Quote of the day, 5 March: Antoine-Marie Leduc, ocd

To have the attitude of a child of God means knowing how to take the time for this intimate relationship.

God’s free gift to me of an intimate relationship corresponds to the free gift of time that I offer him because what we receive is so much greater than what we can give.

And we respond to the invitation of the Father, which we hear in the Gospel of the Transfiguration of this 2nd Sunday of Lent: “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” (Mt 17:5).

That is why times of dryness and emptiness in prayer can be blessed times because they give us the opportunity to experience a freer gift of our time. Not receiving any gratification that I can feel, dryness allows me to freely give this time of prayer without compensation to the one who I know loves me.

To take the time to pray—time for mental prayer—also means taking the attitude of a child in the sense that by not being the Father’s slave but his child, I share in his intimacy.

My value in the Father’s eyes doesn’t lie in what I do for him but in his grace which makes me a child by adoption.

Father Antoine-Marie Leduc, ocd

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Translation from the French text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.

Featured image: Detail from a 15th c. icon of the Transfiguration by the hand of Theophanes the Greek currently in the collections of the Tretyakov Gallery. Image credit: Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)