Hi everyone, happy Holy Week, and welcome to the very first TOG! Kelsey was home shortly over Spring Break, and at that time we sat down and wrote about our mindsets going into the very special, but sometimes very challenging time of preparation that is Lent. One month has passed since we put these words down on paper, and they are still so important and precious to us. We hope you gain something from them too as Easter approaches (so quickly wow), and we prepare for Jesus’ resurrection.
Grace: “Do not be lead by what sinners are doing around you, but by what Jesus is doing in you.” ~ Fr. Jim Livingston
Kelsey: “The moment we forget we are sinners, is the moment we start to lose our Christianity.” ~ Unknown
These two different quotes are/were our individual focus’ for the Lenten season, but both have one similar theme; What Jesus is doing in us is the single most important thing, and He is working every. single. day. No breaks, no clocking out. Every second he is moving, guiding, doing things our human minds simply could never understand. But before we’re able to recognize Jesus’ work in us, we must first reflect on ourselves. Just like Kelsey talks about in her blog post “Woundedness & Healing”, the act of drawing closer to Jesus, and His heart, draws us closer to His Divine Light. However, just like the sun draws attention to every facial flaw in a photo, God’s divine light exposes all of our mortal imperfection. This makes pursuing it that much more important… and that much more difficult.
Matthew Kelly, in his fantastic book, Rediscover Lent says this, “The saints hungered for this [self-knowledge]. They developed it from hours of self-examination and consistent practice of confession. The saints knew their strengths and weaknesses, their faults, failings and flaws, their talents and abilities, their needs and desires, their hopes and dreams, their potential and purpose. They were not afraid to look at themselves as they really were by the light of God’s grace in prayer” (10, 11).
Pursuing that self-knowledge, that the saints hungered for, is the first step toward seeking the divine light of Christ. Know that self-knowledge does not mean you come to understand every single piece of your living breathing self, no, it simply means that you try to understand what makes you holy, and what makes you fall short of that. We want to be like those saints who identified the beautiful things inside themselves along with the not so beautiful.
“The light will not shame you if it shows you your own ugliness, and that ugliness so offends you that you perceive the beauty of the light.” ~ St. Augustine
Guess what St. Augustine is saying. He’s saying that God’s divine light is one of the scariest, most intimidating things, because it’s basically a slap in the face! It shows you exactly where you’re going wrong, exactly what makes you a sinner… yikes, but that ugliness is incredible, because past it are the beautiful parts of yourself that make you God’s unconditionally loved, wonderfully made, child. Kelsey’s focus quote says the second we forget we are sinners, is the same second we start to fall from God’s grace. That is why seeking [running after] divine light is the most important thing you can do. Every little or big struggle you have, every light or heavy cross you bare, is apart of your journey towards self-knowledge, and towards divine light.
Maybe it seems redundant; to try and gain self-knowledge, see your flaws and failings, and then shower in this light that also shows you your flaws and failings??? You’re probably thinking it doesn’t sound like a whole lot of affirming fun… but, “They were not afraid to look at themselves as they really were by the light of God’s grace in prayer.” So, if you do the same without fear, without denial of the fact that, “I am a sinner”, then you will be able to view yourself as a child of God. According to St. Augustine, you’ll see past those flaws and failings, on to something extraordinary; Jesus’ work in you.
Because God’s divine light is Jesus.
Did you see that coming?
As Easter approaches picture this:
