Shoulder Wound of Christ

It is related in the annals of Clairvaux that St. Bernard asked Our Lord which was His greatest unrecorded suffering, and He answered: 

"I had on My Shoulder while I bore My Cross on the Way of Sorrows, a grevious Wound which was more painful than the others, and which is not recorded by men.  Honor this Wound with thy devotion, and I will grant thee whatsoever thou does ask through its virtue and merit.  And in regard to all those who shall venerate this wound, I will remit to them all their venial sins, and will no longer remember their mortal sins"

O Loving Jesus, meek Lamb of God, I miserable sinner, salute and worship the most Sacred Wound of Thy Shoulder on which Thou didst bear Thy heavy Cross, which so tore Thy flesh and laid bare Thy Bones as to inflict on Thee an anguish greater than any other wound of Thy Most Blessed Body. I adore Thee, O Jesus most sorrowful; I praise and glorify Thee, and give Thee thanks for this most sacred and painful Wound, beseeching Thee by that exceeding pain, and by the crushing burden of Thy heavy Cross to be merciful to me, a sinner, to forgive me all my mortal and venial sins, and to lead me on towards Heaven along the Way of Thy Cross. Amen. 

When Time Touches Eternity

As you may have noticed, my subtitle for this blog is: "A blog focusing on living a virtuous life, NOT TOMORROW, but in THIS moment."

Currently, I am all about living in the present moment. I didn't always used to be this way.  When I was a teenager and also when I was in college, I mostly thought about the future. "What do I want? What is in store for me? How can I get there?" After college when life became more challenging, I mostly thought about the past. "I wish I can live in it again... or did I make the right choices?" 

Now I see that resting in both ways of thinking are futile. How true are St. Faustina's words!

Only the present moment is precious to me,

As the future can never enter my soul at all.

It is no longer in my power,

To change, correct or add to the past; 

For neither sages nor prophets could do that,

 And so, what the past has embraced I must entrust to God.

O present moment, you belong to me, whole and entire.

I desire to use you the best I can.

- Divine Mercy in My Soul, Notebook I #2

 
As much as I wish I could go into the past and either change my actions or live in it still, I am wasting my moments in the NOW on it. Since the past can't be changed no matter how hard I think on it, I am wasting time and causing anxiety in myself.

It is good to be prepared for the future, but it is futile to place my hope in it.  It is good to have dreams and goals, but as most successful people say, the dream comes true through the work of today. I think similar advice is true for the goal of Union with God.  C.S. Lewis illustrates this beautifully in his Screwtape Letters. (This book is a satire about tempting humans away from God.) Here is an excerpt from a letter from one demon to another:

CHAPTER 15:

"My dear Wormwood, 

        ...The humans live in a time but our Enemy destines them to eternity.  He therefore, I believe, wants them to attend chiefly to two things, to eternity itself, and to the point of time which they call the Present. For the Present is the point at which time touches eternity. Of the Present moment, and of it only, humans have an experience which our Enemy has of reality as a whole; in it alone freedom and actuality are offered them. He would rather have them continually concerned either with eternity (which means being concerned with Him) or with the Present --either meditating on their eternal union with, or separation from, Himself, or else obeying the present voice of conscience, bearing the present cross, receiving the present grace, giving thanks for the present pleasure. 
      Our business is to get them away from the eternal, and from the Present. With this in view, we sometimes tempt a human (say a widow or a scholar) to live in the Past. But this is of limited value, for they have some real knowledge of the past and it has a determinate nature and, to that extent, resembles eternity. It is far better to make them live in the Future. Biological necessity makes all their passions point in that direction already, so the thought about the Future inflames hope and fear. Also, it is unknown to them, so it makes them think of unrealities. In a word, the Future is, of all things, the least like eternity. It is the most completely temporal part of time - for the Past is frozen and no longer flows, and the Present is lit up with eternal rays... Gratitude looks to the past and love to the present; fear, avarice, lust and ambition look ahead...
      To be sure, the Enemy wants men to think of the Future too - just as much as is necessary for now planning the acts of justice or charity which will probably be their duty tomorrow. The duty of planning the morrow's work is today's duty; though its material is borrowed from the future, the duty, like all duties, is in the Present...
      We want a whole race perpetually in the pursuit of the rainbow's end, never honest, nor kind, nor happy now, but always using as mere fuel wherewith to heap the altar of the future ever real gift which is offered to them in the Present...

Your affectionate uncle,
Screwtape" 

Also, remember that God's name is "I AM",  not "I was" or "I will be".