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.

Lessons

The monotony of modern life annoys me sometimes, pleases me sometimes. Each day there are somethings to be rediscovered, an old anecdote retold, an old prayer to be taught. With patience and understanding there are many grave thoughts of sacrifice and obedience to be shared, discussed. I must always remember that I am a Christian. I must always be humble.

The ordinary good-fellowship of the Mass and of those moments when we are following the teachings of Christ and using our lives to serve God, we can experience a moment of a finer solidarity and goodness. One of the advantages of our situation is that we can, as it were, learn both goodness and holiness by observing and imitating it in others as we spend time doing God’s work. Charity, humility, and obedience require diligence and patience for our minds and our society encourage us to be independent individuals; when we reflect upon obedience, humility, and charity their usefulness can restore calm to our minds. I try to avoid getting caught in the madcap race of the immediate and instant gratification, instant resolution. Time is not the enemy; anxiety often is. Both goodness and wisdom require patience and silence. Our society allows and encourages us to be childish and selfish. As Christians we must remember that prayer can soothe our nerves, provide answers to the problems within our lives if we make time to pray and allow ourselves time to reflect, and to wait patiently for God’s guidance and assistance. Each of us are capable of making profound, inspirational statements about goodness, holiness, love, mercy, humility, obedience, charity, being Christian. Each of us has felt a moment of discomfort when we did not act appropriately with mercy, forgiveness and love; and yet, our hearts and souls still lead us toward God, still encourage us to be devoted disciples, believing in and living a life filled with love based upon the teachings of Jesus Christ.