Hello everyone. Hope you’re all keeping safe in these uncertain times.
I embarked on a month-long spiritual exercise which I feel duty bound to share with you all as my testimony.
I stumbled on this test of Divine Dependence when I gave deep thought to the concept of God as the ultimate provider. After several years of going to God with my needs in prayers, I decided to take the option of the biblical verse that God knows our needs before we even ask Him.
Instead of the family practice of thanking God and bringing to His attention our long list of needs, I asked that we only thank God during prayers and ask Him to do as He wishes with us for the week. It was a difficult and new way of relating to the Almighty Father.
Surprise, surprise, as difficult as it was not to ask, the miracles began in earnest. I must confess, I initially thought it was mere coincidence. This was because the first provision was based on some pending projects. When fresh and unsolicited opportunities started appearing, I knew it was surely God.
The following week, the same prayer pattern was continued, this time with more confidence based on the previous week’s experience. Again things happened without stress. For the first time in years, I was getting calls for services without making cold calls. I must add that during the period, a whole lot of different social responsibilities came up which were met as at when due. It had to be the hand of God.
By the third week, I was already expectant as well as feeling that maybe these provision from Divine Dependence would not amount to complacency. I was in for a bigger surprise. By now more demanding projects were awarded. These made me realise that God was going to provide the links and provisions and on my part…get the physical job done.
I must confess, my turnover during this period has been awesome. I always thought I had a great prayer life. This experience really opened my eyes to how much we limit what God can provide by our trying to act as all knowing. I realised that if truly God knows the end from the beginning, we are only actors in an already written, scripted drama along with other actors, but not the directors of the drama.
I realised that we need to let God be God, while we accept being tools in His hands and letting our actions and desires conform to His plans and not the other way round. I had more peace of mind by waiting for Divine Direction, rather than scheming and planning first, before bringing God on. How easy it was to be going the wrong way without knowing. I guess I must have felt the same way Saul felt before his conversion.
Now into the fourth week of this journey, I’m getting more comfortable with my new found role in relating to God for my business and needs. Would you like to give it a try? It is so easy. All it requires is to depend on God’s Divine Direction. We must have absolute trust that he will do that which He alone can do.
Without God and his direction, we are like ships without rudders.
I have been thinking a great deal about my experience at Reconciliation this past Saturday. I felt an intense and unexplainable urge to go and confess my sins when I woke up that morning. I try to go every six weeks or so, but this was no routine visit to the priest for me. I needed to unburden myself of the numerous venial sins I had committed since I last participated in this Sacrament.
Purest Gold: God's Refining Fire in our Lives »
After salvation, many young Christians wonder if there's anything more to their newfound faith than just the security blanket of "being a Christian." Time and time again, God shows himself as a "refiner," and our lives are as gold. God started leading me in this study to understand what He was doing in my life, as well as in the lives of others.
Picking up my pen to write this column, I couldn’t imagine how time flies. Since the last publication of this column I have gone through a lot, especially the loss of my dear mother to whom I dedicate this article. Not only her, but seems I lost a whole generation of my close family.
How to Achieve Business Excellence »
“Do you see a man who excels in his work? He will stand before Kings; He will not stand before unknown men.” Proverbs 22:29
Spiritual Development for our Youth »
Most of us youth in today's fast moving world are easily thrown off by difficulties and worries.
The theme of conversion is a thread that runs all through Lent, but conversion takes on different aspects throughout the phases of Lent. The first two and a half weeks focused on the interior turning of hearts; the liturgy urges the faithful to reflect and examine consciences thoroughly.
Saint Josephine Bakhita »
Feast Day: February 8
Patron Saint Of: Sudan
Saint Josephine Margaret Bakhita was born around 1869 in the village of Olgossa in the Darfur region of Sudan. She was a member of the Daju people and her uncle was a tribal chief. Due to her family lineage, she grew up happy and relatively prosperous, saying that as a child, she did not know suffering.
Catholics Must Fast More Intensely This Lent»
The Norbertine Canons of St. Michael's Abbey have created this digital Lenten retreat so that you can journey through this holy season alongside them. If you want to have one of your best Lenten seasons yet, join us in our Lenten Program "The Great Fast" - https://theabbotscircle.com/the-great-fast-join
When Your Faith Is Put to the Test - Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon»
Friends, we come now to the Second Sunday of Lent, and we’re on both dangerous and very holy ground with the first reading from the twenty-second chapter of Genesis. The ancient Israelites referred to it as the “Akedah,” which means the “binding”: Abraham binds and is ready to sacrifice Isaac at God’s command.
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