Add Charity to Truth

Today is day 8 of our 9 day fast.  During the fast I received some beautiful spiritual direction that has been so helpful.  After a good deal of reflection I would like to share it with you.  The advice came at the beginning of the fast during a rocky moment.  To share the advice it may help to share the situation by which the advice was given.  

After the beginning of the first day of our fast and two plane flights that brought us to San Antonio, Texas I was by all estimations exhausted.  After getting checked into the hotel I thought we were all heading to bed.  It was to my surprise that my husband had other plans.  He had lots of work still to do for work that would involve activity in the hotel room.  Although I am sure he was trying to be considerate of not only my sleep but our 8 year old who was also sleeping in the room, the coming and going until 2:30 AM was enough to prevent any solid sleep for myself.  It was during this time that I became upset in my heart.  I began to think of the next day and our plans to visit several sites and how without sleep and the new fast I would be, pretty much a mess.  As my husband was getting into bed, I started to share what I was feeling and basically unload a good deal of my frustration and my worry.  This was not well received by my husband.  Such was the stage for the beginning of the fast...  certainly not ideal.

However the week would bring time for confession, Mass, daily adoration, prayer and of course the continuation of our fast.  In addition to so much help from Our Lord, He also provided spiritual direction through a priest.  I am humbly sharing his advice:

"Add charity to truth". Everything we feel does not need to be communicated. Our Lady is a beautiful example of this.  Holding our tongue gives us an opportunity to reflect and add charity to truth.  He went on to advise additional fasting from words.   He also provided a beautiful reflection he had read based on a quote from St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. Every time that some punishment, affliction or injustice comes your way, say to yourself: "Accept this as sent to you by the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ in order to unite yourself to him."

One additional thing, Our Lord has shown us is that
even when we stumble we should not be discouraged.

One may find it odd that throughout this week we might continue to find more and more things to add to our fast but as we near the end of the fast we find that it is not food we hunger but a desire to please Our Lord and more perfectly conform to His will.  When we come to Him with this desire, He helps us by showing us the road that leads to that which we seek.  As we walk down that road, we are able to remove more and more things that separate ourselves from Him.  In this way it may seem that we are heaping more and more fasting on ourselves but from within the fast it feels more like more and more grace being delivered and the weight on our shoulders being lessened.

It is never to late to join in the remaining day of our 9 days of prayer and fasting.  To learn more click HERE.

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