I'll tell you what was great about my Monday. My spouse, despite a long day at work, and three rowdy kids to be bathed and bedded, permitted me to take off and see Msgr. Thomas Richter speak at our new parish. I wasn't sure if I should go, but I'm so glad I did. His speech, How to Receive God's Mercy in Your Heart in Faith, turned out to be exactly what I needed to hear.
The only paper I had was one sticky note in my purse, because I come prepared to highly recommended speakers. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't mind me trying to relay his message to a dozen people on the Interwebs.
He defined mercy as "intense activity from the heart of God to heal us from what keeps us from being faithful and close to Him." Wow. I'd never thought of mercy in that manner.
He mentioned five steps to receiving God's mercy. We need to believe in God's merciful movement toward each of us, and believe that He wants us to experience his mercy in heartfelt and concrete ways every day. Simple at first glance, but complex to actually do, we need to desire His mercy, and then bring that desire to the Lord. Finally, we need to let Jesus have His way in our life, to give him permission to do His will, not ours. All of those steps laid out like that sound simple, but aren't they so hard for us to?
I'm often moved by talks like this, and I usually take notes, but then end up rarely reflecting much upon them. I'm hoping to make time in the next week or so to really think and pray about his talk, as there was much to glean from Monsignor Richter's wisdom.
The only paper I had was one sticky note in my purse, because I come prepared to highly recommended speakers. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't mind me trying to relay his message to a dozen people on the Interwebs.
He defined mercy as "intense activity from the heart of God to heal us from what keeps us from being faithful and close to Him." Wow. I'd never thought of mercy in that manner.
He mentioned five steps to receiving God's mercy. We need to believe in God's merciful movement toward each of us, and believe that He wants us to experience his mercy in heartfelt and concrete ways every day. Simple at first glance, but complex to actually do, we need to desire His mercy, and then bring that desire to the Lord. Finally, we need to let Jesus have His way in our life, to give him permission to do His will, not ours. All of those steps laid out like that sound simple, but aren't they so hard for us to?
I'm often moved by talks like this, and I usually take notes, but then end up rarely reflecting much upon them. I'm hoping to make time in the next week or so to really think and pray about his talk, as there was much to glean from Monsignor Richter's wisdom.
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