Tuesday, October 12 : Saint Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

Let us fully grasp this: our heart will belong wholly to God as soon as we hand over our whole will to him, as soon as we want only what he wants. For the rest, this God only wants our wellbeing and happiness. “For this is why Christ died (…) that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living,” says the apostle Paul. “Whether we live or die, then, we are the Lord’s” (Rm 14:9.8). Jesus willed to die for our sakes; what more could he have done to win our love and become the sole Lord of our heart? So now it is our turn to show before heaven and earth, by our life and by our death, that we are no longer our own but are entirely possessed by our God and by him alone. How God longs to see a heart that is truly all his! With what intense love does he not love it? What signs of tenderness does he not lavish upon it even here below! What blessings, what happiness, what glory does he not prepare for it in heaven! (…) O faithful souls! Let us go to meet Jesus: if he is happy enough to possess us then we, too, have the happiness of possessing him! This exchange is far more to our own advantage than to his. The Lord once said to the saint [of Avila]: “Teresa, until now you have not been wholly mine; but now that you are all for me, know that I am all for you”(…). God burns with an intense desire to be united with us but we have to be careful, too, to unite ourselves to God.

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team