Faith must be pure when pleading for God’s grace

Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Some people suggest that this should be translated: Blessed are those who have the heart of the poor man, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. We are all in need, and we need to be beggars before God. …

We beg for His grace. St. Thérèse of Lisieux said that we cannot store graces. We cannot hoard them…. No, the graces are given for the moment. The graces that you need tomorrow will be given tomorrow. And tomorrow again, you will be a beggar before God, pleading for His graces. Toward God, we are in a permanent dependence, in a constant situation of need, knowing that God is kind, that God is a Father, that God is willing to give us His graces. He gave us His Son Who took upon Himself the consequence of our sins and gave us the Spirit flowing from His open heart. We can always receive from God, but we must orient ourselves toward God with a pure faith and a pure heart.

Being transparent to grace and having a pure heart toward God means that we do not impose upon God our own projects. We are to accept the project of God. In the New Testament, we have various terms which are applied to Jesus. … But the two most important terms are “Son” and “Word” — Logos (Greek).

Now the Word that became Flesh is the Word of God… God’s plan for us became flesh, became Jesus Christ. In Him, we have the absolute truth. We have the Word of God for us, and we need to receive that mental concept in our mind. Unfortunately, sometimes we erect mental contraceptives — ideas which block the divine Word, kill the divine love and its fruitfulness in us, and prevent the idea from flourishing in our lives. That’s why we need to have a pure heart, a pure faith, a pure spirit, without erecting anything. Holding on to our own ideologies means that we want to impose upon God our own ideas; we want to use God, manipulating Him for ourselves. …
 
Mary in her life of faith is most pure, most receptive with the movements of the Holy Spirit. But we, too, can in our lives try to live our pure faith without erecting obstacles, without erecting these mental contraceptives that exclude the project of God. The more our faith is pure, the more we perceive the idea of God and the promptings of the Holy Spirit for us in our daily life, … the more we can live out the truth that those are the children of God who are led by the Holy Spirit.

Excerpted from The Mystery of Divine Love, by Fr. Wojciech Giertych, O.P. 
(EWTN Publishing, 2022), pp. 119-121.

FATHER WOJCIECH GIERTYCH, O.P., is a Polish priest who has served in the Prefecture of the Pontifical Household as theologian of the pontifical household during the pontificates of Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.