Beginning a fresh new year, on Saturday, January 21st, the women of the NY Tri-State Regnum Christi section welcomed friends to a monthly Morning of Recollection, a continuing series of reflections on the ‘Seven Longings of the Human Heart.’ This month’s focus was on our longing for well-being.
Father Eric Nielsen, LC, shared some great nuggets from the meditation, talk, and homily, and here are the recordings.
Seeking First the Kingdom of God, a meditation
The Search for Well-being, a practical talk
Well-being and Right Worship, the homily
1. We may look for a ‘silver bullet’ for happiness, and sometimes seek a false means of attaining it via gluttony. The true means, temperance, leads to well-being, properly rooted in God. A well-ordered heart has God first; HE fulfills all of our longings! Well-being is satisfied by virtue of temperance – or perhaps better understood as ‘hope.’
2. The Ten Commandments were not meant as prohibitions but more properly as ‘this is how you live your life when your relationship with God is healthy.’ ‘Little sins’ taken lightly can become habits and can lead to addictions, can prevent prudence in decision-making, and can lead to lives unlike that for which we were made.
3. An example of the effect of intemperance is powerfully expressed in this quote about addiction from Brideshead Revisited, a book by Evelyn Waugh:
‘A blow, expected, repeated, falling upon a bruise with no smart or shock of surprise, only a dull and sickening pain and the doubt whether another like it could be borne.
4. Seek first the Kingdom of God, and all will be given to you … your interior ‘tank’ for love will be filled; there will be deep interior contentment, even amidst surface turmoil. Matthew 6: 25-34 is wonderful for reflecting on God’s providential love for us: we are worth more than the birds of the sky and wildflowers. He will satisfy ALL of our needs, both exterior and interior.
5. Ephesians 5: 8-11, 15-19 offers excellent life advice: ‘Try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord’ … Wounds can be an entryway to let the Holy Spirit in – it is good to see that we need God! Our gluttony can mask this need, but true spiritual clarity helps us see and properly fill the need with God’s love. And when we are ‘right’ with God, we can delight in His joy: ‘Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.’
6. Sins are forms of selfishness that prevent us from living our true calling … whereas temperance and hope in Our Lord lead to our ultimate calling to union with God here and now … and eternally!
Rico (LC dog extraordinaire) is the very picture of a soul experiencing well-being in God’s love…such peace!
You are invited to join us for our Lenten Retreat morning on Saturday, March 4th. More info
