I’m no expert.
God will always love us, but we maybe we ought to be more focused on the first two commandments than on seeking the love of others.
**Love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. **
Love your neighbor as yourself
A desire to be loved has led
me at least to do ungodly/degrading things in order to get people to love me. On of my greatest struggles is in wanting to be a “people-pleaser” even in situations where pleasing people seems to be also leading me away from Christ.
If I had a choice, everyone would love me.
Yet, St. Maria Faustina in
The Diary of St. Maria Faustina says that those who most resemble Christ in those life are those who die crucified, persecuted - which often means lack of love by the world. How many people loved Christ when he died? Most of his disciples abandoned him. One of them sold him out. The people that he had spent three years ministering to, preaching to, teaching, and feeding, chose Barabbas, a rebel, over him.
So, I think that to be freed of the desire to win everyone’s love may be of great aid in the path to following Christ. Even secular heroes such as Nelson Mandela, or Reverend Martin Luther King have often been assassinated - which shows that the people of their time did not love them like they should have. Thank God for Heaven!
Furthermore, sometimes Christ has plans for us that are not immediately obvious as good things done sometimes for
reasons above our understanding or
to test us and our obedience so that we can merit Christ’s blessings, e.g. Abraham being told to sacrifice his son Issac or Mary, in a sense, also knowing that she would sacrifice her son Jesus from the Presentation (or before
) when she was told that “a sword would pierce both of their hearts.”
From the Diary of St. Maria Faustina:
Divine Mercy in My Soul saint-faustina.com/Diary/DMIMS1.shtml
- At the same time, I saw a certain person [Father Sopocko] and, in part, the condition of his soul and the ordeals God was sending him. His sufferings were of the mind and in a form so acute that I pitied him and said to the Lord, “why do you treat him like that?” And the Lord answered, For the sake of his triple crown. And the Lord also gave me to understand what unimaginable glory awaits the person who resembles the suffering Jesus here on earth. That person will resemble Jesus in His glory. The Heavenly Father will recognize and glorify our soul to the extent that He sees in us a resemblance to His Son. I understood that this assimilation into Jesus is granted to us while we are here on earth. I see pure and innocent souls upon whom God has exercised His justice; these souls are the victims who sustain the world and who fill up what is lacking in the Passion of Jesus. They are not many in number. I rejoice greatly that God has allowed me to know such souls.
1643 Listen, My daughter, although all the works that come into being by My will are exposed to great sufferings, consider whether any of them has been subject to greater difficulties than that work which is directly Mine- the work of Redemption. You should not worry too much about adversities. The world is not as powerful as it seems to be; its strength is strictly limited. Know, My daughter, that if your souls is filled with the fire of My pure love, then all difficulties dissipate like fog before the sun’s rays and dare not touch the soul. All adversaries are afraid to start a quarrel with such a soul, because they sense that it is stronger than the whole world…
She describes seeing Jesus standing before her, “stripped of His clothes, His body completely covered with wounds, His eyes flooded with tears and blood.” He tells her, “The bride must resemble her Betrothed.” Saint Faustina responds to this moment:
I understood these words to their very depth. There is no room for doubt here. My likeness to Jesus must be through suffering and humility, 268
marian.org/divinemercy/story.php?NID=3345
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you (falsely) because of me.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Matthew 5:10-12
I will pray for you, as well as myself, that we will truly understand these words. It is also important to remember that all these prayers - except the ones composed directly by Christ or Mary and directly told for us to pray by them - are
helps but not mandatory.
Saint for Loneliness? (Unloved saints)
forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=107592 St. Francis de Sales lived in an area that was rabidly anti-catholic, he would travel all alone at night, even in harsh weather, to avoid hostility. He would celebrate mass, even though no one attended.
One time St. Padre Pio was so lonely for friendship that he cried like a child.
“Pray, pray to the Lord with me, because the whole world needs prayer. And every day, when your heart especially feels the loneliness of life, pray. Pray to the Lord because even God needs our prayers.” - St. Padre Pio
padrepiodevotions.org/index.asp?pagename=wordsoffaith He said,
“The Rosary is The WEAPON”, said as many as 90 rosaries a day in a special form for which he received ecclesiastical permission. Father Thomas Euteneur, President of Human Life International, cites this in
The Rosary Batters the Gates of Hell hli.org/sl_2008-10-03.html I actually find the Rosary is the best prayer for me to retain my ultimate trust and comfort in Christ.
But by general usage, yes.
Hope you like it.