I just read this tonight in Fulfillment of All Desire by Ralph Martin. He references God making the first move in the Bread of Life Discourse on page 197: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.” (Jn 6:44) How beautiful of the Lord to line this up today! 🥰
Probably the hardest thing to adopt in a faith performing practice of being Catholic. "there’s nothing anyone can do unless God makes the first move"
That's not a dig or condemnation, it's just our distracted, disconnected life.
"Faith performing" is my way of saying that once we've submitted to the Holy Spirit within the arms of our Church the string of practices that we do for both worship and sustenance can easily get turned into expectations. Not just from the Church, but from God.
Maybe if I add that moniker to my list of stuff to remember I'll better .... uh oh. There it goes again!
The first move being the offer from God to the divine life and to accept the offer by conforming our lives completely to Him. But it's like I tell my Catechism students, the offer to the divine life and divine friendship with God is an active one. We're baptized priests, prophets, and kings. The priest part of the layman is genuine worship which means authentic prayer, we should talk to God as if we're talking a friend. In fact, the wisdom literature suggests maybe something more akin to the Song of Songs, but it's a little hard for modernity to grasp the literary form.
I just read this tonight in Fulfillment of All Desire by Ralph Martin. He references God making the first move in the Bread of Life Discourse on page 197: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.” (Jn 6:44) How beautiful of the Lord to line this up today! 🥰
It's on my to read list. I listen to Ralph a lot via his podcast, but the influence for me is from St. Augustine.
Probably the hardest thing to adopt in a faith performing practice of being Catholic. "there’s nothing anyone can do unless God makes the first move"
That's not a dig or condemnation, it's just our distracted, disconnected life.
"Faith performing" is my way of saying that once we've submitted to the Holy Spirit within the arms of our Church the string of practices that we do for both worship and sustenance can easily get turned into expectations. Not just from the Church, but from God.
Maybe if I add that moniker to my list of stuff to remember I'll better .... uh oh. There it goes again!
Thanks, Phillip.
The first move being the offer from God to the divine life and to accept the offer by conforming our lives completely to Him. But it's like I tell my Catechism students, the offer to the divine life and divine friendship with God is an active one. We're baptized priests, prophets, and kings. The priest part of the layman is genuine worship which means authentic prayer, we should talk to God as if we're talking a friend. In fact, the wisdom literature suggests maybe something more akin to the Song of Songs, but it's a little hard for modernity to grasp the literary form.