He Saw A Man Named Matthew

Change the sinners to the righteous

How crazy is the modern world! The commandments are not followed. No one wants to be labeled a sinner. Everything is either justified, rationalized, or somehow explained away. The truth, the reality of the human condition is often cloaked behind a veil of New Age mumbo jumbo or a wall of psychobabble posing as scientific thought.

The simple fact remains the same. People sin everyday. There is no way to whitewash this fact. Sin can not be concealed or hidden. Sin exists whether we like it or not. We often sin accidentally, I believe this to be true especially in conversation.

I try various things to avoid sin. I pray. I try not to talk too much. I am part of a long line of talkers with a little too much curiosity and and a little too much obliquity. I sometimes pray for a little more common sense to help keep my tongue still.

I acknowledge that I am a sinner. I try to avoid sin, I try to avoid temptation. I am human. I have strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes I feel bad after I sin. Sometimes not, especially if it occurred during a great conversation filled with lots of laughter and jokes and anecdotes. Sin is a natural part of life for each and every human being. We have to accept this inevitability, this reality. We are asked to learn how to avoid sin.

As Catholics the sacraments help to put things into perspective. Every time we attend Mass we are encouraged to examine our lives, our decisions.

The meaning of our lives as Christians begins and ends with love and forgiveness. We are imperfect creatures striving for a perfect relationship with God.

I am a sinner trying to learn how to be righteous with prayer, reflection, silence, good deeds.

I am a sinner filling my life with goodness, kindness, holiness.

I am a sinner seeking righteousness, seeking God’s forgiveness.

Sin remains an equal opportunity distraction, diversion, temptation for all men, for all religions.

I pray for each and everyone of us to develop the strength to avoid sin, to live a life of fairness, a life of love, a life of social justice, a life of compassion, a life of mercy. I pray that we each find the strength of character to be like Jesus Christ in our daily lives.

The Measure of Christ's Gift

How was your day? How is your life going? What are you doing with your life? Are you going in the correct direction? Are you moving?

These simple questions can amuse or annoy us. These simple words can urge us to look beyond our current state. We need to look beyond our present surroundings. Simplicity sometimes leads us toward a certain manner of living. We can discuss the obliquity of faith.

Each time we attend Mass we are asked to remember the love and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The death of Jesus Christ invites us to love each other, invites us to have faith in each other.

Beauty, goodness, and truth wait to be discovered, wait to be uncovered.

The measure of Christ’s gift remains constant, remains direct. Jesus Christ explicitly commanded each one us to love God, to love each other. This love is a gift. This love is a blessing.

Jesus Christ taught us how to forgive and suggested that we should forgive an infinite amount of times. Forgiveness is important in the lives of all Christians. Forgiveness keeps our lives moving.

We have motion, we have prayer, we have the knowledge of Jesus Christ’s life and death.

We have numerous signs leading us to salvation, numerous paths leading us to redemption.

We received the best gift, the gift of the holy spirit when we were baptized, when we were confirmed.

God Asks Us to Forgive

When you attend Mass there is a good chance that either love or forgiveness will be mentioned. So important are these two themes that we need to be reminded constantly, to be reassured that both are beneficial to us, to be encouraged to have the confidence to forgive, to love our neighbor.

Forgiving someone goes beyond the acceptance of a verbal apology. Forgiving someone goes beyond the verbal response. Forgiving when it is true begins in the soul. Forgiveness requires both a spiritual and an emotional letting go. Forgiveness requires prayer, reflection, patience. We can ask God for guidance and help. God provides assistance; Christ Jesus provides lessons.

The secular world likes conflict, unrest, anxiety. The secular world likes to divide people. Mistakes happen. Pain finds us. Sometimes people are malicious and try to incite chaos and mayhem. Sometimes accidents happen. Holding grudges, seeking revenge often creates more problems for us. Two rude acts equal two rude acts. One rude act does not magically disappear.

God deserves a preeminent place in your life. Typing that is easier than doing it. Our lives are filled with many competing items and events. There is not enough time to do all of the things that we want to do. We want more time for prayer, more time to do God’s work. Taking the time to look at our lives, at our conflicts, arguments coolly, objectively requires a spiritual strength, a powerful faith in God.

Forgiving is forgiving, wiping the slate clean, erasing all bad memories, deleting the pain. Forgiving is forgetting. Forgiving requires humility, compassion. As we forgive each other, we extend and share charity with each other. In life bad things will happen, that is a given. The bad does not have to be remembered or preserved in our brains.

As Christians our gaze needs to always be looking up toward the kingdom of heaven. Our lives can be examples of social justice, fairness, and love if we desire. Depending upon the offense, forgiving seems out of reach. Depending upon our relationship with God, forgiving remains out of reach. True, honest forgiveness can be difficult to discover, to extend. If we are able to achieve forgiveness, a moment of divine peace, divine grace will spread from our soul, to our heart, to our mind. Forgiveness asks us to forget our earthly body, our earthly concern and to think and behave like God. Forgiveness shifts our concern from ourselves to those who have harmed us. Our prayers will include them, asking for their protection.

Forgiveness begins with communication to God, when we take the time to present our problems and concerns to God with honesty, truth. Our lives contain different levels of vulnerability, different levels of fear. Forgiveness occurs when we present everything to God and release it from our soul, from our heart, from our mind.

Forgiveness can lead to love. Forgiveness can lead to goodness, kindness, holiness. First we are asked to believe in God, to have faith and trust in God, to love God.

When God is preeminent in our lives forgiveness becomes easier.

Three Statements About the Catholic Church

It is very important to remember that the Roman Catholic Church does have a history and a tradition that extends over two thousand years. It is very important to acknowledge the Jewish roots of the Roman Catholic Church. It is very important to proclaim that the Roman Catholic Church is the original and first Christian church. These three statements help create a starting ground when looking at the church, when thinking about the church. These three sentences will hopefully inspire other thoughts about the majesty and beauty of being Catholic, of the Catholic experience.

Writing is difficult; being Catholic is difficult. Writing about the Catholic experience is often challenging. Thinking about being Catholic is easy. Talking about being Catholic is easy. Saying the right thing at the right time about Catholic life is difficult.

What is the strength of the Catholic Church? What does the Catholic Church do? The Catholic Church does one thing very well. It creates and maintains and encourages prayer. Prayer is the main currency of the church. There are prayers for all hours of the day, prepares before, during, and after Mass. All actions as Christians begin with prayer, simple prayer. All actions of Christians begin with simple attempts to praise God, to offer thanks to God, to request assistance from God. Learning to pray is learning to communicate with God.

Communicating with God is essential for each Christian. There is a need to listen for God’s call. There is a need to reach out to God with the good and bad, happiness and sorrow, love and indifference as it occurs in daily life. Being Catholic involves a continual invitation to walk in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, to live a life based upon social justice that reflects the Beatitudes and the teachings of Jesus Christ. That continual invitation reminds the faithful to return to Mass each week, to serve on committees in their parishes. That continual invitation leads some of the faithful to a life of vocations. That continual invitation can lead each Catholic to a closer, deeper more personal relationship with God.

It is necessary to remember that each Christian is asked to be a loving servant of the Lord. This is often a difficult request. The Catholic Church provides many examples of how to become a loving servant of God both living and dead. It is very important that each Christian try to become a loving servant of God. The attempt is important for development as a Christian, for a richer understanding of God, of the individual’s relationship with God, of the individual’s relationship with their faith community. Learning how to love and how to forgive are two of the essential tenets of being Christian. To discover them require prayer and trial and error. Christian forgiveness and Christian love are difficult without God’s grace and guidance.

It is very important that each Christian develop a coherent starting point or point of reference for their Christian life. Prayer is essential. Christian forgiveness and Christian love are important.

The life of each Roman Catholic by nature of baptism allows and creates the opportunity for evangelization. Each word spoken, each action taken can be a vehicle for sharing the Good News, a vehicle for New Evangelization of family, friends, colleagues. Each day, each moment is the opportunity to present, to share the mercy, charity, and grace of God.

New Evangelization asks each Christian to remember the past, the love and sacrifices of God and to apply that to the present with our actions and thoughts. New Evangelization is alive and necessary for the faithful and the Church.

The Return

This November day I am happy to be alive. I am constantly seeking new things which will inspire me to act with goodness and kindness. I am learning the importance of humility. I am learning the importance of serving God. All things in our lives are connected. Serving God should be important to each Christian. Serving God extends beyond attending Mass. It is a way of life, a way of being. Our lives should be directed toward moving toward God. Our individual movements should inspire others to follow and move toward God. Kindness and goodness should not be treated as simple afterthoughts. Each day provides valuable lessons about compassion, mercy, and love. Our goal should be to grow in love of God each day. Each day we must allow time for prayer and reflection. Each day we make decisions about clothing, food, email, seeing friends. Each day we should remember to make a decision to offer a small bit of our lives to God, and then to slowly, increase this offering. Although each day we might repeat our actions, remember that each day is new and different. Each day is an opportunity to do good, to love our neighbor, to follow the path of Jesus Christ.

We live in a restless time of conflicting impulses. The secular world encourages each one of us to treat life as an open field or a gymnasium floor, running, jumping, careening around all types of temptation and sin; romping, playing, laughing while allowing the secular world influence our understanding of venial and mortal sin. We must acknowledge that we are sinners. Each one of us. We are sinners who hopefully are trying to avoid sin with each new decision, each new thought. Yes, there will be times when we might fail, when we will sin again. All we can do is acknowledge our failure, ask for God’s forgiveness, and try to avoid sinning. This war never ends.

We live in a restless time of secular confusion. Always remember God’s love. Always remember the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

In November do you look back toward the summer days or are you looking for the December holidays? What governs your mind? What governs your heart? Where do you find God? How do you share God? Create a simple plan for goodness, kindness, humility, and charity each day.
Live a simple life of love and service to God.

As adults do not forget the lessons and ideals of childhood; being an adult means being open to growing in mind and spirit, being open to exploring the Mysteries of faith, being opening to sharing hope. We do not need to have every question answered. We need only to keep our lives and spirits balanced. We must place God at the center of our lives. We must strive to grow physically, mentally, spiritually each day and to encourage others to do so. Allow yourself time of reflection and prayer each day. Allow yourself to marvel at the living things, to marvel at the sky, the trees, the flowers, the animals. Allow yourself to enjoy the out of doors without rushing from point to point.

Remember that each decision provides us with an opportunity to move onward, to grow inward, to experience life outward, to hope and pray upward, to journey Godward.

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.

Devotion, Compromises, Questions and Prayer

Since modern life is filled with so many compromises, this morning I began thinking of the dangers of a lukewarm devotion to God. As Christians we are called to live lives filled with love and to follow in the footsteps of Christ by proclaiming the Word of God by our actions and in our conversations. Although it is easy for us to affirm our belief during Mass, how difficult it is for us to do this in our daily lives. We are all capable of living lives that filled with humility, charity, and obedience. I sometimes wonder what does it mean to “bear witness” or to “proclaim” the Word of God. Should we pepper are sentences with, “I was the reading the Bible last night,” or “Scripture says,” or “In his homily Father Hamilton said.” There is no correct answer to the question; each situation in which we find ourselves as Christians will create a unique and appropriate response. Being a faithful Christian is already a daily struggle. The choices in our lives should reflect our love for and obedience to the teachings of God. Our lives should be filled with forgiveness, mercy, and goodness which will inspire hope in ourselves and others. Each day we should make decisions with the complete certainty that our actions and thoughts will be pleasing to God. Our lives should be filled with prayers for peace, love, salvation. We must remember to always praise God and to give him thanks. We should always be willing to share our happiness as faithful, servants of God.

Prayer is necessary, and, above all, prayer does have the power to change our lives and our ideas about our Faith and how we express our Faith.

We all have inspirational stories about meeting someone filled with such beautiful, inspirational goodness and holiness that there is always a sweet feeling in the heart when I think of them. I can only pray to grow into my faith in a similar way. My spiritual growth requires examples of all of God’s humble servants, presenting ways to be holy and good, ways to be the best Christian that I can.

. . . Goodness and holiness are patient, quiet

Questions about how we believe, why we believe should stir up fervent feelings within our hearts and souls. Christ is not dead; he is alive within each one of us. Our lives must reflect his love, sacrifice, and suffering; with courage our existence could adapt and be filled with charity, humility, and obedience.

I am now trying to be more vigilant in my life to avoid anything that will endanger the goodness, holiness and love in my life, but I understand the need to frequently examine my conscience. Goodness and holiness might occur naturally in each of us, but maintaining them requires diligence.