tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-149916662024-02-28T08:39:49.767-05:00Spirituality And MysticismWe Catholic Christians are all drawn into a relationship with God, this topic will try and illuminate how to incorporate God into our everyday lives.Steve Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07100985961890100599noreply@blogger.comBlogger78125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14991666.post-75155567792155671192010-08-19T23:05:00.001-04:002010-10-27T21:15:13.764-04:00Narrow Door to Heaven | Universal Catholic Church | Jesus as the Way | Inclusive -Welcome to The Crossroads Initiative<a href="http://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/library_article/202/Where_Do_You_Stand_.html">Narrow Door to Heaven | Universal Catholic Church | Jesus as the Way | Inclusive -Welcome to The Crossroads Initiative</a><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_eeB84Jv8ypw/SxrYdXfaFKI/AAAAAAAAATI/T3PbfPaeKCA/s1600/Saint+Teresa+of+Avila.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_eeB84Jv8ypw/SxrYdXfaFKI/AAAAAAAAATI/T3PbfPaeKCA/s200/Saint+Teresa+of+Avila.jpg" width="135" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.mysticmonkcoffee.com/store/?aid=397"><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Mystic Monk Coffee - Your purchase helps support the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming AND This Blog!</SPAN></a></p></div>Steve Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07100985961890100599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14991666.post-8119157968237567182010-07-01T23:58:00.000-04:002010-07-01T23:58:49.714-04:00Sign of the Cross - Restore and Reactivate -Welcome to The Crossroads Initiative<a href="http://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/library_article/150/Sign_of_the_Cross___Sign_of_Our_Faith_.html">Sign of the Cross - Restore and Reactivate -Welcome to The Crossroads Initiative</a>: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"<div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.mysticmonkcoffee.com/store/?aid=397"><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Mystic Monk Coffee - Your purchase helps support the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming AND This Blog!</SPAN></a></p></div>Steve Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07100985961890100599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14991666.post-36422040861220071672010-04-02T02:20:00.000-04:002010-04-02T02:20:12.955-04:00Easter Season Joy | Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ Son of God -Welcome to The Crossroads Initiative<a href="http://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/library_article/18/Easter___Joy_of_the_Season.html">Easter Season Joy | Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ Son of God -Welcome to The Crossroads Initiative</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.mysticmonkcoffee.com/store/?aid=397"><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Mystic Monk Coffee - Your purchase helps support the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming AND This Blog!</SPAN></a></p></div>Steve Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07100985961890100599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14991666.post-16295300470767746692007-03-31T03:42:00.000-04:002007-03-31T03:46:37.439-04:00Loneliness<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ss4MlcBN-NY/Rg4Ryra2MQI/AAAAAAAAAVA/EITWy2f0PGo/s1600-h/loneliness.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5047991794675364098" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ss4MlcBN-NY/Rg4Ryra2MQI/AAAAAAAAAVA/EITWy2f0PGo/s320/loneliness.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div align="justify">Have you ever felt lonely? I’d wager that every one of us can say "yes" to that question. Think for a moment, what was it that caused you to feel lonely? Sickness has the power to do that, so does loss and misunderstanding and isolation and rejection and a thousand other things that can touch our very souls and make us feel the pangs of a lonely heart. Herman Hess, the German novelist has said: "Life is solitude. No one knows anyone else. Everyone is alone." Surely a strange thing to say about our world today where networking and communication are so important. But it’s true; in our world of ultimate communication many of us feel lonely. Many of us have lots of contacts, but no real relationships; we are lonely in the midst of a crowd. Thomas Merton, in one of his diaries, says that he realized, "that is when I am with people that I am lonely and when I am alone I am no longer lonely because then I have God and converse with him (without words) without distraction or interference."</div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">It does seem to be a reversal of the way we ordinarily think for Merton to say that it is when he is with people that he feels lonely, but no longer feels lonely when he is alone. And yet there is, I believe, more than a grain of truth in this seemingly paradoxical statement.</div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">There is a remarkable similarity between Merton’s thought and Christ’s. If you page through the gospels, you will find many instances of Jesus’ need for solitude; a need that he had no hesitations about expressing. Jesus was constantly surrounded by people who wanted him to touch them and heal them. But when you read between the lines of the gospels, you suddenly realize, that Jesus must have felt most lonely in the midst of crowds and that he assuaged this loneliness by retreating into solitude; it was in solitude that he cou1d best communicate with his Father. In solitude Jesus experienced the company of his Father and his loneliness melted away. Jesus certainly approached everyone with great openness, but there was always some part of himself that he didn't allow others to see, that he kept to himself. Jesus had many friends - Lazarus, Mary and Martha, his Apostles - but deep within his soul loneliness lived in the soil of misunderstanding.</div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">When you read the gospels you realize that Jesus was different from other people. In one sense he doesn't seem to have been able to explain himself to his disciples; the gospels are replete with occasions which left them confused and Jesus, misunderstood. Take for example the time Jesus came down from the Mount of the Transfiguration only to find his disciples arguing with the crowd; the disciples were unable to cure a boy possessed by a demon. When Jesus was apprised of the situation by the boy's father and told that his disciples could not cast out the devil from the boy, Jesus replied: "You faithless generation. How much longer must I be with you? How much longer must I put up with you? How much longer must I be among you?" How much longer, indeed? You can hear the longing, the almost desperate longing in Jesus' words, the longing to be home with his Father. Can you also hear the loneliness?</div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">Jesus went his way of suffering alone; the way of suffering is always a very lonely way. Those of us who suffer know how lonely life can be.</div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">The Gospel of John penetrates to the depths of Jesus’ loneliness like none of the other gospels do. And John also makes clear that Jesus is able to accept and endure his loneliness simply because he knows that he is one with his Father in heaven. He referred to this when he said to his apostles that the time will come when they will be scattered, each going his own way leaving Jesus alone. Yet Jesus added that he was really not alone because his Father was with him.</div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">Jesus offers us himself to transform our loneliness into oneness with him. This should always be comforting to us when loneliness engulfs us. Loneliness can always be for us a deep experience of God’s presence, indeed, a blessed and blissful experience of being one with Christ. Loneliness can indeed be painful; it can strike at our hearts and shatter them. But it can also be the place where the lonely Christ who will support us through all the stages of our loneliness, is present. Jesus knows how lonely life can be, not in some abstract way but in the very real way he lived it and the way we live it too. And that is why we, out of the depths of our own loneliness, can turn to the lonely Christ to find something which we can live for and which is big enough to die for. Christ did, so can we.</div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">By Rev. Richard Scheiner C.P.</div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/catholic" rel="tag">Catholic</a></div><br /><div align="justify"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" rel="tag">Religion</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/roman+catholic" rel="tag">Roman Catholic</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/christianity" rel="tag">Christianity</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Catholic+Blogs" rel="tag">Catholic Blogs</a> </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.mysticmonkcoffee.com/store/?aid=397"><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Mystic Monk Coffee - Your purchase helps support the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming AND This Blog!</SPAN></a></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14991666.post-52320768797854181282007-03-27T04:20:00.000-04:002007-03-27T04:23:33.756-04:00Saint Quote- St. Francis de Sales<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ss4MlcBN-NY/RgjUeO2WuiI/AAAAAAAAAT8/PpzATXZrxAw/s1600-h/francis.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5046516998315883042" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ss4MlcBN-NY/RgjUeO2WuiI/AAAAAAAAAT8/PpzATXZrxAw/s320/francis.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div align="justify"><br /><strong>The devil doesn't fear austerity but holy obedience.</strong></div><br /><div align="justify"><strong></strong></div><br /><div align="justify"><br />~St. Francis de Sales</div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/catholic" rel="tag">Catholic</a></div><br /><div align="justify"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" rel="tag">Religion</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/roman+catholic" rel="tag">Roman Catholic</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/christianity" rel="tag">Christianity</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Catholic+Blogs" rel="tag">Catholic Blogs</a> </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.mysticmonkcoffee.com/store/?aid=397"><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Mystic Monk Coffee - Your purchase helps support the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming AND This Blog!</SPAN></a></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14991666.post-27230814408667768132007-03-25T02:32:00.000-04:002007-03-25T02:35:42.581-04:00Lessons From A Crushed Flower<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ss4MlcBN-NY/RgYYNu2WuaI/AAAAAAAAATA/NdHcRZwv_Ts/s1600-h/crushedflower2.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5045747056708598178" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ss4MlcBN-NY/RgYYNu2WuaI/AAAAAAAAATA/NdHcRZwv_Ts/s320/crushedflower2.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div align="justify"><br />I opened my old Bible the other day and found something that brought a tear to my eye and a lesson to my heart...</div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"><br />One day, many years ago, when I picked my first-grade son up from school he presented me with a gift of a little pansy. This tiny - already limp flower in his small hand, and his smiling face as he gave it to me - is an image I'll remember all my life. "I got this for you Mommy" he said with such joy. </div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"><br />Pansies do not exactly make good cut flowers - they hardly survive two days - and this one survived even less. Some how, in the squirming and settling down in the car, without noticing, he sat on it. When we got home and he got out of the car and saw the now totally dead, flattened flower, his little heart broke and he started sobbing. I tried to console him by explaining that I could save the flower, not in a vase, but by pressing it in a book. He was not all that convinced but he watched as I gently spread the limp little petals across a page in my Bible, then closed it firmly. I promised him that in a few days the pansy would be preserved. And so it was. Instead of lasting just a couple of days, the pansy ended up in a little frame in the living room where it remained for many years. </div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"><br />He is grown and married now - but I still have the pansy. His little gift that seemed so ruined, became instead a permanent and treasured keepsake of his innocent loving childhood. He did not give me what he wanted to give, but what he did give was so much more than he could have imagined.</div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"><br />And I ask myself, why do I think I must do great things for God our Father? (Even if I ever could do what I think is "great", what is great compared to what God deserves?) Why do I have such a hard time believing our saints who tell us that it is not the greatness of the deed but the love with which is it done that matters? Why can I not believe that my imperfect, tarnished or even crushed gift, given with love, has real value to our loving Father and in His hands can become something wonderful. The next time my careful plans, the offering I worked on so hard, my good intentions which end in failure - make me feel that I have nothing to offer God, I promise to remember my joy in the crushed flower from my child, and hope with good cause that my "failures" can still be turned into a gift pleasing to my Father. </div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/catholic" rel="tag">Catholic</a></div><br /><div align="justify"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" rel="tag">Religion</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/roman+catholic" rel="tag">Roman Catholic</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/christianity" rel="tag">Christianity</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Catholic+Blogs" rel="tag">Catholic Blogs</a> </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.mysticmonkcoffee.com/store/?aid=397"><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Mystic Monk Coffee - Your purchase helps support the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming AND This Blog!</SPAN></a></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14991666.post-79611502358452441452007-03-16T02:37:00.000-04:002007-03-16T02:43:58.226-04:00What You Need Is Trust<div align="justify"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ss4MlcBN-NY/Rfo8anEyzMI/AAAAAAAAAQs/NMfxsnA7-YI/s1600-h/donotfear2.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5042409160658046146" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ss4MlcBN-NY/Rfo8anEyzMI/AAAAAAAAAQs/NMfxsnA7-YI/s320/donotfear2.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div align="justify"><strong>Greetings! </strong><br /><br /></div><div align="justify"><strong><em>"Fear is useless, what you need is trust."(Mark 5:36).</em></strong></div><br /><br /><div align="justify">The Christian message tells us to trust Jesus more, and be not afraid. It is so easy to get caught in fear. The Lord instructs us to be more trusting of His love. </div><br /><div align="justify">This doesn't mean that we will be entirely free of worry. There is real, objective danger out there. Fear was a constant companion of the saints, but they did not give in to it. </div><br /><div align="justify">Even Jesus was terrified at times. His agony in the garden reminds us of His vulnerability. However, Jesus, and the all the saints prayed to the Father for peace, joy and strength. </div><br /><div align="justify">Dorothy Day, who is now being considered for canonization, tells of a time when she and a friend were coming from Mass. Suddenly objects came whizzing past their ears. At first Dorothy thought they were snowballs, but when another one flew past, her friend Judith Gregory cried out, "That was meant for us." </div><br /><div align="justify">They were throwing hard-boiled eggs. Afraid to turn back, for fear they would be hit in the face; they walked faster. When she arrived home, Dorothy wrote in her diary, "I should have been delighted, as Charles de Foucauld was when he was pelted in the streets of Nazareth, but my feeling was one of fear. I'm glad because it helps me to understand the fear that is eating at the hearts of the people in the world today. No one is safe. We are no longer protected by the oceans separating us from the rest of the world."<br /><br /></div><div align="justify">The important thing is that Dorothy prayed to be delivered from her fear, just as Jesus did that fateful night in the garden. She prayed specifically for the love that casts out fear. Here again are her words, "I pray to grow in the love of God and man, and to live by this charity... we must love our enemy... not because we fear him, but because God loves him." </div><br /><div align="justify">People accused Dorothy of being crazy because of her faithfulness to the Gospel. Her logic was strange to them, but it was always obedient to the words of Jesus. When she felt fear she immediately turned to the Lord, and prayed for protection. Then she prayed for the grace to love her assailants. She lacked feelings of love for them, but she prayed for the grace to love them anyway. Her loyalty was to the Lord, not to her feelings. When He asks us to love our enemies, he means it literally, knowing that we cannot do it without supernatural help. </div><br /><div align="justify">It takes great mental discipline to obey Jesus. Pray for the grace and the will power to manage your fears successfully. Even though the Scriptures tell us that love casts out fear, we don't know how to do it very well. But love and joy are two sides of the same coin. Joy can cast out fear as well. That's why joyful thoughts help to dispel fear. The experience of God's love can be found in a joyful spirit. </div><br /><br /><div align="justify">God bless you. </div><br /><div align="justify"><br />by Father John Catoir </div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/catholic" rel="tag">Catholic</a></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" rel="tag">Religion</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/roman+catholic" rel="tag">Roman Catholic</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/christianity" rel="tag">Christianity</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Catholic+Blogs" rel="tag">Catholic Blogs</a> </div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.mysticmonkcoffee.com/store/?aid=397"><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Mystic Monk Coffee - Your purchase helps support the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming AND This Blog!</SPAN></a></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14991666.post-83915746698470010852007-02-28T01:44:00.000-05:002007-02-28T01:50:01.000-05:00Growth Through Dark Nights<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ss4MlcBN-NY/ReUmCmKoEzI/AAAAAAAAANs/yMnJOXc_nSk/s1600-h/darknight.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5036473584330478386" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ss4MlcBN-NY/ReUmCmKoEzI/AAAAAAAAANs/yMnJOXc_nSk/s320/darknight.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div align="justify">During my last years of seminary training, I attended a series of lectures given by a prominent Polish psychologist, Casmir Dabrowski, teaching at the time at the University of Alberta. He had written a number of books around a concept he called "positive disintegration".</div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"><strong>Positive disintegration. Isn't that an oxymoron? Isn't disintegration the opposite of growth and happiness?</strong></div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">It would seem not. A canon of wisdom drawn from the scriptures of all the major world religions, mystical literature, philosophy, psychology, and human experience tells us that the journey to maturity and compassion is extremely paradoxical and that mostly we grow by falling apart.</div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">Ancient myths talk about the need sometimes to "descend into the underworld", to live in darkness for a while, to sit in ashes so as to move to a deeper place inside of life; the mystics talk about "dark nights of the soul" as being necessary to bring about maturity; Ignatius of Loyola teaches that there is a place for both "consolation" and "desolation" in our lives; the philosopher, Karl Jaspers, suggests that the journey to full maturity demands that we sometimes journey in "the norm of night" and not just in "the norm of day"; the Jewish scriptures assure us that certain deep things can only happen to the soul when it is helpless and exposed in "the desert" or "the wilderness" and that sometimes, like Jonah, we need to be carried to some place where we'd rather not go "in the dark belly of the whale"; and, perhaps most challenging of all, we see that Jesus was only brought to full compassion through "sweating blood in Gethsemane" and then dying a humiliating death on the cross.</div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">All of these images point to the same deep truth, sometimes in order to grow we must first fall apart, go into the dark, lose our grip on what's normal, enter into a frightening chaos, lose our everyday securities, and be carried in pain to a place where, for all kinds of reasons, we weren't ready to go to on our own.</div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"><strong>Why? Isn't there a more pleasant route to maturity?</strong></div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">James Hillman answers this with this image: The best wines have to be aged in cracked, old barrels. And so too the human soul, it mellows, takes on character, and comes to compassion only when there are real cracks, painful ones, in the body and life of the one who carries it. Our successes, he says, bring us glory, while our pain brings us character and compassion. Pain, and sometimes only pain, serves to mellow the soul.</div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">But almost every instinct inside of us resists this wisdom. We don't like living in tension, try at all costs to avoid pain, fear chaos, are ashamed of our humiliations, and panic when our old securities fall away and we are left in the dark, unsure of things. So our natural instinct is to get out of the darkness and tension as quickly as possible, before the pain has had its chance to mellow our souls, purify our hearts, bring us to a deeper level of maturity and compassion, and do its full purifying work within us.</div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">And, sometimes, we are helped in this escape by well-meaning therapists and spiritual directors who don't want to see us in pain and therefore try to cure the situation rather than properly care for the soul inside the situation. They want to restore us to normality and good functioning because, as Thomas Moore puts it, they can't envision us fulfilling our fate and discovering the deeper meaning of our lives.</div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">And so what we need when we are in a "dark night" isn't the well- intentioned sympathy of a friend who wants to rescue us from the pain, but the wisdom of the mystics who tell us: When you lose your securities, when you find yourself in an emotional and spiritual free-fall, when you are in the belly of the whale, let go, detach yourself, let the pain carry you to where it needs to take you, don't resist, rather weep, wail, cry, and put your mouth to the dust, and wait. Just wait. You are like a baby being weaned from its mother's breast and forced to learn a new way of nourishing yourself. Anything you do to stop what's happening will only delay the inevitable, the pain that must be gone through in order come to a new maturity.</div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">Thomas Moore, in a recent book on Dark Nights of the Soul, offers this advice to anyone undergoing this kind of crisis of soul: "Care rather than cure. Organize your life to support the process. You are incubating your soul, not living a heroic adventure. Arrange your life accordingly. Tone it down. Get what comforts you can, but don't move against the process. Concentrate, reflect, think, and talk about your situation seriously with trusted friends."</div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">Or, as Rainer Marie Rilke would advise: <em>"Don't be afraid to suffer, give the heaviness back to the weight of the earth; mountains are heavy, seas are heavy."</em></div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">Ron Rolheiser</div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/catholic" rel="tag">Catholic</a></div><br /><div align="justify"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" rel="tag">Religion</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/roman+catholic" rel="tag">Roman Catholic</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/christianity" rel="tag">Christianity</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Catholic+Blogs" rel="tag">Catholic Blogs</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Spirituality" rel="tag">Spirituality</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.mysticmonkcoffee.com/store/?aid=397"><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Mystic Monk Coffee - Your purchase helps support the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming AND This Blog!</SPAN></a></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14991666.post-63469469711836931862007-01-27T00:54:00.000-05:002007-01-27T01:14:02.720-05:00Summer Cascade<div><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ss4MlcBN-NY/Rbrp4OqUgZI/AAAAAAAAABI/cOLLIg3MTWI/s1600-h/aussie4.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5024585486502756754" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ss4MlcBN-NY/Rbrp4OqUgZI/AAAAAAAAABI/cOLLIg3MTWI/s320/aussie4.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><div align="justify"><strong>In other parts of the world the temperatures have almost been at freezing point. Let us rejoice in all the Seasons that God has provided with a cascade of photo's from sunnier climes.</strong></div><div align="justify"><strong></strong></div><div align="justify"><strong></strong></div><div align="justify"><strong></strong></div><div></div><div></div><div><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ss4MlcBN-NY/RbrqBOqUgaI/AAAAAAAAABQ/iQyKkYE2p5c/s1600-h/aussie3.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5024585641121579426" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ss4MlcBN-NY/RbrqBOqUgaI/AAAAAAAAABQ/iQyKkYE2p5c/s320/aussie3.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><strong>As for the camel it took a wrong turn Saudi Arabia is that a way ====></strong></div><div align="center"><strong></strong></div><div align="center">******************** </div><div align="center"></div><div align="center"></div><div align="center"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ss4MlcBN-NY/Rbrpw-qUgYI/AAAAAAAAABA/oOI6P7Oj4zE/s1600-h/aussie2.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5024585361948705154" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ss4MlcBN-NY/Rbrpw-qUgYI/AAAAAAAAABA/oOI6P7Oj4zE/s320/aussie2.jpg" border="0" /></a> <strong>Enjoy the pics summer will be in your country in no time. God bless you all and keep warm.</strong></div><div align="center"><strong></strong></div><div align="center">******************** <div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ss4MlcBN-NY/RbrpoeqUgXI/AAAAAAAAAA4/t1rs4x2nlPo/s1600-h/aussie1.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5024585215919817074" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ss4MlcBN-NY/RbrpoeqUgXI/AAAAAAAAAA4/t1rs4x2nlPo/s320/aussie1.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /></div></div><strong></strong></div><strong></strong><br /><strong><div align="center"><br /></div></strong><div align="center"><strong></strong></div><div align="justify"><strong></strong></div><div align="justify"><strong></strong></div><p align="center"><br />******************** </p><br /><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ss4MlcBN-NY/RbrqHuqUgbI/AAAAAAAAABY/9ZI5mKBMG5A/s1600-h/aussie5.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5024585752790729138" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ss4MlcBN-NY/RbrqHuqUgbI/AAAAAAAAABY/9ZI5mKBMG5A/s320/aussie5.jpg" border="0" /></a> </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="center"><strong>There is nothing like sitting on a beach at sunset and reflecting on the joyousness of nature and its changing Seasons</strong>.</div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="center">Peace to ALL</div><div align="center"> </div><div align="center"> </div><div align="center"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/catholic" rel="tag">Catholic</a></div><div align="center"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" rel="tag">Religion</a><br /> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/roman+catholic" rel="tag">Roman Catholic</a><br /> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/christianity" rel="tag">Christianity</a><br /> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Catholic+Blogs" rel="tag">Catholic Blogs</a><br /> </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.mysticmonkcoffee.com/store/?aid=397"><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Mystic Monk Coffee - Your purchase helps support the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming AND This Blog!</SPAN></a></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14991666.post-1168147718138064502007-01-07T00:24:00.000-05:002007-01-07T00:28:38.150-05:00A Day In The Life Of a Nun<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8011/1267/1600/641554/cellnun.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8011/1267/320/87636/cellnun.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div align="justify"><br />What is this hiddenness all about? What do we really do here all day long. We invite you to come and see, as we present to you our life as it is lived here in the Monastery of the Angels. For each of us, this life began when we first responded to that mysterious beckoning of Christ in our heart to <strong>"come follow me."</strong></div><div align="justify"><strong></strong></div><div align="justify">To read further about the Dominican Nuns <a href="http://www.op-stjoseph.org/nuns/angels/life.htm">please click here.</a></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/catholic" rel="tag">Catholic</a></div><div align="justify"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" rel="tag">Religion</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/roman+catholic" rel="tag">Roman Catholic</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/christianity" rel="tag">Christianity</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Catholic+Blogs" rel="tag">Catholic Blogs</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Spirituality" rel="tag">Spirituality</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.mysticmonkcoffee.com/store/?aid=397"><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Mystic Monk Coffee - Your purchase helps support the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming AND This Blog!</SPAN></a></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14991666.post-1167801719469778962007-01-03T00:03:00.000-05:002007-01-03T00:21:59.483-05:00The Death of Common Sense<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8011/1267/1600/157920/commonsense.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8011/1267/320/727955/commonsense.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div align="justify">Today we mourn the passing of a beloved olf friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for years. No one knows for sure how old he was since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as knowing when to come out of the rain, why the early bird catches the worm, life isn't always fair and maybe it was my fault.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies, ie. don't spend more than you earn, and reliable parent strategies, adults-not children- are in charge. His health began to detoriate rapidly when well intentioned, but overbearing, regulations were set in place. Reports of a six year old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the joy they failed to do in disciplining their unruly children. It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer Panadol, sun lotion or a sticky plaster to a student; but could not inform the parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">Common Sense lost the will to live as the Ten Commandments became contraband; Churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and a burglar can sue for assault.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realise that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust, his wife Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son Reason.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">He is survived by three stepbrothers: I know my rights, Someone else is to blame and I'm a victim.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">Not many attended his funeral because so few realised he was gone. If you still remember him pass this on, if not join the majority and do nothing.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">Courtesy</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">Rosary Garden Newsletter</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/catholic" rel="tag">Catholic</a></div><div align="justify"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" rel="tag">Religion</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/roman+catholic" rel="tag">Roman Catholic</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/christianity" rel="tag">Christianity</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Catholic+Blogs" rel="tag">Catholic Blogs</a></div><div align="justify"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Spirituality" rel="tag">Spirituality</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.mysticmonkcoffee.com/store/?aid=397"><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Mystic Monk Coffee - Your purchase helps support the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming AND This Blog!</SPAN></a></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14991666.post-1167542327628098162006-12-31T00:13:00.000-05:002006-12-31T00:18:47.646-05:00Struggling With New Year Resolutions<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8011/1267/1600/611636/christblessing.gif"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8011/1267/320/164433/christblessing.png" border="0" /></a><br /><div align="justify">Greetings! </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">Making New Year Resolutions can be a daunting experience, especially for those who have in the past broken so many of them in the month of January. It seems to me that our good resolutions only stay fresh in our minds for such a short time, and then they begin to dissolve. We seem to be much more comfortable returning to our old ways, as we accept our failure to be perfect without a whimper. </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">Dare we make any new resolutions this year, when we have so little confidence in our own moral perfection? It is a puzzle. </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">However, before you get down on yourself too unkindly, permit me reacquaint you with a few Biblical figures. Comparisons are odious, but this little exercise may help you to realize, that all things considered, you're not such a bad egg after all. </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">A long-time Jesuit friend, Father Bill O'Malley, whose writing is known to the readers of America Magazine, has written on the topic. He has a web site (www.arborwood.com), on which he produces a series of homilies entitled, "Sermons Unsuited for Sheep." </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">In one of these colorful offerings, which was based on the Gospel of St. Mark 10:35-45, he reminds us how James and John failed to live up to the high ideals of an apostle by making their position in the Kingdom their main concern. </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">These brothers who had been allowed to hear the actual Sermon on the Mount, and who were with Jesus constantly for the three years of his public ministry, and who even witnessed the triumph of the Transfiguration, fell back into a state of raw ambition. They began promoting themselves, as O'Malley puts it, "to see who would become a cardinal, and who would remain just a priest in the Kingdom to come." </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">Jesus reproached them both gently. The Lord always seemed to hope for the best and expect the worst. He knew that even the great heroes of the Bible were just human beings. These Biblical icons, "so sanitized and heroicized by homilists, often yielded to temptations far more monstrous than most of us would even dare to consider." </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">O'Malley continues. "The great Abraham, our father in faith, pimped his wife Sarah, into rich men's harems to save his own skin, (Genesis 12, 10-20). And Moses, the greatest figure in Hebrew scripture tried to stammer his way out of his mission. Even King David, the reputed writer of the Psalms, became an adulterer and a murderer." </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">In the light of such hypocrisies, who are you to get on your high horse about expecting to achieve perfection. Ponder the impact of original sin on all human beings. </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">The purpose of this exercise is not to stress your weakness so much, as it is to see better, the urgency of turning to God for help. </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">If you want to make a good resolution for the coming New Year, why not decide to pray deeply at least once a week. Get inside yourself and face your weaknesses as best you can; remembering that they are merely human defects, which you share with every saint who has ever lived. Then pray for the grace of God to overcome what you do not like. </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">Just looking at yourself honestly, and asking God for help once a week, may be as good a resolution as you'll ever make. Happy New Year! </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />by Father John Catoir </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/catholic" rel="tag">Catholic</a></div><div align="justify"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" rel="tag">Religion</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/roman+catholic" rel="tag">Roman Catholic</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/christianity" rel="tag">Christianity</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Catholic+Blogs" rel="tag">Catholic Blogs</a> </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.mysticmonkcoffee.com/store/?aid=397"><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Mystic Monk Coffee - Your purchase helps support the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming AND This Blog!</SPAN></a></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14991666.post-1165745147310441732006-12-10T04:58:00.000-05:002006-12-10T05:05:47.323-05:00Advent Is All About Joy<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8011/1267/1600/529347/adventcard.gif"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8011/1267/320/389523/adventcard.png" border="0" /></a><br /><div align="justify">There was a time in the Church when a spirit of gloom seemed to dominate the thinking of most Catholics. That's why I was fascinated by Pope Benedict XVI's talk given at a youth rally in Cologne, German at the beginning of his pontificate. He said, <em>"I would like to show them how beautiful it is to be Christian, because the widespread idea which continues to exist is that Christianity is composed of laws and bans which one had to keep and, hence, is something toilsome and burdensome."</em></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">The pope clearly favors joy over gloom. Jurgen Moltmann, a German theologian, expresses the same perspective in his book, "The Passion For Life," (Fortress Press), where he answers the question,<em> "where did Jesus come from?"</em></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br /><em>"Jesus came from the overflowing joy of God, and he gives up his life for the joy of the world."</em></div><div align="justify"><em></em></div><div align="justify">The Lord comes from Joy with the express intention of denying himself to the point of death, so that our joy may be complete. Therefore, shouldn't we try to put aside the attitude of gloom and doom that sometimes rises up in the Church?</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">Moltmann answered another interesting question: <em>"In the public ministry of Jesus, why did he go first to the outcasts of his world, and not to the scribes and high priests?"</em></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br /><em>"The inner motivation for Jesus' striking friendship with sinners and tax collectors lies in His joy in God, and in the future of human existence. Jesus does not bring a dry sympathy, but an inviting joy in God's kingdom to those who, according to the law, were reprobates."</em></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">The Lord's first concern was to reach out to the<strong><em> "poor in spirit,"</em></strong> i.e., those most in need of his message, who would therefore be more open to hearing what he had to say.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">Jesus comes primarily as a liberator as Moltmann explains, <em>"The history of the liberation of human beings, the history of their gathering at the banquet of the Lord (the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass), and the history of their unification in the Spirit (the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation), are nothing less than the history of God's joy."</em></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">Moltmann comments on this:</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br /><em>"The story of God's suffering in Christ, leads to the story of God's joy in the Spirit. In the fullness of God's joy, Christ's suffering is certainly not canceled, set aside and forgotten, it remains a fruitful, saving, and renewing suffering." </em></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">At the Last Supper, Jesus said, <strong>"I have told you all these, so that your joy may be complete.</strong>" His purpose was to give up his life for the joy of the world. That means the cross was never intended to be an end in itself. True, it is a symbol of self-denial, but only within a limited context. </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">As C.S. Lewis points out:<em> "The New Testament has much to say about self-denial, but not about self-denial as an end in itself. I submit that this negative notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics, and is in no way part of the Christian faith."</em></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />Advent is a season of great joy because it is a season in which we anticipate the coming Feast of Christmas. Therefore, even if you only have a tiny bit of joy in you, please notify your face. </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br /><strong><em>Merry Christmas!</em></strong></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />by Father John Catoir </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/catholic" rel="tag">Catholic</a></div><div align="justify"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" rel="tag">Religion</a><br /> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/roman+catholic" rel="tag">Roman Catholic</a><br /> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/christianity" rel="tag">Christianity</a><br /> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Catholic+Blogs" rel="tag">Catholic Blogs</a><br /> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Spirituality" rel="tag">Spirituality</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.mysticmonkcoffee.com/store/?aid=397"><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Mystic Monk Coffee - Your purchase helps support the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming AND This Blog!</SPAN></a></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14991666.post-1158727312068655342006-09-20T00:38:00.000-04:002006-09-20T00:41:52.080-04:00Reflection from Carmel-The Fainting Robin<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8011/1267/1600/compassion2.gif"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8011/1267/320/compassion2.png" border="0" /></a><br /><div align="justify"><br />Once again Sister Mary Jo shares with us her experiences of being with another in a spirit of compassion. In her depthful reflection we learn that compassion is love in the midst of another's pain and the silence of simply being present to the one suffering. Read Sister Mary Jo's reflection <a href="http://carmelitesofeldridge.org/joyloebig30.htm">by clicking here.</a></div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">Peace of Christ to ALL</div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/catholic" rel="tag">Catholic</a></div><div align="justify"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" rel="tag">Religion</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/roman+catholic" rel="tag">Roman Catholic</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/christianity" rel="tag">Christianity</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Catholic+Blogs" rel="tag">Catholic Blogs</a> </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.mysticmonkcoffee.com/store/?aid=397"><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Mystic Monk Coffee - Your purchase helps support the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming AND This Blog!</SPAN></a></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14991666.post-1157627224589489892006-09-07T07:03:00.000-04:002006-09-07T07:07:04.600-04:00Carmelite Relflection-No Other Light to Guide Me<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8011/1267/1600/prayingmom.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8011/1267/320/prayingmom.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div align="justify"><br />Sister Mary Jo shares her insights in communing with God in a practical way. Prayer at times can often be fraught with interruptions and other distractions. Join Sister Mary Jo as she explains her way to the centre of God's Heart. <a href="http://carmelitesofeldridge.org/current.html">Click here and read her enlightening reflection.</a></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />Peace of Christ to ALL</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/catholic" rel="tag">Catholic</a></div><div align="justify"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" rel="tag">Religion</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/roman+catholic" rel="tag">Roman Catholic</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Catholic+Church" rel="tag">Catholic Church</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/christianity" rel="tag">Christianity</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Catholic+Blogs" rel="tag">Catholic Blogs</a> </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.mysticmonkcoffee.com/store/?aid=397"><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Mystic Monk Coffee - Your purchase helps support the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming AND This Blog!</SPAN></a></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14991666.post-1157365175004277372006-09-04T06:13:00.000-04:002006-09-04T06:19:35.016-04:00The Challenges of Being a Homemaker<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8011/1267/1600/homemaker.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8011/1267/320/homemaker.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div align="justify"><br />In today's society trying to be a stay at home Mom has almost taken on the conotations of a<strong><em> 'sin'</em></strong> as many frown on mothers who choose to be a homemaker.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />It is time that mothers took the pressure off themselves and instead embrace their vocation, yes! Motherhood is a vocation for life. This is not an easy job, yet why is it that stay at home moms are sometimes the first to put themselves down?</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />In this piece Elizabeth Foss encourages stay at home Mom's to be the best they can be at their very difficult and often lonely job. This is an endorsement of all homemakers <a href="http://www.ewtn.com/library/FAMILY/FTHOME.TXT">read here to understand more.</a></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />Peace of Christ to ALL</div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/catholic" rel="tag">Catholic</a></div><div align="justify"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" rel="tag">Religion</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/roman+catholic" rel="tag">Roman Catholic</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Catholic+Church" rel="tag">Catholic Church</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/christianity" rel="tag">Christianity</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Catholic+Blogs" rel="tag">Catholic Blogs</a><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.mysticmonkcoffee.com/store/?aid=397"><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Mystic Monk Coffee - Your purchase helps support the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming AND This Blog!</SPAN></a></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14991666.post-1157002735459224262006-08-31T01:32:00.000-04:002006-08-31T01:38:55.476-04:00Spiritual Yearning-Searching For Community<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8011/1267/1600/rcia.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8011/1267/320/rcia.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div align="justify"><br />Are you comfortable in your Christian life? If so, then are you fulfilling what God Commands us to do through His Word as it says in Mathew, <strong>"Now someone approached him and said, "Teacher, what good must I do to gain eternal life?"He answered him, "Why do you ask me about the good? There is only One who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments...Jesus said to him, "If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to (the) poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." When the young man heard this statement, he went away sad, for he had many possessions."</strong> (Mathew Chapter 19:16-22). When was the last time you truly put yourself out in service of others? None of us should be comfortable with these questions because few of us fulfill what is the Mission of every Catholic. To make known our Faith with a burning but gentle zealousness. We do this not by merely <strong><em>'preaching' </em></strong>empty words at people who's hearts are far from God or to those who have never known love. How can we preach kindness to the broken hearted or those who's hearts and stomachs are empty? As St Francis of Assisi puts it quite succinctly, <em>"It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching." </em>Is your heart filled with a burning desire to help the needy or is it a case of<strong><em> 'I'm ok who cares about the rest'?</em></strong></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />During the time of the RCIA many Parishes eagerly anticipate new-comers who wish to learn and then become baptized and confirmed into the Catholic Church the One True Church of which the Apostles speak. Many parishes also have RCIA team members and Sponsors to help and encourage those who are going through this learning process. </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />At first the Catechumens are welcomed and embraced as they journey together and learn about the depth and richness of the Catholic Faith and its Teachings. This is a special time for all concerned as the Catechumens reach out to the unknown with a willing heart and spirit, and they are encouraged by the RCIA team members who with real warmth and compassion share their faith with love and a spirit of community.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />Come Easter and these Catechumens are joyfully baptized and confirmed into the Catholic Church. Then suddenly the meetings stop, the fuzzy warmness disappears as a chill enters the heart. What had happened to community spirit? Many new Catholics soon find themselves sitting in pews on their own as friends and family members remain ensconced within their own safe environment. In many cases is it that the RCIA members have done their duty and now the new Catholics are on their own, literally?</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />If you are thinking that this does not resemble your parish community then ask yourself how many RCIA members still attend Mass? Or have they left and no-one missed their absence?</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />Are some of these empty pews due to the fact that in many parishes there are no community projects, no community prayer groups or Bible studies? When God first touches a heart He fills that heart with an unquenchable longing for meaning and a thirst to grow closer to this unknown God who's depths man cannot pierce. So the new Catholic ventures forth to fulfill this unquenchable thirst only to find that many Catholics merely want to<strong><em> 'go through the motions'.</em></strong> </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />Perhaps it is a case that many Catholics can learn from the newer members of their parish who's love is still fresh. Yet do the Priests and parishioners listen or are they content with the status quo? Have many Catholic parishes turned into a community clubs which has very little to do with Reverent Worship and more like catching up with old friends? Is it a case that many within Catholic parishes treat their faith as if it were a members only elitist club which only the few can join. As St. Anthony of Padua wrote, <em>"Consider every day that you are then for the first time--as it were--beginning; and always act with the same fervor as on the first day you began."</em> Is your faith still a burning passion or a burnt out flame which does not wished to be roused from its slumber? Once again it states in Mathew, <strong>"What you do to the least of my brothers, that you do to me"</strong> (Mt 25,40). Also the wise words of St. Alberto Hurtado Cruchaga reminds the faithful, <em>"As I leave to return to God, my Father, permit me to confide to you one last desire: that you strive to create a climate of true love and respect for the poor because the poor man is Christ." </em>Often it is a case that those who join our Catholic parishes though not monetarily poor are in need of companionship and acceptance by their fellow Catholics, do they receive this though? Or is the party over.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />Next time when you attend Mass look for former RCIA catechumens and see how many still attend Mass. If there are none then how was their absence not noticed? God has noticed, were you blind or simply too busy?</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />Souls are precious to God they should be equally precious to each of us who have the fullness of Truth. </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><strong>The challenge is what will you do about those empty pews?</strong></div><div align="justify"><strong></strong></div><div align="justify"><br />Peace of Christ to you ALL </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />Copyright © 2006 Marie Smith. All rights reserved.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/catholic" rel="tag">Catholic</a></div><div align="justify"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" rel="tag">Religion</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/roman+catholic" rel="tag">Roman Catholic</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Catholic+Church" rel="tag">Catholic Church</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/christianity" rel="tag">Christianity</a><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Catholic+Blogs" rel="tag">Catholic Blogs</a> </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.mysticmonkcoffee.com/store/?aid=397"><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Mystic Monk Coffee - Your purchase helps support the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming AND This Blog!</SPAN></a></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14991666.post-1156573711941554102006-08-26T02:23:00.000-04:002006-08-26T02:40:50.796-04:00Meditation with Catherine Doherty II<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8011/1267/1600/loveenemies2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8011/1267/320/loveenemies2.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><div align="justify"><br /><em>"God offers us risk, danger and a strange insecurity that leads to perfect security. His security begins when we start loving God with our whole heart, our whole mind, our whole soul and our neighbor as ourselves. I speak of this so often but it is the only message that can never be overstressed. We must clothe the skeletons of our lives with the flesh of his love, or we shall perish."</em></div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="center"><br /><strong>***************</strong></div><div align="center"><strong></strong> </div><div align="center"><br /><strong>Reflection</strong></div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"><br />We spend copious amounts of money on material things that promises to make us happy. We also spend copious hours getting ready to face the outside world, yet how many hours do we spend with God?</div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"><br />Are we comfortable with God? Or do we shuffle about, twitch and tweak our clothes and finally take a peek at our watch in order to be finished with our allotted time with God? Do you long for Mass or do you long for it be over? </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"><br />In the answers we give to these questions we will find if we are spiritually anorexic or spiritually mature.</div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"><br />In order to fully love God we must also love those around us and not just the people we deem 'worthy'. On the face of things do we deserve Jesus being Crucified in our place? When we can answer this question we realise that we are also in and of ourselves unworthy of God's Love. Yet God loves us enough to have His Beloved Son die in our place.</div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"><br />Christ was wounded for loves sake, are we equally prepared to bear this smaller wound when our love is rejected by others? Christ did not come to us and teach us how to love safely, He teaches us to love for Love sake alone.</div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"><br />The fiery love of God's holocaust is not for the fainthearted or the lukewarm, it is for the warrior spirit who loves fiercely, yet tenderly. Who speaks the Truth without apology, yet also with gentleness, who loves unto folly for Christ's sake.</div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"><br />At the end it will not be your love for God that will be measured but your love for your neighbor and also, your enemy.</div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"><br />Do you love safely or do you risk all for Love sake alone?</div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="center"><br /><strong>***************<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8011/1267/1600/biblecandle.1.gif"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8011/1267/320/biblecandle.1.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a></strong></div><div align="center"><strong></strong> </div><div align="center"><br /><strong>Meditation</strong></div><div align="center"><strong></strong> </div><div align="center"><br /><strong><em>Luke Chapter 6:27-36</em></strong></div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"><br /><strong>"But to you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. To the person who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other one as well, and from the person who takes your cloak, do not withhold even your tunic. Give to everyone who asks of you, and from the one who takes what is yours do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same. If you lend money to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit (is) that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, and get back the same amount. But rather, love your enemies and do good to them, and lend expecting nothing back; then your reward will be great and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as (also) your Father is merciful." </strong></div><div align="justify"><strong></strong> </div><div align="center"><br /><strong>Source </strong></div><div align="center"> </div><div align="center"><br />'The Gospel Without Compromise' by Catherine Doherty </div><div align="center"> </div><div align="center"><br />Peace of Christ to you ALL </div><div align="center"> </div><div align="center"><br />Copyright © 2006 Marie Smith. All rights reserved.</div><div align="center"> </div><div align="center"> </div><div align="center"><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Catholic+Church" rel="tag">Catholic Church</a></div><div align="center"><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" rel="tag">Religion</a></div><div align="center"><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/catholic" rel="tag">catholic</a></div><div align="center"><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Catholic+Blogs" rel="tag">Catholic Blogs</a></div><div align="center"><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/roman+catholic" rel="tag">roman catholic</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.mysticmonkcoffee.com/store/?aid=397"><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Mystic Monk Coffee - Your purchase helps support the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming AND This Blog!</SPAN></a></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14991666.post-1156224103936406232006-08-22T01:17:00.000-04:002006-08-22T01:40:10.736-04:00Spiritual Emptiness-Searching for Belonging<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8011/1267/1600/jesus3.0.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8011/1267/320/jesus3.0.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><div align="justify"><br />There is an emptiness in the world, a void that lay within the soul of every individual. This is not a feeling. It is real it is present it is the now of every person who is searching for a sense of belonging but to what exactly?<br /><br /><br />Those who run terror organizations and street gangs know this void exists and try to seduce our youth with a fake sense of belonging. They appeal to the loneliness felt by our youth who's lives are interspersed with a sense of hopelessness and pessimism.<br /><br /><br />There is also the emptiness of knowledge, especially when many use knowledge as a replacement for meaning. Many psychopaths are geniuses with brilliant intellects yet their hearts are devoid of all love and respect for others. A good education is no substitute for a life full of meaningfulness. Yet many families spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in order that their children will succeed in life, but how exactly do we measure success? Do we measure success by how much money we earn in a year or what titles come after our name whether it be PHD or a BA? If this is the case then how superficial have we made life as if accruements and financial assets were the only thing that matters. No wonder our society is sick.<br /><br /><br />Our youth do not join violent gangs because they wish to do evil to another person. They join these street gangs because they lack a sense of belonging, they are lost in a multitude of faceless people, in a sea of empty values. No wonder they swim towards that which offers them a home a feeling of being wanted and a longing to be validated. Of course we know that this is a false sense of belonging but our children do not have the maturity to understand this, they simply want to be loved and to love in return. When a childs life is full of emptiness then it is a case that any love will do.<br /><br /><br />It is also the case that those families who are more prosperous should not feel to safe either when it comes to their children, money is no substitute for parental love. As those youth who were born into more prosperous families wonder into the land of aimless and faceless sexual encounters and become addicted to illicit drugs in an attempt to capture what is missing from their inner lives.<br /><br /><br />When one teenage mother was asked why she had given birth at such a young age, her response was that she wanted to be loved for herself. As she explained she knew that the boys that she had slept with had failed her. This young girl realized that the boys were simply using her body as an instrument of pleasure and then had discarded her as yesterdays rubbish. Her longing was to be wanted, the best way that she could fulfill this was to have a baby of her own, who she could love unconditionally.<br /><br /><br />We need only look at who and what is perceived as today's role models. Where the superficial is accepted over and above substance. Our youth esteem the latest Hollywood trends where couples are having children out of wedlock and this is seen as acceptable. Where the gay lifestyle is promoted as normal and sexual experimentation is encouraged by all sectors of the media. Our homes are inundated with TV shows that promotes casual sex with no responsibility or accountability. In these TV shows no-one catches <strong><em>AIDS</em></strong>, or <strong><em>STD's</em></strong> there are no unwanted pregnancies. Adultery is seen as a viable choice as both partners betray the other once again there is no sense of right and wrong only what feels good is important. As that great Saint of the Church, Augustine teaches us with these wise words, <em>"Beauty is indeed a good gift of God; but that the good may not think it a great good, God dispenses it even to the wicked."</em> This great Saint knew all about pleasuring the senses while remaining spiritually empty.<br /><br /><br />This emptiness also follows us into maturity as many look to outside sources to fill this void that only God can fill. We will never truly understand what love is until we have accepted God into our hearts. Once again St. Augustine wrote, <em>"You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would have not been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed you fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace."</em> We learn here that outside things and transitory pleasures are no replacement for what we truly need and that is God at the centre and core of our lives.<br /><br /><br />We belong solely to God and when we realise this we also acknowledge the fundamental dignity of the other person. We no longer use other people to gain things for ourselves at the expense of another. When we reach this knowledge we can understand that the only love worth having is the love that we give to others. For the love that we give away was never ours to begin with but has as its source the Triune Spirit. A love that was ready to suffer and die so that we may live.<br /><br /><br /><strong>This is love this is belonging.<br /><br /></strong><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8011/1267/1600/lostbelieve.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8011/1267/320/lostbelieve.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />Peace of Christ to you ALL<br /><br /><br />Copyright © 2006 Marie Smith. All rights reserved.<br /><strong></strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Catholic+Church" rel="tag">Catholic Church</a><br /><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" rel="tag">Religion</a><br /><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Catholic+Blogs" rel="tag">Catholic Blogs</a><br /><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/roman+catholic" rel="tag">roman catholic</a></strong><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.mysticmonkcoffee.com/store/?aid=397"><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Mystic Monk Coffee - Your purchase helps support the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming AND This Blog!</SPAN></a></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14991666.post-1155709610568062472006-08-17T17:54:00.000-04:002006-08-17T04:29:53.800-04:00Meditation with Catherine Doherty<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8011/1267/1600/choosejesus2.1.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8011/1267/320/choosejesus2.1.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div align="justify"><br /><em>"His call is revolutionary, there is no denying it. If we Christians implemented it, it would change the world in a few months. The gospel is radical, and Christ indeed is the radix, the root from which spring all things. His commandments mean risk, great risk. They imply a lack of that security to which most men cling so tightly."</em></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="center"><strong>***************</strong></div><div align="center"></div><div align="center"><br /><strong>Reflection</strong></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />Do we really know Christ or have we packaged Him to suit our image of what He should be? When we follow an image of Christ we fail to see the radical message He left us to follow. To love without thought of self to give without asking the cost and to love fearlessly with an intensity that scorches our souls without burning it.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />Many of us have created a <strong><em>'comfortable Christ'</em></strong> who must change to suit us rather than have Christ change us to reflect Him. We do not wish to be changed we have become like the friends of Job all to willing to speak <strong><em>FOR</em></strong> God without ever knowing Him.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />Are we comfortable with the Christ who called the Pharisees hypocrites and vipers and upended the money tables? Do we recognise the Pharisee within ourselves that merely <strong><em>'mouths'</em></strong> their faith without teeth. Are we willing to upset the status quo or do we choose instead to follow the crowd in order to be <strong><em>'agreeable'</em></strong> to just about everyone. Was Christ ever agreeable to the Pharisees? Or did our Lord speak the unvarnished Truth to these men chained by the law rather than embrace the radical love that Jesus was bringing to the world.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />Are you a comfortable Christian? Or are you willing to risk all in order to gain everything.</div><div align="justify"><strong></strong></div><div align="center">***************<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8011/1267/1600/biblecandle.0.gif"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8011/1267/320/biblecandle.0.gif" border="0" /></a></div><div align="center"></div><div align="center"><br /><strong>Meditation</strong></div><div align="center"></div><div align="center"><br /><strong>Mathew Chapter 10:32-39</strong></div><div align="justify"><strong></strong></div><div align="justify"><br /><strong>"Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father. "Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword. For I have come to set a man 'against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one's enemies will be those of his household.' "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." </strong></div><div align="justify"><strong></strong></div><div align="center"><strong>***************</strong></div><div align="center"><strong></strong></div><div align="center"><br /><strong>Source </strong></div><div align="center"><strong></strong></div><div align="center"><br />'The Gospel Without Compromise' by Catherine Doherty </div><div align="center"></div><div align="center"><br />Peace of Christ to you ALL </div><div align="center"></div><div align="center"><br />Copyright © 2006 Marie Smith. All rights reserved.</div><div align="center"> </div><div align="center"> </div><div align="center"><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Catholic+Church" rel="tag">Catholic Church</a></div><div align="center"><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" rel="tag">Religion</a></div><div align="center"><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Catholic+Blogs" rel="tag">Catholic Blogs</a></div><div align="center"><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/roman+catholic" rel="tag">roman catholic</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.mysticmonkcoffee.com/store/?aid=397"><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Mystic Monk Coffee - Your purchase helps support the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming AND This Blog!</SPAN></a></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14991666.post-1155029074226246972006-08-08T05:16:00.000-04:002006-08-08T05:24:34.253-04:00Pauls Journey Into The Heart of Christ<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7995/1265/1600/paulandtimothy.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7995/1265/400/paulandtimothy.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">One of the most revealing writings concerning Saint Paul is contained in his own Second Epistle to Timothy, especially in the 4th chapter of that epistle. When we read Second Timothy, we read the Apostle to the Gentiles being fatherly in his advice and warnings to Timothy whom he calls “<span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">my dearly beloved son</span>” (2 Timothy 1:2). In the first chapter he advises him to “<span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">stir up the Grace of God</span>” in him through his ordination by Paul, to hold fast to the Gospel, and not to be discouraged in his sufferings.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"> In the second chapter, Paul encourages Timothy to be diligent in his office, and once again, to be patient in his sufferings. He also warns Timothy of the danger of the delusions of the heretics: “<span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">But shun profane and vain babblings: for they grow much towards ungodliness. And their speech spreadeth like a canker: of whom are Hymeneus and Philetus: Who have erred from the truth, saying, that the resurrection is past already, and have subverted the faith of some</span>” (2 Timothy 2:16-18).<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">In the third chapter, Paul speaks of the character of the heretics in the last days (this chapter is very worth the reading) and exhorts Timothy to steadfastness. He also encourages him in the reading of, and exhorts the value in the Scriptures: “<span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">All scripture, inspired of God, is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice, That the man of God may be perfect, furnished to every good work</span>” (2 Timothy 3: 16-17).<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2 Timothy 4, we are given a glimpse into the human nature of Paul, probably more so than any other apostle with the exception of Saint Peter. He begins by warning Timothy again about the heretics in the last days and charging Timothy before God and Jesus Christ to: “<span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Preach the word: be instant in season, out of season: reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine. For there shall be a time, when they will not endure sound doctrine; but, according to their own desires, they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears: And will indeed turn away their hearing from the truth, but will be turned unto fables. But be thou vigilant, labor in all things, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill thy ministry. Be sober</span>” (2 Timothy 4: 2-5).<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Then begins in verse 6, what I find to be one of the most touching and poignant aspects of Paul’s final epistle. For starting here and ending with verse 22 we see a Paul who is downcast, yet strong. We see a man who has been abandoned by all of his friends, with the exception of Luke. He has been imprisoned in Rome for the second and last time, and he knows it is the <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">last</span> time he will <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">ever</span> be imprisoned and that this time, his <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">only</span> freedom will be in his death. He mentions how some friends have left for other parts of the Roman Empire, how some do not want to be associated with a criminal to be tried before Rome, and you can sense his hurt at being left, being abandoned, yet he holds <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">no</span> animosity or anger towards them. He speaks of no one standing with him at his trial, yet he was strengthened by God, and saw in his trial the opportunity of preaching the Gospel to those who had not heard it. He asks Timothy to bring Mark with him when he comes to Paul (Mark being the same John Mark, the author of The Gospel According to Saint Mark), and to bring him his cloak and his books and parchments, probably his scrolls of Scripture. You can almost sense his sadness, and probably his bewilderment also, at having been left by those whom he had worked with, he had lived with, he had eaten with, and he had suffered with. Yet he also knows that what awaits him is a “<span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">crown of justice</span>”, for he had “<span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">fought the good fight</span>”. One cannot help but feel the hurt for this man of God who was abandoned by man. Yet, even in those dark days for Saint Paul, he still clung to, and had faith in, the hope that is Christ Jesus.<br /></div><br />Verses 6-22 of 2 Timothy 4 follow:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">For I am even now ready to be sacrificed: and the time of my dissolution is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. As to the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice, which the Lord the just judge will render to me in that day: and not only to me, but to them also that love his coming. Make haste to come to me quickly. For Demas hath left me, loving this world, and is gone to Thessalonica: Crescens into Galatia, Titus into Dalmatia.<br /><br />Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry. But Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus. The cloak that I left at Troas, with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, especially the parchments. Alexander the coppersmith hath done me much evil: the Lord will reward him according to his works: Whom do thou also avoid, for he hath greatly withstood our words.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">At my first answer no man stood with me, but all forsook me: may it not be laid to their charge. But the Lord stood by me, and strengthened me, that by me the preaching may be accomplished, and that all the Gentiles may hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. The Lord hath delivered me from every evil work: and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. Salute Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus. Erastus remained at Corinth. And Trophimus I left sick at Miletus.<br /><br />Make haste to come before winter Eubulus and Pudens, and Linus and Claudia, and all the brethren, salute thee. The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit. Grace be with you. Amen.<br /></div><br /><br />Copyright © 2006 Steve Smith. All Rights Reserved.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.mysticmonkcoffee.com/store/?aid=397"><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Mystic Monk Coffee - Your purchase helps support the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming AND This Blog!</SPAN></a></p></div>Steve Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07100985961890100599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14991666.post-1154927199809900282006-08-07T00:54:00.000-04:002006-08-07T01:06:40.096-04:00What Price Salvation?<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8011/1267/1600/Jesussaves.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8011/1267/320/Jesussaves.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div align="justify"><br />We like to think that as Catholics we are welcoming in our Parish to all people, yet are we? If a man or woman of ill repute came to our Church would you welcome them with a smile that would melt snow or would your reflection be icingly chilly? If a beggar dressed in rags came into your Church would you sniff and wonder at his audacity to enter <strong><em>YOUR</em></strong> Church and ask what on earth is <strong><em>HE</em></strong> doing amongst the<strong><em> 'saved'? </em></strong></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />This begs the question does Salvation come with a price tag that only the elite can pay and the poor are left to themselves as we smugly attend Mass and do all the <strong><em>'godly' </em></strong>things that Catholics are supposed to perform. Are we miserly with our love and give only to the deserving few and then with a sense of self satisfaction from helping them we can then continue our smug and self righteous existance. Is it a case where the Saved are too safe to Save? Whether we wish to acknowledge this or not our very attitudes may cause another to stumble in their faith journey. When it comes to the Salvation of other souls we too must play our part for if it were not for God none of us would be saved.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />God has given us different Gifts but do we use them or do we horde them to ourselves and only give lip service in order to impress those around us with our perceived <strong><em>'virtues'.</em></strong> A couple did just this and received a reprove from Peter and a Judgment from God as we read in Acts, <strong>"A man named Ananias, however, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property. He retained for himself, with his wife's knowledge, some of the purchase price, took the remainder, and put it at the feet of the apostles. But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart so that you lied to the holy Spirit and retained part of the price of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain yours? And when it was sold, was it not still under your control? Why did you contrive this deed? You have lied not to human beings, but to God."</strong> (Acts 1:1-4).</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />Until we recognise our own poverty and realise how much we owe to our Gracious and giving God we will withhold our love from those who most need it and instead believe ourselves to be the holder and maker of this love. Because a person who refuses to love or expects a receipt for the love given is in the erroneous belief that they are the source of their love, and therefore they can be <strong><em>'choosy'</em></strong> to whom they give it.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />We also see an example of this in the writings of Karen Blixen in her parable of her book <strong><em>'Babettes Feast'</em></strong>. This woman, Babette was destitute and upon arriving at the spinsters house she observed the unsmiling and rigid legalism of a faith ruled without passion or authentic love. The unsmiling Christians had no joy they had made God into a killjoy, they had become habitual Christians, they gave nothing and so received little in return. Till one day Babette wins a small amount of money, many expected her to spend this money on herself to horde her goods as they had horded their spiritual goods. Babette though had a different idea, what she did astounded all, she spent her money on a wasteful<strong><em> FEAST</em></strong> a sumptuous delight, a transitory moment of bliss. Babette gave all she had to those who needed much more than food. It is the same with God, for the Triune Spirit waits upon us to receive His Gifts when our hands are open. God cannot give a Gift to a closed fist. Babette taught the township the <strong><em>JOY</em></strong> of exuberant giving till the last cent, without counting the cost.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />We need to understand when it comes down to the nitty gritty and we had to pay God for our Salvation who amongt us could equal God in Loving without prospect of it being returned. Who could pay God for their own salvation? Who amongst us is that perfect that we equal God? When we place conditions on our love we are indeed taking God's place and have forgotten God's Merciful love when it comes to each of us, for we too were once the unsaved. It took Christ's death on a Cross to undo the sting of death. As the Book of Mathew cautions us to use our talents that has been given to us as Gift from above and to share these Gifts unstintingly for as the Word teaches us, <strong>"For to everyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away."</strong></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />Until we can recognise the face of Christ in those we meet we will remain in spiritual blindness as the spirit of self preservation takes precedence over selfless love. We must also recognise the face of Christ within ourselves lest our God given Gifts and talents lay within us dormant.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />When was the last time you connected with someone who is of a lesser social status than yourselves? Not in a lady bountiful way but in a way of respect and esteeming those who most need it. as Blessed Mother Theresa said so eloquently, <em>"Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat." </em>In these dangerous times it can be impossible to help the homeless or those who are addicted to hard drugs, but does that also mean that those who have been forgotten in nursing homes deserve no love or compassion? The elderly who are trapped in their homes either by fear or by incapacity do they also fall into the <strong><em>'forgotten I'm too busy for you' </em></strong>box?</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />There is no worse feeling than to be unneeded, unwanted and unloved. Yet for all those who attend Mass out of habit rather than joy do you not resemble the legalistic people in Babettes feast?</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />When we come together as a community this community spirit should also be reaching out in true and sincere hospitality to those who need Jesus most. For Jesus came to save the sick. Those who had been tossed aside by their peers as beneath them, Jesus can do little with the self satisfied, for what can you give to the person who presumes to think they have it all? Once again the Word instructs us, <strong>"Listen, my beloved brothers. Did not God choose those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him?...What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well," but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it? So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead.</strong>"(James 2:5, 16,17).</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br /><strong><em>God created the Church so ALL men can be saved it is man who makes distinctions. </em></strong></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br /><strong>For those who speak FOR God will answer TO God.</strong></div><div align="justify"><strong><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8011/1267/1600/jesusknocks.jpg"> </div></a></strong><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8011/1267/320/jesusknocks.jpg" border="0" /><br /><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />Peace of Christ to you ALL </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />Copyright © 2006 Marie Smith. All rights reserved.</div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><strong><em><div align="justify"><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Catholic+Church" rel="tag">Catholic Church</a></div><div align="justify"><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" rel="tag">Religion</a></div><div align="justify"><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Catholic+Blogs" rel="tag">Catholic Blogs</a></div><div align="justify"><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/roman+catholic" rel="tag">roman catholic</a></em></strong></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.mysticmonkcoffee.com/store/?aid=397"><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Mystic Monk Coffee - Your purchase helps support the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming AND This Blog!</SPAN></a></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14991666.post-1154344133768690852006-07-31T06:56:00.000-04:002015-03-14T03:17:38.982-04:00Mystical Suffering of The Victim Soul<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8011/1267/1600/suffering.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8011/1267/320/suffering.jpg" style="cursor: hand; display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;" /></a><br />
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Never waste suffering for it unites the soul with Christ and His Passion and we in our feebleness then become as one with the Divine. As God does all the work in ennobling our suffering so that the sufferer then suffers meritoriously and gains meaningfulness from what is seen by worldly eyes as<strong><em> 'useless'.</em></strong></div>
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It is through the suffering souls that Christ is able to still the Mighty Hand of God the Father as the Divine Justice we so richly deserve is subdued by the Merciful Heart of a Loving Father who wishes to have ALL His children saved. It is when we unite our sufferings to those of Jesus on the Cross that we also become co-saviors with the Savior, not because we are good but because God is Good. So we suffer in all its forms not for the sake of suffering but in expiation of the offenses done against the Triune Spirit as we follow in the footsteps of Christ, bloodied but unafraid as we fix our eyes on Christ and Him Crucified and through His Sufferings we are strengthened to endure our own, not for our sake but for His.</div>
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In and of ourselves we have nothing to give to God as every good thing we do has it's origins in the Triune Spirit, but through God's Loving Goodness He alone can dignify and make holy the sufferings of his children when it is offered to Him as gift. When we offer this unwanted gift to our loving Father in Heaven our sufferings then become redemptive as we help repair the wound of the soul of man who offends God greatly.</div>
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It is God alone who can raise man up from his baseness to become one with the Savior of ALL for the path to true holiness lay not in good works or even in a virtuous life it is reliant solely on God's Goodness alone. We can do nothing to earn our salvation for that is the prerogative of God solely, but we have been invited through our sufferings to be placed on high with the Almighty not from our own worthiness but because God wishes this to be so and so it is.</div>
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Redemptive suffering is Christ's kiss to His suffering children as they decide to unite their little sufferings to the Passion of the Man of Sorrows. This is done not from a sense of self preservation but in a giving of self, a spilling out of their very essence as they too go through their own small passion in expiation of the sins of the world. Through Christ what is suffered then becomes purgative and redemptive so that all men would be saved, most especially the prodigal children who have refused the Merciful Love of the Triune Spirit.</div>
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The role of victim soul is directly related to Christ and Him Crucified, and through the Mysterious Love of God we become united to the Divine in one Will, and that is to save <strong><em>ALL </em></strong>men not because they are worthy but because God Willed it from the beginning. Through redemptive suffering we make up for the souls who refuse God's Saving Grace by placing their needs above our own as we atone united to Christ Crucified for the manifold sins of man which grieves the Father in Heaven and cries out for Divine Justice. This Divine Justice can only be appeased by the suffering of Christ and His army of co-redeemers who suffer for their sake united in one Will the Divine Will. As it says in Colossians, <strong>"Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church, of which I am a minister in accordance with God's stewardship given to me to bring to completion for you the word of God, the mystery hidden from ages and from generations past. But now it has been manifested to his holy ones, to whom God chose to make known the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; it is Christ in you, the hope for glory."</strong>(Colossians 1:24-27). It is not so much a love of suffering as it is to suffer for love.</div>
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Though Christ atoned for the sins of man for all time it is through Christ that the sufferer can make amends for what is lacking in the body of Christ through His Church. We see through the Passion of Our Lord the road to Salvation not because we merited it but because God Willed it to be. So we too become one with the Divine as our sufferings echo and become united to that of the one Holy Sacrifice by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ at Calvary.</div>
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There is no greater loss in Heaven than for the Father to realise that through our lack of reparation many of His children may not share in the Beatific Vision. It grieves the Triune Spirit greatly when this unwanted gift is rejected as the soul suffers unto itself, useless. Whereas the soul that unites its own passion with our Lord shares in the Beatific vision. Though this Beatific vision is impaired while on earth, it will become fully known once the soul reaches the Mystery of Mysteries the Kingdom of Heaven, and receives its Just Reward.</div>
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What is also little understood is on whose behalf the victim soul is willing to suffer. No one person apart from heroic souls long to suffer from excruciatingingly painful illnesses. The world will tell you that would be insane to suffer for another but God speaks about it differently as He sent His only Son to die in your place. It is easy for us to suffer on behalf of our children, most parents would suffer and willingly so if it meant saving their children. Some souls would also willingly suffer for those people who may do great things in the world. Who though is willing to suffer for the drug addicts who steal or kill to maintain their habit? What person would willingly suffer for those men and women who murder innocent children to satisfy their own lusts? Who among us would wish to suffer for the men and women who choose to murder their own unborn babies so as to maintain their figures or their monetary prosperity? Suffering takes on a new meaning when we suffer for those who will not show any gratefulness and may never know the pain and anguish it took to help save their souls. It is the victim soul, hence the name who by their unselfish and holy love sup from the chalice of bitterness in order to save the unlovable. It is these heroic souls who suffer for what many of us would consider the 'dregs of society' and through their suffering good can come out of evil for as the Word reminds us, <strong>"Do not be conquered by evil but conquer evil with good."</strong></div>
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We need only look at our wounded world to understand the need and the depth of those souls who are invited to unite their sufferings with the Crucified One for the love of man alone. It is this unity with the Divine that brings one out of slavery and into His Holy Presence not as equals but as loving children undeserving of such a Tremendous Love which was given to us at a price. Are we willing to also pay the same price for souls who like us are undeserving of such a love?</div>
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What also makes the victim soul truly heroic is when God seems to turn away from their all encompassing suffering as if He had become deaf to their pitiable entreaties. Yet the victim soul continues to suffer without complaint as did our Blessed Mother who stood beneath the Cross of her beloved Son. As God draws the soul closer to Himself the vision within the victim soul becomes distorted, such as when we place our face close to a mirror our reflection can no longer be seen clearly. This is also the case with the Triune Spirit, the more He draws a person to Himself the more distorted the soul envisions God. The Triune Spirit has not moved away from the soul, He has simply encompassed it within His Divine embrace. Hence our limited sight cannot perceive this move by our Divine God and thinks itself abandoned.</div>
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<strong>Only through God does our suffering gain meaning as we follow in the steps of the One who was Crucified for Loves sake.</strong></div>
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Peace of Christ to you ALL</div>
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Copyright © 2006 Marie Smith. All rights reserved.</div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.mysticmonkcoffee.com/store/?aid=397"><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Mystic Monk Coffee - Your purchase helps support the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming AND This Blog!</SPAN></a></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14991666.post-1153815118816393392006-07-25T04:01:00.000-04:002006-07-25T04:11:58.833-04:00Meditation with Fulton Sheen V<em></em><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8011/1267/1600/beholy.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8011/1267/320/beholy.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div align="justify"><br /><strong><em>The end of an old year makes one hear the injunction God gave Moses: " You will not tread that way again." Though time indeed cannot be turned back, the faults and failings of time are not fixed and unalterable. Divine Padon can make them non-existent. Magdalenes can have fires that burned inward changed into fires that burn upward; Paul's who hate can learn to burn with zeal. The essence of the Gospel is the blessing of the second chance."</em></strong></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="center"><br />Bishop Fulton Sheen</div><div align="center"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="center"><strong>***************</strong></div><div align="center"></div><div align="center"><br /><strong>Reflection</strong></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />At times we tend to see our Saints as skating through life and fail to realise that they are just like us, struggling at times inconsistent and also doubtful. The Saints were not born 'saintly' it is a choice they made daily to live holy lives, to choose virtue over vice and to face the struggles within themselves and outside of themselves. What they did not allow to happen was to be overcome by adversity, instead they turned adversity into a challenge in that they could see and recognise the hand of God at work.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />For some examples Vincent de Paul intended to become a 'professional Priest' he was more intuned to climb the priestly ladder of success than to be one with the poor and downcast. As we know God had other plans for Vincent and with the co-operation of this most compassionate Saint we see what true charity is. Edith Stein through her teens did not believe in God and instead relied on her intellect alone to solve the deepest issues which affects all men. Her study of philosophy and her vast intelligence was no encumbrance to God and He moved within the soul of Edith and convicted her of the Truth through the works of that great spiritual master, Teresa of Avila. God moved Edith to her very depths, for at the core of Edith was a love of the unvarnished and naked Truth. Edith not only grew to love God she was also converted to the Catholic faith thereby shaking the very foundations of her whole life as she left her Jewish roots and embraced Catholicism.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />We also see through the words of Bishop Fulton Sheen the 'God of the Second Chance'. What this essentially means is that no matter what wrong or even sinful choices we make in life we are not beyond His Mercy, nor are we far from His sight. That leaves us no excuse to continue a wrongful pattern, for God through the Sacraments of the Church restores and makes all things new not for His sake but for ours.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />Through these words we can see that there is nothing stopping us from reaching the spiritual heights enjoyed by our Saints. The only thing that stands in our way is not God and it is also not the Devil what stops us, is us. God will not interfere with our free will and neither can the devil intervene with our free will, our will is entirely our own and so is the choices we make.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />What sets the Saints aside is their acknowledgement that in and of themselves they are nothing and all the work they had done if it does not include the Triune Spirit is valueless. It also shows us what God can do when a soul surrenders themselves to His Divine Love. </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />The question is are we courageous enough to accept this challenge? Or do we stay safe? That is for you to decide.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="center"><strong>***************<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8011/1267/1600/Bible_Prayer.3.png"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8011/1267/320/Bible_Prayer.3.png" border="0" /></a><br /></strong></div><div align="center"></div><div align="center"><br /><strong>Meditation</strong></div><strong><div align="center"><br />Romans Chapter 12:1-3, 21</strong></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><strong></strong></div><div align="justify"><br /><strong>"I urge you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship. Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect. For by the grace given to me I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than one ought to think, but to think soberly, each according to the measure of faith that God has apportioned...Do not be conquered by evil but conquer evil with good."</strong></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="center"><strong>***************</strong></div><div align="center"></div><div align="center"><br />Source </div><div align="center"><br />'Simple Truths' by Bishop Fulton Sheen </div><div align="center"></div><div align="center"><br />Peace of Christ to you ALL </div><div align="center"></div><div align="center"><br />Copyright © 2006 Marie Smith. All rights reserved.</div><div align="center"> </div><div align="center"> </div><div align="center"><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Catholic+Church" rel="tag">Catholic Church</a></div><div align="center"><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" rel="tag">Religion</a></div><div align="center"><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Catholic+Blogs" rel="tag">Catholic Blogs</a></div><div align="center"><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/roman+catholic" rel="tag">roman catholic</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.mysticmonkcoffee.com/store/?aid=397"><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Mystic Monk Coffee - Your purchase helps support the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming AND This Blog!</SPAN></a></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14991666.post-1153393818099300472006-07-20T06:59:00.000-04:002006-07-20T07:10:18.120-04:00A loving God or a 'Thinked' God?<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8011/1267/1600/lovinggod.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8011/1267/320/lovinggod.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div align="justify"><br />It is often much easier to speak about God than to actually live His message of forgiving and merciful love. Many can go on long discords about God's Divine Love without it ever actually touching their own hearts. As Meister Eckhart once wrote,<em> "The God who was a thinked God must become in some way an active God."</em>How often do we speak about God yet don't heed Him? How often do we say what an Awesome God we have, yet we know Him not!</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />God longs for us to love Him unto madness as He does us by being mad enough to die an ignominious death on a Cross for an ungrateful people, yet how many of us are insanely in love with this Majestic God? It is easy to say we love God but unless we live His Divine Message given to us by our Savior through His Word and the Church, then is it not just meaningless prattle? How many times a day do we think about God, yet allow Him to remain inactive within our hearts and in our everyday lives?</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />At times some tend to intellectualise God by making Him so complicated that he is beyond understanding for the ordinary man or woman in the street. Not all of us are theologians, yet at times I am sure many of us have bought books written about God only to find ourselves scratching our heads in utter confusion, as we read the contents. Let me include an example from a book which I bought and see how much understanding another may gather from it. The book is titled <strong><em>' The Logic of Happiness-Proverbs and Practical Wisdom'</em></strong>, here is an excerpt, <em>"The 'I' sees and chooses the direction of its seeing. A state of consciousness, then, can be viewed as an energetic medium in which the 'I' sees and moves in and out of psychosomatic states; it transcends them while being immanent within them."</em> Anyone understand what I just wrote? No? I don't either! I have a tendency to think that at times many theologians write to impress other theologians, but if the majority haven't a clue about what the author is trying to convey then what is the point? I sometimes wonder if we are trying to be too smart for God.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />Yet when we read what Jesus says to his disciples and followers He spoke to them in a way as to help them understand His Way,<strong> "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your selves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light."</strong> (Mathew 11:28-30) Can any say that is too difficult to understand? Why do so many people complicate God almost out of existence.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />Our loving God wants more from us than to simply acknowledge His existence and then put Him to the back of our minds as we go about our daily tasks. We have compartmentalized our lives so much that even God has to fit into our box of <strong><em>'things to do'</em></strong>. We have become Law abiders rather than Love abiding mainly because it is safe as we go about our merry way with nether a thought directed towards God. Yet we can discuss politics, or fashion, our families and our business successes, how many of us though engage in long discussions with our closest family and friends about God and what He means to you? Or would that be considered unfashionable?</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />God has become like our use of the word <strong><em>'love'</em></strong> we <strong><em>love</em></strong> chocolate or we <strong><em>love</em></strong> that book or TV show do we love God with this same lack of passion. Sometimes we really need to look deep within our hearts and ask ourselves do you love God or do you just say it? None of us hate God but that is not what God objects too. He objects to the lukewarm love that neither gives nor takes, it sits there empty and passive...a safe affection from a distance.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />Are we ready to accept the revolution of love within our souls, our very being or are we more comfortable with the status quo? How many ponder all things in our heart with the depth of our Blessed Mother or how many of us are only to willing to continue in our daze of unawareness. Do we truly want to exist in the shadows of life to afraid to step into the Light lest it change you from within and become a being so dazzling as to blind your fellow creatures, as the Triune Spirit fills your heart and soul with joy.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />Many times when we look at Religious Nuns many of whom live in enclosed Orders. We see this inner joy that seems to radiate within them and spills out to the surface as their faces glow with an inner light that comes from a loving relationship with God. We see this it is there, yet is the same glow of joy in your reflection when you glance at a mirror? If this inner joy is not there then it is up to us to ponder the reasons why for God does not move away from us, we do.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />Until we realize that we need God in our lives as much as we need oxygen though we cannot see it we know it is there for we are still alive and breathing so it is with God. We may not 'see' our living God face to face but He see's into the very depths of our hearts and souls and He knows who is holding Him at arms length. </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />This tremendous Lover loves us so much He the Creator of all things seen and unseen woo's His creatures and gently whispers within the depths of a man's soul as a butterfly floats past one's face and gently leaves it mark without pain yet we know it touched us, so it is with the Spirit of God, as Scripture says,<strong> "What are humans that you are mindful of them, mere mortals that you care for them? Yet you have made them little less than a god, crowned them with glory and honor. You have given them rule over the works of your hands, put all things at their feet: All sheep and oxen, even the beasts of the field, The birds of the air, the fish of the sea, and whatever swims the paths of the seas. O LORD, our Lord, how awesome is your name through all the earth!"</strong> (Psalms 8:5-10)God gives us every good thing yet are we content in giving God only the scraps from our tables(hearts)?</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />In each of our lives where do we relegate God in a <strong><em>'thinked'</em></strong> way or an active way, so that we can say, <strong>"Yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me."</strong></div><div align="justify"><strong><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8011/1267/1600/crown.jpg"> </div></a></strong><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8011/1267/320/crown.jpg" border="0" /><br /><div align="justify"><strong></strong></div><div align="justify"><br /><strong>Where we spend our thoughts that is who we are.</strong></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />Peace of Christ to you ALL </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />Copyright © 2006 Marie Smith. All rights reserved.</div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Catholic+Church" rel="tag">Catholic Church</a></div><div align="justify"><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" rel="tag">Religion</a></div><div align="justify"><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Catholic+Blogs" rel="tag">Catholic Blogs</a></div><div align="justify"><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/roman+catholic" rel="tag">roman catholic</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.mysticmonkcoffee.com/store/?aid=397"><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Mystic Monk Coffee - Your purchase helps support the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming AND This Blog!</SPAN></a></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0