In humility and need of you, my Lord
Jesus and my Mother, Mary,I pledge myself
all my days, to You and no other until my days are done and I come
to You.
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In humility and need of you, my Lord
Jesus and my Mother, Mary,I pledge myself
all my days, to You and no other until my days are done and I come
to You.
+
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| Rise or set, there is no correct answer, fortunately. |
The deeper the solitude, the deeper the solitude I want.
God is infinite, and it should surprise no one that in His immense infinity, He does not fit into anything we can conceive.
It is in genuine solitude that you appreciate His greatness and His immense love. Solitude is a spiritual thing, not a physical measurement, like miles or kilometers. While one can retreat farther into a cave, it is not until you have gone all the way to the back that you realize how close everything is in being a living being. Clearly, existence does not define solitude. It is purely spiritual, which is to say, divine.
Once you have realized that solitude is existential and not mathematical, you realize how difficult it is to be truly spiritual in the midst over seven billion other human beings. And every one of the seven billion that exist all crave the love and acceptance of God who does not retreat away from us; it is we who are retreating away from Him, in terror of the materialism that defines all other aspects of life.
It is not possessing things that fulfills the human longing for unity with God who fills every place and everything and lives and moves and has His being in every moment of our existence.
If one craves real solitude, first of all, it is a divine invitation to us to embrace. There is no more certain means of finding solitude than embracing every thing that pains us and fills us with longings we can scarcely define. But of all the cravings, one alone is certain to transcend our limitations to effect a state in which we are close to Him in understanding, and that is in suffering.
Jesus provided Himself as the one efficacious and forgiving sacrifice which atones and satisfies all needs. The longings are silenced when death cuts us off from the longing to enable us to feel the fulfillment that is at the deepest depths of yearning. The possibility of union with Him has driven countless saintly children of God to embrace poverty, solitude and perpetual longing. The most crass kind of solitude is called loneliness. A transcendance awaits one who chooses to love God as He is found, and not according to one's desires, because the gratification of the longing is a satisfaction of human longing and not the divine longing that waits our embrace. I have been on the cross a long time, high enough above the earth so that the blood drops fall on the dusty earth with a definite sound. From that distance, entering into the divine suffering, one sees adequately to appreciate His love for us. One day, perhaps, it will resolve itself so I may find rest in Him that satisfied.
Someone who thinks he is God's messenger and pet, needs to act differently than to deliberately call out the national guard and police on people who love this country and would love the opportunity to contribute to its defense and contribute to its financial well being.
People who are rejected frequently hold treasures of wealth and prosperity. But i state the obvious. If people are aborting their babies so they are not inconvenienced are the same ones who don't want certain people polluting their neighborhood with the breath of their life.
The people who are stunned by grapefruit sized hail day after day need to think a little deeper to grasp the reason why. The picture ought to be a little clearer by now; pollution is a result of combustion waste. Until it is removed from the atmosphere, the atmosphere will continue in its relentless rampage tearing up neighborhoods, until the impoverished in the world are living like the wealthiest people on the planet. They will be dismayed when it all gets overturned and there is no place safe from discomfort in the world.
At this time, we live in an era of awakening as a message of austerity finds its way into the minds and hearts of everybody. Don't ask God to be moderate with you if you spare no thought for those already suffering lack and see only a black sky of need.
Burn your bombs, seek out the oppressed, the starving, those dying of thirst without relief, and the people who live isolated from other human beings. Forget your trade wars, and all other kinds of war, and make a warm place for love to grow in your heart. If you cannot do that, then make your peace with God as best you can and prepare for the next life.
Rest, brother and be at peace.
I have no explanation for the joy of your heart within me, except to plead you never leave me or bandon me.
Forgive my sins as a sign to your children that you love them enough to pardon them, and give each one your grace and strength.
I cannot say I was a good steward, or even a good son of your gifts, except to say, You are so boundless in your love and happiness, that it spills over like a spring bursting out its confinement to leap up to heaven to be near with you.
I am not unvisited, and I am not ignorant of your passion, but in the manner you desired I have been fixed to a cross as real as life, and as incomprehensible as light.
Let your Light shone on me, and on all your children Lord, and bless them with Yourself.
Amen.
The Mother of God, Mary, has never been seen bearing the wounds of Jesus, Her son. However, A different perspective may be obtained by dedicating our silence to Her in a penance that makes us not just worthy to participate, but ready and willing for Her love.
I am glad She was never made to suffer that kind of pain, but She was present when He was nailed to the cross, and in a mystical way, She experienced the passion fully, and on occasion, has been present as someone else received the Stigmata as She enabled her to do so. I refer to Saint Gemma Galgani.
If anyone can bear the unbearable, it is Mary the Mother of God. And yet, because of Her love, She is able to free us from sin and heal us of all things wrong with us.
All the things wrong with the world today are solvable by asking Her intercession to the Father through Her son. And for this reason, we should pray the Rosary daily, and ask for the solving all things wrong, the wars, the insolent rejection of Jesus and the Church, and the crimes committed everywhere which burden our hearts with pain.
The Mother of God knows what is wrong and how to fix it. At the same time, a great deal of gratitude and humility must be present to obtain our answer. If at first you do not receive what you ask, ask Her how to obtain the gift you seek.
Anyone willing to recall Her life and stand by Her side in the passion, should receive what they ask because they love the Mother of God.
The children of God are not afraid to endure suffering or pain in order to obtain the salvation of souls and the things necessary for salvation.
If He has given us light, let us do what we can
to be illuminated by it. Let no one think he is
useless in such great light as God provides.
It is not alright to let someone crumble down to nothing and do nothing to help. At the very least, one should ask if there is anything we can do. The trouble is, that, in crumbling, they take others with them as the mountains fall apart atop of them.
One of the most egregious such events is the disintegration of donald trump, who, having torn up civilization as we know it, now loses control of himself and does nothing useful in the process.
I can't help but think, there is something we can do, each and every one of us, to help save as much of our civilization as possible.
Nuclear war is no more inevitable than any other kind of war. And it is not alright to stand by and watch as aggressors attack peaceful countries and start destroying their civilizations without at least the dignity of a declaration of war. Flying in dozens of military airplanes loaded with bombs and missiles without provocation to drop them indiscriminately on helpless people is not alright.
On the other hand, cooperating with other nations whose policies are the annihilation of entire populations is genocide, and unacceptable. Plainly, either we are for civilization or we are for annihilation. Religions that permit or foster the planned destruction of people because of their religion is genocide, and I will say it again, is genocide. There is zero tolerance in God' eyes for the planned destruction of peoples.
God permits many things, defying imagination and comprehension. The things He permits may means loved ones die, lives are disrupted and civilizations disrupted irrevocably. But those who are praying for the salvation of other people are righteous, and in enduring the unendurable, God is glorified by them in their suffering.
Before we were born, He planned to come down and live a life among us and give us the opportunity of participating in salvation and the exaltation of those suffering by being glorified by Him. The participation is living in and with bliss as much as agony, and for some, the two coincide in an unspeakable moment of understanding and peace which supersedes all that has gone before.
I can ask myself, have I really suffered enough to be worth enough to Him to be loved? The answer is always "yes", and when I can comprehend and encompass my experiences, I am speechless that there is nothing appropriate to say. To be silenced in such a way is astonishing.
My prayers are not always granted in the way I wished, but they are acknowledged by Him and He may be edified by our love.
Silence is exquisite, allowing us to experience peace, and in the peace, the love of God, and therefore, the silence is unspeakably valuable. Whether He answers us in a way we immediately comprehend or not, is not important; He made us, and gave us gifts that are immensely powerful; more powerful than armies, navies or air forces. But if we create them, then we must control how we use them. What He does with us depends on our actions. Dropping another megaton of TNT on top of human beings does not bring anything enjoyable on us, adds nothing to the bottom line and gains no favor from the Lord. Any religion that things otherwise is destined to a dark and miserable end.
In the end, if all we actually got out of bombing people was a little thrill, then we have lost our humanity, and our civilization has proved a worthless waste of time. We did not surpass ourselves in the last two world wars; our weapons have dehumanized us and our victims, and perhaps has cut us off from ourselves by cutting us off from God. He stands seeing what we did and what we planned to do, and we will have to try again. If current trends continue as they are now, we will create devices capable of destroying our planet itself while we stand in empty space. The feeling of solid ground disappearing from underneath our feet in a dark and airless void is terrifying at least. Having to wait for a comet strike to kill us is no more edifying than waiting for a warhead to ignite above us and reduce us to radioactive dust.
The feeling of being abandoned for some trespass is not easy to live with, or, frankly to get rid of. But it is a feelings I have consente...