Catholic Hermit's Challenge Already Challenging

Yesterday a young friend with whom am reading (across the many miles) Pseudo-Dionysius' Complete Works, decided upon a shared challenge.  It is to pray and ask His Real Presence to begin removing our various attachments to temporal loves.  Our goal and hope is to be in His will and have His Perfect Love--not our own wills and our willful attachments to our own temporal loves, good as they might seem from human perspective.  

His Love, His Perfect Love, is perfect love and best.

This morning, awoke at 3 a.m. with the body filled in all limbs with burning, aching pain.  The body is worn out, and the mind struggles to cope with it.  The emotions are holding steady--by the grace of God alone!  It is taking all effort, now later in the morning, to make the body go outside, grab a shovel, and start either shoveling dirt from a pile of sod that has composted for two years or to begin digging around some fruit bushes and working in some fertilizing compost, and then making some "wells" around each to hold water as it is quite dry already despite a little rain the past two days.

Last evening, received an unexpected "message" from a young friend who stated she was in adoration and felt directed by the Lord to send a passage she had just read.  Thought it meant for this hermit at this very point in time.  

And of course, it is!  In fact, as the Holy Spirit works such matters out in our temporal daily lives, just that morning the hermit had been thinking of this young woman:  wife, and mother of three busy boys.  How on earth she had the energy to be late at night in an adoration chapel, astounds.  But then, there is the gentle reminder from the Paraclete that a body without constant pain and 32 years younger than this one, has a bit more energy.  (Thanks be to His Real Presence for such understanding of this hermit's immediate thoughts of regret that it is not "doing" more.)

And that leads right into, once again, the message the young woman felt the Holy Spirit instructing her to send.  Oh, it is so good and right!  You will see once you read it.  Just perfect and pertinent!

Well, what do you think?  The hermit has emailed the sender, asking who it is to whom the Lord spoke these words in 1987.  Always like to know because try to pray and connect with the person as well as His Real Presence; seems to help in the steeping process of what is so apropos to this hermit's challenge.

Already, the hermit realizes the challenge is on this morning:  Attachment to bed and rest when pain is a type of attachment--rather than to get the physical body moving about, working, making progress to improve His soil, seeds, and fruit shrubs...plus praying in silent abandonment to and in His will rather than thinking of burning pain in this hermit's self-will.

Lord, please keep removing whatever attachments to temporal loves in this servant soul of yours--attachments that are hindering it from remaining always in Your Love and from loving You and Your All with Your Perfect Love.