May 5 Tue
Should I foster noble ambitions in my soul?
“You are ambitious: for knowledge, for leadership, for great ventures.
Good. Very good. But let it be for Christ, for Love."
“Persevere in the exact fulfilment of the obligations of the moment. That work - humble, monotonous, small - is prayer expressed in action that prepares you to receive the grace of the other work - great and wide and deep - of which you dream."
St Paul's hymn of praise for God's redemptive plan reveals his great love and ambitions. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. He destined us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will."
The Apostle's heart expands as he considers the divine call to holiness, and he makes clear his deep ambition to live closely united to Christ. Moved by the same Spirit, we too harbor in our hearts sincere and operative desires for holiness. We should have just one exclusive concern: to become saints.
We have to direct everything toward this goal, as St Josemaría urged: "Allow your soul to be consumed by desires - desires for loving, for forgetting yourself, for sanctity, for heaven. Don't stop to wonder whether the time will come to see them accomplished. Make them more fervent every day, for the Holy Spirit says that He is pleased with men of desires."
"Let your desires be operative and put them into practice in your daily tasks."
We are poor vessels containing a treasure of grace, light, and truth. Our Lord will not go back on his word; He will not fail to add the increase to our efforts if we remain united to him, resolved to struggle for holiness despite our defects.
"It seems to me an excellent idea that you should tell the Lord often about your great and ardent desire to be a saint, even though you see yourself filled with wretchedness...
Tell him - precisely because of this!"
God continually comes to the aid of our weakness. If we are faithful, we are drawn into intimate union with Jesus amid our everyday activities, which perhaps humanly are not very glamorous. " For holiness does not consist of doing more difficult things every day, but doing things with greater love every day. Our great desires for holiness must be expressed by persevering in small things. This has to be your ambition: to persevere in the exact fulfilment of your present obligations, because that work - humble, monotonous, small - is prayer expressed in deeds. And it prepares us to receive the grace for that other work -great, broad and deep - about which we dream: to place Christ at the summit of all human activities."
“When you truly become filled with the Christian spirit, your ambitions will be put right. —You will feel no longer a hankering after celebrity, but a desire to perpetuate your ideal."