“I’m forever yours, faithfully.”

Eternal words from the iconic 80s rock band, Journey.

We know deep in our souls that we were made for a love that is both forever and faithful.

We also know how flawed our own abilities are to love as faithfully and eternally as our movies and songs proclaim. By human standards, if we are honest, we are totally undeserving of the free, total, faithful, and fruitful love that we seek.

So what do we do when faced with both our poverty to love and the perfect love of God?

We groan. We groooooaaannnn!

Today’ Psalm says that the Lord looked down from heaven to “hear the groans of the prisoners, to set free those prisoners who were doomed to die.”

St. Paul in his letter to the Romans writes, ” ²² We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. ²³ Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.” (Romans 8: 22-23).

People who would pray with Pope St. John Paul II would describe how he would groan in prayerful meditation before the Blessed Sacrament.

We groan in mourning of our sinful separation from God, and like a woman in labor, await the fruits of the seeds of God’s grace to emerge forth in new lives of virtue and repentance in us.