4Real Forums: Jesus, my friend

Oh, Dearest Mother, Sweetest Virgin of Altagracia, our Patroness. You are our Advocate and to you we recommend our needs. You are our Teacher and like disciples we come to learn from the example of your holy life. You are our Mother, and like children, we come to offer you all of the love of our hearts. Receive, dearest Mother, our offerings and listen attentively to our supplications. Amen.

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Topic: Jesus, my friend

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Genevieve
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Posted: Jan 14 2007 at 4:05pm \| IP Logged

I wrote this post for the Resolution Loveliness Fair and would appreciate people's experience in developing a friendship with Jesus. I feel like I give glory to Him, offer sacrifices, beg Him... yet still don't treat Him as a friend. Does that make sense?

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Genevieve
The Good Within

Ruth
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Posted: Jan 14 2007 at 8:51pm \| IP Logged

Absolutely beautiful post.

God bless,

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Ruth

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Paula in MN
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Posted: Jan 14 2007 at 9:00pm \| IP Logged

Just wonderful.

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Paula
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julia s.
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Posted: Jan 15 2007 at 6:57pm \| IP Logged

Genevieve,
I think developing an on going relationship with Jesus evolves. I'm working on this too. It is harder as you get older because of the build up of offenses that occur. For that reason, if you're Catholic (I wasn't sure by your post and I apologize for not recognizing you on these forums to be able to discern) you could start with a good confession.

(I'm going to tell you from my point of view) Then I try to remember when I was younger how easy it was for me to talk to Jesus. I just chatted about anything and everything.

Now a days I try to stop by church or Eucharistic adoration the way I would drop in on a friend. I tell Him everything that is going on in my life, especially the things that make me happy. I also just give him my silence. Someone said he would "look at Jesus and Jesus would look at him".

I meditate on what it must have taken to willingly be crucified. I meditate on humility and what it feels like to do something that is (seemingly) beneath you and how Jesus must have felt when he was beaten and hung on the cross. I remember that He did this not just for all mankind, but personally for me (for you!). He knows me by name, He knows I stumble, He still loves me.

Sometimes I have a difficult time connecting to Him. If I'm feeling distant then I talk to the Holy Mother. I tell her everything. I meditate on her life. I ask her intercession.

There is no one way. Your relationship is unique and it may not resemble a "friendship" in the traditional sense. It might feel more like brotherly love, fatherly love, or another type of relationship. I'm still working out the particulars of that one

.
You're not the bumper sticker "You've got a friend in Jesus" and neither is He.

I'm sort of rambling. Sometimes when everyone is going up for the Eucharist I pray "just fall in love" it is as easy and as vulnerable that.

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Helen
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Posted: Jan 15 2007 at 8:06pm \| IP Logged

Thank you Julia and Genevieve for beautiful posts.

Here are some words from St. Teresa of Avila

�What you can do as a help in this matter, is try to carry about an image of painting of this Lord that is to your liking, not so as to carry it about on your heart and never look at it, but so as to speak often with him; for He will inspire you with what to say. Since you speak with other persons, why must words fail you more when you speak with God? Don�t believe they will; at least I will not believe they will if you acquire the habit. Otherwise, the failure to communicate with a person causes both estrangement and a failure to know how to speak with him. For it seems then we don�t know him, even if he may be a relative; family ties and friendship are lost through a lack of communication.�
St. Teresa of Avila, The Way of Perfection, chapter 27``

�It is also a great help to take a good book written in the vernacular in order to recollect one�s thoughts and pray well vocally, and little by little accustom the soul with coaxing and skill not to grow discouraged. Imagine that many years have passed since the soul left the house of its Spouse and that until it returns to this house there�s a great need that it know how to deal with Him. For so we sinners are: our soul and our thoughts are so accustomed to wandering about at their own pleasure � or grief, to put it better � that the poor soul doesn�t understand itself. In order that it get to love remaining at home once again, a great deal of skill is necessary. If little by little this is not accomplished, we shall never do anything�.if with care you grow accustomed to what I have said your gain will be so great that even if I wanted to explain this to you I wouldn�t know how.�

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Genevieve
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Posted: Jan 18 2007 at 6:42am \| IP Logged

Thank you Julia & Helen for your insightful posts. I have grown so accustomed to friendships with people that I feel disorientated when trying to figure out how a friendship with God would look like. I wonder whether C.S. Lewis' The Four Loves would also help. It has been a long time since I read it.

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Genevieve
The Good Within

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