We are in a stretch of rainy weather. The seasons are changing, summer to fall. Many of us change our focus during this time of year - preparing the outside home area for the cooler weather, perhaps putting away summer clothes and pulling out the sweaters; some have gone back to school while others are slowly preparing for the cooler weather and maybe even starting to mentally plan their Christmas lists.
As the song by "Peter, Paul, and Mary" goes...."these times, they are a changing".
It makes me think how we have seasons in our spiritual life as well. Times when we feel very close to Jesus and other times, complete desolation. Sometimes we are "so-so", perhaps just going through the motions of our faith life.
Sometimes I think of one's relationship with Jesus as that of a married couple, which in many ways it is just like that. When love is new everything is wonderful and exciting, but as time goes on and the couple gets very comfortable with each other, things change. By that I mean that perhaps life isn't so exciting because they know each other's habits and even their thoughts. As time goes on they know more and more about their partner's life before they were married and so perhaps there isn't so much to discover anymore.
I think our relationship with Jesus can be like that sometimes. The older we get and the more Jesus is the center of our lives, the more we know His habits, and yes, even His thoughts. Sometimes we can take it for granted that Jesus is in our lives. This is sad, but true. There is always something new to learn about Jesus though and so in that regard it is different than an ordinary marriage on earth.
I guess for me, I am in a so-so phase. I must say, if you've read my blog a few months ago, a so-so phase is a huge improvement from the spiritual desert I was wandering in. So this is probably good news. I continue to pray and go to Mass and do my usual spiritual things and think of Jesus a lot and how He wants me to live in the world and what He may want me to do in the future. At this point in time, I am still longing for that excitment of faith that I used to have before I was thrust head first into the desert, landing with a mouthful of sand, no flashlight and no map.
I did have a special blessing last week though. I was praying in church and pleading with the Holy Spirit to show me some physical manifestation of His presence so I can have a sense of optimism and acknowledgement ( ok, proof ) that He was listening to me. I truly prayed from the heart. As I ended my prayer time and walked out of the church - on a blue skyed, bright sunny September day - there in the sky before me was a rainbow. Now, a rainbow is the sign of God's covenant with humanity dating all the way back to Noah. I knew in the depth of my soul that there was no logical weather reason why that rainbow should have been there and directly in my sight upon leaving the church. The Holy Spirit answered my prayer - a physical manifestation was provided for me. I felt heard from Heaven.
Still, I am a thick, stupid human and within a matter of hours I went back into my so-so mood. That is okay though becuase, again, it is much better than the desert. Perhaps , as the earth is right now, I am in a spiritual in-between season? As the earth is between summer and fall, so too is my soul somewhere between the desert and the mountaintop.
So I will walk on, trusting to the best of my human ability that Jesus is very close to me and guiding me, and praying He is leading me to a mountaintop because honestly, I could really use a break.
Sep 24, 2011
Sep 14, 2011
Be Alert - the world needs more lerts!
Today I am thinking of the spiritual battle that rages in the world. The unseen battle between good and evil rages on as it has for eons, but is now taking on a new intensity. The battle used to be a bit more subtle and invisible, living primarily in pockets of evil throughout the world and in the hearts of evil people. Now there has been a shift, and I am not a prophet saying this.....if you read and watch, others have said the same things throughout the last century or so.....others who are much more holy and intelligent than I am. However, it doesn't take a prophet to see all of this, just a simple christian who is prayerful and alert.
Evil today is now "in your face". It is on TV, it is on radio, it is on the silver screen. It is in our computers and on our lips more than ever before. There has been such a massive errosion of attentiveness to God and in particularly of silence, that now the invisible curtain between the spiritual battle and the physical world is coming down. Now, we can see that each day we are walking in the midst of this battle, and if we are not careful, we can become its victims.
What is our recourse to all of this? How can we stay safe? How can we protect ourselves? We have to look at what Jesus offers us through His church. What are the "weapons" he provides for us? What are the means of protection He has put in place for us? I will tell you some of them. I say "some" because I am still discovering new ways. He has given us the Eucharist - His very self in Holy Communion. We "can do all things through Christ who strengthens us", as St. Paul says. The more we have Jesus in our lives, the better off we are, and the stronger we are to fight the battles we find ourselves in. Also, the rosary. Padre Pio used to use the terminology "get me my weapon", meaning the rosary. We must rely on Mary's intercession and our focus on meditating on Jesus' life to help us. We have adoration - spending time before the Blessed Sacrament. His graces will fill us and give us strength. We have the Word of God - ever before us in our homes ( hopefully ) and in our churches. Some people even keep their Bibles at work too.
These are just a few protections we have to aid us in this battle. We also have to add the sacrament of reconciliation to this mix too.
The other thing I want to say is that the evil one delights in harming God's children, so sometimes we will be his target. Therein lies suffering. Suffering is a mystery humanity has grappled with for eons too. What is its purpose ? Why does God allow it ? My thoughts on that are that God does not cause suffering, but does allow it, as He allowed Jesus to suffer and die for us. In that capacity, suffering is redemptive. There too, I believe that when we join our sufferings with Christ's, our suffering can also be redemptive. There is also the meaningless suffering that takes place and we have some control over that and we can stop a lot of suffering by using the gifts God gave us. Sometimes though, evil seems to be winning. I've experienced that in my own life so many times. There are times when I"ve been spiritually weak and have not been able to withstand some of his assaults. But even though I have come to the brink of extinction or exhaustion, I have not been totally destroyed. It may have felt like it, but God has sent His life giving breath on me once again and brought me back to life.
So, I am being way too winded this morning. But I want to encourage whoever reads this to dedicate yourselves to God every day, and continually throughout the day. Say a little prayer such as "Jesus, I give you everything." or "Jesus I surrender to you"....things like that. Or even "Jesus help me to trust". These short little prayers can be said as you go through your work day.
Try also to keep heavenly things on your mind. As you are walking in the mall you can also be pondering the reality of the angels being around you or you can try to see the face of Christ in everyone who walks by you.
Anyway, that is what I wanted to say today. Thank you for listening /reading. Always remember, BE ALERT because the world needs more LERTS.
Evil today is now "in your face". It is on TV, it is on radio, it is on the silver screen. It is in our computers and on our lips more than ever before. There has been such a massive errosion of attentiveness to God and in particularly of silence, that now the invisible curtain between the spiritual battle and the physical world is coming down. Now, we can see that each day we are walking in the midst of this battle, and if we are not careful, we can become its victims.
What is our recourse to all of this? How can we stay safe? How can we protect ourselves? We have to look at what Jesus offers us through His church. What are the "weapons" he provides for us? What are the means of protection He has put in place for us? I will tell you some of them. I say "some" because I am still discovering new ways. He has given us the Eucharist - His very self in Holy Communion. We "can do all things through Christ who strengthens us", as St. Paul says. The more we have Jesus in our lives, the better off we are, and the stronger we are to fight the battles we find ourselves in. Also, the rosary. Padre Pio used to use the terminology "get me my weapon", meaning the rosary. We must rely on Mary's intercession and our focus on meditating on Jesus' life to help us. We have adoration - spending time before the Blessed Sacrament. His graces will fill us and give us strength. We have the Word of God - ever before us in our homes ( hopefully ) and in our churches. Some people even keep their Bibles at work too.
These are just a few protections we have to aid us in this battle. We also have to add the sacrament of reconciliation to this mix too.
The other thing I want to say is that the evil one delights in harming God's children, so sometimes we will be his target. Therein lies suffering. Suffering is a mystery humanity has grappled with for eons too. What is its purpose ? Why does God allow it ? My thoughts on that are that God does not cause suffering, but does allow it, as He allowed Jesus to suffer and die for us. In that capacity, suffering is redemptive. There too, I believe that when we join our sufferings with Christ's, our suffering can also be redemptive. There is also the meaningless suffering that takes place and we have some control over that and we can stop a lot of suffering by using the gifts God gave us. Sometimes though, evil seems to be winning. I've experienced that in my own life so many times. There are times when I"ve been spiritually weak and have not been able to withstand some of his assaults. But even though I have come to the brink of extinction or exhaustion, I have not been totally destroyed. It may have felt like it, but God has sent His life giving breath on me once again and brought me back to life.
So, I am being way too winded this morning. But I want to encourage whoever reads this to dedicate yourselves to God every day, and continually throughout the day. Say a little prayer such as "Jesus, I give you everything." or "Jesus I surrender to you"....things like that. Or even "Jesus help me to trust". These short little prayers can be said as you go through your work day.
Try also to keep heavenly things on your mind. As you are walking in the mall you can also be pondering the reality of the angels being around you or you can try to see the face of Christ in everyone who walks by you.
Anyway, that is what I wanted to say today. Thank you for listening /reading. Always remember, BE ALERT because the world needs more LERTS.
Sep 4, 2011
Spiritual Mittens
Summer is slowly starting to fade away. Soon it will get cooler and then fall and winter will descend upon us. "It is always winter in New England" is a saying of mine. Summer is too short. Hallmark puts out its Christmas products in July. Winter clothes start coming into the stores in late July too. We are always in a state of focusing on the future and the future is always cold in New England. It is cold in so many souls as well, regardless of the time of year.
It is a challenge to keep the warmth of Christ as our focus isn't it? So many things come against us. We are living in times that are perilous for the soul. We are under attack in so many ways and sometimes it is a struggle to live up to the name of Christian. Thank God for the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
How can we ever merit Heaven? We can't, at least not on our own. We so desperately need God's grace to intervene, to save us. Hence, He sent Jesus to live, suffer, die, and rise for us. Even 2000 some odd years hence, we still struggle with accepting that. The early followers of Jesus were experiencing who Jesus was/is as it went along. But we have hindsight on our side. We have all the facts, the full story, and yet, we are mini-Thomases, demanding proof even though proof has already been provided.
We need God's mercy or we will surely perish into the fiery pit. Lucky for us, God wants to send us His mercy. But we are so stupid that we don't even ask Him for it. He holds out his mercy and grace to us and we don't even see it. We don't acknowledge it. Worse yet, we turn our backs and walk away from it. Why?
Why are we afraid to ask for, to beg for, God's mercy and grace? He is our loving God and we should feel comfortable going right to Him and asking Him for it as a child would run up to a parent in the super market with a package of gum and relentlessly say to their parent " Buy this for me....please?".
Yet, so much more is at stake than a package of gum and yet we don't ask. We don't even think about asking. Many of us are not even aware that there is "gum" to be had. Why?
That is something to think about, isn't it? God gives us SO MUCH and yet we reject it on a daily basis. It is always winter in New England, and it is always winter in our souls. Our souls have an innate desire for summer and yet we get stuck in winter. Why? What are we afraid of?
I will tell you what we are afraid of. We are afraid of letting go of who we are and everything we have in order to surrender to the one Truth of Jesus and who He is. It is easier, albeit colder, to cling to what we do know in this sensuous world. We would rather stay in the mire that we do know, than take a step out of the boat into the raging waters and trust Jesus. We are afraid that we will lose too much of ourselves, our own power, our American individuality, or our sense of control over our lives.
Well....that is true. When we surrender totally to Jesus we take the risk of losing all of that and probably other things that we aren't even aware of. But see....that is the clincher....if we lose our life for Christ, it is then , and only then, that we will find it. We want to hold onto a fistfull of dimes when Jesus wants to give us a billion dollars ! And just because we don't see the billion dollars, we choose the dimes.
It is all about fear, and fear is not of God. I know that first hand because I've struggled with fear practically my entire life. Sometimes it has almost crippled me, but other times I have had the courage given by the Holy Spirit, to rise and walk through the fear. Sure, I've trembled and almost wet my pants (example only!), but with the grace of God I made it through.
Fear is a horrible, horrible thing to experience. (That is one reason why I'll never understand why people like horror movies....why should I pay money to feel fear? That makes no sense to me. Anyway, I digress....) I think humanity will always have to deal with fear because fear is of that little weasel in the fiery furnance and he will chase us and try to ruin us until we enter the pearly gates.
So, we have to fight fear. We have to fight the winters of our souls. We have to plead for God's mercy and grace. We have to pray, pray, pray, pray. We have to surrender and ask Jesus, the saints, and angels to help us. We have to ask Mary to bring us to her Son.
Only by doing such things and focusing on our goal: to be with Jesus in Heaven forever, will we have the courage to weather all the winters of New England and all the winters of our souls.
Jesus is the only one who can give us our "spiritual mittens" anyway. I don't know about you, but I'm getting on my knees and asking for the mittens because it is only going to get colder, and quite soon too, and I'm gonna need my Jesus mittens.
It is a challenge to keep the warmth of Christ as our focus isn't it? So many things come against us. We are living in times that are perilous for the soul. We are under attack in so many ways and sometimes it is a struggle to live up to the name of Christian. Thank God for the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
How can we ever merit Heaven? We can't, at least not on our own. We so desperately need God's grace to intervene, to save us. Hence, He sent Jesus to live, suffer, die, and rise for us. Even 2000 some odd years hence, we still struggle with accepting that. The early followers of Jesus were experiencing who Jesus was/is as it went along. But we have hindsight on our side. We have all the facts, the full story, and yet, we are mini-Thomases, demanding proof even though proof has already been provided.
We need God's mercy or we will surely perish into the fiery pit. Lucky for us, God wants to send us His mercy. But we are so stupid that we don't even ask Him for it. He holds out his mercy and grace to us and we don't even see it. We don't acknowledge it. Worse yet, we turn our backs and walk away from it. Why?
Why are we afraid to ask for, to beg for, God's mercy and grace? He is our loving God and we should feel comfortable going right to Him and asking Him for it as a child would run up to a parent in the super market with a package of gum and relentlessly say to their parent " Buy this for me....please?".
Yet, so much more is at stake than a package of gum and yet we don't ask. We don't even think about asking. Many of us are not even aware that there is "gum" to be had. Why?
That is something to think about, isn't it? God gives us SO MUCH and yet we reject it on a daily basis. It is always winter in New England, and it is always winter in our souls. Our souls have an innate desire for summer and yet we get stuck in winter. Why? What are we afraid of?
I will tell you what we are afraid of. We are afraid of letting go of who we are and everything we have in order to surrender to the one Truth of Jesus and who He is. It is easier, albeit colder, to cling to what we do know in this sensuous world. We would rather stay in the mire that we do know, than take a step out of the boat into the raging waters and trust Jesus. We are afraid that we will lose too much of ourselves, our own power, our American individuality, or our sense of control over our lives.
Well....that is true. When we surrender totally to Jesus we take the risk of losing all of that and probably other things that we aren't even aware of. But see....that is the clincher....if we lose our life for Christ, it is then , and only then, that we will find it. We want to hold onto a fistfull of dimes when Jesus wants to give us a billion dollars ! And just because we don't see the billion dollars, we choose the dimes.
It is all about fear, and fear is not of God. I know that first hand because I've struggled with fear practically my entire life. Sometimes it has almost crippled me, but other times I have had the courage given by the Holy Spirit, to rise and walk through the fear. Sure, I've trembled and almost wet my pants (example only!), but with the grace of God I made it through.
Fear is a horrible, horrible thing to experience. (That is one reason why I'll never understand why people like horror movies....why should I pay money to feel fear? That makes no sense to me. Anyway, I digress....) I think humanity will always have to deal with fear because fear is of that little weasel in the fiery furnance and he will chase us and try to ruin us until we enter the pearly gates.
So, we have to fight fear. We have to fight the winters of our souls. We have to plead for God's mercy and grace. We have to pray, pray, pray, pray. We have to surrender and ask Jesus, the saints, and angels to help us. We have to ask Mary to bring us to her Son.
Only by doing such things and focusing on our goal: to be with Jesus in Heaven forever, will we have the courage to weather all the winters of New England and all the winters of our souls.
Jesus is the only one who can give us our "spiritual mittens" anyway. I don't know about you, but I'm getting on my knees and asking for the mittens because it is only going to get colder, and quite soon too, and I'm gonna need my Jesus mittens.
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