Sunday, November 02, 2014

What is Holiness?

This from Catholic Spiritual Direction's website:
Holiness doesn’t mean that we’re perfect. Holiness doesn’t mean that we don’t sin. Holiness means possessing the habit of beginning again and again in our walk with the Lord, the habit of daily conversion. And what happens is that this habit of beginning again, this habit of asking for and receiving God’s forgiveness every day, eventually becomes stronger than our sinful habits. As we begin again and again, the capacity of our hearts to receive God’s forgiveness and to live in friendship with Him expands. We begin to desire God more than we desire sin.

Imagine that - desiring God more than sin! 

There's more:
In the fourth step of the examen prayer, we are invited to ask forgiveness for the sins of the day, the times that we’ve failed to respond to God’s grace; but this time of asking God’s mercy is not meant to be a time of self-loathing for the sins we’ve committed. This step is actually intended to be a time of renewal and rejoicing. During this step, we should be reminded that the Lord loves us so much that He desires to forgive and renew us so that we can continue to walk in holiness each and every day. The point is not to focus on our sins but on the Lord’s love.
And finally,
So how can we put this into practice? Today, in your prayer, when you see some areas that need improvement, don’t give in to feeling bad about yourself, self-loathing, or negativity; rather, rejoice that the Lord loves you so much that He is ready to forgive. Rejoice that the Lord does not love you because you’re perfect; He loves you because you’re His child, because you’re His friend.
Go read it all.

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