Normandt' Catholic Meditations

[Normandt]

283. We tend to be

"Your piety [love] is like a morning cloud, like the dew that early passes away," Hosea, chapter 6, verse 4

says God to Hosea and his people ... to us too. It is true that we tend to be evasive in our thoughts, distracted in our intentions and selective in our achievements. And we become fugitives, even fearing Love.

We have hurt persons, we had pain too. And we come to believe that even negative ambient thinking has become a reality. We gradually sink into an attractive mud. And the more we are seized by this mud, the more we feel surrounded and comfortable.

It's as if the mud secures us. But it's the opposite. Our forces diminish, the tension increases, and we gradually freeze in a contentment that numbs us. We come to believe that that's life.



We go so far as to believe that God is a tyrant, that he doesn't take care of us, that he has something else more important to do.

It's necessary to recognize that we are sinners, that we often have the tendency to leave the narrow road that leads to real happiness. When we are tingling with numbness, it's not time to wait, it's the red alert that tells us to turn our face to Jesus.

God does not participate to distance us from him. God doesn't push us to our failings. God doesn't waste his time wanting to lose us in the fog or sink us in the mud. Just one look at him and we're out. He is waiting for us. He is waiting for us as the parent waits with love and open arms for his child who is walking his first steps.

Jesus invites us to look into the depths of our hearts to come to the truth about our intentions.

Book: Let's love God
Normand Thomas

[Normandt]

[Normandt]

284. Getting confused

God is clear. There are those who:
"obeyed not, nor did they pay heed. They walked in the hardness of their evil hearts and turned their backs, not their faces, to me." Jeremiah, chapter 7, verse 24



These people recede and move away from the clarity of God. They enter a path of darkness. Their life becomes confused, because they extinguish the Light of God. Their path is filled with congestion and obstacles until they sink and lose themselves.

It is the summit of a closing heart and the remoteness of God to the point of not recognizing him. They will then have to make indescribable efforts to simply live.

Book: Let's love God
Normand Thomas

[Normandt]

[Normandt]

285. Jesus dispels darkness

Jesus came to dispel the darkness within us and offer us his Light. Jesus wants to free us. God reminds people who are listening:
"Listen to my voice; then I will be your God and you shall be my people. Walk in all the ways that I command you, so that you may prosper." Jeremiah, chapter 7, verse 23



We will be happy to the extent that God is the Light of our life:
"Now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart." Joel, chapter 2, verse 12

It's the only solution and it's so simple. Too simple, maybe!
Let's ask Jesus to take his place in us, guide us, teach us, remove darkness and fill us with his Light, joy and peace so that we become like him, the Father and the Holy Spirit.

God created us. He creates us. He knows us and he wants us to be happy. He creates us with the freedom to choose him or even to refuse his presence. It is the summit of freedom.

Book: Let's love God
Normand Thomas

[Normandt]

[Normandt]

286. Cutting us off from God

Is there anything more distressful than someone who doesn't listen or doesn't want to listen, especially when we want goodness for that person?

Not listening to God is cutting us off from his Love. To cut ourselves off from the Love of God is to cut us off from wisdom, light, tenderness, shelter, strength, joy, peace, from the heart, etc. And to cut us off from these vital signs for our life, we build a wall and prevent ourselves from loving. As a crowning, we become deprived to the point of thinking that God isn't there for us.



The lack of attention to the Love of God leads to harden ourselves and our heart suffers due to the lack of spiritual vital signs of God in us. This brings us to revolt and close ourselves to what the Lord offers us. We live as if God isn't there anymore.

God tells us that we can go astray:
"They have always been of erring heart, and they do not know my ways. As I swore in my wrath, 'They shall not enter into my rest.'" Hebrews, chapter 3, verses 10b to 11

The most serious danger for someone who believes is to move away from God. The danger for those who do not believe is to remain with their backs turned against the presence of God.

Book: Let's love God
Normand Thomas

[Normandt]

287. God's anger

God's wrath is not like the anger we feel in the world. God's wrath is nothing but his Love to let us know that we are moving away from him. He only wants to bring us closer to him. We could say without pretense that the "wrath of God" is his kindness for us.



The anger of God does not hurt us, it is benevolent. But it is our distance from his Love that leads us to enter into evil. We cut ourselves off from God's kindness. We cut ourselves from resting in God, from peace. Then we come to think that God is angry.

Book: Let's love God
Normand Thomas

[Normandt]

[Normandt]

288. Jesus heals us

We can enter the desert of our heart, even if there is noise around us, to hear God. Let's take time to listen to him and discover, again, the joy he offers us, the kindness he has on us.

May Jesus come to heal us of our doubts, our revolts, our anger and the worst lie to think that God is not with us. Let's ask as the leper who falls on his knees and begs Jesus:
"'If you wish, you can make me clean.' Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him, 'I do will it. Be made clean.'" Mark, chapter 1, verses 40 to 41



Let's discover the silence, turn our heart to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and humbly ask him: "Jesus, cleanse me!"

To let Jesus cleanse us, allows us to become free and to be filled with peace. The more people understand that God is Love and that he is only Love, the more our world will become familiar and united. We will be able to taste and share his Love and live it fully.

Book: Let's love God
Normand Thomas

[Normandt]

[Normandt]

289. God's will

Our Father, "your will be done". Faith is lived worldwide. It is the faith of all people of good will. With the Church, some people understood that only Love can reign on the earth. It is these people who help this world to live in maximum peace and hope.

On the other hand, take away the faith of the world in Jesus and it is faced with humanitarian, social, biological, planetary and other important crisis. This crisis of faith becomes a real loss for every person who does not know God.



Because God is the only one who will always lead us to common sense. All that is good and true in the sublime understanding of these terms is from God. God can only be Love. Whatever the religion, as long as God of this religion is really Love, there will be a love evolution everywhere.

Jesus guarantees his Love to all those who open their hearts to him. We only have to welcome him:
"My home will be at home, I will be their God and they will be my people. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, the one who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary will be in their midst forever." Ezekiel, chapter 37, verses 27 to 28

When God will be welcomed in our midst, in the midst of our heart.

Book: Let's love God
Normand Thomas

[Normandt]

[Normandt]

290. To try believers

Some intimidate people to justify that they are not upright, honest. And it's easy to prove their point because no one is perfect. They also try those who walk after Jesus as others have tried Jesus.

There will be people who will push the righteous onto the wall, rather than check their own heart:
"Let's see whether his words be true; let us find out what will happen to him." Wisdom, chapter 2, verse 17

To observe too much the defects of others, people evaluate then devalue themselves. They judge by their criteria, often unfair, about what others say and do. So there are people who will never be satisfied and they will condemn the just.



Why is there a desire to confront the faith of those who follow Jesus? Why not check their own thoughts, words, and gestures, then receive God's Love again?

Perhaps because these people are not on the road and do not live a personal conversion to Jesus Christ. They claim that others convert to be in God, but they are not attentive to their own faith and the responsibility that goes with it.

Book: Let's be Loved
Normand Thomas

[Normandt]