My Child, You're Not Alone

At times like these, it’s hard to find the right words to say

And I know that words alone won’t take the pain away
But, I know a man who sits high and looks low
And He is saying, “My child, you’re not alone.”

He is saying, “I love you and I am concerned about you
And all the pain and hurt that you are going through,”
He is saying, “Lean on me. I will be your comfort through this time
And although it’s dark now, the sun again will shine.

Even though it’s hard to see through tears that you now cry,
Just know that there will come a day when your tears He will dry
And though words alone won’t ease the pain that you now feel,
Just know that in time, your heart, He will heal.

I pray that God will give you peace and strength in your heart
As He holds you in his arms, and from you, He won’t depart
May you always be encouraged, may you ever hold on
And remember, “My child, you’re not alone.”

~ By Johnny V Chandler

The Size of Our Hearts

God puts us into this world with huge hearts. The human heart in itself, when not closed off by fear, wound, and paranoia, is the antithesis of pettiness. There’s nothing small about the human heart.

The early Church Fathers taught that each of us has two hearts, two souls.

In each person, they affirmed, there is a small, petty heart, a pusilla anima. This is the heart that we operate out of when we are not at our best. This is the heart within which we feel our wounds, are chronically irritated and angry, the heart within which we feel the unfairness of life, the heart within which we sense others as a threat, the heart within which we feel envy and bitterness, and the heart within which greed, lust, and selfishness break through.

But the Church Fathers taught that inside of each of us there was also another heart, a magna anima, a huge, deep, big, generous, and noble heart. This is the heart within which we feel empathy and compassion, where we are enflamed with noble ideals. This is the heart where we inchoately feel God’s presence in faith and hope and are able to move out to others in charity and forgiveness. Inside each of us, sadly often buried under suffocating wounds that keep if far from the surface, lies the heart of a saint, bursting to get out.

John of the Cross says the most effective way to move towards healing is not by focusing on the moral and spiritual areas within which we particularly struggle.

For him, we heal and grow and eventually “cauterize” our faults by fanning the flames of what is already virtuous, best, inside us. As we fan our virtues to full flame, those fires eventually burn out our selfishness and our wounds.

Our virtues, when fanned to full-flame, leave no room inside us for pettiness and small-heartedness.

Fanning what’s highest in us eventually moves us more and more towards living out of our big hearts rather than petty hearts.

~ Ron Rolheiser, OMI