Eternal Source of grace.

Eternal Source of grace.
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We were created out of nothing.

We came into existence due to the power of God,

which means,

we cannot exist without the power of God,

which means,

the moment God withdraws Himself from us,

(which He will never do.)

we will return to nothingness.

One analogy,

there is a ball on the ground,

  when we lift it with our hand,

it comes up,

but

the moment we withdraw our hand

it falls down on the ground.

With our hand, the ball is active,

without our hand it is inactive.

We can move,

both physically and spiritually,

only with God's help.

To move any of our  limbs,

to do something good

or to commit a sin,

God's activating it
is essential.

God is the primary cause of all our activities,

good or bad;

we are their secondary cause.

We,

the secondary cause,

must take the full responsibility for the action,

as we do it using our free will.

The Primary cause is there

because He is our Creator

and if He withdraws Himself

we will become nothing.

Our doing sin using God's help,

(help in the sense giving activation to our limbs)

is like our going on a tour with the money

given to us by our father

to pay college fees.

Here our father is the Primary cause,

because he has given us the money,

but we are  fully  responsible for our going on a tour,

because it is we

who misuse the money

given for a use.

Now one thing is clear, 

as we cannot move by our own self in any direction,

we are fully in need of God's help

to believe in Him,

to love  Him,

to serve Him

and to enter heaven

to be eternally united with Him.

In other words, we are fully dependent on Him for our salvation.

But, let us be sure

that our God will never leave us up in the air.

He knows how to take care of His children by His kind providence.

First He gives us enough of grace to sustain ourselves.

By grace we refer to the spiritual help that is given to us to grow in spiritual life.

The theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity are God's free gifts to us.

These are the basic requirements for a spiritual life and for the spiritual journey.

They may be enough to live,

but for rapid spiritual growth

and to stand against temptations

we need more grace and more help from God.

What should we do to get more grace from God?

We should pray to God to get more grace and more help from Him.

Our Lord has said, "Ask, it shall be given."

Why does God want us to 'ask to be given'?

Why does He not  give us all the graces

needed for attaining  our spiritual perfection

without our asking for them,

just as He created us without our asking us for it?

He can,

but He doesn't,

because

He  wants our voluntary intimacy with Him.

Take a small child, for instance.

Why is it so intimate with its mother?

Is it because of her having  given birth to it?

No. It does not know how it came into existence.

Then, why?

Just for her milk.

When it becomes  hungry  its eyes automatically begin to search for her.

If she is not immediately available,

it begins to cry out to attract her attention.

It won't stop crying until its mother takes it into her hands.

Her very touch has the magic of transforming its cry into a sweet smile!

So are we with our heavenly Father.

As long as we are given our needs

with no effort on our side,

we will enjoy what we get

without thinking about the Giver!

So, just to make us cooperate with Him in His providence for us,

(of course the fruits of our cooperation will be eternally ours)

He expects us  to ask for the grace that is necessary for our spiritual growth.

We will be granted more than we pray for.

We must unceasingly pray for the grace

to deepen our Faith,

to strengthen our Hope

and to increase our Charity.

Our prayer must be unceasing.

If we are to pray unceasingly how are to do our other works which also are necessary for a good life?

A small riddle will solve this problem.

I have three apples in a bag.

Three guests come to my house.

I have to give them one apple each.

The problem is that

after giving all the apples to the guests,

there must be one apple in the bag.

How is it possible?

Three apples in a bag,

three guests,

one apple each,

all the apples given,

one apple in the bag! 

How?

Very easy solution.

After giving the first two apples to the first two guests,

give the third guest the bag with the remaininug apple in it!

We have to pray all day and night.

All day we have to work.
All night we have to rest.
Where is time for prayer?

There is.

We must offer both our work and rest to God as prayer!

In a story,

a magician touches a stone and the stone becomes gold!

In our life,

Let us touch our sleep with 'prayer-intention' and our sleep becomes prayer!

It is our intention that works wonders!

If we intend,  we can turn all our life into prayer!

A newly married couple can make their 'First Night full romantic enjoyment' a powerful prayer! 

God is ready with a soul for the Adam or Eve they are going to procreate!

All our prayers,

made both in thought and action

bring on us a shower of graces from God!

God rewards His receipts manyfold,
even hundredfold!

Minute actions of our body  such as breath, step, wink, movement, smile etc.become a prayer when offered to God.

One liner prayers like

" God have mercy on us.

Jesus, Son of Mary, have mercy on me.

Jesus, I love you."

can be said at any time.

One prayer needs just a second!

The one second prayers can bring us more grace than the long ones,

because,

concentration,

which brings us closer to God,

is easy.

Due to our fallen nature

it is a bit difficult

to keep our mind in the same place for a long time.

Our mind is easily carried away by distractions,

result,

our words are with God,

mind, somewhere else.

It is easy to keep our mind on God for a few seconds.

We must make use of that time for God.

When we get up in the morning, it is easy to say with concentration,

"I love you, Jesus."

We must train our mind to concentrate on our Lord for a long time too.

During Holy Mass our attention must be on the Altar.

Keeping our eyes on the Altar

together with the celebrant

and our ears widely open to His words

will be helpful to
concentration.

So, it is not enough to start our spiritual life, we must persevere in it till the end.

For this,

we must keep our intimacy with God

by our life long  prayer

requesting God to shower on us His graces,

that will enrich our intimacy with God,

not only in this world

but also in the eternal world to come!

Let us pray for grace,

which will enable us to pray for more grace,

which will enable us to pray for more grace...........

let this process continue

till we are united with the Eternal Source of grace, God.

Lourdu Selvam.