My dearest,

It is a life full of victory, and yet tragedy. It is a festering within that pulls at the soul and fights to consume it to its depths. Willpower fights against it in a survival manner to extinguish the scorching torment that attempts to snuff out its light with its flames of darkness.

What a gift of reality it is to feel with a depth such as this. It is a blessing to exist, and existence brings suffering, but to suffer is to be alive, for what can contrast sweetness except bitterness. The darkness only exists to make light shine ever brighter. When you breathe and inhale, and all comes into your being, the life within you pulses, and nothing can come closer to the sense that is reality than to be alive. God is so loving in this way, to bring us into existence. For this is love.

You will suffer, and it may feel as though you are suffocating. This, however, is an unavoidable and necessary process. Though you shall not die in it, or at least you must not. My dearest, as much as you will gain, very often you shall lose a great deal more. If this is not your fate, you can be certain that it is not easy. In every one moment in your life, there is a battle over your soul. Though in the end, it is for you to decide where your heart lies.

I know it is painful, and yes, at times it feels unending. As one thing dies, and so too with it a piece of who you are, there is also a renewal, however little you may see it. It is not all that obvious. I tell you this with certainty, that though you may never be the same, it will be for the better or for the worse, and it is in your keeping alone what that outcome may be.

Yes, for the Lord gives as the enemy takes, and yet we have the blessing of free will, given from God, to decide what we will make of it. It has also been the love of the Father, and the law in His design, that we are given the freedom in life to determine whom and what we shall follow. Neither the Lord nor the enemy decides that for you. Love is a choice, and to love the Lord is to freely turn toward Him, as with anything else.

As Saint James writes, “Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials” (Jas 1:2, USCCB).

For in this short life, things will happen again and again that break us into unrecognizable pieces. We may not see the reason for such a cruel world, nor why something happens in our life. It is because the world we live in is broken, and this is a result of the brokenness of our human shortcomings, not a result of the Lord. We decide who we will be, why we are here, and what we shall do. For doing simply nothing is a decision in and of its own. One cannot run from reality without that decision itself becoming one’s reality. Your decisions will dictate the outcome.

My dearest, do not lose your hope, for that is all you have. Do not lose your mercy, for many do not receive any. Be forgiving, because this world is not. Love always, and as often as you can, choose it. Love is a choice, whereas passion is an emotion.

As Paul the Apostle writes to the Corinthians, “So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor 13:13, USCCB).

Love is who God is, as He chooses us and gives us the freedom to answer Him. For to choose one another regardless of crucifixion is love itself, and out of this flows all goodness and holiness. We must choose even when we are broken. Life is not fair, and no two people are dealt the same cards, but the decision is our own. Who will you be in your story?

In peace and love,

From one to another on the journey