Painting: Scent of a Rose by Sheri Dinardi
What a beautiful and consoling article this is! Every day we have regrets….”I should have done or said this”, “I shouldn’t have done or said this”, “My past haunts me”, “I am so scared for the future”, etc., etc. This is not how Our Lord wants us to live. He wants us to give Him all our faults, our fears, our past failings, etc. and live in the present moment, entrusting it all to Him. THIS is faith!
From Interior Freedom by Fr. Jacques Philippe
One of the wisest sayings in the Gospel is “Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day.”
Let us absorb this lesson Jesus teaches. We often complain about how much we are suffering, without realizing that it’s our fault. As if today’s suffering weren’t enough, we add regrets about the past and worries for the future! It’s no surprise we feel overwhelmed.
For life to be bearable, we must practice bearing today’s problems only. The past casts its shadow over the present whenever we brood about old failures and yesterday’s choices. Of course we should ask God’s forgiveness for our faults and should learn from them where appropriate. But once we’ve said we’re sorry and meant it, that is enough.
While seeking to make amends where possible for the harm we have caused, most of the time we should simply leave things in God’s hands, trusting him to put everything right. We must put a stop to attitudes or thoughts that keep us from living trustingly in the present moment.
Sometimes we feel we’ve wasted much time and missed all too many opportunities to love and grow. If the feeling leads to real repentance and to starting again courageously and trustingly, then it is something positive.
But if the sense of time wasted gets us down and makes us feel we have ruined our lives, we must reject it.
To lock ourselves in the past would only add another sin to those already committed. It would be a serious lack of trust in the infinite mercy and power of God, who loves us and wants always to offer us a new chance to become holy, despite the past.
When the thought of how little progress we’ve made threatens to overwhelm us, we must make an act of faith and hope, such as: “Thank you, my God, for all my past. I firmly believe that you can draw good out of everything I have lived through. I want to have no regrets, and I resolve today to begin from zero, with exactly the same trust as if all my past history were made up of nothing but faithfulness and holiness.”
Nothing could please God more than that!
“One day at a time. This is very important. Very often we exhaust ourselves going over the past again and again and also our fears about the future. But when we live in the present moment, we mysteriously find strength. We have the grace to live through what we encounter today. If tomorrow we must face more difficult situations, God will increase his grace. God’s grace is given at the right time for it, day by day.” -Fr. Jacques Philippe, The Way of Trust and Love
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Thank you, this was good to read! A blest low Sunday to you! 💐
Often I wonder what I could have done differently in the past, and how life would have been better for others if I did do things differently. But, it does me no good to think about it as it changes nothing. “It is what it is”, as the saying goes, and if I take the “what is”, and do the best I can with “it” for today, while asking for God’s help, grace and guidance, then tomorrow I won’t be wondering what I could have done differently- because yesterday, I had already put in God’s hands. “I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me.”🌿🌷