Teaching & Living the Faith: August 2011 Archives

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.

~John 10:27, 28

 

Life is a passage from the less to the more.

~Sofia Cavalletti, The Religious Potential of the Child, page 43

 

We have heard from [friends with the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd] in Rome that she had spent yesterday with Sofia who is now too weak even to speak. We would like to ask that everyone who has loved Sofia would pray for her now that she may continue to experience, in her body and her spirit, the peace and joy she has so often found in the atrium with the children. We praise God for the treasure she is for us and has illuminated for us in the child. We stand together in vigil and prayer, silently and at peace. Together may we pray the prayer Sofia herself has prayed with us this last year:

 

Lord, now you let your servant go in peace;

Your word has been fulfilled.

My eyes have seen the salvation

You have prepared in the sight of every people,

A light to reveal you to the nations and the glory of your people, Israel.

The first reading from today's Scripture readings at Mass call us to reflect on how Revelation is made known to us; in what ways do we meet God? How are we to understand the teachings of the many saints and others who have claimed to have encountered God? Knowing who are true visionaries is rather difficult, I have to say, and some are even frauds. The credibility of the witness is so crucial here since we only have indirect knowledge of God because only Jesus' Mother (and family) and apostles had direct experience of Him, how can we talk about an encounter with the Lord. One way to wrap our minds around meeting the Divine Majesty is to listen, in part, to Father Benedict Groeshel:

The best lesson one may learn from these authenticated and canonized visionaries is to do what you are supposed to do and leave the rest to God. The fulfillment of duty is the guiding principle of any decent moral life, in any religion of the world, because it expresses the natural law and is completely consistent with the revealed law of God. The fulfillment of duty placed before us by the providential circumstances of life, as we are guided by the commandments and the teaching of the gospel, is the straight road to God. Along that road any valid religious experience which occurs may be useful.