Am working on the Scriptures from Gospel of St. John in which Jesus expresses and explains: Remain in my love. But this morning's Psalm in Office of Readings expresses the remaining, enduring quality of the Lord's love.
Psalm 107: O give thanks to the Lord for he is good; for his love endures for ever.
I consider the deeper conversion experienced in the span of one week, from being directed to be receptive to Jesus' love during Mass, to: remain in His love. Then consider the infinite aspect of His love, when I remain in His love. I remain in His love, and He is in the Father, and the Father is in Him, and the Holy Spirit dwells in them and dwells in me, and we are one.
But that is not all. When I remain in His love, and am in the Father and the Holy Spirit and they in me, I am connected with all souls in the Body of Christ, living and dead, on earth, in purgatory, in heaven. All that belong to Christ, given Him by the Father, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, thus belong to me...in His love. And I belong to all of them. What His love fulfills, when I remain in His love, is astounding.
Last evening I pondered how peaceful it is to remain in His love, and all the years that I did not comprehend how simple to remain in His love. Details of all the turmoil and unrest could not even enter my mind other than as acknowledgment that I had been in unrest seemingly much of the time, over various injustices, situations, incomprehensible people and behaviors. But no more. If a situation arises in present moment memory, or in present moment activity, His love assuages, sweetens, any negativity or conflict immediately.
Over the course of some moments, the reality glimmers: remaining in His love means receiving the graces of His love, very much including His mercy. This is powerful. This is part of what Jesus meant when He explained that those who believe in Him and obey His commands, who remain in His love, will be capable of miraculous acts, just as He did.
What can be more miraculous to one such as I who has been frustrated by frustrating situations and people even in the Body of Christ, His Church, than to remain in His love's mercy and understanding? Miracle within my soul!
Psalm 107 struck my heart in His heart of love this morning, His heart wherein loves His Blessed Mother, and is one with the Father and Holy Spirit. I must thank the Lord for His allowing me to remain in His love. Any present moment that I sense am not, I simply remand: remain in My love. He wants us to remain in His love beyond all telling. If we desire and ask to remain in His love, and obey His commands, He assures us this loving union.
Let them thank the Lord for his love, for the wonders he does for men.
For he satisfies the thirsty soul; he fills the hungry with good things.
Some lay in darkness and in gloom, prisoners in misery and chains,
having defied the words of God and spurned the counsels of the Most High.
He crushed their spirit with toil; they stumbled; there was no one to help.
Then they cried to the Lord in their need and he rescued them from their distress.
He led them forth from darkness and gloom and broke their chains to pieces.
Let them thank the Lord for his goodness, for the wonders he does for men:
for he bursts the gates of bronze and shatters the iron bars....
Let them thank the Lord for his love, for the wonders he does for men.
Let them offer a sacrifice of thanks and tell of his deeds with rejoicing.
Some sailed to the sea in ships to trade on the mighty waters.
These men have seen the Lord's deeds, the wonders he does in the deep....
Tossed up to heaven, then into the deep; their soul melted away in their distress....
Then they cried to the Lord in their need and he rescued them in their distress.
He stilled the storm to a whisper: all the waves of the sea were hushed.
They rejoiced because of the calm and he led them to the haven they desired.
Let them thank the Lord for his love, the wonders he does for men.
Let them exalt him in the gathering of the people and praise him in the meeting of the elders....
Do you see this? Do you see that even this one psalm of many psalms, of one scripture of His many words, that if we remain in His love we remain in His word? We begin to understand in many ways foretold and then taught and explained by Jesus, that His word is truth, and if we but remain in His love, we become one in His love. O the wonders he does in the deep! He leads us to the haven we desire!
So I thank the Lord for his love, the wonders he does for his own. I exalt him in the Body of Christ and praise him in His love, during Mass, in all Sacraments. Jesus assures His love as living reality in every present moment. Remain in My love.
Whoever is wise, let him heed these things and consider the love of the Lord.
Yes... :) ...
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