JOIN ME for Day 4? We’re spending 9 days in the Upper Room of our hearts with both 💘 Saints & Sinners as we prepare to celebrate the true meaning behind Saint Valentine’s Day:
📖 READ SCRIPTURE:
Oh send out thy light and thy truth; let them lead me, let them bring me to thy holy hill and to thy dwelling! – Psalms 43:3
💝 REFLECT:
In today’s Gospel of Matthew 5:13-16, we read how we are called to be both Salt & Light to the world. This truth was not hidden from King David either. The one whom God called “a man after His own heart” knew very well the importance of keeping his heart in tune with God’s will for himself and for his kingdom over whom he’d been entrusted.
David tells us in Psalm 119:105, the Word of God is a lamp unto his feet, a light unto his path. He learns to calibrate his heart to the light and the truth of God’s word and he lets the Word lead his soul.
At times we may find this difficult, to allow the Word to lead us. Especially, when our soul is downcast or discouraged. But this is the light not hidden from the heart of God’s beloved, that even when our soul is discouraged we can place our trust in the power of God’s word to lead us.
Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God. – Psalms 43:5
🍎 Saint Wisdom:
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, a French Benedictine Abbot and Doctor of the Church from the 11th century, describes the interaction between the Word and the Soul like so:
“So whenever you hear or read that the Word and the soul converse together, and contemplate each other, do not imagine them speaking with human voices nor appearing in bodily form. Listen, this is rather what you must think about it:
“The Word is a spirit (Jn. 4:24), the soul is a spirit; and they possess their own mode of speech and mode of presence in accord with their nature. The speech of the Word is loving kindness, that of the soul, the fervor of devotion… When the Word therefore tells the soul, “You are beautiful,” and calls it friend (Song 1:14), He infuses into it the power to love, and to know it is loved in return… The speech of the Word is an infusion of grace, the soul’s response is wonder and thanksgiving.”
This response of the soul is what allows the Beloved to respond to despair with praises like King David, “Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the Pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good as long as you live so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. (Psalms 103:1-5)”
No matter how despondent our soul may be to love, we have assurance that the Spirit of the Word will always come for us to infuse us with power to love and to know we are loved. The Spirit of God is who leads us to the holy hill, so we can be a Light for others, shining in the darkness, welcoming them into God’s presence.
Spend time this week reading the Word of God and letting the Spirit speak to your soul. If this sounds difficult to you, try following the practice of meditation outlined in Lectio Divina (Read about it here). Let the Word of God lead you.
🕊 LET US PRAY:
Father, thank you for sending forth your Word to be a Light unto my path. Help me never to depart from its truth and wisdom. Holy Spirit, infuse me with the power to love and to be loved.
Blessed Mother of Our Lord, Holy angels and saints of Heaven, especially Saint Valentine, pray for me, that my heart may become more like God’s Beloved ones, so that I too may be a light to others from that city on a hill. In the Holy name of Jesus, King of My Heart, Amen.
