***Loving the Lord Without Limits*****

        I am continuing reading the book Wife, Mother & Mystic on Blessed Anna-Maria Taigi and am impressed by her holiness. Even though the Lord gave her many ecstasies, she begged their withdrawal and preferred to suffer for the atonement of others' sins. Christ approved of her heroic sacrifice and said to her, "There are few, very few, My daughter, even among the servants of God, who renounce spiritual delights in order to embrace suffering by love." I also recall St. Maximilian Kolbe, the Polish priest who volunteered to die in place of a man in the German death camp at Auschwitz. He once asked the Mother of God what was to become of him. She appeared to him, holding two crowns, one white and the other red. The white one symbolized purity and the red, martyrdom. She asked him if he was willing to choose one of the crowns. Fr. Kolbe chose both. 
          These two examples are just so inspiring. They show that there's no limit to how much one can love God, and this is precisely what makes living the Catholic life exciting. Even though we can remain in Christ and do not sin, we can still do better. As sinners, we always fall short of how much we should love the Lord. We are all different and some are called to be more heroic than others. Nevertheless, each of us should listen to the Lord's voice and do exactly what he tells us. Total obedience is our ideal goal and total submission the way to reach it.