Lectio
“There is no reason to marvel at God’s granting such sublime and strange gifts to souls he decides to favor. If we consider that he is God and that he bestows them as God, with infinite love and goodness, it does not seem unreasonable. For he declared that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit would take up their abode in those who love him by making them live the life of God and dwell in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”
— St. John of the Cross, The Living Flame of Love
Meditatio
We do not get to decide our spiritual gifts any more than we get to decide when we are born or when we pass away. God gifts us according to His will, His purpose, and His desires for us in this life and the next. Our spiritual gifts are laid out before us — or rather within us — by the Lord. Through the Spirit’s work in us, we are called to recognize them, consent to them, and use them to the purpose He has given us for His glory, our sanctification, and the sanctification of all drawn to Him through us.
What is given to us is given through us. As God pours His love into us, we are called to let it overflow to others. God asks us to be good stewards of these gifts, not hoarders of them. In fact, any attempt to hoard the gifts He gives us will result not only in the loss of those gifts, but in deep suffering — not because God punishes us for rejecting what He has given, but because the rejection of love always results in despair of heart and desolation of the soul. Yet the Love that gives never withdraws — only waits for us to open our hearts to itself once again.
Though they may manifest differently for and within each of us, all of these gifts are of the same source, which is God giving Godself to us and, through us, to the people around us. And this is the very reason we do not get to decide what our gifts are or how we gift them into the world. Because there is nothing we can do to earn or to hold onto that which was never ours to claim, yet which is given to us freely and eternally. For, through these gifts, we participate in the very life of God with God — we enter into the divine dance in communion with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in us. If He has chosen to favor us out of His infinite love and goodness with such a sublime and strange gift as Himself, who are we to question what shape that gift takes in us?
Oratio
my hands do not deserve
to even hold your name
and yet you give
me your very self
spoken in
and through my heart
by your grace
may my life speak
your love
into the world
may my hands
give others
your name
Contemplatio
In what ways are you being called to let the love poured into you overflow to those around you?
Related Scripture
“Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received.”
— 1 Peter 4:10 (NRSVCE)
For Further Reading
For Further Reading: If you enjoyed this post, you may also like The Tapestry of Life: Finding Joy Through Suffering With St. John of the Cross, which draws on the same Carmelite tradition to explore how God’s gifts and purposes are woven through both suffering and joy — and how the full pattern of our lives only reveals itself from the other side of the loom.
Robert Van Valkenburgh
Grappling With Divinity.
Wrestling With God.
Returning To Love.
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