Sunday, April 18, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
The Learned Men and Women Always Require Evidence, not Truth
The conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus continues in varying degrees today within all of us. At one time or another there is doubt. At one time or another we all want something concrete, something definite and visible to our eyes. We live in a time of information overload. We live in a time of outrageous claims and scary warning labels providing a litany of possible harmful side effects. We want to believe in Heaven, we really do! We want to believe in God, his love and mercy for us! Our secular world tries to convince us that there is no God, asks us to consider other ideas about creation, other ideas about the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. The reasons often cited is that there is no scientific evidence to support these theories. The secular world likes to provoke and promote this warfare between science and our Faith. We accept scientific evidence only because some learned men and women write learned documents contained multisyllabic words which other learned men and women read and pronounce true because the claims sound true and are temporarily demystifying. We must remember that neither science nor our religion are enemies. We must remember that the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus will continue within ourselves, within our world forever.
Our lives have purpose and meaning when we believe. Our lives inspire goodness, holiness, love when we are obedient to God. When guided by humility, charity, and obedience our intellectual activity leads us toward God. We do not need to see volumes of raw data, we do not need to see petrie dish samples. We simply need to look within our hearts and souls to feel the presence of God’s mercy, God’s forgiveness, God’s love.
Non-believers will continue to present their opinions, their evidence challenging our beliefs. As Christians we must continue with our prayers, our fasting, our almsgiving. We must continue being humble, loving, obedient servants for God. That is our evidence, our good works, our love for our neighbors. We live in a time where opinion masquerades as fact. Truth is often distorted. Everyone challenges everything that they dislike or do not want to accept. Authority is routinely challenged. Traditions and rituals are ridiculed and criticized. So irrational is the realm of the secular world, that extremism falls in and out of favor quickly. There will always be learned people, so enamored with themselves and their predetermined theories about God, Jesus Christ, Christians, that they miss the truth, the reality and beauty of believing.“If I tell you about earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?”
The truth is that there is evidence of God that can be readily, easily studied. It is right in front of all of the learned people. The evidence is also right in front of each of us, right next to each of us. Look around and see the evidence of God’s love and mercy. Look around and see the evidence of Jesus Christ’s life, crucifixion, and resurrection. We are all evidence. As Christians, we are believers in something which we can not see with our eyes but which we can feel and accept with our hearts and souls. Our good deeds, our words can inspire and encourage goodness, holiness, and love in others. We are not trapped within a petrie dish of tradition and ritual. We are God’s living, breathing, praying children who allow our free will to guide us toward heaven.
“And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”
The learned men and women will always require new evidence, not truth. This is neither good nor bad. For our Faith to continue to grow there must always be debate, dissent, communication. Science simply creates a series of questions, a series of possibilities for us to consider. As Christians we are always asking ourselves questions about love, fairness, social justice. Following in the footsteps of Christ present us with many possibilities to experience and share goodness, holiness, and love. Each day, our choices should reflect and renew our baptismal promises. Our lives should present our love and reverence for God. Through all of our good works, all of our conversations Jesus Christ should be seen. The splendor of our love for God and our love for all mankind should always be felt. Our lives must have the splendid order of humility, charity, obedience to God, to God’s will, directing us, guiding us, protecting us.
“You must be born from above.”
Our lives have purpose and meaning when we believe. Our lives inspire goodness, holiness, love when we are obedient to God. When guided by humility, charity, and obedience our intellectual activity leads us toward God. We do not need to see volumes of raw data, we do not need to see petrie dish samples. We simply need to look within our hearts and souls to feel the presence of God’s mercy, God’s forgiveness, God’s love.
Non-believers will continue to present their opinions, their evidence challenging our beliefs. As Christians we must continue with our prayers, our fasting, our almsgiving. We must continue being humble, loving, obedient servants for God. That is our evidence, our good works, our love for our neighbors. We live in a time where opinion masquerades as fact. Truth is often distorted. Everyone challenges everything that they dislike or do not want to accept. Authority is routinely challenged. Traditions and rituals are ridiculed and criticized. So irrational is the realm of the secular world, that extremism falls in and out of favor quickly. There will always be learned people, so enamored with themselves and their predetermined theories about God, Jesus Christ, Christians, that they miss the truth, the reality and beauty of believing.“If I tell you about earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?”
The truth is that there is evidence of God that can be readily, easily studied. It is right in front of all of the learned people. The evidence is also right in front of each of us, right next to each of us. Look around and see the evidence of God’s love and mercy. Look around and see the evidence of Jesus Christ’s life, crucifixion, and resurrection. We are all evidence. As Christians, we are believers in something which we can not see with our eyes but which we can feel and accept with our hearts and souls. Our good deeds, our words can inspire and encourage goodness, holiness, and love in others. We are not trapped within a petrie dish of tradition and ritual. We are God’s living, breathing, praying children who allow our free will to guide us toward heaven.
“And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”
The learned men and women will always require new evidence, not truth. This is neither good nor bad. For our Faith to continue to grow there must always be debate, dissent, communication. Science simply creates a series of questions, a series of possibilities for us to consider. As Christians we are always asking ourselves questions about love, fairness, social justice. Following in the footsteps of Christ present us with many possibilities to experience and share goodness, holiness, and love. Each day, our choices should reflect and renew our baptismal promises. Our lives should present our love and reverence for God. Through all of our good works, all of our conversations Jesus Christ should be seen. The splendor of our love for God and our love for all mankind should always be felt. Our lives must have the splendid order of humility, charity, obedience to God, to God’s will, directing us, guiding us, protecting us.
“You must be born from above.”
Monday, April 12, 2010
The Spirit
How interesting this conversation between the Pharisee named Nicodemus and Jesus was! How simply did Jesus describe the sacrament of baptism. How beautifully did Jesus describe the call, the desire for conversion which we hear throughout our lives, leading us toward God! It is easy for us to forget this today! We always are searching for evidence. We always are seeking new solutions to old problems. We always are listening to all types of theories and assumptions about ourselves, our lives, our future. If we stop for a minute, and instead of talking to our friends about the things which concern and trouble us, we would pick of the Bible and read it, and concentrate on what we have read, then if our hearts and souls are pure and sincere, real answers, loving answers would appear before us. The Spirit is always around us but we must each individually nourish it, allow ourselves to listen to it, remember to greet the Spirit with reverence. For all that we do, we must offer it to God, for the Spirit leads us to God; allow the Spirit to teach you how to give thanks and praise to God; allow the Spirit to teach you how to be a loving, humble servant of God; allow the Spirit to teach you how to pray. The Spirit is there to help with your continuing education of humility, charity, obedience, forgiveness, mercy, and love. As Christians we must remember and acknowledge the importance of the Spirit in our lives.
“Amen, amen, I say to you, unless one is born from above, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”
We are all trying to get to heaven. This journey provides our lives with meaning. All are actions, all our prayers, all our good deeds are done for us to one day gain admittance to heaven. We cannot go there in the flesh with our Botox injections, Prada shoes, or credit cards. We can only go there with the hope, love, faith that governs and guides us toward goodness, toward holiness. We can only go there when our spirit is sincere, pure, reverent. We can only go to heaven when God is pleased with our service during our lifetime. Each thought, each action is important. What we keep in our hearts hidden away is important. As Christians please all love to flourish and nourish your mind, heart, and soul. Avoid all worldly temptations, all worldly desires. Remember that temptations and desires are temporal. Think of God, think of ways to love your neighbor. When we think of God with love and reverence in our hearts and souls, the Spirit expands, provides answers, displays goodness and holiness which often goes unnoticed and unappreciated.
“Amen, amen, I say to you, unless one is born of water and Spirit he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.”
Each day we must thank God for the wonderful gift of our Baptism. Each day we must we must thank God for the wonderful gift of the Spirit.
“Amen, amen, I say to you, unless one is born from above, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”
We are all trying to get to heaven. This journey provides our lives with meaning. All are actions, all our prayers, all our good deeds are done for us to one day gain admittance to heaven. We cannot go there in the flesh with our Botox injections, Prada shoes, or credit cards. We can only go there with the hope, love, faith that governs and guides us toward goodness, toward holiness. We can only go there when our spirit is sincere, pure, reverent. We can only go to heaven when God is pleased with our service during our lifetime. Each thought, each action is important. What we keep in our hearts hidden away is important. As Christians please all love to flourish and nourish your mind, heart, and soul. Avoid all worldly temptations, all worldly desires. Remember that temptations and desires are temporal. Think of God, think of ways to love your neighbor. When we think of God with love and reverence in our hearts and souls, the Spirit expands, provides answers, displays goodness and holiness which often goes unnoticed and unappreciated.
“Amen, amen, I say to you, unless one is born of water and Spirit he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.”
Each day we must thank God for the wonderful gift of our Baptism. Each day we must we must thank God for the wonderful gift of the Spirit.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Peace Be With You
In modern times there has been a lamentable acceleration in self-consciousness on the part of being Christian publicly, a fearful progress of acceptable doubt and hypocrisy, and a notable development of the estimation and valuation of the status quo which mutes the true meanings and lessons of Holy Scriptures. Christians continually face all types of criticisms which aim to narrow the scope of our belief in God and his importance to all people. That Christ lived is accepted as historical fact; that Christ is the son sparks all types of debates and conflicts.
As individuals, we, the faithful followers of Jesus Christ, must do more than attend church routinely, scheduled between a manicure and your car’s wheel realignment. Our lives must be filled with and display our passionate love for the Church universal; for Christ who lived among men and preached love and fairness; for God who only asks for our sincere love and respect and who offers love, mercy, and forgiveness; and for the Holy Spirit who is there guiding us toward goodness, holiness. Our devotion must be true. Our devotion must be filled with humility, charity, reverence, and mercy. Our devotion must be natural, reflecting all that we believe, encouraging us to increase our good works and to share our love with all who are in need of it.
The “lamentable acceleration in self-consciousness” concerns each Christian. The one truth that all Christians should accept is that God loved us so much that he sent his son to save us from sin. This act of love should never be forgotten. As Christian’s our lives should be dedicated to the application of love extended beyond ourselves, extended to our neighbors. Our secular world encourages us to limit this love and creates barriers to easily, gently expressing it. We are encouraged to remember ourselves and our comfort first, encouraged to utilize resources first for personal gain and enjoyment and then for public good, encouraged to be sceptical and suspicious of our neighbors and all that which is unseen by us. This self-conscious leads to selfishness, greed, envy, lust. This self-consciousness leads us away from the Church, away from God, away from salvation.
How easy it is for us to forget or discount the goodness and holiness that we encounter in our daily lives. How easy it is for us to forget “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” We must take time to consider these words individually both in context and out of context. We must find a way to breathe hope, a way to breathe life, and a way to breathe love into these words, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
We live in a time dependent upon expert testimony, eyewitness testimony, and all types raw data both explained and unexplained, computer generated models, scientific tests, scientific models. We are constantly searching for signs, reading signs, avoiding signs. As Christians we are asked to believe in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As humans we sometimes doubt this. Pop culture and the secular world prey on our insecurities, looking for ways to cast doubt and suspension on the religion. This is not new, it has been occurring for the last two thousand years. It will continue into the future. We must open our hearts, souls, and minds to God. Demanding signs from God is not the answer. Living all life of love, hope, and peace is the answer. Our goodness needs to start within us simply because we love God and want to please him. Our goodness needs to start within us simply because we know that the things that Christ said will make us better human beings filled with empathy and compassion. Our goodness needs to start within us simply because the Holy Trinity leads us toward salvation.
Being Christian presents each of us with the obligation to love our neighbor. Jesus did not say be fearful of your neighbor, be sceptical of your neighbor, be suspicious of your neighbor. Jesus said love your neighbor.
“Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”
Being Christian presents each of us with the obligation to love our neighbor. Jesus did not say be fearful of your neighbor, be sceptical of your neighbor, be suspicious of your neighbor. Jesus said love your neighbor. Human beings are by nature inquisitive, filled with all types of questions, filled with doubt. In the right context doubt is good; but there are some events, some parts of our lives of Christians where we must blindly, lovingly proceed based upon faith, hope, and love; proceed with no visible signs or evidence beyond the goodness and holiness within our hearts and the lessons from the Holy Scripture. We must always remember that Christ said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”
It is our obligation, our responsibility to find and develop our own way to apply this to our lives. We first must take the time to understand and acknowledge the request. Then, we must allow ourselves time to create our own application of the request as individuals and as members of the universal Church. Is God asking for a warm, loving, hopeful passion or a cool passivity? We must always remember that we live and exist within multiple communities in need of our empathy, compassion, and prayers. Please do not limit your kindness, your goodness, your hopefulness to simply one community. Never fear love, never fear the pain of love. Remember the pain and suffering and sacrifice of Christ.
Being Christian will always be risky, will always be radical. But remember to meet doubt with love, confront doubt with love.
As individuals, we, the faithful followers of Jesus Christ, must do more than attend church routinely, scheduled between a manicure and your car’s wheel realignment. Our lives must be filled with and display our passionate love for the Church universal; for Christ who lived among men and preached love and fairness; for God who only asks for our sincere love and respect and who offers love, mercy, and forgiveness; and for the Holy Spirit who is there guiding us toward goodness, holiness. Our devotion must be true. Our devotion must be filled with humility, charity, reverence, and mercy. Our devotion must be natural, reflecting all that we believe, encouraging us to increase our good works and to share our love with all who are in need of it.
The “lamentable acceleration in self-consciousness” concerns each Christian. The one truth that all Christians should accept is that God loved us so much that he sent his son to save us from sin. This act of love should never be forgotten. As Christian’s our lives should be dedicated to the application of love extended beyond ourselves, extended to our neighbors. Our secular world encourages us to limit this love and creates barriers to easily, gently expressing it. We are encouraged to remember ourselves and our comfort first, encouraged to utilize resources first for personal gain and enjoyment and then for public good, encouraged to be sceptical and suspicious of our neighbors and all that which is unseen by us. This self-conscious leads to selfishness, greed, envy, lust. This self-consciousness leads us away from the Church, away from God, away from salvation.
How easy it is for us to forget or discount the goodness and holiness that we encounter in our daily lives. How easy it is for us to forget “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” We must take time to consider these words individually both in context and out of context. We must find a way to breathe hope, a way to breathe life, and a way to breathe love into these words, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
We live in a time dependent upon expert testimony, eyewitness testimony, and all types raw data both explained and unexplained, computer generated models, scientific tests, scientific models. We are constantly searching for signs, reading signs, avoiding signs. As Christians we are asked to believe in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As humans we sometimes doubt this. Pop culture and the secular world prey on our insecurities, looking for ways to cast doubt and suspension on the religion. This is not new, it has been occurring for the last two thousand years. It will continue into the future. We must open our hearts, souls, and minds to God. Demanding signs from God is not the answer. Living all life of love, hope, and peace is the answer. Our goodness needs to start within us simply because we love God and want to please him. Our goodness needs to start within us simply because we know that the things that Christ said will make us better human beings filled with empathy and compassion. Our goodness needs to start within us simply because the Holy Trinity leads us toward salvation.
Being Christian presents each of us with the obligation to love our neighbor. Jesus did not say be fearful of your neighbor, be sceptical of your neighbor, be suspicious of your neighbor. Jesus said love your neighbor.
“Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”
Being Christian presents each of us with the obligation to love our neighbor. Jesus did not say be fearful of your neighbor, be sceptical of your neighbor, be suspicious of your neighbor. Jesus said love your neighbor. Human beings are by nature inquisitive, filled with all types of questions, filled with doubt. In the right context doubt is good; but there are some events, some parts of our lives of Christians where we must blindly, lovingly proceed based upon faith, hope, and love; proceed with no visible signs or evidence beyond the goodness and holiness within our hearts and the lessons from the Holy Scripture. We must always remember that Christ said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”
It is our obligation, our responsibility to find and develop our own way to apply this to our lives. We first must take the time to understand and acknowledge the request. Then, we must allow ourselves time to create our own application of the request as individuals and as members of the universal Church. Is God asking for a warm, loving, hopeful passion or a cool passivity? We must always remember that we live and exist within multiple communities in need of our empathy, compassion, and prayers. Please do not limit your kindness, your goodness, your hopefulness to simply one community. Never fear love, never fear the pain of love. Remember the pain and suffering and sacrifice of Christ.
Being Christian will always be risky, will always be radical. But remember to meet doubt with love, confront doubt with love.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Today's Gospel MK 16:9-15 - A Couple of Thoughts About Unbelief and Belief
How do we approach God? How do we live the Faith? How do our choices reflect our belief in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ? We live in time of media hype. Everything is promoted. Everything is commercial. Each day we have choices to make. Do we eat a hamburger or a salad for lunch? Do we buy Italian leather shoes or made in China shoes? There is so much advertisement trying to influence our decision with so much information, so many statistics, so many testimonials that it is often difficult believing any of it. We want to see the results with our own eyes. We want to see the data and make sure that it is correct. We are encouraged to believe so many claims based upon nothing. In many ways our lives are governed as much by a grudging unbelief in so many claims as it is by a humble, natural belief. Trust is often desired but takes it time arriving. We allow ourselves to be suspicious of new ideas, new people, new claims. If our eyes can not examine the data, it might be unacceptable.
When God makes his appearance in our lives how do we greet him? When God makes his appearance in our lives, how do we react to him? Are our Christian lives filled with examples of hope and belief or filled with examples of despair and unbelief? Existing with unbelief is easier than living with belief for some Christians. There is always something to challenge, to doubt. Belief requires a certain amount of trust, a certain amount of hope, and a certain type of faith and acceptance.
We often pray for God’s mercy, God forgiveness. It is not easy for us to show mercy to each other, to show forgiveness for wrongs and slights done by our neighbors. We often talk about loving our neighbors as we love ourselves. It is great to talk about loving our neighbors as ourselves but more difficult to do it. We can talk of living our lives to please God. But, actually doing it is difficult.
We are like the Apostles who after hearing of Christ’s resurrection did not believe it. We have so many ideas, so much evidence, so much information, so much proof that it is easy for unbelief in goodness, unbelief in love, universal and unconditional, unbelief in fairness, unbelief in social justice to fester into a coldness, a hardness of heart and soul.
Do we need to have seven demons driven from our bodies to accept and to follow Jesus? Do we have the confidence and hope to bear witness for God. With prayer and patience we will learn how to follow this request, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.”
We live in a time of such great intelligence and innovation in technology and shocking ignorance of the necessity and power of goodness, holiness, and love. We live in a time where so much of our energy is concerned with acquisition and consumption. The focus of our intellectual energies is often so narrow, excluding everything that is not essential to the present moment. We miss so many opportunities to be good, to observe goodness in others. How we live as Christians should not be influenced by the whims and caprices of pop culture or the secular world.
As Christians we must simply remember to live each day with the desire to please God. Our words and actions must always echo, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.”
When God makes his appearance in our lives how do we greet him? When God makes his appearance in our lives, how do we react to him? Are our Christian lives filled with examples of hope and belief or filled with examples of despair and unbelief? Existing with unbelief is easier than living with belief for some Christians. There is always something to challenge, to doubt. Belief requires a certain amount of trust, a certain amount of hope, and a certain type of faith and acceptance.
We often pray for God’s mercy, God forgiveness. It is not easy for us to show mercy to each other, to show forgiveness for wrongs and slights done by our neighbors. We often talk about loving our neighbors as we love ourselves. It is great to talk about loving our neighbors as ourselves but more difficult to do it. We can talk of living our lives to please God. But, actually doing it is difficult.
We are like the Apostles who after hearing of Christ’s resurrection did not believe it. We have so many ideas, so much evidence, so much information, so much proof that it is easy for unbelief in goodness, unbelief in love, universal and unconditional, unbelief in fairness, unbelief in social justice to fester into a coldness, a hardness of heart and soul.
Do we need to have seven demons driven from our bodies to accept and to follow Jesus? Do we have the confidence and hope to bear witness for God. With prayer and patience we will learn how to follow this request, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.”
We live in a time of such great intelligence and innovation in technology and shocking ignorance of the necessity and power of goodness, holiness, and love. We live in a time where so much of our energy is concerned with acquisition and consumption. The focus of our intellectual energies is often so narrow, excluding everything that is not essential to the present moment. We miss so many opportunities to be good, to observe goodness in others. How we live as Christians should not be influenced by the whims and caprices of pop culture or the secular world.
As Christians we must simply remember to live each day with the desire to please God. Our words and actions must always echo, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.”
Friday, April 9, 2010
Leading Us to Heaven
We must always remember that each step we make each day that we live is leading us to heaven. Our hearts and minds must always be directed toward this goal. God must always be our priority, the guiding power of our lives. Allow serving God to give your life meaning and direction. We must remember to attend Mass on Sundays and Days of Obligation; but that is not enough. We must do more. Our lives must be filled with hope and love. We must be concerned with fairness, social justice, human dignity of all people especially the poor.
Love can be transcendental. Hope can be transcendental.
Selfishness can lead to dissipation and despair. Jealousy can lead to stupefaction and moral lethargy.
Our theological development begins each time we go to Mass and continues when we return to the secular world. There might be quiet moments of self revelation and prayer once we leave the church. The circumstances and problems of our lives wait for our return; sometimes they are joined by all types of temptations. Sometimes we hesitate in sharing our love and our forgiveness.
Do not let this trouble you. Simply accept it and offer it to God. With patience and prayer your troubles will leave you. The road to goodness is difficult, requires diligence and sacrifice. Following Christ can be lonely at times. We may get lost within the solitude if our hearts and souls are not properly prepared for the pain and suffering of being a faithful, loving, humble servant of God.
Remember to always praise God, offer thanks to him. Call upon God for guidance and help. Pray to God often, sincerely, lovingly. Allow yourself only one luxury in this life: silence.
Love can be transcendental. Hope can be transcendental.
Selfishness can lead to dissipation and despair. Jealousy can lead to stupefaction and moral lethargy.
Our theological development begins each time we go to Mass and continues when we return to the secular world. There might be quiet moments of self revelation and prayer once we leave the church. The circumstances and problems of our lives wait for our return; sometimes they are joined by all types of temptations. Sometimes we hesitate in sharing our love and our forgiveness.
Do not let this trouble you. Simply accept it and offer it to God. With patience and prayer your troubles will leave you. The road to goodness is difficult, requires diligence and sacrifice. Following Christ can be lonely at times. We may get lost within the solitude if our hearts and souls are not properly prepared for the pain and suffering of being a faithful, loving, humble servant of God.
Remember to always praise God, offer thanks to him. Call upon God for guidance and help. Pray to God often, sincerely, lovingly. Allow yourself only one luxury in this life: silence.
Spiritual Deterioration
We must always be concerned with our own spiritual deterioration. If we are not careful, it can happen to each of us. Our secular world prefers soft lighting, dimness; sin and vice flourish and spread with the favor and assistance of secular obnubilation. Although we have electricity and neon lights, we live in dark times, the darkness is ever increasing, ever coarsening our hearts and imaginations. We must always beware of this. Our baptism provided each one of us with enlightenment. We must not forget that. We must find the courage and hope to continue and expand our spiritual activity. Our actions as Christians should always encourage the diminution of evil, vice, and sin. We must work to remove the glamor, the power of sin each moment of our lives. We must always promote living based upon the Beatitudes and the commandments. Our secular world offers a wickedly relaxing decadent slumber which we must always resist loudly, proudly with a sanctimonious fury. We have theology, we have devotion, we have God. With prayer learn how to avoid the formulaic traps of sin and temptation. With silence observe the formalistic strategies of evil and vice as they attack our hearts, our minds, our souls, and our God. Pop culture often behaves like a cruel dictator lavishing praise and attention only on the favored subjects. Remember and be prepared for sudden attacks on God, your personal faith, our religion. Not every laugh and joke is innocent and acceptable. Simply be prepared. Simply do not condescend to the unpleasantness, the impertinence. Remain at peace, with your mind fixed on God. Think of Jesus Christ. Trust in the Holy Scriptures. Your spiritual, intellectual, and moral existence is based upon “radical” teachings of universal unconditional love. Display that love reverently.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Words
dilettante
distraught
perseverance
preserve
soapbox derby
didactic
kinetic energy
religion
palatable
palate
palletize
pall
erudite
The list are some of the words that I have included in my entries. Some I had trouble spelling correctly, others I just like how the word looks and sounds. Some have vivid memories. There are other words not included but important also. Everything in life builds toward a new moment, new experience. As I am thinking about my vocation I am seeking out words, new and ancient, from different civilizations, with a freshness, a boldness of hope, love, and human dignity.
I must continue learning about fairness, social justice, freedom, human dignity. I must remember to apply the Beatitudes to my daily life.
How do I fit into this parish? into the Universal Church? What can I offer? I must always be reminded of the sacrifice, suffering, and love of other Catholics who found the courage to do the right thing, who found the courage to follow in the footsteps of Christ.
“THE CHURCH, LIKE JESUS, HAS TO GO on denouncing sin in our own day. It has to denounce the selfishness that is hidden in everyone's heart, the sin that dehumanizes persons, destroys families, and turns money, possessions, profit, and power into the ultimate ends for which persons strive.” (Archbishop Oscar Romero, August 6, 1977)
distraught
perseverance
preserve
soapbox derby
didactic
kinetic energy
religion
palatable
palate
palletize
pall
erudite
The list are some of the words that I have included in my entries. Some I had trouble spelling correctly, others I just like how the word looks and sounds. Some have vivid memories. There are other words not included but important also. Everything in life builds toward a new moment, new experience. As I am thinking about my vocation I am seeking out words, new and ancient, from different civilizations, with a freshness, a boldness of hope, love, and human dignity.
I must continue learning about fairness, social justice, freedom, human dignity. I must remember to apply the Beatitudes to my daily life.
How do I fit into this parish? into the Universal Church? What can I offer? I must always be reminded of the sacrifice, suffering, and love of other Catholics who found the courage to do the right thing, who found the courage to follow in the footsteps of Christ.
“THE CHURCH, LIKE JESUS, HAS TO GO on denouncing sin in our own day. It has to denounce the selfishness that is hidden in everyone's heart, the sin that dehumanizes persons, destroys families, and turns money, possessions, profit, and power into the ultimate ends for which persons strive.” (Archbishop Oscar Romero, August 6, 1977)
What is In Your Heart
What is in your heart? How is your conversion progressing? Are you pleased with your spiritual life? Do you feel that God is pleased with your spiritual life? Each day I pray that we all are able to continue moving forward. Each day I pray for more holiness to find and guide us. I know there is not enough goodness in this world. Sometimes my heart is filled with hope and love.
We allow ourselves to be tortured by all types of sins and all types of temptations each day. We allow ourselves to swing on a pendulum between vice and virtue. One minute we’re filled with such virtue and hope, the next we are consumed by vice and debauchery. We often defend our vices with such elaborate erudition that the offense disappears; our minds might accept these rationalizations and justifications but our hearts don’t and God doesn’t. As Christians we must remember to make God the priority in our lives and in our hearts. We must accept our individual faults, failings, and weaknesses. We must continually offer them to God. With prayer and patience we will learn from them. As Catholics we go to Confession, receive God’s absolution, promise not to sin anymore, and yet there we go sinning again. Sinning is easy. The secular world has made it easy to sin; the secular world has made it acceptable to sin. We spend so much of our lives captured within an ever tightening pop culture filled with images and stories of decadence, debauchery, and devilishness. We are hypnotized by stories of marital deceit, sexual scandal. There is nothing new in these stories. They contain the same wreckage and pain; and yet, our pop culture uses these stories of heartache and betrayal to entertain us, to caution us about love.
We need someone to caution us about our pop culture. We need to be reminded about our journey on the path made by Christ. We need someone to remind us to check our progress each day to see where we are in living a life following the ten commandments and the Beatitudes. We need someone to ask us about loving our neighbors.
It is so easy to sin, to abandon God. We do it everyday. Sin is so attractive, seductive, sexy. We live in a society where everything is for sale. The true cost is not always monetary. As Christians we must always remember to guard and protect our souls. Pop culture gives sin the illusion of being powerful, desirable. We must always be willing to confront sin, to avoid it for ourselves and others. We must educate our minds and our hearts against the attacks and abuses of sin. We must not allow our hearts to be corrupted by sin. Each day we receive new models of sin, new examples of vice all pleasantly presented to us in the most fashionable and palatable terms. With prayer we must learn how to reject them.
God offers us mercy and love if we simply, loving obey him. We know what God’s expectations are.
We must avoid vice and sin; we must find goodness and holiness in our hearts and in our lives.
We allow ourselves to be tortured by all types of sins and all types of temptations each day. We allow ourselves to swing on a pendulum between vice and virtue. One minute we’re filled with such virtue and hope, the next we are consumed by vice and debauchery. We often defend our vices with such elaborate erudition that the offense disappears; our minds might accept these rationalizations and justifications but our hearts don’t and God doesn’t. As Christians we must remember to make God the priority in our lives and in our hearts. We must accept our individual faults, failings, and weaknesses. We must continually offer them to God. With prayer and patience we will learn from them. As Catholics we go to Confession, receive God’s absolution, promise not to sin anymore, and yet there we go sinning again. Sinning is easy. The secular world has made it easy to sin; the secular world has made it acceptable to sin. We spend so much of our lives captured within an ever tightening pop culture filled with images and stories of decadence, debauchery, and devilishness. We are hypnotized by stories of marital deceit, sexual scandal. There is nothing new in these stories. They contain the same wreckage and pain; and yet, our pop culture uses these stories of heartache and betrayal to entertain us, to caution us about love.
We need someone to caution us about our pop culture. We need to be reminded about our journey on the path made by Christ. We need someone to remind us to check our progress each day to see where we are in living a life following the ten commandments and the Beatitudes. We need someone to ask us about loving our neighbors.
It is so easy to sin, to abandon God. We do it everyday. Sin is so attractive, seductive, sexy. We live in a society where everything is for sale. The true cost is not always monetary. As Christians we must always remember to guard and protect our souls. Pop culture gives sin the illusion of being powerful, desirable. We must always be willing to confront sin, to avoid it for ourselves and others. We must educate our minds and our hearts against the attacks and abuses of sin. We must not allow our hearts to be corrupted by sin. Each day we receive new models of sin, new examples of vice all pleasantly presented to us in the most fashionable and palatable terms. With prayer we must learn how to reject them.
God offers us mercy and love if we simply, loving obey him. We know what God’s expectations are.
We must avoid vice and sin; we must find goodness and holiness in our hearts and in our lives.
Goodness
Once upon I knew how to make people feel comfortable, wanted. With a certain type of cinematic inspired charm, I could with diligence and patience disarm anyone.
Goodness does not begin with a smile. Goodness does not worry about comfort. Goodness asks for effort and perseverance. We may not immediately recognize goodness when it arrives for there will be much activity, much change, much resistance.
As Christians we must always be conscious where we are currently, where we are going. Our lives present us with many opportunities to bear witness to God’s love, God’s forgiveness. We must learn how to proclaim this. We must learn how to praise God without fear or shame.
Our lives gain meaning when we live them according to God’s commandments, when we offer each moment of our daily existence to the glory and for the praise of God. When we are able to keep our minds focused on God, being God’s humble loving servants, we are freed from many temptations.
Our lives gain purpose when we are able to show others compassion, empathy, and love without any desire or expectation for any reciprocation.
Being Christian is at times exhausting work. The triumph of Christian Life is both the enthusiasm of our love and devotion to God and the teachings of Christ and the strong mature emotions which direct us toward fairness, social justice as taught by Jesus, and a continual examination of conscience. Being Christian is accepting our limitations, accepting our sins, repenting for our sins, resisting temptation.
There are many metaphysical and philosophical conceits regarding being Christian, being Catholic.
Let our lives and our good deeds provide evidence of our reverence and fidelity to God. Do not worry about the assumptions or conjecture of others. Live each day only to serve and to love God. Live each day only to praise and give God thanks.
God is not abstract; God is not hypothetical. God is concrete. God is relevant.
Allow yourself time to study the Holy Scriptures. Allow yourself time to pray.
Christians are always active, always in motion, always serving God, always moving toward God. Christians will suffer, will sacrifice, will feel pain. We must always remember that God is always with us, we must always remember to offer the entirety of our lives good and bad, dark and light to God.
Goodness does not begin with a smile. Goodness does not worry about comfort. Goodness asks for effort and perseverance. We may not immediately recognize goodness when it arrives for there will be much activity, much change, much resistance.
As Christians we must always be conscious where we are currently, where we are going. Our lives present us with many opportunities to bear witness to God’s love, God’s forgiveness. We must learn how to proclaim this. We must learn how to praise God without fear or shame.
Our lives gain meaning when we live them according to God’s commandments, when we offer each moment of our daily existence to the glory and for the praise of God. When we are able to keep our minds focused on God, being God’s humble loving servants, we are freed from many temptations.
Our lives gain purpose when we are able to show others compassion, empathy, and love without any desire or expectation for any reciprocation.
Being Christian is at times exhausting work. The triumph of Christian Life is both the enthusiasm of our love and devotion to God and the teachings of Christ and the strong mature emotions which direct us toward fairness, social justice as taught by Jesus, and a continual examination of conscience. Being Christian is accepting our limitations, accepting our sins, repenting for our sins, resisting temptation.
There are many metaphysical and philosophical conceits regarding being Christian, being Catholic.
Let our lives and our good deeds provide evidence of our reverence and fidelity to God. Do not worry about the assumptions or conjecture of others. Live each day only to serve and to love God. Live each day only to praise and give God thanks.
God is not abstract; God is not hypothetical. God is concrete. God is relevant.
Allow yourself time to study the Holy Scriptures. Allow yourself time to pray.
Christians are always active, always in motion, always serving God, always moving toward God. Christians will suffer, will sacrifice, will feel pain. We must always remember that God is always with us, we must always remember to offer the entirety of our lives good and bad, dark and light to God.
The Forecast
The forecast is rain again tonight, somehow this sounds very thrilling after the sudden heat.
We exist at the mercy of God. Each day we should give thanks for waking, looking around our bedrooms, finding food in our kitchens. Each day we should offer praise to God for all the goodness that he does provide to us. We speak so much and often hear so little. We are made from dust, will at the appointed time become ashes. Do we have the courage to suffer for God, to suffer for fairness? In our daily lives we often seek compassion and empathy from others. Do we have the courage to share compassion and empathy with those who are most in need of it? We speak so much of our personal comfort and convenience. Do we have the courage to defend the basic human rights of those members of our society who are marginalized? We talk of God’s love, God’s affection. Do we have the courage to share God’s love, God’s affection with those most in need of them? These thoughts often pass through my mind as I walk around the city. Sometimes there are so many people asking for change, asking for a meal, asking to be recognized and acknowledged that I am overwhelmed. If I could I would give them all that I have. Sometimes at different times during the day, they seem to multiply. And their cries create a chorus, anxious, melodic; and their cries create the desire within me to offer little, immediate prayers for each one that I see asking for a dime, bus fare, a sandwich.
We are all linked. We are all asking somebody for something. This thought often returns to me. The human condition begins with the desire for the basic things of life. And here God allows me to see another version of myself asking for this, begging for that, occasionally remembering God, occasionally giving thanks and praising God.
We exist at the mercy of God. Each day we should give thanks for waking, looking around our bedrooms, finding food in our kitchens. Each day we should offer praise to God for all the goodness that he does provide to us. We speak so much and often hear so little. We are made from dust, will at the appointed time become ashes. Do we have the courage to suffer for God, to suffer for fairness? In our daily lives we often seek compassion and empathy from others. Do we have the courage to share compassion and empathy with those who are most in need of it? We speak so much of our personal comfort and convenience. Do we have the courage to defend the basic human rights of those members of our society who are marginalized? We talk of God’s love, God’s affection. Do we have the courage to share God’s love, God’s affection with those most in need of them? These thoughts often pass through my mind as I walk around the city. Sometimes there are so many people asking for change, asking for a meal, asking to be recognized and acknowledged that I am overwhelmed. If I could I would give them all that I have. Sometimes at different times during the day, they seem to multiply. And their cries create a chorus, anxious, melodic; and their cries create the desire within me to offer little, immediate prayers for each one that I see asking for a dime, bus fare, a sandwich.
We are all linked. We are all asking somebody for something. This thought often returns to me. The human condition begins with the desire for the basic things of life. And here God allows me to see another version of myself asking for this, begging for that, occasionally remembering God, occasionally giving thanks and praising God.
Secular Life
How wonderful secular life is! We forever are alternating between being seduced and seducing, being deceived and deceiving. All types of anxiety and lusts lead us into darkness and uneasiness. Science reduces and falsely renames most evil as natural, acceptable, even human. Religion, any faith or belief in God is attacked, seen as a weakness, a lack of intelligence, a lack of independence. And this is a time of vain, proud men proclaiming their strength, their authority, inviting others to praise and follow them on the road to riches and fame. It is all illusion, all false. Leisure does not always mean pleasure; happiness does not always bring peace; love is not always nourishing. Secular life is filled with an ever ending abundance of ideas, so many words. There is always the search for something new, something fresh. Ideas are often in conflict. The secular world is concerned with the immediate, is fickle; trends and fashions change frequently. The secular world treats life as a commodity; we are all disposable, easily replaceable. We are all unimportant, nameless consumers of various products. The secular world conceals our sins from us, encourages us to sin, to make mistakes especially when someone or some company can somehow benefit from our mistakes.
The desire for spiritual cleanliness is a direct threat to the secular world and all its many temptations and carefully and cleverly concealed vices. The desire for a pure heart is a battle cry to the secular world of lust, revealed, respected, and encouraged. The desire for love unconditional, unrestricted is guerilla warfare to the selfishness, possessiveness, jealous secular world.
Lucky are those who are able to think about and follow in the footsteps of Christ.
Our secular world has produced a technological desert for us to live within; each day we are encouraged to sin against God, encouraged to test God, encouraged to seek all types of wealth and celebrity. As Christians we must accept that there is another way, that there is goodness, that there is holiness. We must only remember to love our neighbor as ourselves. This is not always an easy task; but when we are able to do it we are closer to God.
The desire for spiritual cleanliness is a direct threat to the secular world and all its many temptations and carefully and cleverly concealed vices. The desire for a pure heart is a battle cry to the secular world of lust, revealed, respected, and encouraged. The desire for love unconditional, unrestricted is guerilla warfare to the selfishness, possessiveness, jealous secular world.
Lucky are those who are able to think about and follow in the footsteps of Christ.
Our secular world has produced a technological desert for us to live within; each day we are encouraged to sin against God, encouraged to test God, encouraged to seek all types of wealth and celebrity. As Christians we must accept that there is another way, that there is goodness, that there is holiness. We must only remember to love our neighbor as ourselves. This is not always an easy task; but when we are able to do it we are closer to God.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
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