Category: courage
Courage, dear heart
Sitting in the darkness
And my final excerpt from Fr. Marc Foley’s book, The Context of Holiness:
Acts of faith are expressed in two ways. The first is our willingness to jump into the darkness, that is, choosing to trust in God’s guidance as we venture into the unknown. The second is our willingness to sit in the darkness, which is continuing to do God’s will when our emotional resources are depleted and life seems hollow, meaningless and absurd. . . .
These are the worst times in our life of faith when viewed from a psychological and emotional perspective. But from a spiritual vantage point, they are potentially the best of times. For when we continue to do God’s will without emotional support, our love for God and neighbor grows and is purified.
I Will Bring You Home
To look at Him who is looking at you
A fascinating way of looking at holiness, and not necessarily an easy one:
Holiness consists in enduring God’s glance. It may appear mere passivity to withstand the look of an eye; but everyone knows how much exertion is required when this occurs in an essential encounter. Our glances mostly brush by each other indirectly, or they turn quickly away, or they give themselves not personally but only socially. So too do we constantly flee form God into a distance that is theoretical, rhetorical, sentimental, aesthetic, or most frequently, pious. Or we flee from him to external works. And yet, the best thing would be to surrender one’s naked heart to the fire of this all–penetrating glance. The heart would then itself have to catch fire, if it were not always artificially dispersing the rays that come to it as through a magnifying glass. Such 
enduring would be the opposite of a Stoic’s hardening his face: it would be yielding, declaring oneself beaten, capitulating, entrusting oneself, casting oneself into him. It would be childlike loving, since for children the glance of the father is not painful: with wide-open eyes they look into his. Little Thérèse–great little Thérèse–could do it. Augustine’s formula on the essence of eternity: videntem videre–‘to look at him who is looking at you.’ (Hans Urs Von Balthasar, The Grain of Wheat)
True courage
I just finished reading a beautiful book on prayer, Hidden Mountain, Secret Garden, by Dr. Anthony Lilles. I liked his take on the difference between bravery and courage:
True humility attracts God. Humility regulates how we esteem ourselves. The word humility itself derives from the Latin humus which means rich fertile soil. This suggests the great primordial truth of our origins.
Man was fashioned from the dust of the earth, and at the end of his days, he returns to it. God breathed his life into mud and made it capable of doing something divine. Life is a very fragile gift lavished upon us when we have done nothing to deserve it. We have only a very brief time to make of it something beautiful for God. God is attracted to souls that ground their lives in this truth. Such humility permits Him to accomplish great things.
A particular kind of courage needs to go with such humility: the courage to accept ourselves, including our weaknesses. Romano Guardini distinguishes this sort of courage from bravery. Bravery confronts things that threaten us from without. Courage, from this perspective, helps us confront what is within us. This is not the same as excusing our own sinfulness. It is a matter of humbly accepting the truth about ourselves, courageously acknowledging we need God’s help.
(Anthony Lilles, Hidden Mountain, Secret Garden)
“It ain’t over yet.”
Another person I want to be like when I grow up. (If you’ve seen this before, it’s worth a re-look.) This will give you hope, especially if you don’t want to get out of bed in the morning.
You can find more about him here.
Be not afraid!
Witnesses to Hope is close to its 1000th post. This is the first post I ever put up. I think the reasons are obvious.
BE NOT AFRAID! (John Paul II, October 16, 1978 and many, many times afterward . . .)
“We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures; we are the sum of the Father’s love for us and our real capacity to become the image of his son, Jesus.” (WYD 2002, Toronto)
Christians and depression
Bill, over at Unshakable Hope, has a very timely and interesting post: Why are So Many Christians Depressed? Most of the comments (and his responses) are very good. You can find my own among them. I will direct you over there today. I’m sure there are some of you, including myself, who deal with (or have dealt with) depression and struggled with “What does this mean about me and God? Am I failing him somehow?”, etc.
And, by the way, if you haven’t already, read Bill’s story while you’re over there. (Under “About Bill“.)
Know that you are all in my prayers. And keep him and his family in yours.
What can man do to me?
Ps 118.6: The Lord is on my side; I will not fear; what can man do to me?
Job 34.29: When He gives quietness, who then can make trouble?
The Lord is for me (margin). What can man do to me? Nothing. Nothing that really matters. Nothing that can do any harm. Nothing that will not be turned to golden good.
Sometimes we feel as though man could do a great deal. A perverse child can cloud a whole day. The sight of deadly sin, injustice and suffering can overwhelm us. And deeper things, the inward assaults of the never-resting foe (though he is not man but stronger than man) can seem to do appalling things.
But still the word stands, the question that can have only one answer. The Lord is for me. What can man do to me? Nothing.
And to another questions there is only one answer. When He gives quietness, who then can make trouble? No one.
However things seem, the answers to those two questions are among the things that cannot be shaken.
~Amy Carmichael
Witnesses to Hope 