Lord, I humbly ask for the virtue of being faithful to God when put to the test. With your help I can do everything you ask of me. I want to be a faithful servant. If you give me this grace I can become a mirror of the divine life and glorify you as a good servant that is very pleasing to you.
You love when we can be faithful to God throughout our lives. I am the thread and you are the needle. With my faithful obedience you will weave a tapestry by guiding my life’s work; it will be beautiful and meaningful in your sight. Good things will come when I hold fast to my faith and serve you even when put to the test.
Jesus, you know me. You know all my thoughts, words, and actions. There have been many times in my life when I have failed to be faithful to you. In the past I have been guilty of not keeping the faith when I should have during difficult times. I have also failed you when things were good and I believed I was not in need of your help. Lord, forgive me for every lack of faithfulness. I apologize sincerely for having had hardheartedness and for all my past wanderings.
With your help I can grow in the virtue of faithfulness so that I am never again seduced by the devil to believe in errors and hold them to be true. Lord, please give me the grace to live the rest of my life justly and devoutly, reflecting your virtue like a mirror in all my thoughts, words, and deeds. I desire to share with you in your divine nature. Let me live a righteous life even when put to the test. With your grace I can remain faithful through any kind of suffering, desolation, isolation, or difficult trial. You are with me always. Let me be with you in my heart and by my actions.
I thank you and I praise your holy name for every blessing and every trial you deem necessary for my eternal salvation. You give freely, and when necessary, you take away. Thank you for the virtue of faithfulness. I am grateful to you for your love and mercy.
AMEN.
“Faith is an entirely free gift that God makes to man. We can lose this priceless gift, as St. Paul indicated to St. Timothy: "Wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting conscience, certain persons have made shipwreck of their faith."
To live, grow and persevere in the faith until the end we must nourish it with the word of God; we must beg the Lord to increase our faith; it must be "working through charity," abounding in hope, and rooted in the faith of the Church.”
Being Faithful to God Even When Put to the Test
The Virtue of Faithfulness to God
by St. Hildegard von Bingen
From the time of the beheading of John the Baptist, who declared that the Son of God is the One Who heals the wounds of sin, most evil error arose, whereby the Devil seduces different people by different false images; so that they think that what he shows them, each according to his understanding, is true. And many are deceived thus, because their faith is constantly weak and wavering. But you, O My children, if you wish to live justly and devoutly, fly from this most wicked error, lest death catch you in your unbelief.
Scivias Book 2 Vision Seven, Paragraph 21
Week 20 of the Virtue Meditations Series
Being Faithful to God Even When Put to the Test
Reflection:
Those who struggle with faithfulness often have difficulty with believing in things they cannot see or touch. There is a tendency in all of us to doubt the truth of something we can’t see or hear or know definitively. This becomes an obstacle in our faith journey with Christ. St. Hildegard of Bingen refers to this vice as “not knowing the signs” and she says that folks who struggle with disbelief and unfaithfulness usually follow “whatever [they] know to be the most useful to [them].”
What is Faithfulness to God?
Faithfulness, however, is a surrendering to grace that opens the soul to a special trust in the providence of God and his love. With this virtue a soul can endure trials with grace and still trust in the goodness of God because he sees the signs and feels the grace.
What is unfaithfulness to God?
Bingen warns that your soul “is condemned when you judge things by yourself” because your human reason is an “evil knowledge” that does not want to serve God. So for Bingen, unfaithfulness is denying God’s rightful place. It leads to a place of darkness that won’t allow you to see the way of salvation.
Week 20 marks a milestone. If you have been faithfully praying for virtues with us these last 20 weeks, even if you have missed a few and yet keep going despite all the obstacles, you are showing faithfulness to God. Loving God and wanting to serve him in good times and bad, loving him for his sake and not for his gifts, these are examples of being faithful to God.
On the Virtue of Faithfulness
Faithfulness is a fruit of the Holy Spirit and St. Hildegard of Bingen gives us a very beautiful image to capture it’s meaning:
She says of the virtue of faithfulness: “I praise God faithfully with the angels when I desire all the things that are of God and when with the Cherubim I write out his judgments that the Cherubim bring forth just as they are in God. But I also judge all things through the prophets, the wise ones and the scribes. In addition, all the kingdoms of the earth shine forth in me through God’s justice. I am a mirror of God because I reflect all the precepts of God.”
Jesus, I thank you for the gift of faith and for the grace to remain faithful in times of suffering and trial. Thank you for loving me and for giving me consolations during the most difficult times in my life. Thank you for loving me in my darkest moments and helping me remain faithful to you. Please increase in me the virtue of faithfulness so that I might trust you in all things, even when I am faced with the most difficult trials in life and when being put to the test.
You are all loving, all knowing and all powerful. You promise that your yoke is easy and if I wear it faithfully that my burden will be light. I accept the yolk you have given me and I thank you for making my burden light. Increase in me the virtue of faithfulness so that I may be a mirror of God and reflect your glory in all things for the remaining days of my life. I love you. AMEN.
Going Further:
If you’d like to take extra time to meditate on being faithful to God even when put to the test, prayerfully reflect on 2 Peter 1:3-11:
“His divine power has bestowed on us everything that makes for life and devotion, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and power. Through these, he has bestowed on us the precious and very great promises, so that through them you may come to share in the divine nature, after escaping from the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire.
For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, virtue with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with devotion, devotion with mutual affection, mutual affection with love. If these are yours and increase in abundance, they will keep you from being idle or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Anyone who lacks them is blind and shortsighted, forgetful of the cleansing of his past sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more eager to make your call and election firm, for, in doing so, you will never stumble. For, in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you.”
Let us Pray:
Now that we understand the virtue of being faithful to God even when put to the test, let’s begin with a prayer of petition for it.
Being Faithful to God Even When Put to the Test
Prayer of Petition
Eternal Father, I am the work of your creation, made in your image and likeness but too weak to conquer the devil by my own power. I ask you for the grace to grow in virtue, surrendering all my thoughts, words, and deeds to you. Please help me resist the devil and all his tricks. Jesus says that whoever believes in him will do the works that he does and that whatever we ask in Jesus’ name he will do so that You may be glorified. Heavenly Father, you sent us your Son to show us what it means to have perfect virtue in life. Jesus is fully human and fully divine and has perfect virtue. Father, have mercy on me and please give me the grace I need to grow in the virtue of being faithful to God so that I might grow in holiness and imitate Christ even when put to the test. AMEN.
Now let’s contemplate the Lord by listening to him speak to us in the Gospels. Slowly meditate on the following passage, reflecting on the virtue of faithfulness. Take your time. Pause over a word or phrase that speaks to your heart. Reread the passage again, and then ask Jesus to show you how you can imitate him in his inner love of the spiritual and better overcome your love of the material world and the worldly attachments you struggle with. Choose a word or phrase from this passage to write in your journal, and add your thoughts. Go back and prayerfully re-read it throughout the week.
Virtue of Faithfulness
Being Faithful to God as a Trustworthy Servant
from the Gospel of Luke Chapter 12:35-48
[Jesus said:] “Gird your loins and light your lamps and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks.
Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival. Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself, have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them. And should he come in the second or third watch and find them prepared in this way, blessed are those servants. Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour when the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into.
You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”
Then Peter said, “Lord, is this parable meant for us or for everyone?”
And the Lord replied, “Who, then, is the faithful and prudent steward whom the master will put in charge of his servants to distribute [the] food allowance at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master on arrival finds doing so. Truly, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property.
But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants, to eat and drink and get drunk, then that servant’s master will come on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour and will punish him severely and assign him a place with the unfaithful. That servant who knew his master’s will but did not make preparations nor act in accord with his will shall be beaten severely; and the servant who was ignorant of his master’s will but acted in a way deserving of a severe beating shall be beaten only lightly.
Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.”
Let us Pray:
Jesus, let me be a good servant who patiently waits when it feels like you are delayed in answering my prayers. Let me remain faithful to you and trust in your providence. Help me to make preparations and to do everything you ask of me so that I may glorify you. I humbly ask for the grace to be faithful so that you will entrust me with more and I can please you by doing much.
Jesus, you are a gift to me. Thank you for being present to me. Give me the grace to be present to you and to grow in the virtue of faithfulness to God. AMEN.
Virtue of Being Faithful to God
A Prayer for an Increase in Virtue for Others
Lord Jesus Christ, you say that when two or more are gathered in your name, you are with us. Jesus, in your name I lift up every person who has joined this prayer challenge or will join it in the future. I ask you to give us all the grace we need to grow in virtue and holiness so that we may love and serve you in our lives and through the people we love and care for. Help us in our thoughts, our words, and our actions. Guide us all by your Holy Spirit and give us the strength to overcome every temptation from the evil one. We ask all this in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, AMEN.
Together as a group we will pray for each other and strive to make good resolutions and keep them. Remember, it’s your heart that God wants to capture. Your efforts are out of love for him and a desire to imitate him as best you can in holiness.
If you fail, do not quit trying to practice the virtue of being faithful to God when put to the test. Be merciful to yourself and learn to love the process of striving to be more like Jesus every day. Just take it one day at a time, and stay in the present moment with Jesus. Being virtuous is a process. No one is perfect, so just start anew every time you fail.
How do I Practice Virtue?
You’ve learned about the virtue of being faithful to God even when put to the test, and you’ve prayed for God to give you grace. Now what? Let’s take a look at the Catechism for some guidance on how we can make Week 20 a successful effort.
“Faith is first of all a personal adherence of man to God. At the same time, and inseparably, it is a free assent to the whole truth that God has revealed. As personal adherence to God and assent to his truth, Christian faith differs from our faith in any human person. It is right and just to entrust oneself wholly to God and to believe absolutely what he says. It would be futile and false to place such faith in a creature.”
Making Resolutions
Take a moment to reflect on the virtue of being faithful to God. What are the ways you can freely practice this virtue this week? Ask the Lord to give you opportunities, and when you feel the Holy Spirit prompting you, take action. Write down your resolutions for this coming week in your prayer journal. Remind yourself to complete these resolutions daily for this entire week, and as the Spirit prompts you, feel free to write about your experiences with this virtue throughout the week.
In My Thoughts:
Jesus, this week I promise to take time daily to conform my thoughts by… (make your intention).
In My Words:
Jesus, this week I promise to take time daily to conform my words by… (make your intention).
In My Actions:
Jesus, this week I promise to take time daily to conform my actions by… (make your intention).
Join our Virtue Meditation Prayer Challenge
Get weekly emails introducing each of the 35 virtues of St. Hildegard of Bingen
Click this link to view all 35 of our virtue meditations.
Pray the Litany of Virtues prayer.
Pray the next Virtue Meditation
Week 21 Mental Prayer Meditation
Being Faithful to God Even When Put to the Test
“Being Faithful to God Even When Put to the Test” – Join us for our 20th meditation on the 35 virtues of St. Hildegard of Bingen.