The End of Tomorrow

Sitting in an examination room, thinking about the weather. Sitting in my doctor's examination room, thinking about how vulnerable I feel wearing this silly thin cotton gown. 

On a Saturday afternoon, thinking about blogging. On a Saturday afternoon, thinking about being what I want to share, thinking about what I want to write.

And so I asked a friend for ideas. I was very vague. I hadn't decided upon a name or a voice or a theme. And so I asked a friend for ideas. I was enjoying the moment of creation. I was enjoying the moment of inspiration. 

And so I try to be serious. And so I try to be humorous.

And on this Sunday, the sky is overcast. Stray raindrops find my face as I walk around. The colorless sky and cool December breeze help me remember the flowers and laughter of long, warm summer days.

December is fresh with events upon which to focus our attention. Each day provides a moment for preparation, a moment for reflection, a moment for sacrifice. Lucky are those who sacrifice without realizing that they are sacrificing.

December is fresh with love and meditation. As winter arrives, memories of summer create collages in our hearts and minds. For now is the time to remember all those things done, all those things undone. It is a time to celebrate our lives. It is a time to learn from our weaknesses. It is a time to learn how to avoid sin. 

The collage of my life leads me to wonder about goodness, kindness, and holiness. Love - subtle, sublime, surprising - arranges the hopes and aspirations and inspirations within my heart, within my mind. Each day I pray for mercy, each day I hope I am able to share mercy.

The magic of love, is the magic of morning with gentle, warm sunlight teasing and retreating against a blue sky with white clouds. The montage of life is the mystery of belief, the beauty of faith.

A Little Calcium and Vitamin D

In my quiet moments, sometimes when I reflect upon the saints, my imagination creates a world of squirrels and streams of clear, cold water and stone churches. My imagination creates a world vivid yet sterile with simplistic ideas of good and bad. How easy it is for me to downplay the struggles and hardships the saints endured.

Each saint found an unique way to serve God. Each saint provides an unique path to encounter and to serve God. Each Christian is encouraged to have an unique, personal relationship with God. Our prayers help to create this bond.

In my quiet moments, sometimes, as I reflect upon my daily obstacles, my imagination creates a world of vengeful speeches and a stereophonic soundtrack of cold despair and stony, steep stairs leading away from goodness, away from kindness, away from holiness. My imagination creates a world of brittle pomposity, brittle insincerity where good and bad trade places, stand side by side, joined as friends, allies in a world of selfishness and avarice.

Luckily I live in the real world, with friends, whose actions, honesty, struggles offer me glimpses of peace, glimpses of love, glimpses of living, breathing, praying saints moving toward God, moving closer to heaven.

These Boots

Each day presents new opportunities for prayer and reflection. Each person moves through life in unique ways with unique insights and perspectives. There is often a desire to simplify life, to simplify our description of our place in the world. It is often easier to hide behind a generality than to uncover and to share the truth of what we are really thinking, really feeling.

And so with hope and the occasional grammatical and/or spelling error, I return to the world of words, thought, contemplated, typed, reviewed, deleted. Such an amazing process is writing and living life.

It all begins with what we see, what we imagine, what we perceive.

If our aim is goodness, then each thought, each word, each action must lead us to our goal. Our direction, our path must always be consistent. It is not enough to talk love if our deeds do not support it.

If our aim is righteousness, then each moment of our lives must be filled with forgiveness and love. Our goal is a sense of understanding, a sense of purpose, a sense of being. Being righteous is hard and filled with many earthly obstacles and temptations. Being righteous is about being accepting, compassionate, open to hope, open to mercy, open to charity.

On Life's Surprises (Always be prepared)

One must always be prepared for life's little surprises, for both the happiness and the sadness waiting in the next room, beyond the next door. Each day people announce engagements, announce pregnancies, remember birthdays, remember anniversaries. Each day some people live, each day some people die. Each day we muddle through our lives, moving forward, moving toward goodness, holiness, kindness. Each day we offer prayers for ourselves, for our immediate families, our immediate friends. Each day some deals with depression, each day someone deals with loneliness, each day someone lives with despair.

One must always be prepared for life's little surprises, one must always be prepared to confront pain, to confront suffering, to confront loss with hope, with love, with God.

One must always be prepared to pray, be prepared to be asked to pray, be prepared to ask someone to pray.

One must always be prepared to share charity, humility, compassion, mercy.

As Christians we are invited, we are called to always share God's love, to alway show God's love.

We are always to be prepared for God's arrival, for God's work order. Each day we encounter people who need God. Each day we encounter people who want God.

Friday of the Twenty-Eighth Week

Our aim as Christians is always to find salvation. We are to be righteous in thought, deed, action. The highest compliment, the greatest observation that can be made of a true Christian is John believed God, and his words and actions were righteous. With confidence, with love allow the world to view your faith, your hope, obedience to both the God's commandments and God's teachings. Look within your heart for goodness, kindness, holiness. Seek only that which leads to being blessed. Seek only to forgive and to be forgiven. Seek salvation, live for salvation. Seek redemption, live for redemption. Seek God's truth, live for God's truth. 

Prayer for the Day - October 13

Lord

Teach me how to be righteous
Teach me how to love
Allow me to hear your voice
Please be attentive to my cry
May my supplication
fill you with mercy for all those
known and unknown, all those who
I encounter in my travels
who have troubles, who have despair
help those who are most in need of your love
May my supplication
begin with all I see, all I sense
and when you see fit allow me
to be your servant, your hands, your feet,
for you are the most loving, you are the most righteous
You are the Lord.

Amen

Thought for the Day - October 13

The principle of love leads to many conversations and often much confusion. Being Catholic provides a rich history of reference that begins with the Jewish faith embodied in Moses, Isaiah, David that continues until to today embodied in the Pope and the Cardinals. The principle of love remains the same, retains the same simplicity.

As Christians learn from history. Humanity makes mistakes. Christians make mistakes.

As Catholic embrace your history, embrace your traditions, embrace prayer, embrace repentance.

Being penitent, being truthfully penitent leads to salvation.

Catholics receive blessings, we talk of God’s grace. We can be gracious, we can be righteous. We are asked to believe in God, to love God, to serve God, to turn away from sin.

The principle of love begins with a call for an expiation, personal and private. We are all asked to repent, to pray for forgiveness. The principle of Christian life connects expiation and redemption. Each Christian journeys between thoughts of expiation and redemption all of our Christian lives, between acts of expiation and redemption all of our Christian lives, between deeds of expiation and redemption all of our Christian lives.