Webster dictionary defines confidence as “the quality or state of being certain.” Are you certain of your Heavenly Father’s goodness? Are you confident in his ceaseless love for you?
Understanding and believing in the greatness of God and his tender care for us begins with an awareness of our own littleness. St. Therese understood this profoundly. She knew she was weak and imperfect but trusted that it would be Christ himself, and not by her own efforts, that would lift her to the heights of sainthood. Christ calls us similarly to trust in God’s goodness
Discussion Questions:
“I, too, would like to find an elevator to lift me up to Jesus, for I am too little to climb the rough stairway of perfection.” What is your rough stairway? How can we find the gentle elevator?
“We have been trained in the habit of looking at our dark side, our ugliness, and not at the purifying Sun.” Under what circumstances do you most often look at your dark side?
Regarding the good thief: “A whole life of sin, one humble and confident look toward the Crucified, and there was the first canonized saint, and canonized by Jesus Himself! A thief who stole Heaven!” Jesus is telling us that there is always hope and a way to Heaven. Is there some stumbling block in your life that you have given up on correcting?
“We sometimes make a prayer of the words for which He reproached His Apostles: ‘Lord, save us; we are perishing!’” Do you pray with confidence?