FROM THE AUTHOR
“I wanted to write something that would deal with a passionate concern of mine about myself and others – how is it that I, and many of my closest friends, long and yearn to be holy, defined by me as having nothing but love in our hearts, and yet it doesn’t happen. As well as love, we find pockets of anger (the bad kind), anxiety, discouragement, disgruntlement… and other unloving emotions. And how is it that these don’t yield to the graces of daily Mass, the rosary, liturgy of the hours, adoration, or talking to Jesus all day?
“My diagnosis was that our prayers and thoughts are often too vague so that we can be in denial of our worst patterns of thought, word, and deed in spite of general prayers to be more loving. My remedy was to write for my blog-readers a 100-day book, not of sweet meditations but, instead, of challenges. I wrote it. I tested out each one on myself ,with ardent prayers for God’s help, in the writing and the practicing, with the result that some of my nearest and dearest thought I had improved greatly.
“Let us step forth on the way of love with this Scripture as our challenge: ‘You are the temple of the living God, just as God has said: I dwell with them and walk among them. I will be their God and they shall be my people. Since we have these promises, beloved, let us purify ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit, and in the fear of God strive to fulfill our consecration perfectly.’ (2 Corinthian 6:16b; 7, 1)” — Ronda Chervin