The Father's Delight for the Son

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At the end of the Baptism of Jesus, a voice from heaven was heard saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

God the Father loves his Son. Not because of anything the Son has done. In fact, this is the beginning of the public ministry of Jesus. He hasn’t really done anything yet. However, the Father expresses his delight in his Son because he wants his Son to exist, and he thinks the Son makes the world a better place just by being in it. That is precisely what the love of God means.

This truth applies to you. Whatever God wants to exist, he also delights in it. He approves of it. If he did not, then you would not exist. It is that simple.

Do you exist? Yes. Then God delights in you.

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God your Father, also delights in you.

When you were Baptized

·       The Holy Spirit descended within you, giving you a share in God’s life making you an adopted daughter or son of God.

·       At your Baptism God the Father proclaimed to: This is my beloved son (or daughter), with whom I am well pleased

That is what God is trying to tell you in your Baptism. You are His child,

·       He loves you not because of what you have done or have or have failed to do,

·       But because of what you are – His son or daughter

Why do you love your children and think they are amazing?

·       Just because they are your children!

·       God loves you for the same reason!

You say, “No, that is not possible. I have so many sins, how could God delight in me?”

A good Father or Mother doesn’t love their child because they are a high-performance kid.

·       They love their child because it’s THEIR CHILD.

·       And that’s why God, your Father, loves you.

·       Just because You’re His Child!

Recognizing that love should take away your anxiety about measuring up. Recognizing that love should make you strong, should make you confident that you belong in the world, and that the universe is better, and that God is pleased, because you exist.

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We were made for Delight.

Joy or Delight is the response to something experienced as good, and it invites us to rest in that good.

Delight or Joy is the emotion that prompts you to stop, sit down and delight in the magnificent 360 degree view once you’ve reached the summit of a mountain. It says, “This is a good place to be. Let’s stay here.”

Delight is the experience you feel when your kids come home and you’re sitting around the fire and the conversation is good and you don’t ever want the night to end.

We were made to delight in truth and beauty and goodness, and it is all around us. But we have been taught by the news to only see what is bad. We must practice delight.

Get off your screen. Look around. There is good to be delighted in everywhere. It is in you, in your spouse, your kids, go outside and look around, watch the sun set, read a good book, listen to beautiful music and pray.

We were made for delight, but we must first become aware of the good around us.

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Go and be Apostles of Delight

God delights in every person he made. Which is everyone. But we don’t believe it. Probably because the sky has not opened and we have not heard the Father’s voice, like in the Baptism of Jesus.

That is because God created a system where we would be His apostles of delight.

He wants us to go to people and express to them that we delight in them. We think they make the world a better place just by being in it.

Dogs are apostles of delight. Every time your dog sees you it wags its whole body saying, “Master, I just think you are the greatest thing in the world.”

Now, I don’t expect or want you to wag your body, but I do want you to express to your spouse, kids, parents, boss, co-workers, friends, everyone you encounter that it is good that they exist. The world is better just because they are in it.

Be Apostles of Delight.

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The be Apostles of the Rosary

People need to know from some human that they have value before they will believe God thinks they are valuable. So that is the first step in our mission. So people their worth by delighting in them.

Then take the next step. Share the Rosary Podcast with them. If a Rosary is too big of a step to start with, then invite four others to pray one decade a day. Together you make five decades, one Rosary.

I am hearing from all kinds of people, especially parents of kids who were totally disinterested in the Rosary, that they asked if they would pray one decade, and the kid said yes!

Venerable Pauline Jaricot was brilliant!