To walk in the simplicity of Faith is everything

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BarbaraTherese

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Imitation of Christ, a spiritual treatise of the 15th century

Bk IV, 18 (trans. Ronald Knox)

**"Unless you people see signs and wonders, **
you will not believe."
“Search too high, and the brightness shall dazzle you” (Prv 25,27 Vulg). God’s powers of action are greater than man’s of comprehension… What God wants of you is faith and a life of unalloyed goodness, not loftiness of understanding, not a probing of the deep mysteries of God. There are things beneath you which elude the grasp of your mind; how can you grasp those which are far above you? Submit yourself to God, humble the evidence of the senses before faith, and you will be given the light of knowledge in whatever measure is necessary for your spiritual welfare.

Many people have fierce temptations concerning faith and the Blessed Sacrament; this is not to be blamed on themselves, but rather on their enemy the Devil. Don’t get worried about it, don’t start arguing with these thoughts of yours, don’t answer the doubts the Devil slips into your mind. Instead, put your faith in God’s words, believe his Saints and prophets, and the wicked enemy will make off from you. It is often of great profit to a servant of God to have to bear with assaults of this kind. It is not sinners, not those without faith that the Devil tempts; they are his already, and he can afford not to worry about them. No, it is those who have the faith, those who are devout, whom he tempts and disquiets in many a way.

Go forward, then, with simple, unfaltering faith, and approach the Sacrament in unquestioning adoration. ***Leave your worries behind and entrust to almighty God whatever is beyond the grasp of your understanding. ***God never misleads you; a man may well mislead himself when he puts too much faith in his own powers.

It is with simple folk that God walks, to the humble that he makes himself known; to little ones he gives understanding (Ps 119[118],130), to the pure of heart he rends the veil of outward appearance. From those who in their arrogance pry into his secrets he hides his grace.
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***Human reason is weak and may be mistaken; there is no making mistakes for true faith. All reason and natural enquiry must follow faith, not precede it or trespass on its domain. ***
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Sometimes we can be burdened by the lack of any feelings at all that God loves us and cares for us, that He is Merciful … this flows from our “natural reason” and as the text above states “all reason and natural enquiry must follow Faith, not precede it or trespass on its domain”…in other words our Faith tells us that God always does love and care for us and that He is Merciful…no matter what I may feel.
If I am suffering or in any sort of trial, I find it helpful to take just one single day at a time - no more “today’s worries are enough for today” and tomorrow will look after itself when tomorrow becomes my today and I have that day to be concerned about but not until tomorrow, one day at a time. With practise and perseverance one can arrive at the place where one always takes just this today and it is natural, normal and habitual.
 
“This is what Yahweh asks of you, only this: to act justly, to love tenderly, and to walk humbly with your God.”
-Micah 6
 
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