Thursday, June 2, 2011

Piety & Submission to God's Will

Fr. Z has a very relevant post today on piety and submission to God's will. As a catechist, I really should spend June devoting myself to Sacred Heart devotions.


For those of you who don't have the time to read it in full, here is a must-read summary:

How did our Lord describe the fate of the tepid?  It wasn’t good.

On the other hand, if you are hesitant about the notion of piety, and what you know is going to be the result – giving up things that are incompatible with true piety – here is something from Benedict XVI’s sermon for his inaugural Mass in 2005.

“Are we not perhaps all afraid in some way? If we let Christ enter fully into our lives, if we open ourselves totally to him, are we not afraid that He might take something away from us? Are we not perhaps afraid to give up something significant, something unique, something that makes life so beautiful? Do we not then risk ending up diminished and deprived of our freedom? And once again the Pope said: No! If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful and great.”

To develop a habit, and being pious and devout is a habit, start small.

Fr. Z then advises 3 simple practices:

  1. Nightly examination of conscience, of both sins of commission and omission.
  2. Some short pious prayer to repeat throughout the day.
  3. Taking part in public devotions.

Now, I have some great ideas for where to start. We are sacramental people. Living out devotions in daily life will make those devotions penetrate into our very souls, if we approach them with piety!

Pax,

Micah

No comments:

Post a Comment