The anguish of God
by Father Mathurin of the Mother of God God pursues us with His love, with His divine inspirations, but we do not hear Him, we do not pay attention to this, because we are given up to distraction. The Mercy and Love of God toward His children are always prepared to manifest themselves, but if we are distracted, occupied with a thousand useless things, we do not see and do not profit from His Love and His Mercy. Our thoughts and heart are somewhere else. This reminds us of the parable of the sower related by Jesus in the Gospel: Behold, the sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside, and the birds came and ate them up. And other seeds fell upon rocky ground, where they had not much earth; and they sprang up at once, because they had no depth of earth; but when the sun rose they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. And other seeds fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked them. And other seeds fell upon good ground, and yielded fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, and some thirtyfold. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. (St. Matthew 13:3-8) When we are souls that are by the wayside or souls without roots or caught among thorns, the good seed does not bear fruit. The soul is distracted by all sorts of things; it is incapable of recollecting itself in God. You may walk on some very busy streets with your heart attentive to God, just as alone in your corner you can be very distracted. But if you are always distracted, if you even cultivate your distraction, you will reach the point where you no longer pray, and sometimes you can even drag others, those around you, onto the same path. When I learn that people are praying less and less, I assure you this is not good news. “He who prays is saved, he who does not pray is damned,” Saint Alphonsus Liguori often said. God wants to show mercy to the world, and He is counting on us to show mercy. He is merciful, and He has shown mercy to each one of us. And He will continue to show mercy. His mercy is infinite, tireless. But we must pay attention to it.The epidemic of our times
We are too distracted, and we distract ourselves voluntarily. It would be a lesser evil if it were only in passing, but with many people the state of distraction lasts; it even increases. It is a crescendo of distraction, they always need more. This becomes a serious vice, because the state of almost perpetual distraction cuts us off from God. When we are distracted all the time, we no longer see God, we no longer see anything at all; we are amusing ourselves. What does Blessed Melanie say? “Christians are amusing themselves.” Everyone should be ready to make an effort on this point. We are too distracted. Let us try not to be distracted and let us encourage others, notably the elderly, to pray a great deal. People say, “Oh, poor old folks! We have to distract them.” Certainly we have to cheer them up a little, but in the past, the elderly prayed more; by their prayers, they were the ones who upheld the younger ones who had less time to pray. With all the modern distractions, they pray a great deal less. I said to someone recently, “Beware! That person who loved prayer is drifting away from it now because of all the distractions you are giving him. You are placing a weight, a responsibility, on your conscience. You may think it is not serious, but when you appear before God, He will say, ‘By your fault, that person has forsaken prayer, he has taken his distance from Me.’ I would not want to hear that.” Excuse me for telling you these things that are somewhat severe, but they are serious realities. Every one of us is in need of Divine Mercy, and God is always ready to give it; but we live on another planet. Or rather, we live too much on earth, we are too attentive to the things of earth. Instead of keeping our mind turned toward God, seeking to please Him in all things, we are turned too much toward the earth and its thousand distractions. When I went to the Holy Land, the thing that struck me was how distracted humans are. At Gethsemani I was overwhelmed by this thought. It imposed itself. It is as if I felt that this is the anguish of God. God became incarnate; He is in love with His creatures, and man for his part is distracted, he does not even think about it. Worse yet, he distracts himself voluntarily. What a terrible disappointment for God, what sorrow! God is betrayed by man. And if it comes from those He has chosen, it is even harder. He is in anguish. We cannot know how much anguish we give God. It hurts Him deeply. He is merciful, but at a given moment we must not abuse it. We see this everywhere: people are constantly seeking amusement and frivolity. Even religious who are consecrated in the service of God seek distraction and amusement. There are so many ways to be distracted today! There have always been, but today more than ever, there are a thousand ways to be distracted: television, videos, radio, books, magazines, banal conversations, etc. If you are alone anywhere, normally it should be an occasion for you to increase and intensify prayer. Unfortunately, that is not always the case; far from it. We give a lot of time to distraction.Nothing is small for love
People say, “What I am doing is not serious. It is innocent!” It is serious for your heart to be distracted from God. That is where the gravity of the act resides. That is what offends God: our inattention to His presence, forgetting His love. The greatest sin is the pride of man, but I think it is also this state of distraction, this lack of attention to the things of God. God pursues man tirelessly with His love, and man is amusing himself, he is distracted. And because of repeated distractions, we fall when temptations arise. Pride gets the upper hand. Why? Because we were not attentive to God, to His inspirations, because we did not pray to Him to obtain His aid. We are already proud; pride is very strong in us. But if we are habitually distracted, then when temptation presents itself, instead of fighting the good fight we rebel against God or against the instruments He places on our path, who mortify us a little, who humble us. Pride gets the upper hand for lack of an interior life, for lack of union to God. We will never be too attentive to God — never! Thinking about Him, acting for Him, praying to Him: that should be the breathing of our soul, night and day. He never stops thinking about us for a single moment; He is attentive to the slightest details of our life. Not a hair falls from your head without His permission, says the Gospel. So much love for us is inconceivable! If we reflected the least little bit, if we pondered this sublime truth and deepened our understanding of it, we would realize that we can never be present or attentive enough to God. Another great detriment caused by this distraction which inhabits us is that it makes us a little hard with our neighbor. When we always want to have fun and be distracted — note this well — and our neighbor has the misfortune of getting in the way of our amusements, disturbing our frivolities a little, we become hard and even wicked toward him. This is a common thing with people. How can the mercy of God come upon us in these dispositions? In the Our Father we say, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” This is the measure that God employs with souls. The Introit of today’s Mass, the Quasimodo, quotes these words of Saint Peter: Crave, as newborn babes, pure spiritual milk. That is why I am talking to you about distraction. “Crave pure spiritual milk,” that is, “Crave the things of God.” Pure spiritual milk is nourishment for the soul. A newborn baby craves milk because that is its food, it needs it. The nutriment of our soul is God Himself, who has brought love to the point of making Himself into Bread in the Eucharist. If you are too distracted, you will not receive your nutriment, you will not profit from it. There will be problems. “Crave it,” says the Apostle Peter. When we have a craving, a desire in our heart, we are not distracted! In the human realm, we see the talent people who truly desire something can have for reaching their ends. May our cravings be only for the things of God. Let us aspire to God and all that pleases Him. Without desire you dry up, you can even lose your life over it. The more attentive you are to God, the more He communicates Him self. But the more distracted you are, the less God gives Himself. And the less He gives Himself, the more you lose your taste for the things of God. At a given moment, you no longer have any taste for prayer, any taste for the things of God. With certain holy souls, dryness can be a trial, as in the case of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus. But aridity and distaste are not always trials. Sometimes they are chastisements. Because we immersed ourselves in amusements and distractions, we have lost our taste for the things of God; they have become insipid for us. So I will leave you with this Spiritual Bouquet: “Crave pure spiritual milk.” God will not let Himself be outdone in generosity, you can be sure!
The anguish of God
by Father Mathurin of the Mother of God God pursues us with His love, with His divine inspirations, but we do not hear Him, we do not pay attention to this, because we are given up to distraction. The Mercy and Love of God toward His children are always prepared to manifest themselves, but if we are distracted, occupied with a thousand useless things, we do not see and do not profit from His Love and His Mercy. Our thoughts and heart are somewhere else. This reminds us of the parable of the sower related by Jesus in the Gospel: Behold, the sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside, and the birds came and ate them up. And other seeds fell upon rocky ground, where they had not much earth; and they sprang up at once, because they had no depth of earth; but when the sun rose they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. And other seeds fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked them. And other seeds fell upon good ground, and yielded fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, and some thirtyfold. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. (St. Matthew 13:3-8) When we are souls that are by the wayside or souls without roots or caught among thorns, the good seed does not bear fruit. The soul is distracted by all sorts of things; it is incapable of recollecting itself in God. You may walk on some very busy streets with your heart attentive to God, just as alone in your corner you can be very distracted. But if you are always distracted, if you even cultivate your distraction, you will reach the point where you no longer pray, and sometimes you can even drag others, those around you, onto the same path. When I learn that people are praying less and less, I assure you this is not good news. “He who prays is saved, he who does not pray is damned,” Saint Alphonsus Liguori often said. God wants to show mercy to the world, and He is counting on us to show mercy. He is merciful, and He has shown mercy to each one of us. And He will continue to show mercy. His mercy is infinite, tireless. But we must pay attention to it.The epidemic of our times
We are too distracted, and we distract ourselves voluntarily. It would be a lesser evil if it were only in passing, but with many people the state of distraction lasts; it even increases. It is a crescendo of distraction, they always need more. This becomes a serious vice, because the state of almost perpetual distraction cuts us off from God. When we are distracted all the time, we no longer see God, we no longer see anything at all; we are amusing ourselves. What does Blessed Melanie say? “Christians are amusing themselves.” Everyone should be ready to make an effort on this point. We are too distracted. Let us try not to be distracted and let us encourage others, notably the elderly, to pray a great deal. People say, “Oh, poor old folks! We have to distract them.” Certainly we have to cheer them up a little, but in the past, the elderly prayed more; by their prayers, they were the ones who upheld the younger ones who had less time to pray. With all the modern distractions, they pray a great deal less. I said to someone recently, “Beware! That person who loved prayer is drifting away from it now because of all the distractions you are giving him. You are placing a weight, a responsibility, on your conscience. You may think it is not serious, but when you appear before God, He will say, ‘By your fault, that person has forsaken prayer, he has taken his distance from Me.’ I would not want to hear that.” Excuse me for telling you these things that are somewhat severe, but they are serious realities. Every one of us is in need of Divine Mercy, and God is always ready to give it; but we live on another planet. Or rather, we live too much on earth, we are too attentive to the things of earth. Instead of keeping our mind turned toward God, seeking to please Him in all things, we are turned too much toward the earth and its thousand distractions. When I went to the Holy Land, the thing that struck me was how distracted humans are. At Gethsemani I was overwhelmed by this thought. It imposed itself. It is as if I felt that this is the anguish of God. God became incarnate; He is in love with His creatures, and man for his part is distracted, he does not even think about it. Worse yet, he distracts himself voluntarily. What a terrible disappointment for God, what sorrow! God is betrayed by man. And if it comes from those He has chosen, it is even harder. He is in anguish. We cannot know how much anguish we give God. It hurts Him deeply. He is merciful, but at a given moment we must not abuse it. We see this everywhere: people are constantly seeking amusement and frivolity. Even religious who are consecrated in the service of God seek distraction and amusement. There are so many ways to be distracted today! There have always been, but today more than ever, there are a thousand ways to be distracted: television, videos, radio, books, magazines, banal conversations, etc. If you are alone anywhere, normally it should be an occasion for you to increase and intensify prayer. Unfortunately, that is not always the case; far from it. We give a lot of time to distraction.Nothing is small for love
People say, “What I am doing is not serious. It is innocent!” It is serious for your heart to be distracted from God. That is where the gravity of the act resides. That is what offends God: our inattention to His presence, forgetting His love. The greatest sin is the pride of man, but I think it is also this state of distraction, this lack of attention to the things of God. God pursues man tirelessly with His love, and man is amusing himself, he is distracted. And because of repeated distractions, we fall when temptations arise. Pride gets the upper hand. Why? Because we were not attentive to God, to His inspirations, because we did not pray to Him to obtain His aid. We are already proud; pride is very strong in us. But if we are habitually distracted, then when temptation presents itself, instead of fighting the good fight we rebel against God or against the instruments He places on our path, who mortify us a little, who humble us. Pride gets the upper hand for lack of an interior life, for lack of union to God. We will never be too attentive to God — never! Thinking about Him, acting for Him, praying to Him: that should be the breathing of our soul, night and day. He never stops thinking about us for a single moment; He is attentive to the slightest details of our life. Not a hair falls from your head without His permission, says the Gospel. So much love for us is inconceivable! If we reflected the least little bit, if we pondered this sublime truth and deepened our understanding of it, we would realize that we can never be present or attentive enough to God. Another great detriment caused by this distraction which inhabits us is that it makes us a little hard with our neighbor. When we always want to have fun and be distracted — note this well — and our neighbor has the misfortune of getting in the way of our amusements, disturbing our frivolities a little, we become hard and even wicked toward him. This is a common thing with people. How can the mercy of God come upon us in these dispositions? In the Our Father we say, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” This is the measure that God employs with souls. The Introit of today’s Mass, the Quasimodo, quotes these words of Saint Peter: Crave, as newborn babes, pure spiritual milk. That is why I am talking to you about distraction. “Crave pure spiritual milk,” that is, “Crave the things of God.” Pure spiritual milk is nourishment for the soul. A newborn baby craves milk because that is its food, it needs it. The nutriment of our soul is God Himself, who has brought love to the point of making Himself into Bread in the Eucharist. If you are too distracted, you will not receive your nutriment, you will not profit from it. There will be problems. “Crave it,” says the Apostle Peter. When we have a craving, a desire in our heart, we are not distracted! In the human realm, we see the talent people who truly desire something can have for reaching their ends. May our cravings be only for the things of God. Let us aspire to God and all that pleases Him. Without desire you dry up, you can even lose your life over it. The more attentive you are to God, the more He communicates Him self. But the more distracted you are, the less God gives Himself. And the less He gives Himself, the more you lose your taste for the things of God. At a given moment, you no longer have any taste for prayer, any taste for the things of God. With certain holy souls, dryness can be a trial, as in the case of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus. But aridity and distaste are not always trials. Sometimes they are chastisements. Because we immersed ourselves in amusements and distractions, we have lost our taste for the things of God; they have become insipid for us. So I will leave you with this Spiritual Bouquet: “Crave pure spiritual milk.” God will not let Himself be outdone in generosity, you can be sure!
