JOURNEY WITH MARY
(Epi. 5) - Dedicated & Consecrated to God - Choosing God above Everyone and Everything Else
Below is the link to Episode no. 5
You are listening to the Greater Glory of God podcast presenting JOURNEY WITH MARY Episode no 5 and I am Fr. George Mary Claret.
In the last Episode (4) we reflected on “Growing up in Grace” - The call to be Saints – following the example of Mary.
If you have not been able to listen to the last Episode (4) and want to listen, click the link:
https://anchor.fm/greatergloryofgod/episodes/JOURNEY-WITH-MARY-Ep--4---GROWING-UP-IN-GRACE-elsjjd
Have you finished the reflection
and reading?
How do you feel?
The purpose of
these podcasts is to actualize objective salvation into subjective salvation – accepting, personalizing and
owning what God has done for us through
His Son, Jesus Christ. I am very glad I’m also part of this journey with you.
It’s not for merely listening, rather for action.
To take maximum advantage and use
of these episodes, do use – the Holy Bible, Diary, and a pen
Do spend a little more time in
prayer!
This 5th Episode is
“Dedicated to God – consecration” – choosing God above everyone and everything
else.
God made us for Himself
We can find
our purpose and
meaning only in our exclusive
relation with God.
“Thou hast
made us for thyself, O Lord,
and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.” - Augustine of Hippo, Confessions.
To love God is life for us:
Love Him with the entire being – with an undivided heart, mind, soul
Deuteronomy 6:4-5
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. 5 You
shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul,
and with all your might.”
Matthew 22:34-38:
34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the
Sadducees, they gathered together, 35 and one of them, a lawyer,
asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which commandment in
the law is the greatest?” 37 He said to him, “‘You shall LOVE the Lord your God with all
your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This
is the greatest and first commandment.
- Exclusive
relationship with God – God desires from EVERYONE - an exclusive relationship.
Matthew 10:27-29
“Whoever loves father or mother MORE THAN me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter
MORE THAN me is not worthy of
me; 38 and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not
worthy of me. 39 Those who find their life will lose it, and those
who lose their life for my sake will find it.”
Top priority to God
Luke 14:26-27
“Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers
and sisters, yes, and EVEN LIFE ITSELF,
cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not carry the cross and follow
me cannot be my disciple.”
-
The
First Commandment – to love God
The cost of discipleship by BONHOEFFER
-
Possible
only in proposition to the level of Grace in one’s life
Philippians 3:7-9
“Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as
loss because of Christ. 8 More than that, I regard everything as loss
because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I
have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order
that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a
righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through
faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.”
God or Nothing by Robert Cardinal Sarah (Book)
Example of
Mary – Joseph
-
Handmaid
– slave girl of the Lord
-
Jesus
– became a slave
Philippians 2:5-8
5 Let the same mind be
in you that was in Christ Jesus,
6 who, though he was
in the form of
God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
7 but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
8 he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.
Consecration and dedication is :
Ø
Not
out of compulsion, but out of love for God
Ø
Not
out of fear – of the life and death
Ø
Not
self-centred
Ø
An
expression of one’s love for God who is Goodness itself, Love itself, Life
itself….. the Highest Good
Ø
It is
not about sacrificing something or someone, even one’s own life, but rather
about gaining God
Ø
Example
of Marriage – choosing
to marry one is not an expression of sacrifice, rather love and
commitment
Ø
Example
of buying anything – choosing from so many options – not a sacrifice – the best
available
Mary chose God, and didn’t think of what she was leaving out.
Ø Her
mind was fixed on God because She loved God above everything else, even her own
life
Ø Sts.
& Martyrs are example of it – St. Francis of Assisi
Life is full of choices – mostly to be chosen between for God and
against God
Ø Either take us towards God or away from God and either leads us to life or death.
Therefore, let's make our choices very carefully.
Questions for Reflection:
- Have you dedicated and consecrated yourself to God?
- What do you mean by dedication and consecration?
- How is dedication life-saving and life-giving?
- What are the challenges you have faced, or still facing in consecrating yourself to God?
- What can we learn from Mother Mary and other saints about total self-consecration?
Word of God for Reflection:
- Deuteronomy 6:4-5
- Matthew 22:34-38:
- Matthew 10:27-29
- Luke 14:26-27
- Philippians 3:7-9
- Philippians 2:5-8
Click the link for the summary of “The Cost of Discipleship by DIETRICH BONHOEFFER (Book)
https://jeremyberg.wordpress.com/2018/02/21/bonhoeffer-the-cost-of-discipleship/
God or Nothing by Robert Cardinal Sarah (Book)
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