Repentance

The sacrifice of Isaac.

I arranged for a ride to Christ the King Church yesterday afternoon with a friend of mine. We arrived early and I got out of the car to try to go inside, but all the doors were
locked. My friend did not want to stick around and I didn't feel like sitting in the cold rain until someone came to open the church. In the past, I have walked up to the church with the same result. On my way back home, the last time it happened, I felt a strong presence of the Lord and His admonition not to worry.

This time, there was peace, and a mild rumbling anger in me. It seems to be a sign of the times, that there are not enough priests, and the ones there are, have a different theology than I do, having been taught differently in the seminary.

The trouble is, that with the difference, one has to question the old teachings and the new teachings, which may leave people disconcerted; what DOES Jesus want of me?

Certain sins are mortal sins, and one must confess those sins and make atonement for them. 

There was  no room for a lackadaisical approach to the Sacrament of Penance for the likes of St. Padre Pio; he rather rigorously expected a penitent spirit from sinners, and anyone who was careless and sloppy oftentimes was rather abruptly dismissed until they  had changed their mind. Padre Pio had an understanding of sin from the perspective of Jesus on the cross. It cost Jesus great pain to be crucified, and Padre Pio participated in the passion to a great depth. Hence, it cost him something. If a person is not cost anything. it is likely they may not be absolved until they change their attitude.

These modern times which take Christ so for granted are stupid in the extreme. It should matter to every human being, that wars can annihilate everyone on earth, and those who died must stand before Jesus and account for their life.

What, thus, can be said about people who don't care if someone has made the effort to be reconciled with God? They can hardly elicit pity from the Lord.

In world war two, naval fleets opposed each other, and the stupidity of the opponents led to their ship being bombed out of existance, blown up in burning aviation fuel. Now we can launch missiles at each other, and the annihilation is total and instantaneous; there is no time to avoid what happens in a nuclear fireball. The world is fragile, its climate uncertain, and the dread and fear of sin sickens the heart of humanity and chills the love of anything and all things.

How can we face God in that state? If a person has not made any examination of their life yet, they should soon; do not wait for the instant before a blinding flash produced disintegration of everything into oblivion.

A person should want to care, and indeed, TO care, what happens to every life and every soul, and people should dispose themselves as we would hope others would do. This perspective is the proper one towards God and our neighbor. 

Be afraid if you cannot recall making any effort to encounter God and be awakened to the truth of our relationship. Perhaps you don't care about others, and if not, then you may not care what happens to you, and may not care what God is going to do while people are finding it easier to live a sinful life.

Repentance

The sacrifice of Isaac.

I arranged for a ride to Christ the King Church yesterday afternoon with a friend of mine. We arrived early and I got out of the car to try to go inside, but all the doors were
locked. My friend did not want to stick around and I didn't feel like sitting in the cold rain until someone came to open the church. In the past, I have walked up to the church with the same result. On my way back home, the last time it happened, I felt a strong presence of the Lord and His admonition not to worry.

This time, there was peace, and a mild rumbling anger in me. It seems to be a sign of the times, that there are not enough priests, and the ones there are, have a different theology than I do, having been taught differently in the seminary.

The trouble is, that with the difference, one has to question the old teachings and the new teachings, which may leave people disconcerted; what DOES Jesus want of me?

Certain sins are mortal sins, and one must confess those sins and make atonement for them. 

There was  no room for a lackadaisical approach to the Sacrament of Penance for the likes of St. Padre Pio; he rather rigorously expected a penitent spirit from sinners, and anyone who was careless and sloppy oftentimes was rather abruptly dismissed until they  had changed their mind. Padre Pio had an understanding of sin from the perspective of Jesus on the cross. It cost Jesus great pain to be crucified, and Padre Pio participated in the passion to a great depth. Hence, it cost him something. If a person is not cost anything. it is likely they may not be absolved until they change their attitude.

These modern times which take Christ so for granted are stupid in the extreme. It should matter to every human being, that wars can annihilate everyone on earth, and those who died must stand before Jesus and account for their life.

What, thus, can be said about people who don't care if someone has made the effort to be reconciled with God? They can hardly elicit pity from the Lord.

In world war two, naval fleets opposed each other, and the stupidity of the opponents led to their ship being bombed out of existance, blown up in burning aviation fuel. Now we can launch missiles at each other, and the annihilation is total and instantaneous; there is no time to avoid what happens in a nuclear fireball. The world is fragile, its climate uncertain, and the dread and fear of sin sickens the heart of humanity and chills the love of anything and all things.

How can we face God in that state? If a person has not made any examination of their life yet, they should soon; do not wait for the instant before a blinding flash produced disintegration of everything into oblivion.

A person should want to care, and indeed, TO care, what happens to every life and every soul, and people should dispose themselves as we would hope others would do. This perspective is the proper one towards God and our neighbor. 

Be afraid if you cannot recall making any effort to encounter God and be awakened to the truth of our relationship. Perhaps you don't care about others, and if not, then you may not care what happens to you, and may not care what God is going to do while people are finding it easier to live a sinful life.

Perspective

Morning prayer will do one thing for you; put you into proper context with God and the universe. One can hardly complain that He seems so distant if you never stand before Him in your will and intent. For many, that context matters very little; as long as one wakes up in the morning, and gets to sleep at night with a reasonable expectation that that will be the way it is.

For the most part, that IS the way it is. Yet, terrible things happen right around the corner from us, and there is little or no disturbance in our awareness unless we read the news about what happened.

It is sad when we hear nothing from our loved ones and close acquaintances. One wonders why  we slipped out of the focus of those who mean so much to us. Again ,if we are not conscious of others, and not present in any notecable way, we will slip away. It is like being the sole occupant of a sailboat, and gone for a swim, while fully rigged and steering itself at 10 or 15 knots; it is very difficult to catch up to the boat and get back on, and if there is no one else around on whom we might call, our fate might be suddenly all too disconcerting to us in our ordinary reality.

Jesus does not want us to slip away from Him, He does not want to be forgotten any more than we do. The time to care about the lives of others is now, not ten days from now while we dabble in a polynesian paradise. To put it another way, "The sounds of love don't just happen, you have to make them."

Perspective

Morning prayer will do one thing for you; put you into proper context with God and the universe. One can hardly complain that He seems so distant if you never stand before Him in your will and intent. For many, that context matters very little; as long as one wakes up in the morning, and gets to sleep at night with a reasonable expectation that that will be the way it is.

For the most part, that IS the way it is. Yet, terrible things happen right around the corner from us, and there is little or no disturbance in our awareness unless we read the news about what happened.

It is sad when we hear nothing from our loved ones and close acquaintances. One wonders why  we slipped out of the focus of those who mean so much to us. Again ,if we are not conscious of others, and not present in any notecable way, we will slip away. It is like being the sole occupant of a sailboat, and gone for a swim, while fully rigged and steering itself at 10 or 15 knots; it is very difficult to catch up to the boat and get back on, and if there is no one else around on whom we might call, our fate might be suddenly all too disconcerting to us in our ordinary reality.

Jesus does not want us to slip away from Him, He does not want to be forgotten any more than we do. The time to care about the lives of others is now, not ten days from now while we dabble in a polynesian paradise. To put it another way, "The sounds of love don't just happen, you have to make them."

Son Rising

Can one lone man defy and stand against the prayers and aspiration lifted up to God?
The answer to that question is a resounding "NO!". 

The prayers of the just are full of the power of GOd because it is His Will that all people live in peace, and get along with each other.

Because He continues, so do we, and if we turn away from His Will, we suddenly find ourselves trapped in quicksand from which there is no escape.

All men come to an end, and are answerable to God, and this Will, shall not be overcome by the mere human whinings of sick men. 

God cleans up the festering wounds of the world, soothes our pain, and dispels our fears and unfounded misgivings. In spite of evil and selfish men, I am still here to praise the Lord, because it is the life of eternity to praise our God.

Son Rising

Can one lone man defy and stand against the prayers and aspiration lifted up to God?
The answer to that question is a resounding "NO!". 

The prayers of the just are full of the power of GOd because it is His Will that all people live in peace, and get along with each other.

Because He continues, so do we, and if we turn away from His Will, we suddenly find ourselves trapped in quicksand from which there is no escape.

All men come to an end, and are answerable to God, and this Will, shall not be overcome by the mere human whinings of sick men. 

God cleans up the festering wounds of the world, soothes our pain, and dispels our fears and unfounded misgivings. In spite of evil and selfish men, I am still here to praise the Lord, because it is the life of eternity to praise our God.

L'ordinaire

It is the First Friday of Lent, and a moment of exaltation encourages me to write, though I feel nothing needs expressing. Youtube has recently published videos about the experience of crucifixion and the anatomical details of it.

The Lord may move and inspiration holds a moment of exaltation, which is otherwise unwarranted at the moment. I am nothing and amount to nothing more than that, so God can can write as He pleases through me without fear of being tainted by my selfulness.

I need to take care because the words are His, and the meaning must be revealed to whomever reads what I say. Light accompanies His words, and joy inhabits His exaltation.

This is different from what He experienced on Golgotha, where no one was listening to what He had to say. A man crucified with Him asks Jesus to forgive Him his sins, and Jesus assures him he will be with Him in paradise that day. We must remember that the man was reputed to be a thief, hence his end was not a swift removal of is head, but a slow and miserable death of crucifixion.

We must take care to hold His words close to our hearts, because they can be the cause of our encountering Him spirit to Spirit in ecstasy, and if so, then He is dealing with us not as criminals, but children, sometimes sinners, sometimes little ones who need to cuddle up.

Yet you might wonder how a person can see Christ's bleeding nails and hands and feet and feel  like cuddling at all. He felt love for all on earth in all of time in the moments He hung from the nails of the cross. He hastens to draw us close as possible  in a spare moment of love, obviously from God, and we may wonder why we should deserve it at all.

Certainly St. Padre Pio wondered, for he was pierced by nails in the hands and feet, and most especially in His side, replicating how He could be alive and pierced with nails in His Body at the same time. We can only tremble at the love still hidden which propelled the saint into the heart of the miracle of accepting His gift.

From the moment it happened, history was changed, and hearts opened to an unaccustomed love, gazing on the compliant one who walked his convent with crucified feet and side, which, during the elevation of the Mass was stretched and constrained in such a way as to hurt to the fullest extent endurable.

Padre Pio, miraculously in my opinion, simply saw his role as to be in love with God and His children and an ordinary man in every respect, who fell into an abyss of hurt and pain shared by every human being on earth. It was a shared agony, part Jesus, part ordinary persons, yet the miseries endured by so many is very similar to the imposition of the cross on the shoulders of the condemned to die by crucifixion.

So, how, without the pain and bleeding wounds, does an ordinary man who nonetheless suffers  according to the canonical seasons, manage to suffer as much as he can, yet be as plain and ordinary?

It is given as a gift, like all His gifts, enabled by His grace and Will, so that it is no difficulty to suffer as if nailed to the cross. In an eclipse, a man stands in darkness as the heavens arrange themselves for a time so that in certain places the sun's light hidden by the moon in its passage around the world. As He lives in us each, a life is lived together with us, Christ's life, from conception to the laying in the tomb, with everything that was lived in His time.

He lives in us each, in every little moment and every event so that our life and His passion are woven together in a marvellous way, so that if consecrated by our desire that it should be converted by the Lord for us, may be an act of forgiveness and healing and entrance into heaven at a last moment.

A hermit lives very consciously overshadowed by the Lord, and sometimes even in a solitary moment, exalted, lifted deliberately above the ordinary, he might be offered by that same Lord to the Father for us all. There was very certainly a blending of the natural and supernatural in the life of Padre Pio, who was so often quite accessible to the ordinary anonymous person who encountered him. In the hermit, as a temple in which to pray, praise and adore, on occasion abided together with what can be seen by no man, yet might still be encountered like a great warmth unexpectedly, to touch a life so that it is no longer the same any more.

A hermit prays, and works and on occasion might encounter others so their spiritual needs coincide, and some one observing from outside, might not notice anything at all the least different at all. Yet the very pain he might endure and might desire can be a consolation and a blessed encounter of joy to the man or woman whom God called to be together with Him, hermit, hermitess or whatever reality He might wish to impose.

The man's life goes on as it did for St. Padre Pio, consecrated to an ordinary life and the extrardinary life of priest and monk and hermit all at once, so that the summation of it all is only possible and visible, when Christ chooses to reveal it.

There is no need for us beyond these truths to be made an obvious kind of relic or sacramental. Yet, as surely as my holy water vial, I contain much that He has not yet revealed, for if He had, I might not have committed the sins I did in my weakness and stupidity. Mea maxima culpa. Seeing what I do see, already I weep before Him whose love I did not recognize. 

May you not need to be crucified in order to see theses realities in your own life, and my He be lavish with His consolations, for He is willing to pamper and indulge us in His holy Will, so that we might be glad to forget everything in order to be immersed in Him alone forever.

L'ordinaire

It is the First Friday of Lent, and a moment of exaltation encourages me to write, though I feel nothing needs expressing. Youtube has recently published videos about the experience of crucifixion and the anatomical details of it.

The Lord may move and inspiration holds a moment of exaltation, which is otherwise unwarranted at the moment. I am nothing and amount to nothing more than that, so God can can write as He pleases through me without fear of being tainted by my selfulness.

I need to take care because the words are His, and the meaning must be revealed to whomever reads what I say. Light accompanies His words, and joy inhabits His exaltation.

This is different from what He experienced on Golgotha, where no one was listening to what He had to say. A man crucified with Him asks Jesus to forgive Him his sins, and Jesus assures him he will be with Him in paradise that day. We must remember that the man was reputed to be a thief, hence his end was not a swift removal of is head, but a slow and miserable death of crucifixion.

We must take care to hold His words close to our hearts, because they can be the cause of our encountering Him spirit to Spirit in ecstasy, and if so, then He is dealing with us not as criminals, but children, sometimes sinners, sometimes little ones who need to cuddle up.

Yet you might wonder how a person can see Christ's bleeding nails and hands and feet and feel  like cuddling at all. He felt love for all on earth in all of time in the moments He hung from the nails of the cross. He hastens to draw us close as possible  in a spare moment of love, obviously from God, and we may wonder why we should deserve it at all.

Certainly St. Padre Pio wondered, for he was pierced by nails in the hands and feet, and most especially in His side, replicating how He could be alive and pierced with nails in His Body at the same time. We can only tremble at the love still hidden which propelled the saint into the heart of the miracle of accepting His gift.

From the moment it happened, history was changed, and hearts opened to an unaccustomed love, gazing on the compliant one who walked his convent with crucified feet and side, which, during the elevation of the Mass was stretched and constrained in such a way as to hurt to the fullest extent endurable.

Padre Pio, miraculously in my opinion, simply saw his role as to be in love with God and His children and an ordinary man in every respect, who fell into an abyss of hurt and pain shared by every human being on earth. It was a shared agony, part Jesus, part ordinary persons, yet the miseries endured by so many is very similar to the imposition of the cross on the shoulders of the condemned to die by crucifixion.

So, how, without the pain and bleeding wounds, does an ordinary man who nonetheless suffers  according to the canonical seasons, manage to suffer as much as he can, yet be as plain and ordinary?

It is given as a gift, like all His gifts, enabled by His grace and Will, so that it is no difficulty to suffer as if nailed to the cross. In an eclipse, a man stands in darkness as the heavens arrange themselves for a time so that in certain places the sun's light hidden by the moon in its passage around the world. As He lives in us each, a life is lived together with us, Christ's life, from conception to the laying in the tomb, with everything that was lived in His time.

He lives in us each, in every little moment and every event so that our life and His passion are woven together in a marvellous way, so that if consecrated by our desire that it should be converted by the Lord for us, may be an act of forgiveness and healing and entrance into heaven at a last moment.

A hermit lives very consciously overshadowed by the Lord, and sometimes even in a solitary moment, exalted, lifted deliberately above the ordinary, he might be offered by that same Lord to the Father for us all. There was very certainly a blending of the natural and supernatural in the life of Padre Pio, who was so often quite accessible to the ordinary anonymous person who encountered him. In the hermit, as a temple in which to pray, praise and adore, on occasion abided together with what can be seen by no man, yet might still be encountered like a great warmth unexpectedly, to touch a life so that it is no longer the same any more.

A hermit prays, and works and on occasion might encounter others so their spiritual needs coincide, and some one observing from outside, might not notice anything at all the least different at all. Yet the very pain he might endure and might desire can be a consolation and a blessed encounter of joy to the man or woman whom God called to be together with Him, hermit, hermitess or whatever reality He might wish to impose.

The man's life goes on as it did for St. Padre Pio, consecrated to an ordinary life and the extrardinary life of priest and monk and hermit all at once, so that the summation of it all is only possible and visible, when Christ chooses to reveal it.

There is no need for us beyond these truths to be made an obvious kind of relic or sacramental. Yet, as surely as my holy water vial, I contain much that He has not yet revealed, for if He had, I might not have committed the sins I did in my weakness and stupidity. Mea maxima culpa. Seeing what I do see, already I weep before Him whose love I did not recognize. 

May you not need to be crucified in order to see theses realities in your own life, and my He be lavish with His consolations, for He is willing to pamper and indulge us in His holy Will, so that we might be glad to forget everything in order to be immersed in Him alone forever.

Rapture

There is a reason God warns us about chastisements; chastisements are meant to urge us to repent of sins that offend God, which we have committed. We risk hell if we never try to make up for our sins. Everyone will undergo a chastisement; there are no "get out of jail free" cards.

As such, "raptures" may happen, and some may be spared the full brunt of what others have to endure full force, but no one passes through the chastisement unscathed. Another meaning of the word "rapture" is from the Church and refers to being caught up suddenly into ecstasy by God to experience Him in an unprecedented way, and the "seizure", or being suddenly caught up in God is like a strong grip. In ecstasy, we remain in the body but it feels nothing, and is impervious to external stimuli, and afterward, a person may or may not remember much, though in the lives of many great saints, great discourses were experienced by the holy, in part, that was the reason for the union with God; so that some truth or extraordinary teaching may be imparted faithfully. God always has a purpose in everything He does, and if He causes  us to be caught up to Him in ecstasy, or at a moment of universal judgement, you can be sure He serious about what He does.

I do not get excited by such spiritual occurrences, and even though I welcome consolations, I do not go out of my way for them. The deeper the consolation, in my experience, even deeper suffering follows.

Besides all that, we are told to love and trust in God; either you trust Him or you don't, and if you have the humility by which to see, you will understand.

Some will live through the end of things, and witness the resurrection of the dead, and the Kingdom of God coming.

Before the demons are unleashed on the world, pray. Pray that their power is reduced, and that souls are safe and never separated from God. Beyond all else, there is nothing greater than to belong to God. 

THOSE WHO LOVE GOD BELONG TO GOD AND HE WILL RETAIN THOSE WHO LOVED HIM IN LIFE, AND PERSEVERED IN DEATH.

Unless you are blind deaf and dumb, you know evil is roaming about the earth, looking for someone to devour, and judging by the effects evil has had on the earth, one must come away stunned by the vileness and violence of the attacks. Pray that nothing worse befalls the earth and its inhabitants.

The mitigations we are granted in life, spring from the pure love of God toward us. His consolations are the joy that surrounds God in heaven and wherever He is. Just as a man who has come in from the rain enjoys a warm fire, so too, souls who love God enjoy growing closer to Him, and it is a case of fire growing stronger as the fire gets more powerful, and we dry off standing by the heat. Consolations are of the Spirit, and are not understood by ordinary people until God makes us understand. The realization of what consolations are, are amazing to us, and that is why we enjoy them only a short time, and He prevents us from trying to make them happen or intensify. There is only so much we can experience in the first place, and until we have matured spiritually, we cannot progress farther in our mystical journey. It is called "mystical" because it is a mystery only God can allow us to understand. If we think we understand, we should humble ourselves and wait for God.

In times past, a little boy would wear short pants when he was little, and longed for the day he could wear the "grown up" pants of a grown young man. When he was given his first pair, he was so proud to accept the love of his family and their welcoming as a maturing child on his way to manhood. It is too bad that isn't a tradition anymore. Experiencing the acceptance of a loving family is a transformative moment in a child's life, and it is no difference among those initiated into the mysteries of God's life.

Be At Peace

Rapture

There is a reason God warns us about chastisements; chastisements are meant to urge us to repent of sins that offend God, which we have committed. We risk hell if we never try to make up for our sins. Everyone will undergo a chastisement; there are no "get out of jail free" cards.

As such, "raptures" may happen, and some may be spared the full brunt of what others have to endure full force, but no one passes through the chastisement unscathed. Another meaning of the word "rapture" is from the Church and refers to being caught up suddenly into ecstasy by God to experience Him in an unprecedented way, and the "seizure", or being suddenly caught up in God is like a strong grip. In ecstasy, we remain in the body but it feels nothing, and is impervious to external stimuli, and afterward, a person may or may not remember much, though in the lives of many great saints, great discourses were experienced by the holy, in part, that was the reason for the union with God; so that some truth or extraordinary teaching may be imparted faithfully. God always has a purpose in everything He does, and if He causes  us to be caught up to Him in ecstasy, or at a moment of universal judgement, you can be sure He serious about what He does.

I do not get excited by such spiritual occurrences, and even though I welcome consolations, I do not go out of my way for them. The deeper the consolation, in my experience, even deeper suffering follows.

Besides all that, we are told to love and trust in God; either you trust Him or you don't, and if you have the humility by which to see, you will understand.

Some will live through the end of things, and witness the resurrection of the dead, and the Kingdom of God coming.

Before the demons are unleashed on the world, pray. Pray that their power is reduced, and that souls are safe and never separated from God. Beyond all else, there is nothing greater than to belong to God. 

THOSE WHO LOVE GOD BELONG TO GOD AND HE WILL RETAIN THOSE WHO LOVED HIM IN LIFE, AND PERSEVERED IN DEATH.

Unless you are blind deaf and dumb, you know evil is roaming about the earth, looking for someone to devour, and judging by the effects evil has had on the earth, one must come away stunned by the vileness and violence of the attacks. Pray that nothing worse befalls the earth and its inhabitants.

The mitigations we are granted in life, spring from the pure love of God toward us. His consolations are the joy that surrounds God in heaven and wherever He is. Just as a man who has come in from the rain enjoys a warm fire, so too, souls who love God enjoy growing closer to Him, and it is a case of fire growing stronger as the fire gets more powerful, and we dry off standing by the heat. Consolations are of the Spirit, and are not understood by ordinary people until God makes us understand. The realization of what consolations are, are amazing to us, and that is why we enjoy them only a short time, and He prevents us from trying to make them happen or intensify. There is only so much we can experience in the first place, and until we have matured spiritually, we cannot progress farther in our mystical journey. It is called "mystical" because it is a mystery only God can allow us to understand. If we think we understand, we should humble ourselves and wait for God.

In times past, a little boy would wear short pants when he was little, and longed for the day he could wear the "grown up" pants of a grown young man. When he was given his first pair, he was so proud to accept the love of his family and their welcoming as a maturing child on his way to manhood. It is too bad that isn't a tradition anymore. Experiencing the acceptance of a loving family is a transformative moment in a child's life, and it is no difference among those initiated into the mysteries of God's life.

Be At Peace

Free

DAY'S SAINTS

Our Lady of Lourdes

Blessed Henry of Vitskol, Cistercian

Gospel Mk 1:40-45

A leper came to Jesus and kneeling down begged him and said,
“If you wish, you can make me clean.”
Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, 
touched him, and said to him, 
“I do will it. Be made clean.”
The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.
Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once. 
He said to him, “See that you tell no one anything,
but go, show yourself to the priest 
and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed;
that will be proof for them.”
The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter.
He spread the report abroad
so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly.
He remained outside in deserted places,
and people kept coming to him from everywhere.

+

Fly, be free :)

Jesus did not annul the Law of Moses regarding leprosy, but superseded it by simply healing the man, instead of quibbling if he had leprosy or not. He did not destroy the man's life, but healed it so he might live among his friends and relatives in peace and honor.

Blessed the man who speaks of peace in such ways, and heals those who come, so they are able to come to the Lord to rejoice in the power of God.

If a man has found God, he has found all, the very utmost important thing of all.

We need not theologize much, but if God touches others through us, we should be happy. Peace is where God is, and not amongst thieves of criminals or demented dictators of the world who are not capable of thinking right because they are in the power of hell. God alone can deliver such a one, but it happens not often at all. Still, in the midst of all persecutions from the time of Jesus Himself until now, He reaches out to snatch one or another from the clutches of evil so they may be happy in God as they desire.

If you forgive someone, your sins are forgiven and your joy should compel you to recruit others to rejoice with you that God may be praised and a joyful sound be heard in the plain and on the mountaintop because Jesus is Lord.

As it happens, a woman was brought to Jesus because she was caught committing adultery with a man. They asked Jesus what they should do with her because the Law specified that she should be stoned to death. He then said, "let he who is without sin cast the first stone." No one threw even a single stone at her, but all dispersed elsewhere, whereupon He asked "Where are your accusers?". He then said, your sins are forgiven, but avoid sinning again."

All of us are in that woman's same position, and we need not think we are privileged like Jewish men ready to stone the woman, while nothing was said of the man at all. Jesus knew full well the consequences of the sin. If we have received mercy, are we not obliged to be merciful to others as well, regardless of status or position? Jesus did not say, persecute those caught in sin; He forgave the sin, and that example should be our own. Forgive sinners, and lead them to God who knows how to save from any situation and to dispense mercy abundantly to everyone. Those who seek and find Him will lead them to His light and joy, and that place will know peace.

The consequences of sin are the weaknesses that evil exploits to put us into its power where we can be easily tormented to amuse the demons. Great storms and calamities of drought and devastation follow, and death and destruction follow as well, and all sorts of moral and other  catastrophes arise, and peace is destroyed. But it is not that way with those who love God as He makes us able. 

Let us place ourselves in Jesus's arms continually, and surrender ourselves to our troubles so we may find ourselves embracing Jesus as He delivers us from our sufferings. But if we may offer some small thing, to God for others, let us gladly do it, for He honors us if He asks us, because by that means we enter into His cross to help Him and and we do not by that means dishonor Him who has done so much for us. If He has forgiven us, then we by all means should acknowledge what He has done.

He is not ignorant of our sufferings or the afflictions that evil used to ensnare us, but if we continually offer our will to Him, then we are already safely in His arms.

Peace be with you

Free

DAY'S SAINTS

Our Lady of Lourdes

Blessed Henry of Vitskol, Cistercian

Gospel Mk 1:40-45

A leper came to Jesus and kneeling down begged him and said,
“If you wish, you can make me clean.”
Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, 
touched him, and said to him, 
“I do will it. Be made clean.”
The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.
Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once. 
He said to him, “See that you tell no one anything,
but go, show yourself to the priest 
and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed;
that will be proof for them.”
The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter.
He spread the report abroad
so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly.
He remained outside in deserted places,
and people kept coming to him from everywhere.

+

Fly, be free :)

Jesus did not annul the Law of Moses regarding leprosy, but superseded it by simply healing the man, instead of quibbling if he had leprosy or not. He did not destroy the man's life, but healed it so he might live among his friends and relatives in peace and honor.

Blessed the man who speaks of peace in such ways, and heals those who come, so they are able to come to the Lord to rejoice in the power of God.

If a man has found God, he has found all, the very utmost important thing of all.

We need not theologize much, but if God touches others through us, we should be happy. Peace is where God is, and not amongst thieves of criminals or demented dictators of the world who are not capable of thinking right because they are in the power of hell. God alone can deliver such a one, but it happens not often at all. Still, in the midst of all persecutions from the time of Jesus Himself until now, He reaches out to snatch one or another from the clutches of evil so they may be happy in God as they desire.

If you forgive someone, your sins are forgiven and your joy should compel you to recruit others to rejoice with you that God may be praised and a joyful sound be heard in the plain and on the mountaintop because Jesus is Lord.

As it happens, a woman was brought to Jesus because she was caught committing adultery with a man. They asked Jesus what they should do with her because the Law specified that she should be stoned to death. He then said, "let he who is without sin cast the first stone." No one threw even a single stone at her, but all dispersed elsewhere, whereupon He asked "Where are your accusers?". He then said, your sins are forgiven, but avoid sinning again."

All of us are in that woman's same position, and we need not think we are privileged like Jewish men ready to stone the woman, while nothing was said of the man at all. Jesus knew full well the consequences of the sin. If we have received mercy, are we not obliged to be merciful to others as well, regardless of status or position? Jesus did not say, persecute those caught in sin; He forgave the sin, and that example should be our own. Forgive sinners, and lead them to God who knows how to save from any situation and to dispense mercy abundantly to everyone. Those who seek and find Him will lead them to His light and joy, and that place will know peace.

The consequences of sin are the weaknesses that evil exploits to put us into its power where we can be easily tormented to amuse the demons. Great storms and calamities of drought and devastation follow, and death and destruction follow as well, and all sorts of moral and other  catastrophes arise, and peace is destroyed. But it is not that way with those who love God as He makes us able. 

Let us place ourselves in Jesus's arms continually, and surrender ourselves to our troubles so we may find ourselves embracing Jesus as He delivers us from our sufferings. But if we may offer some small thing, to God for others, let us gladly do it, for He honors us if He asks us, because by that means we enter into His cross to help Him and and we do not by that means dishonor Him who has done so much for us. If He has forgiven us, then we by all means should acknowledge what He has done.

He is not ignorant of our sufferings or the afflictions that evil used to ensnare us, but if we continually offer our will to Him, then we are already safely in His arms.

Peace be with you

Hard

The hummingbirds loved to forage in this flower's
blossoms

Sometimes people tell me I am hard on myself, and other people. But if I were not hard enough, I would accomplish nothing worthwhile, and I only expect people to do the utmost that they can, realizing the power of God at work in people to change the landscape of earth into a lush garden where silence allows our minds to hear God and respond to Him.

If i were indeed hard on others, that would be a fault, and a sin, because God moves us within ourselves and  has no need of anyone else's effort unless He has requested it.

I expect people to do good because it is beautiful to see love flourish, being expressed and thereby given the opportunity  to be happy.

I do not expect God will permit me a sin of pleasing myself because I am some special character. The fact that He allows illness and pain reasserts His power in us, and the appreciative soul is glad for it, especially when it goes away <s>.

But we need, as sinful people, to repent and show the gratitude we should have been pouring forth into His Heart. Our failure through sin, costs us minutes of our life that were wasted, when it might have been better spent simply giving thanks for God and our friends and ourselves.

Certainly this fits in with the coming penitential season of Lent during which we are confronted with  the monstrous cruelty imposed by men on Christ, who died in love with us, even while we paid Him no attention at all, while were whiling away our time on frivolities.

Having so recently encountered the physical and spiritual side of illness, my heart is fresh cut open sharing His love with me, His passion life. It is a side we do well to confront periodically by confronting what happened to Jesus, and by realizing that He went through everything He suffered for our love, even knowing all the while that we would be incapable of rising to the occasion. He knew too that we would be hungry for a way to atone for that weakness and failure, to mend the injury we caused. In order to hear Him tell us what we can do tor Him, we will have to forget our faults and sins and realize He has forgiven us and prayed for our future perfection. He created no junk; He did not make garbage, but people make themselves into such monsters, sometime, that all we can do is look down and weep.

Jesus wept for us realizing what we would encounter in what He asks us to do.  We should share with one another, in some way, the beautiful things we discover. The little bits of beauty we share with each other, like the little love we share with each other is in no way trivial in the mission of Jesus to win hearts to Himself. But we cannot approach Him paralyzed with selfish concerns, fearful of what He may ask of us and which we might discover we are not strong enough to lift. One man might not lift the cross from Jesus as He lay gasping on the ground when He fell under the cross, and one woman might not be able to do anything but touch His cheek for a moment to convey a tenderness. But if all of us spiritually connect and lift our hearts to Jesus, we must be able by our mutual strength to overcome weakness and pain in order to connect with him and feel His Spirit coursing through us like a lightening bolt.