Lenten Meditation

My Dearest Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Book 1 Chapter 10: On Avoiding Superfluous Words

“If we are not careful, we can be easily deceived and attracted by the vanity of the world.”

Oh how true a statement.  How easy it is to be consumed by the world.  Thomas a Kempis cautions us today on wordiness and being too verbose in our communication with others; especially in gossip.  The phase “Keep It Simple Stupid” or KISS comes to mind.  He tells us that the more we say, the stupider we begin to appear.  Okay, I paraphrased a little.  If you remain focused on worldly issues and spend all your energy discussing the things that burden us; “the end result of this gossip about things we like or dislike only leaves us with a guilty conscience.”  This is the same message we heard from Pope Francis gave us regarding the topics of same sex marriage and abortion. If we spend our time completely consumed by these topics, we can actually lose sight of God and become filled with contempt.  God is much bigger than these issues.  Not that we don’t need to pray for these issues, but to make sure that these issues do not completely consume us. All the complaining and griping is for nothing Thomas tells us since it tends to hinder our path to God.  If we become consumed by the worldly issues, what time do we leave for meditating on God.  We must seek God because God is the source of all happiness and joy.  I find myself consumed at times with our current political system, same sex marriage, war, terrorism and atheism to the point where my speech can become hateful. I let these things consume me instead of seeking God and the joy that one experiences when they find Him.  When I find God, a light shines in me which becomes the beacon for others.  It is through me that they can find God.  It is not in my words as much as it is in my actions and what I do.  When I center myself on God, my speech becomes compassionate and loving.  It becomes the grace of God flowing through me.  “A bad use or neglect of our spiritual progress makes us careless of what we say.” In our carelessness, we can offend and turn people away from Christ. Our own negativity becomes the wall that separates God from his people.  “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.” (Matthew 18:6).  We need to stay focused on God and continue to focus on spiritual growth. Remember, keep it simple.  

Father in heaven

            Give me wisdom in my words,

            That they may be simple and true and

            Express only the love of God the Father.

            May this lead me to a spiritual oneness with you.

Yours in Christ

Michael Marcon