Letters to Heaven: Help me to Make Room for You

"Take Lord and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding and my entire will. All I have and call my own. Whatever I have or hold, You have given me. I return it all to You and surrender it wholly to be governed by Your will. Give me only Your love and Your grace. And I am rich enough and ask for nothing more." St. Ignatius of Loyola

January 3, 2008

Dear Jesus:

Today I begin a new journal and with it, I am making a commitment to allow my thoughts and my written words to be inspired by You, to be directed by You.

Four months ago, I attended the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. During those exercises, I received a very powerful message from You. At first, I was truly inspired and I wrote, and wrote, and wrote. Then I allowed myself to be swallowed by the world. I allowed the demands of the world to take over my life completely and I didn't have time for You. I didn't make time to do what You asked me to do.

Today, I renew my commitment to You. I will separate at least half an hour per day just for You. I will place myself in Your hands for You to use me as You will. I will open my mind so it can receive Your message, so it can be inspired by the Holy Spirit so that through me Your message can be heard. Sometimes I will write. Sometimes I will pray. Sometimes I will read. Other times I will meditate in silence. But I am committing myself to spending half an hour with You. I will not allow work or my family or my friends or anything else to interfere with my commitment to You.

Like St. Ignatius discovered, everything we have is because You have given it to us. Our sole purpose then should be to serve You. We need to surrender ourselves so You can work through us. We are Your instruments, but unless we allow ourselves to be governed by You, we are useless creatures.

I freely make a generous gift of myself to You, Lord, for You to use me as You will. And so, with St. Ignatius' inspired words, I give myself over to You. "Take Lord... My liberty, my memory, my understanding and my entire will..."

I love You, Jesus

January 3, 2017

Dear Jesus:

Today I renew the commitment that I made nine years ago. I will offer half an hour of my day to be with You. I know it's not an easy promise to keep. I have failed many times in these nine years. The intentions are good, but life gets in the way. So all I can promise You is that I will try. I will attempt to get up half an hour earlier each day. And I will spend these first thirty minutes of my day with You.

I love You, Jesus