On being a son of God

At the minute I am reading the wonderful theological and spiritual classic by Blessed Columba Marmion: Christ, the Life of the Soul. Marmion could be described as one who strongly promotes and emphasises the fact that we are adopted sons and daughters of God in and through the only Son of God – Jesus Christ. His writings are full of great spiritual gems. Below you will find some of them. I will add more as I find them.

By nature, God has only one Son. By love, He will have a multitude of them, without number. This is the grace of supernatural adoption.

The Father pre-destined us to be adopted… through Jesus Christ (cf. Ephesians 1:5). We are sons, like Jesus – we by title of grace, He by nature. He is Son, and we are sons: He, the Father’s own Son, and we, adopted sons. But He saves, while we are saved.

Christ is not only holy in Himself, He is our holiness. All the holiness that God has destined for souls has been deposited in the humanity of Christ, and this is the source from which we must draw.

God has chosen me – chosen us – to be raised infinitely above my natural condition, to enjoy eternally His own beatitude, to be the realisation of one of His Divine thoughts, to be one voice in the concert of the elect, to be one of those brethren who are like Jesus, and who share, without end, His celestial inheritance.

Every one of the elect is the fruit of the blood of Jesus and of the wonderful operations of His grace.

We shall be pleasing to the Eternal Father – and is not the very basis of holiness to be pleasing to God? – only if He recognises in us the features of His Son. Through grace and our virtues, we ought to be so identified with Christ, that the Father, gazing on our souls, may recognise us as His true children, may take pleasure in that, as He did in contemplating Christ Jesus on earth.

Recommended Reading (4)

The book I recommend today is a wonderful book written in the form of a retreat on the spirituality of St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face. It's a book I go back to time and time again and always come away with something new.

The details are as follows:

Author: Jean C.J. D’Elbee,

Title: I Believe in Love: A Personal Retreat Based on the Teaching of St.Therese of Lisieux

Publisher: Sophia Institute Press, 2001

Recommended Reading (3)

Sacraments in Scripture: Salvation History Made Present

Author, Tim Gray, presents each of the sacraments in this little work and shows how they are rooted in the Sacred Scriptures. He has some wonderful insights and a read of this book will help the reader better understand the sacraments, which are so much a part of our lives as Catholics. It's a very accessible read and a book that I would highly recommend.

Recommended Reading (2)

Understanding "Our Father": Biblical Reflections on the Lord's Prayer

This is a short little work where the author, Scott Hahn, unpacks the great richness that is contained in the Lord's Prayer. After reading this book one will never pray the Our Father in the same way again. As always Dr. Hahn proves that theology and the content of the faith can be made very accessible to the average reader and this little book is another one of his masterpieces. The last quarter of the book reproduces some of the best of what the early Fathers of the Church had to say about the Lord's prayer. For this alone, the book would be worthy of purchase.

Recommended Reading (1)

THE FULFILLMENT OF ALL DESIRES: A Guidebook for the Journey to God Based on the Wisdom of the Saints

This book is a gem of Catholic spirituality. Written by Ralph Martin, it is very accessible to the reader and shows him/her the great depth of wisdom and grace that is to be found in our Catholic spiritual tradition. Martin draws on the writings and experiences of several great saints such as Bernard of Clairvaux, Teresa of Avila, St. Therese of Lisieux among others. In my opinion this book is a must for anyone who wants to go a bit deeper in their relationship with the Lord.