God provides miracles for us when we pray religiously, and we can ask God for anything. When seeking a healthy relationship through online dating with another traditional Catholic, first ask God to allow Jesus deeper into your heart and life by dating Him for six months. Your heart will heal from past hurt and be filled with love. After taking your relationship with Jesus to a higher level, you will be open and ready to form a new relationship with someone special.
Give Jesus Permission to Date You
I’ve been reading a Protestant book lately called Beautiful Uncertainty. Protestants, I’ve noticed, have a sometimes different approach to their relationship with Jesus than Catholics do. It’s not that one is bad compared to the other, but I have found that I can learn something from my Protestant sisters in Christ.
The author, in this book, who is a single 35-year-old follower of Christ, decides to allow Jesus to date her for six months. She talks about another friend, who, for a season before she married, focused on dating Jesus for six months. She decided that she would dedicate that same time to Jesus that she had spent in years of fruitless relationships with other men. The friend would prepare Jesus a cup of tea in her morning prayer time and she would even reach over and strap his seatbelt in the car. She acted as if the Lord were always with her.
My Experiment: Dating Jesus as a Traditional Catholic
Now before you think that this is an absolute crazy idea, consider giving it a try. It might be absolutely an ingenious idea, for if Jesus is with us always, and He certainly is, we really could allow Jesus to date us for six months.
I’ve decided to give this idea a try and I’ll keep you posted on how it goes. Right now, and I started this experiment a few weeks ago on March 15, 2018, allowing Jesus to date me, the Lord has spoken certain things to my heart.
I said, “Lord, what if I allowed you to date me for six months?” I felt the Lord say in my heart, “I would like that.”
When I was going up to the register in the cafe for a cup of coffee that morning, I was surprised when I felt the Lord say in my heart, “Get me a cup.” “Okay, Lord whatever you say,” I said, chuckling to myself. Of course, the second cup of coffee sat there and I ended up drinking it later that day.
Like I said, I will keep you posted on how this adventure in my interior life goes. I think it may be a lot of fun. I decided that we will go to mass and out for dinner every Saturday evening. God certainly does have an amazing sense of humor. I encourage you to try it yourself. No man or woman will ever love you as much as Jesus Christ does.
“But the greatest of these is love…” 1 Corinthians 13:13
Dating Jesus to Help Past Hurt
I think the reason I am so interested in this idea is that I’ve experienced heartbreak over the last year. A relationship with a certain gentleman did not work out, in fact, it ended in betrayal on his part, one of the worst ways a dating relationship can end. I’ve been cautious about entering a new relationship and even wondering if God is still calling me to marriage. I’ve wondered if I still believe in love, as I felt like I poured so much love and care into that relationship that didn’t work out.
I haven’t been dating and I’ve been focusing my energies more on my day job and on humanitarian work and learning Spanish. I’m part of the board for a non-profit doing humanitarian work in the developing country of Honduras. As a traditional Catholic, I’m excited about taking a trip to this country this summer to work with disadvantaged children in poverty in a developing country. I’m excited about learning more about the social doctrine of the Catholic Church and the care and concern of our beautiful Catholic Church for the multitudes of people who lack the basic needs of life in the developing country. I’ve been reading the encyclicals and apostolic letters of Pope John Paul II and Pope Paul VI on these issues.
“I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you.” Ezekiel 36: 26
Because of Past Hurt, I’ve Run Out of Love
I want to allow Jesus to date me for six months because I believe that my heart can use that love that only He can pour into my heart. Like the Wedding at Cana, I am out of wine, or I’m out of love. I need Him to pour new life and new love into my heart. I need a new heart and a new spirit. I need to believe that love does exist, that I am loved, that I can love God, love myself and love others. I need the restoration that only God can give.
Dating relationships in the single life can do that to us sometimes. Sometimes we date someone with the best of intentions, hoping that the relationship will lead to the vocation of marriage, when the person betrays us, is dating another person at the same time, or some other sort of betrayal. Some of us have been married to someone who betrayed us and the relationship ended in divorce, even though we desired that marriage to last forever.
During Lent, we saw that Christ too experienced rejection. He too experienced betrayal. We can bring our pain to Christ who died for each of us, personally. I encourage you, as a traditional Catholic, to contemplate the passion of Christ every Friday for fifteen minutes at least, to enter into it. He has taken every betrayal we will ever experience onto Himself so that we can be free and have an abundant life.
I also will continue writing about 11 other things to ask God for during the single years in the next article.
You can learn more about faith-based online dating as a traditional Catholic on our website.
