purity of heart

To be sure, my apparent calling to the religious life has brought some interesting spiritual growth opportunities. One is a strong and powerful desire to live the rest of my life purely. When this came to me, I tried to decipher what that really means. This was not about sexual purity. That whole piece has been largely settled for me and it's not foundational as to what I am about, in terms of purity. I'm talking about pure love...love of God, love of others, love of myself.

Love of God...offering my entire life to the glory of God, doing His will, praying, praying, praying, loving Him with my whole heart and soul. Yet...there's more: spending every second concentrating on loving Him with no thought toward sin. The purity comes with the no sin idea. Do we really understand that, in order to get to heaven, we must not have any mortal sins on our souls when we die? In this age of relativism, people so easily say that God will forgive them--He understands. How many times have I heard that from women who are about to murder their unborn children? While He may be merciful, it's the sin of presumption to think that way. If we know it is a sin we are about to commit, we must not do it. It seems arrogant to presume BEFORE we commit the sin that God will forgive us. I don't want to do that in any way.

Love of others...being of service to those who need what I can give them, walking beside them in their life journey, if even for just a little while, telling them the truth, giving them my time, my focus, my energy, praying for them. How can I help souls get to heaven? The answer to that question should be the foundation of the new community and it begins now within me.

Love of self...how can I take better care of myself physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, socially? To me, my spiritual life is the most important. The sacraments, prayer, readings...all are parts of it.

Great, great blessings are to be found in all of this...and, one beautiful thing is that 3 other women are interested in joining the community, one of whom has had the dream of forming this community for over 7 years. She and I just met in person last week and it feels as though we've been sisters all our lives! The sense I have is that, individually, we have been doing good work but together we will do much more powerful work for the glory of God. I will learn so much from her! And, all of us are planning to get together regularly to pray, to share, to plan. I know that, within those gatherings, will be much rejoicing. The community--new life--has begun!