Responding to Our Lady
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Sunday May 2nd I shared with you the fact that the Mother of God has been appearing around the world with an urgent message. Once I became aware of this, I realized I had to take Jesus seriously. Because if Mary is real, then Jesus is real, then my life must change. If we really believe Jesus and Mary are true, then we must put every part of our life in line with that reality. That is what it means to convert. Conversion means turning everything in my life towards God and His will.
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How do we turn everything in our life toward God?
The simple first step is to talk with Mary and the Holy Spirit about everything in our life. Speak to them about your marriage, kids, profession, leisure time, your finances, health, exercise…in a word – everything. And let Mary and the Holy Spirit guide you.
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I needed to have a potentially difficult conversation with a young man about some life choices and I didn’t know what to say. I shared my trepidation with a friend who asked if I had talked with Mary and the Holy Spirit about this. I had not. I had fallen into the trap of thinking through this difficulty but had not spoken directly to Mary and the Holy Spirit, asking them what to think and say. So I immediately turned to them and asked. Then immediately an unplanned occasion arose giving me the chance to speak with the young man and some very fruitful ground work was laid for further conversations. If we talk over with Mary and the Holy Spirit the various aspects of our life they will show us the way.
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We are called to conversion. What can happen if we don’t?
We can fall into pride - all the ways we try to validate our existence, prove our worth, apart from God. The deep-seated motivation for much of what we do is to make our mark in the world and avoid failure. We do this because we think our self-worth comes from our achievements.
It is good to achieve great things, take care of your family, make a contribution to society. The question is, why are we doing them. Are we doing them for the love of God and the good of others, or deep down are we doing them out of a fear of failure or prove our self-worth by leaving some legacy, to make a groove in the granite that will immortalize us.
God also wants us to leave a mark in the world, and his is the only one that matters will last, and that mark is that we share in his life as through baptism that makes us his adopted son or daughter and collaborate with Him in building up his kingdom in whatever way he asks of us.
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We could deepen our conversion if we had a sense of humor
When you find yourself afraid of failure or trying to immortalize yourself by your achievements or whatever your disorder might be - make light of it, make fun of your own disorder in such a way that it helps you realize what the proper order should be.
Think of Ejector seats on helicopters. That is ridiculous isn’t it. Its funny to imagine because it reminds you of the true order of a helicopter. Poke fun at your own disorder to remind you of the truth. Be aware of your disordered fear of failure or humiliation and your disordered need to immortalize yourself and then poke fun at it to remind yourself what the proper order of things really is. There is no failure, only opportunities to learn and grow. If you never fail, you probably aren’t trying hard enough or expanding. So, failure isn’t bad. And you don’t have to do anything to be immortalized. God immortalized you when he made you his child at Baptism.
Practice laughing at yourself – I wacked my own face weightlifting and have a big fat lip – who does that.