Year of Marriage: Search of the Bride-Soul

"When the soul has arrived at this state all the acts of its spiritual and sensual nature, whether active or passive, and of whatever kind they may be, always occasion an increase of love and delight in God: even the act of prayer and communion with God, which was once carried on by reflections and divers other methods, is now wholly an act of love. So much so is this the case that the soul may always say, whether occupied with temporal or spiritual things, 'My sole occupation is love.' Happy life! happy state! and happy the soul which has attained to it!" - St. John of the Cross


It's the Year of Marriage!

Marriage is an absolutely amazing thing, and I'm saying that even without being married. I hope to be married if it's His will, and when I am, I'm going to dedicate everything in  my marriage to God our Lord, just like everything in my life should be (see last week's article). But marriage especially! God gave us marriage so that husband and wife might come even closer to Him by their uniting love for each other and their sharing in the creation of new life, the participation in God's act of creation out of love, and to raise their children for His glory, so that they can love God and be loved by God as well. And, just like almost everything else in the life of the Church, marriage between husband and wife is a reflection of something concerning God our Lord; The heavenly marriage of Christ our Bridegroom and His Bride the Church.

St. John of the Cross wrote constantly about the "bride-soul seeking her Beloved", and whenever he writes about the Beloved, it is always about Christ our Lord. St. Paul writes in his letter to the Ephesians that husband and wife must submit themselves to each other just as Christ has submitted to His Bride the Church on the Cross and the Church eternally submits Herself to Christ her Bridegroom. The Church, the Bride, seeks after her Savior, her Beloved Jesus, wanting only to be with Him in complete love for Him, in the total giving of self to Him, and each of us have this desire at our core, often hidden beneath all of our desires of the world. So often desires only distract us from what we really are; the espoused of Jesus Christ our Lord, our Bridegroom, so we need to work hard at getting past those desires to what our soul really wants more than anything, what it searches for in everything around it but can only find at the foot of the Cross.

It's almost half a year since this blog was started, and I heard in prayer that now would be a good time to remind myself and others what it's all about, not just the blog, but life itself; falling more deeply in love with Jesus, loving Him more than anything and letting Him love us and others around us by our gift of self, all so that we can be with Him, the Father, and the Holy Spirit, together with all the Saints and Angels and our Mother, praising God and living eternally in His love. We are the Bride of Christ, and we are being prepared our whole lives for the wedding celebration when we reach Him in Paradise, because what else is there that can make us happy?

So live and love as the Bride of Christ! Go out, especially after this season of His birth, to tell the world that the Divine Lover has asked us to be His own, now and for all eternity, and that "YES!!!" is the greatest thing we can ever do our entire lives.

All of you holy men and women and all of you angelic choirs, please pray for us, that we may always fall more deeply in love with Jesus our Lord and God!