Seraphim's Quote and Various Testimonies of Remaining in Christ's Love

Seraphim, our hermit friend in Germany, emailed a quote he'd written in his hermit journal a couple weeks ago.  It is from St. Francis de Sales' classic, Introduction to the Devout Life.  So apropos to our living in Christ in the present moment and learning to remain in His love, am highlighting this quote and Seraphim's consideration of it, rather than chancing readers finding it in the comment box.

"If your heart wanders or is suffering, bring it gently back into place and move it gently in the presence of your Lord. And even if you have done in your life nothing else but returning your heart back into the presence of our God, even though it always ran away again, after you had retrieved it, then you have fulfilled your life well" (Francis de Sales)

Seraphim adds: That's our exercise :-)

Yes, if we remain in Christ's love, we are in His Sacred Heart--our heart in His Heart.  This is truly our exercise, over and over, to bring our hearts back to His Heart, to remain in His love.

Others have written more "testimonies" of how this exercise, as Seraphim rightly terms it, is going in the every day present moments of our lives.  So we share.  

I admit I've had to return to more conscious repeating, I remain in Your love and Help me remain in Your love and thinking of Jesus reminding me, Remain in My love.  These past four days with family member in hospital and the various emotions, thoughts, talk and coping has put Remain in My love to the test, with perfect, successful results.  What else from God when we ask? He wants us in His love, remaining there.

"Ruth" shares an amazing, gripping event that she says is not supernatural, but we must realize that any change in our spiritual lives is super-natural, above the temporal, effected from God.  But we know what she means.

"I have been working on living in Christ's Love.  I don't have anything supernatural to tell about, but I have had a healing in my heart.  I didn't realize it, but apparently I have been living with a leaking broken heart [not physically, but read on and see] for nearly eleven years and never knew it until now.  The actual injury happen eleven years ago; the wound has since been torn deeper three more time by the same person.  I am sure they didn't know that they did this.  If I did not know, how could they?  And Christ has shown me that I may have, subconsciously, hurt them very deeply as well.

 

"I have, up until I started practicing living in Christ's love, been living in a state of organized confusion.  You know, too many irons in the fire, so to speak.  

"While I went to Mass often and did daily devotionals, I was horribly prone to despair. It got worse after I moved out into the middle of nowhere.  With very few churches offering daily Mass, at times I could not always make it. I was left with a sense of depletion.  Little did I know that all of the graces God was pouring into me were leaking out, due to massive holes in my heart.

"Practicing living in Christ's love has turned my attention to these hidden problems.  The Heavenly Surgeon has kindly shown me the sources to my wounds, gently stitched them up, and is working with me through 'rehabilitation.' 

 "Miscommunication was the knife that stabbed my heart so many years ago.  Miscommunication was the machete that hacked away deeper years later.  And finally, miscommunication was the weapon that I had mistakenly used to smash into the heart of my original attacker on the day of my engagement.

"Sorry I know a ramble a lot, but it has been a very interesting couple of weeks.  Living in Christ's love is painful for me right now.  But I know He is pruning me, so that I can bare the best fruit I can."

"Ruth's" experience is surely what Jesus means when He says if we remain in His love, He will send the Holy Spirit of truth to dwell in us, and we will have the Spirit's truth which is what Jesus and the Father tell the Holy Spirit to tell us!  It is like a spotlight placed inside our soul, highlighting matters that need transformation in love--matters of which we were not aware enough to deal with, and of course we are nothing and God is All.  We need Jesus' healing to heal what we are shown, these holes in our hearts.

"Pio" writes:  I am remaining in His love and trying to and praying to.  I am so grateful to Him for the concept and challenge of remaining in His love.  It does work!!!!!"  Pio also has tried to explain to a friend how to remain in His love, but the friend resists, saying how glad that it is giving Pio benefit.  Pio is wise in pointing out that perhaps at some stage, the friend will desire for herself, this pearl of great price.  Until then, Pio prays remaining in His love.

As for "working", yes, it works.  Remain in My love actualizes the summation of how to live in the Sacred Heart, in the present moment and forever.  "Adel" shares some efforts and results.

"I realized something yesterday and today. Although I read it all the time, it is different when we realize something ourselves, or the Holy Spirit puts it in us. I realized that every time when I slack, and then I pray and ask for help I have Jesus' Love in me, and Jesus in me, and He helps me and straightens me up. He is our stronghold, our Rock , our fortress. But when I don't pray, I start not caring and the love lessens. It makes me realize how wretched I am, that I just cant do anything without the Lord's help. I need him so much!

"I also realized it is my purpose, or job, or vocation in this life, to receive the Love of the Lord, to stay in His Love, to remain in His love, and pass it on, to my family neighbors, and customers.  That is what I am supposed to do! And I have to try and do the best job possible, always praying, to stay in His Love, to have Jesus' Love in me and thereby let Jesus love the other people through me. It really is what all of us are supposed to do anyways. It is all of our job, to pass His Love on. But it is only possible with his help, if we stay in His love, otherwise, we, as poor and wretched sinners are incapable of loving other people like that. 

"I have a button that says. "I love my customers" and I haven't put it on in a long time. I should put it back on, because that is truly, what I am supposed to do, LOVE MY CUSTOMERS no matter what. If they are nice, nasty, grumpy, or disinterested, just love them, like Jesus loves everybody. 

"Since I have been living in the [order of the] present moment, and in Jesus' Love, I have started to talk more with my customers, and started caring more, and am trying to make them happy, and want to know about their problems, and pray about them, and for them.   

Also realized, since the advent season starts Sunday, this is the perfect timing for the discovering of 'Remaining in His Love' just in time for Christmas. 

"Also, yesterday [daughter] was supposed to be home at 10pm from work, and it was after 11pm, and I started to get a little worried. Decided to call her, and her phone rang, but she didnt answer. Started to get more worried, but realized, I have to pray, and started to 'Remain in His Love', and prayed to trust Him, and remain in His love. It wasn't a minute, and the phone rang, and she called and said she was alright, and had to work later, and will be home. That was amazing!! I also think, like you, that [remaining in His love] will not die down, because if we pray and remain in His love, we can remain in His Love forever.  Jesus is always there for us."

Dear Friends in Christ in the Present Moment, we share the joys of our "exercise" (as Seraphim aptly terms it), the repeated, gentle returning of our souls to Christ's love, remaining there in His Sacred Heart. 

Recounting our joy--is it Jesus' joy made complete in us as He promised?  Surely our joy unites in the joy of the Holy Trinity, the Virgin Mary, the angels, the saints, and brings joy to all souls we encounter, living and dead, whether or not we see their joy. By remaining in His love, we touch the universe, in Christ's love!