Lord, show me the narrow gate! And give me courage to enter through it, I pray, I want to be among those who enter and find life.
He has shown me the gate. Or rather, the Lord has shown me Himself. I think of Jesus Himself as the gate, the way through which we come to the Father. He revealed to us that He is the way, the truth, and the life. (See John 14:6.)
It’s the courage to enter that gate, to follow the path laid before me, that I lack. I hesitate to choose this way, to follow where Jesus calls me; sometimes I even struggle to seek His direction in prayer.
Sisters, I don’t know about you, but I start to feel lost in the crowd and the shuffle of all the bodies going in the same direction. I can’t see the way, nor can I hear God’s voice over the din of the world’s messages and noise. After a while, my meandering along with the crowd while hesitating to follow Jesus turns to unrest. My soul finds no peace in following the path through the “wide gate” that the world offers. I yearn for something else.
“I am the Way and the Life. Follow me,” He beckons.
I hesitate again, but eventually turn towards Him.
And so my yearning leads me back to where I find life and the only thing that satisfies. I return to daily prayer and more frequent reception of the Sacraments. There I find the courage to enter the narrow gate, day after day, and find life in Jesus.
Make a stop at the adoration chapel or find out when the Blessed Sacrament is exposed at your nearby parish. Make it to daily Mass once this week. Avail yourself of the graces of the Sacrament!
Gina Fensterer is a Colorado native at heart, but the West Coast beach life suits her just fine. She currently lives in small coastal area of California with her husband and six children. She loves the Jesus prayer, coffee at any time of day, homemade salsa, photography, and sleepy toddler snuggles. She is a contributing author to our children’s devotional prayer book, Rise Up. You can find out more about her here.
Thank you, Gina. You are so right that we need to decide EVERY day to follow Jesus. I heard a priest this past weekend say that the noise of the world is a distraction. Actually, he said anything that keeps our eyes turned away from God is a distraction. We need to keep our eyes and our hearts turned to HIm. Then we will go through the narrow gate.