Too Much Self-Sufficiency

"There is too much self-sufficiency, as though God isn't needed.  One is not interested in Him . . . . So, how can the Church respond to this?  . . .  She must have every baptized person (believe that) Christ is with him.  When we look at today's society, there seems to be a doubt:  Is God in these persons?"  Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne, Archbishop of Lima, Peru.  2/19/13

"Now experience of love, God's love, is the key for everything. . . . If you ask them, 'Do you pray?' they say, 'No time.'  But really time is no problem.  The key for the time is love.  Prayer is a meeting with God.  You meet those you love, and you have time for them, yes?  . . . If you love somebody, you know immediately what he needs.  Our Lady is tireless with us.  She is not tired with us.  Why?  Because she loves us.  If you do not love your work or the people around you, even before you start, you are tired and nervous.  How will we solve these problems.  Pray with Our Lady . . . for the experience of the love of God." Fr. Slavko Barbaric.

Unbelievers are those who have not experienced God's love.  We too need to experience God's love, as we have not yet learned to love.  Love is the key to everything.  paraphrase from Cathy Nolan http://www.marytv.tv/

• Dependence on God
• Morning prayer and scripture Meditation
• Experience of the Love of God by frequently adoring Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, and meditating on his Passion
• Forming a habit of talking and listening to Christ with me
• Realizing more, the gift of God's image, likeness and virtues created in the ones around me; realizing how much and how great is his love for them too . 
• I won't act like a grace filled person unless I pray with Mary, and cooperate with the working of the Holy Spirit to more fully experience and grow in faith for the magnitude of God's love for me

Recently heard someone say that if we really understood how great is our debt to Christ for the forgiveness of our sins and the procuring of our salvation we could never raise ourselves up to a position of unforgiveness of others.  That it is only the person that doesn't realize what they have been forgiven and how great their debt is to Christ, and to God the Father for not sparing his beloved Son, that can be unforgiving of others.

Probably that is only part of it.  It is more fully the person that hasn't been overwhelmed by God's love, and doesn't daily and throughout the day make the time to be embraced again by the magnitude of God's love that evolves into a Baptized Christian lacking the graces to reflect Christ's love to others, as it is his will for us to do.

It is so easy to indulge in feelings of resentment and bitterness isn't it?  Easy to become anxious to the situations we have so little control over in our lives?

Instead, Lord, today (and tomorrow and the next) help me remember how truly dependent I am on you.  Help me keep focused on your presence, the presence of a God who loves and gives me the sensitivity to reflect love to others.

Mary, please pray that we would have great love for Our God.  That we would make the time every day to be with the one we love.  Please help us to realize how great is Our God and how good and ever present is his love toward us and those around us.