Notes - One of Seven

I've been away for a while dealing with health issues.  Physical difficulties and pain can lead you to such depression that you can't do even the small, normal things that give you pleasure.  For me, that pleasure is writing, followed by a close second of photography.  I finally sat back and decided to take control of my life again and with that end in mind started to put together notes from a seven part study class on the Eucharist I been participating in.  Here is one of seven.

National Eucharistic Revival

Study Session No. One

Jesus and the Eucharist – What’s Our Story?

NOTES

God has plans for our welfare, not for our woe.

God wants my best for me.  He does not want me to be sad.  It’s easy, too easy, to slip into sadness.  I desire happiness and a sense of inner peace.  These gifts come from You alone.

Age brings self-forgiveness, perspective on my life, and trust that He loves me.

The Bible is simply 73 stories within one big story.  It is, very simply, a love story.  In these stories there is a good guy and a bad guy.  There is the object of love and the beloved.  We learn that the root of all goodness is love.

God is love. His limitless love for us is the foundation and well-spring of our personal creation, our personal story; what He wants for us.

His love gives us life and every good we receive is from Him.  He is the lover and we are the object of his love; we are His beloved.

Thinking about the Garden of Eden I realized that we CAN miss what we have never had.  I only blame myself for the errors of my life choices.  For a time my relationship with God fell apart; I was separated from other relations with friends and family; my will weakened as my passions became disordered.  My world was broken until I started to let God in again.

My world is what I make it.  That has changed as I have grown and I’ve learned to not engage with the darkness of the world around me.  Do I still make mistakes?  Do I still let the darkness in?  Of course, but, I turn back to my Father constantly.  He is ever forgiving, awaiting my return.  The mess of the world is of our making.  What I make of it, how I live in it, is my free will choice. 

I learned the Surrender prayer recently.  Lord, I surrender to you.  Take care of everything.  Surrender makes life so much easier.  Life might be difficult but I trust in the Lord’s care.  He comes to me daily in the Eucharist or at least once a week.  It is a reminder of His gift to us, His sacrifice for our salvation.  For God so loved the world, He gave us His only Son.