Obedience

Hello Zeteo Community!

Today was a very long day with a very grumpy one-year-old, do not ask me why I am still up. The blog today is short and sweet, thank you for stopping by.

I hope to see many of you at the Zeteo event tomorrow, with members of the Marian and Saint Vincent dePaul societies teaching us about Serving the Poor. I am not sure about the rest of you, but generosity seems to be popping up everywhere these days - I am sure it will be a much needed teaching on my part.


Week 4: Obedience

I had something really vivid happen in a dream a few weeks ago. We had played music at an event, and afterward I was asked, "How do you praise God that way if you don't have the love?" I said, "I do not have the love, but I do have the obedience. I will continue in obedience until I have the love."

In my last Zeteo blog, I wrote about being in a dry spell. Soon after, I started reading a book called A Mother's Rule of Life. This book speaks about ordering my vocation - for my life as a wife and mother is truly my vocation, so that I may serve God in it. It helped me to realize the fruits that can come out of this period of desolation I have been experiencing.

The book explains how law precedes love. As Catholics, we are called to follow the laws of the Church, to refrain from sin, and to practice disciplines. Ultimately, we should do these things out of love for Christ, however, this is often not the case. As I am experiencing right now, sometimes we lack the love and Christ asks us to follow Him simply out of obedience. Eventually, this obedience will help us to grow in love.

The author describes being in a dry spell herself, and gives an analogy from Saint John of the Cross comparing our faith journey to a burning log. When it is first lit - when we are first filled with passion for our faith, the log takes a little while to ignite, but when it does it goes up with a big spark, a big flame. After a while, the fire dies down and seems to have gone out, just as our passion for our faith inevitably seems to. However, we know just because we cannot see raging flame, the log is still on fire, it has simply penetrated the interior of the log.

My faith is interior right now. Instead of feeling extremely motivated and on fire for my faith, I feel God is working inside of me, in small and less flashy ways. Slowly but surely, I am learning to serve Him out of obedience - a lesson I know to be valuable, just as it is painful.

In a way, I am grateful for this period of discipline, as I know God often uses the most difficult times in our lives to bring us to the greatest blessing.

God bless,
Olivia Fischer