Are You Blocking God's Grace? 3 Things to Consider This Advent! (Ken & Janelle)

Welcome back to our Catholic reflection for Wednesday of the Third Week of Advent. Today’s meditation, inspired by St. Alphonsus Liguori, challenges us to surrender completely to God’s will in all areas of life—external circumstances, personal struggles, and our abilities.

Transcript

welcome back today is Wednesday of the 3rd week of Advent hey and thank you for joining with us thank you for your comments thank you for always showing up we are really blessed to have you because without without you we don't have this channel we don't have an audience and it's an honor to be able to serve you this way and if you've been blessed by our videos would you consider becoming our monthly Financial supporter in order for us to show up every day and do this full-time we need people to partner with us and say I I want to help you bless other people and so if that's a possibility head over to Canon jan.com we'd be very grateful for the consideration it is truly though an honor to be able to serve you this way and today we are getting a little bit further on in Janelle's pregnancy oh yeah I was like yeah what um yeah so today um when this video is released so we pre-record these a little bit um but today would be is December 18th and so I would be 3 7 and 2 weeks um in my pregnancy which that's the earliest our our of any of our babies have ever come so potentially I mean I don't anticipate this baby coming that early no labor right now we're good not at this point now we will do this video so s alonsus says some interesting things today um let's get into it many indeed give themselves to God but still keep in their hearts some attachment to creatures which prevents them from belonging entirely to him how then will God give himself to a soul that divides its love between him and creatures it is just he should act with Reserve towards those who act with Reserve towards him on the other hand he gives himself entirely to those Souls who drive from their hearts everything that is not from God and who can truly say my God and my all so God generously gives to those who generously give theirselves to him I think it's a beautiful beautiful thought but you can understand this also just in a natural world um here's the story for you I have a couple memories of my great-grandfather and my dad would bring me to see my great grandpa in the the care home and I loved going to see him when I was a little boy because every time we would go he would give me a peppermint we would walk into his room he'd get up off his bed he would smile he would Shuffle to his dresser drawer he would open it up he'd reach in and he'd give me a peppermint well one day Dad says K do you want to go see uh great grandpa and I'm like yes peppermints excited so we go see great grandpa standing at the entrance of his room he gets up off his bed and then to my horror he goes right by the dress of drawer where the peppermints were and I'm thinking the peppermints this is why I came so I just walked around him I went to his dresser drawer I opened it up and I started going through all his personal things and my dad saw he pulled me away scolded me my great-grandfather saw what I was doing and he knew what I was looking for he went over to the dresser drawer found a peppermint and then he gave me one my question to you is was I free to receive the peppermint when I was grasping at his things not really it's only when we open up our hands like this that we're able to receive when our hands are like this and we're grasping at things we can't receive a gift and so it is in the spiritual life at least St alonsus makes this point when we live our life like this we live detached from this world we are able then to receive from God great blessings but when we live our life like this and we're grasping at our wants and our dreams and our affections then things and even people and we can grasp at good things we're not free to receive great grace from God it is those who surrender in in a radical way that God blesses them radically and who did this most beautifully and perfectly is Mary she says I am the handmade of the Lord let it be done to me according to Thy word she was not grasping at her wants and her dreams and her hopes and her desires I mean they were all perfectly aligned I suppose with that with to God but I imagine that as a young girl she had a picture of her future and it didn't involve an unplanned pregnancy but she laid her life down let it be done to me according to Thy word what's the picture you have of your future can you lay it down like Mary and then what does God do he comes and He blesses us with blessing that much far exceeds the picture of the blessing that we have in our mind for the future so I'd like to share with you three things that St alonsus says regarding living like this living uniting our will to God three practical considerations now this is not taken from his daily sermons this is taken from his book uniformity with God's will but I think what he says there fits perfectly with his message for today three considerations when uniting ourselves to God's will number one in external Matters St alonsus says in times of great heat cold or rain in times of famine epidemics and similar occasions we should refrain from expressions like these what unbearable heat what piercing cold what a tragedy in these instances we should avoid Expressions indicating opposition to God's will we should want things to be just as they are because it is God who thus disposes them doesn't that make it kind of practical yeah I really feel like uh that's me I I often comment on what God is allowing around me and I don't don't always like

it and so his point is that we accept the external matters around us like the weather the even the tragedies because he has allowed them and if he's allowed them well it's his will it's his permissive will and in some cases and so one question we have to ask oursel is do we oppose God's will in our life in external matters and the answer is yes sometimes we do I I was thinking about like even just this is something that happens regularly I'll be like it's so cold outside and Ken will be like it's refreshing and I'm like yes but here here if we can't acknowledge that this is an area of struggle for us then we can't work on it so maybe now you realize ah you're opposing God's will in some areas of your life now you can work on it work at it MH and I think it's good just to ask like oh how should I respond in this situation like some people they're going through some really serious things that are completely out of their control right but clearly God has allowed that to happen does it mean that like it's that they can't still experience sorrow or you know feel frustrated like I think it's still okay to experience those things are lady experienced sorrow great sorrow Our Lady of Sorrows but she did not fight against the circumstance there's a difference mhm the second consideration in personal matters St Alonso says in matters that affect us personally let us acques in God's will for example in hunger thirst poverty desolation loss of reputation let us always say do thou build up or tear down oh Lord as seems good in thy sight I am content I wish only what thou Dost wish so there's a tough word there aquus so it means to accept reluctantly but without oppos opposition which really fits in perfectly with what I think St alonsus is saying um do you have some thoughts or do you want me to keep on going go ahead so I was thinking about uh job where uh job really fits this perfectly like he he's blessed tremendously if you read uh he's got I think 7,000 sheep 5,000 camels 500 pairs of oxen he's a rich man can you imagine 7,000 sheep 5,000 well and then you would need tons of help to take care of all all of that life he he's a very wealthy man in One S he well God has blessed him he's he's faithful and then you know the story he loses it all the sabines come in and the Chalan and then a a great Wind Blows in a house and he loses his family and and even his wife was like you should Curse God and what does he say he he he doesn't say the savines of common taken my sheep or the Chans he says the Lord gives and the Lord takes away he didn't say the Lord gives and the Chaldeans take away calan oh sorry mine's sorry calans okay well just you know what I meant okay calans so he doesn't blame the tribes that came and raided him he keeps his eyes on God God gives and he takes away and his response which is the real challenge blessed be the name of God blessed be his name and so sometimes we wonder well what should be our response that ought to be our response when the rain falls or sun Rains Down On Us in prosperity or in adversity the response to God in personal matters like this is the same blessed be God MH and then the beautiful thing with job is that God blesses his faithfulness to him well that's the the real important thing to remember because we are a people of Hope and uh the sun will rise how that looks like we don't know maybe that great reward is in the nextev is in the next because that's really where our hope is in the next if all our hope is in this life then when this life comes to an end we've lost everything because our hope is here Our Hope can't be here the third consideration inabilities and attri attributes St Alonso says let us not lament if we suffer from some natural defect of body or mind from poor memory slowness of understanding little ability lameness or general bad Health what claim have we or what obligation is God under to give us a more brilliant mind or a more robust body who has ever offered a gift and then lays down the conditions upon which he will accept it let us thank God for what in his pure goodness he has given us and let us be content too with the manner in which he has given it to us do you want to Rob robust body are you saying my body is not robust what are you saying about my body that I love you just as you are good consideration here like do we do we complain about our attributes and our abilities MH oh I wish I was smarter oh I I wish I could sing better uh I wish my I I would have these aches and pains in my body my body was able to do this I think we can all kind of relate with that and St alonsus is saying you know you we have to accept what God has allowed it's not always all that easy I know I get very frustrated with myself sometimes with my abilities particularly oh like fixing things sorry what we'll cut that one out well just okay yeah okay those abilities are kind of okay working with my hands yeah you you wish you were more like handy that's all right you know I'm a hand I I say I have those skills but they're just underdeveloped I'm not very handy with my hands but I was more talking about another deficiency that I felt more comfortable talking and it's your ability to read my ability to read yes it may come to you as a surprise but sometimes I really struggle reading and when I was little boy it was a huge struggle learning to read and to write but even now if I if I see a word uh it might seem very obvious to you the pronunciation of that word but for me uh it doesn't compute in my mind and so I often will have to go to Janelle or go to Google and say how do you pronounce that thing and it causes is it it's a source sometimes of embarrassment because I'm before people publicly and I can't pronounce sometimes when I'm reading a word it's well I get it wrong like CH calans calans maybe some people pronounce it that way J is a real gift of building me outside but anyways maybe you can relate maybe you have an so for me it's like reading something out loud it's a real struggle I got to learn to accept that okay um this is how I am and and this is how God has made me and he's allowed this little struggle in my life I mean you might think it's it's it's a silly thing but maybe you have other silly things in your life that you're oh I wish I had this ability it was a little bit sharper in this area for my mind my memory would have been better or I wish I could speak more clearly and articulate my thoughts in a clear and logical manner we all have these things none of us are gifted perfectly and it reminds me of what St Katherine of Sienna heard from God the father in her book called the dialogue God the father said to her that he could have made us all self-sufficient but he didn't because he wanted us to need each other and so we may perceive in ourselves deficiencies part of the reason is God the father is saying I want you to need each other and help each other and so now I get help with Janelle reading yeah but you helped me in so many other ways so the question do you have the habit of opposing God's will in your attributes and abilities something to be aware of because remember we are to live our life like this and not like this and those who live like this and surrender themselves over to God receive great blessing from him okay so let's send with a prayer let us pray I thank thee Eternal Father for having given me thy son and since thou Hast given him entirely to me I a miserable sinner give myself entirely to thee for the sake of thy same son accept me and bind me with the chains of love to my dear Redeemer but bind me so strongly that I also may be able to say who shall separate me from the love of Christ what good good shall there ever be in the world that shall separate me from my Jesus and thou My Savior if Thou Art all mine know that I am all thine dispose of me and of all that belongs to me as shall be best please thee and how can I refuse anything to a God who has not refused me his blood and his life Mary my mother do thou guard me me with thy protection I will no longer be my own I will be all my saviors do thou help me to be faithful I trust in thee amen