"From there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find him if you search after him with all your heart and soul." -Deuteronomy 4:29
As I sit down to write a post about ways to grow closer to Jesus, I realize I too desire to continue to grow deeper, and I pray I always have this desire. Until we reach the gates of Heaven and are eternally wrapped in His loving arms, there is always more room to grow closer to the heart of Jesus. We can always go deeper because He is infinite and His love is infinite. And, due to our nature, we will never not need Jesus. So I’m excited to see where the Holy Spirit will guide my writing, as I am eager and in need of deepening my relationship with Jesus.
1. Ask for Help
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him; you know Him, for he dwells with you, and will be in you. I will not leave you desolate; I will come to you.” – John 14:15-18
“Then he said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother!’ And from that hour, the disciple took her into his home.” -John 19:27
There’s a religion known as Deism, which is the belief that there is a God or supernatural being that has created the universe, but does not intervene. How sad! I’ve recognized, though, that I frequently fall into a subconscious deism- I forget that Jesus longs to intervene, that Jesus is the Good Shepherd. If He were not, He would not intervene if His sheep ever wandered. “Welp, there goes Kayla. We’ll see if she makes it back.” Chances are, without the Good Shepherd carrying me on his shoulders, I’d keep wandering and then get hit by oncoming traffic.
Jesus desires to lead us, guide us, hold us and carry us. If you desire to grow closer to Jesus, just ask Him! That’s a beautiful prayer in itself. I included the Scripture from John 14 to emphasize Jesus’ message that He is always with us. He has not left us desolate to figure out prayer on our own. Jesus has sent the Holy Spirit, who is our Counselor and Advocate, to dwell within us, and who we can rely on to bring us closer to Jesus. If the Holy Spirit is the love between the Father and the Son, we can trust that the Spirit will envelop us in this love and bring us closer to the heart of Jesus.
We have so many advocates and friends in Heaven that desire to help us in our faith journey. Simply start praying to any saint and they will help you grow closer to Jesus. If you need a starting place, why not start with the Blessed Mother, the one who knows and is closest to the heart of Jesus more than anyone? When we pray the Rosary, we are able to rest with Mary as we meditate on the mysteries of Jesus’s life, which allows us to know him and love him more. As any good mother, she rejoices as we, her spiritual sons and daughters, are close to her Son Jesus, as one big happy family! I’ve linked a beautiful Rosary here from Blessed Is She; they have a wonderful collection!
2. Root Yourself in the Word
“How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way. Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” – Psalm 119:103-105
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only-begotten Son from the Father.” -John 1:1, 14
Have you had someone ever share with you that God “spoke” to them, nodding in awe but actually beyond confused and thinking it’s a bunch of bologna? Well same, girl. I think I’ve been confused, and maybe a bit jealous, because I had never felt God speak to me in such a way. It wasn’t until my freshman year of high school that I kind of understood what these people were getting at when God “speaks” to them. I was having a hard day with some sort of freshman year Kayla issue and decided to open my Bible, as we had been learning about Scripture in my theology class, and happened upon this passage from Isaiah 41:
“For I am the Lord your God, who grasps your right hand; for I say to you, Do not fear, I will help you.” -Isaiah 41:13
It was as if God had written that verse just for me to read right in that moment. The Word is alive and true, and is God’s love letter to us! As Scripture is God’s Word and God’s voice, rooting ourselves in the Word allows us to recognize God’s voice more, even have moments where it seems as though God speaks to us. My favorite Bible is one my husband Tom got me as a birthday gift, The Great Adventure Bible by Ascension Press, linked here. This Bible is wonderful with so many different resources to dig deeper and has made it easier to understand God’s work throughout salvation history!
If you need somewhere to start, I recommend the Gospels. They allow us to know more about who Jesus is, as both fully God and fully man. I’ve linked a Scripture Study from Blessed is She here to accompany your prayer with the Gospels. Additionally, using methods like Ignatian Contemplation or Lectio Divina are wonderful tools to help guide your prayer with Scripture.
Jesus is alive and present in the Word. The Word guides us, comforts us, allows us to know who God is (a Lover), who we are (His Beloved), and that we belong to God. It is a lamp for our feet and light for our path. Next time you feel frustrated if you can’t hear God’s voice, know He desires to speak to you in the Word- the Word that is fully alive, that is fully Jesus.
3. Pray with Holy Images
“But Jesus said, ‘Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of Heaven.’” – Matthew 19:14
“I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.” John 10:14-15
What helps me when I’m reading through Scripture is to have a holy image of Jesus next to me. Being able to read Scripture with an image of Jesus next to me helps me to enter in more and recognize His presence. The two verses I included are some of the images I’ve had- an image of Jesus with children, so tender and loving, and an image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd, carrying me, His lowly sheep, on His shoulders.
I love bringing holy images with me to Adoration. Our faith allows us to know that Jesus is truly present in the Blessed Sacrament- that this tiny piece of bread contains the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ. Sometimes that’s hard for my pea brain to fathom, and having an image of Jesus with me helps me to remember that He is truly here! That tiny host that is Jesus our Lord is the same Jesus that was born in a manger, ate with sinners, danced at a wedding, died on the cross, appeared to Mary Magdalene after he rose from the dead. The same Jesus that had dirt under his nails and nail marks in His hands.
I also love having a crucifix in every room of my apartment. Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross is the pinnacle of our faith, the source of our salvation. Even taking 10 seconds to pause and revere the crucifix will help us to remember Jesus’s deep, unconditional love for us through His sacrifice, to remember what we are worth, that we have been saved and redeemed. How could you not fall in love with Jesus more after looking at the crucifix? Check out these beautiful crucifixes from Blessed is She here.
4. Spend Time With the Blessed Sacrament
“For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me.” -John 6:55-57
“I thirst.” -John 19:28
There’s a reason why keeping holy the Sabbath is a commandment. Jesus knows we need the Sabbath, and as part of this commandment, we are called to attend Mass weekly. We are starving and need to be fed by Jesus, and He comes as true food, true drink in the Eucharist. Jesus is incarnate, Emmanuel, “God with us,” in the Eucharist. Thus one of the best ways to grow closer to Jesus is to be physically close to Him, and what better way than to receive Him into our bodies!
Receiving Jesus in the Eucharist is such a precious and sacred moment that Jesus thirsts for when He’s alone in the garden of Gethsemane and when He’s dying on the cross. Our hunger and thirst for Jesus, the only one who can satisfy our soul, met with his hunger and thirst for our soul when we receive the Eucharist, is the most intimate and divine encounter we will ever experience on earth. It is a taste of Heaven.
Not only does Jesus allow us to receive Him in the Eucharist, but we can sit at His feet, like Mary, sister of Martha, and just rest. We can come as we are and be embraced by the love Jesus longs to pour out on us. St. Therese of Lisieux beautifully sums up the closeness to Jesus we encounter during Eucharistic Adoration:
“Do you realize that Jesus is there in the tabernacle expressly for you – for you alone? He burns with the desire to come into your heart…don’t listen to the demon, laugh at him, and go without fear to receive the Jesus of peace and love…”
5. Go to Confession
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us all from unrighteousness.” -1 John 1:9
“But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.” -John 19:34
My last tip for growing closer to Jesus is going to Confession. OOh, scary, I know! However, I once heard in a homily by my home parish priest, Fr. Jim, that repentance leads to joy. And this is so true! We get caught up in our own shame that clouds the Divine Mercy of Jesus, that blood and water that gushed forth from the heart of Jesus as a fount of mercy for us. We need not carry our shame as Jesus is our Savior who has already died for our sins, who will rejoice in Heaven as we return into His arms, and who will “remember our sins no more.”
We can only receive Jesus’s mercy and be close to His Sacred Heart through repentance. We are always able to repent of our sins, but the sacramental graces of going to Confession heal our hearts and bring us closer to Jesus. So don’t fear Confession, be excited about it! Woohoo, Confession!
While these are only five, there are an infinite number of ways to grow closer to Jesus, as He is infinite and unlimited in the ways He can speak to us. I’m eager to hear the ways you have gotten closer with Jesus, and know of my prayers for you as we journey together! Praise God.
“It is Jesus you seek when you dream of happiness; he is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you.” -St. John Paul II