Imagine the awe-inspiring, magnificent, and humbling notion that God resides in all of us. The King of the Universe, the creator of all that is, the Alpha and Omega (the beginning and the end) resides in each and every one of us!
“The kingdom of God is within you” Luke 17:21.
Step 1: It’s Time to Channel Jesus’ Divine Love!
The “Catechism of the Catholic Church” says that Meditation is above all a quest. The mind seeks to understand the why and how of the Christian life, in order to adhere and respond to what the Lord is asking (meditation 2705). Notice how it says to adhere and respond to what the Lord is asking of us. Sometimes we pray by making a request to Him, but often times, He wants us to respond to His requests as well.
Moreover, the word quest means to “search” for something. We are searching to hear His voice so we can follow Him down the correct path for our lives. “I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep….. They will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock with one shepherd” John 10:14-16. Like a Good Shepherd, He is ready to guide us when we are ready to listen to Him and follow Him.
Sometimes we forget that our relationship with Jesus is in fact, a relationship! Merian Webster defines a relationship as “the way in which two or more talk to, behave toward, and deal with each other.” However, we should try to remember that the term relationship refers to TWO or more TALKING to one another.
Step 2: Discover What Jesus is Trying to Tell Us! Listen with Intention.
That means that Jesus is trying to talk to us! What is He trying to say? We don’t know until we learn how to listen.
This communication with Jesus, through prayer and meditation, leads us down the path of discovering our true calling. Our true calling, or our vocation, is the reason why each of us is on earth!
Discovering this enlightens us with peace, joy, and abundant living. However, this could be very difficult to discover without learning to listen to where He is guiding us.
Step 3–Listen Up and ACT on What He is Telling You.
In the Angelus address, Pope Francis prays “May Mary help us to become increasingly men and women of conscience, free in our conscience, because it is in the conscience that dialogue with God takes place; men and women, who can hear God’s voice and follow it with determination, who can listen to God’s voice, and follow it with decision” (Angelus address, June 30, 2013).
Of course, it is not a requirement to be Catholic in order to listen to this dialogue. Any person who can quiet their minds has the ability to hear their sacred and personal dialogue taking place with Jesus. Listening to Jesus’ voice and following it with decision are the steps that we take in our lives to ensure that we are following the right path.
When this happens we will see our lives improve in innumerable ways. The more we open up to Him and love him, the more love we will feel all around us because God is love!
“Beloved, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” 1 John 4:8
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