BE

I’ve realized that walking with God doesn’t mean I’d never have to walk through the valley of the shadow of death! And when we do, is it that easy at all to fear no evil?

Walking with God doesn’t mean we’d already be exempt from the difficulties in life; it doesn’t mean we’d already be exempt from suffering. Walking with God doesn’t mean we’d never cry or feel hurt. In fact, when we walk with God, we have to prepare ourselves for times of distress and times of trial. We need to learn how to walk by faith even when all things seem to be against us.

This is where true faith is forged. When we allow God to lead us even in places where we are not comfortable anymore, even through places that test every ounce of courage in our being.

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”.