"Show us the face of your mercy"

"Show us the face of your mercy"

What is important is God, his holiness, and above all his merciful Love. Thérèse knew that her ultimate vocation both on earth and in heaven would be to sing eternally the mercies of the Lord. In this sense, her mission will continue in the next life, and this is why she will “spend her heaven doing good on earth,” helping men and women to place absolute confidence in God's mercy. She will never tire of contemplating mercy, while here on earth we weary our minds trying to fathom this deepest aspect of God, trying to comprehend his infinite tenderness and mercy.
Together let us push ajar some of doors that surround the mystery of divine mercy. We often feel that we should remain silent before them. So we wait before these doors, behind which someone is knocking (cf. Rev 3:20) and we let the Holy Spirit gradually open them for us. We must allow this presence of God to be free in us, to lead us by the hand to the threshold of the mystery of mercy.
The goal of spiritual theology and Christian experience is one and the same, which amounts to saying that theology is useful to those who have already felt the impact of the thunderbolt of mercy. While mercy itself is a living fire, theological reflections on its mystery run the risk of leaving us with only the ashes. This is why we are always apprehensive when it comes to speaking about prayer. As Karl Rahner said, “Either our theology will be a theology on our knees or it will not be.”

Prayer is essentially a personal encounter, an encounter between a person and God. But for it to be a genuine encounter, the two persons must be truly themselves. Too often, truth is missing from our prayer. Instead of turning to the living and true God, we address ourselves to something we imagine to be God. Thérèse, instead, sought the real face of God in truth and this is why her relationship with him was so genuine.



This week's Strength for the Week excerpted from My Vocation Is Love which we are pleased to offer at a 20% discount online this week.