Live a large life. This is crucial. You have to live big. When you die, you want to have lived life to the fullest. With God, we accomplish that.

What does "living big" mean?

It doesn't mean fame. t doesn't mean being rich. It certainly doesn't mean getting fat. It doesn't mean a life so busy that it becomes a life of frenzy.

To live big is to live in the large faith of the Lord and that means to live without fear, which restrains us. To live large is to love, which casts away all fear.

To live large is to complete your mission. It is to do all that God has planned for you to do. It is to allow yourself to expand onto new territory. It's to see the small in the large and the large in the small. It is to be both secure and adventurous.

"Grant, O Lord, that I may know who I am and Who Thou art," prayed St. Augustine.

Faith equals living large while too often we limit ourselves and make our lives "smaller" due to anxiety. We don't travel because we're afraid of the plane and we don't move because we're afraid we won't be able to make it in a new place and we don't meet new people because we're afraid of their reaction to us. We don't try new things because we're afraid of anything out of the routine.

And so we stifle ourselves unlike Christ Who roamed the countryside spreading the good news through example to new places. To live a life that is large is to try new good things -- if we have a prayerful yearning -- and to expect more of ourselves. To live a big life is to exercise our gifts fully and even to exercise gifts that we don't have.

How is that possible?

There was Maria Esperanza, the Venezuelan mystic. She wasn't known for music. But one time she prayed for a great song and came back with a musical praise to God that is one of the most powerful songs you have ever heard.

She prayed for the gift of music and received the gift of music, at least for the moment.

Some people are naturally cheerful. Do you have the gift of joy? If not, you can pray for it.

Do you have a good sense of humor? If not, pray to be funny.

Do you have the talent to cook? If not, pray for it.

The point is that we can pray for many gifts, although we may have to pray more persistently and each time we want to exercise such a gift. But prayer works when it's the Will of God and it makes life larger. It makes it more full and varied and meaningful.

When it comes to life, bigger (in the sense of doing all we can), is better. Of course, bigger could mean living in a little cloister!

Does that mean we should all pray to be preachers? No. Or writers? Of course not. God has a plan for our lives. We need to expand according to His direction, not according to selfish ambition.

It depends on where we are spiritually, but the point is that:

A good resolution for the New Year is to live life beyond the confines of routine, beyond the confines of tedium, beyond the restrictions of nervousness or stereotypes that others may cast upon us. Don't let fear limit you.

Step out with Christ. He is the One Who showed that we could even follow his steps across the water if we prayed and if we believed -- truly believed -- in the miraculous.

12/29/05

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