Yes, you will go out with celebration, and you will be brought back in peace. Even the mountains and the hills will burst into song before you; all the trees of the field will clap their hands. ~Isaiah 55:12 (CEB)
“Life is full of perils and of hidden reefs, on which we shall make shipwreck, without the continual succor of the grace of God. Yet how can we ask for it, unless we are with [God]? How can we be with [God], unless our thoughts are ever of [God]? How can [God] be in our thoughts, unless we form a holy habit of abiding in [God’s] Presence, there asking for the grace we need each moment of our life?
If you would go forward in the spiritual life, you must avoid relying on the subtle conclusions and fine reasonings of the unaided intellect. Unhappy they who seek to satisfy their desire therein! The Creator is the great teacher of Truth. We can reason laboriously for many years, but fuller far and deeper is the knowledge of the hidden things of Faith and of [God], which [God] flashes as light into the heart of the humble.
Nothing can give us so great relief in the trials and sorrows of life, as loving intercourse with God; when such is faithfully practiced, the evils that assail the body will prove light to us. God often ordains that we should suffer in the body to purify the soul, and to constrain us to abide with [God]. How can anyone whose life is hid with God, and whose only desire is God, be capable of feeling pain?” ~From The Spiritual Maxims of Brother Lawrence
Hide me in the shadow of Your love O Lord. Teach me Your ways so that I may know of Your Truths. My eyes search for You, my heart longs for You. Only Your Holy presence can satisfy this desire. Help me to turn away from those things that cannot placate my spirit, may they not distract me this day. Amen.
Pieces of the Puzzle 