Part 4, Chapter 4
Image this, we wake up. It is hazy, foggy and we don’t know exactly where we are. There is a lot of noise going on around us. Not just ordinary noise, but loud noises such as gun shots and cannon fire. There is screaming going on and it seems to us that all hell has broken loose. I can imagine that is what those men experienced during the Civil War of the United States. It must have been very disorientating. They were in gun smoke and they couldn’t exactly see what was happening.
Sometimes we are in the thick of the battle and we don’t feel God’s love and temptations are coming at us left and right. We feel alone, isolated and God’s presence seems to have left us. “Truly the soul that loves God is sometimes in sore straits to know whether he abide in it or no, and whether that divine love for which it fights is extinguished or burns yet ” (Introduction to the Devout Life, 164). There are times we do not feel His closeness, it will seem that He is not with us and that He does not loves us. Remember this, we see things through a haze sometimes and we are not seeing the big picture like God does. (Do we see are guardian angel and other angels that are surrounding us now)? He is with us and He remains with us even if we don’t feel His presence and His love. “But it is the very essence of the perfection of that heavenly love to require its lovers to endure and fight for love’s sake, without knowing even whether they possess the very love for which and in which they strive” (Introduction to the Devout Life, 164-165). God allows for us to sometimes not feel His presence so that we will mature in our faith. The Saints have gone through this and they battled through it. The battle continues on, and the war rages; we must continue to go forward and trust that He is with us. Remember St. Mother Teresa for over forty years did not feel God’s consolation in prayer and yet she journeyed forward believing she was loved and cared for by God. God never leaves us alone. He loves us ALWAYS!!!!