Posted on 06/21/2024 8:06:43 AM PDT by fidelis
“The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light; but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness. And if the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be.” Matthew 6:22–23
Every Scripture passage, in a spiritual sense, can teach us many lessons. Saint Thomas Aquinas, in his commentary on Matthew’s Gospel, offers one interpretation to the passage quoted above by saying that the “eye” in this passage refers to your intention and “your whole body” refers to all of your actions that follow from your intention. Therefore, when your intentions are in line with God’s will, the actions that follow will be also. This is a very practical and useful lesson for your journey toward holiness.
With this insight from Saint Thomas, we must look at our intentions in an honest and complete way. What are your intentions in life? It’s easy for us to form various intentions that may seem good as well as some that are contrary to the will of God without even realizing it. We may intend to get a good night's sleep on one occasion. Or intend to have fun with family and friends on a certain day. Or we may intend to cook a good meal, clean the house, do well at work, etc. There are many momentary intentions that are good and are a normal part of daily living. However, the most important intention to consider is that which is the deepest of them all. What is the most central, foundational, and fundamental intention by which your life is directed?
The primary intention that you should work to acquire is to give God the greatest glory possible in all that you do. Giving glory to God is accomplished when you choose Him and His holy will above everything else in life. When this is the deepest and most fundamental intention of your life, everything else will flow from it. All secondary intentions and actions will align with this central focus and work toward its accomplishment. But when there are other “first intentions” that you have on the most fundamental level, then all the rest of your intentions and actions will be misguided and directed in a disordered way.
Reflect, today, upon the most fundamental intention you have in life. Doing so will require a considerable amount of interior reflection and honesty. It will require that you sort through the many things that motivate you and the decisions you make each and every day. Reflect upon the primary purpose of your life, which must be to give God the greatest glory possible by choosing and living His perfect will. Do all of your daily actions align with this ultimate goal? Commit yourself to the holy work of examining all of your actions in this light so that you will more fully achieve the purpose for which you were created.
God of all glory, You and You alone are worthy of all my praise. Your will and Your will alone must become the foundation of all that I choose in life. Give me the spiritual insight I need to look deeply at all that motivates me and all of my most interior intentions in life. May all of my intentions and all of my actions have as their goal Your eternal glory. Jesus, I trust in You.
Please keep in mind that this is a Catholic Caucus/Devotional thread for the purpose of prayerful reflection on the Sacred Scriptures and is closed to debate of any kind. Per FR policy on Religion Caucus threads, off-topic, argumentative, and abusive comments are not allowed and will be submitted to the Mods for deletion. Thanks, and God bless you.
Let us pray.
O Virgin Mother of God, we fly to your protection and beg your intercession against the darkness and sin which ever more envelop the world and menace the Church. Your Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, gave you to us as our mother as He died on the Cross for our salvation. So too, in 1531, when darkness and sin beset us, He sent you, as Our Lady of Guadalupe, on Tepeyac to lead us to Him Who alone is our light and our salvation.
Through your apparitions on Tepeyac and your abiding presence with us on the miraculous mantle of your messenger, Saint Juan Diego, millions of souls converted to faith in your Divine Son. Through this novena and our consecration to you, we humbly implore your intercession for our daily conversion of life to Him and the conversion of millions more who do not yet believe in Him. In our homes and in our nation, lead us to Him Who alone wins the victory over sin and darkness in us and in the world.
Unite our hearts to your Immaculate Heart so that they may find their true and lasting home in the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Ever guide us along the pilgrimage of life to our eternal home with Him. So may our hearts, one with yours, always trust in God's promise of salvation, in His never-failing mercy toward all who turn to Him with a humble and contrite heart. Through this novena and our consecration to you, O Virgin of Guadalupe, lead all souls in America and throughout the world to your Divine Son in Whose name we pray. Amen.
"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
(Matthew 11:28-30)
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