Love in your firmness
Dear ADMA friends,
We are beginning a new academic year in this part of the world and we would like to walk together with you on an inspirational path of spiritual growth accompanied by Mary. When we begin a journey, it is important to know where we want to arrive in order to direct our steps so as not to waste our time and energy. This year, we thought we would start from the origin and ask ourselves where our desire to grow comes from, why there is this desire for God in us.
St. Francis de Sales in the last chapter of his book, Teotimo, shares a significant reflection on our desire for God’s love. He thus says:
“Teotimo, to know whether we love God above all things is not in our power, unless God himself reveals it to us; but we can know very well whether we desire to love him; and when we feel the desire for holy love in us, we know that we begin to love. The desire to love and love depends on the same will; therefore, as soon as the desire to love is formed, we know that we are beginning to love. As soon as the desire to love is formed, we begin to have love; and as this desire increases, so does love. He who ardently desires love, will soon ardently love. Who will grant us the grace, O my God, to burn with this desire, which is the desire of the poor and the preparation of their hearts, which God willingly hears?
He who is not sure of loving God is a poor man, and if he desires to love him, he is a beggar, but a beggar with that happy begging of which the Saviour said: Blessed are the beggars in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. He who truly desires love, truly seeks it; he who truly seeks it, truly finds it. He who finds it has found the fountain of life, from which he will draw the salvation of the Lord.
Let us cry out, O Teotimo, night and day: Come, O Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your Love.”
How beautiful then to begin with this desire that helps us to purify our hearts of other desires, to focus on what is really the most important thing in our lives: to love, to feel loved by God as Father, as Saviour and Redeemer of each one of us. When love directs our steps then our whole life is led by the Holy Spirit.
Mary desired God's love in such a way that she became, by the will of the Father, Mother of the Son, with the power of the Holy Spirit. Mary goes before us on this year's journey and shows us the way forward. She who is the "humble servant" becomes for us a teacher of love.
Dear friends, let us pray to Mary and ask for her intercession so that we may become her disciples at her school of prayer, with humility and desire for God's love.
Renato Valera, President, ADMA Primary.
Alejandro Guevara, Spiritual Animator, ADMA Primary
