Source: St. Elisabeth Convent
Photo: http://catalogueofstelisabethconvent.blogspot.ru/
On what is our spiritual building based? If it is based on
the stone of firm faith, then there is no river or storm
which can shatter it. But if we build it on sand, then it
can collapse at sight. Of course, God knows that people
are weak. That is why He always provides us with the
opportunity to purify ourselves from sin, to start our
building again, from the very beginning. And each time we
start it again, Christ should be its base, as He is the
only firm foundation. He will help to struggle with any
winds and storms. If the foundation is our personal
“self”, then it is weak and shaky. However, we
have no idea about when the storms will attack us again,
and that is why in peacetime it may occur that we find
ourselves feeling relaxed. We think that we are strong
enough, that there is nothing to be afraid of, that our
enemy has backed off. But he did not. He is just hiding
and waiting for a moment, when he can cast us down with
one simple move. Then we need to think about God. Address
Him, ask Him for help. I wish that our small victories in
our fight against temptations and sin, against our
weaknesses, will be firm and will not let us fall or move
back.
Very
often a weak person, who is not full of himself,
succeeds more than a person, who is very talented
but, unfortunately, is not especially patient. He
thinks that he can achieve anything he wants, that he
knows enough and has achieved his goals. But this is
just the reason why people fall again. And we cannot
even imagine how much falls we will live through. But
we all want, that the end of our lives will be
peaceful, just like we are praying for – a
“peaceful decease” in repentance, when a
person understands and accepts his imperfection. When
Antony the Great, who spent all his life in working,
praying and fasting, passed away, the angels were
taking his soul to the Kingdom of Heaven. The demons
saw that and yelled: “Antony, you are saved
now!”, but the Saint answered: “Not
yet”. He has not reached the Kingdom yet.
Can we endure all these storms, which
will attack us without any doubts? Only a humble person
will manage to go through all these cobwebs, covering
the world. Only with humility we can fight against our
enemy. All the rest is unreliable. Neither our feats,
nor our deserts can be the foundation of the building,
which God wants us to create, which we create with Him
together. Winds and storms cannot even move this stone,
because this stone is Christ Himself, Who loves us. All
of these, who will be near Him, will bask in glow of
His grace. The Lord loves his creature. He leads us,
although sometimes we are not satisfied with what He
offers us. Little by little we start to understand that
all He does is for our own good. All the sorrows we
face in our life will lead to good – to humility,
patience, faith and hope for God’s mercy and
protection. The Lord restores us, and this is why our
goal is to accept His love, put it in our heart and
preserve it. Let us ask God that he gave us an
opportunity to show the beauty of the world, which he
created for us, to relish this beauty and help the
others see it as well.
We cannot stand still, because otherwise we start to roll
back. If we do not move forward, then we move back. You
cannot stand still in the river. You move up the stream,
or the stream pushes you down. And sometimes it brings you
far from the point you were before. I wish that everyday
we step closer to our main goal stated by the Lord –
to find love and find God. “And we have known and
believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he
that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in
him” (1 John, 4:16).
Photo: http://catalogueofstelisabethconvent.blogspot.ru/
