I Take off the MASK!

Grief and Healing - Download the eBook

Love is patient and is kind… – 1 Corinthians 13:4, WEB

It is only gentleness that can vanquish violence. If we are to conquer war, we must be ambassadors of peace.

This is a peace that must come first within our own hearts. A peace that soothes our very souls.

It is a fruit of forgiveness and understanding, of gentleness and patience with our own weaknesses and faults.

If we are harsh with our own failures and shortcomings, how could we treat others with compassion and mercy? How do we tell others of God’s love if all we know about is His wrath?

Let us discover the gentleness of God towards us and believe that despite all our sins, we are given compassion and forgiveness. Let us treat ourselves as God treats us – with utter patience, kindness and love.

“The spirit of God is a spirit of peace. Even in the most serious faults He makes us feel a sorrow that is tranquil, humble, and confident and this is precisely because of His mercy. The spirit of the devil, instead, excites, exasperates, and make us feel, in that very sorrow [for our sins], anger against ourselves, whereas we should, on the contrary, be charitable with ourselves first and foremost. Therefore, if any thought agitates you, this agitation never comes from God, who gives you peace, being the Spirit of Peace…” – Padre Pio

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies. Whoever lives and believes in me will never die. -John 11:25-26, WEB

When we wake up each day, we hardly think about that day when everything will end and this life as we know it will be no more. We may believe in the afterlife, we may even believe in heaven. But when someone we love so much suddenly dies, we wonder if we really believed at all.

Is there really a life after death? Could we possibly see our departed loved ones again? Where could their souls possibly be? How could we be certain they are happy and at peace? All these questions come to mind as we search for answers that our hearts could really believe.

In the end however, our only assurance is the infinite love and mercy of God. It is in His hands that we entrust everything – all that we love, all that we could possibly hope for. In Him who suffered death itself to give us eternal life, we entrust our loved ones. In Him who conquered death and is already victorious, we entrust all our hopes.

God’s message to every sad and desolate heart on earth, is that God is Light, and in Him is no darkness at all; that God is Love, and in Him there is no cruelty at all; that God is One, and in Him there is no change at all.

And therefore we can pray boldly to Him, and ask Him to deliver us in the time of our tribulation and misery; in the hour of death, whether of our own death or the death of those we love; in the day of judgment, whereof it is written–“It is God who justifieth us; who is he that condemneth? It is Christ who died, yea, rather who is risen again, who even now maketh intercession for us.”

To that boundless love of God, which He showed forth in the life of Christ Jesus; to that perfect and utter will to deliver us which God showed forth in the death of Christ Jesus, when the Father spared not His own Son, but gave Him freely for us; to that boundless love we may trust ourselves, our fortunes, our families, our bodies, our souls, and the bodies and souls of those we love.

OUT OF THE DEEP – WORDS FOR THE SORROWFUL by Charles Kingsley

“I believe in the immortality of the soul because I have within me immortal longings.”- Helen Keller

Death is never the end. It is but the beginning of a new life, a life that lasts forever.

We are not here merely to come and go, to leave our faint whispers in the wind. We were born to live forever, to love forever, to find unending happiness.

It is true, we cannot yet see beyond the veil. But even with a veil, we see glimpses of light here and there, and we have clues of something far beyond this life.

Within our hearts we know. Each person who knew how to love knew also that love was meant to be eternal. For we do not love merely to pass away the time. When we love, we find something we want to keep and never lose again.

He has also set eternity in their hearts… – Ecclesiastes 3:11, WEB

And how could any thing endure, if thou wouldst not? or be preserved, if not called by thee. But thou sparest all: because they are thine, O Lord, who lovest souls. – Wisdom 11:26-27, DRA

We need a love that is abiding, one that doesn’t change with the seasons or with the turning of the waves. We need a love that is ever constant, and ever true. A love that goes with us through rain and sunshine, through happiness and through pain.

Must it be called love if it is ever fickle and weak? Is it love if you love in the morning only and at nightfall you remember no more?

Love can withstand all things. Love endures and can always be depended upon.

It is there when you are strong, and it is there when you are weak. It celebrates your joys, and it holds you in your grief.

Abiding Love. Such is God’s love for us. Feelings and fleeting attractions will come and go, but God’s love will remain faithful forever.

Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;
Earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away;
Change and decay in all around I see—
O Thou who changest not, abide with me.
I need Thy presence every passing hour;
What but Thy grace can foil the tempter’s pow’r?
Who, like Thyself, my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.
-Henry F. Lyte

There are times when we hurt others not because we wanted to, but because we have failed to love ourselves first.

You must love your neighbor. This is something we know. But do we also remember that we must love ourselves as well?

In order to take care of other people, we must also know how to take good care of ourselves. We must allow love to grow within our own hearts, and with that love, we can be more capable of helping other people.

God has loved us so much, should we not love ourselves, too? God has offered us His forgiveness, must we go on refusing to forgive ourselves?

Let love be that seed that grows gently first upon your own heart. Take care of it, let it grow strong, and when it bears fruit, let it be as a fragrant flower blessing others with genuine concern and compassion.

“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” – Matthew 22:39, WEB