Seeing With the Eyes of Faith

Blessed Angela of Foligno, a wife, mother, Franciscan Tertiary and mystical writer of the 14th century (d. 1309) wrote then and for our time as well: "The more perfectly and purely we see, the perfectly and purely we love." The image of the half-full vs the half-empty glass is our modern equivalent of this truth. It depends on how we see. The blind man, Bartimeus, could not see physically, but saw clearly that Jesus could bring back his sight, while so many who could see Jesus, did not recognize him and the gifts he had to offer. Spiritual blindness prevents us from seeing the good even in what appears at first to be the opposite, as well as giving us hope to move ahead when all appears lost. St. Marcellin and Bro. Stanislaus were lost in a blinding blizzard, but with faith they prayed the Memorare, and suddenly a light appeared from a farm house that enabled them to find safety. Praying with faith that Mary would rescue them brought light to a desparate situation. Praying with faith in our own needs, in our own anxieties or desparate moments will help us to find the solution in what we might have considered the impossible. Praying with faith for people whose mannerisms might at first "turn us off" will help us to see the good behind those behaviors and help us to see them as God does and thus move beyond what we once considered repulsive. Seeing with the eyes of faith will help us with our mission to love all and bring them to new levels of love.
Bro. Rene