Parish Life

Parish life at the Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle often moves at the pulse of the avenue in front of this handsome place of worship; I believe this; I have observed it on many different occasions. There is a wonderful pulse about the place, a spiritual pulse nurturing and inviting. There are moments when I have felt insignificant but something within the Cathedral reminds me to be quiet, to look not with my eyes, to hear not with my ears, to touch not with my fingers. Here is a place of prayer. Here is a place to reflect upon the many facets of life.

Parish life has its own unique pulse. Last night I stayed for a talk that I had heard the day before. I stayed in part because I wanted a photograph of the committee members who had worked hard to plan this event. I stayed because someone asked me to stay.

Saint Matthew’s Cathedral is a great place to attend Mass; Saint Matthew’s Cathedral is a great place to cultivate and nurture your relationship with God; Saint Matthew’s Cathedral is a great place for gentle fellowship.

I was glad that I stayed and listened to the talk again. I was there with friends. I was there learning about the history of Church tradition. The Passover and the Eucharist were linked. Aramaic, Greek, Hebrew, Latin were mentioned as being part of the history and tradition of the Church. Being a product of the Twentieth century it is easy to believe that the cinematic American English brogue dominated the ancient world. It is refreshing and beneficial to be exposed to the truth and then realize how beautiful and majestic and enduring the Church is.

And so I was listening to the talk and learning something new. The talk was not the same talk that I had heard before. There were minor changes.

So it was enjoyable for me to attend this talk, treat it as something new, see familiar faces from the parish. The Cathedral parish is a great place of Beginning, a great place of Hope. With a little patience our thoughts can be attuned to the rhythm of charity, humility, compassion, mercy, and obedience, attuned to the rhythm of love. Here Hope is lithe. Here Faith is lithe. We each have the opportunity, the obligation to share Hope, to share Faith.

There were a few sentences which made me think, made me want to read the Bible more. The Liturgy of the Word is sunlight for the soul. A gift of joy to provoke discernment and prayer. Within the Bible I can discover something new, something beneficial if I allow myself to be open, to take the time to prepare.

The movement of God in our lives is not mysterious; our acceptance of God and his influence is mysterious controlled by our own capriciousness, our own selfishness. God is always present in our lives, always asking us to be obedient.

he would withdraw to deserted places to pray

Listening to the Liturgy of the Word should be an active process, the entire mind should be engaged with each word that is spoken during this time. The Bible is filled with activity. People are always moving around, obeying God, disobeying God. The people in the Bible are always up to something. Although the Bible does not mention texting, email, smart phones, the people of the Bible knew how to communicate with one another without using a telephone or Facebook or Twitter or Youtube. The People of the Bible were good at getting the message.

Jesus was a very busy person. He was always on the go, moving from town to town. His ministry involved motion, involved going to the people, involved listening to the people, involved serving the people. Jesus did not limit his ministry to one neighborhood in one town. He was in Nazareth, Capernaum, Bethabara, Cana, Galilee.

Two Thousand years later there is something magical, something powerful in the names of these places and the connection to Jesus. His ministry moved from the countryside to the synagogue to the countryside. His ministry moved along country roads and city streets.

His message was simple love God and love each other. His message was radical then, and is still radical now.

Even with all the moving about from town to town Jesus always found time to pray.

Christianity asks each believer, each Christian to spread the Good News, to share their blessings and gifts with others, to praise and love God each day. Christianity asks each believer to join a journey of goodness, holiness, kindness, to join a journey of faithfulness and loyalty to God.

It is important to always be attentive, to always be listening for the voice of God. Being Christian often involves a period of discernment, of contemplating, praying reflecting on how to move closer to God, on how to serve God.

Each day there are signs of the Holy Spirit in our lives, encouraging us to pray, encouraging us to help others, encouraging us to avoid temptations and distractions. Each day there are signs of the Holy Spirit directing us toward God, directing us to the path of Jesus. Each day there are signs of the Holy Spirit asking each of to be active Christians, loving and serving God, loving each other unconditionally.

Even with our busy lives of work, family, friends, volunteer activities, each Christian should find time to pray.

Each day I wonder what Nazareth, Capernaum, Bethabara, Cana, Galilee were like when Jesus was alive and moving from town to town. Each day I wonder if there is something more that I could be doing to love and serve God.

A sense of courage is needed. A sense of humor is required. Simplicity is needed. Love is required. Being Christian requires active listening, active participation. Being Christian requires gracious words, loving deeds.

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.

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.

Search Within The Silence

Outside there are raindrops again. It is Friday. Sitting here in silence and hope, voices talking, voice laughing can be heard. Horns from automobiles can be heard; the hiss of quick moving tires also disturbs this silence.

As Christians we are encouraged to create and protect a “willing expansion of belief” in ourselves and our world. We live with the premise of communicating with God. We praise God. We offer thanks to God. We petition God. We are confident that he will show us mercy. We learn patience as we wait for his response. We do not expect his correspondence to be instantaneous like a text message. We can not rush God.

Sometimes our honesty, our enthusiasm in our prayers or good deeds creates a kinetic energy, an intensity which can inspire others and move us, unlocking emotions, diminishing fears, restoring hope. As Christians we are always looking for ways to become closer to God, always trying to move toward God. We talk of goodness, we talk of holiness. The true orientation of a man is often not found in his oration but within his silence, within something imperceptible to the naked eye. Our true orientation toward God is hidden somewhere between or hearts and our souls; it is at once powerful and vulnerable; it sees and feels both good and evil.

How wonderful it would be if we all would take time, become a didacticist for a day, focusing all of our energy on sharing what we have learned from the Bible, from the life, death, and resurrection of Christ!

We do not talk about God enough! We do not apply the teachings of Christ enough. We have too many distractions, soccer games, celebrity philandering, political corruption. How completely sad our world is! Everything has a price! Dying soldiers help sell auto insurance and detergent. Murdered children help sell frozen pizza and deodorant. Tearful families help sell birth control pills and diapers. This critique is not new. It is only mentioned because we must always remember God, always add God to both our thoughts and conversations. Christ is that unknown soldier, Christ is that murdered child. We must acknowledge our role in the violence which occurs in our society and within this world. As we grow in our faith, as our goodness blossoms within us, hopefully we will transform us, give us the courage to say enough killing, enough violence, enough war!

We do not talk about God enough! Why do we come to Church each week? What do we get out of it? Do we get anything out of it? Do we listen to the readings, to the homily? Do we really listen or are we thinking about work, the stock market, player statistics, happy hour drink specials?

Each Mass presents a lesson in love, a simple type of love without attachment, a love of purity and hope, a love which inspires love and goodness, a love filled with compassion and empathy, and a love of sacrifice and suffering.

This is not the love of your New York Times bestseller or your Hollywood blockbuster. This is a love created with charity, humility, and obedience; a love filled with hope, filled with praise for God; this love encourages each of us to willingly expand our belief in the goodness and hope with ourselves and our neighbors and the belief in our ability to share our goodness, our hope with our neighbors. We are not asked to tolerate our neighbors but to understand and love our neighbors. We are not asked to say yes to social justice but to protect it for everyone.

“God is found on the way of justice, conversion and truth.” Archbishop Oscar Romero

What A Reference

“If you want fresh air, don’t look for it in this town.” The Asphalt Jungle

Our lives are filled with so many movie quotes and literary references. Our lives overflow with metafiction, all types of trivia and stuff continually percolating within our hearts, minds, souls. We hear or see and then retain so much slang, jargon, catchphrases, cliches, bits of poetry, political speeches, movie and television dialogue, and prayers. All of this and more is constantly being churned, being turned into our thoughts, being churned into our conversation. We should look within ourselves, search for those secret words which describe us, those lines of dialogue which govern and influence our lives. Whether we like it or not, want to accept the reality that the media can and does have an impact on our lives, both directly and indirectly. We must look within ourselves and discover what words and ideas truly govern us, give us comfort, give us hope.

As Christians our minds need to be nourished with love and hope and freedom and justice. As Christians our minds need to be directed toward God and being humble, loving servants.

How wonderful our lives would be if all our conversations mentioned the Eternal Word. If our minds contained the majesty of the Psalms or the justice of the Beatitudes. Within the Holy Scriptures God reaches out to us; God speaks to each one of us when we take the time to read the Bible. Everything in this world, in our lives speak about God; our ears may not understand the language or accept the words. Saying our prayers is a start. With patience and hope and reverence allow God this Beginning, this conversation with our hearts and souls. Listen, contemplate, silence your tongue. Jesus wanted us to be governed by love, wanted us to share love. Our responsibility, our obligation as Christians is to learn how to incorporate this love into our lives. In time we will gain understanding; in time we will learn how to judge ourselves and each other with fairness and compassion. The Word is our guide, our protector, our teacher. As we learn how to better love ourselves and each other, we learn how to better love God. As we learn how steadfast of spirit Jesus was, we will try and fail with our own attempts at being steadfast of spirit. Look to your failures for inspiration, encouragement. Allow your failures to lead you closer to God. Please do not allow any failure to detour you or lead you away from your journey to God. Remember to follow the path that Jesus Christ made for us. Remember that God is the Truth, God is the Word. Ask God for mercy, love, forgiveness. Protect your soul, your heart, your mind; our world is often bothersome, worrisome. Desire only humility, charity, and obedience. They are the foundation of goodness. Remember to leave the chaos and confusion of this world. Create a private secret silent place for yourself and God. Allow for God to gently speak to you in private.

Antidote

--Pray when you wake-up. Live your life based upon fairness, social justice and love. Make time to both read and reflect upon each book of the Bible. Let the teachings of Jesus Christ inspire you to revolt against all evil and injustice. Live your life with joyous expectation. Have hunger only for God’s love and mercy. Open your soul up to the idea of and responsibility for your own discernment to listen for and to answer God’s call. Seek the style and beauty of goodness and holiness. Allow yourself to be conscious of each impression of gentleness, softness, of hopefulness, of prayers, of reflection, caressing, encouraging—an emphasis, calm yet confident, contemplative and passionate, with serenity and loving humility. Sense the greatness of God’s love; allow all your labors to be an opportunity to praise and give thanks to God. Do not be obstinate and seek only definitions and answers; instead be mindful of your anxiety and nourish your questions; allow them to grow, to expand, to contract over time; let your questions change and mature with time, with prayer, with reflection. Seek silence. Seek forgiveness. Be compassion. Be Love. Pray, pray, pray and pray again.

--Pray the Rosary at least once a week. Find good faith inspiring books for reading and reflection. Create a life of humility, obedience, and charity. Concentrate only on improving the best qualities of your life; the love within your heart, the hope within your soul should be your guide. Be conscious of the presence of God within your life. Always show respect to God. Always show reverence for God. Keep good company. Pray, pray, pray. Remember the virtues.

Let the impression of your life be filled with the humility, obedience, charity of God’s loving humble servant.

Do not fear austerity; simplicity allows us to find and share our love for God. Let love be the emphasis of your life with him. Be conscious of every impression of charity, obedience, humility. Examine your philosophy, your ideas of self and community. Where do you position serving God?

Prayers, Prayers, Prayers

Are we so pampered that we are blind to the despair that hides just beneath our savage comfort zones? When someone on the street asks for money, how do we respond? Do you ever allow yourself to be hungry? to miss a meal? Would you give a cold destitute person the new coat that you are wearing? What is important to you simply going to Mass or being involved in the Mass?

As Catholics we are called to use Christ as a guide for us in our daily lives; we should have love and respect for everyone. Poverty should not scare us. Death should not scare us.

We must train ourselves to look beyond the simply visible

Prayers, prayers, prayers, prayers,—These are my first days of consciousness of faith, full of hope, but searching for signs of goodness and holiness in others. The Bible and other inspirational books wait to be read. I actually feel sanguine right now.

I am in a state of great nervous enthusiasm because of the desire to be a humble servant of the Lord and the examples of that behavior which I have seen in others. I lead the life of a journalist. I observe everything with my eyes, I record and save each moment within my mind as I search for the best examples of serving God.

What I observe and remember is beautiful, in each of us both goodness and holiness are present and sometimes visible in the little things that we naturally do in our daily lives.

Prayers and Patience

It is time to develop relationships with a common sympathy and interest in fairness and social justice. Mercy and forgiveness should be easily and honestly shared. We should move towards being loving and compassionate. Our hope should be extended beyond any slef-serving goals. Envy and greed, uncontrolled, can lead us away from God. Any separation can lead to all types of afflictions and fears. We must always remember decency and morality. Our lives require a foundation of love, peace, compassion, and hope. Even I cannot know all things that need our prayers; but God knows, and it does please Him to hear our prayers for each other. We must always remember and respect all the blessings that He gave. And we must make time to read and understand the Bible; we must make our lives be right since we are all his servants! Indeed we must expect both great grief and magnificent contentment! Prayer can help us to be better Christians and better human beings when we allow ourselves to believe in the majesty and beauty of God. Love often surrounds me; prayers help me feel closer to God; but I should not then deny the consolation of praying and then remembering to pray for all those in need of God’s mercy and love.

It is both reasonable and acceptable to speak now of our prayers, and circumstances which have been compelled us to pray. We must believe that God’s responses will arrive unquestionably at the appropriate moment according to God’s precepts; the responses will correspond to his plan, his idea of what we need; we must wait patiently, obediently and accept his responses with humility and grace; above all we must believe that his responses are filled with love, compassion, and mercy. We are all his children. We are all alive and well. Our hopes, our dreams have been composed by God—our Father is quietly supporting us with his own forgiveness, his own love, his own patience. He asks that we develop loving fortitude. He asks for our humility, charity, and obedience. He waits for our response. His love and concern for us is an inexpressible comfort to many who bear witness to his goodness and wisdom. God is our comfort. God offers salvation if we simply, lovingly obey him.

I cannot say that being obedient shall always be easy for us; obedience will be very difficult for us at times and we will be filled with all types of rationalizations, justifications and other shoddy reasons and fallacies allowing all types of resistance thoughts and actions. God knows and expects this; we must learn it if we are to follow in Christ’s footsteps. Always remember that God is always glad to see you, to hear your prayers. The weather is never too dreary or too humid for him to listen and we are never too far from him: and when you pray, be honest as you open your heart and soul to him; enjoy your prayers; enjoy the silence; pray often; and listen with calmness and quiet in your mind. God’s answer can take many forms and can occur at any moment. Perhaps we are ready to hear and understand it; perhaps we are not. We must have patience. It might be better if we were less concerned with earthly temporal matters which can make us selfish, distract and divert our love, goodness, and holiness. Within each of us is the capacity for being humble, loving, forgiving like God if we are able to overcome our insecurities and fears long enough to do what he asks—but we must always pray! Words cannot adequately express the regard and esteem that God presents to us each day of our lives. We receive his tenderness, his watchfulness. I can never forget God’s love for us or how unworthy I do feel because of my selfishness, my pettiness. I believe that I have felt God’s presence every hour and minute of my life—my memory is filled with reading and reciting Bible verses, hearing and saying prayers, seeing the wonders and beauty of nature. Building a good relationship with God is more precious to me than any earthly blessing; I have prayed for myself and I have prayed for others and I remind myself not to worry, not to want an immediate response; and yet, what I should feel, and how I should pray, remain as sweet variables, sweet daily lessons teaching me humility, obedience, charity; but I did just now remember that I have so much left learn about how to love as God wants us to love.

A Glimpse of Eden

It was the intention of a modern artist, poet, photographer, essayist, with timid and sometimes turbulent reserves of youth lived within a prelapsarian world of natural forests, irregular hillsides, shallow yet swift brooks and streams leading to the deep and wide river. These were days of Bible verses and blue skies and fluffy white clouds and climbing trees and getting lost in the woods, and wishing that the sun would never go down and running around lost in some beautiful game of make-believe, running around laughing, laughing and hoping. How wonderful those moments were! Surrounding this time was a beautiful envelop of admonishments to be Christ-like, to be good. This instruction was delicate, gentle served with warm freshly baked cookies and glasses of milk. Here were examples of both Christ’s goodness and holiness to observe and to learn. This time was never lost, the power and the grace of those days continue to burn, to keep the darkness, emptiness, and loneliness of sin away. And life pulls us away and then pushes us into God. Those lessons from our youth will return to us as we try to translate current thoughts and concerns. Here lives and grows both the tenderness and gentleness of the heart and soul. Here is a fervent love for social justice and mercy! Here is a mystical sense of trust beyond the immediate and concrete. Here whispers the eternal language of love and salvation!

Each day I encounter hope and sadness, witness despair and kindness; urban living presents the human condition completely unvarnished without sentimentality or generosity. The pain and suffering of our neighbors is often displayed as if for the amusement and entertainment of others. My heart rejects this view but is sometimes overwhelmed by all that is seen and heard, but the fatigue I actually feel directs me to prayer.

Choices

Today reviewed some photographs taken inside the Cathedral. Handsome and inspiring with calm, peaceful, unobtrusive lighting.

In these troubled times making ethical and moral choices requires diligence and patience. We are still without complete protection from sin and sinful behavior, but we have the teachings of Jesus Christ as a template. We also have to remember the Ten Commandments and all of the parables, psalms, and lessons within the Bible which help to create our spiritual landscape, notwithstanding the creation of our social justice beliefs. Within our social justice beliefs reside the best of us, the ability to love, to show mercy, to forgive, and to be humble; the best impression of the human heart, mind, and soul begins here with thoughts which hopefully will transform into actions called moral. Great hope will be made upon our desire for fairness and goodness. We must always remember that our lives as Christians require fortitude, sacrifice, obedience, patience. We must remember fortitude.

December Snow Night

How we view ourselves and our spiritual lives are often different. We sometimes separate or categorize the various aspects of our lives. We accept the idea that modern life is complicated.

As Catholics we believe and profess different prayers and creeds. Our lives as Catholics should extend beyond the walls of our churches.

If our daily lives were built around prayer and the Beatitudes, would we still describe them as complicated. Just what makes our lives so complicated? Is it the number of choices we have, or how we make our decisions, or how we avoid making some of our decisions?

Our daily lives have a built in rhythm. We decide what we are going to do each day. We decide when we are going to pray, when we are going to Mass, when we are going to read the Bible.

Our daily lives are also filled with all types of questions and competing interests providing all types of thoughts, all types motivations, all types of moments of and reasons for indecision.

How we feel about ourselves and our relationship with God provides us with confidence and hope.

When our faith is strong we can do anything, even ride a bicycle during a snow storm.

Faith

Faith exists beyond either time or space while encouraging and evoking both my hope and my love. In the early morning light, Holy Scriptures should lead us toward God. I read the Bible for both education and inspiration. I sometimes imagine myself as a hobo silently walking down a crowded street in the middle of an unfamiliar neighborhood, nowhere distinct yet somewhere closer to Heaven. There are candlesticks, picnic baskets, tumbleweeds, lilies and carnations surrounding my path. There is a forecast of thunder storms. The circumstance of my life can make me feel vulnerable, alone. There is a fragility in my existence; this fragility is universal. My life, like every person’s life, begins with birth, ends with death. In between will be many hopes, prayers, mistakes, trying to move me toward God sometimes, trying to move me away from God sometimes. When my faith is strong, I can keep moving toward God. Urban living allows us to anonymous but it can underscore our loneliness and desire for something to believe in. We need something to believe, a presence that is constant and merciful. I must always remember that I am a traveler on foot. God offers comfort, compassion, love. There is often something unsettled in our lives, something left unsaid, undone. There can be something ironic in our approach and discussion of God. We all want to believe; we must work to believe in God; we must work to have clean hearts and pure minds in our daily lives and when we pray to God. We can not intimidate God. We can only approach God with charity, humility, and compassion in our hearts. At times I am a tumbleweed being blown around by a fierce wind. At times I am a hobo looking for compassion and a shelter. Faith allows us to encapsulate the very essence of our humanity; our hopes and fears, strengths and weaknesses are displayed for us. Both the future and the past can be viewed as mirages as we try to live Christian lives based upon love, hope, and social justice. Our goodness and our kindness can be glimmers of compassion. We must always keep our lives focused on serving God, our destination must always be following Jesus Christ, journeying to the kingdom of heaven.

Our day to day lives might be prosaic, lacking any poetry or movement but we must always remember to pray and to live our lives based upon the Word.

I am sometimes the hobo searching for a meal as a tumbleweed bounces near my feet as I silently as God for mercy and forgiveness.

Somewhere in Prayer

Everyone who believes in God possesses a private, unique and beautiful story. The Bible contains many examples of these stories.

Often it is from the simple repetitions in life and faith that resonance is gained.

The most inspiring thing about faith is the reality that at any moment in our lives we can receive God’s call. Anyone can receive it; the courageous will respond.

As with any choice, anxiety, angst, and even fear may tease or cloud judgement with questions or assumptions. The stronger a man’s sense of faith, the stronger is his resolve and ability to accept God’s request and live his life in God’s service.

The call can fill a man with hope, love, mercy, and compassion. Goodness may briefly opens a man’s eyes to the grandeur and beauty of God’s love. This introduction may lead to both virtuous thoughts and virtuous living. God offers a calming optimism as long as we can remain patient and allow ourselves to believe.

I like the stories which feature Peter. He is approachable because he is so naturally, human. Peter does not instantly become a paragon of virtue. Instead, he remains a human being who loved God but who made mistakes. It through his mistakes and his perseverance in his faith after his mistakes that many lessons can be learned.

Matthew 14 contains the archetypal encounter between Peter and Jesus which could easily be used to describe the divine call within each of us. That this is a dialogue must be accepted and understood. God begins the conversation.

“Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.”

“Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” Man replies and complies to God’s request. Faith is stronger at the beginning.

“Lord, save me!” At some point if the request becomes to difficult or to heavy, man might stumble or become afraid of falling. Then, he either stops or retreats or gives up and then asks for God’s assistance.

“O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” God is always there to help. Man must allow himself to believe.

The actual story in Matthew with Peter on the boat is very beautiful in its simplicity. In those verses we see a man eager to follow God and then something happens. A stray thought or something interrupts Peter’s devotion for an instance and God saves him.

Divine Calls

Before my birth Cardinal John Henry Newman published Parochial and Plain Sermons, Volume VIII. I discovered this volume and began to look through it. I have always been fascinated by books. I like acquiring new ideas.

After reviewing the table of contents, my eyes were immediately drawn to the second sermon, Divine Calls. Although I know that the Bible was in existence long before my birth, it still surprised and pleased me to accept the reality that by chance, I had stumbled upon these sermons which referenced a Victorian Bible.

The sermon itself is very familiar to other sermons about hearing and responding to God's call.

I like being told that each one of us receives a divine call and that each one of us has a duty to respond to their divine call. Newman immediately connects the call with our obedience. When we hear the call we should stop everything that we are doing.

This type of obedience, prompt and unconditional, is what God wants. When God makes a request of us, there is always a dialogue, always his presence, always his assistance. Our egos and imaginations sometimes forget God's love as we weigh this situation against that situation.

The Divine Call does not just occur once in our lives. It begins with our Baptism and continues throughout our lives. Christ is there when we want him there, when we do not. He calls us when we act as he did, and when we do not act as he did. There is something very beautiful in the continuity of the Divine Call.

I like to think of the Divine Call as casual correspondence between Christ and us. When it arrives we have a multitude of choices. We can read it, not read it, destroy it, hide it. We can also respond to it, do the thing that God asks of us.

There is nothing more beautiful than allowing your life to be lived in God's service. Our work is never done, his work is never done. Our obedience is needed. Through our him we are sanctified and glorified.