Keys to Holiness: Meditations on the First Letter of Peter

By Joyce Pranger Venaglia

Growing in a life of holiness in a fast-paced technical world means, first and foremost, to keep our minds and hearts focused on the living word, Jesus. This is exactly what the apostle Peter gives us in his two short but often overlooked letters. In Keys to Holiness, Dr. Joyce Venaglia unlocks for us-in her own unique, simple style-a rich treasure from her years living a life of silence, prayer, and meditation. Dr. Joyce found each chapter, each verse, and each word to be a goldmine of spiritual inspiration leading to a life lived in deep union with God, which is possible for everyone seeking a deep love relationship with God. This volume does not cover all of Joyce's meditations on First Peter but is like a glimpse of the best that is yet to come. The book is not meant to be read as a novel, but slowly and prayerfully with a resolution to allow maybe just one key to penetrate deeply into one's heart and mind. In the process, one is transformed, as Peter was, into a living replica of the word, Jesus. Dr. Joyce is a member of the third order of Franciscans. She founded the Hermitage Ministries in 1974 while living as a hermitess in West Virginia. In 1981 she was commissioned as a lay Catholic evangelist. She is the author of four other inspirational books and many published articles. Dr. Joyce has traveled extensively, giving teaching seminars, retreats, and parish missions on healing and prayer. Besides sharing from her love for writing, she is also a poetess and an artist-all born from her life of prayer. Dr. Joyce Venaglia, known to the world as Sister Joyce and a noted spiritual writer and director, leads the way once again in this powerful message for all Christians to lead a life of deep holiness, following in the steps of our beloved Apostle Peter. Information on Dr. Joyce's other books can be obtained by e-mailing [e-mail].

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Aug 8, 2016
• ISBN: 9781681974835

Book preview

Chapter 1

Living a Life of Faith

So if you are suffering according to God’s Will keep on doing what is urgent and trust in God who made you, for He will never fail you! (1 Peter 4:7, LVB)

It just amazes me to no end—the deep spiritual lessons buried in this inspiring letter of Peter! What a teacher and pastor of his flock he was. It is quite clear, the teachings of his beloved master were indelibly printed on his mind and heart. In the beginning when I first started to write meditations on this letter, I thought to myself that I would go verse by verse, somewhat like a construction worker builds a house from the plans of an architect. However, even though I thought I was following my plan, the Holy Spirit moved in, and the wind changed direction. As I go over passages already covered, I discover more and more keys that would open doors for one’s spiritual growth in their journey toward holiness.

In First Peter 3:10, we find this beloved pastor encouraging his flock to build a firm foundation for their Christian life on love. All these years, I always pictured the apostle John as the disciple of love, but reading and meditating on Peter, I see that his writings and teachings are inundated with the theme of love. From this passage, we draw the lesson that to build a firm foundation in our spiritual growth, it must be built on love—love for God, love for one another, love for our enemies, and love for life.

To love their daily life must have been a real challenge for these early Christians as daily they were faced with persecutions of all types, both within the community as well as without. Family members were often sent to the arena to be eaten by wild animals or to serve as lighted torches for the night games played there. Many were given to the authorities by their own family or friends. To name one, St. Cecilia, a martyr, was turned into the authority by her own husband for refusing to deny her newly found faith. While she was locked in a hot bath for three days and didn’t suffocate, her own husband ran the sword through her heart. People didn’t know then where to turn or whom they could trust. Many were suffering the loss of their properties while others were sold into slavery. I often wonder, if I had been living in that era, would I have had the faith to go through all these trials? What Peter is saying to his flock is that in spite of all their difficulties, they should not let themselves become discouraged regardless of what was occurring in their daily lives and should develop an attitude of faith that sees the good in every situation.

Grandma (Gertrude) Kintz was a living example of what Peter is talking about. Her faith and trust in God will be forever indelibly printed on my mind. Grandma came from a fairly prosperous family of farmers. I don’t think they were super wealthy, but they had all the comforts they needed in surviving in that era. While married to my grandfather, Louis Kintz, they had a huge farm, which provided everything they needed to raise their ten children.

However, one day they were approached by several businessmen, who offered to purchase the property for the International Harvester company. Although Grandpa really wasn’t a businessman, he accepted the offer. With the money, he bought a grocery store on New Haven Avenue, plus several adjacent homes in the area. Then in 1929 the depression hit. As with everyone else in America, their lives were significantly changed as well. Grandpa gave to his customers groceries on credit. Since they never paid him, Grandpa eventually lost the store. In 1935, Grandpa died. Grandma had no social security or another income to live on. Often while staying with Grandma, my sister Rita and I would sift through bins of patches of material for me to make doll clothes. Over the bin she would share many stories about her life. Once reduced to a life of poverty, Grandma never became bitter or complained about the lifestyle she was now forced to live. With her children, she also had many problems. One daughter died very young. Her oldest son became an alcoholic, got divorced, and came back home to live with her. I often witnessed, in spite of my grandma allowing him to live with her, he never stopped barraging her, finding fault with everything she did. In spite of it all, she never lost her trust in God. Totally living for her God and the hope of eternal life, she was grounded in her love and trust in God. I asked Grandma how she managed to remain so calm and cheerful after listening to so many people’s problems. Everyone came to her for prayers and her wise counsel. Grandma always wore this huge country apron. She took the corners of her apron and explained to me, At night before I go to bed, I put all these problems in my apron and then dump them in God’s lap! How’s that for a lived example of what Peter is saying in this passage?

I am sure that this thought must have occurred frequently in the minds of these early Christians: If we are going to die under some shape or form, why go on living? Like a mother bird encouraging her young ones to leave the nest and fly, Peter continually encourage them to live in faith and trust in God and to joyfully accept their present situation as a gift from God and that all their sufferings are to be offered in a continual sacrifice of praise. The fear of what may happen tomorrow or in the future should not deter them for an instance from living to the fullest in the present day moment. For when we live in trust and hope, every day becomes a prayer when lived for the honor and glory of God.

At times while I am watching the news or reading the newspaper, I am simply overwhelmed by the greed or other vices of our governmental officers. The good of the people, rather than greed, is nowhere to be listed. The nightly news shapes our thoughts and determines our lifestyles today. It takes only one actress to change a hairstyle, and lo, it becomes a fad for the entire hairstyling business. It is the same with clothes! Again the media shapes and forms our thinking on what to wear, how to do our hairstyles, what foods to eat, and what shows to watch. How much better the world would be if the media changed its tactics and began telling stories of heroism or kindness in the world. The decision is ours to make our lives’ problems and difficulties or opportunities and surrender them to God. Trusting and knowing God is in control is a great act of faith. Recently I watched a documentary on Hitler. He promised that his philosophy would last for a thousand years. We see this prophecy being carried out today in the many hate crimes and injustices among people. When I see these people with their black swastikas on their clothes and flags doomed on violence and hate, it is scary. But then I think to myself, even though, humanly speaking, there is no remedy or solution, God is still in control of history, our lives, and our nation.

To me this practice of surrendering to God in every area of our lives is called by spiritual writers the virtue of holy abandonment, which is absolute faith and trust in God. The idea of letting go and letting God becomes for us a lifestyle, a way of living in hope and ensuring us that we are well on the road to spiritual growth and holiness. In every area of our lives, we give God complete control as we surrender our all to Him in love.

I find this practice of faith more useful than ever as I advance to the ripe age of eighty-three. Up till now I have enjoyed the blessings of good health. My muscles aren’t as strong as they used to be. I used to be able to lift boxes of books with no trouble at all up and down the stairs. Now I have to take only a few at a time. My vision isn’t as good, nor is my hearing as keen as it once was. It is more difficult to open a jar. But in whatever way aging seems to make its appearance in my life now, I thank God and offer my old age as a sacrifice to God! We have a lady at our church who just reached the age of one hundred one. She is still the sacristan at the church. Every morning, she drives to the church and opens the doors. When the priest arrives for the celebration of mass, everything is ready for him. Betty suffers from severe arthritis throughout her body. When I asked her what medications she was taking for it, she said, Oh, I just offer it up! This way of accepting our lives is what Peter is saying in the following:

So if you are suffering according to God’s Will keep on doing what is urgent and trust in God who made you, for He will never fail you! (1 Peter 4:7, LVB)

While in the novitiate, I remember reading this huge volume on Holy Abandonment. I don’t remember who the author was. But the holy wisdom I derived from that book has remained indelibly printed on my mind and heart. Holy abandonment does not mean living in a servile fear or acting as a slave does toward its master. The practice of abandoning ourselves to God in every area of our lives flows from our deep faith and trust in God with our minds and hearts centered on and rooted in His deep love for us and the promise that He will never leave us or forsake us. It begins with the first step of abandoning our lives to God and giving him permission to be the center and focus of all our actions just as Grandma Kintz and my friend Betty did. Living a life of absolute trust and hope is actually living out our baptismal commitment. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me! (Gal. 2:20)

The blessed apostle is teaching them that the secret to this total abandonment to God is giving Him the freedom to do whatever He wishes in our daily lives and whenever. To live out our lives in such radical hope is living out our baptismal promises. It isn’t enough for one to come forward during an altar call to be saved! Salvation is an ongoing process of daily surrendering everything to God. In this we find that this surrendering applies to every area of our lives, whether it be the announcement of a terminal illness, a flat tire on the interstate, the loss of a job, or the ending of a marriage or just the boredom in our everyday lives in whatever vocation we are called at this moment to fulfill. As we learn to grow in this conviction that God’s love for us is unending and without limits, we will recognize that whatever happens to us at this moment in time, God wills only out of His nature, which is love! His will is always directed toward our ultimate good and supreme happiness. The apostle Paul wrote in one of his letters, What God wants of you is to be holy! (Thess. 1:4) What Peter is encouraging in this passage is for us to be grounded in God’s stability, keeping our minds and hearts focused on the goal, which is complete and total union of our wills with the will of God. My eyes are forever fixed on the Lord, cries the psalmist in Psalms 112:7. Amid all their daily sufferings and trials, Peter is instructing them to live with a new level of consciousness—not to see the thing happening in daily life as the world sees it, but on a higher level of faith and trust. Hope is, in reality, holy abandonment—a life lived in complete surrender to this God of love, who gave all that we might live!

Finally, my spiritual director often reminds me of the fact that our love for God is a continual growth process of surrendering oneself to that divine presence within that, in turn, through all these insignificant little acts of our daily lives, we become transformed and totally one with this God of love! Just as Jesus became the perfect expression of His Father while sojourning in this life, so we are called to become to the world today expressions of God’s love on earth, bringing a sense of hope to a world so in need of it today.

Chapter 2

Reverence

And remember that your heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites when He judges. He will judge you with perfect justice for everything you do, so ACT in reverent fear of him from now until you get to Heaven for God has no favorites. (1 Peter 1:17, LVB)

Today I came across another wonderful concept in this First Letter of Peter where the apostle Peter gives us another key if we want to be true followers of the Lord, the risen Jesus. We are, at all times, to act in reverent fear of Him. I have read this verse frequently, but today, however, it has just really jumped out of the page for me, giving me a rather new insight on the meaning of this scripture verse. What does this acting out of fear all mean? In my reflection now, a few ideas have sprouted forth, which I want to share with you today.

First of all, what does it that we need to understand just what it means to conduct ourselves with reverence? Reverence is an attitude of a person who is always aware that he or she is in the presence of God. Living in the presence of God has always been one of my favorite subjects while giving seminars. Teaching others to live in the presence of God amid the dreariness and boredom so often experienced in the nitty-gritty duties of everyday life has been most rewarding. While in the novitiate, my novice mistress spent an entire year focusing on teaching us to live in the presence of God, keeping our eyes fixed on the Lord from the moment we awake in the morning until the closing of our eyes at night. Throughout the day, we memorized short scripture verses, especially from the Psalms, that we would recall during our busy day. Each one of us would be appointed to be an angel for the week, where, at certain times, we would remind the others working with us to remember the presence of God!

Over the years, I have learned that learning to live in the presence of the all-holy God is the key to holiness. But the real pilgrim striving for holiness not only develops a reverence toward God and the holy objects but also grows in his reverential attitude toward his neighbor, his work, and his friends as well as all of God’s creation. This idea and practice of reverence for all living things is a major practice in nearly all other religions. It is the breath of God that gives life and sustains all living beings. One soon begins to experience the living breath of God in all creation—in the air we breathe and in the howling wind as well as the gentle spring breezes. Even rocks have souls that are sustained by the all-holy one.

For the apostle Peter, time was a precious commodity not to be wasted or misused. Time was valued as sacred as a gift from God. In the cloister, they had these old-fashioned clocks with sayings etched in the glass window underneath the face of the clock. The verse, as I remember it, goes like this:

I have only a minute

Only sixty seconds in it,

Didn't seek it

Didn't find it

But it is…

It is up to me to use it

For if I lose it,

For eternity is in it

Time is the stuff that life is made of, not to be squandered or wasted away. Time is to be reverenced as a gift from GOD. Each moment is a sacrament giving us opportunities to grow in deeper union with God.

Yesterday, I went to see the movie Heaven Is for Real. It is the story about this little four-year-old boy, who was near death and was taken to heaven. He saw Jesus, sat on His lap, and met his unborn sister, who, he said, died in his mommy’s tummy. The parents had never told him about this infant, but somehow he knew all the details. When the mother asked him what her name was, he said she didn’t have a name because she hadn’t given her one. When admitting that he had met his grandpa, the dad showed him a few pictures of the elderly man. The child remarked that Grandpa didn’t look like that. He said he didn’t look like that, for in heaven, no one wore glasses. Everyone was young and beautiful. The dad then went through his old photo album and found a picture of Grandpa when he was young to which the boy admitted that was what he looked like. What really impressed me, though, was the fact that when he was shown multiple pictures of Jesus, he admitted the clothes looked like the ones Jesus was wearing, but not the image. A thousand miles away another young child was given visions of heaven, and now she was painting them. When these images were shown to him, the boy exclaimed, Yes! That is what he looked like! The film, though controversial to many, is quite thought provoking. But it does show that there is another life after this and that we are living in the shadow of eternity

Seeing everything in our daily lives in the light of eternity gives one a new perspective on daily living. The events that happen, the people we come in contact with, our joys, and our sufferings seen in the light of our eternal destiny are bound to help develop an attitude of prayer and reverence. Growing in a life of reverence toward God is a day-to-day challenge. All of us have been taught to reverence God and sacred things. We were taught to bow our heads at the holy name of Jesus. Bowing is a sign of reverence. Bowing toward another is a sign of our recognition that he or she is our brother or sister in the Lord and that we are all one in the family of God. Mother Teresa of Calcutta is a wonderful example of reverence toward all as she daily trod the dirty streets of India, picking up the dying, bringing them into her house, washing them, and feeding them with the greatest of reverence. She instilled this attitude into the minds and hearts of her sisters as well: to respect and love each person they came in contact with as Jesus Himself. One of her sisters came back to the convent in the evening, radiating with joy. When Mother asked her the source of her joy, she answered by saying, She had been serving the sick and dying body of Jesus all day long! Another wonderful example of living a life of reverence is our dear St. Francis. His life was the epitome of reverence toward God, his fellow men, and all creatures of God. His life is full of examples of this great reverence. He loved the sacred scriptures. For him the Word was truly the presence of God in it. Francis had a great respect for the word. If he came across a slip of paper on the ground, he would not even step on it, because for him the word became flesh and dwelled among us! He loved and reverenced all of God’s creation, from the birds down to the lowliest caterpillar crawling on the ground. His biographers tell us that he would never step on one of God’s little critters, because Christ had become as a worm and no man. Because of this attitude of kinship with all creation, all creation responded to him as we know from the silencing of the birds until he was done preaching or when he tamed the famous wolf of Gubbio that was a constant menace to the villagers there. At the end of his life, he sang spontaneously the words of the Canticle of the Sun wherein he called upon all creation to praise and glorify God. I never tire reading about the life of St. Francis, especially The Ideals of St. Francis of Assisi or the Little Flowers of St. Francis. In these stories, we find so many examples of how Francis truly lived out