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Real holiness doesn’t feel like holiness; it just feels like you’re dying. It feels like you’re losing it. And you are! Every time you love someone, you have agreed for a part of you to die. You will soon be asked to let go of some part of your false self, which you foolishly thought was permanent, important, and essential!
You know God is doing this in you and with you when you can somehow smile and trust that what you lost was something you did not need anyway. In fact, it got in the way of what was real.
Many of us were taught to say no without the deep joy of yes. We were trained to put up with all the “dying” and just take it on the chin. Saying no to the self does not necessarily please God or please anybody. There is too much resentment and self-pity involved. When God, by love and freedom, can create a joyous yes inside of you—so much so that you can absorb the usual noes—then it is God’s full work. The first might be resentful dieting; the second is a spiritual banquet.
Adapted from Radical Grace: Daily Meditations, p. 334, day 345
(Available through Franciscan Media)
The Daily Meditations for 2013 are now available
in Fr. Richard’s new book Yes, And . . . .
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Read Fr. Richard’s special message for the Feast of Francis and support CAC’s work of teaching alternative ways of thinking, being, and doing.
Visit cac.org/ffl13 to read Fr. Richard’s letter and to donate.
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