Desire for Goodness

Each day I learn more about the Mother of the Church,—I am happy by praying the Hail Mary, and understanding her role and the beauty of her intercession on our behalf, which deepens in every detail my spirituality, my desire for goodness that I now feel.

My daily life as a Christian does contain some failures, but also I am learning the power and glory of prayer by observing men and women of divine energy, among whom I dare not yet count myself, but with whom I hope to become one day. The major thought of the day involves attending Mass and praying, but I attend Mass to find courage to deal with the unpredictable craziness of life; being in the Cathedral allows my mind a moment of quiet, a moment of calm when I may practice the goodness and holiness taught in the Gospels with the hope of extending the goodness and holiness into my life beyond these beautiful marble walls; Mass allows me to quietly listen to the Word of God.

I do understand and believe that I must always be concerned about my own moral and physical state, which is often under attack by the consumerism which dominates our society. True decency, true morality no longer are virtues of our society. Our society has become so permissive that goodness and holiness have been conquered by all types of vice and sin. The great sadness that I feel for those people who are confused by the chaos and the glamor of sin leads me to God and I pray for the souls of all men and women, those who believe in God and those who do not believe in God that they learn of his love and follow his teachings.

I do not completely isolate myself from the outside world as much as I wish, and I am sometimes affected, from the intellectual point of view. Besides, the atmosphere of the modern life is a confluence of hopes and ideas and intellectual and spiritual people seeking to define goodness, decency, and morality for this moment, this current time: the trouble is that the internet and media is constant moving and changing meanings and definitions from place to place, moment to moment and confidence often whithers before the perpetual uncertainty of polls.

Being Christian allows me to have a belief in the mercy and love of God; it also allows us to believe in and work for our salvation.

I am happy to hear about prelapsarian moments.

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.