Daily Reading for May 29
God freely created us so that we might know, love and serve him in this life and be happy with him for ever. God’s purpose in creating us is to draw forth from us a response of love and service here on earth, so that we may obtain our goal of everlasting happiness with him in heaven.
All things in this world are gifts of God, created for us, to be the means by which we can come to know him better, love him more surely and serve him more faithfully.
As a result, we ought to appreciate and use these gifts of God insofar as they help us towards our goal of loving service and union with God. But insofar as any created things hinder our progress toward our goal, we ought to let them go.
From The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola (The Institute of Jesus Sources, 1978).