God's Love

Peasant Times-Dispatch Issue 31

This is a special edition of the Peasant Times-Dispatch wherein I celebrate Three Years on Substack! Read to the end for a brief thank you note from me. I like to celebrate anniversaries with a discount on paid subscriptions—click the button below to upgrade!

Surely God’s love is worth any love.

- St. Josemaria Escriva

St JME

I keep thinking I’m overdoing it with St. Josemaria Escriva quotes, but when I went back to look I realized the last visit with this Saint was December’s post about Advent. So jumping from one penitential season to another seems to be a fitting leap.

This quote is taken from his collection of 999 aphorisms called “The Way” about the life of faith. This quote is #171.

The Things We Love

Easter Sunday is in 5 days, as it happens. This Lent has been something special. It has been more difficult and more fruitful, both. And it’s helped me contemplate what I’m willing to give up for love of God.

When I first encountered this quote, I thought it was intuitively obvious. The more I ruminated on it the more I realized how challenging it is.

What do I love so much that it makes me hesitate to choose God first? If my phone is not helping me be holy, am I willing to get rid of it? If my right hand sin, am I willing to cut it off? What am I willing to lose in order to keep the love of God?

I’ve lost a lot in life—some by choice, some not. I also love a lot in life. But there is nothing in life so valuable, so important, so vital to us that we couldn’t give it up for God.

I think a lot of stress and anxiety comes from trying to “do both” and have it all. “Surely there’s a way I can keep my sin AND love God”. Surely there’s a way I can navigate keeping all the things I want without sacrificing a teensy bit of faith. There isn’t—when we die, we taking nothing with us except our love for God. It’s the only thing that stays with us and sustains us. But the same way that “one man and God makes a majority”, if the only possession you take with you to heaven is your love for God, you are wealthy beyond imagining.

Build up your treasure in heaven.

A Peasant’s Love

The way a peasant might keep this in mind is by remembering that everything we have comes from God. What could we love more than God if everything is a gift to us from God? Even our lives come from God, our very existence comes from God.

By remembering that God is the root of everything, how could we not be filled with gratitude for Him? How could we think anything is “ours” when everything comes from God? It makes parting with things easier too—if anything is trying to lead us away from God, why would we follow there when God has given us everything for our entire lives?

It’s simple to say, but difficult to internalize.

Seeing as it’s Holy Week, I’ll leave you with this: What did God give up/endure/surrender because He loved you? Can you offer the same back to Him?

All we can do is pray, and try.

Photo by Tuan Nguyen on Unsplash

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Three Years of Peasants

Today marks three years since my very first post on Substack, on April 15th 2022. By the grace of God, this time as seen me write 30+ articles, receive hundreds of subscribers, make many many new and wonderful friends. I have grown in my faith, my life has changed dramatically, the model for how I write here has changed experimentally several times as well.

It’s a good day to reflect on gratitude to God for all that I have, and gratitude to you, dear readers, for all that you have given me in your time, attention, and yes a few of you even your treasure. Writing here at Substack, across my wide array of newsletters, has been a real, true, and unambiguous joy for me.

If you’d like to check out some of my other work, here’s what you can find:

• Stained Glass Catechism
  , a curation of stained glass

• Scoodles
  , art and doodles by me (it’s been dormant for a bit but I’ll be bringing it back shortly)

• Gibberish
  , my fiction newsletter

• Not to mention other collaborations and projects which you can find in my profile.

If you would like to financially support my work, in honor of this three year milestone, I’m offering a 20% discount from today until June 30th.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. You all are real blessings in my life, and it’s an honor to write for you.

God love you all!

AJPM