The Desires of the Heart

"How can a heart that is taken up with human love be fully united with God? I am sure it is not possible. I have seen so many people attracted to this false light, fly to it as moths do and burn their wings, then flutter back to Jesus, the Eternal Fire which burns without consuming."

St. Therese of Lisieux

As I look back on my own experience of heartaches and rejections, I've come to understand that without them, I wouldn't have come to understand the love of God. To understand that His love is unconditional, constant and unwavering; that His love never tires, never becomes bored. It is always aflame with love for me, with love for you. I am sure that if I had never endured such sufferings, I'd be taken up with human affections and would be ignorant to the call of true love. This true love is Jesus Christ, Who longs for every soul to confess this from their heart. The human heart, created by God, has an insatiable thirst for love. This is precisely why everything apart from God falls short to fulfilling and satisfying the heart.

"Our hearts are restless until it finds it's rest in Thee."

St. Augustine of Hippo

You hear the stories of the saints like St. Francis of Assisi, St. Augustine, stories of men and women who led lives of glamour, power, esteem who renounced it all to follow Christ; stories of engaged men and women calling off weddings because the call to the priesthood, the call to consecrated life was far too overbearing. All of their radical yes' to new lives. For one reason only, love. The love of God is worth everything and more.

"Let us love, since that is what our hearts were made for."*

Most women want to get married and have children. This is a very natural desire as the woman was created to be a mother and a spouse, to love and bring forth life. Being a wife and a mother is beautiful and holy. One must understand that no matter what state of life we are called to, God must come first. He is the final destination. Our whole lives must be centered with Him as priority. It would be tragic for a man and woman to marry each other with no desire or purpose to bring each other closer to Christ, as this is precisely the reason why God created Holy Matrimony. It would be tragic for souls to espouse each other with no purpose of glorifying and seeking after God. Yet, how many marriages today are not in the eyes of God. How many marriages are not real marriages. Our Lady of Fatima had said in her 1917 apparitions "many marriages are not good, they do not please Our Lord and are not good."

Marriages are to reflect the Holy Trinity; holy, life-giving and pure. Many married couples put each other above God. What does this mean? This means that they are putting the wants of the other above what God desires. It is to please the creature rather than the Creator. An example is a husband who chooses not to attend Holy Mass and forces his wife to neglect this obligation as well. It is when the wife goes against convictions simply to please her husband. Oh, how grave this is. Marriages are called to be the domestic Church!

Another error that many women fall into is believing that their husband should be satisfying the desires of their heart, that their spouse should bring them ultimate fulfillment. This is false. No one and nothing could ever satisfy the heart except God. The purpose of marriage is to bring each other closer to Christ, to bear children, God willing, and lead them to Christ. But couples are marrying blindly and with no true purpose other than to gratify their self-love. I believe this is one of the reasons for so many divorces. The couple do not understand that their thirst for true fulfillment is not found in each other, but only in God. Yet, the only One that matters is pushed out of their minds. They in turn begin an exhausting and unfulfilling quest for fulfillment in other people, things and places leaving them ever more empty and completely unfulfilled.

Our Lord had told Sister Mary of the Trinity "Each soul is a matchless treasure to Me." How sublime and loving His words, they are like healing balm to the soul. It is so necessary that we know and understand that we are loved. That we know our dignity in Christ and remember that we were purchased with all of God's Precious Blood. To understand that He has a special plan for you and I, one beyond our imaginings. We must not settle for mediocrity and abide by the ways of the world. We are from royal blood and we must understand this.

"We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures. We are the sum of the Father's love for us and our real capacity to become the image of His Son Jesus."

St. John Paul ||

St. Therese of Lisieux, pray for us.

Notes:

www.CatholicTradition.com

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