Desiring More of Jesus

Sometimes I wish Jesus and  I could  be alone on a deserted island. There would be no distractions, just the two of us. Being.

Sure you might say that I have that when I pray. And that is true too. But after prayer I have to get back into the swing of things and continue on to an errand or an appointment or some task at home. On an island, I wouldn't have the distractions. I'd just have Jesus and we could be together, and there would be sweet  peace. Nobody else could walk over and disrupt our time together.

I wouldn't be hungry or thirsty or cold or hot or tired. I would be in complete peace. I wouldn't have to deal with gruff people like I have to do every day at my job. I wouldn't be assaulted by technology or TV or interuptions of any kind. I wouldn't have to get anxious about things happening at Church, or within the wider Church.  I wouldn't have to hear horrible news about shootings, bombs, terrorism or abortions. I could just look into Jesus' eyes. He has the most magnificient eyes you know. He is always patient and He always says the perfect thing. Sometimes He doesn't have to say anything at all and I know exactly what He means.

Jesus and I have been together a very long time and we have eternity ahead of us. I don't know if a deserted island is part of His plan. I guess for now I have to have 1:1 time with Jesus as I can get it. There are just so many distractions......

A Message from God

Here is a true story that has been entrusted to me:  Many years ago two friends went to Montreal, Canada - to St. Joseph's cathedral. If you've ever been there you know that the Cathedral is on top of a huge hill.  One friend was resting at the bottom of the hill in the pilgrim's house where they were staying, and the other went up to the Cathedral. Along the way she found a path to the Stations of the Cross that was to the left of the Cathedral and took it.

She didn't have any written Stations of the Cross prayers with her, so she made up her own prayers as she went. She was all alone on the path. It was a quiet day, blue sky, gentle breeze, perfect temperature. She got to the very top, the final station, and there was a big pool/fountain there. It was about 2' deep. She was at the top of the hill by the dome of the Cathedral. It was so high that small planes were flying just above the dome and she could read the numbers on the sides of the planes.

Anyway, she sat at the edge of a large rectangular pool/fountain and was enjoying the silence. After several minutes she heard someone say "I love you." It was a little louder than a whisper and sounded like it was right behind her. She turned around, thinking that perhaps there was a couple that had appeared, and one was saying "I love you" to the other. Nobody was there. ODD.  She turned back around and continued her thoughts and reflections.

A few minutes later again she heard "I love you". She turned around again thinking that perhaps this "couple" was coming up the path and was just beyond the bushes where she couldn't see them. She watched and waited. Nobody came into view. The odd thing was that it sounded like the words were said right behind her, not 10' away behind the bushes. ODD.  She turned back around and continued her thoughts and reflections. Totally alone.

Several minutes later again she hears "I love you." This time she spun around really fast - a bit scared and a bit annoyed - because the voice was so close. She looked around. NOBODY was there.  Feeling fairly freaked out at this point, she sat back down. She calmed herself, then the rest of the sentence came: "Tell My People that I love them."  At that moment, she knew Who it was.

She started crying. After a few minutes she thought that maybe she had lost her mind. I mean this was an AUDIBLE voice and now she was attributing this voice to GOD. Really......who hears God? Moses ! She was certainly no Moses.

She stayed up there quite a while thinking and reflecting and crying. It was an event where you know in your soul that it was truly God speaking. Even today when she closes her eyes, years and years later, she can remember that day as if it were yesterday, or even this very moment. As she reflected she was very aware that the message was not in a male's voice, nor a female's voice, but it was a voice just the same. Soft. Confident. Strong. It resonates within her to this very day.

Anyway.... what did she do with that experience? Well, she went down the big hill. She was supposed to meet her friend for dinner who, at this point, was waiting at the bottom of the hill, worried. She had been gone a very long time - two and a half hours or so.  This was before cell phones..... she apologized to her friend  because she lost track of the time.  Her friend asked what she was doing for so long ( because she was getting really hungry and it was almost passed dinner time ) and so, being that she was one of her best friends on the planet, she blurted out to her exactly what happened at the top of the hill.

Her friend was astounded. When she got to the final comment about telling God's people that He loves them, the friend began to cry. She asked her why she was crying and she said that while she was up the hill and she was resting in the pilgrim's house, she was thinking about their conversations about God on the ride towards Canada .  She told her friend that when she was resting in the pilgrim house she was wondering very deeply if God loved her, and then here her friend comes down the hill and blurts out the answer to her question.

Being that she told her friend that God loved her,she thought she had accomplished God's will. Maybe the message was just for her friend? As the days went by she thought about this message she received and realized that God said "People" not "person", so it had to be more than just one person. Since then, at various times in her life, she has felt called to tell certain people specifically that God loves them. It is a simple but profound message.

Why am I sharing this true story with all of you? Maybe because through this story you will come to see that God loves you too. He said so, and God's word will not come back void.

Important Questions

Do you ever why God created you at this time in human history?  

Do you ever wonder what you are supposed to be doing to make this world a better place? 

Do you ever wonder if you make a difference now in anyone's life? 

Do you feel you are using the gifts God gave you to your fullest potential?

Do you ever make the time for deep thoughts and deep discussions with the people in your life?

A recent TV report said that the IQs' of Americans are getting lower because we are so addicted to technology that we don't think for ourselves. We don't know how to read road maps anymore. We don't memorize phone numbers. We don't know how to have civilized debates or conversations. We don't think philosophically or think or talk about the really big issues in life. We don't realize that we are children of God anymore and our faith is going downhill. We don't talk about these things anymore....or at least many of us don't.

Today I am challenging you to think about these big questions.

Simplicity of Mind and Heart

Our world is getting way too complicated for me. All this high tech stuff drives me crazy. This blog is about as high tech as I get. People "encourage" me to get a cell phone that does more than just make phone calls or to get the latest gadget or to download apps and stuff. I've never downloaded an app and I have no desire to do so.

I understand that technology can help a lot. It has certainly helped spread the Gospel around the world. I mean, just this little blog alone has been read by people across the globe. So I'm not anti-technology. I just think it shouldn't run our lives and that we should have time for other things.

Technology can also be a vehicle for the devil - you know that little twerp down below.  He gets us so wrapped up in it that some of us have forgotten the finer things in life like an evening stroll with a friend and conversing about God and all things holy, or the twitter ( non technology word ) of birds, or the sound of a gentle breeze (I'm encountering one of those breezes now....). Or how about this.....even the sound of one's own thoughts?

I just heard on the radio of a study that was just done that showed how Americans' IQs have gone down since the advent of technology because we rely so heavily on it.  When tested without the aid of technology we are getting dumber.  They used the skill of map reading as an example. Lots of people have a GPS in their cars and have no more need of a map. I don't trust those GPSs. I have to use one for work once in a while and it makes me crazy. I purposely love to take a wrong turn just to hear the automated voice say "recalculating" !! LOL !!  Many times the GPS is wrong too. I do use mapquest on the computer and that is wrong sometimes too. So if I get lost I do the human thing: I stop and ask for directions!

So how does this tie into the title of this blog: "Simplicity of Mind and Heart"?  As Christians we are supposed to be singleminded towards God. Our world is so busy and technological that  we have to make a conscious effort to turn our minds towards God.  We also have to go beyond e-mails when communicating and focus on relationships in other ways.

Like St. Peter having to keep his eyes on Jesus lest he drown in the sea, we have to do the same except today the "sea" is technology. Like the saying goes: "Keep it Simple Stupid".  Jesus Himself said that we had to become like children and what are children like? They are simple and sweet and pure. They are honest and open and love unconditionally. Sadly once the world gets a hold of them that can change, but still we are called to center our lives around Christ and we must go forth in the world like "sheep among wolves" and we must be "as gentle as lambs but as wise as serpents".

I challenge all of you reading this today to think about how you can make your life more simple and your heart more focused on Jesus. I mean...do you really need to shop for four hours on a Saturday or have four TVs on in your house?  Do you have to constantly check your text messages ( I haven't done that yet either ) or take your cell phone when you go for a walk around the block?

Think about it. Pray about it. Thanks for reading my little blog.

Got Sin?

Do you know that I pray before I start writing my blogs?  I do. I know that whatever I'm writing will be read by someone else on the planet at some point in the future, so I want to make my message meaningful.  This is a challenge, so I must pray first and ask God what He wants me to write about. (Recently people from the US, Turkey, Jordan, Russia, and the Phillipines have read my blog! My blog stats don't tell me who reads the blogs, just where they are from and I find that interesting.)

Words have power and if perhaps a few of my words touch your soul or make you think, then I feel I have written a successful blog.

Tonight I feel called to talk to you about sin.  Sin is rampant and temptation is everywhere.  Sometimes we fail and we mess up. We sin. That is when we have to get ourselves to Confession. Sin is an awful thing that is part of our lives and we struggle with it every day.  If you ever find someone who says they don't sin, they are either deluding themsleves or lying to you because we all sin.  We have all fallen short of the  glory of God. All of us. Nobody is exempt.  Lay person. Priest. Religious. We are all sinners.

Jesus however,  has saved us from eternal damnation due to our sins by his death and resurrection. We have only to accept his offer - to say Yes to Him and live for Him, and live in His way. Most of us know the story of how Jesus took our sins to the cross. They were crucified with Him. As a result He has saved us and set us free. Yet .... we still sin. It isn't that we haven't learned our lessons. We know sin is wrong. It is just part of being human, thanks to Adam and Eve, and so God has entered humanity through the Person of Jesus Christ and He has saved us, and saves us daily by offering us His forgiveness.  There are some people that aren't aware of this.....even in our modern world! There are people who think it is a theory or myth, "but of course",  they say, "it isn't really real".  Boy are they wrong.

Someday,  we will each know for sure the depth of what Jesus has done for us.   But for now, we just can't wrap our minds around it. I often think that the world we live in is so clouded. It is a tiny reflection of what is to come. It is like a dusty knick knack that over time, has become unintersting and old.  It is like an old woman who was once  a soft cute little baby and is now like a wrinkled prune.  Our world is not the way it should be.  It is not the way God intended it to be.  Someday it will be.

Can you begin to imagine what it will be like someday when we are given a new Heaven and a new Earth?  Did you ever find an old mirror, covered in dust or a piece of brass that is tarnished? If you take the time to clean them you will be amazed at their beauty. I think that is how it is with earth. As beautiful as it is now - parts of it anyway - it wil lbe a milion times moreso in the future.  This is not only our hope, it is our promise from God.

So, we are sinners and our souls are like the dusty mirror or the tarnished brass.  We have to keep taking them to Jesus for cleaning and polishing.   Someday, when all is new, we will be eternally sparkling and clean. We will have no more sin. We will be truly free and sin and temptation will no longer hound us. We have to cling to this hope.

For now, we wander in the mire of our current age. We are like ships passing one another in the night. We are all off . This is our world now. But although we must be in the world we are called not to be of it. Jesus can help us do that.  We have to strive to be holy and to be saintly. This is so hard. I for one, know what a horrid sinner I am. Every day I pray to be made holy and to be who I'm called to be, and every day I go to bed with a heavy heart because I know somewhere along the line, I messed up.  Despite our messiness, we are loved by God.  The challenge is to believe it and live it. Otherwise we will remain a dusty mirror or tarnished brass.

Dear Jesus, make us new. Help us to see who we really are called to be in you. Mother Mary, pray for us.  Amen.