Allow yourself to seek purity in yourself, in others. Allow yourself time for reflection on God, on the blessings and gifts you have received from God, on how to better serve God. Allow yourself time for remembrance of all those who have loved you, both those who are alive and those who are dead. Allow yourself time for reverence before God.
A life with proper reflection on God, with proper remembrance of all love received, with proper reverence for God will avoid making bold resolutions. Purity of heart and soul asks for consistency and propriety; it is a lifelong quest to be experienced gradually, with grace, hope, and love which leads to God.
All thoughts should lead to God.
Let prayer fill our imagination with glorious images of God's love, with glorious images of each one of us loving God, with glorious images of each one of us loving our neighbor.
And here is a moment of delicate welcome, the lingering embrace of remembrance and forgiveness which recalls last year's hope, last year's love, last year's humility, last year's charity.
May tenderheartedness and warmheartedness guide each Christian's heart, guide each Christian's daily decisions, guide each Christian closer to God.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Do not love the world or the things of the world - December 30, 2010
Have the courage to allow yourself to be tenderhearted. Remember that the Christian life is a story of continual conversion from sin to forgiveness. Each day we sin. Each day we ask for forgiveness. Each day someone asks for someone to pray for them. Each day someone promises to pray for someone else. The Christian life offers hope. Hope is very important. Hope can be very contagious. There is something beautiful and delicate about Christian hope. Allow hope to strengthen your faith, to inspire your love, to lead you from darkness. Allow hope to guide you toward God. Sometimes humility, charity, and obedience play hide and seek within hope as a way to motivate each one us gently, lovingly to do the right things.
Hope asks us to remember Jesus Christ, to remember his ministry, to shape and live our lives with the humility, charity, compassion, mercy, and love that he taught.
The journey of hope begins with a question within our souls, sometimes it is a single word, a single idea but it can lead to something bigger and better with prayer, reflection, meditation. Hope is patient. Hope does not complain. Hope accepts and embraces and welcomes all signs of goodness, kindness, and holiness without question, without doubt.
Hope is goodness. Hope is pureness. It is beneficial for become closer to God, conducive to serving God, useful in loving God.
Hope asks us to remember Jesus Christ, to remember his ministry, to shape and live our lives with the humility, charity, compassion, mercy, and love that he taught.
The journey of hope begins with a question within our souls, sometimes it is a single word, a single idea but it can lead to something bigger and better with prayer, reflection, meditation. Hope is patient. Hope does not complain. Hope accepts and embraces and welcomes all signs of goodness, kindness, and holiness without question, without doubt.
Hope is goodness. Hope is pureness. It is beneficial for become closer to God, conducive to serving God, useful in loving God.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
the true light is already shining - December 29, 2010
Have the courage to allow yourself to be warmhearted. Remember that the Christian life is a journey from darkness to light. Remember that the Christian life asks that each individual loves their neighbor as they love themselves. The Christian life requests that God be loved and served. Each day work to develop a good character. Have the courage to lead a life of genuine humility, avoid the temptation of pride. Look for examples of those living morally-sound lives. Seek purity and righteousness. Seek honor and virtue. Live virtuous. Reflect upon goodness, kindness, holiness. Live to give thanks, praise, and love to God each day, always.
Serving God is always beneficial.
Humility provides many opportunities to become closer to God and to help our neighbors. Christian Humility is an interruption of the self-absorption and selfishness encouraged by the secular culture.
The secular world encourages each individual to distract, to deceive, to demean their neighbors. Many conversations lead nowhere; many filled with the brightest of tones, the lightest of sounds will lead to darkness. Let the listener beware. Seek and conductive only conversations and discussions filled with goodness, hope, purity. Do not clog your imagination with impurity, meanness, jealousy.
Have the courage to say only those things which will be pleasing for God to hear.
Accept that this might be difficult at first, accept this as a goal for a lifetime as a loving, loyal servant of God.
Serving God is always beneficial.
Humility provides many opportunities to become closer to God and to help our neighbors. Christian Humility is an interruption of the self-absorption and selfishness encouraged by the secular culture.
The secular world encourages each individual to distract, to deceive, to demean their neighbors. Many conversations lead nowhere; many filled with the brightest of tones, the lightest of sounds will lead to darkness. Let the listener beware. Seek and conductive only conversations and discussions filled with goodness, hope, purity. Do not clog your imagination with impurity, meanness, jealousy.
Have the courage to say only those things which will be pleasing for God to hear.
Accept that this might be difficult at first, accept this as a goal for a lifetime as a loving, loyal servant of God.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
We have fellowship with him - December 28, 2010
Have the courage to allow yourself to be humble. First read the Bible. Reflect upon the lives and the decisions of each individual mentioned in the different books and chapters. Each person mentioned is important; each person provides a clue about acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Not all people in the Bible are humble. Not all people in the Bible are Good. The Bible provides valuable lessons about how to serve and how to love God. Humility is very important.
Remember to always share and present reverence and respect for God. Have the courage to seek the charity in others as a way of finding it within. Remember to praise those who need to be praised, to love all without condition, and to use each moment of your life to praise God, to love God, to serve God.
Allow your faith to move you closer to God naturally. Allow your faith to help you become God's loyal servant.
Strive for humility, avoid pride. Learn from the Bible. Love humanity with the entirety of your being. Have the courage to allow this love to direct you toward the heavenly kingdom.
Each movement taken forward in the name of God, for the glory of God, is important when done lovingly, when done with charity, humility, and obedience to God.
Remember to always share and present reverence and respect for God. Have the courage to seek the charity in others as a way of finding it within. Remember to praise those who need to be praised, to love all without condition, and to use each moment of your life to praise God, to love God, to serve God.
Allow your faith to move you closer to God naturally. Allow your faith to help you become God's loyal servant.
Strive for humility, avoid pride. Learn from the Bible. Love humanity with the entirety of your being. Have the courage to allow this love to direct you toward the heavenly kingdom.
Each movement taken forward in the name of God, for the glory of God, is important when done lovingly, when done with charity, humility, and obedience to God.
Monday, December 27, 2010
he saw and believed - December 27, 2010
Waking up can be a little difficult this time of year for many unknown reasons. This is also a time for remembrance and reverence for all holy people who have believed, lived, and taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This season asks each Christian to take a minute and count each blessing, each gift from God and to give thanks. The lessons within each reading point toward the universality of God's love. The message within each Mass presents the breadth of God's love for all of humanity. People on the right road will experience a little longing for Christ after hearing each Gospel reading. People on the right road will work to model their whole lives with a universal love, compassion, and sense of social justice. Each moment in their lives will bring more understanding, more wisdom. With effort each word of the Gospel can be understood. For the greatest gift of the season is developing the courage to be good, kind, and holy in the presence of both man and God.
Waking up can be a little difficult this time of year because everyone has something to complain about. This is not the time for heated discussions about God, the Eucharist, Jesus Christ, the Ten Commandments. This is a time for Love. This is a time for humility. This is a time to listen, not to be drawn into a paradox of excited opinion. This is a time for goodness, kindness, holiness. Each action of Christian, hopefully, will be pleasing to God. Rhetoric and grand speeches will not get a man or woman into heaven. Rhetoric and grand speeches will not make a man or woman holy. Rhetoric and grand speeches will fill the ears of the listeners with hollow sounds and unasked questions. There is always a need for penance, a need for Reconciliation with God. For some this time of year is a moment of extreme vanity when the spotlight shines on them, the parties they attend, the gifts they give, the gifts they receive. Although it might be difficult, please remember that this is a time to love and serve God. The true message of Christmas reminds each Christian of the necessity of patience and encourages each Christian to keep their gaze heavenward, to allow each step to lead them to the heavenly kingdom.
Waking up can be a little difficult this time of year because everyone has something to complain about. This is not the time for heated discussions about God, the Eucharist, Jesus Christ, the Ten Commandments. This is a time for Love. This is a time for humility. This is a time to listen, not to be drawn into a paradox of excited opinion. This is a time for goodness, kindness, holiness. Each action of Christian, hopefully, will be pleasing to God. Rhetoric and grand speeches will not get a man or woman into heaven. Rhetoric and grand speeches will not make a man or woman holy. Rhetoric and grand speeches will fill the ears of the listeners with hollow sounds and unasked questions. There is always a need for penance, a need for Reconciliation with God. For some this time of year is a moment of extreme vanity when the spotlight shines on them, the parties they attend, the gifts they give, the gifts they receive. Although it might be difficult, please remember that this is a time to love and serve God. The true message of Christmas reminds each Christian of the necessity of patience and encourages each Christian to keep their gaze heavenward, to allow each step to lead them to the heavenly kingdom.
Sunday, December 26, 2010
holy and beloved - December 26, 2010
It was a time to be warmhearted, to be time of tenderhearted; a time to believe in hope, in God. There were thick white candles with delicate orange flames reaching toward the ceiling, dancing toward heaven.
How easy it is to forget the behind the scene preparation for each Mass, to forget the ritual which precedes the rich, spiritual Rituals of the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist. Here reverence and respect have an uneasy alliance. There is much scurrying, much hurrying. Patens and cruets have to filled and placed in the proper places. The chalice has to be covered and placed in its proper place. The ribbons in the books must be on the correct pages. There are voices saying hello, voices saying good-bye. There is much activity. There are questions about Mass, questions about brunch or the football game. It is a spiritual time. It is a very human time. It is a time for reflection. It is a time to search for chalice veil or a cushion for a chair or to ask someone to pray for you. Always people are walking this way, walking that way. Here is a moment of quick, joyous welcome. Here is a moment to accept a quick handshake, humble smile.
There is a little anxiety as volunteers arrive and ask for instruction.
There is a pureness in the moments leading up to a Mass, a moment of incorruptible high ideals and righteous as these minutes are freely, lovingly given in service to God.
There is laughing, water sipping, hand-washing, book skimming, slouching, standing, wobbling, joking, listening, praying. Here is a community.
Here is an opportunity to follow Jesus Christ, to escape the darkness and dangers of the secular world. Here is a time to be earnest, humble, and loving. Here is a time to seek illumination from God. Here we discuss contemporary hope and the encyclicals of the Pope. We ask about the Cardinal's ring which glancing at the processional song which we will sing.
There is a moment of silence, a moment of prayer, a moment when time does appear to stop, and Jesus Christ does gently appear on each face, each loving, believing face.
Saturday, December 25, 2010
ABUNDANT JOY AND GREAT REJOICING - December 25, 2010
training us to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age Titus 2:12
It was a time of warmheartedness, a time of tenderheartedness surrounded by hope. There were thick white candles with delicate orange flames reaching toward the ceiling, dancing toward heaven.
How easy it is to forget the journey, to allow the moment, this minute to dominate the mind, the imagination. Life does not stop. Each minute flows into the next. Minutes flow into hours; hours flow into days. The journey continues whether we are prepared or not, whether we are able to upgrade or not. There is always motion, always a need for patience.
And here is a moment of delicate welcome, the lingering embrace of remembrance and forgiveness which recalls yesterday's hope, yesterday's love.
This is a moment of familiar songs, familiar sayings. For this instance the thick white candles offer reassurance, offer hope, offer continuity and faith. Here in this instance each individual is fine and dandy, each individual cannot complain. Here is a moment when good is allowed to triumph!
This is a moment of red and white and green leaves. This is a moment of soft lighting. This is a time to remember to be moral, to remember the Church's moral code. How romantic and perfect this night appears with the white lights on the evergreen trees. What a great moment to reflect upon personal morals. Each Christian is asked to live a morally-sound life of goodness, kindness, holiness; of charity, humility, and service to God. Each day provides opportunities for moralistic evaluations and decisions. Each day provides opportunities for honor, good character. Remember that each candle has one purpose: to provide light. High ideals are great companions to have as we walk on the right road, following the footsteps of Jesus Christ.
Sharing love and hope freely, gently is always a boon. Each day we are given an opportunity to exalt the goodness, the mercy, the presence of God in our lives. We constantly make choices. We must remember to do what is productive for God, what is beneficial to God. As Christians, God must always be an active part of our individual decision making process.
The candles stand guard, patiently sacrifice their wax to provide light. Allow each Mass to be a pilgrimage, an expedition to holiness, to love universal and unconditional.
It was a time of warmheartedness, a time of tenderheartedness surrounded by hope. There were thick white candles with delicate orange flames reaching toward the ceiling, dancing toward heaven.
How easy it is to forget the journey, to allow the moment, this minute to dominate the mind, the imagination. Life does not stop. Each minute flows into the next. Minutes flow into hours; hours flow into days. The journey continues whether we are prepared or not, whether we are able to upgrade or not. There is always motion, always a need for patience.
And here is a moment of delicate welcome, the lingering embrace of remembrance and forgiveness which recalls yesterday's hope, yesterday's love.
This is a moment of familiar songs, familiar sayings. For this instance the thick white candles offer reassurance, offer hope, offer continuity and faith. Here in this instance each individual is fine and dandy, each individual cannot complain. Here is a moment when good is allowed to triumph!
This is a moment of red and white and green leaves. This is a moment of soft lighting. This is a time to remember to be moral, to remember the Church's moral code. How romantic and perfect this night appears with the white lights on the evergreen trees. What a great moment to reflect upon personal morals. Each Christian is asked to live a morally-sound life of goodness, kindness, holiness; of charity, humility, and service to God. Each day provides opportunities for moralistic evaluations and decisions. Each day provides opportunities for honor, good character. Remember that each candle has one purpose: to provide light. High ideals are great companions to have as we walk on the right road, following the footsteps of Jesus Christ.
Sharing love and hope freely, gently is always a boon. Each day we are given an opportunity to exalt the goodness, the mercy, the presence of God in our lives. We constantly make choices. We must remember to do what is productive for God, what is beneficial to God. As Christians, God must always be an active part of our individual decision making process.
The candles stand guard, patiently sacrifice their wax to provide light. Allow each Mass to be a pilgrimage, an expedition to holiness, to love universal and unconditional.
Friday, December 24, 2010
I will not be silent - December 24, 2010
Although the Christmas ideas and phrases are a mosaic from the Bible, the practice of Christmas becomes a clatter of Madison Avenue jingles and video vignettes presenting smiling, happy, helpful faces encouraging us to give a Mercedes, a diamond bracelet, a washing machine, a sweater, a toaster, or a magazine subscription. How colorful and entertaining the advertisements are! How amusing the lack of a true message is!
For many instead of being a time of hope and love, Christmas is a time of anxiety, a time of emotional vulnerability compounded by the media promoted messages of a homogenized, pasteurized peaceful Christmas gathering of loved ones who are happy to see each other and respectful of each other.
But the Spiritual elements of Christmas are interwoven with such delicate skill that the religious feeling will find you if you are open to hearing God's voice.
Christmas is a time of divine light, a time of seeking and sharing goodness. Christmas is a time to be humane, to remember and to develop our individual humanity.
Christmas is a time to be humble, to be patient, to wait. When our hearts and souls are clear, our mind can hear the voice of the Lord.
Christmas asks us to be at ease, reposeful. Christmas asks us to encourage others to be mellow, at-peace.
What is your Christmas bonus? Who and what made your Christmas list?
Did you have time to go to Confession? Did you attend Mass? What are the sounds and the looks of your Christmas? Hopefully, your Christmas will be filled with love, compassion, peace.
Is the time for Tom and Jerry, Rusty Nail, Hot Buttered Rum, Fallen Angel, Eggnog, or Bombay Punch?
I sometimes remember different parts of the Christmas meal, the Tabasco, Macaroni and Cheese, Nestle Chocolate Milk, and the Reddi Whip from different childhood Christmas memories.
Each one of us have different ways of seeing and experiencing Christmas. For some Christmas is a Salvador Dali canvas of intentions, ideals, and idolatry. For some Christmas is a Pablo Picasso portrait of being apologetic, applauding, apocalyptic, applicative and apple-polishing. For some Christmas is a Pierre-Auguste Renoir painting of dappled, diffused light encouraging memories delicate, delicious, delighted; encouraging thoughts deliquescent, deliberate, delineated; encouraging reflections, prayer, devotional time.
For many instead of being a time of hope and love, Christmas is a time of anxiety, a time of emotional vulnerability compounded by the media promoted messages of a homogenized, pasteurized peaceful Christmas gathering of loved ones who are happy to see each other and respectful of each other.
But the Spiritual elements of Christmas are interwoven with such delicate skill that the religious feeling will find you if you are open to hearing God's voice.
Christmas is a time of divine light, a time of seeking and sharing goodness. Christmas is a time to be humane, to remember and to develop our individual humanity.
Christmas is a time to be humble, to be patient, to wait. When our hearts and souls are clear, our mind can hear the voice of the Lord.
Christmas asks us to be at ease, reposeful. Christmas asks us to encourage others to be mellow, at-peace.
What is your Christmas bonus? Who and what made your Christmas list?
Did you have time to go to Confession? Did you attend Mass? What are the sounds and the looks of your Christmas? Hopefully, your Christmas will be filled with love, compassion, peace.
Is the time for Tom and Jerry, Rusty Nail, Hot Buttered Rum, Fallen Angel, Eggnog, or Bombay Punch?
I sometimes remember different parts of the Christmas meal, the Tabasco, Macaroni and Cheese, Nestle Chocolate Milk, and the Reddi Whip from different childhood Christmas memories.
Each one of us have different ways of seeing and experiencing Christmas. For some Christmas is a Salvador Dali canvas of intentions, ideals, and idolatry. For some Christmas is a Pablo Picasso portrait of being apologetic, applauding, apocalyptic, applicative and apple-polishing. For some Christmas is a Pierre-Auguste Renoir painting of dappled, diffused light encouraging memories delicate, delicious, delighted; encouraging thoughts deliquescent, deliberate, delineated; encouraging reflections, prayer, devotional time.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
sending my messenger
Refining them like gold or like silver that they may offer due sacrifice to the LORD. Malachi 3:3
There is something about the hurly-burly of Christmas, secular Christmas which suggests the need for the development of a peaceful routine of contemplation, compassion, prayer and monastic piety.
The entire season for many is about motion, searching for presents, attending parties.
The vogue of the season is to complain about this and that, to vow never to shop again or to start earlier. Secular Christmas dominates the popular culture, presents low calorie pleas for understanding, peace, love and high calorie demands to purchase, purchase, purchase.
Christmas is a time of hope. Christmas is a time of love. Christmas is a time of sacrifice. A true Christmas gift does not always come from the mall. It must come from the heart, from the soul. Self denial might be part of this gift, directed abstinence from some activity to promote spiritual growth.
Christmas does ask us to be different than we were yesterday; Christmas asks us to speak different, behave different, contemplate more. It is not the store purchases but the soul reflection which should be treasured and encouraged during this season.
Each Christmas present has the opportunity to be a sacrifice fly if it is purchased and given with compassion, hope, and love and if it is given to encourage and promote spiritual growth.
Each day during Advent and the Christmas season is an opportunity for all Christians to use the Cornell Note-taking system to evaluate their lives, both secular and spiritual, and find ways to move closer to God, find ways to serve God.
We all need a little sacrifice in our lives.
There is something about the hurly-burly of Christmas, secular Christmas which suggests the need for the development of a peaceful routine of contemplation, compassion, prayer and monastic piety.
The entire season for many is about motion, searching for presents, attending parties.
The vogue of the season is to complain about this and that, to vow never to shop again or to start earlier. Secular Christmas dominates the popular culture, presents low calorie pleas for understanding, peace, love and high calorie demands to purchase, purchase, purchase.
Christmas is a time of hope. Christmas is a time of love. Christmas is a time of sacrifice. A true Christmas gift does not always come from the mall. It must come from the heart, from the soul. Self denial might be part of this gift, directed abstinence from some activity to promote spiritual growth.
Christmas does ask us to be different than we were yesterday; Christmas asks us to speak different, behave different, contemplate more. It is not the store purchases but the soul reflection which should be treasured and encouraged during this season.
Each Christmas present has the opportunity to be a sacrifice fly if it is purchased and given with compassion, hope, and love and if it is given to encourage and promote spiritual growth.
Each day during Advent and the Christmas season is an opportunity for all Christians to use the Cornell Note-taking system to evaluate their lives, both secular and spiritual, and find ways to move closer to God, find ways to serve God.
We all need a little sacrifice in our lives.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Who Me - December 22, 2010
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior. Luke 1:46-47
This December provides fresh and delicious cold weather. December is a good time for discernment. A long afternoon walk on an overcast day. Thinking about the Angelus. Remembering the music, the choir singing the words gently, beautifully, angelically. I remembered saying it a long time ago, during a retreat. December is a time of surprise, a time of wildness. Candles provide sweet, alluring scents. The Mass readings prepare us for the birth of Jesus Christ. December is a month of dazzling remembrances, offers for penance. There is something exquisite in giving; there is a softness in each hello. How delightful each day appears as Christmas becomes closer and closer. Discerning how to serve God can create a boundless desire to read and reflect on the Holy Scripture, a boundless desire to pray. Discernment is peaceful, a quiet moment of exploration blossoming into some unknown answer. December offers a special type of contentment, balmy and reverent. Life sings and hums. This is the time for gratitude. This is the time to think, to pray. This is the time for thanks, for praise. Happiness waits. The present moment asks only for goodness, holiness, and kindness. December asks us to prepare our entire being for the birth of Jesus Christ. Something within the seasonal get togethers reminds me to evangelize, to smile, to be enchanted with all the gifts that God has bestowed upon me. The days of triumph, the days of trouble provide lessons on charity, humility, obedience. The cold weather is forgotten when I remember to pray. All is beautiful, all is splendid. I give thanks and praise to God for all the splendors of life.
This December provides fresh and delicious cold weather. December is a good time for discernment. A long afternoon walk on an overcast day. Thinking about the Angelus. Remembering the music, the choir singing the words gently, beautifully, angelically. I remembered saying it a long time ago, during a retreat. December is a time of surprise, a time of wildness. Candles provide sweet, alluring scents. The Mass readings prepare us for the birth of Jesus Christ. December is a month of dazzling remembrances, offers for penance. There is something exquisite in giving; there is a softness in each hello. How delightful each day appears as Christmas becomes closer and closer. Discerning how to serve God can create a boundless desire to read and reflect on the Holy Scripture, a boundless desire to pray. Discernment is peaceful, a quiet moment of exploration blossoming into some unknown answer. December offers a special type of contentment, balmy and reverent. Life sings and hums. This is the time for gratitude. This is the time to think, to pray. This is the time for thanks, for praise. Happiness waits. The present moment asks only for goodness, holiness, and kindness. December asks us to prepare our entire being for the birth of Jesus Christ. Something within the seasonal get togethers reminds me to evangelize, to smile, to be enchanted with all the gifts that God has bestowed upon me. The days of triumph, the days of trouble provide lessons on charity, humility, obedience. The cold weather is forgotten when I remember to pray. All is beautiful, all is splendid. I give thanks and praise to God for all the splendors of life.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Now What - December 21, 2010
Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled. Luke 1:45
Our society is not perfect. The social priorities need to be examined and readjusted. The principles of social justice as practiced and taught by Jesus Christ need to be encouraged in all areas of life, private, public, civic. The government whether local, state, or federal should encourage all to value and respect all stages of life. The quality of each individual’s life should be considered.
All life is precious. Unborn babies and hardened criminals both deserve to receive our prayers for the protection of their lives. In 2010 there were only 46 executions in the United States. This represents a 12 percent drop from the previous year. The figures were gathered by the Death Penalty Information Center which produces and distributes an annual report on execution statistics.
There are approximately 700000 homeless people living in the United States. There are approximately 120000 chronic homeless people who live on the streets, have mental disabilities, drug and alcohol addiction/dependency problems, and life threatening medical conditions such as diabetes, cancer, heart disease. The number of homeless people is not accurate; it remains an estimate. The National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty estimates that approximately 3.5 million people, 1.35 million of them children, are likely to experience homelessness in a given year (National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, 2007).
During Advent and the Christmas seasons, Christians should remember all of those less fortunate, all of those in need with prayers and action.
Our society is not perfect. The social priorities need to be examined and readjusted. The principles of social justice as practiced and taught by Jesus Christ need to be encouraged in all areas of life, private, public, civic. The government whether local, state, or federal should encourage all to value and respect all stages of life. The quality of each individual’s life should be considered.
All life is precious. Unborn babies and hardened criminals both deserve to receive our prayers for the protection of their lives. In 2010 there were only 46 executions in the United States. This represents a 12 percent drop from the previous year. The figures were gathered by the Death Penalty Information Center which produces and distributes an annual report on execution statistics.
There are approximately 700000 homeless people living in the United States. There are approximately 120000 chronic homeless people who live on the streets, have mental disabilities, drug and alcohol addiction/dependency problems, and life threatening medical conditions such as diabetes, cancer, heart disease. The number of homeless people is not accurate; it remains an estimate. The National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty estimates that approximately 3.5 million people, 1.35 million of them children, are likely to experience homelessness in a given year (National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, 2007).
During Advent and the Christmas seasons, Christians should remember all of those less fortunate, all of those in need with prayers and action.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Listen - December 20, 2010
But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Luke 1:29
Hearing and obeying God is difficult for many of us. We have both internal, private noise drowning out God’s voice. Then, there is external, public noise always trying to capture our attention with bold colors, loud sounds.
Our Christian life can be described as a journey toward God. Each day we travel a little closer to God. We are gathering impressions, observations, thoughts, epiphanies as we move along. We learn by watching ourselves and watching others. Prayer is very helpful. The longer the period of prayer, often the more deeper the relationship with God. A healthy prayer life can form a great novitiate of spiritual development and fortitude, a wonderful initiation into living with charity, humility, and obedience. This initiation occurs with dedication, diligence, and discernment.
The entirety of life becomes the syllabus for an exploration into being Christian, following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, into living the Beatitudes.
Loving and serving God will become the most important thing in life.
The desire to be selfless, to serve without being noticed, without being thanked, to serve even if it might be dangerous will lead you closer to God, closer to holiness. There is no assurance of reward or remembrance for any act of kindness or charity. Serving God means being anonymous, being humble. I have seen myself in my imagination performing some great charitable deed with a great cinematic flourish and theatrical oration. I am often frightened and amused by these thoughts for they are products of movies and television shows that I have viewed and which I look back upon with a cautious, suspicious eye. I prefer my daydreams to be vague and intimate; I should buy lunch for this person in need, help this person with an application for this. I must find my place in the real world where people have real problems, real fears. I must find myself in my imagination so that I will be prepared to honestly, truly, gently share goodness, holiness, kindness.
Jesus Christ asks his followers to combat all impulses to be selfish; he reminded his followers of the necessity to develop and share all actions, feelings, and ideas which give God praise, glory, and thanks. He told the Apostles and the other followers to believe in God, to invite and welcome God into their hearts and their souls.
Being obedient to God’s will may at times be very difficult but it is always rewarding.
It is easy to pretend not to hear, to decide not to obey God’s wishes. It is easy to pretend that the message was garbled, or to postpone making a decision. The Holy Spirit can only guide us to God when we allow it. Having faith and hope in our lives is great, but it is better when we use them for the glory of God.
Hearing and obeying God requires active participation, discernment, and courage.
Hearing and obeying God is difficult for many of us. We have both internal, private noise drowning out God’s voice. Then, there is external, public noise always trying to capture our attention with bold colors, loud sounds.
Our Christian life can be described as a journey toward God. Each day we travel a little closer to God. We are gathering impressions, observations, thoughts, epiphanies as we move along. We learn by watching ourselves and watching others. Prayer is very helpful. The longer the period of prayer, often the more deeper the relationship with God. A healthy prayer life can form a great novitiate of spiritual development and fortitude, a wonderful initiation into living with charity, humility, and obedience. This initiation occurs with dedication, diligence, and discernment.
The entirety of life becomes the syllabus for an exploration into being Christian, following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, into living the Beatitudes.
Loving and serving God will become the most important thing in life.
The desire to be selfless, to serve without being noticed, without being thanked, to serve even if it might be dangerous will lead you closer to God, closer to holiness. There is no assurance of reward or remembrance for any act of kindness or charity. Serving God means being anonymous, being humble. I have seen myself in my imagination performing some great charitable deed with a great cinematic flourish and theatrical oration. I am often frightened and amused by these thoughts for they are products of movies and television shows that I have viewed and which I look back upon with a cautious, suspicious eye. I prefer my daydreams to be vague and intimate; I should buy lunch for this person in need, help this person with an application for this. I must find my place in the real world where people have real problems, real fears. I must find myself in my imagination so that I will be prepared to honestly, truly, gently share goodness, holiness, kindness.
Jesus Christ asks his followers to combat all impulses to be selfish; he reminded his followers of the necessity to develop and share all actions, feelings, and ideas which give God praise, glory, and thanks. He told the Apostles and the other followers to believe in God, to invite and welcome God into their hearts and their souls.
Being obedient to God’s will may at times be very difficult but it is always rewarding.
It is easy to pretend not to hear, to decide not to obey God’s wishes. It is easy to pretend that the message was garbled, or to postpone making a decision. The Holy Spirit can only guide us to God when we allow it. Having faith and hope in our lives is great, but it is better when we use them for the glory of God.
Hearing and obeying God requires active participation, discernment, and courage.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Spirit of holiness - December 19, 2010
When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home. Matthew 1:24
Each year the true message of Christmas is submerged beneath more hype, more consumerism, more angst. Christmas is not about giving and receiving; finding the perfect present; getting the best deal. There is so much hype that the real Christmas story is hidden from view.
The birth of Jesus Christ is important but that occurs after two very important events which are not mentioned outside of Mass.
What are the two events? What type of implications do these two events have on contemporary life?
The Nativity scene is very beautiful, very powerful. The entire story about the manger is gentle, natural, believable. The world and the time of Jesus Christ is rendered in such organic boldness that everything always is fresh when the story is told.
The two events which are central to this story concern Mary and Joseph. For the birth of Jesus to occur, both had to say yes to God's request. They both had angel visitations. They both had reservations. They both put their faith in God, complied with God's wishes. Both Mary and Joseph obeyed God. They each had free will. They could have said no. They decided to say yes.
The true message of Christmas begins with two people doing as God requested. The true gift of the season is their obedience, their faith.
All Christians should remember the angel visitations and prepare their lives for the tasks which God may request to be done.
Christmas can be a time of spiritual renewal if time is left for reflection, discernment. The presents should not be the focal point of this season. The focal point should be finding ways to serve God. The focal point should be saying yes to God. All Christians should be attentive, patient, and listening for God's call. All Christian's are asked to serve, are asked to have lives with foundation of charity, humility, and obedience.
Christmas reminds each one of us of the importance of listening and obeying God.
The true Christmas story is about the spirituality of two individuals, the simplicity and beauty of both their faith in God and their unwavering obedience to God. Their acceptance of God's requests fulfilled prophecy and suggested the foundation of a mystical union with God. Mary and Joseph together present a purity of heart, purity of obedience, purity of compassion and love, purity of conformity to the will of God.
The true value of the Christmas story rests in the lessons of preparation, renewal, and acceptance that the season offers when the spiritual needs are nurtured. Christmas is a time to open up each heart, open up each soul, open up each mind for God and for God's work.
Christmas reminds each Christian of the importance of saying thank you to God, of praising God.
The perfect gift for God is our obedience to his will.
Each year the true message of Christmas is submerged beneath more hype, more consumerism, more angst. Christmas is not about giving and receiving; finding the perfect present; getting the best deal. There is so much hype that the real Christmas story is hidden from view.
The birth of Jesus Christ is important but that occurs after two very important events which are not mentioned outside of Mass.
What are the two events? What type of implications do these two events have on contemporary life?
The Nativity scene is very beautiful, very powerful. The entire story about the manger is gentle, natural, believable. The world and the time of Jesus Christ is rendered in such organic boldness that everything always is fresh when the story is told.
The two events which are central to this story concern Mary and Joseph. For the birth of Jesus to occur, both had to say yes to God's request. They both had angel visitations. They both had reservations. They both put their faith in God, complied with God's wishes. Both Mary and Joseph obeyed God. They each had free will. They could have said no. They decided to say yes.
The true message of Christmas begins with two people doing as God requested. The true gift of the season is their obedience, their faith.
All Christians should remember the angel visitations and prepare their lives for the tasks which God may request to be done.
Christmas can be a time of spiritual renewal if time is left for reflection, discernment. The presents should not be the focal point of this season. The focal point should be finding ways to serve God. The focal point should be saying yes to God. All Christians should be attentive, patient, and listening for God's call. All Christian's are asked to serve, are asked to have lives with foundation of charity, humility, and obedience.
Christmas reminds each one of us of the importance of listening and obeying God.
The true Christmas story is about the spirituality of two individuals, the simplicity and beauty of both their faith in God and their unwavering obedience to God. Their acceptance of God's requests fulfilled prophecy and suggested the foundation of a mystical union with God. Mary and Joseph together present a purity of heart, purity of obedience, purity of compassion and love, purity of conformity to the will of God.
The true value of the Christmas story rests in the lessons of preparation, renewal, and acceptance that the season offers when the spiritual needs are nurtured. Christmas is a time to open up each heart, open up each soul, open up each mind for God and for God's work.
Christmas reminds each Christian of the importance of saying thank you to God, of praising God.
The perfect gift for God is our obedience to his will.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Behold, the days are coming - December 18, 2010
Christians often speak of love as if it possesses something magic. Love possesses nothing, asks for nothing. Love provides liberty, breadth, and depth to our thoughts on goodness, holiness, kindness. Love teaches us how to judge impartially our lives, our point of view, our actions. Love helps us connect ourselves to other good, God loving and God serving individuals from the past. Love provides perspective on the duration of an individual man’s life in comparison to the history of the world, in comparison with God. Our individual existence is not that great. Greatness only occurs when we give our lives, our love to God and the sphere of our existence moves beyond our personal concerns, moves to universal concerns of compassion, mercy, faithfulness, and love.
Christians are asked to praise and give thanks to God. Christians are asked to be loyal servants of God. Christians are asked to have charity, humility, and obedience for God in their hearts, minds, and souls.
Christians are asked to praise and give thanks to God. Christians are asked to be loyal servants of God. Christians are asked to have charity, humility, and obedience for God in their hearts, minds, and souls.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Assemble and listen - December 17, 2010
There is but one thing necessary thing in life. That is to know and love God; to have God within your heart, mind, and soul; to have the benefits of God within your entire being.
It is essential that we learn how to approach and how to adore God, both during Mass and outside of Mass, inside of a church and outside of a church. Personal resources will have to be developed to seek and to experience divinity. We must learn how to detach ourselves from our possessions, from our thoughts, from all things which might be taken, all things which might be lost. It is important, absolutely essential to understand and believe what is eternal. Everything in life which is not eternal is temporary, simply borrowed. All those things which help us gain admittance to heaven are real, are beautiful when they are used appropriately for the glory and love of God. As Christians we are asked to learn, to adore, to understand, to accept, to experience, to share, to teach about God, about his love and mercy for each of us, about loving our neighbors as we love ourselves. This is a responsibility. This is our duty. This is God’s law, God’s plan. When we follow it, we experience happiness, we move closer to God, closer to heaven. When we truly, honestly, deeply love and serve God nothing can stop us, not even death. The purpose of our Christian life is to develop a peaceful mind, to discover and extoll the presence of God, to discern how to better serve God. Being in communion with God, listening to and following his instruction is the goal. There is no reason to have fear. Let the love for God give you strength. Let it teach you to sacrifice, teach you to pray, teach you to love, teach you to live with the beauty and peace of the principles of fairness and social justice as taught by Jesus Christ. All moral thought and ethics will begin with love and loyalty to God. Let his will act as your guide. All greatness exists for those who do his work patiently, lovingly, gently. Being Christian means allowing and wanting God to dwell within our beings, our complete beings and wanting this completely and consciously. The potential for goodness, kindness, and holiness waits to expand within each Christian, waits for moral fairness, moral decency, moral superiority to flourish. A superiority of spirit, a kind of purity which is obtained and maintained by prayer and discernment is necessary when doing God’s work.
All of this begins with love; all is nurtured by love.
It is essential that we learn how to approach and how to adore God, both during Mass and outside of Mass, inside of a church and outside of a church. Personal resources will have to be developed to seek and to experience divinity. We must learn how to detach ourselves from our possessions, from our thoughts, from all things which might be taken, all things which might be lost. It is important, absolutely essential to understand and believe what is eternal. Everything in life which is not eternal is temporary, simply borrowed. All those things which help us gain admittance to heaven are real, are beautiful when they are used appropriately for the glory and love of God. As Christians we are asked to learn, to adore, to understand, to accept, to experience, to share, to teach about God, about his love and mercy for each of us, about loving our neighbors as we love ourselves. This is a responsibility. This is our duty. This is God’s law, God’s plan. When we follow it, we experience happiness, we move closer to God, closer to heaven. When we truly, honestly, deeply love and serve God nothing can stop us, not even death. The purpose of our Christian life is to develop a peaceful mind, to discover and extoll the presence of God, to discern how to better serve God. Being in communion with God, listening to and following his instruction is the goal. There is no reason to have fear. Let the love for God give you strength. Let it teach you to sacrifice, teach you to pray, teach you to love, teach you to live with the beauty and peace of the principles of fairness and social justice as taught by Jesus Christ. All moral thought and ethics will begin with love and loyalty to God. Let his will act as your guide. All greatness exists for those who do his work patiently, lovingly, gently. Being Christian means allowing and wanting God to dwell within our beings, our complete beings and wanting this completely and consciously. The potential for goodness, kindness, and holiness waits to expand within each Christian, waits for moral fairness, moral decency, moral superiority to flourish. A superiority of spirit, a kind of purity which is obtained and maintained by prayer and discernment is necessary when doing God’s work.
All of this begins with love; all is nurtured by love.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
My love shall never leave you - December 16, 2010
What did you go out to the desert to see--a reed swayed by the wind? Luke 7:24
On each day we discuss vacations and vocations. We discuss the Seine, discuss Original Sin. We talk about the Beatitudes and walking on water. Being Baptized in the River Jordan is appealing. There is talk of penance, sacrifice, sacraments. There are questions about Saint Paul’s writings. There are tender emotions leading us toward God, leading us upward. Happily the lightness of faith brightens the room with a magnificent glow.
Popular Culture bombards us with wicked, violent images of all types of sin and vice? I try to say little prayers during such situations. However, we must hope.
The wicked images tempt us, encourage us to make mistakes, encourage us to forget the consequences. We learn how to repair our mistakes, how to ask for forgiveness.
Mass offers strength and truth. We have charity, humility, and obedience to God.
Well, this journey will not have been the mere summer afternoon convertible ride, top down, easy, comforting. A journey will stir thoughts of all humanity, will direct our heart, mind, and soul toward heaven. True magnificence occurs when we are not selfish, when we are quiet, when we are discerning. It is natural to seek a deeper connection with Jesus Christ.
On each day we discuss vacations and vocations. We discuss the Seine, discuss Original Sin. We talk about the Beatitudes and walking on water. Being Baptized in the River Jordan is appealing. There is talk of penance, sacrifice, sacraments. There are questions about Saint Paul’s writings. There are tender emotions leading us toward God, leading us upward. Happily the lightness of faith brightens the room with a magnificent glow.
Popular Culture bombards us with wicked, violent images of all types of sin and vice? I try to say little prayers during such situations. However, we must hope.
The wicked images tempt us, encourage us to make mistakes, encourage us to forget the consequences. We learn how to repair our mistakes, how to ask for forgiveness.
Mass offers strength and truth. We have charity, humility, and obedience to God.
Well, this journey will not have been the mere summer afternoon convertible ride, top down, easy, comforting. A journey will stir thoughts of all humanity, will direct our heart, mind, and soul toward heaven. True magnificence occurs when we are not selfish, when we are quiet, when we are discerning. It is natural to seek a deeper connection with Jesus Christ.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Turn to me and be safe - December 15, 2010
In the LORD shall be the vindication and the glory of all the descendants of Israel. Isaiah 45:25
There are remarkable stories of virtue. There are remarkable stories of all types of journeys. Saying the Rosary is encouraged. Prayer presents images picturesque, inspiring. Silence can provide comfort. The great problem is sinning and thinking about sinning, and the solution is not easy when popular culture asks us to deny the existence of sin and to allow psychology and sociology to explain everything, to revise and reduce the idea of Original Sin.
The Mass attempts to give us new spiritual ideas and lessons which reinforce the simple theme of love. We are all refugees. We are all wounded.
There is compassion, mercy, hope.
We no longer know everything, having too much information, too much opinion and not enough facts. Trust is desired, but difficult to obtain.
Loving our neighbors as we love ourselves is desirable yet very difficult.
There is so much to think about.
Splendid discernment topics wait to be uncovered
And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me. Luke 7:23
There are remarkable stories of virtue. There are remarkable stories of all types of journeys. Saying the Rosary is encouraged. Prayer presents images picturesque, inspiring. Silence can provide comfort. The great problem is sinning and thinking about sinning, and the solution is not easy when popular culture asks us to deny the existence of sin and to allow psychology and sociology to explain everything, to revise and reduce the idea of Original Sin.
The Mass attempts to give us new spiritual ideas and lessons which reinforce the simple theme of love. We are all refugees. We are all wounded.
There is compassion, mercy, hope.
We no longer know everything, having too much information, too much opinion and not enough facts. Trust is desired, but difficult to obtain.
Loving our neighbors as we love ourselves is desirable yet very difficult.
There is so much to think about.
Splendid discernment topics wait to be uncovered
And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me. Luke 7:23
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Who shall take refuge in the name of the LORD - December 14
Which of the two did his father's will? Matthew 21:31
Is there any part of your life that you think would make a great parable for someone else to hear? Have you done something wonderful for someone? Has someone done something wonderful for you? Have you had a prodigal moment? Have you had a “cast the first stone” moment?
Throughout our lives we have each made many, many decisions. We have obeyed the rules and broken the rules. We try to be saints but we are always sinners.
Being a sinner is natural, is organic for all human beings. No one is immune from sin.
The goal of our Christian lives involves both learning and applying the principles and precepts of goodness, holiness, and kindness. We must learn how to be God like in our thoughts and actions.
How illustrious and how illuminating a Christian life can be.
It is good to study and follow the customs and traditions of a religion. There is diligence, diversity within the parishioners. There is honor and happiness within each Mass. There is glory! There is love. There is admiration, adoration. There is congratulation. There is commiseration.
Each day of a faithful Christian’s life is an attempt to be God-like, to follow in the foot steps of Jesus Christ.
Is there any part of your life that you think would make a great parable for someone else to hear? Have you done something wonderful for someone? Has someone done something wonderful for you? Have you had a prodigal moment? Have you had a “cast the first stone” moment?
Throughout our lives we have each made many, many decisions. We have obeyed the rules and broken the rules. We try to be saints but we are always sinners.
Being a sinner is natural, is organic for all human beings. No one is immune from sin.
The goal of our Christian lives involves both learning and applying the principles and precepts of goodness, holiness, and kindness. We must learn how to be God like in our thoughts and actions.
How illustrious and how illuminating a Christian life can be.
It is good to study and follow the customs and traditions of a religion. There is diligence, diversity within the parishioners. There is honor and happiness within each Mass. There is glory! There is love. There is admiration, adoration. There is congratulation. There is commiseration.
Each day of a faithful Christian’s life is an attempt to be God-like, to follow in the foot steps of Jesus Christ.
Monday, December 13, 2010
like gardens beside a stream - December 13, 2010
By what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority? Matthew 21:18
It is important to remember to give thanks and praise to God. It is always good to remember to offer thanks for good health, sound body. Worldly things should not be too influential upon your character. Live each day simply merry in the hope of eternal life in heaven with God. Allow yourself to cultivate good friends who can teach you charity, humility, and obedience to God. It will be good for you to associate with those who believe in the Lord and are willing to share their experiences with the Holy Spirit, their experiences with prayer.
Allow the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes to lead you closer to God.
Continually ask the Lord to keep you honest, faithful, humble. Continually as the Lord to help you live without, to help you sacrifice. Continually ask the Lord to help you be content, to help you serve God. Live your life with both the anticipation and expectation of serving God tomorrow.
Always be true to God through prayer, meditation, and reflection.
It is important to remember to give thanks and praise to God. It is always good to remember to offer thanks for good health, sound body. Worldly things should not be too influential upon your character. Live each day simply merry in the hope of eternal life in heaven with God. Allow yourself to cultivate good friends who can teach you charity, humility, and obedience to God. It will be good for you to associate with those who believe in the Lord and are willing to share their experiences with the Holy Spirit, their experiences with prayer.
Allow the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes to lead you closer to God.
Continually ask the Lord to keep you honest, faithful, humble. Continually as the Lord to help you live without, to help you sacrifice. Continually ask the Lord to help you be content, to help you serve God. Live your life with both the anticipation and expectation of serving God tomorrow.
Always be true to God through prayer, meditation, and reflection.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Be strong, fear not! - December 12
See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. James 5:7
I meant to write this entry earlier but it was such a busy day that I spent more time at the Cathedral than I had originally planned. I participated in one Mass, photographed another Mass, photographed another celebration, photographed a Christmas present wrapping party, participated in another Mass, had pizza and photographed more gift wrapping, then photographed the choir evening concert, and then photographed happy parishioners singing Christmas carols and drinking wassail. It was a delicious day, filled with prayer, filled with thoughts about the Lord.
It was a day of standing on the marble. It was a day of giving thanks.
The day was dedicated to God. There was something nurturing and playful; there was something healthy and alive, energizing my spirituality, evangelizing my spirituality. There was so much to observe, to experience, to remember.
There were children. There was a procession. There was a recreation.
A miracle was replayed and presented in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
There is something beautiful, something immense in being a part of this parish. Each day can be an expedition leading to goodness, kindness, holiness; leading to God.
Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another? Matthew 11:3
I meant to write this entry earlier but it was such a busy day that I spent more time at the Cathedral than I had originally planned. I participated in one Mass, photographed another Mass, photographed another celebration, photographed a Christmas present wrapping party, participated in another Mass, had pizza and photographed more gift wrapping, then photographed the choir evening concert, and then photographed happy parishioners singing Christmas carols and drinking wassail. It was a delicious day, filled with prayer, filled with thoughts about the Lord.
It was a day of standing on the marble. It was a day of giving thanks.
The day was dedicated to God. There was something nurturing and playful; there was something healthy and alive, energizing my spirituality, evangelizing my spirituality. There was so much to observe, to experience, to remember.
There were children. There was a procession. There was a recreation.
A miracle was replayed and presented in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
There is something beautiful, something immense in being a part of this parish. Each day can be an expedition leading to goodness, kindness, holiness; leading to God.
Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another? Matthew 11:3
Saturday, December 11, 2010
whose words were as a flaming furnace - December 11
Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first? Matthew 17:10
Mass is very special, very beautiful. Mass is very important. It should always be cherished, always treated with respect. The Mass is a time of and a time for community. The Mass is a time of reverence. There is great equality within the prayers of the Mass. Allow the Mass to be a time of remembrance.
Allow the splendor of the Mass to lead you to a beautiful, peaceful place of reflection. Allow the rhythm of the Mass to lead you to tranquility. Allow the silence of the Mass to lead you to compassion. Always remember that both God and man are present in each Mass; both need to be respected.
Each Mass, when the glow of candles warms the broad, sturdy altar, and there is a soft prayerful anticipation, and thoughts of private intercessions, and the gentle chant, in repetition to God, each one of us, each baptized Christian is a child in the eyes of God, a child with faces clean, fresh, fair; is a child asking for love and attention; is a child standing in an open doorway trying to decide whether to enter the room or whether to wait a little longer..
Although we attend Mass as a community, there is something intensely private, intensely sacred which can occur. Alone with our thoughts we individually reach for God. Mass teaches us how to be full of life, full of mercy. On a very basic level, Mass reminds each one of us about innocence, about childhood, about being bold and boyish, about being smart and girlish. Mass reminds us that we are God’s children.
With tremulous voice, we offer prayers to him.
And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with him. Matthew 17:3
Mass is very special, very beautiful. Mass is very important. It should always be cherished, always treated with respect. The Mass is a time of and a time for community. The Mass is a time of reverence. There is great equality within the prayers of the Mass. Allow the Mass to be a time of remembrance.
Allow the splendor of the Mass to lead you to a beautiful, peaceful place of reflection. Allow the rhythm of the Mass to lead you to tranquility. Allow the silence of the Mass to lead you to compassion. Always remember that both God and man are present in each Mass; both need to be respected.
Each Mass, when the glow of candles warms the broad, sturdy altar, and there is a soft prayerful anticipation, and thoughts of private intercessions, and the gentle chant, in repetition to God, each one of us, each baptized Christian is a child in the eyes of God, a child with faces clean, fresh, fair; is a child asking for love and attention; is a child standing in an open doorway trying to decide whether to enter the room or whether to wait a little longer..
Although we attend Mass as a community, there is something intensely private, intensely sacred which can occur. Alone with our thoughts we individually reach for God. Mass teaches us how to be full of life, full of mercy. On a very basic level, Mass reminds each one of us about innocence, about childhood, about being bold and boyish, about being smart and girlish. Mass reminds us that we are God’s children.
With tremulous voice, we offer prayers to him.
And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with him. Matthew 17:3
Friday, December 10, 2010
delights in the law of the LORD - December 10, 2010
Rather, the law of the LORD is their joy; God's law they study day and night. Psalm 1:2
Life presents wit, humor, sublimity, solemnity. Our brains allow us to reason, to make decisions. Life presents pain, terror, and fear. Each individual reacts differently. Being Christian is difficult. It asks us to accept, believe, and follow ancient documents written thousands and thousands of years ago. It is easy saying that we believe in God. Living a life that says we believe in God is difficult.
December days become shorter and shorter. The temperature is going lower and lower.
It is important to encourage our hearts, minds, and souls to expand, to learn about different subjects, to learn how to love, how to hope, how to share in the name of Jesus Christ. It is very important to learn how to embrace all sorts of goodness, kindness, and holiness. It is important to aspire for the goodness of heaven. It is important to inspire the kindness and compassion of Jesus Christ in ourselves and our neighbors. We must learn how to embrace charity, humility, and obedience to God in our daily lives. We must embrace our belief in social justice as taught by Jesus Christ.
The Mass allows each of us who believe and who open our hearts, minds, and souls, freely and completely to the Lord to experience an absolutely heavenly place, filled with love, filled with hope, filled with faith, beautifully surpassing my expectations. There is nothing old-fashioned about the Mass. There is something very comforting, very nurturing.
There is a simple plan to improve the spiritual life of all present, of all who allow themselves to believe, who allow themselves to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. The prayers and readings lead the imagination upward, heavenward, to the high gables of belfry towers of peace, goodwill, mercy. There is something delightfully fresh, delightfully cleansing, delightfully gentle. Each word has a purpose. Each word brings God alive before us, each word presents lessons on how to live in a manner pleasing to God.
There is something dreamy about the Mass. There is something magnificent. The Mass is more than an event. It is a portal, a doorway leading to love, leading to the Lord Jesus Christ. There is something translucent, transcendent about the experience of the Mass. The Mass is filled with old prayers which breathe new life into the hearts, minds, and souls of those present who listen and believe.
Each Mass presents something for our minds to wonder about, to ponder about after the Mass is over. The beauty of the Mass is that the simplicity of its design allows for and encourages us to listen attentively, to ask ourselves questions, to allow the questions to resonate, to think of the questions after the Mass is over. Each Mass allows and encourages us to discern, to ask ourselves how to be better servants of God, asks us how to do the work of God, asks us how do each one of us follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ.
But wisdom is vindicated by her works. Matthew 11:19
Life presents wit, humor, sublimity, solemnity. Our brains allow us to reason, to make decisions. Life presents pain, terror, and fear. Each individual reacts differently. Being Christian is difficult. It asks us to accept, believe, and follow ancient documents written thousands and thousands of years ago. It is easy saying that we believe in God. Living a life that says we believe in God is difficult.
December days become shorter and shorter. The temperature is going lower and lower.
It is important to encourage our hearts, minds, and souls to expand, to learn about different subjects, to learn how to love, how to hope, how to share in the name of Jesus Christ. It is very important to learn how to embrace all sorts of goodness, kindness, and holiness. It is important to aspire for the goodness of heaven. It is important to inspire the kindness and compassion of Jesus Christ in ourselves and our neighbors. We must learn how to embrace charity, humility, and obedience to God in our daily lives. We must embrace our belief in social justice as taught by Jesus Christ.
The Mass allows each of us who believe and who open our hearts, minds, and souls, freely and completely to the Lord to experience an absolutely heavenly place, filled with love, filled with hope, filled with faith, beautifully surpassing my expectations. There is nothing old-fashioned about the Mass. There is something very comforting, very nurturing.
There is a simple plan to improve the spiritual life of all present, of all who allow themselves to believe, who allow themselves to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. The prayers and readings lead the imagination upward, heavenward, to the high gables of belfry towers of peace, goodwill, mercy. There is something delightfully fresh, delightfully cleansing, delightfully gentle. Each word has a purpose. Each word brings God alive before us, each word presents lessons on how to live in a manner pleasing to God.
There is something dreamy about the Mass. There is something magnificent. The Mass is more than an event. It is a portal, a doorway leading to love, leading to the Lord Jesus Christ. There is something translucent, transcendent about the experience of the Mass. The Mass is filled with old prayers which breathe new life into the hearts, minds, and souls of those present who listen and believe.
Each Mass presents something for our minds to wonder about, to ponder about after the Mass is over. The beauty of the Mass is that the simplicity of its design allows for and encourages us to listen attentively, to ask ourselves questions, to allow the questions to resonate, to think of the questions after the Mass is over. Each Mass allows and encourages us to discern, to ask ourselves how to be better servants of God, asks us how to do the work of God, asks us how do each one of us follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ.
But wisdom is vindicated by her works. Matthew 11:19
Thursday, December 9, 2010
your redeemer is the Holy One - December 9, 2010
Whoever has ears ought to hear. Matthew 11:15
Different generations have had different people that they have listened to, followed, imitated, and been entertained by. Each of us have both the responsibility and the ability to share the Good News with others, to use our lives to evangelize. This does not mean fire and brimstone oration on street corners or in parks on Saturday afternoons. Each choice we make, each word we speak is important when it is done for the Lord. Each of our little decisions when done with charity, humility, and obedience to God’s rules can lead others to follow us, to deepen their relationship with God.
Our goal is to nurture and grow the grace of Lord in our daily lives. We must always remember to proceed with faith and love in Jesus Christ.
Our goal is to trust in Jesus Christ and to allow ourselves and our faith to be strengthened by the grace that flows from Jesus Christ.
As we search for salvation we must also want our neighbors to find and experience salvation. Our prayers are always inclusive, our hearts are always open, our souls are always filled with hope, love, compassion.
When you attend Mass listen attentively, actively with all your senses, participate actively with all your senses. Allow yourself to be vulnerable, allow yourself to listen and feel the words of the Good News. Allow yourself to be God’s “Beloved.” Understand and accept the responsibility of being God’s servant.
The Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist feed and nurture our minds, our souls.
As Christians we are encouraged to find our individual way to examine the beauty of living life following in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is so many things happening within our lives, so many opportunities to evangelize, so many questions to discern.
We each can and must create our own snapshot of our life with Christ.
Different generations have had different people that they have listened to, followed, imitated, and been entertained by. Each of us have both the responsibility and the ability to share the Good News with others, to use our lives to evangelize. This does not mean fire and brimstone oration on street corners or in parks on Saturday afternoons. Each choice we make, each word we speak is important when it is done for the Lord. Each of our little decisions when done with charity, humility, and obedience to God’s rules can lead others to follow us, to deepen their relationship with God.
Our goal is to nurture and grow the grace of Lord in our daily lives. We must always remember to proceed with faith and love in Jesus Christ.
Our goal is to trust in Jesus Christ and to allow ourselves and our faith to be strengthened by the grace that flows from Jesus Christ.
As we search for salvation we must also want our neighbors to find and experience salvation. Our prayers are always inclusive, our hearts are always open, our souls are always filled with hope, love, compassion.
When you attend Mass listen attentively, actively with all your senses, participate actively with all your senses. Allow yourself to be vulnerable, allow yourself to listen and feel the words of the Good News. Allow yourself to be God’s “Beloved.” Understand and accept the responsibility of being God’s servant.
The Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist feed and nurture our minds, our souls.
As Christians we are encouraged to find our individual way to examine the beauty of living life following in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is so many things happening within our lives, so many opportunities to evangelize, so many questions to discern.
We each can and must create our own snapshot of our life with Christ.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Sing joyfully to the LORD - December 8, 2010
The holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Luke 1:35
There are so many names in our lives. There are so many labels. Each day we are asked to remember this person’s first name, that person’s last name, this company, that project. The Bible also is filled with many names of people, places, and things which we are asked to remember.
The names and their stories direct our gaze to what is important, to what is beautiful. Our lives as Christians should be filled with charity, humility, obedience. Each day we should attempt to add a little bit more charity, humility, and obedience to our lives.
Each day we should try to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. When our lives are filled with unconditional compassion, unlimited love, we are capable of doing so much good for God.
Our popular culture presents many dangerous, conflicting images of all types of vice and licentiousness in such warm inviting colors, in language boldly encouraging and sympathetic to the individual sense of vulnerability, sense of ego, sense of desire for acceptance. Popular culture and modern society are only interested in the present moment. The current fifteen seconds are important. Today’s clothes, food, ideas will all be updated and replaced tomorrow. We know this but we fall victim to some of society’s messages and wickedness.
Our Baptism provides each one of us an antidote, a weapon to use against the decadent deception which is modern life. Our Baptism asks each of us to be aware of goodness, holiness, kindness within ourselves and within others. Our Baptism cleansed our soul from Original Sin. We must remember this each day as we make each decision. A red light at an intersection of two streets tells us to stop, there is the possibility of danger if we proceed hastily, rashly without the proper caution. We must always be open to listening for the voice of God, taking time to hear and obey the voice of God.
Please allow yourself a few minutes of prayer, a few moments of reflection on God, Bible passages, anything which will strengthen your love and obedience to God.
As Christians we should always be listening for God’s voice, always be prepared to say yes to God’s requests,
In him we were also chosen, destined in accord with the purpose of the one who accomplishes all things according to the intention of his will, Ephesians 1:11
There are so many names in our lives. There are so many labels. Each day we are asked to remember this person’s first name, that person’s last name, this company, that project. The Bible also is filled with many names of people, places, and things which we are asked to remember.
The names and their stories direct our gaze to what is important, to what is beautiful. Our lives as Christians should be filled with charity, humility, obedience. Each day we should attempt to add a little bit more charity, humility, and obedience to our lives.
Each day we should try to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. When our lives are filled with unconditional compassion, unlimited love, we are capable of doing so much good for God.
Our popular culture presents many dangerous, conflicting images of all types of vice and licentiousness in such warm inviting colors, in language boldly encouraging and sympathetic to the individual sense of vulnerability, sense of ego, sense of desire for acceptance. Popular culture and modern society are only interested in the present moment. The current fifteen seconds are important. Today’s clothes, food, ideas will all be updated and replaced tomorrow. We know this but we fall victim to some of society’s messages and wickedness.
Our Baptism provides each one of us an antidote, a weapon to use against the decadent deception which is modern life. Our Baptism asks each of us to be aware of goodness, holiness, kindness within ourselves and within others. Our Baptism cleansed our soul from Original Sin. We must remember this each day as we make each decision. A red light at an intersection of two streets tells us to stop, there is the possibility of danger if we proceed hastily, rashly without the proper caution. We must always be open to listening for the voice of God, taking time to hear and obey the voice of God.
Please allow yourself a few minutes of prayer, a few moments of reflection on God, Bible passages, anything which will strengthen your love and obedience to God.
As Christians we should always be listening for God’s voice, always be prepared to say yes to God’s requests,
In him we were also chosen, destined in accord with the purpose of the one who accomplishes all things according to the intention of his will, Ephesians 1:11
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Comfort, give comfort - December 7, 2010
A voice says, "Cry out!" I answer, "What shall I cry out?" "All mankind is grass, and all their glory like the flower of the field. Isaiah 40:6
Fact and opinion are often in conflict now. Intelligent men often use rhetorical tricks to help opinion masquerade as fact. There is so much anxiety, so much angst. Everyone is always looking for the quick answer, the easy answer.
Please accept these generalizations. The generalizations are true. Our society is always in a hurry to get somewhere, to approve a new wonder drug, to make a quick dollar.
It is often difficult to know what is right and wrong in our society because so many conflicting messages are sent. Christians have one set rules which theoretically form the structure of our society. But, society has watered down the application of these rules.
Being good is not always the most desirable thing anymore. Everyone is allowed to exist within an area of grey, neither good, neither bad flexible, ready to go either way based upon changing conditions.
Living in the greyness often allows and encourages modern life to speeds by an individual at such a fast, dangerous pace, that common sense urges him to slow down, to evaluate his decisions, to discern whether he is doing the right thing. The brave ones will ask themselves whether they are serving God. Discernment is a beautiful frightening thing. Looking at our lives, asking ourselves if our lives are based upon charity, humility, and obedience to God can be a frightening thing. Discernment can help us escape the greyness, the confusion of modern life.
Each individual should slow down, reflect upon all parts of his life, both good and bad, rough and gentle, and then listen for a soft voice to give direction, a soft voice to give hope.
Each Christian should allow and encourage his heart, mind, and soul to always listen for the voice of God.
In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost.” Matthew 18:14
Fact and opinion are often in conflict now. Intelligent men often use rhetorical tricks to help opinion masquerade as fact. There is so much anxiety, so much angst. Everyone is always looking for the quick answer, the easy answer.
Please accept these generalizations. The generalizations are true. Our society is always in a hurry to get somewhere, to approve a new wonder drug, to make a quick dollar.
It is often difficult to know what is right and wrong in our society because so many conflicting messages are sent. Christians have one set rules which theoretically form the structure of our society. But, society has watered down the application of these rules.
Being good is not always the most desirable thing anymore. Everyone is allowed to exist within an area of grey, neither good, neither bad flexible, ready to go either way based upon changing conditions.
Living in the greyness often allows and encourages modern life to speeds by an individual at such a fast, dangerous pace, that common sense urges him to slow down, to evaluate his decisions, to discern whether he is doing the right thing. The brave ones will ask themselves whether they are serving God. Discernment is a beautiful frightening thing. Looking at our lives, asking ourselves if our lives are based upon charity, humility, and obedience to God can be a frightening thing. Discernment can help us escape the greyness, the confusion of modern life.
Each individual should slow down, reflect upon all parts of his life, both good and bad, rough and gentle, and then listen for a soft voice to give direction, a soft voice to give hope.
Each Christian should allow and encourage his heart, mind, and soul to always listen for the voice of God.
In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost.” Matthew 18:14
Monday, December 6, 2010
He stood up immediately before them - December 6, 2010
Those whom the LORD has ransomed will return and enter Zion singing, crowned with everlasting joy; They will meet with joy and gladness, sorrow and mourning will flee. Isaiah 35:10
Unfortunately the beauty and serenity of being Catholic is lost upon many of my neighbors who are busy watching the Redskins or the Real Housewives or doing whatever busy, educated urban professionals do when they are not working. The visibility of social justice keeps many concerns alive and active in many imaginations. The issues of today are complex conundrums. There are no quick fixes, no easy answers.
Prayer remains as an alternative to the hectic selfishness of our popular culture and society. The Great American Dream needs to be replaced with the Great American Prayer.
Each Christian is asked to contribute to the well-being of his community, parish, and family.
Unfortunately the beauty and serenity of being Catholic is lost upon many of my neighbors who are busy watching the Redskins or the Real Housewives or doing whatever busy, educated urban professionals do when they are not working. The visibility of social justice keeps many concerns alive and active in many imaginations. The issues of today are complex conundrums. There are no quick fixes, no easy answers.
Prayer remains as an alternative to the hectic selfishness of our popular culture and society. The Great American Dream needs to be replaced with the Great American Prayer.
Each Christian is asked to contribute to the well-being of his community, parish, and family.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
a spirit of counsel and of strength - December 5, 2010
Allow yourself to cherish the Sabbath and attending Mass on the Sabbath. Allow this to be a day of charity, humility, and obedience.
Remember the half forgotten prayers of childhood, create some prayers with echoes from yesterday.
Within each prayer rests a portion of your youth, a dollop of all that which is good, kind, and holy within you
And so remember the comfort that prayer does offer
Each time you do acknowledge what you have done
Each momentary strength, momentary weakness
Each prayer does unlock childish memories of faith,
And of Easter, and of the greatest sacrifice you ever heard,
And of a candle-lighted Lent of abstinence and silence
Now, vivid, cinematic, asking me to discern.
Presenting faces of hope, faces of faith, faces of love; faces serving, faces following
Tragedy is the handmaid to all human beings
And yet, those who believe with their entire being
Will surely find salvation and eternal life with God.
I am thinking of a child's prayer now
Said proudly, happily before their father at mealtime.
Remember the half forgotten prayers of childhood, create some prayers with echoes from yesterday.
Within each prayer rests a portion of your youth, a dollop of all that which is good, kind, and holy within you
And so remember the comfort that prayer does offer
Each time you do acknowledge what you have done
Each momentary strength, momentary weakness
Each prayer does unlock childish memories of faith,
And of Easter, and of the greatest sacrifice you ever heard,
And of a candle-lighted Lent of abstinence and silence
Now, vivid, cinematic, asking me to discern.
Presenting faces of hope, faces of faith, faces of love; faces serving, faces following
Tragedy is the handmaid to all human beings
And yet, those who believe with their entire being
Will surely find salvation and eternal life with God.
I am thinking of a child's prayer now
Said proudly, happily before their father at mealtime.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
no more will you weep December 4
Untitled Prayer from Yesterday
Never until this instance have I ever seen.
The delicate candle-lighted wreath and ribbons
On the black wick,
tickles the flame and offers a new trick;
And thereupon silence my tongue does pick
Remembrance, yes; recollection, yes:
Poignant thought about gibbons.
A prayer within my heart, smitten, content does grow.
Nurtured by goodness, kindness, holiness,
And when at last I did approach charity,
Faith provided a glimpse of truth and solidarity,
And my heart did yearn for the familiarity
Within quiet marble places; smitten silent
Waiting, wanting to learn something new, something true.
Why do your eyes look upon my ears?
What can you see within my desperation?
Do you feel my prayers?
Am I content with my cares
What is there but what each of us shares,
In reverent imaging and candle light,
A moment of talk, a moment of quiet.
The sweetest love does approach with each breath here
Words chanted gently, almost in unison linger
With a vanquishing power of tender deliquesce
Or heavenly loveliness,
Merely announcing the beauty of holiness
Among the harmonies of hope and good cheer
Faith makes each believer a true singer.
But why should you kneel down before your Father
And start--with sounds, then words, then sentences--
Simply praying
That any day could bring
or inspire the goodness of anything
Beauty requires prayer,
And prayer does make us wonder, does make us fonder
of our Father.
Now the candle light does stand guard;
The silence does surround, comfort me,
Within the stump speeches in my mind,
A wish for humility to bind,
all the goodness, kindness that the prayers may find,
within my body, heart, and soul with holiness as my guard
as I journey, as I yearn, as I pray.
Never until this instance have I ever seen.
The delicate candle-lighted wreath and ribbons
On the black wick,
tickles the flame and offers a new trick;
And thereupon silence my tongue does pick
Remembrance, yes; recollection, yes:
Poignant thought about gibbons.
A prayer within my heart, smitten, content does grow.
Nurtured by goodness, kindness, holiness,
And when at last I did approach charity,
Faith provided a glimpse of truth and solidarity,
And my heart did yearn for the familiarity
Within quiet marble places; smitten silent
Waiting, wanting to learn something new, something true.
Why do your eyes look upon my ears?
What can you see within my desperation?
Do you feel my prayers?
Am I content with my cares
What is there but what each of us shares,
In reverent imaging and candle light,
A moment of talk, a moment of quiet.
The sweetest love does approach with each breath here
Words chanted gently, almost in unison linger
With a vanquishing power of tender deliquesce
Or heavenly loveliness,
Merely announcing the beauty of holiness
Among the harmonies of hope and good cheer
Faith makes each believer a true singer.
But why should you kneel down before your Father
And start--with sounds, then words, then sentences--
Simply praying
That any day could bring
or inspire the goodness of anything
Beauty requires prayer,
And prayer does make us wonder, does make us fonder
of our Father.
Now the candle light does stand guard;
The silence does surround, comfort me,
Within the stump speeches in my mind,
A wish for humility to bind,
all the goodness, kindness that the prayers may find,
within my body, heart, and soul with holiness as my guard
as I journey, as I yearn, as I pray.
Friday, December 3, 2010
See that no one knows about this - December 3
"Let it be done for you according to your faith." Matthew 9:29
Newspaper headlines and lead paragraphs often capture my attention. There is nothing like a good, well publicized, and often polarized court room trial, the heated, intellectual cross-examinations, and sensational pictures and captions to motivate quips, puns, and one liners. Political reportage is very domestic, often too didactic. But, there are people who prefer articles about government agencies, government policies, government nuances. I look for new to make my eyes opens, my jaw to drop open. I look for news to scare me. A good newspaper story makes me afraid of my neighbors, makes me afraid to watch television,makes me afraid not to watch television. My entire being becomes briefly involved when I read newspaper headlines and lead paragraphs. How I like the inverted paragraph!
I am always on the look out for something to induce PG day dreams in which I am the witness on the stand, or at the next table or standing close to the wrong person at the right time or with the right person at the wrong time and either I photograph, film, or record a conversation or event accidentally and then I have to explain it and present it to the police and then during a sensational trial where I am the star witness. I am all ready with my imaginary comebacks, my imaginary sidelong glances,and my imaginary self-confidence and self-righteousness. A movie should be built around my imaginary battle with the cross-examiner.
These little reveries usually take place as I skim newspaper headlines as I am walking somewhere or riding on the subway. The truth about the state of the world is not as entertaining but is as equally frightening.
South Korea's new Defense minister threatened to bomb North Korea. The US unemployment rate rises to 9.8%. A murder suspect commits suicide in Los Angeles. American and civilian casualties rise in Afghanistan.
Each day there is some new tragedy, a murder, a rape, a vicious attack. Newspapers inform the public of the specifics of many of the crimes. There is never a lack of a news about a sudden, violent death.
This world provides many opportunities for prayer, many subjects in need of prayer, and many reasons to increase the prayer within our lives.
Newspaper headlines and lead paragraphs often capture my attention. There is nothing like a good, well publicized, and often polarized court room trial, the heated, intellectual cross-examinations, and sensational pictures and captions to motivate quips, puns, and one liners. Political reportage is very domestic, often too didactic. But, there are people who prefer articles about government agencies, government policies, government nuances. I look for new to make my eyes opens, my jaw to drop open. I look for news to scare me. A good newspaper story makes me afraid of my neighbors, makes me afraid to watch television,makes me afraid not to watch television. My entire being becomes briefly involved when I read newspaper headlines and lead paragraphs. How I like the inverted paragraph!
I am always on the look out for something to induce PG day dreams in which I am the witness on the stand, or at the next table or standing close to the wrong person at the right time or with the right person at the wrong time and either I photograph, film, or record a conversation or event accidentally and then I have to explain it and present it to the police and then during a sensational trial where I am the star witness. I am all ready with my imaginary comebacks, my imaginary sidelong glances,and my imaginary self-confidence and self-righteousness. A movie should be built around my imaginary battle with the cross-examiner.
These little reveries usually take place as I skim newspaper headlines as I am walking somewhere or riding on the subway. The truth about the state of the world is not as entertaining but is as equally frightening.
South Korea's new Defense minister threatened to bomb North Korea. The US unemployment rate rises to 9.8%. A murder suspect commits suicide in Los Angeles. American and civilian casualties rise in Afghanistan.
Each day there is some new tragedy, a murder, a rape, a vicious attack. Newspapers inform the public of the specifics of many of the crimes. There is never a lack of a news about a sudden, violent death.
This world provides many opportunities for prayer, many subjects in need of prayer, and many reasons to increase the prayer within our lives.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
He humbles those - December 2
So by their fruits you will know them. Matthew 7:20
The busy schedule of holiday parties, family dinners, pageants with religious themes, ballets of seasonal favorites is confusing for most people. An event is somehow always missed.
November nights melt into December days. Life swings back and forth, back and forth between altercation, alteration, and celebration. People lose patience, gain anxiety. Eyes become the engine, the locomotive pulling individual into this store, onto this internet page. Wants masquerades as needs. Luxury masquerades as necessity.
This is sometimes a noisy, frightening time of quiet, interior terror.
The point is that the locomotive somehow travels to places not on the itinerary, travels to places that are unapproved and sometimes dangerous for us. not what account we are going to charge the lost locomotive to," I continued. "It is how you happened to lose it."
All the egg nog, all the fruit cake, all shiny, bright decorations can not hide the asperity, the distance, the angst, the fear which keeps people apart. This is a time to be tired, to be nervous, to be chattering and singing. This is the time to listen before speaking.
As a matter of fact this is the time be a loyal locomotive trying to remain on schedule .
* * * * *
November and December holidays direct our gaze to a specific point. The metaphor using a locomotive implies movement without explanation, without presumption. November and December are all about moving people around, moving things from a to b. This is a time of being personal, of being thankful, of being hopeful. It is a time of tangerines, poinsettias, clemtines, fruitcake. It is the time of the locomotive; the time of motion and emotion, of love and loving, of offering and receiving. It is a the time of finger foods, finger-licking, finger-pointing. Lunch is often overshadowed by the advance of carving stations of turkey, beef, ham; bite-sized quiche, jumbo shrimp, vegetables slices of festive seasonal colors.
Many questions remain unanswered.
Depending upon the individual's perspective, temperment, and sobriety there is much to lambast, much to criticize, much to describe as lost between hype and hyperbole.
But nothing manmade is all good, nothing manmade is all bad. Trouble is always waiting. There will always be cynical, sarcastic, bitter comments. There will always be warm, fresh apple pies to counter them. Enjoy the season. Accept the kisses and handshakes and the smiling "Happy Holiday", or the drawling "Merry Christmas" and the smirking "Happy New Year" when they are offered. Repeat them if possible with all that is good, all that is kind, and all that is honest within you. This is not a season to grow cynical. This is not a season to nurture a bilious vision of discord and misdeeds within any imagination. Be like a loyal locomotive moving from station to station, moral to morale, ethic to eccentric; a force for goodness, kindness, charity.
* * * * *
The metaphor of the locomotive is whimsical, old fashioned.
Modernity often prefers to offer the battle of simplicity versus hypocrisy.
The time from Thanksgiving to New Year's should be a more somber time of reflection, thanks, and hopefulness.
It should be a time of social sobriety, delicate propriety, and gentle silence.
Everyone who has a cynical thought would have to eat two or three tangerines.
And create a new metaphor for goodness, kindness, and hope.
Good spelling and proper grammar must be used.
Finding and developing and sharing a good metaphor is a difficult task. I am going to hitch a few private cars to a locomotive going south.
The busy schedule of holiday parties, family dinners, pageants with religious themes, ballets of seasonal favorites is confusing for most people. An event is somehow always missed.
November nights melt into December days. Life swings back and forth, back and forth between altercation, alteration, and celebration. People lose patience, gain anxiety. Eyes become the engine, the locomotive pulling individual into this store, onto this internet page. Wants masquerades as needs. Luxury masquerades as necessity.
This is sometimes a noisy, frightening time of quiet, interior terror.
The point is that the locomotive somehow travels to places not on the itinerary, travels to places that are unapproved and sometimes dangerous for us. not what account we are going to charge the lost locomotive to," I continued. "It is how you happened to lose it."
All the egg nog, all the fruit cake, all shiny, bright decorations can not hide the asperity, the distance, the angst, the fear which keeps people apart. This is a time to be tired, to be nervous, to be chattering and singing. This is the time to listen before speaking.
As a matter of fact this is the time be a loyal locomotive trying to remain on schedule .
* * * * *
November and December holidays direct our gaze to a specific point. The metaphor using a locomotive implies movement without explanation, without presumption. November and December are all about moving people around, moving things from a to b. This is a time of being personal, of being thankful, of being hopeful. It is a time of tangerines, poinsettias, clemtines, fruitcake. It is the time of the locomotive; the time of motion and emotion, of love and loving, of offering and receiving. It is a the time of finger foods, finger-licking, finger-pointing. Lunch is often overshadowed by the advance of carving stations of turkey, beef, ham; bite-sized quiche, jumbo shrimp, vegetables slices of festive seasonal colors.
Many questions remain unanswered.
Depending upon the individual's perspective, temperment, and sobriety there is much to lambast, much to criticize, much to describe as lost between hype and hyperbole.
But nothing manmade is all good, nothing manmade is all bad. Trouble is always waiting. There will always be cynical, sarcastic, bitter comments. There will always be warm, fresh apple pies to counter them. Enjoy the season. Accept the kisses and handshakes and the smiling "Happy Holiday", or the drawling "Merry Christmas" and the smirking "Happy New Year" when they are offered. Repeat them if possible with all that is good, all that is kind, and all that is honest within you. This is not a season to grow cynical. This is not a season to nurture a bilious vision of discord and misdeeds within any imagination. Be like a loyal locomotive moving from station to station, moral to morale, ethic to eccentric; a force for goodness, kindness, charity.
* * * * *
The metaphor of the locomotive is whimsical, old fashioned.
Modernity often prefers to offer the battle of simplicity versus hypocrisy.
The time from Thanksgiving to New Year's should be a more somber time of reflection, thanks, and hopefulness.
It should be a time of social sobriety, delicate propriety, and gentle silence.
Everyone who has a cynical thought would have to eat two or three tangerines.
And create a new metaphor for goodness, kindness, and hope.
Good spelling and proper grammar must be used.
Finding and developing and sharing a good metaphor is a difficult task. I am going to hitch a few private cars to a locomotive going south.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Send Them - December 1, 2010
"My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, for they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, for fear they may collapse on the way." Matthew 15:32
How we interact with each other is very important. Each person's interactions can have either a negative or positive impact upon other people. Whether one person acknowledges another, listens attentively, opens a door can affect the actions and statements of others. Human beings exist within a hazy blur of hyperbole, creating crazy hypothetical questions about life, using hypotenuse triangles to explain this and that while trying to find each other's hypostasis. It is the search for the essence of the individual which sometimes leads men to God. The key ingredient of this search is whether we can see and/or sense evidence of goodness, kindness, holiness in each other. The essential element which we are all looking for is a sign of love. For unconditional love is the meat and potatoes of charity, humility, obedience to God. The key component is the ability of the individual to act in a way that is tender and non-selfish, a way that expresses honest concern and shows honest compassion. When this occurs, there is a moment of bliss, a moment of peace, a moment of hope when everything else is forgotten. This is a moment which should be cherished. The lessons of goodness, kindness, holiness are difficult to hear, process, accept, and imitate because they are often in direct conflict with how the popular culture dominated society behavior patterns where nothing needs to be respected, where being irreverent is considered the norm. Popular culture does not respect the soul of the individual, the souls of all human being. The essence of the individual is courageous in goodness, kindness; faithful in compassion, obedience; caring in words, actions.
Christians are asked to be gutsy, to have moxie, to develop and display dauntlessness, to be lionhearted, to have valor, to be valiant in the name of Jesus Christ, in both their thoughts and their deeds. Christians, simply, are asked to love and fear God and to love their neighbors. When a person is able to love, unconditionally, without compromise then finding the inner peace and the inner strength to be courageous.
Learning to commiserate with other people is a beautiful skill to have. This skill requires a level of courage. Being truly, honestly empathetic can provide understanding, hope. Being empathetic is active, asks each person to participate, to use their senses to explore and share the experience in a way pleasing to God, in a way that leads toward God, in a way that reinforces the teachings of Jesus Christ.
Christians are part of a group. How each individual describes and interacts with the group is very important. Attending Sunday Mass is important, but there is an underlying desire for each Christian to do more than that, to incorporate the lessons of love and sacrifice of Jesus Christ into their daily lives. Christians are often described as a flock of followers, a herd of believers, the assembled, the gathered. Christians consociate. Each Sunday Christians rendezvous and experience the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist.
Each Christian has the responsibility of sharing his experience, the responsibility of asking others to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. The experience of being Christian can provide hope, love, courage. Being Christian is a beautiful consociation. Being Christian asks us to find the essence of goodness, kindness, and holiness within ourselves.
How we interact with each other is very important. Each person's interactions can have either a negative or positive impact upon other people. Whether one person acknowledges another, listens attentively, opens a door can affect the actions and statements of others. Human beings exist within a hazy blur of hyperbole, creating crazy hypothetical questions about life, using hypotenuse triangles to explain this and that while trying to find each other's hypostasis. It is the search for the essence of the individual which sometimes leads men to God. The key ingredient of this search is whether we can see and/or sense evidence of goodness, kindness, holiness in each other. The essential element which we are all looking for is a sign of love. For unconditional love is the meat and potatoes of charity, humility, obedience to God. The key component is the ability of the individual to act in a way that is tender and non-selfish, a way that expresses honest concern and shows honest compassion. When this occurs, there is a moment of bliss, a moment of peace, a moment of hope when everything else is forgotten. This is a moment which should be cherished. The lessons of goodness, kindness, holiness are difficult to hear, process, accept, and imitate because they are often in direct conflict with how the popular culture dominated society behavior patterns where nothing needs to be respected, where being irreverent is considered the norm. Popular culture does not respect the soul of the individual, the souls of all human being. The essence of the individual is courageous in goodness, kindness; faithful in compassion, obedience; caring in words, actions.
Christians are asked to be gutsy, to have moxie, to develop and display dauntlessness, to be lionhearted, to have valor, to be valiant in the name of Jesus Christ, in both their thoughts and their deeds. Christians, simply, are asked to love and fear God and to love their neighbors. When a person is able to love, unconditionally, without compromise then finding the inner peace and the inner strength to be courageous.
Learning to commiserate with other people is a beautiful skill to have. This skill requires a level of courage. Being truly, honestly empathetic can provide understanding, hope. Being empathetic is active, asks each person to participate, to use their senses to explore and share the experience in a way pleasing to God, in a way that leads toward God, in a way that reinforces the teachings of Jesus Christ.
Christians are part of a group. How each individual describes and interacts with the group is very important. Attending Sunday Mass is important, but there is an underlying desire for each Christian to do more than that, to incorporate the lessons of love and sacrifice of Jesus Christ into their daily lives. Christians are often described as a flock of followers, a herd of believers, the assembled, the gathered. Christians consociate. Each Sunday Christians rendezvous and experience the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist.
Each Christian has the responsibility of sharing his experience, the responsibility of asking others to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. The experience of being Christian can provide hope, love, courage. Being Christian is a beautiful consociation. Being Christian asks us to find the essence of goodness, kindness, and holiness within ourselves.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Each Voice - November 30, 2010
"Their voice has gone forth to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world." Romans 10:18
Each time I speak or write a word, a choice has been made. One word, one choice, one voice. Being Christian means lowering your gaze, lowering your voice, kneeling down. Being Christian is an inward journey, listening for sounds from God within prayers, announcements, conversations; listening for comments from God within the wilderness of neon lights; listening for the music of God within crowded bars filled pints of beer and floating television screens. Being Christian means searching and striving for goodness, kindness, holiness. Being Christian will often be difficult. Each word, each choice, each voice can be important for our individual salvation and for the salvation of our neighbors. Being Christian means following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ and asking others to do it also. Within each Christian there is a voice haunting, a voice heavenly, a voice comforting. Within each of us is God's love and we are encouraged to share this news and to rejoice.
Each day presents many of us a battle of choices, ideas, actions. Do we make time for prayer? Do we take time to praise and thank God? Do we simply have another cup of coffee, another cigarette, another two minutes of office chitchat. Each prayer is worth a million jokes. Prayer illustrates our faith, our hope. Prayer illuminates our charity, our humility, our obedience when it is done honestly, lovingly, kindly with reverence. Prayer asks only for our truth, in emotion, in spirit. Prayer offers patience, kindness, wisdom. We can choose to live each day filled with prayer. Prayer is both harmony and melody. Prayer is passionate. Prayer is creative. Prayer offers tranquility. All's prayer that loves prayer.
As Christians each day that we are alive is a day for discernment, a day for giving thanks and praise to God. Our search for goodness, holiness, kindness never ends. Our journey to charity, humility, obedience never ends.
Each day we are given opportunities to improve our lives and the lives of our friends, families, neighbors. This is a wacky culture of conflicting moral messages. This is a time when goodness, kindness, holiness are often seen as the voice of dissent, the voice of the minority. Here is a world, pernicious and licentious, starving for attention, acceptance, love. Here is a world of pill-popping, make-believe, instant solutions with many dangerous side effects written in extra fine small print. Every day this world, our culture attacks us, tempts us, tries to seduce us, tries to lead us away from goodness, holiness, kindness. Every day our culture tries to lead us away from God for a second, an hour, a day.
Every day we must use each word, each choice, each voice to remain steadfast with charity, humility, and obedience within our hearts, minds, and souls.
How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news!
Each time I speak or write a word, a choice has been made. One word, one choice, one voice. Being Christian means lowering your gaze, lowering your voice, kneeling down. Being Christian is an inward journey, listening for sounds from God within prayers, announcements, conversations; listening for comments from God within the wilderness of neon lights; listening for the music of God within crowded bars filled pints of beer and floating television screens. Being Christian means searching and striving for goodness, kindness, holiness. Being Christian will often be difficult. Each word, each choice, each voice can be important for our individual salvation and for the salvation of our neighbors. Being Christian means following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ and asking others to do it also. Within each Christian there is a voice haunting, a voice heavenly, a voice comforting. Within each of us is God's love and we are encouraged to share this news and to rejoice.
Each day presents many of us a battle of choices, ideas, actions. Do we make time for prayer? Do we take time to praise and thank God? Do we simply have another cup of coffee, another cigarette, another two minutes of office chitchat. Each prayer is worth a million jokes. Prayer illustrates our faith, our hope. Prayer illuminates our charity, our humility, our obedience when it is done honestly, lovingly, kindly with reverence. Prayer asks only for our truth, in emotion, in spirit. Prayer offers patience, kindness, wisdom. We can choose to live each day filled with prayer. Prayer is both harmony and melody. Prayer is passionate. Prayer is creative. Prayer offers tranquility. All's prayer that loves prayer.
As Christians each day that we are alive is a day for discernment, a day for giving thanks and praise to God. Our search for goodness, holiness, kindness never ends. Our journey to charity, humility, obedience never ends.
Each day we are given opportunities to improve our lives and the lives of our friends, families, neighbors. This is a wacky culture of conflicting moral messages. This is a time when goodness, kindness, holiness are often seen as the voice of dissent, the voice of the minority. Here is a world, pernicious and licentious, starving for attention, acceptance, love. Here is a world of pill-popping, make-believe, instant solutions with many dangerous side effects written in extra fine small print. Every day this world, our culture attacks us, tempts us, tries to seduce us, tries to lead us away from goodness, holiness, kindness. Every day our culture tries to lead us away from God for a second, an hour, a day.
Every day we must use each word, each choice, each voice to remain steadfast with charity, humility, and obedience within our hearts, minds, and souls.
How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news!
Monday, November 29, 2010
On Splendor - November 29, 2010
On that day, The branch of the LORD will be luster and glory, and the fruit of the earth will be honor and splendor for the survivors of Israel. Isaiah 4:2
Each day we are given an opportunity to exalt the goodness, the mercy, the presence of God in our lives. We can celebrate this fact each time we attend Mass, each time we participate in the Eucharist. During the Mass both the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist help us move closer to God. Prayers are said in remembrance of God. Each day we are given opportunities to live in honor of the Lord Jesus Christ by making choices that reflect charity, humility, and obedience to God.
This is an age when as individuals and as Christians, deference and reverence to God are not luxuries but necessities. This is an age when everything is shiny and bright, when everything is for sale, when everything is a commodity, when almost everything depreciates. God's love for us does not change. It remains just as beautiful, just as alluring, just as attractive. How we look at it changes because of our choices, our sins, our mistakes. God asks for our obedience. God asks us to love one another. Each individual, each Christian decides both whether and how they will respond to God's request.
There are moments during Mass of such exquisiteness when the entire world is splendid with God's love, with God's hope. The Eucharist is a moment wonderful and inspiring. Here is hope. Here is faith. Here is love. The individual ceases to exist for a moment, a transcendent moment, when time falls away, and each one of us is at the Last Supper with Jesus Christ, each one of us are searching within our hearts, minds, and souls for patience, deference, reverence. Each time I hear the prayers of the Eucharist, there is a magnificence in the words, in the cadence, which creates a yearning to be more good, more kind, more holy; a yearning to serve the Lord with my entire being. The mystery of the Eucharist is an unique promise, spectacular and wondrous, of love, humility, obedience for each Christian to discover and to live.
Each day we are given the opportunity live within the shimmering light of goodness, the shimmering light of God's love.
For over all, his glory will be shelter and protection: shade from the parching heat of day, refuge and cover from storm and rain. Isaiah 4:6
Each day we are given an opportunity to exalt the goodness, the mercy, the presence of God in our lives. We can celebrate this fact each time we attend Mass, each time we participate in the Eucharist. During the Mass both the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist help us move closer to God. Prayers are said in remembrance of God. Each day we are given opportunities to live in honor of the Lord Jesus Christ by making choices that reflect charity, humility, and obedience to God.
This is an age when as individuals and as Christians, deference and reverence to God are not luxuries but necessities. This is an age when everything is shiny and bright, when everything is for sale, when everything is a commodity, when almost everything depreciates. God's love for us does not change. It remains just as beautiful, just as alluring, just as attractive. How we look at it changes because of our choices, our sins, our mistakes. God asks for our obedience. God asks us to love one another. Each individual, each Christian decides both whether and how they will respond to God's request.
There are moments during Mass of such exquisiteness when the entire world is splendid with God's love, with God's hope. The Eucharist is a moment wonderful and inspiring. Here is hope. Here is faith. Here is love. The individual ceases to exist for a moment, a transcendent moment, when time falls away, and each one of us is at the Last Supper with Jesus Christ, each one of us are searching within our hearts, minds, and souls for patience, deference, reverence. Each time I hear the prayers of the Eucharist, there is a magnificence in the words, in the cadence, which creates a yearning to be more good, more kind, more holy; a yearning to serve the Lord with my entire being. The mystery of the Eucharist is an unique promise, spectacular and wondrous, of love, humility, obedience for each Christian to discover and to live.
Each day we are given the opportunity live within the shimmering light of goodness, the shimmering light of God's love.
For over all, his glory will be shelter and protection: shade from the parching heat of day, refuge and cover from storm and rain. Isaiah 4:6
Friday, November 19, 2010
Hanging on Words
"It is written, 'My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.'" Luke 19:46
Many people have their own personal ideas about prayer. Many people have their own personal ideas about attending Mass. When we go Mass we understand that there is both a Liturgy of the Word and a Liturgy of the Eucharist. The Mass is a celebration. These things we know. But, what happens when we attend Mass?
Are we engaged and listening to each prayer and reading that we hear? When we recite the prayers and the creed, is our voice passionate, are we speaking with love and hope? When we receive the Eucharist, what is in our hearts, our minds, our souls?
As Catholics we are asked to be active participants. It is not enough to simply recite our lines. We must remember the life of Jesus Christ. We must remember the death of Jesus Christ. This is essential. As Catholics we must open our minds, be ready to learn about goodness.
Attending Mass should be a time of renewal, a time of peace. We should look forward to attending Mass. When we attend Mass, we should always remember the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and remember to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Attending Mass should be a way to show and share your love.
We must allow ourselves to hang on every syllable, every word that we hear during the Mass. There is a purpose for each word. As Catholics we must teach ourselves how to listen and reflect on each Mass. As the believers we must always hang on to every word and be prepared to encourage others to do the same. Our actions should inspire others to follow us and to believe in God.
Prayer is very important to us as Christians. How many prayers do we hear during each Mass? Are the prayers important to you? Do the prayers move you, make you think, help you to understand and remember the passion of Jesus Christ.
Many people have their own personal ideas about prayer. Many people have their own personal ideas about attending Mass. When we go Mass we understand that there is both a Liturgy of the Word and a Liturgy of the Eucharist. The Mass is a celebration. These things we know. But, what happens when we attend Mass?
Are we engaged and listening to each prayer and reading that we hear? When we recite the prayers and the creed, is our voice passionate, are we speaking with love and hope? When we receive the Eucharist, what is in our hearts, our minds, our souls?
As Catholics we are asked to be active participants. It is not enough to simply recite our lines. We must remember the life of Jesus Christ. We must remember the death of Jesus Christ. This is essential. As Catholics we must open our minds, be ready to learn about goodness.
Attending Mass should be a time of renewal, a time of peace. We should look forward to attending Mass. When we attend Mass, we should always remember the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and remember to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Attending Mass should be a way to show and share your love.
We must allow ourselves to hang on every syllable, every word that we hear during the Mass. There is a purpose for each word. As Catholics we must teach ourselves how to listen and reflect on each Mass. As the believers we must always hang on to every word and be prepared to encourage others to do the same. Our actions should inspire others to follow us and to believe in God.
Prayer is very important to us as Christians. How many prayers do we hear during each Mass? Are the prayers important to you? Do the prayers move you, make you think, help you to understand and remember the passion of Jesus Christ.
Serve
Prepare yourself to serve the Lord. There is always work to be done. We must always be ready to volunteer. Make time to serve the God by working on a committee at your church. Find something which interests you. Find something which might help you learn something new about your faith. May you find a way to serve God. May you learn the beauty of humility, charity, compassion, and mercy. May your faith be strengthened by your effort.
Messages
I took the small scroll from the angel's hand and swallowed it. In my mouth it was like sweet honey, but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour. Revelation 10:10
What a mysterious reading! What a beautiful reading! What a great mingling of good and bad! How wonderful it is to receive the good first, then deal with the bad. All Christians should be encouraged to learn this chapter and recite it every day. Depending on how you want to interpret this chapter, it describes our daily lives as Christians. We have God’s love; God’s love asks us to make sacrifices. Our choices help us on our journey to salvation and eternal life with God. As Christians our choices are not always easy.
When I first read this chapter, I imagined this as a pharmaceutical commercial on television extolling why this new drug should be taken before mentioning the countless side effects. How sweet the pills sound to us until we hear about the side effects!
I like the scene of the angel, the scroll, and John. I like the idea of the angel standing on sea and on land. I like the familiar voice instructing John. I like the angel’s message, the order of the words. John is first warned about his stomach’s reaction to the scroll. His stomach is going to turn sour. So, this message will upset his stomach. Then, the angel told him that the scroll would taste sweet in his mouth like honey. How pleasant that sounds! How good that sounds. What rich symbolism this chapter provides for us to reflect upon!
As Catholics we accept our Faith. Being Christian is difficult. Each day there is a choice of goodness, kindness, compassion, mercy, and love to be made. Being Christian is complicated. Our eyes must be open to looking at the world, through both our eyes and God’s eyes. Our reactions should be his reactions. His love should always be displayed in our every action. Our lives should present a view of happiness and peace built upon a foundation of obedience, hope, charity, and love.
As Catholics we must be listening for God’s personalized, individual messages to each of us. We do not know when or how the messages will be sent. We simply have to be prepared to receive and to obey God’s messages to us. We must be ready to be faithful and obedient. Remember that God had a message which was followed by a message from the angel. We must be prepared to hear God’s voice and to hear an angel’s voice.
What a mysterious reading! What a beautiful reading! What a great mingling of good and bad! How wonderful it is to receive the good first, then deal with the bad. All Christians should be encouraged to learn this chapter and recite it every day. Depending on how you want to interpret this chapter, it describes our daily lives as Christians. We have God’s love; God’s love asks us to make sacrifices. Our choices help us on our journey to salvation and eternal life with God. As Christians our choices are not always easy.
When I first read this chapter, I imagined this as a pharmaceutical commercial on television extolling why this new drug should be taken before mentioning the countless side effects. How sweet the pills sound to us until we hear about the side effects!
I like the scene of the angel, the scroll, and John. I like the idea of the angel standing on sea and on land. I like the familiar voice instructing John. I like the angel’s message, the order of the words. John is first warned about his stomach’s reaction to the scroll. His stomach is going to turn sour. So, this message will upset his stomach. Then, the angel told him that the scroll would taste sweet in his mouth like honey. How pleasant that sounds! How good that sounds. What rich symbolism this chapter provides for us to reflect upon!
As Catholics we accept our Faith. Being Christian is difficult. Each day there is a choice of goodness, kindness, compassion, mercy, and love to be made. Being Christian is complicated. Our eyes must be open to looking at the world, through both our eyes and God’s eyes. Our reactions should be his reactions. His love should always be displayed in our every action. Our lives should present a view of happiness and peace built upon a foundation of obedience, hope, charity, and love.
As Catholics we must be listening for God’s personalized, individual messages to each of us. We do not know when or how the messages will be sent. We simply have to be prepared to receive and to obey God’s messages to us. We must be ready to be faithful and obedient. Remember that God had a message which was followed by a message from the angel. We must be prepared to hear God’s voice and to hear an angel’s voice.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Doubt
Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “O man of little faith, why did you doubt?” Matthew 14:31
Our faith journey often resembles a quest. We search for patience, humility, charity, compassion, mercy both internally and externally. The search for goodness often resembles a dream of youth, when innocence, honor, kindness are valued seriously, objectively as part of the foundation for life’s vocation. We travel into foreign parts of our minds and souls when we allow ourselves to share kindness. We are able to glimpse God through our own acts of goodness and kindness.
As Christians we should expect that there will be moments of doubt in our lives. We will question are believes. We will question our actions, reactions, lack of action. We will question our prayers, when we pray, how we pray. This is natural. This should not hamper us. We must use our doubt as a tool which can help deepen our faith. Instead of allowing doubt to make you anxious or angst ridden, simply allow doubt to teach you about your faith. Doubt can restore Faith to our Faith with a combination of patience, prayer, reflection, and humility.
Always remember to be humble. Always look for goodness and kindness in yourself and others. The more you look for them the more you will find them.
Modern life used to use the metaphor rat race to describe the craziness, unpredictability, ruthlessness of our society as we, the people, worked to make a killing to afford big houses with two car garages with four cars, a golf cart, swimming pool, two ponies, six bicycles, a swing and two hammocks. Our material possessions became a short hand description, presentation of our lives and values. Our material lives provided a glimpse at our presumed live and values. Our private lives were hidden beneath the public expectations created by dressing this way, talking that way. Appearances became more important than reality. Knowledge is secondary to perception. The rat race does not want you to value anything. The rat race simply wants you to purchase this and that. The rat race wants you to meet the right people at the right places at the right time. The rat race wants you only to acknowledge those who can help you tomorrow not those who helped you yesterday. The rat race is built upon doubt, fear, denial. As Catholics we must always remember social justice. Both our prayers and our actions must reflect our understanding and love for all our neighbors, from anonymous, forgotten beggars bundled up with discarded, flattened cardboard boxes and sleeping bags to smiling, waving politicians in tuxedos and shiny leather shoes talking about global warming.
Doubt shall always be with us. Some days it will be stronger, others it will be weaker. Remember that doubt is natural, like sleep, hunger. The knowledge, that doubt exists within all humans should give you comfort. Do not fear doubt. Simply recall the image of Jesus on the water extending his hand to save Peter. Let that image raise your thoughts, your actions. We are all called to help our neighbors, to live lives that reflect, and follow the teachings of Jesus Christ.
The enormous populations of the world need our prayers, the beggars, celebrities, politicians they all need our prayers. Let there be no doubt about that.
Our faith journey often resembles a quest. We search for patience, humility, charity, compassion, mercy both internally and externally. The search for goodness often resembles a dream of youth, when innocence, honor, kindness are valued seriously, objectively as part of the foundation for life’s vocation. We travel into foreign parts of our minds and souls when we allow ourselves to share kindness. We are able to glimpse God through our own acts of goodness and kindness.
As Christians we should expect that there will be moments of doubt in our lives. We will question are believes. We will question our actions, reactions, lack of action. We will question our prayers, when we pray, how we pray. This is natural. This should not hamper us. We must use our doubt as a tool which can help deepen our faith. Instead of allowing doubt to make you anxious or angst ridden, simply allow doubt to teach you about your faith. Doubt can restore Faith to our Faith with a combination of patience, prayer, reflection, and humility.
Always remember to be humble. Always look for goodness and kindness in yourself and others. The more you look for them the more you will find them.
Modern life used to use the metaphor rat race to describe the craziness, unpredictability, ruthlessness of our society as we, the people, worked to make a killing to afford big houses with two car garages with four cars, a golf cart, swimming pool, two ponies, six bicycles, a swing and two hammocks. Our material possessions became a short hand description, presentation of our lives and values. Our material lives provided a glimpse at our presumed live and values. Our private lives were hidden beneath the public expectations created by dressing this way, talking that way. Appearances became more important than reality. Knowledge is secondary to perception. The rat race does not want you to value anything. The rat race simply wants you to purchase this and that. The rat race wants you to meet the right people at the right places at the right time. The rat race wants you only to acknowledge those who can help you tomorrow not those who helped you yesterday. The rat race is built upon doubt, fear, denial. As Catholics we must always remember social justice. Both our prayers and our actions must reflect our understanding and love for all our neighbors, from anonymous, forgotten beggars bundled up with discarded, flattened cardboard boxes and sleeping bags to smiling, waving politicians in tuxedos and shiny leather shoes talking about global warming.
Doubt shall always be with us. Some days it will be stronger, others it will be weaker. Remember that doubt is natural, like sleep, hunger. The knowledge, that doubt exists within all humans should give you comfort. Do not fear doubt. Simply recall the image of Jesus on the water extending his hand to save Peter. Let that image raise your thoughts, your actions. We are all called to help our neighbors, to live lives that reflect, and follow the teachings of Jesus Christ.
The enormous populations of the world need our prayers, the beggars, celebrities, politicians they all need our prayers. Let there be no doubt about that.
A Reflection on Luke 19
“For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.” Luke 19:10
Today’s Gospel reading is filled with great emotion. There is much sadness. There is a prophecy concerning the destruction of Jerusalem. The temple is important in this passage. Jesus throws the money changers out of the temple. Jesus teaches in the temple. Also, in the temple the chief priests and other leaders of the people plot how to kill Jesus. How busy that temple was. The temple was the center of life.
As Jesus approached Jerusalem he cried. Peace was hidden from Jerusalem. The city was busy, consumed with its daily activities. Life was not stopping. People were living their lives, behaving as their culture allowed them. The Jewish people were busy with their daily routines. Some of the Jews knew that Jesus was in Jerusalem. Some went to hear him speak. Some went to have him save them. Some stayed away from him. Some of the Jewish leaders in the temple, quietly, secretly plotted Jesus’ death. The conspirators are anonymous in this Gospel as they watch Jesus teaching in the temple.
In this Gospel, Jesus wept, Jesus drove the money changers from the temple, Jesus taught in the temple. Jesus wanted the temple to be a house of prayer, a place of worship and ministry. He did not want it to be a den of thieves, a place of commerce. The temple was God’s house.
Although there is despair and melancholy in this passage there also is hope. Jesus is not passive in this Gospel. He is very active, very aware of his world. It was important for him to teach in the temple. It was important for him to rid the temple of the den of thieves. It was important for the temple to be a house of God, a house of prayer. He did not have to go the temple. He did not have to confront the money changers. He did not have to teach in the temple. Each one of these actions his simple decision. He was simply doing what he had to do. People were listening to Jesus. People were learning from Jesus. He was simply being obedient, doing his duty, showing his fidelity and love to God.
Within the temple some men were plotting his death as he preached about salvation, loving your neighbor. This knowledge did not deter him from his mission. He had a job to do. He came to save mankind. He reached out to all who would listen. He offered love, hope, eternal life to all he believed and obeyed God’s commandments and laws.
Today’s Gospel reading is filled with great emotion. There is much sadness. There is a prophecy concerning the destruction of Jerusalem. The temple is important in this passage. Jesus throws the money changers out of the temple. Jesus teaches in the temple. Also, in the temple the chief priests and other leaders of the people plot how to kill Jesus. How busy that temple was. The temple was the center of life.
As Jesus approached Jerusalem he cried. Peace was hidden from Jerusalem. The city was busy, consumed with its daily activities. Life was not stopping. People were living their lives, behaving as their culture allowed them. The Jewish people were busy with their daily routines. Some of the Jews knew that Jesus was in Jerusalem. Some went to hear him speak. Some went to have him save them. Some stayed away from him. Some of the Jewish leaders in the temple, quietly, secretly plotted Jesus’ death. The conspirators are anonymous in this Gospel as they watch Jesus teaching in the temple.
In this Gospel, Jesus wept, Jesus drove the money changers from the temple, Jesus taught in the temple. Jesus wanted the temple to be a house of prayer, a place of worship and ministry. He did not want it to be a den of thieves, a place of commerce. The temple was God’s house.
Although there is despair and melancholy in this passage there also is hope. Jesus is not passive in this Gospel. He is very active, very aware of his world. It was important for him to teach in the temple. It was important for him to rid the temple of the den of thieves. It was important for the temple to be a house of God, a house of prayer. He did not have to go the temple. He did not have to confront the money changers. He did not have to teach in the temple. Each one of these actions his simple decision. He was simply doing what he had to do. People were listening to Jesus. People were learning from Jesus. He was simply being obedient, doing his duty, showing his fidelity and love to God.
Within the temple some men were plotting his death as he preached about salvation, loving your neighbor. This knowledge did not deter him from his mission. He had a job to do. He came to save mankind. He reached out to all who would listen. He offered love, hope, eternal life to all he believed and obeyed God’s commandments and laws.
Saints to Follow
Listed below are some of the Saints that the Church asks us to remember during the month of November:
Saint Leo the Great, Pope, Doctor
Saint Martin of Tours, Bishop
Saint Josaphat, Bishop, Martyr
Saint Albert the Great, Bishop, Doctor
Saint Margaret of Scotland
Saint Gertrude, Virgin
Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, Religious
Saint Cecilia, Virgin, Martyr
Saint Clement I, Pope, Martyr
Saint Columbanus, Abbot and Missionary
Saints Andrew Dung-Lac and his Companions, Martyrs
Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Virgin, Martyr
Saint Leo the Great, Pope, Doctor
Saint Martin of Tours, Bishop
Saint Josaphat, Bishop, Martyr
Saint Albert the Great, Bishop, Doctor
Saint Margaret of Scotland
Saint Gertrude, Virgin
Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, Religious
Saint Cecilia, Virgin, Martyr
Saint Clement I, Pope, Martyr
Saint Columbanus, Abbot and Missionary
Saints Andrew Dung-Lac and his Companions, Martyrs
Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Virgin, Martyr
Saints and Other Models
Once upon a time, in a school district far, far away, each morning half-asleep school children would place a hand over their heart and recite the “Pledge of Allegiance.”
“Neither Hollywood nor Broadway produces entertainment the way they used to. They just don’t create great movie dialogue the way they used to. As a culture we don’t say great prayers the way we used to. As a culture we don’t dream great dreams the way we used to. Now, everybody wants to be a pampered, photographed local celebrity.”
It is natural to seek goodness and kindness in others. Our lives are filled with the search for the perfect role model, someone with whom we can identify, someone with whom we can imitate. It is natural to want a hero. We need to have someone to believe in, to encourage us to dream, to inspire us to be better, to challenge us to be more, do more. From our childhood we seek companions, we seek heroes. We create a private mythology filled with damsels and demigods, wishes and wisecracks. The situation is lyrical, the implication is ethical, the circumstance is moral. We look to literature, cinema, everyday life for role models, for unofficial teachers to help us navigate the lows and highs of the human condition. As Catholics we have the lives of the Saints to provide a blueprint on how to live a good Christian life of chastity, humility, charity, and obedience.
The existence of their Faith provides them with an excellent courage and conviction to do God’s work, to help the poor. Each day I think of the veracity of good men. Each day I think that humankind is moving away from being wholesome and altruistic toward being selfish and vain. Being Christian allows me to view the world with hope and mercy. Being Christian allows me to see that the Holy Eucharist is beautiful and nutritious. Prayer, believing in God, attending Mass sweetens life, makes each moment more tolerable. Our belief in God can help us improve our lives and our society, when actually, or ideally, we manage to love our neighbors unconditionally without any strings or expectations. Remember we are children of God. We listen for his call. We obey his Commandments. We have the Bible and other good books to guide us toward God, with meditation, with prayer. Remember that love and hope create the language of God. Let our humility, charity, mercy and each circumstance of our days create anecdotes of tenderness.
The search and desire for goodness and kindness often is the dream of youth, and the most serious occupation of our mind. We travel into different neighborhoods, different churches to find evidence of God, to see a glimpse of him in the life and actions of others. We must always remember and cherish our faith. We are Christians; we are hospitable and hopeful; we are believers; our Faith is more valuable and precious than gold; our Holy Eucharist is more delicious, more nutritious for our souls; we gather for prayer; we gather to remember the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Our lives do not have to be comfortable but we must have humility and offer hospitality to all, especially those who are destitute, marginalized in any way and who need mercy, charity and compassion. Our lives do not have to be comfortable but we must create a time for prayer in each day, for prayer and reflection can make our Christian lives intrinsically rich with love, hope, and understanding. As Christians we must always be hospitable, humble people.
“Neither Hollywood nor Broadway produces entertainment the way they used to. They just don’t create great movie dialogue the way they used to. As a culture we don’t say great prayers the way we used to. As a culture we don’t dream great dreams the way we used to. Now, everybody wants to be a pampered, photographed local celebrity.”
It is natural to seek goodness and kindness in others. Our lives are filled with the search for the perfect role model, someone with whom we can identify, someone with whom we can imitate. It is natural to want a hero. We need to have someone to believe in, to encourage us to dream, to inspire us to be better, to challenge us to be more, do more. From our childhood we seek companions, we seek heroes. We create a private mythology filled with damsels and demigods, wishes and wisecracks. The situation is lyrical, the implication is ethical, the circumstance is moral. We look to literature, cinema, everyday life for role models, for unofficial teachers to help us navigate the lows and highs of the human condition. As Catholics we have the lives of the Saints to provide a blueprint on how to live a good Christian life of chastity, humility, charity, and obedience.
The existence of their Faith provides them with an excellent courage and conviction to do God’s work, to help the poor. Each day I think of the veracity of good men. Each day I think that humankind is moving away from being wholesome and altruistic toward being selfish and vain. Being Christian allows me to view the world with hope and mercy. Being Christian allows me to see that the Holy Eucharist is beautiful and nutritious. Prayer, believing in God, attending Mass sweetens life, makes each moment more tolerable. Our belief in God can help us improve our lives and our society, when actually, or ideally, we manage to love our neighbors unconditionally without any strings or expectations. Remember we are children of God. We listen for his call. We obey his Commandments. We have the Bible and other good books to guide us toward God, with meditation, with prayer. Remember that love and hope create the language of God. Let our humility, charity, mercy and each circumstance of our days create anecdotes of tenderness.
The search and desire for goodness and kindness often is the dream of youth, and the most serious occupation of our mind. We travel into different neighborhoods, different churches to find evidence of God, to see a glimpse of him in the life and actions of others. We must always remember and cherish our faith. We are Christians; we are hospitable and hopeful; we are believers; our Faith is more valuable and precious than gold; our Holy Eucharist is more delicious, more nutritious for our souls; we gather for prayer; we gather to remember the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Our lives do not have to be comfortable but we must have humility and offer hospitality to all, especially those who are destitute, marginalized in any way and who need mercy, charity and compassion. Our lives do not have to be comfortable but we must create a time for prayer in each day, for prayer and reflection can make our Christian lives intrinsically rich with love, hope, and understanding. As Christians we must always be hospitable, humble people.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Spirituality
Simplicity. Spirituality. Sincerity. Solidarity.
May my Spirituality be filled with sincerity, guiding me to a greater understanding and love for all human beings.
May my Spirituality be filled with simplicity helping me to be humble, obedient, faithful.
May my Spirituality be filled with solidarity guiding me to seek social justice and fairness for all human beings.
May my Spirituality be filled with sincerity, guiding me to a greater understanding and love for all human beings.
May my Spirituality be filled with simplicity helping me to be humble, obedient, faithful.
May my Spirituality be filled with solidarity guiding me to seek social justice and fairness for all human beings.
A Quick Thought
Beloved: Please remember that as Christians we are part of the living, growing, hoping, loving visible Church; let this give peace; please remember that the foundation was made by Our Lord Jesus Christ with his supreme sacrifice; may this provide guidance and comfort. The death of Our Lord Jesus Christ gives each of us eternal life. We believe that we are members of the apostolic Church; allow this to give you hope. We believe the Sacraments connect us with God, are both opportunity and obligation for service to God; allow this to teach you how to love.
An Opportunity
Remember that each time you attend Mass, there is an opportunity to learn more about God and an opportunity to share your faith with others after you leave. This does not require a recitation of the Gospel or the homily. It can simply be how you treat your neighbors, with compassion and love. Each moment of our lives should have some movement upward, higher, heavenward. Our gaze should always be upward, toward God. Each moment of our lives we should strive to avoid the mediocrity of sin. Our aim should always be toward pleasing God. Our ambition should be for eternal life and salvation. The arena of life presents us with an opportunity for prayer, penance, and obedience.
We must strive to be pure and triumphant servants of God.
Be ambitious then, with sincere prayers, keep love in both your heart and your life; remember to pray for something great for yourself and for mankind. Each of us will have only one life in this world, prayer will help us to make the most of it. Take advantage of each opportunity to praise and thank God. Attend Mass and pray as often as you can. Let your life be filled with the Good News. Each day increase your knowledge and learning about your faith. Allow your prayers to carry you higher and higher, closer and closer to God.
Allow your prayers to guide you to legitimate pursuits of love, life, and peace. Allow your prayers to guide you in the path to serve God. Allow your prayers to teach you fidelity to duty. We each have the opportunity to bring glory to God, to sanctify ourselves, and to be a soldier for God.
We must strive to be pure and triumphant servants of God.
Be ambitious then, with sincere prayers, keep love in both your heart and your life; remember to pray for something great for yourself and for mankind. Each of us will have only one life in this world, prayer will help us to make the most of it. Take advantage of each opportunity to praise and thank God. Attend Mass and pray as often as you can. Let your life be filled with the Good News. Each day increase your knowledge and learning about your faith. Allow your prayers to carry you higher and higher, closer and closer to God.
Allow your prayers to guide you to legitimate pursuits of love, life, and peace. Allow your prayers to guide you in the path to serve God. Allow your prayers to teach you fidelity to duty. We each have the opportunity to bring glory to God, to sanctify ourselves, and to be a soldier for God.
The Individual
It might be good to begin with a belief in the innate goodness of the individual. Also, we must accept the idea that all individuals possess insecurities and vulnerabilities. At in minute an individual is capable of kindness and meanness. We live in a thoughtless age, a careless age. It is a time when it is acceptable, sometimes necessarily encouraged to immediately blame an external force instead of examining the internal force. It is easier to accept the secular world misconceptions about sin, than to accept God’s. The secular world creates an illusion of life brimming with unsatisfying pursuits and labels. The secular world presents every vice as a delicacy, to be tasted and enjoyed. The occupation of pleasure often conquers and imprisons common sense, humility, mercy, patience, prudence and love. All that is special and beautiful in life is glossed over, distorted. The secular world binds us to sin when do not take the time to contemplate our actions and reactions properly. Each day we must find new ways to avoid sin. The hazards of life lead us away from God, away from peaceful living, away from goodness, kindness, hope, and love. The secular world provides no distinctions between pleasure and sin. We are encouraged to enjoy all, forget everything other than the pursuit of fun. Saying no to pleasure is not always easy. Recognizing sin is more complicated when society accepts or pretends to tolerate all behavior. Many questions and private conundrums do appear. This is an age of carelessness, an age of thoughtlessness, an age of paradoxes. According to an individual’s disposition and character, ability and inclination, education and training, motivation and mobility, each individual is allowed to choose any course of action within their reach, opportunity, desire. This freedom of choice sometimes leads to mistakes, misconduct, melancholy. Despair sometimes is the handmaiden to bad choices and sin. Throughout our lives we must always remember prayer. Perhaps the greatest gift we can have is the ability to pray to God. Praying with the proper temperament and sincerity, praying with patience and sympathy, praising and thanking God, these can be a foundation which will help each one of us diagnose each sinner whether venial or mortal, tolerated or sanctioned by the secular world. Praying helps us understand the good and bad in life, in the world around us. We are surrounded by noise, surrounded by quacks. We must learn to pray, then to trust our prayers, and finally to trust ourselves. The more we pray the more we pray for things which may surprise as we open our hearts, minds, and souls to the plight of all mankind. Aspire only to be an obedient servant of God, seek goodness and kindness. Allow your prayers to guide you to a peaceful, independent, free life of humility, charity, and mercy.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Pursuit
Prayer allows each one individual to view our lives with dignity and worth. The benefits of prayer affords each of us an opportunity to become closer to God, an opportunity to lower the volume of the secular world and pop culture, an opportunity for silence and reflection on our day to day existence.
Our individual life pursuits should direct us beyond the flesh, beyond simple material gain. As Christians we should always be trying to move closer to God. Our actions should always reflect our love and respect for God. Our interactions with each other should be uplifting, filled with compassion and love. Our intentions should always be to help each other find peace, order, and happiness. This is a difficult task. It will take time and patience to aachieve. But the more we allow ourselves to be loyal and obedient servants of God, the easier it will become. As our reverence and respect for God and his teachings increases so shall our understanding of the true beauty and true dignity of being humble before both God and man. When God occupies our entire being and we are willing to share ourselves completely, this is the highest calling of conduct, an unconditional love and compassion for all mankind. We must remember that all men are equal in God’s eyes.
But not every individual approaches prayer the same way. The journey toward God takes many different circuitous routes. Our individual dispositions influences each pursuit toward goodness, kindness, compassion, mercy. Our individual dispositions provide us with both obstacles to surmount and strengths to employ as we move toward God. The more love we have in our hearts, the more hope we will have in our souls. Our faith will help us become better people, better Christians. The strength of our faith and the purity of our love will help us make the right decisions, follow the footsteps of Jesus Christ. We can create a life of humility, loyalty, and service to God if we desire and if we are willing to work hard in the name of God.
We should allow ourselves to excel in praising God. Our only ambition in life should be to love and to serve the Lord with our complete beings. We should be obedient to his teachings.
Our lives should commemorate all the goodness, kindness, love and other gifts bestowed upon us by God. As individuals we should take time to contemplate our place in the world and our actions. How we live, what we do, what we say can effect the lives of others. As Catholics we must remember to always be priestly in our interactions. Our humility, obedience, and love for God must always be present in our daily actions.
We should strive to evangelize our neighbors not by our rhetoric but by our tenderness and compassion.
Our individual life pursuits should direct us beyond the flesh, beyond simple material gain. As Christians we should always be trying to move closer to God. Our actions should always reflect our love and respect for God. Our interactions with each other should be uplifting, filled with compassion and love. Our intentions should always be to help each other find peace, order, and happiness. This is a difficult task. It will take time and patience to aachieve. But the more we allow ourselves to be loyal and obedient servants of God, the easier it will become. As our reverence and respect for God and his teachings increases so shall our understanding of the true beauty and true dignity of being humble before both God and man. When God occupies our entire being and we are willing to share ourselves completely, this is the highest calling of conduct, an unconditional love and compassion for all mankind. We must remember that all men are equal in God’s eyes.
But not every individual approaches prayer the same way. The journey toward God takes many different circuitous routes. Our individual dispositions influences each pursuit toward goodness, kindness, compassion, mercy. Our individual dispositions provide us with both obstacles to surmount and strengths to employ as we move toward God. The more love we have in our hearts, the more hope we will have in our souls. Our faith will help us become better people, better Christians. The strength of our faith and the purity of our love will help us make the right decisions, follow the footsteps of Jesus Christ. We can create a life of humility, loyalty, and service to God if we desire and if we are willing to work hard in the name of God.
We should allow ourselves to excel in praising God. Our only ambition in life should be to love and to serve the Lord with our complete beings. We should be obedient to his teachings.
Our lives should commemorate all the goodness, kindness, love and other gifts bestowed upon us by God. As individuals we should take time to contemplate our place in the world and our actions. How we live, what we do, what we say can effect the lives of others. As Catholics we must remember to always be priestly in our interactions. Our humility, obedience, and love for God must always be present in our daily actions.
We should strive to evangelize our neighbors not by our rhetoric but by our tenderness and compassion.
Youth
Youth is the time when we learn lessons about love, hope, mercy. Youth is the time when learn lessons about goodness, kindness, faith. Youth is the time when we learn about God. Youth is the time when prayers begin to shape each individual life. How we view the world through the prism of faith and love, tinting all with rainbow colors. Our prayers become a creation of its own, private and tender, where we ask for strength and patience to do good, to be kind; where we sometimes wish for an immediate response from some magic wand; prayer allows us to enter into its realm of the beautiful, the prudent and the magnificent; prayer teaches patience, acceptance, understanding. Within honest and sincere prayer resides heroic love for God, a desire to love all mankind, fairly and unconditionally not desiring anything in return. Over time prayer allows and helps each individual to improve both their thoughts and actions. Prayer does not label anything prosaic. Prayer does not banish anything from our minds. Prayer can be a place where we search for the peaceful, the nourishing, the compassionate. Within youthful prayers, faith encourages us to be brave, to honor God and his commandments, to be heroic for God by pledging our lives to doing his work. Prayer becomes a gateway to loving and serving God.
Today, the secular world presents a kaleidoscope of possibilities of life gradually hypnotizing or numbing the collective minds of our society. Human existence is reduced to commercial slogans seen on television, heard on the radio. The stern realities of life are hidden behind neon lights, crowded restaurants, movies with computer generated special effects. The secular world does not want us to mature. The secular world is afraid of religion. The secular world is afraid of Christians. As Catholics our eyes must remain open to the secular world and our hearts must remain open and filled with prayer. Human existence does have a purpose beyond purchase power, beyond pride. Human existence should encourage each one of to offer prayers to God, thanking him for the gift of life, the gift of faith, the gift of love. The thoughtful Christian realizes that to God we are always youthful and that our prayers will be always youthful. Each day questions will flash in our mind, “How can I serve God?” or “Am I able to do a little more?” or “Is this enough? How can I offer my life to God?” The various choices appear like gates at a busy international airport, announcing distant, foreign destinations in places unknown, unchartered.
Prayer presents different various views of ourselves and our lives. Prayer is a picture of an instance in time. Sometime the same instance is replayed again and again. The triumph of prayer occurs when we are able to see goodness, kindness, mercy, hope, love previously unseen or unfelt within ourselves or others. Prayer is the soldier, the statesman, the diplomat, the physician, and architect of the soul. Prayer leads us to God. Prayer can leads us to avocations and vocations. Prayer reminds us that as individuals each of our actions are important both to ourselves and to the human race. Prayer can help us to act with love and compassion, to provide examples of faithful service to God.
Prayer connects us all as votaries, contributing to comfort and peace for all mankind in our own individual ways as benefactors of God’s love and kindness. Each day we must offer prayers of praise and thanks to God!
Our ambitions should lead us to humility, to being servants of the Lord.
Today, the secular world presents a kaleidoscope of possibilities of life gradually hypnotizing or numbing the collective minds of our society. Human existence is reduced to commercial slogans seen on television, heard on the radio. The stern realities of life are hidden behind neon lights, crowded restaurants, movies with computer generated special effects. The secular world does not want us to mature. The secular world is afraid of religion. The secular world is afraid of Christians. As Catholics our eyes must remain open to the secular world and our hearts must remain open and filled with prayer. Human existence does have a purpose beyond purchase power, beyond pride. Human existence should encourage each one of to offer prayers to God, thanking him for the gift of life, the gift of faith, the gift of love. The thoughtful Christian realizes that to God we are always youthful and that our prayers will be always youthful. Each day questions will flash in our mind, “How can I serve God?” or “Am I able to do a little more?” or “Is this enough? How can I offer my life to God?” The various choices appear like gates at a busy international airport, announcing distant, foreign destinations in places unknown, unchartered.
Prayer presents different various views of ourselves and our lives. Prayer is a picture of an instance in time. Sometime the same instance is replayed again and again. The triumph of prayer occurs when we are able to see goodness, kindness, mercy, hope, love previously unseen or unfelt within ourselves or others. Prayer is the soldier, the statesman, the diplomat, the physician, and architect of the soul. Prayer leads us to God. Prayer can leads us to avocations and vocations. Prayer reminds us that as individuals each of our actions are important both to ourselves and to the human race. Prayer can help us to act with love and compassion, to provide examples of faithful service to God.
Prayer connects us all as votaries, contributing to comfort and peace for all mankind in our own individual ways as benefactors of God’s love and kindness. Each day we must offer prayers of praise and thanks to God!
Our ambitions should lead us to humility, to being servants of the Lord.
Friday, November 12, 2010
Eucharistic Adoration
As Christians we have an unique responsibility which asks each one of us to know, to love, and to serve God. All of the activities of our imagination, all of our movements should inspire each one of us to search for signs of divinity as individuals and collectively as a member of a community of faithful believers of God. We are Catholic. We must learn how to value that which is capable of enriching our hearts, souls, and minds. Our lives are meant to be dedicated to the love and service of God.
On Monday November 15, after the 5:30 p.m. Mass there will be an hour long Eucharistic Adoration at the Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle.
On Monday November 15, after the 5:30 p.m. Mass there will be an hour long Eucharistic Adoration at the Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle.
An Old Fashioned Paragraph
As one of those who believe that the spiritual life of an individual is important for nourishing the soul and inspiring the mind to search for ways to be pure and content among its people, I regard popular culture as a dangerous concoction of thoughts and desires presented without wisdom, prudence, or love. The secular world allows pop culture to exist as a supreme inexorable law, of cause and effect, of sequence and ascension. Pop culture attacks our individual spiritual character with all types of transient passions of the flesh. This is a material age, everything is a commodity to be bought and sold, to be used and discarded. This is an age of exhaustion. The secular world encourages our society to be selfish, wasteful. Decadence and extravagance attack our eyes from magazine covers, television screens, computer screens. We are encouraged to forget or downplay spiritual things. The secular world works to create and nurture writers who exist only to spread doubt about the viability of religion, doubt about the reality of God. The mood of our society is addled. The quest for happiness is dangerous. Happiness isn't really tangible, it isn't lasting. A diamond necklace or a Mercedes might be purchased but happiness often only encourages us to want more. The idea of happiness that the secular world mass produces a murky angst. Modern life often appears like a heathen life of excess, of extreme selfishness, of rudeness. Although filled with material items and all types of experiences, modern life can be very empty, a distempered culture of insecurity, self hatred, ignorance, bigotry. Love is casually mentioned, casually discarded in the secular world. Love is neither unconditional nor universal in the secular world. Love is a motivating factor, an argument used to rationalize and justify material purchases and all types of social behavior. Love in the secular world produces neither joy nor hope. In the secular world love is lost within the gridlock of weariness and anxiety. How anxious is modern life! How we fear dirty bombs, serial killers, aging, terrorists, having last year's gadgets. However as Catholics our faith allows each one of us to define our lives as Children of God, our faith allows us to refine our lives based upon humility, charity, and service to God. True goodness and kindness are rare. As Christians our duty is to find a way to share God's exquisite love with ourselves and our neighbors. As Christians our lives should be both a reflection and an expression of God's love. There is a vitality within hope and faith which can help us follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. There is a newness in life when we believe in God and when we share our faith. The golden fleece within our spirit needs to nurtured by prayer, refection, good deeds. The more we love God and share our love of God, the more precious our lives become. We must reject the fashionable wolfish lust, hiding within song lyrics and imported silk shirts. Our love for God must never be placed beneath anything. It must always be the focal point of each day. We must strive to love and serve God each day. We must strive to love our neighbors as we love ourselves each day. Allow your spirit to lead you from the corruption of the secular world. Allow your spirit to show you that the world is still beautiful. Allow your spirit to present the saintly things in modern life. Allow your spirit to show you how to believe in God. Allow your spirit to create your literature of hope, love, mercy, and service
Thought of the Day
Do not allow your mind to forget God (though that is really impossible) or to downgrade God because it is fashionable to do so. Remember that science is not exact. Science creates both its questions and its solutions. The solutions may change with age. Avoid complaining because God did not act in the way that you wanted God to act. Each moment of our lives we are receiving gifts from God. Always be grateful, always give praise to God.
Words Will Lead
We live in a time when the secular world encourages us to have dilettante spirituality, limited to only those hours when we are physically within a church. The secular world does not like religion, tolerates religion only in small dozes, blames all of the worlds problems on religion instead of the men who practice and abuse their faith. It is easier for the secular world to accept the notion of Christians, as merely mystical and spiritual dabblers on Sundays before the football games.
Our challenge as Catholics is to integrate our lives, to follow in the footsteps of Christ. Our lives should encourage others to follow us. As Catholics, each choice we make should reflect our faith, our belief in God. We must find ways to fill our lives with humility, charity, mercy.
Our baptism gives us a direct obligation to God. Our lives have a purpose which we must discover and share. Goodness, kindness, and love can lead us to God. Our faith needs to be nurtured. We must limit our exposure to the secular world, we must learn more about our faith, more about the Saints.
How easy it is for the words to be written and read! How hard it is for the words to be put into practice! Being Catholic is often difficult. Following in Jesus Christ’s footsteps is difficult. There are times when we are going to want to stop. There are times when we are going to be upset by some church doctrine. There will be times when we will be too tired, too frustrated to continue.
But let nothing get in your way. Let nothing interfere with your relationship with God. Remember to pray as much as you can. Learn about your faith, share your ideas about your faith. Share your ideas about hope, love, mercy, compassion. Enjoy your life as a Catholic, always remember the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Allow that one act of love be your guide as you live your life each day.
Our challenge as Catholics is to integrate our lives, to follow in the footsteps of Christ. Our lives should encourage others to follow us. As Catholics, each choice we make should reflect our faith, our belief in God. We must find ways to fill our lives with humility, charity, mercy.
Our baptism gives us a direct obligation to God. Our lives have a purpose which we must discover and share. Goodness, kindness, and love can lead us to God. Our faith needs to be nurtured. We must limit our exposure to the secular world, we must learn more about our faith, more about the Saints.
How easy it is for the words to be written and read! How hard it is for the words to be put into practice! Being Catholic is often difficult. Following in Jesus Christ’s footsteps is difficult. There are times when we are going to want to stop. There are times when we are going to be upset by some church doctrine. There will be times when we will be too tired, too frustrated to continue.
But let nothing get in your way. Let nothing interfere with your relationship with God. Remember to pray as much as you can. Learn about your faith, share your ideas about your faith. Share your ideas about hope, love, mercy, compassion. Enjoy your life as a Catholic, always remember the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Allow that one act of love be your guide as you live your life each day.
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