Snowflakes

Saturday morning listening to footsteps on the marble foyer in the lobby, listening to a loud telephone conversation of an anonymous man through a closed locked door I sit alone. There is the familiar sound of running water, dishes being placed into and moved around in a sink. Two children and their father drift from the elevators, patiently stare out the glass doors at the snow and the children outside. The children have great enthusiasm and expectation.

As I watch the snowflakes fall outside and watch people walk by, some with parka hoods up, others beneath open umbrellas I am reminded of the beauty and fragility of life. At this moment the snow blankets the building stoop, lawn, sidewalk, street with a mysterious whiteness. There is a swirling purity and playfulness in falling snow. We are told that all snowflakes are unique. Watching their descent I can almost see imaginary lines and triangles. I search for isosceles triangles. Watching the snowflakes I remember the Pythagorean theory. How beautiful and gentle they appear! How delightful the snowflakes look. There are a few pedestrians walking by, some alone, some in small groups. They remind me of survivors in a science fiction movie lost on a desolate planet, moving, searching being attacked by the snowflakes and the wind. There is something peaceful in this snowfall, something comforting and yet—

The world outside the window is cottony and inviting. The leafless tree limbs are puffy, inflated with a white brightness. There is mystery in the snow. There is hope in the snow. The snow is a wonderful canvas for my imagination. Do I see Macbeth wandering by? Do I see three Wise Men? Is that a camel? And there are voices talking about blizzards, work, shoveling, parking, laundry. And there are children playing with shovels, leaning into the moist mountains of snow, trying to build castles, trying to build igloos. And there is laughter. And someone is trying to make a snow angel.

The snowfall continues; the wind blows the snowflakes this way, that way; the children discard their shovels and jump into the snow, pick up little handfuls.

A few vehicles creep by. Then there is a brief burst of a siren and a long red fire truck drives by. It seems longer than usual with a special ladder designed to reach higher into the sky, higher than the falling snowflakes.

The brief life of a snowflake is beautiful and somehow figuratively tragic; for from it the conception in the clouds there is an impending end. A moment when it will melt, when it will no longer be a dazzling falling snowflake.

There is something beautiful and mesmerizing in this snowfall. In the wind there is a faint sound, a faint chanting that sounds like “at the hour of our death.”

Earthly Desires

Be mindful of the fact that the world is filled with earthly things. What is visible to the eyes, audible to the ears is not always satisfying. The senses provide both information and stimulation. Wisdom teaches mankind to live in harmony with their environment and to learn how to use the environment efficiently and intelligently to provide a renewable resource for food, clothing, shelter. Beware of the temptation to love any possession. Purity of heart and soul is the ultimate goal of all Christians who are striving for holiness. This generation is encouraged to pursue their lusts; society and the government allow adults the freedom to do all types of behaviors which God asks all Christians to avoid. Fleshly lusts when followed lead men away from God. Each Christian must live a life which protects and strengthens the relationship with God; all those things which bond a Christian to God—prayer, penance, fairness, faith, hope, love—must be employed to avoid temptation; the conscience must be developed to seek love, purity and cleanliness of spirit, goodness, and holiness. All Christians know that sin exists; each day there is a possibility that each living person will sin; Christians must allow both themselves and their consciences to learn from each sinful impulse in order to avoid sinning in the future. Each sin is a disgrace; each sin moves us away from God and God’s grace. All Christians must live lives moving toward God, being of service to God.

Both immediacy and anxiety present this current generation with endless earthly choices and fleshly possibilities. Neither the immediacy nor the anxiety are natural; both are artificial and designed by men to provoke both responses and desires. Technology provides a sense of immediacy, instant contact, instantaneous relaying of information which bombards the mind and conscience with a steady repetition of information without providing or encouraging time for contemplation. Technology provides noise; this noise can sometimes drown out God’s messages to us. Information creates anxiety. People often want to know more than they know; people often make assumptions; people often worry. In the context of daily life with cellular phones, computers, television there is so much immediacy, so much anxiety that it might be difficult to discern God’s will. Christians must allow themselves a moment of silence. Christians must avoid getting lost within the current technology, current need for instant connection, instant solutions which are suggested by immediacy.

A Christian’s conscience does not desire instant gratification, instant solutions; a Christian desires to be a humble serving of God. Goodness and holiness involve patience, silence, respect.

Concerning Salvation

Is The Young Man Absalom Safe?

Christians are concerned with matters temporal and spiritual. Christians seek salvation. Christian thought leads the believers on the path to goodness and holiness. If love is the basic commandment of Christianity, how is that love expressed? Is it just for those who are familiar and in close proximity or for everyone universal? That Jesus Christ by example is to be accepted as the superior teacher of how to love gently, spiritually without anticipation, without expectation—simply accepting the strengths and weaknesses of each individual, treating each individual fairly, and understanding and affirming that this choice might be difficult and contain both sacrifice and suffering. Christ presented the best example of virtuous love. It must be remembered that the essence of Christianity involves suffering and sacrifice; there is a rejection of all pleasures, a rejection of wealth, a rejection of desires of the flesh, a rejection of all vanity. The sympathy and interest of the Christian should be the welfare and security of their neighbors. All activities of each Christian’s life should encourage others to convert and become believers and followers of the Lord. The essence of each Christian’s life should involve being virtuous and being a humble servant of God. Virtuous thought is not selfish. Virtuous thought is not vengeful. Virtuous thought is not malicious. Goodness and holiness are intimately connected; how a man acts, how a woman speaks presents external signs of the love and respect for God within their souls. There should be something invisible to the eye, inaudible to the ear which exists purely and entirely in the soul which can lead men to all types of hope and goodness, allow the expansion of wisdom. With wisdom follows a deeper love and connection to God. As the bonds to God grow stronger so does the compassion and concern for all of God’s children. And this love and awe of God suggests that it is better to love universal, love without anticipation, love without expectation, love with mercy, love with forgiveness. This type of love asks for a understanding and acceptance of God’s mysticism; this is the love of the invisible, the inaudible; this is the love for all souls and for their salvation.

It is easy for each person to say “I love you. I love all of my neighbors.” However, it is more difficult to apply the gentleness, the hopefulness of love uniformly through the entirety of their existence. Spiritual concerns will always return to social justice, fairness, love, and hope.

Christ reminds us to offer both our faith and love to God; to be humble, obedient servants; to respect and trust God.

The life of a Christian extends beyond an individual quest for goodness and holiness; Christians by example should live in a humble, prayerful manner which draws other to the faith; Christians are not just concerned with their salvation; Christians desire the spiritual conversion and salvation for all of mankind. Hopefully how Christians live will reflect this!

And the Christian has Prayer and Contemplation.

Concerning Conversion

When, then, we ask why a crime was done, we believe it not, unless it appear that there might have been some desire of obtaining some of those which we called lower goods, or a fear of losing them. - St. Augustine


Each day each living person breaks one of God’s commandments thereby sinning and moving away from God. Sometimes these sins are small, sometimes they are great. But, all sins can be described as crimes against God. Sin must be mentioned during any discussion concerning conversion, redemption, and salvation. The Holy Trinity exists and provides lessons and examples of holiness for us to imitate. True understanding of the Holy Trinity requires loving humility and a loving desire to respect and serve God; pleasure in life is not found in earthly delights but in the glory and power of the Lord. All Christians learn that both goodness and holiness are created by both actions and statements; goodness and holiness create a good life when sincerity and humility are present. The Holy Trinity reminds faithful Christians of God’s place in their hearts, minds, and souls. The Holy Trinity reminds loving Christians of God’s power and glory. The Holy Trinity reminds upright Christians of God’s forgiveness and mercy. Contrition is necessary for all Christians; repentance before God for all sins against his laws is required and necessary for good spiritual development.

The ultimate goal for all Christians is to love and serve only God. When that occurs, the highest wisdom becomes available to us, the earthly world loses it charms, and we move forward, closer to the gates of Heaven.

Further, it is easy to cull from the Gospels the salient points of Christ’s teachings on fairness, social justice and to present them in an easy to understand format. But still some of the lessons lose their force because of the current morality thought which downplays sins while raising up the scientific belief of natural behavior. Individual responsibility and free will are lost within latinate words and pompous sentences. All men are human beings. All human beings are sinners. No latinate or psychological constructions can change that basic truth. All sinners are responsible for their sins. All Christians should read the Bible and reflect upon what they have read; Christians should form their own opinions on the Word of God; this requires patience and fortitude. It is currently fashionable to question the validity of Christ, the validity of God because of the notion of the “self-made man.”

But, remember that this religion, Christianity is a religion. Remember to always keep reverence and love for this religion in your hearts. Allow it to change your ideas, teach you how to hope, love, pray. This religion asks for the passion and obedience of its believers. This religion asks for the diligence and witness of its believers. This religion asks for the humility and charity of its believers. This religion offers forgiveness, redemption, salvation. All Catholics should listen to and then learn and then affirm the Eucharist prayers. Within those words are honest yearning to be God’s humble servant while acknowledging the unworthiness of the desire because of simple fact that each person is human and all humans are sinners who need forgiveness and understanding. All Catholics have the free will and the responsibility to choose when to go to confession, when to accept Holy Communion, when to attend Mass, when to pray.

All Catholics have to navigate around all types of sin and vice in their daily lives. Modern life is often chaotic. The secular world presents many options, many temptations to distract and/or divert our affection and attention from God. This is to be expected; the Bible provides lessons on how to fortify the loving and humble heart and soul.

Patience and prayer can lead to wisdom.

Respect & Protect

A Superior Teacher

The end of learning is to know God, and out of that knowledge to love Him, and to imitate Him, by possessing our souls of true virtue.—Milton.

Jesus Christ is a superior teacher of goodness and holiness. His entire life is an inspiration to all who desire to be holy. His life is filled with great obedience, great patience. His Spirit of fairness and humility remains protected within the context of his teaching, as holy subtext, holy metadata. Believers develop and nurture affection and longing for his lessons as they try to model their lives on his. Often there is a question about what is in a believers heart, guiding him or her? Is Christ really in your heart? Is your Christian religion in your heart? What is the progress of your conversion?

Baptism washes away original sin and purifies hearts and minds, prepares them to love and serve God. Conversion from sin and vice continues each day until death. Each day in a Christian’s life there should always be expanding holiness, advancing closer to God. The direction of the journey should be from vice to virtue; however, sadly, the journey consistently is vice to virtue to vice to virtue in a melancholy perpetual consistency of being pleasant and loving to God, of being unpleasant and unloving to God. A Christian’s actions may change. God’s love does not.

The message and method of Jesus Christ suggests that the road to salvation must be travelled with a beautiful rigidity of purpose which is often in opposition to current scientific and social trends and norms and which creates paradoxes for the faithful believers. Every Christian seeks consolation in God at one time or another. Every Christian seeks salvation. Some may move mountains if their faith directs them to do so; some may compose essays and articles; others may simply attend service and keep their minds and hearts open to the Lord’s call. How wonderful that the Catholic Church is filled with erudite men who centuries ago possessed with the wisdom to understand and use Aristotle’s Ethics as a foundation for the religion of God and the vision to be patient and prayerful in their reflections on the faith as they uncovered the mysteries and created the dogma and doctrine which would survive centuries. How wonderful for each Christian that there are prayers and syllogisms! Being Christian presents a connection with some of the best thinking, best literature produced by man. This literature is for the conversion and education of hearts and souls in preparation to the journey to the Kingdom of God. This religion presents facts, philosophy, and mysticism to the faithful believers to help each Christian understand and respect the power of God and to use their lives in humble service to God.

Being Christian recognizes the beautiful potential and paradox of human genius and tries to direct the use of human genius and creativity in ways pleasing to God. Being Christian is a process, an endless conversion of hearts, minds, and souls. Each day faithful Christians must allow themselves to be open to learn more about their faith, about themselves, about how to respect and serve God. Christians strive to educate and protect their souls.

This Generation

Although there are all types of electric light, the hearts and souls of many human beings remain in complete darkness or are very dimly lighted. Neon signs and other artificial illumination confuse many. It is easy to make typographical and grammatical errors; detecting them is sometimes easy, sometimes difficult; it is easy to make mistakes and to sin; discovering sin is sometimes easy, sometimes difficult. Sin prefers the darkness, tries to cover each willing heart with a balmy blindness, momentarily calming and pleasant but then leaves us agitated and anxious.

The current generation enjoys the repentance of their neighbors; the media has turned this into a spectacle, a cheap entertainment where the mistakes and failings are illuminated not for education or erudition but to satisfy a moribund curiosity. This is the time when false principles and all types of fallacies rule; opinion dominates fact; instant deductions are preferable to intense contemplation. The scientific method is applied to everything.

The current generation has been taught to view confession lightly, for titillation. For newspapers and television talk shows frequently have people confessing some moment of weakness, despair, interpersonal destructiveness. There is sometimes talk of regret, sadness; however, there often is a question of true contrition. Sometimes after the confession there is forgiveness. But, then there is a commercial break and life continues.

Jesus Christ needs to be inserted into the consciousness of this modern generation. His life and ministry should be studied by all human beings. His character and obedience should be models for all.

This modern generation worships wealth and celebrity; all things science are revered; religion is relegated to the periphery and often viciously attacked because of its simplicity, rituals, and mysteries. Today science is often used as an ally against religion.

At no time since the days of Jesus Christ has the need for his presence and instruction been needed more than now. The scientific method lacks something, offers only questions and possibilities and endless side effects. Everywhere there is need for a renewal of doctrine of charity, humility, obedience, which could help each human being learn how to love their individual selves, their neighbors, and God. Human beings need expressions of affection and love to flourish. There are many human beings deprived of love, searching for it in dangerous places, forgetting that God provides love for everyone. Somehow this starvation of the heart and soul is acceptable according to the scientific method.

What each human being must always remember the simple fact of salvation: believe in God, live as his humble servants, and be loving obedient.

As Christians there is an explicit expectation and responsibility to create lives which illuminate the goodness and holiness of the faithful, the love and respect for God; this illumination will guide the lost to God and protect others from becoming lost.

True simple prayer remains as the best way to illuminate both hearts and souls with the natural light of God’s love.