Summer Thoughts

Here are a couple quotes to remind us why we exist and what the purpose of our lives are – especially in the middle of summer’s melancholy.

Mother Teresa in her “Varanasi Letter”:

My Dearest Children –

Jesus wants me to tell you again, how much is the love He has for each one of you – beyond all that you can imagine. I worry some of you still have not really met Jesus – one to one – you and Jesus alone. We may spend time in the chapel – but have you seen with the eyes of your soul how He looks at you with love? Do you really know the living Jesus – not from books, but from being with Him in your heart? Have you heard the loving words He speaks to you?

Ask for the grace, He is longing to give it. Never give up this daily intimate contact with Jesus as a real living person – not just an idea.

How can we last even one day living our life without hearing Jesus say, “I love you” – impossible. Our soul needs that as much as the body needs to breathe the air. If not, prayer is dead – meditation is only thinking. Jesus wants you each to hear Him – speaking in the silence of your heart.

Be careful of all that can block that personal being in touch with the living Jesus. The hurts of life, and sometimes your own mistakes – may make you feel it is impossible that Jesus really loves, is really clinging to you. This is a danger for all of you. And so sad, because it is completely opposite of what Jesus is really wanting, waiting to tell you.

Not only that He loves you, even more – He longs for you. He misses you when you don’t come close. He thirsts for you. He loves you always, even when you don’t feel worthy. Even if you are not accepted by others, even by yourself sometimes – He is the one who always accepts you.

My children, you don’t have to be different for Jesus to love you. Only believe – you are precious to Him. Bring all you are suffering to His feet – only open your heart to be loved by Him as you are. He will do the rest.

You all know in your mind that Jesus loves you – but in this letter Mother wants to touch your heart instead. Jesus wants to stir up our hearts, so as not to lose our early love …

Why is Mother saying these things? After reading John’s letter on “I thirst,” I was struck so much – I cannot tell you what I felt. His letter made me realize more than ever how beautiful is our vocation. How great is God’s love for us in choosing us to satiate that thirst of Jesus, for love, for souls – giving us our special place in the Church. At the same time we are reminding the world of his thirst, something that was being forgotten.

For me, Jesus’ thirst is something so intimate. Jesus must be the one to say to you, “I thirst.” Hear your own name. Not just once. Every day. If you listen with your heart, you will hear, you will understand.

Why does Jesus say, “I thirst”? It is something so hard to explain in words – if you remember anything from Mother’s letter, remember this – “I thirst” is something much deeper than just Jesus saying, “I love you”. Until you know deep inside that Jesus thirsts for you – you can’t begin to know who He wants to be for you, or who He wants you to be for Him.

How to approach the thirst of Jesus? There is only one secret – the closer you come to Jesus, the better you will know His thirst. “Repent and believe,” Jesus tells us. We to repent of our indifference, our hardness of heart. Believe that Jesus thirsts even now, in your heart and in the poor. He knows your weakness; He wants only your love; wants only the chance to love you. He is not bound by time. Hear Him. Hear your own name. Make my joy and yours complete.

Pope Paul VI in Evangelii Nuntiandi:

It would be useful if every Christian and every evangelizer were to pray about the following thought: men can gain salvation also in other ways, by God’s mercy, even though we do not preach the Gospel to them; but as for us, can we gain salvation if through negligence or fear or shame – what St. Paul called “blushing at the Gospel” (Rom. 1:16) – or as a result of false ideas we fail to preach it?