ACCRM’s 40 Days With Christ For Lent: Day Five
Looking Away from God
[exerpts from “My Daily Bread” by Anthony J. Paone, S.J. [1954]
Images by artist, Greg Olson
CHRIST:
MY CHILD, the person who esteems anything for itself alone, forgetting My goodness and love, will always be small and inferior like the things which he values.
1. Whatever does not help you to please Me, has no true value in your life. You should therefore consider it as nothing.
2. Unless you see Me in your daily life, you will sooner or later become discontented, wherever you are and wherever you turn.
3. If any man tries to enjoy anything as though it were his alone, he will not have a lasting joy nor true freedom. In many ways he will find himself tied down and shut off from Me.
4. He who thinks more of earthly things than he does of Me, will find nothing but insecurity, trouble and sorrow. He may not realize it, but he is planning his own destruction.
5. Be it ever so little, if anything is loved and valued more than it deserves, it holds you back from Me, the Highest Good, and it weakens your soul. The man who looks only for worldly satisfactions, becomes blind to the loving presence of his Creator.
THINK:
One who seeks only pleasure, ease, honor, or profit is a worldling, that is, he lives only for this life. Gradually he becomes a slave of his earthly desires, so that he cannot even think of God. He will believe in Heaven too late-when he finds its gates forever closed to him.
PRAY:
My God, I rely on Your assistance to keep myself free from the slavery of earthly attractions. I shall use my possessions and daily enjoyments as things which You have lent to me. May I never offend You with these gifts of Yours. As yesterday’s enjoyments passed away, so too will those of today. I want to live for the greatest Good-for You, my God and my All. You alone are best and highest. Only You can satisfy my heart’s longings forever. Amen.
