Our Faith reminds us

The LORD is gracious and merciful,
The LORD is good to all, compassionate to every creature. Psalm 145:8-9

Our world consistently presents us with different challenges, different priorities which often are in conflict with Church teaching. If we simplify the leading tenets of our society, several key points can be made: a pervasive lawlessness exists, a frequently stated mantra that all rules are made to be broken and complete obedience is viewed as a weakness; authority is frequently challenged and ridiculed, the rise of the individual creates a conflict between order and chaos when no safeguards are present, when the role models are corrupt, when there compassion is not deeply, strongly encouraged, then humility is often absent; sin and vice are accepted, encouraged, promoted all behaviors become natural, organic to humankind, moral thought is relegated to the fringes of our lives, right and wrong become abstracts, placed into a vacuum to be rationalized or worse to be stripped of their meaning without moral thought as a guidepost charity is meaningless, just another activity or diversion. Such is the secular world which harshly likes to attack it’s citizens and institutions.

Our curiosity needs to be directed toward serving God, toward being humble and loving. We must learn to control both our curiosity and our thirst for knowledge. Both can lead to sin; both contain hints of diversion and deceit. Avoid the temptation to be celebrated as learned or wise; the goal of our education is to share with our community, to learn from our community. An intellectual aristocracy can create many unseen dangers. Our education, our lives must be directed to enriching the souls of our community. We must always remember the importance of nourish both our own personal souls and the souls of our community. Technology does not always improve the soul but makes some area of our lives a little easier; learn how to use technology to satisfy hungry minds with words of goodness, to quench thirsty souls with unconditional love. Our goal is to follow Christ, to walk on his path, to develop a pure, honest conscience which will allow hope and love to flourish as it helps us to grow in love and confidence toward the Lord.

Let us make loving and serving God our priority.