I’ve not been able to shake off the question, since I attended my cousin’s funeral, on Tuesday (see below): when I face my Judgment, and all that is not Christ is burned away like so much chaff, what will remain? And the answer seems to be: not much, and maybe nothing at all.
            So I am glad that the Holy Spirit prompted me, last night, as I was on my way out to Adoration, to pick up my copy of A Pocket Retreat for Catholics. I’ve had the book more than ten years, have picked it up several times… and fizzled out on Day 3 or Day 4. It is resonating more in my spirit now, however, so I am hopeful of getting further into it this time, and perhaps even finishing it.

            From Step One (the first day): True piety consists in thinking of God and the individual soul as two devoted, loving, and trusting friends for all eternity… This trusting and tender union with God is the very foundation of Christianity.  (pp. 5, 7)

            I think I am more fortunate than most because my basic temperament is such (INFP, if you are “into” the Myers-Briggs assessments) that such friendship and union with God is something I can quite easily grasp, even if the realization of it in my minute actions and attitudes might be a bit difficult to achieve. I know people who are utterly baffled by the simple idea of love and friendship with God; they want a simple set of rules and regulations, a chart: do A, B, C… and so on and eventually one sequentially becomes a “good Christian.”

            And while Christianity is orthopractic as well as orthodoxic in nature, it also has that added, mystical element of relationship with God the Father. This relationship we must learn to be attuned to, constantly.