dilettante
distraught
perseverance
preserve
soapbox derby
didactic
kinetic energy
religion
palatable
palate
palletize
pall
erudite
The list are some of the words that I have included in my entries. Some I had trouble spelling correctly, others I just like how the word looks and sounds. Some have vivid memories. There are other words not included but important also. Everything in life builds toward a new moment, new experience. As I am thinking about my vocation I am seeking out words, new and ancient, from different civilizations, with a freshness, a boldness of hope, love, and human dignity.
I must continue learning about fairness, social justice, freedom, human dignity. I must remember to apply the Beatitudes to my daily life.
How do I fit into this parish? into the Universal Church? What can I offer? I must always be reminded of the sacrifice, suffering, and love of other Catholics who found the courage to do the right thing, who found the courage to follow in the footsteps of Christ.
“THE CHURCH, LIKE JESUS, HAS TO GO on denouncing sin in our own day. It has to denounce the selfishness that is hidden in everyone's heart, the sin that dehumanizes persons, destroys families, and turns money, possessions, profit, and power into the ultimate ends for which persons strive.” (Archbishop Oscar Romero, August 6, 1977)
Thursday, April 8, 2010
What is In Your Heart
What is in your heart? How is your conversion progressing? Are you pleased with your spiritual life? Do you feel that God is pleased with your spiritual life? Each day I pray that we all are able to continue moving forward. Each day I pray for more holiness to find and guide us. I know there is not enough goodness in this world. Sometimes my heart is filled with hope and love.
We allow ourselves to be tortured by all types of sins and all types of temptations each day. We allow ourselves to swing on a pendulum between vice and virtue. One minute we’re filled with such virtue and hope, the next we are consumed by vice and debauchery. We often defend our vices with such elaborate erudition that the offense disappears; our minds might accept these rationalizations and justifications but our hearts don’t and God doesn’t. As Christians we must remember to make God the priority in our lives and in our hearts. We must accept our individual faults, failings, and weaknesses. We must continually offer them to God. With prayer and patience we will learn from them. As Catholics we go to Confession, receive God’s absolution, promise not to sin anymore, and yet there we go sinning again. Sinning is easy. The secular world has made it easy to sin; the secular world has made it acceptable to sin. We spend so much of our lives captured within an ever tightening pop culture filled with images and stories of decadence, debauchery, and devilishness. We are hypnotized by stories of marital deceit, sexual scandal. There is nothing new in these stories. They contain the same wreckage and pain; and yet, our pop culture uses these stories of heartache and betrayal to entertain us, to caution us about love.
We need someone to caution us about our pop culture. We need to be reminded about our journey on the path made by Christ. We need someone to remind us to check our progress each day to see where we are in living a life following the ten commandments and the Beatitudes. We need someone to ask us about loving our neighbors.
It is so easy to sin, to abandon God. We do it everyday. Sin is so attractive, seductive, sexy. We live in a society where everything is for sale. The true cost is not always monetary. As Christians we must always remember to guard and protect our souls. Pop culture gives sin the illusion of being powerful, desirable. We must always be willing to confront sin, to avoid it for ourselves and others. We must educate our minds and our hearts against the attacks and abuses of sin. We must not allow our hearts to be corrupted by sin. Each day we receive new models of sin, new examples of vice all pleasantly presented to us in the most fashionable and palatable terms. With prayer we must learn how to reject them.
God offers us mercy and love if we simply, loving obey him. We know what God’s expectations are.
We must avoid vice and sin; we must find goodness and holiness in our hearts and in our lives.
We allow ourselves to be tortured by all types of sins and all types of temptations each day. We allow ourselves to swing on a pendulum between vice and virtue. One minute we’re filled with such virtue and hope, the next we are consumed by vice and debauchery. We often defend our vices with such elaborate erudition that the offense disappears; our minds might accept these rationalizations and justifications but our hearts don’t and God doesn’t. As Christians we must remember to make God the priority in our lives and in our hearts. We must accept our individual faults, failings, and weaknesses. We must continually offer them to God. With prayer and patience we will learn from them. As Catholics we go to Confession, receive God’s absolution, promise not to sin anymore, and yet there we go sinning again. Sinning is easy. The secular world has made it easy to sin; the secular world has made it acceptable to sin. We spend so much of our lives captured within an ever tightening pop culture filled with images and stories of decadence, debauchery, and devilishness. We are hypnotized by stories of marital deceit, sexual scandal. There is nothing new in these stories. They contain the same wreckage and pain; and yet, our pop culture uses these stories of heartache and betrayal to entertain us, to caution us about love.
We need someone to caution us about our pop culture. We need to be reminded about our journey on the path made by Christ. We need someone to remind us to check our progress each day to see where we are in living a life following the ten commandments and the Beatitudes. We need someone to ask us about loving our neighbors.
It is so easy to sin, to abandon God. We do it everyday. Sin is so attractive, seductive, sexy. We live in a society where everything is for sale. The true cost is not always monetary. As Christians we must always remember to guard and protect our souls. Pop culture gives sin the illusion of being powerful, desirable. We must always be willing to confront sin, to avoid it for ourselves and others. We must educate our minds and our hearts against the attacks and abuses of sin. We must not allow our hearts to be corrupted by sin. Each day we receive new models of sin, new examples of vice all pleasantly presented to us in the most fashionable and palatable terms. With prayer we must learn how to reject them.
God offers us mercy and love if we simply, loving obey him. We know what God’s expectations are.
We must avoid vice and sin; we must find goodness and holiness in our hearts and in our lives.
Goodness
Once upon I knew how to make people feel comfortable, wanted. With a certain type of cinematic inspired charm, I could with diligence and patience disarm anyone.
Goodness does not begin with a smile. Goodness does not worry about comfort. Goodness asks for effort and perseverance. We may not immediately recognize goodness when it arrives for there will be much activity, much change, much resistance.
As Christians we must always be conscious where we are currently, where we are going. Our lives present us with many opportunities to bear witness to God’s love, God’s forgiveness. We must learn how to proclaim this. We must learn how to praise God without fear or shame.
Our lives gain meaning when we live them according to God’s commandments, when we offer each moment of our daily existence to the glory and for the praise of God. When we are able to keep our minds focused on God, being God’s humble loving servants, we are freed from many temptations.
Our lives gain purpose when we are able to show others compassion, empathy, and love without any desire or expectation for any reciprocation.
Being Christian is at times exhausting work. The triumph of Christian Life is both the enthusiasm of our love and devotion to God and the teachings of Christ and the strong mature emotions which direct us toward fairness, social justice as taught by Jesus, and a continual examination of conscience. Being Christian is accepting our limitations, accepting our sins, repenting for our sins, resisting temptation.
There are many metaphysical and philosophical conceits regarding being Christian, being Catholic.
Let our lives and our good deeds provide evidence of our reverence and fidelity to God. Do not worry about the assumptions or conjecture of others. Live each day only to serve and to love God. Live each day only to praise and give God thanks.
God is not abstract; God is not hypothetical. God is concrete. God is relevant.
Allow yourself time to study the Holy Scriptures. Allow yourself time to pray.
Christians are always active, always in motion, always serving God, always moving toward God. Christians will suffer, will sacrifice, will feel pain. We must always remember that God is always with us, we must always remember to offer the entirety of our lives good and bad, dark and light to God.
Goodness does not begin with a smile. Goodness does not worry about comfort. Goodness asks for effort and perseverance. We may not immediately recognize goodness when it arrives for there will be much activity, much change, much resistance.
As Christians we must always be conscious where we are currently, where we are going. Our lives present us with many opportunities to bear witness to God’s love, God’s forgiveness. We must learn how to proclaim this. We must learn how to praise God without fear or shame.
Our lives gain meaning when we live them according to God’s commandments, when we offer each moment of our daily existence to the glory and for the praise of God. When we are able to keep our minds focused on God, being God’s humble loving servants, we are freed from many temptations.
Our lives gain purpose when we are able to show others compassion, empathy, and love without any desire or expectation for any reciprocation.
Being Christian is at times exhausting work. The triumph of Christian Life is both the enthusiasm of our love and devotion to God and the teachings of Christ and the strong mature emotions which direct us toward fairness, social justice as taught by Jesus, and a continual examination of conscience. Being Christian is accepting our limitations, accepting our sins, repenting for our sins, resisting temptation.
There are many metaphysical and philosophical conceits regarding being Christian, being Catholic.
Let our lives and our good deeds provide evidence of our reverence and fidelity to God. Do not worry about the assumptions or conjecture of others. Live each day only to serve and to love God. Live each day only to praise and give God thanks.
God is not abstract; God is not hypothetical. God is concrete. God is relevant.
Allow yourself time to study the Holy Scriptures. Allow yourself time to pray.
Christians are always active, always in motion, always serving God, always moving toward God. Christians will suffer, will sacrifice, will feel pain. We must always remember that God is always with us, we must always remember to offer the entirety of our lives good and bad, dark and light to God.
The Forecast
The forecast is rain again tonight, somehow this sounds very thrilling after the sudden heat.
We exist at the mercy of God. Each day we should give thanks for waking, looking around our bedrooms, finding food in our kitchens. Each day we should offer praise to God for all the goodness that he does provide to us. We speak so much and often hear so little. We are made from dust, will at the appointed time become ashes. Do we have the courage to suffer for God, to suffer for fairness? In our daily lives we often seek compassion and empathy from others. Do we have the courage to share compassion and empathy with those who are most in need of it? We speak so much of our personal comfort and convenience. Do we have the courage to defend the basic human rights of those members of our society who are marginalized? We talk of God’s love, God’s affection. Do we have the courage to share God’s love, God’s affection with those most in need of them? These thoughts often pass through my mind as I walk around the city. Sometimes there are so many people asking for change, asking for a meal, asking to be recognized and acknowledged that I am overwhelmed. If I could I would give them all that I have. Sometimes at different times during the day, they seem to multiply. And their cries create a chorus, anxious, melodic; and their cries create the desire within me to offer little, immediate prayers for each one that I see asking for a dime, bus fare, a sandwich.
We are all linked. We are all asking somebody for something. This thought often returns to me. The human condition begins with the desire for the basic things of life. And here God allows me to see another version of myself asking for this, begging for that, occasionally remembering God, occasionally giving thanks and praising God.
We exist at the mercy of God. Each day we should give thanks for waking, looking around our bedrooms, finding food in our kitchens. Each day we should offer praise to God for all the goodness that he does provide to us. We speak so much and often hear so little. We are made from dust, will at the appointed time become ashes. Do we have the courage to suffer for God, to suffer for fairness? In our daily lives we often seek compassion and empathy from others. Do we have the courage to share compassion and empathy with those who are most in need of it? We speak so much of our personal comfort and convenience. Do we have the courage to defend the basic human rights of those members of our society who are marginalized? We talk of God’s love, God’s affection. Do we have the courage to share God’s love, God’s affection with those most in need of them? These thoughts often pass through my mind as I walk around the city. Sometimes there are so many people asking for change, asking for a meal, asking to be recognized and acknowledged that I am overwhelmed. If I could I would give them all that I have. Sometimes at different times during the day, they seem to multiply. And their cries create a chorus, anxious, melodic; and their cries create the desire within me to offer little, immediate prayers for each one that I see asking for a dime, bus fare, a sandwich.
We are all linked. We are all asking somebody for something. This thought often returns to me. The human condition begins with the desire for the basic things of life. And here God allows me to see another version of myself asking for this, begging for that, occasionally remembering God, occasionally giving thanks and praising God.
Secular Life
How wonderful secular life is! We forever are alternating between being seduced and seducing, being deceived and deceiving. All types of anxiety and lusts lead us into darkness and uneasiness. Science reduces and falsely renames most evil as natural, acceptable, even human. Religion, any faith or belief in God is attacked, seen as a weakness, a lack of intelligence, a lack of independence. And this is a time of vain, proud men proclaiming their strength, their authority, inviting others to praise and follow them on the road to riches and fame. It is all illusion, all false. Leisure does not always mean pleasure; happiness does not always bring peace; love is not always nourishing. Secular life is filled with an ever ending abundance of ideas, so many words. There is always the search for something new, something fresh. Ideas are often in conflict. The secular world is concerned with the immediate, is fickle; trends and fashions change frequently. The secular world treats life as a commodity; we are all disposable, easily replaceable. We are all unimportant, nameless consumers of various products. The secular world conceals our sins from us, encourages us to sin, to make mistakes especially when someone or some company can somehow benefit from our mistakes.
The desire for spiritual cleanliness is a direct threat to the secular world and all its many temptations and carefully and cleverly concealed vices. The desire for a pure heart is a battle cry to the secular world of lust, revealed, respected, and encouraged. The desire for love unconditional, unrestricted is guerilla warfare to the selfishness, possessiveness, jealous secular world.
Lucky are those who are able to think about and follow in the footsteps of Christ.
Our secular world has produced a technological desert for us to live within; each day we are encouraged to sin against God, encouraged to test God, encouraged to seek all types of wealth and celebrity. As Christians we must accept that there is another way, that there is goodness, that there is holiness. We must only remember to love our neighbor as ourselves. This is not always an easy task; but when we are able to do it we are closer to God.
The desire for spiritual cleanliness is a direct threat to the secular world and all its many temptations and carefully and cleverly concealed vices. The desire for a pure heart is a battle cry to the secular world of lust, revealed, respected, and encouraged. The desire for love unconditional, unrestricted is guerilla warfare to the selfishness, possessiveness, jealous secular world.
Lucky are those who are able to think about and follow in the footsteps of Christ.
Our secular world has produced a technological desert for us to live within; each day we are encouraged to sin against God, encouraged to test God, encouraged to seek all types of wealth and celebrity. As Christians we must accept that there is another way, that there is goodness, that there is holiness. We must only remember to love our neighbor as ourselves. This is not always an easy task; but when we are able to do it we are closer to God.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
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