in the Blessed Carlo Center (Rooms 7/8/9)
Topic: God’s Tireless Initiative … and Our Response
God is forever taking the initiative. God is the one who sent the angel Gabriel to Mary, the One who conceived life in her womb. God is the One who took the initiative to become a man and reveal Himself to us in the flesh. “We love, because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19) By our own initiative, we cannot lure God to us. He’s already there, loving us!
Yet, "It's very hard for most of us to tolerate being loved." (psychiatrist and Harvard professor George Vaillant) We shy away from receiving God’s love. Or, we allow love into us - but only so far. We let the "acceptable parts" of us be loved, those parts that we believe God likes.
But to allow God to love all of you? Including your shameful parts, your disgusting parts, your hidden lepers, those tax collector parts, those inner prostitutes and blasphemers, your Pharisee parts, the parts of you that are so lost, so isolated, so angry and hateful, those parts? Most of us will say "No way! That's crazy. No way does anyone gets near those parts." How about your terrified parts, your desperate parts, your wounded, traumatized parts? The ones that no one seems to want? The parts of you that have been rejected by everybody, including yourself.
The vast majority of us Catholics will not tolerate being loved deeply or fully by God. Unless you've reached a fair degree of sanctity, it is hard to tolerate being loved by our Lord.
That's the primary reason we don't love God back; we refuse to accept the love of God throughout every part of us. That's also the primary reason we don't love our neighbor, and why we don't love ourselves. We won't be loved first.
Please join Tina Glenn on Sat, Apr 27 in the Blessed Carlo Center from 9:30-11:00am for a heart to heart reflection on receiving God‘s love.
We will explore the 8 natural human formation reasons why we refuse God's love, and consider what we can do to increase our capacity to receive love.