Small Paul - Going Deeper in Catholic Teaching

Habits

2012-01-27T07:25:00.000-08:00

I have been slacking on my good habits and this blog is about my struggles. If you know me, you know that I can get very busy for long periods of time. That’s when I seem to get lazy with the good habits. I figure if I put them on paper, it will give God another way to push me.

1) Write a ‘To Do List’ every day.

2) On that list should be all of the following.

3) Stretch at least 10 minutes.

4) 15 minutes or more in the class room of silence before work.

5) Pray the Rosary.

6) Pray the Devine Mercy.

7) 10 minutes or longer of prayer or something religious before sleep.

I saw Mathew Kelly a few years ago and he pushed the idea of quiet time with God. I don’t seem to be at peace if I don’t have that morning time with my best friend (Father, Savior and Spirit). I vent out all that is troubling me and then I focus on listening. I often say: “I listen now.” Sometimes I get a wonderful inspiration or the feeling of being loved. Sometimes I get a lecture or I remember some part of my life that I should be working on. The times that I don’t get anything, I still get the discipline of giving time to God. He is my best friend. I love Him. I should spend time with Him every day.

I used to just say the act of contrition before bed. Lately it seems to be an automatic, non thinking action. That’s not good enough. Now, I sit and reflect on the day. I forgive those who I may not have forgiven instantly. Then, I chastise and forgive myself for my failings. Then, I think about how to do better or I read something religious. Falling asleep is so much easier.

I hope this helps you as much as it helps me. The trick is to not get lazy about it.

Double Header -- 2 Posts Today

2012-01-20T05:58:00.000-08:00

Religious liberty is under attack.

Religious liberty is under attack. The dignity that God gave you to decide right from wrong is being taken away by the government. It is not a ‘tax money to fund abortion’ only battle now. It is about our right to have our own morality (so long as it does not cause harm to others).

I site the Catholic Church in a lot of these examples because it is far and away the leader in charities. The Church, on a global scale; feeds more people, clothes more people houses more people than all other charities combined. Stopping the Catholic Church from providing services creates a big gap in the care for people as a whole. Yet it is happening because the Christian morals do not coincide with the morals of our government and other governments in the world. Also note that the Catholic Church believes and teaches that we are to love all people and not to judge them. We also have the obligation to judge behaviors as morally good or bad.

Look at these examples:

In August the Department of Health and Human Services issued new regulations requiring coverage of sterilization and contraception, including abortifacients, in nearly all private health insurance plans. The religious exemption is will not apply to most Catholic hospitals.

The Catholic Church will have to stop its work with human trafficking victims because it will not provide abortion and contraceptive services.

The State Department's U.S. Agency for International Development is increasingly requiring contractors to provide contraception. This threatens the churches efforts to prevent aids in Africa and other places I the world.

No one in the current administration will defend the “Defense of Marriage Act.”

Catholic Charities in Illinois may have to stop providing foster homes because they will not place a child in a same-sex union family.

Catholic adoption agencies have closed down in some states and Great Britain.

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/same-sex_marriage_law_forces_d.c._catholic_charities_to_close_adoption_program/

http://www.npr.org/2011/07/05/137622143/illinois-catholic-agencies-at-odds-over-gay-adoptions

The good news is that congress is trying to pass some bill that will undo some of the Oboma- care plan that targets religious freedom. These bills are the Protect Life Act, the Abortion Non-Discrimination Act and the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act.

In California it is now a requirement to teach homosexual history in school.

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-07-14/us/california.lgbt.education_1_california-governor-signs-bill-gay-history-state-textbooks?_s=PM:US

Have I said enough to make you sick? Do you need me to talk about our tax dollars going to Planned Parenthood?

We have to join with our religious leaders and fight this. We have to educate our neighbors. Do we want to wait until the government tells us what to believe?

This was written a few months ago. To bring it up to date:

The state of Washington is about to redefine marriage to include homosexuals and by doing so force religious charitable agencies that will not compromise their morals to stop.

Where wherever you live, CALL YOUR CONGRESS PEOPLE!

Church On Socialism

1/14/11 from ZENIT

Vatican Official: Church's Justice Teachings Need New 'Vocabulary' For Some US Audiences

VATICAN CITY, January 13 (CNA/EWTN News) - When he travels to the United States next month, Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson is aware that he may have to make some adjustments in the way he talks about the Church's social teaching.

As president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, the Ghanaian cardinal, 62, is charged with making the Church's social teaching more widely known and practiced around the world.

He will be in Washington to deliver the plenary address of the 2011 Catholic Social Ministry Gathering, Feb. 13-16. The gathering, on the theme of "Protecting Human Life and Dignity: Promoting a Just Economy," is sponsored by 19 Catholic organizations, including the U.S. Catholic bishops.

In a recent interview with CNA, Cardinal Turkson said he has learned from past experience that the Church's justice and peace terminology often needs clarification for an American Catholic audience. Key terms used by the Vatican - such as "social justice" and "gift" - are not always understood the way the Vatican intends, he said.

"We found out that some of the vocabulary which is just taken for granted and used freely may not always have the same sense or may have had some nuances which sometimes are missed because of the way the terms are used in the American political context," Cardinal Turkson said in a Jan. 12 interview at the council's offices in Rome.

Pope Benedict XVI appointed Cardinal Turkson to his post in Oct. 2009, just months after the Pope released his blueprint for the Church's social teaching, "Caritas in Veritate" (Charity in Truth). The council has since made promotion of the Pope's vision a top priority.

The encyclical outlines Pope Benedict's plan for "integral human development" in economics, society and politics through the principles of charity and truth.

Cardinal Turkson said the Vatican is pleased by response to the document. But he said reaction from some sections of the audience in the United States was unexpected.

The council has been surprised to find that common terms were misunderstood or misinterpreted. He emphasized that the misunderstanding was not a general or widespread problem among American Catholics. But, he said, "in certain circles ... there is a difficulty."

For instance, the Pope's teaching on themes of "social justice" have been mistakenly connected to "socialism" and "communism." As a result, he indicated, the Pope is mistakenly seen as promoting socialist or big-government solutions to social problems.

The council has also learned that words like "social" and "solidarity" may have been dismissed by American readers for their perceived connection with communist regimes such as the Soviet Union, he said.

Cardinal Turkson explained that in the Church's thinking, social justice involves citizens' obligations and responsibilities to ensure fairness and opportunity in their communities and societies.

While this may include the adoption of specific government policies and programs, the emphasis in Catholic social teaching is on the obligations that flow from citizens' relationships in societies.

"Respecting, understanding and fulfilling those demands constitute our justice," he said. "It would be useful if we just observed our sense of justice as our ability to fulfill the demands of the relationships in which we stand."

This is in contrast to socialism, he explained, which is an ideology in which private property and private interests are totally placed in the service of government policies.

What the Pope proposes in "Caritas in Veritate," said Cardinal Turkson, is "achieving the common good without sacrificing personal, private interests, aspirations and desires."

Cardinal Turkson said the Council was also surprised that the Pope's concept of the "gift," was perceived in some circles as encouraging government welfare handouts.

In "Caritas in Veritate," Pope Benedict described the concept of "gift" as a way to understand God's love for men and women in his gift of life and his gift of Jesus.

"Truth is the light that gives meaning and value to charity," the Pope wrote. "That light is both the light of reason and the light of faith, through which the intellect attains to the natural and supernatural truth of charity: it grasps its meaning as gift, acceptance, and communion."

Gift, Cardinal Turkson explained, is "a very basic, deep theological expression of God's relation or the motivation for whatever God does in the world, and it's not quite the same as a handout."

"If we ever need to talk about this in a society where the sense of gift is that of a handout ... it doesn't quite express the sense of gift in this regard," he added.

While it is too late to add any explanations to the encyclical, the Council might tailor its language differently in future documents.

"We just realized that probably in the future, when ... this dicastery takes up the task of diffusing, presenting and talking about this it might be necessary to provide a footnote in which some of these expressions can be given an awareness of the different senses of expressions in different cultures and settings," he said. We thought something like that would be useful and helpful to the readers."

Cardinal Turkson urged American Catholics and government and economic leaders to give a conscientious reading of "Caritas in Veritate."

The encyclical, he said, invites us "to go back or to remind about the centrality of the human person, his well being, his common good within everything that we do."

Another important message, Cardinal Turkson said, is that "we must not sacrifice the good of the human person for anything that we aspire after or want to do with technology, business, economics or whatever."

The key to an authentically human vision of development is to consider the full ethical character of the individual in all decisions, he said.

"In details," he concluded, "it may be for food security and shelter for all persons, but at the end of the day we are looking at whether things that we are doing in the world as government, as a Church and all of that help advance the good of the individual person."

What's In It For Me?

2012-01-12T17:05:00.000-08:00

Why go to Mass? Why fight temptation? Why love others? Why be nice to people?

It would be so much easier if I could sin and be selfish. I could be just nice enough for people to deal with me and I would not have to be honest. Why should I follow Christ and the church He set up, lives in, and works through?

What’s in it for me?

When I first started thinking about why I do the things I do (with the help of the Holy Spirit), I thought about the people that do not know God and what He offers. They don’t realize all that can be gained from following and hungering for Truth itself.

Freedom from something is knowing so much about it, that your desire for it or your revulsion from it are based on truth. God frees us from the sin by letting us know and feel the untruth of it. I don’t steal because I know that it is morally wrong and I would feel bad if someone took from me.

Having said that, I will go back to the question: What’s in it for me? Why should I try?

If I follow Christ and the church He set up, lives in and works through, I will get:

The joy that comes from giving of myself,

The ability to not be offended because I can forgive,

The ability to receive love in the form of help, from God and others because I am humble,

The ability to accept others regardless of their (good or bad) behavior because I don’t judge,

The ability to respect and dignify people because I have the ability to see them as churches where God lives and not objects for me to use, (the possibility of total purity)

Freedom from lust, pornography, use of people for pleasure and all other impurities,

Freedom to have a healthy marriage,

The ability to accept what ever happens to me, because my focus is on God and others,

Freedom from myself because I allow and want God to run my life,

Freedom from want of things,

The forgiveness of God and the advice of His servant in the confessional,

God’s own body and blood as food,

The ability and desire to open up and let the creator love me,

The ability to feel that love,

And all this causes PEACE of mind and heart.

I get one more thing, ETERNAL JOY after I die.

I know I missed some, so I invite your comments.

I am no saint. I have not obtained these things, but I am going for them!

This is War

2012-01-06T07:43:00.000-08:00

Am I thinking about a particular problem too much?

What are my weaknesses?

What are my most serious sins and what am I doing about them?

What good habits am I starting to get lazy at?

What bad habits am I starting to do?

How do I treat people?

Do I always think of myself as third?

(God, others, then me)

How often do I forgive?

How often do I offer things up to God as a prayer?

How often do I pray the formal prayers?

How often do I pray in conversation with God?

How much do I listen in those conversations?

Am I to proud to ask for help from God or other people?

Am I asking God to help me change my desires and priorities to conform to His will?

Do I realize how much God loves me?

Do I love myself enough to overcome my problems (with His help) so that I can fulfill His purpose?

Am I looking at my situation and my life in relation to God's plan for the whole world?

In short: Where is the devil attacking? Where can he attack? Where will he attack? Where has he attacked in the past and what am I doing about that?

Do I Practice?

2011-12-30T07:34:00.000-08:00

I was thinking about what my new year’s resolutions should be and I realized that they can not be true resolutions unless I resolve to practice at them. Everyone who has played a sport or had to learn a new skill knows that you have to practice at it to get good at it.

In my last post, I stated that I view people as churches and that helps me to be pure. When I blurted this to my friend, I realized that I had been practicing that view for years. When I am in the coffee shop, at potential customer’s house or any where, I had been saying to myself: “Christ lives in him/her/them.”

If you have read my past posts on the “We principle”, you know that I understand that Jesus and the Holy Spirit live in each of us and I can’t do anything good without them. My mind set is ‘we do this or love that person’. But I don’t think that way all the time. I need to practice that more………reread the last sentence. I did it again……….We need to practice more because I have been lazy.

I think my biggest new year’s resolution this year is going to be to ask God for help more often. My most common request for help will be in the area of practice.

To continue on my journey toward and with Jesus I need to practice the Catholic mindsets that are so different from the world's.

It is not enough for me know my faith, I must live it. I need help and I need practice. Can you name one professional athlete that does not practice? How about one that does not have a coach?

I also need to read about more saint’s lives. These are people that have done it. Any good salesperson has read books about sales techniques and studied what the great sales people did that worked. Why not apply that to theology?

It is a humbling when I think about all the areas I need help with.

“You died for me my Lord, so that I might ask for you for help and with your love, We can love others like you love them. HELP ME LORD!”

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Christmas

2011-12-22T06:53:00.000-08:00

"When, within liturgical celebrations, we hear or proclaim this 'Today a Savior is born for us,' we are not employing an empty, conventional expression; rather, we mean that God offers us 'today,' now, to me, to each one of us, the possibility of acknowledging and receiving him like the shepherds in Bethlehem, so that he might be born in our lives and renew them, illumine them, transform them by his grace, by his presence." Benedict XVI

God did not and does not have to reach out this way. He does not need us. He does not have to put up with us. He did not and does not have to do anything. All that God did and does, including The Cross, is motivated by love for us. There is no time, space or matter in the spiritual world. It is always now.

This Christmas I will thank Him by asking for help in receiving Him in the way the pope teaches.

Merry Christmas!

Fighting Impurity

2011-12-16T06:12:00.000-08:00

I had a friend call me the other day and tell me that he was having trouble with impure thoughts. At first, I wanted to tell him all the things that I had leaned from studying theology of the body, but the guy is not a reader and he needed a quicker answer, so I just told him how I look at women and how I fight impure thoughts. I hope this helps you or someone you care about.

This is how I came to my view of women (and people in general).

God made each of us in His own image.

Our bodies are used to express and carry out thoughts.

The Holy Spirit lives in each of us.

The Holy Spirit is the animator and pushes us to do good and feel bad when we don’t.

We all have the potential to say “yes” to the Holy Spirit’s direction from within.

The opposite of loving someone is using someone.

Lust is the desire to use someone.

God wants us to love people and not use them.

The main reason a person puts cloths on when it is warm is because they don’t want to be used.

Our own bodies are not objects and no other persons body is either.

Visualization of something that can actually happen and has a good purpose is good.

Visualization of something that can not happen is fantasy.

Visualization of something that can happen, but will cause harm or sin is premeditation.

Masturbation is a form of fantasy that harms you.

Every woman is the Blessed Mother’s daughter.

Every man is the Blessed Mother’s son. (for the women out there)

True sex and the full enjoyment of an orgasm can only be had if the two people give themselves as complete gifts to each other with no strings attached. This can only happen in marriage and everything else is a form of masturbation.

So with all that being said I told him to see all women (and men) as a little church. They have God living in them, they are made in His image and they are not objects. I told him to see himself as a church for the same reasons.

Then I asked him: "When you look at a church, do you want to use it for pleasure or worship the God within it?

Do you want to train yourself-your church to see people (other churches) as objects?

Would you masturbate in church? So why masturbate with your church-your body?"

I also told him to pray, use the sacraments and go to Adoration.

Am I ready?

2011-12-09T06:55:00.000-08:00

I was I thinking about all the times that I get a little angry at a driver cutting me off or when I get impatient because of a long line at the store or just any time when I’m not happily saying “Thank you Lord, I get to (be patient, understand that the other person maybe late)”, and I thought; What if I died at that moment? What if I was suddenly in front of Jesus and I had to explain?

And if you have read my past post about “We”, you know that a person has the Holy Spirit living in them. I would also have to explain to the Holy Spirit that I ignored His push and became “I”. (I am nothing, we are something)

Then I would have to look at God the Father. Have you ever look at your Dad after you screwed up?

We all have those persistent, habitual sins that we are asking for help and trying to eliminate. What would I say to the triune God about my progress?

What would I say about my efforts to do good works or make people happy?

I read about car accidents, sudden heart attacks, and all kinds of things that can kill us at a moments notice. Am I ready?

I Get To....

2011-12-01T20:40:00.000-08:00

Over the holiday I did not have a lot of time to quietly pray, so I started praying while falling a sleep, any time I woke in the night and just before I got up in the morning. I was having fun with family during the day, so many of my prayers involved thanking God. Thinking of the next day I began to pray: "Thank you Lord because I get to …(play Wii golf with my nephew or what ever.)"

On the last night it occurred to me that this concept should be applied to all my prayers. I should be thankful for everything.

This has given me a practical way:

To fight temptation “Thank you Lord. I get to do the right thing.”

To offer up suffering “Thank you Lord for this headache. I get to use it as a prayer.”

Anything and everything is now a prayer of thanksgiving because “I get to….”

In short I get to do God’s will and I get to trust Him with all the things that happen during my day, week…life. Remember my last post. My will is His will and …just reread it and you will see how it ties in.

This new way of living is bringing me inner joy almost all the time. I say ‘almost’ because I need more practice and I sin. But I get to feel the pain of the sin and that is joyful because it stems from my love of God and I get to learn a lesson in how to improve.

God's Love and God's Will

2011-11-18T07:30:00.000-08:00

I was listening to an old broadcast of Mother Angelica the other day and she said something that got me contemplating. She said that she was trying to do God’s will and she told God that it was hard. Then He told her to do it for His love. She went on to say that the whole thing was a trick because God’s will and God’s love are the same thing.

That’s what got me. God’s will and God’s love are one and the same.

I always knew this, but to realize it, to be conscious of it, is a lot different. I interchanged the words. “I want your will for me” Became; “I want your love for me.”

Try it. When ever you want to say “God’s will” say God’s love” and vise verse.

I went further still. I give my will to God and my will becomes His will. His will is the same as His love, so my will is His love. How cool it that?

Just as a side note. I have been interchanging the phrase “my Lord” with “my Love”. I suppose I could now say “my will” because my will is my love and His will…..mind blowing.

If we sin against God, we sin against His will. That means we sin against His love. If we have given our will to Him, we are also sinning against our own will and our own love.

The Holy Spirit lives in us. So, all of love which is all of God’s will is connected to us. That’s why sin hurts so much.

Our love for others is God being released from us.

Please note that my next post will be on December 1^st or 2^nd. Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope

2011-11-11T08:18:00.000-08:00

I once said that hope was a cruel joke. It is if you are not accepting of God’s will. Or to put it another way, it is painful when you don’t get your way.

I now view hope as a longing for understanding and acceptance of God’s will.

I think this is the result of a coalescence of a lot lessons, observations and experiences, many of which I have posted about.

I should be unhappy right now. Sales are not going that well, I am trying to save my house, and the holidays are near. (Single people get depressed during the holidays.)

Why am I so happy? I have hope. I am in love with the triune God and I can feel His love for me. I have the realization that letting go of my will and letting Him do what he wants with me and my life is the best way to proceed. I trust Him with every aspect of my life and I beg Him to help me surrender more. This is freedom. This is hope.

I still sin. I am not a saint. It hurts me more the older I get. The difference is that I am more aware of His love and the Holy Spirit comforting me in my remorse. I know that I am not alone in the battle to NOT sin. I want to make God smile and be proud and I know that He knows that.

I still pray for a wife, more sales and to keep my house, but I pray with a different perspective. I put in my requests with the hope that they are the same as God’s will. Then I let them go. I am free of them because I know that whatever He decides is the best for me. He is, after all a tiny bit smarter, a little more powerful and no one loves me more.

So I just can’t be stressed or worried or unhappy. My sins are the only things that bug me.

Loneliness, pressure from the boss and not knowing about my house are just ways to unite myself to Christ. They are different and beautiful prayers. They are painful and joyous at the same time.

The Holy spirit lives in us. How can we be unhappy?

What about Mom?

2011-11-03T14:31:00.000-07:00

I can’t help but continue on the “Happy God” theme. This new way of thinking has caused me great comfort and peace. I was writing an article about women and human dignity for a new web site that will go public soon (I will have a link when the time comes.) and it occurred to me that Our Mother Mary smiles every time we give God a reason to smile. (It is the Hoy Spirit that does it because we are nothing.)

Jesus gave His mother to all of humanity when He was on the cross. Mary sacrificed her life to give us Jesus. She did not protest, like any other mother would, when they falsely accused Him, tortured Him and killed Him. There harts are united. They share the same blood. He is all God and all man. She is His perfect creation, the new Eve.

It is only logical that what makes God happy will make our mother happy. When I say the rosary now, I have the vision of Mom, (that is one of my titles for her,) smiling. I still meditate on the mystery of the decade that I’m on, but I see her smiling like any mother would when watching her child pray.

I have always envisioned hugging her and feeling her warmth and love, but now I add her smile. The last time you made you maternal mother smile and feel joy, how did you feel?

That’s how our Mother Mary feels when we please God. When we pray or go to confession, or wish the bank teller a good day. (Again, we do this by the power and motivation of the Holy Spirit.)

Our Mother Mary, by the power of her prayers to God, pushes us into her son’s arms every minute. She is sad when we sin and overjoyed when we love.

I said in my last post I wrote: “Every moment should be a surrender to His (God’s) will and a prayer.” Now I will try to see Mom, as well as God, smiling every time I pray this way.

I love you Father! I love you Jesus! I love you Holy Spirit! I love you Mom!

Every Moment

2011-10-28T08:17:00.000-07:00

Lately I have been thinking a lot about the “Happy God” post I wrote a few weeks ago. I think it started when I could not sleep one night. I turned on EWTN very low. I have a TV in my bedroom. My intent was to fall asleep listening to truth and some of it would get into my subconscious.

In my morning prayers, I had been asking God to show me ways to make Him smile during the day. It was working…sort of. I would think of a situation that was about to happen and visualize the most pleasing actions, to God, that I could do.

This priest on TV was talking about making God happy at every moment in your life. He was saying that when times are tough, we naturally pray. Do we pray all the time 24/7? He said that every moment can be united to Jesus because the Holy Spirit lives in us. At that point I slept for a bit.

I woke up to hear another priest talking about St Ignatius’ teaching about praying for the upcoming down turns in your life when things are going good in your life.

So the next morning I woke up thinking that every moment was an opportunity to unite myself with God. I resolved to practice and asked my guardian angel to help me. It will take some time but I can already see the results. I am accepting my crosses better by giving them as a prayer and not whining or praying for a better result. I just tell God: “This is for you.” It’s nice. It’s peaceful. My burdens are not so heavy. I am happy in traffic. When I get stressed, I start laughing and thank God for the opportunity to pray and for what ever He is teaching me by letting go through this. (He lets me know the lesson later.)

It is working for the good times as well. When I am happy, I start praising and thanking God. I also ask Him for help when I will be down.

I am starting to visualize God seeing the whole picture of life, with all of time. At every moment He knows how that moment fits into the whole creation for all time. How can I not trust Him all the time? Every moment should be a surrender to His will and a prayer.

This will take practice, but I have had a taste of what it feels like to do it. I can’t get enough.

Trust and Faith

2011-10-21T07:33:00.000-07:00

What a week. I found out yesterday that I will probably save my house. God knows what He is doing. He has sent me to some people that really know what they are doing. I try to do the best I can and then I have to trust God. That is the only thing I have been getting in prayer for the last few weeks. The warm feeling of "I've got you son." Through this time of not knowing what is going on in my life, He has been building trust. I really thought He wanted me to move to San Jose........wrong. I really thought He wanted me to not have a house...wrong. I have to just have faith and trust Him.

The following is from the Pope. Remembering who I am and that I have a mission helps me focus on the big picture and that helps me trust the one who sees the big picture all the time.

18-October-2011 -- ZENIT.org News Agency

Pope: It's Time to Remember the Beauty of Faith

Convokes a "Year of Faith" for 50th Anniversary of Vatican II

VATICAN CITY, OCT. 17, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI says it is time to remember the beauty and centrality of the faith, to go deeper into it and strengthen it, and for this purpose he has convoked a "Year of Faith."

The Pope announced the special year, which will begin next October and conclude in November 2013, at the end of an event on the new evangelization held this weekend in the Vatican.

He then made a public announcement of the initiative before praying the midday Angelus with crowds who had gathered Sunday in St. Peter's Square.

The Holy Father suggested that the Year of Faith will be not so much a celebration as a missionary event: a chance to "remember the beauty and the centrality of the faith, the need to strengthen and deepen it, both at the personal and the community level, and to do this in a perspective that is not so much celebratory, but rather, missionary -- precisely in the perspective of the mission ad gentes and the new evangelization."

He spoke of how John Paul II promoted these two elements of mission -- both to those communities in which the Gospel has not taken root, and to those in which people have lost their zeal for the Gospel.

"These are aspects of the one mission of the Church," the German Pontiff said.

On Saturday, during his address to the so-called new evangelizers who were participating in the Vatican event, the Pope outlined a hopeful vision of evangelization, saying that "the Word of God continues growing and spreading."

He offered three reasons for this growth:

"The first is that the strength of the Word does not depend, in the first place, on our action, on our means, on our 'doing,' but on God, who hides his power under the signs of weakness. (...) We must always believe in the humble power of the Word of God and allow God to act!

"The second reason is that the seed of the Word, as the Gospel parable of the Sower narrates, falls also today on good soil that receives it and produces fruit. (...) In the world, although evil makes much noise, good ground continues to exist.

"The third reason is that the proclamation of the Gospel has effectively reached the ends of the earth; even in the midst of indifference, incomprehension and persecution, many continue, yet today, with courage, opening the heart and mind to receive the invitation of Christ to encounter him and become his disciples. Though not making noise, they are as the grain of mustard that becomes a tree, the leaven that ferments the dough, the grain of wheat that is destroyed to create the ear."

Force of truth

On Sunday, the Holy Father celebrated Mass for the participants of the new evangelization gathering.

Drawing from the Second Reading, from the Letter to the Thessalonians, he noted some of the characteristics of Paul's evangelization.

"He says to us first of all that one does not evangelize in an isolated way," the Pope said. "And he immediately adds another very important thing: that the proclamation must always be preceded, accompanied and followed by prayer. (...)

"The Apostle says he is very conscious of the fact that he has not chosen the members of the community, but God has. (...) Every missionary of the Gospel must have this truth always present: It is the Lord who touches hearts with his Word and his Spirit, calling persons to faith and to communion in the Church.

"Finally, Paul leaves us a very beautiful teaching, taken from his experience. He writes: 'for our Gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.' To be effective, evangelization needs the strength of the Spirit, to animate the proclamation and infuse in the one who bears it that 'full conviction' of which the Apostle speaks."

Benedict XVI concluded his homily by making his own St. Paul's words just proclaimed in the liturgy: "I thank God for all of you. And I assure you that I keep you in my prayers, conscious of your commitment in faith, your diligence in charity, and your constant hope in Jesus Christ our Lord."

"May the Virgin Mary, who was not afraid to answer 'yes' to the Word of the Lord, and, after having conceived him in her womb, went out full of joy and hope, always be your model and your guide," he told the new evangelizers. "Learn from the Mother of the Lord and our Mother to be humble and at the same time brave, simple and prudent; balanced and strong, not with the force of the world, but with that of truth."

The Timeless War and God's Love

2011-10-14T07:38:00.000-07:00

I have been tuning into Catholic Radio more in my truck between appointments. I learn a lot and the truth relaxes me some how. For example, a few days ago, the Catholic Answers show taught me all about the myth of overpopulation. I knew overpopulation was a myth and the facts presented on this show confirmed it. How relaxing!

The next segment was the reading of the day. Romans 1:16-25. (Please read this now.)

This, combined with article I read on the Zenit, a Catholic news feed that I read every day, gave me a little more awareness to the world of God and how, He, living in us, wants us to view and interact with the world. Also, keep in mind my last post about making God happy. Here is the article.

10-October-2011 -- Catholic News Agency

Bishop Aquila Predicts State Attempts To Silence Catholic Church

(http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=23516)

ROME, ITALY, October 8 (CNA/EWTN News) - An American bishop has predicted that government authorities may one day attempt to silence the Catholic Church in the United States.

"We could see the possibility of it within the United States where we are no longer free to preach the truth from the pulpit or to present Catholic teaching," Bishop Samuel J. Aquila of Fargo, North Dakota, told CNA on an Oct. 7 visit to Rome.

"It will then become important for us to take a very strong stand, as we have done with human life and the unborn child, to continue to speak the truth and to speak it clearly and with charity."

Bishop Aquila cited two recent examples where he believes religious liberty is being undermined: the closure of Catholic adoption agencies in states that have legalized same-sex "marriage" and the new government health mandate requiring private insurers to provide women with coverage for contraception and sterilization.

"It's very, very important for us to realize that we are in a very real clash between the culture of death and a culture of life," said Bishop Aquila, summing up the former culture as one where "rights are eroded and where lies are being presented as truth."

Bishop Aquila said he doesn't know how the present stand-off between Church and state will be resolved, but he is certain that Catholics "will have to stand for the truth" and "speak clearly to the truth no matter what the cost." He doesn't rule out the possibility of civil disobedience.

"Either we're going to have to enter into conscientious objection and say we won't do this or we will need to cooperate - which we cannot do and still be faithful," he said.

And he worries that the preaching of the faith may also eventually face legal sanction in those states where the practice of the Catholic faith in areas such as adoption and foster care has been declared illegal.

"I tell our seminarians: you must be prepared to enter into this battle because it's a battle we need to enter into and speak the truth," he said.

Bishop Aquila was in Rome for the ordination of one of those seminarians to the diaconate, one of four new deacons for the Diocese of Fargo this year. His words of congratulation to them,

Happy God?

2011-10-07T08:27:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday Fr. Mitchell’s summon ended with a thought that changed my way of thinking. He said that when we do God’s will, we delight Him and that gives us peace.

By now you know that I analyze thoughts and ideas to a great degree. My normal motive for doing God’s will is to not offend Him because I love Him. Knowing that He loves me more than I can understand makes it easier because I know that He will bless me and help me …He simply knows what is best for me. The pain of sinning (hurting Him) is also very real and a great deterrent.

But to make Him happy never occurred to me. I thought about how when I was in San Jose doing things for my mom. I did some of her chores when she went to the store. I wanted to surprise her and make her happy. I was happy that she did not have to do the chores. Her smile and the joy in her voice made me feel good.

I have never envisioned Jesus smiling at me, or the joy in His voice when I choose not to sin or when I do a good deed. Imagine with me, Jesus smiling at us right now.

It is a new dynamic and a new internal motivation. How can I make God happy?

Avoiding sin just got easier and the warmth that I feel when I do something good just got hotter. Trusting God is easier too. I think I am less stressed and a lot more at peace.

The San Jose Experiment

2011-09-30T09:08:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks I was in San Jose to look for a job and relocate. My mother is getting old and I wanted to live near her so I could help her with household chores and such. Just before I told my boss, he offered me a partnership in the company. I declined. He was crushed. He told me that if it was any other reason he would have been very mad, but family was a legitimate reason. He even wrote me a letter of recommendation.

I handed out 25 resumes to roofing, flooring and other related businesses. I did interviews with other companies for sales positions and only one was interested. They told me to come in for an offer letter. I told my friends and family that I was moving, I was excited and overwhelmed with things to do and scared all at the same time.

When I signed the offer letter on the way back to Vancouver Washington, it hit me. What if I fail? What if I don’t make my quota and they fire me or for some reason I need to quit? Then I am jobless in a county with 12% unemployment.

When I got home the company started emailing me. They could not verify my employment for the last 10 years prior to my current employer. The companies went bankrupt or were bought. I also was self employed for part of that time. Even my high school was closed. To them it looked like I could have made up the whole thing.

Then different departments in the company began to direct me to take a drug test. I had to tell them that I took it the day I signed the offer letter and they should have been informed.

It all hit me hard. San Jose is warm. It rains 8 months a year in Vancouver. I love my mom a great deal and it is hard watching her get old. I want to be near her and help her.

I can’t.

No one is going to hire me if they can’t verify my employment and if they did, they could still fire me. I can’t get fired with my current employer. I helped build this company and now I’m being rewarded.

It has to be God’s will. I am in great pain and happy at the same time. I am not getting what I want, but I am getting rewarded for what I have worked for. Some friends and family are happy that I am staying and others are disappointed that I am not moving back. I will fly to San Jose more often. I will continue building this company.

There are a lot of lessons and I am sure they will come out in future posts. For now, I have to get back to work.

Justice and Relationship

2011-09-24T08:31:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay. I am still in process of changing jobs and moving to a different state. I will get back into original thoughts as soon as I can. For now you can see some of what inspires my thought process.

2/5/10 Justice

The Pope went on to reflect on Christ as the justice of God. Christ's justice, he said, "is the justice that comes from grace, where it is not man who makes amends, heals himself and others. [...] It is not man’s sacrifices that free him from the weight of his faults, but the loving act of God who opens himself in the extreme, even to the point of bearing in himself the 'curse' due to man so as to give in return the 'blessing' due to God."

In this scheme, the Holy Father acknowledged, it seems that "each one receives the contrary of his 'due.'"

But, he said, "In reality, here we discover divine justice, which is so profoundly different from its human counterpart. God has paid for us the price of the exchange in his Son, a price that is truly exorbitant. Before the justice of the cross, man may rebel for this reveals how man is not a self-sufficient being, but in need of Another in order to realize himself fully. Conversion to Christ, believing in the Gospel, ultimately means this: to exit the illusion of self-sufficiency in order to discover and accept one’s own need. [...] Humility is required to accept that I need Another to free me from 'what is mine,' to give me gratuitously 'what is his.'"

2/11/10

St Anthony

Relationship with God

Anthony of Padua, or of Lisbon as he is also known, defined prayer "as a relationship of love, which leads man to a dialogue with the Lord", and he described four "attitudes" which must characterise it: "trustingly opening our hearts to God, affectionately conversing with Him, presenting Him our needs, and giving Him praise and thanks. In this teaching of St. Anthony", the Pope explained, "we see one of the specific traits of Franciscan theology; ... that is, the central role of divine love which enters the sphere of the affections, of the will, of the heart, and which is the source of a spiritual knowledge that surpasses all other knowledge".

Uniting Theology Of Body With Theology Of Love

2011-09-14T15:12:00.000-07:00

I will be on a working vacation for the next two weeks and my plate is full. I have save some great articles for times like this.

VATICAN CITY, 13 MAY 2011 (VIS) - At noon today the Pope received participants in a meeting sponsored by the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family.

At the beginning of the address the Holy Father recalled that 30 years ago the newly Blessed John Paul II founded that Institute and the Pontifical Council for the Family and that it was precisely on 13 May thirty years ago that he "suffered the terrible assassination attempt in St. Peter's Square".

Benedict XVI noted a few points of reflection to the members of the institute for "uniting the theology of the body with the theology of love in order to find the unity of the path of humankind".

While emphasizing that "the body is the place where the spirit can dwell", the pontiff noted that "in light of this we can understand that our bodies are not inert, heavy material but, if we know how to listen, they speak the language of true love".

"The body", he explained, "speaks to us of an origin that we haven't granted ourselves. ... It is only when recognizing the original love that has given them life that human beings can accept themselves, only then can they be reconciled with nature and with the world".

Referring to the creation of our first forebears, the Pope asserted that " before the Fall, Adam and Eve's bodies appear in perfect harmony. They have a language that they didn't create, an eros rooted in nature that invites them to receive one another mutually from the Creator so that they might thus be able to give themselves. ... The union in one flesh thus becomes a union of all of life, so that man and woman might become one spirit. ... In this sense", he continued, "the virtue of chastity takes on a new meaning. It is not a "no" to life's pleasures and joys but a great "yes" to love as the profound communication between persons, which requires time and respect, as a path together toward fullness and as love that becomes capable of generating life and generously welcoming the new life that is born".

The Holy Father said that "the body also contains a negative language. It speaks to us of the oppression of the other, of the desire to possess and exploit. Nevertheless, we know that this language does not pertain to God's original plan, but is the fruit of sin. When separated from its filial meaning, from its connection with the Creator, the body rebels against humans, and loses its capacity to show communion, becoming a place where the other is appropriated. Isn't this", he asked, " the drama of sexuality that today remains locked in the vicious circle of one's own body and emotion, but which in reality can only be fulfilled in the call to something greater?".

"God offers humans a path of redemption to the body, whose language is preserved in the family ... where the theology of the body and the theology of love are intertwined. Here the gift of self in one single flesh is lived in the conjugal love that unites spouses. Here the fruitfulness of love is experienced and life is joined with that of other generations. In the family, humans discover their relationality, not as autonomous individuals who are self-made but as child, spouse, and parent whose identity is based on being called to love, to receiving another's self and to giving oneself to others".

Benedict XVI concluded, recalling that "God takes on the body and revealed himself in it. ... As the Son, he received the filial body in gratitude, listening to the Father, and he offered his body for us, so that the new body of the Church might be generated".

What if we Loose?

2011-09-09T07:48:00.000-07:00

When praying about what to post today I remembered the story on the EWTN program “The World Over” that I saw last night. This lady was talking about how the Planned Parenthood agenda has infiltrated the United Nations. They are now trying to teach the world that children are sexual beings. She went on to explain that the motivation is to undermine parental authority and if a side affect is the acceptability of objectifying children so be it. I almost puked. During the priests abuses scandals the church, the media and the whole world was and still is, in great pain because of the suffering brought upon children.

So I began to think of all the attacks going on involving children and families.

They want us and teach us and our children:

It is normal to have sex with whoever we want before marriage.

Pornography, immodest attire and being an object is good.

Homosexual behavior is normal and you should experiment with it in your teens.

As a teen, you should live with you parents as long as it is beneficial to you. (This is in the UN charter.)

Children are sexual beings.

Masturbation is good and healthy.

Contraception is good.

Abstinence is unhealthy and no one has that much self control.

Homosexual marriage is a right.

Homosexual partners adopting a child is a right.

Marriage is not a lifelong commitment.

Purposeful single parenthood is a normal and acceptable choice.

Abortion is right.

Parents are not the best teacher of their children………the government is.

Public schools are the best teachers of proper beliefs and behaviors.

If you teach about morals and do not accept some behaviors, you are intolerant.

If you have a terminal health issue, it is fine to take your own life.

I know I missed a few, but this hurts.

What do they get if we all think this way? What happens if they win?

Please help me on this. I want your answers. I am Small Paul. I don’t have the answer to this.

Please email me or comment on this blog with your answer.

(As a side note: I bet they were mad about World Youth Day.)

The Thief

2011-09-02T06:35:00.000-07:00

One of my friends has an ideal family. His parents are very Catholic, very loving, and fun to be around. His siblings are successful and most of them raising families of their own. He has a wonderful wife and kids. My friend, his parents and his siblings all make very good money. One of his brothers even took over his father’s dentist practice. They are fun, wholesome, and giving people. I thank God that I know them.

I grew up in San Jose and that is where my friends from high school are. A few days ago, I got the phone call from Bruce, a mutual friend. My friend’s brother, the dentist, died in a freak boating accident. He was 40 something years old with a wife and kids.

I am three states away and not even part of the family and yet I am in a lot of pain over this. I can’t imagine the pain that the family is going through.

It did make me think about the suddenness and unpredictability of death.

I drive a lot and I clime on roofs to measure them. What is the condition of my soul? What if I were to die in the next few minutes? When was my last confession? Who was the last person I was rude to? When was the last time I told my family and friends that I love them?

This news has also made it easier to avoid sin. It is a wake up call that cuts through any justification for any unloving act.

Please pray for my friend Jim and his family.

Get More out of the Rosary

2011-08-26T09:00:00.000-07:00

I find that just reciting the rosary does not satisfy me. For the last few years I have been visualizing the mysteries while saying the prayers. This allows God to show me the lessons. I have found that each mystery contains an unlimited amount of lessons. Sometimes the five mysteries have a unifying theme interwoven, the way each song on an album has a meaning tied into the bigger message of the album.

A lot of times Jesus or His mother or the Holy Spirit…..or someone “upstairs” is directing the lessons to fit my situation in life. The rosary teaches me, chastises me and glorifies God all at the same time.

Sometimes I try to feel what the persons in the mystery are feeling and visualize how it might apply to my life. Here are some examples.

The Annunciation

Mary felt awed that she was even paid attention to by an angle. Then she felt bewildered and needed an explanation. Then, being in the state of perfect grace, she said yes to a life changing event. Was she afraid and trusted God anyway? Then she feels the joy of carrying Christ.

Do I have that level of trust when God is changing my life’s direction? Do I trust Him when I don’t know what He is doing in my life? Could I be as selfless as Mary?

I know if I am, I will feel Christ within me a lot more. There are so many more reflections and inner questions.

Some times the Joyful Mysteries take on the theme of obedience. Other times they take on the theme of how God is in command of the bigger picture. There are many other themes that God can reveal.

The Scourging at the Pillar

Will I ever be called on to suffer like this and will I be ready? How many lashes given to Christ are because of my “sins of the flesh”? You get the idea.

The feeling of God’s love runs through the rosary and God’s lessons for each of us depend on our effort to involve our selves when we pray.

Get into it. Pray from the heart. Participate. You do it at Mass, why not the rosary?

Realality

2011-08-19T07:24:00.000-07:00

I do see and feel things different from most people. It is because I am aware of reality of the divine. We have friends there that we believe in and pray to, but do we really feel them like we do one of our friends that we talk to?

God the Father:

I converse with Him as I would my real dad…….well maybe a little differently because He really does know everything. I also feel myself crawl up on His lap when I am lonely or afraid, or overwhelmed. I feel His arms around me and His warmth.

Jesus Christ:

Keeping in mind all that He has done for all of us reinforces my personal relationship with Him. I should also mention the obvious fact that He is the one in the confessional and the food that we eat at mass. We love each other very much. He is also my friend. I feel Him like I feel a brother who is always willing to help. I talk to Him and ask Him for help like I would a brother. I also have a loving relationship with Him as my king, my savior, my creator and my Lord.

The Holy Spirit:

He is the motivation with in us that nudges us to do anything good. He has many gifts and is those gifts. He is the other half of “we” (the Holy Spirit and I coexist in this body…same with all of us). I feel His nudge to pray, to go to confession, to forgive, to know that I am nothing without God. He is the fire that causes me to defend the faith. I love Him very much and I feel His love for people come out of me.

Mary:

She is my mother. I call her mom. I love her and talk to her like I do to my real mom. Because of her virtuous nature and her ability to intercede for me, I also ask her for help with sinful habits, conversion of souls and all sorts of things.

But I feel her and conceptualize her as my mom. After my time in purgatory, I want to hug my mom. I am in tears just thinking about this. She brought me back to her son. She hugs me and then pushes me into Christ’s arms.

She is also my queen, the mother of my savior, example of purity and so much more that it’s hard wrap my brain around. But she is first my mom.

My beloved Guardian Angel:

I feel him every time I drive. And I drive a lot. I tell him to remind me of my love for God when I am tempted. He is always there. My own personal body guard. He never sleeps. He never takes time to eat or vacation. He just looks out for me and prays for me all the time. I try to thank him every morning. He doesn’t even get mad when I forget about him. How cool is that?

I may continue this on my next post. I want to mention so many……the Archangels, the saints…..etc. I am just out of time.

Pain

2011-08-12T07:42:00.000-07:00

Saturday the 30^th at about 2am I felt very sharp pain in my lower back. This was followed by five more days of extreme pain in my back and bladder. If you have ever had kidney stones you can relate. Many good things came out of this.

God strengthened my relationship between my little sister and me. I had to ask her for advice. She has had kidney stones before. I don’t know if our relationship needed strengthening, but it is stronger now.

God eliminated coffee from my life. I used to drink a half a pot to a pot a day. Every time I tried to quit, I would get massive headaches and start drinking it. This time the pain in my back and belly stopped me from eating or drinking anything. When it was over, all I had to do was not make coffee. I am also going to save some money by not buying it.

By far the biggest thing I received from this pain is an appreciation for what Jesus went through during His passion. Sure you can think about it and imagine it, but when you go through intense pain you feel it. I was offering it up as a prayer and it hit me. This pain is only about a hundredth of what Jesus felt. I began to think about the sorrowful mysteries and started to cry. Then I thought of reason He did it and the heartbreak He must feel when we sin. This has increased my awe of God. Words fail me now.

Suffering would not be a good prayer if it didn’t suck. Our Lord is the ultimate prayer.

Punishment

2011-08-05T07:40:00.000-07:00

I was praying one morning and feeling bad about my sins. I was thinking that they are only venial sins, so an act of contrition is good. I still felt a little soul sick, the feeling that I am not doing enough to avoid sinning. If you read my post titled “Attack” you know that I am saying a rosary every morning for the intention of getting rid of two of my most common sins. I still don’t feel right.

I thought of Jesus on the cross. He got punished for my sins and all I have to do is say an act of contrition. When I fall badly, it really hurts my friendship with Jesus and confession is great……..but it’s not fair.

Bill Gates once said that: “Life is not fair, get over it.”

I heard a famous priest say: “If life was fair, we would all be in Hell.”

It is not fair that Jesus be punished for my betrayal of Him and my betrayal of the love we have for each other.

Then I thought of the Blessed Mother. I began to tell her that I was sorry for letting her down. I said I was sorry to as many angles and saints that I could name. All these people pray for me, I owe them an apology, I thought.

Then the ‘BAM’ moment happened. Any Mother would punish their child. All of us got grounded as teenagers. You say you’re sorry to your parents and they may have to pay some money or some consequence for you error, and then they punish you. It is for your own good.

Who punishes me?

So today I am grounding myself. It is Saturday July 30, 2011. I was going to take a hike. I was going have some fun. But I did not avoid the near occasion of sin yesterday, so I’m grounded. Why wait for a mortal sin to happen? I’m grounding myself for getting close.

No TV, no hike and no getting out of the house except for Mass for the whole weekend.

I will begin a 19 day stretch of work on Monday so this is my last weekend to play. I don’t care. I owe it to God to fight my sinfulness.

There are consequences for every thing you do in life and most actions you have to be accountable for. (I will avoid the temptation of talking about politics at this time.)

On one hand, I am mad that I screwed up and on the other hand I am happy that the Holy Spirit has guided me this solution. He loves me and He needs to punish me. I love Him and I accept the punishment. I think about this the next time I’m tempted. I don’t like being grounded.

8/5/11 Just a note to be honest. That night I developed a health problem that has had me out of work.

Humility

2011-07-29T09:53:00.000-07:00

The other day I was contemplating how much is on my plate and wondering how I was supposed to do it all. Then I said the silliest thing I think I have ever said in my life. I said: “Lord, look how important I am!”

I wish all of you could have heard the belly laugh that followed. I bet the angles were laughing just as hard. A pock shot by the evil one that was so lame it was funny.

I followed this by rephrasing my thinking this way. “Lord, there is a lot on our plate and I am going to need your help to get it all done. Your work is important, so please help me stay out of the Holy Spirit’s way. You have come a long way with me, please keep me humble.

I read a preview of a book about Pope Benedict XVI’s life and how he opened himself to the Holy Spirit. When he did that he was able to do more. More correctly phrased, he was able to participate in God’s plan by allowing his love for God and man to be joined and dominated by God’s love.

Mary did the same thing. When she said the big yes at the annunciation, she pronounced the scope of her love for God and man. Later at the visitation, she proclaims how small she is and how great God is.

Mary’s life is full of humility like this, but I want to mention one of many moments in her life that shows us the unpredictability of God’s plan that demonstrates the humility of not being in control. She and Joseph are walking with a group of family and friends. They think everything is fine and Jesus is among adults and cared for. Skipping to the end of the event, when she finds Him in the temple, Jesus addresses her as “woman” meaning all of humanity, and lets her (and all of mankind) know that God’s will is paramount, and can be unpredictable. There are so many lessons in each event in bible. I am only mentioning this one lesson for this event.

I also don’t think the disciples thought that Jesus was going to die the way He did and I can go on. At that point they may have been humbled enough to expect the unexpected.

As if all that doesn’t do enough to keep me humble there is my nose and my sinuses. My head drains almost every morning and when ever the atmospheric pressure changes, when I go from a cool place to a warm place and sometimes for reasons I don’t even know. I sneeze and blow and at times deal with head aches for hours. I end up laughing at my frailty.

I am Small.

Our Capacity

2011-07-22T09:45:00.000-07:00

The rosary seems to be a source of inspiration for me these days. While praying it the other day, I was mediating on the sorrowful mysteries and the courage it took for Jesus to go through all of that. We know why He did it, but have you ever thought of the amount of courage it took. He was beaten, tortured, mocked, betrayed by His friends, crucified, and left to die. All the while, He could have stopped it and thought of Himself first.

Then I thought of a lot of things He did and was. How about His capacity to go out and preach the truth? A truth most people would not accept. He forgave a lot, even when He was on the cross. He never looked down on anyone. I thought about all the things Jesus was and is.

Then I thought about a previous post I did about the Holy Spirit living in each of us. That’s when I had the BAM moment. You know, the moment when God let’s you see something profound.

The same capacity to do all of those wonderful things and be that beautiful person that Christ did and does, was and is, is in us. The same spirit that was and is in Him is in us.

We all know the Holy Spirit lives in us, but do we really understand the ramifications. We can be as brave as Jesus. We can be as forgiving, as humble, and selfless as our creator if we open ourselves to the living God within us.

He also gives us His own flesh to eat. We consume God and His spirit lives in us. It will take me a long time to grasps all this, but I will have help (from God).

I am in awe of God and all the He is and did and does. If I wish, He can do those things through me.

I realize now that I ask Him all the time about this blog. I say: “It’s your blog and I need you to let me know what to post.”

How can I, or anyone else, take credit for anything good that they do?

On the side of this, is the fact that if anyone really gives in to themselves totally, they will do only God’s will because that is the only thing that can make anyone truly happy. God’s will is animated by the Holy Spirit within us and we are left with the reality of our nothingness. Perhaps I will post on this at another time.

Attack

2011-07-15T11:02:00.000-07:00

A few notes before I get started.

1) I have added a pro-life news link.

2) There is a new term being used …and I like it.

“Theophobia” is the hatred or fear of God, faith, religion, and the Church.

The next time someone says I am intolerant I will explain that I love people and judge behaviors only. Then I will ask them if they are theophobic.

3) A few posts ago I recommended the book “Why Catholics are Right”. When you read it remember that the chapters seem long, but there are a few subjects within each chapter. You can take a break between these subjects without missing anything.

Attack

When in deep prayer I often ask God to help me identify my weaknesses. But let me be honest. Like you, I know my biggest and sometimes repetitive sins. So last month I got more frustrated at my sinfulness that usual and decided to bring out the big guns. I decided to target my two biggest sins and pray the rosary everyday just for help with them. I decided to ask St. Michael for help every time I was tempted and to say an act of contrition if I even held the thought of the near occasion of sin.

It’s working. I am attacking with help from the holy superpowers. I am “Small Paul” not “Big Paul”. I need help. Confession is better when you know that you are putting in the effort to get the help, when you know that you are attacking.

Every person is being fought over. One side will lie to us and the other side will love us.

We can choose to fight with an army of lovers that can not be defeated.

The damages from sin are restlessness, lack of dialoged with God and more selfishness to name a few. The collateral damage is that you may influence others, not to mention hurting God, yourself and letting down all those above that pray for you. And you don’t volunteer and …….

The benefits of attacking your sinfulness are more peace, more direction from God, humility, trust in God and so much more. The collateral effects are what others get when they see Christ in you. Just the feeling that I am working at my relationship with Jesus brings me joy.

How many weapons God has put at our disposal?

I am sick of my love for God and humanity being inhibited by my bad habits. I am attacking.

The Only Real Challenge

2011-07-08T10:34:00.000-07:00

I have a lot on my plate these days. I can think of at least 10 ministries or projects that I am involved with right now. On top of that there is the constant work of self improvement so I can be a better servant of God and man. So I’m sitting in Adoration this morning giving all these things to Jesus one by one and embracing the “We” reality. (The “We” reality is the knowledge that the Holy Spirit lives in me and that I never do anything on my own with the exception of sin.)

Then I prayed to Jesus: “You have a lot of challenges for us to get through.”

Think about that statement like I did. It makes no sense.

The reality is that. God is perfect. God can do anything. God loves me. The Holy Spirit is my motivator and the animator of God’s will. How can God be challenged? He can’t.

“But I still have these challenging projects and ministries and you still haven’t even given me the blog post for today.” I prayed.

My prayerful thoughts continued; ‘If You can’t be challenged because You can do anything and Your will is the best path………And all I ever want is your will………then the challenges are mine……..But the Holy Spirit is with me so that is “we”……’

BAM! It hit me!

God can do all the things on my plate perfectly if I was not involved. The only real challenge is for me to let go and trust Him. I have to pray for help and to listen to the Holy Spirit and cooperate in His will. We can do anything! I know that all the things on my plate are going to be worked out because God is in control.

You know me………I had to go a little deeper. What about the small challenges in life?

What about the driver that just cut me off. My challenge is to cooperate with God’s love and forgive. My challenge is to pray for help in changing my sinful habits. My challenge is discipline myself so it is easier to obey and cooperate with God’s plan for me.

We (The Holy Spirit and I) have to get rid of the inhibitors of the Holy Spirit. All sin and habits that can lead to sin as well as laziness in the bettering my relationship with God are just some of the inhibitors that I can think of.

No worries……God will let me know what to do and how to do it and I will not be doing it alone!

Freedom and Tolerance

2011-07-01T07:00:00.000-07:00

I read a lot of news and know a lot of people that have a different opinion than me. I believe in life and embrace the teachings of the Catholic Church. That includes the teachings about sex, homosexuality, marriage, capitalism, abortion and euthanasia.

I also believe people should judge beliefs and behaviors, not individuals. That means that I love a person no matter my judgment of their behavior. This makes it possible for me to love the abortion doctor and abhor what he or she does. I am not alone. Thanks to Christ, there are a lot of us.

My problem is that those that disagree with our positions want us to accept their beliefs and behaviors. They say we are intolerant because we vote against redefining marriage or we pray at abortion clinics. They say we are old fashion, ridged and stubborn because we do not tolerate all behaviors and beliefs. They pressure companies and governments to get their way. Some of them, that are in our government, even use the power of the United States to push the homosexual agenda in other countries no matter what the local population wants. (An example is the state department’s role in bringing a gay pride parade to Rome recently.) They brand us as intolerant and bypass our will at every turn. They do not tolerate us because we do not agree with them.

Why do they get so mad? Have you ever had a quiet disagreement about abortion with someone? Have you ever told a homosexual that you let God judge them, but you do not want laws that promote their behavior, without them resorting to name calling and getting mad? It’s all over the news. On a personal note I have been laughed at because I do not believe in masturbation, pornography or sex before marriage.

My theory is that they think we are judging them personally. Maybe if we told them that most people believe steeling is wrong, but to judge the thief as a bad person is equally wrong, they might get the picture.

I also think that they realize that if we are right about our judgment about their behavior then they would have to change. Now pride and fear are in the picture. They would have to humble themselves and admit that Christ’s teachings are right. Changing ones behavior and doing it without help is scary. The devil knows this. So they (seemingly purposely) take it personally and get angry.

My suggestion to all who hold beliefs like I do is to emphasize the positives.

We all know how great it is to be selfless. Let’s communicate what we feel.

Emphasize the freedom from impurity (or the freedom of purity) and the peacefulness of sexual responsibility. Relate the harmony and natural logic of heterosexuality. Tell them of the honor and fulfillment that comes from the sacrifice of abstinence (for the single heterosexual or the homosexual.) Tell them of the security of a self reliance vs the big government nanny state and the freedom of choosing your own charities. Speak of the love that comes from being free to give each person dignity instead of objectifying them. Let them know that everyone needs love no matter if they are in the womb or very old. Above all, tell them that you love them. Ask them to love you even if they disagree with you. Also remind them that freedom is the ability to choose correctly not license to do whatever you want and that it was not and is not free.

It should also be noted that our constitution insures freedom of a state religion, not freedom from religion.

I am a little tired of being on the defensive. I am going to ask these people why they are intolerant of my beliefs. I am going to question them about how much they respect my values. I am going to start every one of these conversations by telling them that I love them as a person.

Competitiveness

2011-06-24T13:38:00.000-07:00

When in prayer, I always ask God: “What do you want?” I ask this with the understanding that He will show me a fault or behavior that we, the Holy Spirit and I, can work on to correct. Lately the answer that I’ve been getting is that God wants me. This is just frustrating. I told God that I simply do not understand and to please let me know what else I can give.

The last time I felt that He wanted more from me, the path was obvious. He had been making me aware of how selfish it was to drink alcohol. If you knew me fifteen years ago, you would know what a big challenge we, the Holy Spirit and I, are going through.

This time I had to ask many times for clarification. This last weekend God explained. My two friends of 28 years were in town and we played golf three times. One of my friends is a better golfer than me and the other is not. The first day I wanted to win so bad that I tried too hard and choked badly. The second day I was a little happy because it rained and everyone had a bad game. The last day I had some of my game back, but not enough to enjoy myself very much. I remember thinking about what my sister in law said to me about golf once: "It’s a game. Have fun.”

When the weekend was over, I found my self pondering in silence: “Why did God allow this? They even beat me at horseshoes; MY game! Why wasn’t it fun? Golf used to be fun. Should I just give it up?” Then a friend from church called. He said that his father had turned him on to the great game of ………….golf. I almost laughed and cried at the same time. As he explained how much fun it was and that one day he hoped that he would be good enough to keep score the light bulb in my head came on.

It was fun before because I did not care who won or how I did. I was just happy being with friends. I remembered how selfishly happy I would get a winning a game of cards with my family at Christmas time, and how my niece tried to teach me this lesson then.

I realize now that competitiveness is selfish. If I love God and His people more than myself, then how can I get mad if I don’t win? I should be happy being with others and playing a game.

This is a big adjustment for me. I am short and the seventh child out of eight. I have always wanted to be noticed.

The truth is, I am not good at any sport, I don’t make a lot of money and I have a somewhat boring life. The truth is that I just want to love people and do what I can for them.

The truth is that God knows this and He is answering my prayers by changing me so He can have more of me. He is the best coach, parent, brother and friend one could ever have.

Battles & Advice

2011-06-20T09:29:00.000-07:00

I am sorry for the delay. I spent the weekend with friends of 25 years. God did teach me things during this time.

Pick your battles.

There are some things that we as Catholics know are right, but those close to us will never learn FROM THEIR CLOSE FRIENDS. They are close minded because they know the person teaching so well. My friends know the dark times from my past. In their mind, the Paul that drank with them and made foolish mistakes with them simply can not be right about religion. I did defend the Church when they made a derogatory comment, but I did not push it. When one of my friends bated me to preach it I explained what I said above. The look on his face was priceless.

The way a person gives advice is everything.

While playing golf, one friend would give me advice with some words of encouragement and in a calm low voice. “You just don’t play enough. With time, you won’t poke your head up.” The other would give advice with a condescending attitude and used a high pitched louder voice. “You have to follow though on the stroke.” I had a hard time fighting through feelings of resentment with the one friend and consequently taking his advice. On the other hand, being encouraged made me feel the genuine warmth of the other friend and I applied what he said quickly.

I will apply this lesson to the way I advise people.

I will have a deeper post next week.

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JOY

2011-06-11T08:05:00.000-07:00

Last night I woke up about 2am thinking about money. If you have read some of my past posts, you know that I am in some financial troubles. My past posts also relay that I get great peace from trusting God.

I am also human. I forget that the Holy Spirit lives in me. I forget that Jesus loves me enough to be crucified for me. I forget that the Father takes care of me.

To try to get some sleep I turned on EWTN and caught this little nun teaching about joy. She quoted St. Paul and Pope Benedict. The essence of what she said was that joy comes from knowing how much God loves you, not from pleasures and possessions. Adoration can change the world and help you listen to the Holy Spirit. She said to realize that the Holy Spirit is with you all the time, even when you shop or drive. She said to ask Him for advice. ………..Does that sound like one of my past posts entitled “We”?

I also remembered the Catholic radio program that I heard the day before. They were talking about living up to our true selves, adopted children of God. They were reminding us not to worry and not to fear. They pointed out that we will never die and that Jesus destroyed everything there is to fear. We are free and we have the power of the living God on our side.

I believe that we have to ask God, His mother, our angles and all of the Community of Saints to help us go beyond remembering these truths, but to live them, realize them and animate them. If we practice making them part of our way of thinking, our way of doing and our way of living, we will live in the REAL world. The people around us and most of society may not understand. I hope they see our true JOY.

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Get this Book!

2011-06-03T09:09:00.000-07:00

I have had to read a lot of books in order to defend the different attacks on the Catholic Church. I have often wished for a book had a lot of the rebuttals in one place. When I read this on Zenit, I know I had to promote it before I even received my copy in the mail. I have copied what I read below. The link to Zenit is on the right side of this blog under EWTN "Catholic News".

Defending the Catholic Church

New Book Is Useful Guide for Clearing up Misunderstandings

By Father John Flynn, LC

ROME, MAY 29, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Anti-Catholicism might be the last acceptable prejudice in society today, but Canadian author and journalist Michael Coren isn't going to take it lying down.

In his recently published book, "Why Catholics Are Right," (McClelland and Stewart) he examines a number of common criticisms of the Church. Coren, born into a secular family, with a Jewish father, became a Catholic in his mid-20s.

Being Jewish has helped him in his career, he says, but as he explained in the book's introduction, his Catholic beliefs have caused two job losses and many closed doors in the media.

He commenced with a topic that he said he didn't want to write and that he should not have had to write, namely the clergy abuse scandal. He acknowledged the immense damage caused to many people as a result of the abuses, but also argued that some of the criticism went beyond what was justified.

The abuse says nothing specific about Catholicism, Coren insisted. Critics who are eager to prove that the abuse was linked to the structures or teachings of the Church ignore the fact that abuse by clergy occurs in other churches and religions at the same or even higher rates.

As a result of the lessons learned from the abuse scandal the Catholic Church is now one of the safest places for a young person to be, Coren stated. These events should rightly lead to a condemnation of the abuses, but not to a condemnation of the Church, he concluded.

Another chapter deals with historical events, such as the Crusades and the Inquisition. It's true that the Church did not always act in the best matter, he admitted, but overall the Church was mostly ethically ahead of its time and a force for good, he argued.

Crusades

On the matter of the Crusades, Coren pointed out that the Holy Land was Christian and subsequently invaded by Muslims.

It is wrong to consider the Crusades as some kind of imperialism or colonialism, according to Coren. Far from being an exercise in exploitation and reaping profits, many noble families were bankrupted by the expense of arming a knight and maintaining him and his retinue.

Modern research has disproved the affirmation that many crusaders were the sons of poor families looking for plunder. In fact, they were often the cream of European chivalry, Coren explained.

In the territories conquered by the Crusades the Muslim population was able to continue its normal life and there wasn't even any serious attempt to convert them to Christianity. What can we conclude about the Crusades, Coren asked.

"They were not the proudest moment of Christian history but nor were they the childish caricature of modern Western guilt and certainly not that of contemporary Muslim paranoia," he said.

Turning to the Inquisition he observed that the underlying premise is that Catholics are nastier than anyone else and that only the Church could organize something like the Inquisition.

This is simply ridiculous, he stated. For a start more men and women were slaughtered in a couple of weeks of the atheistic French Revolution than in a century of the Inquisition. There were also inquisitions in a number of Protestant nations, he noted, aimed particularly at those suspected of witchcraft.

Torture

The purpose of the Inquisition was to combat doctrinal errors and heresies, with the aim of bringing people back to the Church, Coren explained. Torture did exist, but it was carried out mainly by secular authorities. The Inquisition used it no more and usually less than other judicial bodies of the time, he added.

Most of the criticism centers on the Spanish Inquisition. In an aside Coren wondered why so little attention is paid to the massacres and torture of many Catholics by Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth I in England.

It's true that in the early days the popes did support the Spanish Inquisition but it soon became an organ of the state and monarchy. After the final defeat of the Muslims in Spain a large number converted from Islam or Judaism to Catholicism.

Many were genuine, but as it was politically and economically advantageous to be a Catholic some who converted were not genuine. This led to the investigations by the Inquisition about the situation of those who had converted.

There were certainly abuses committed, Coren said, but while Spain might have been a flawed society it did not experience the bloody civil wars of religion that affected many other European countries.

The Inquisition went mainly unnoticed until the mid-19th century when anti-Catholic writers used and distorted it to attack the Church, according to Coren.

Another frequent criticism of the Church is about its wealth. "We're hit with the old regular that the Church is dripping with money while the rest of the world starves," Coren commented.

Yes, there is a lot of wealth at the Vatican, in the museums that are open for all to visit. The Church has preserved these works of art for centuries and keeps them as a patrimony for humanity.

Selling the artwork and giving away the money would just be a one-off event whose benefits would soon be over. Instead, the artistic treasures are kept for the future, available to all, instead of being locked away in private collections.

Moreover, Coren added, the Catholic Church builds and runs hospitals, schools and does an enormous amount of charitable work around the world.

Life

One of the chapters is dedicated to the subject of life and sexuality. The Church is often under attack for its stand on matters ranging from abortion to condoms and contraceptives.

The position the Catholic Church takes in this area is not only based on moral beliefs but is also supported by science and human rights, Coren argued.

The affirmation that a new life exists from the moment of conception has solid biological foundation, he said. The fetus is a distinct human life and as such should have a right to exist. In spite of this, in recent years pro-lifers have often been depicted as extreme zealots.

Moreover, while contemporary society considers itself to be more progressive and tolerant than at any time in the past, the disabled or handicapped in the womb are now deliberately targeted and killed.

When it comes to the Church's opposition to the use of embryonic stem cells for research, this is used by opponents to accuse it of being an obstacle to a cure for sicknesses and diseases that could be overcome in the very near future.

The truth is, however, there have been no successful cures with embryonic stem cells, in contrast to the successes obtained with adult stem cells, which is not opposed by the Church, Coren pointed out.

On the subject of condoms and contraceptives the Church warned decades ago that their availability would be harmful to society. In fact, Coren said, since that warning there has been a steady rise in sexually transmitted diseases, divorce, family breakdown and sexuality has been downgraded from what should be a loving act into a mere exchange of bodily fluids.

The vilification of the Church and Benedict XVI for being opposed to the use of condoms in the effort to control AIDS is yet another case of injustice, Coren said. Relying on the use of condoms simply hasn't worked in Africa. Instead programs based on abstinence and fidelity have had the greatest success.

Coren's book deals with many other topics and he pulls no punches in defending the Church against what he considers ill-informed attacks. It should prove a useful aid for those interested in replying to the only too frequent swipes against the Church.

Our Political Parties do not see God

2011-05-28T07:04:00.000-07:00

Reading about Jeff Grabosky, the man that ran across the US and realized that we are a very giving nation as individuals inspired me to connect a few dots about an overlooked dynamic of the different philosophies of Socialism and Capitalism. The people of the United States must realize these differences.

The left (Socialists and Democrats would have us believe that capitalism breeds greed and selfishness. Government has to help the poor and elderly because the people will just keep their money or spend it on themselves. The government should protect us from each other because we will not do it on our own. In short, the government knows how to run our lives better and makes life better for all of us.

The right (and I mean Tea Party not Republican) will have us believe the individual should run their own life and government should get out of the way. The individual must take the responsibility for his or her own retirement, company morals, and poor in their communities. In short, individuals united in respect for individualism will make better choices and implement them better than government.

The U.S. constitution gives the individual the rights to have the opportunity to make as much money as they want and spend it as they want so long as it does not hurt anyone.

For the most part I am on the side of the Tea Party.

What is missing is what is not being said about God.

Socialists and Democrats take God out of the equation. Furthermore, they are scared of God. God is the motivation for a person to give to the poor, take care of the old, and feed the hungry. In short, God (through people) cares for everyone better than government.

Our political parties seem to conveniently miss all the examples of individual giving that you read about every day. Despite being over worked, over regulated and over taxed, the people still give to any cause that eases the misfortune of others. When world wide disasters happen, American individuals give more than some countries. Other examples include; the little league team that got it’s gear stolen, the food bank that had it’s truck stolen, the disabled Veteran who’s wheelchair broke, and how many other stories can you think of where people showed their love (God).

Jeff Grabosky: "The media portrays America as being selfish and money-driven, and everything that goes along with that stereotype. But from my experience, it's exactly the opposite. Everyone was so kind and generous and wanted to help out in any way they could," he recalled. "It was surprising. Even the people who obviously didn't have much were some of the most willing to give what they had.

"That's really made me want to be a better person and be more generous with the blessings that I have."

Construction workers would simply walk up to Grabosky and give him money. He also learned the stories and struggles of hitchhikers, like one man traveling to see his sick mother.

"He was getting money for food and motels by singing poetry he had written at places like Wal-Mart parking lots," Grabosky said, adding that his run has given him "a whole different perspective."

Socialists and Democrats have to paint the picture that people are evil and morally corrupt so that they need government to help and protect them. They are really saying that God does not exist in the hearts of individuals. They make the argument that government is or should be everyone’s true god.

No Worry Need to Escape

2011-05-21T08:48:00.000-07:00

Letting go of Worry and trusting God more than I have ever been able to has enabled God to change me more.

First a disclaimer: The Holy Spirit is responsible. All I did was ask God to run my life. I thanked Him for helping me realize my nothingness and my dependence on Him. I asked Him to show me my weaknesses and help change. I told Him that I wanted less me and more Him. He always delivers.

The biggest change resulting from my trust in God is the lack of worry. This is very freeing and has given me great peace.

Another realization has hit me like a train. I have lost my desire to escape. The other day I was whining to God that I was tired of the rat race, but I do it because I love Him and His people. Then I stopped and began to think: “Is the rat race really so bad? If Scott Hahn is right in his book ‘the Lamb’s Supper’, every thing I do should be a prayer and a celebration of love that is reflected in the Trinity.” Then the train hit. I thought: “Why am I whining? The rat race is God’s will for me right now……..and with His help, I’m doing it.”

Driving, mowing the lawn, paper work, financial problems………you name it, are just prayers and expressions of love.

I still need and ask for endurance because I am weak, but acceptance of His will is just easier.

I am loosing my desire to escape. I love providence, so how can I want to escape from it?

All through this I was envisioning a sheep wondering in a big field. The Shepard knows what is best for sheep. When I don’t listen or don’t obey, I get sick (worried, insecure, proud, etc.) I also pictured myself as having a sheep’s brain and asking Jesus for direction. He can see the big picture, the whole pasture, the whole world, the whole plan of God’s salvation. He knows every possible cause and effect whether they happen or not. And He loves me. It is unreasonable not to trust Him.

Worry

2011-05-15T12:55:00.000-07:00

I’m sorry this is late. I have been working my buns off.

Lately I seem to have stopped worrying. I know this sounds strange, But I caught an old episode of ‘Mother Angelica Live’ and she was talking about trust in God. She said that total trust in God is to not worry about anything. She continued to say that it good to be concerned and to monitor things, but if you really trust God, you don’t worry.

One of my biggest faults is that I worry too much. One of my biggest gifts is my ability to apply something to my behavior and incorporate it. When I heard this simple little nun preaching this simple, yet pointed lesson, I marveled at God’s power and love.

He reminded me of all the times I read about her trusting Him (when I read her book).

He reminded me about all the times that He came through for me. Even when the result was not what I had in mind, He still gave me what was best (not always what I wanted).

He knows that I have been praying to trust Him more. He knows that I even say: “Do the best you can and then give it to God.” He also know that I worry and stress over money, sales, people that I pray for, people that I love, my work load, house hold chores, being late and let’s not even talk about golf or the San Jose Sharks …….and I know I missed a few.

So I just stopped worrying. I pray about my sinful ways. I ask Him to help people. I do the best I can on sales appointments. I did stop trying so much to get the sale and just asked Him to help me love the prospects.

The results:

It is easier to avoid to acting on temptations and my prayer life is better. People I pray for have had some miraculous healings. My sales are way up. The bank is working with me and I may keep my house.

But by far the biggest change is that I am so much calmer. Life is just a little easier.

I still am concerned where the money will come from ………but I know it will come. If it doesn’t, well that is what God wants. I just don’t care. He is running my life now. I trust Him to teach me, to guide me in His will, to care for those I care about and those who don’t like me, and help me love others. He knows how much I can screw things up when I am in charge.

Pease be with you all!

Bill O'Reilly has it Wrong

2011-05-05T17:25:00.000-07:00

I do not like to expose anyone’s misconceptions about the Catholic faith publicly and especially someone who I admire and share common beliefs with. I make this exception because Bill O’Reilly is a public figure and reaches a lot of people with his TV show.

I feel the need to point out that O’Reilly is doing the nation a service by exposing unfair practices in the media and political arenas.

He did get it wrong on three points having to do with the Catholic Church over the years.

His most recent misconception happened the other night during an interview with a priest about the killing of Osama Bin Laden. The priest tried to explain that the Catholic Church teaches that actions are to be judged and not people and that only God knows why a person does an evil act. It seemed to me that O’Reilly disagreed with this and told the audience that Bin Laden is evil. O’Reilly is not god and therefore is not qualified to judge a person.

Don’t get me wrong. Bin Laden’s actions WERE evil and Catholics are called to judge actions. The reason why we do not kill is because all humans have dignity and God can change anyone no matter how bad they might be. Just ask St. Paul. I do not celebrate the killing of a person no matter how evil their actions may be.

A few months ago O’Reilly said that Jesus would have been a socialist in today’s world. He quoted the bible verse about giving unto Cesar what is Cesar’s. This is flat out wrong. I emailed him a few times and did not get a response. O’Reilly contended that this verse meant that Jesus wanted redistribution of wealth by government.

Jesus was talking about paying your taxes. He was telling us to think about God.

Jesus taught about VOLUNTARY redistribution of wealth by giving to the poor. The Catholic Church teaches that a government with too much power is dangerous especially when it tries to take the place of God. Jesus would have been a generous and honest capitalist.

When Pope John Paul II was a live O’Reilly mentioned that the pope did not have a firm grip on the sexual abuse scandals that were beginning to be exposed in the church. I wish Bill would have done more research. The pope did all he could and the recent investigation on what he knew at the time proves it.

O’Reilly, he is the only talk show or news show host that has a priest as a guest from time to time. He is also, in my opinion, one of the fairest persons on TV today.

A new Challenge

2011-04-28T09:01:00.000-07:00

I am going through a new challenge in life that is so familiar to many in this economy. It seems that I am living beyond my means. Over the past year my income has been cut in half. It is now is lower than my expenses. This is unsustainable. I have worked the numbers and realized that I will loose my house and probably my health care.

I am still a little shocked and sad……..but then there is the love of my life, Jesus. I have been praying to trust God more. I have been constantly worried about money and asking Him for a solution. I say that He knows what is best for me……….but this is not the answer I want.

Does the possession of a house and the quiet that comes with it serve His purpose for me at this time? If I truly want His providence, how can I be upset at loosing a house? My prayers for His will and my continued conversion have been answered. I just did not expect THIS answer.

I feel the gentle hand of the Father humbling me. He is giving a correction to His child, a lesson in wrongful attachments.

He also knows where I will live in the future. He knows who He will work through to teach me and who He will teach through me.

I am forced by my own relentless prayers and bull headed pride to be slapped around by the All Mighty. Thank you Lord!

Thank You Jesus

2011-04-21T06:57:00.000-07:00

My beloved Triune God,
As I reflect on what you have done, what you continue to do, and what you always do, I have only one thing to say.
Thank You!

Some Insights that I live by

2011-04-13T10:05:00.000-07:00

These are some insights or rules that have come to me over the years from deep prayer.

Please note: Providence should not be confused with predestination. Providence is God's plan. He knows what is going to happen, but does not interfere with our free will. We must ask Him for help and live His will. Catholics do not believe in predestination.

1) Providence >> Live it.

2) Wait. Do not chase anyone >>Let them come to us (The Holy Spirit with in me and with me).

3) When you ask questions it will cause them to buy. Telling is selling. >>Do not sell yourself or your religion.

4) The whole range of possibilities is God’s option with me.

5) Do not worry. God can overcome past mistakes.

6) God’s time, NOT yours>>Sometimes you have to just grind it out.

7) Ark Angel roles:

Michael: Sin and Battle of evil

Gabriel: Open-mindedness to God’s will

Raphael: Happy meetings and travel

Pray to them.

8) (From a man’s point of view.) How you treat your wife, girlfriend, or female friend is an enhancement to your relationship with God. It should not interfere with your ongoing love of God and His people. It should be a reflection of that love, enhancing it and extending it.

9) The truth is its own reward. (The Holy Spirit)

The truth is your own reward.

The truth is always the ultimate reward.

Anything else is damage.

Everything else is damage.

10) Wait and pray before any response. >>Rashness plays into the devil’s hand.

11) I do not ask for anything but your will Farther,

I surrender my weakness to you and your will and

accept what you give me.

12) Surrender anything, anyone and/or any situation you are troubled with, forgive

and LET IT GO.

13) Surrender, forgive, - let it go! Surrender, forgive,-let it go! Surrender, forgive -let it go!

14) Pray for perspective.

15) I give you my will Lord. Enlighten me when I get in the way.

16) (From a man’s point of view.) Submit all women in your life to the Blessed Mother and surrender them to her guidance in the Fathers will, through her son, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

17) Sometimes you don’t get to know why He does what He does. Trust Him

Anyway

18) Live in the present.

19) My whole being is your temple Holy Spirit; change my habits to your conform

with your will.

20) Lord help me love a person for who YOU are.

21) In a person (and yourself) you see their nothingness and their slavery.

(The glory of God’s will being done, and their struggles against His will)

22) Zone in the WE (The Holy Spirit and I united) of God’s love.

23) Suffering is a privilege.

It is a lesson, a strengthening exercise,

an opportunity to trust in God, and a prayer

all at the same time.

This is always expanding and your comments are welcome.

Retraction of the Fatima Post

2011-04-01T09:26:00.000-07:00

My Friends,
The post concerning Fatima was for the most part FALSE. I am sorry and I feel like a fool.
Here is the retraction from my credible source and friend.
I am sorry
Paul
I will leave this post up for two weeks to allow all to read it.

Dear Family and Friends,

Oops, again I goofed, by jumping before researching a topic.

I thought some of the items like the year 2012 and the very long earthquake, the holy candles needed for the 3 days of darkness, and some items such as this were NOT in the message. I was able to get the text from my friend Diana.

Quoting from it Lucia describes an angel at the left and a little above Our Lady, with a flaming sword in his left hand; flashing and giving out flames that looked as though they would set the world on fire; but they died out in contact with the splendor that Our Lady radiated towards him from her right hand: pointing to earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice: 'Penance, Penance, Penance ! And we saw in an immense light that is God: 'somehthing similar to how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front of it' a Bishop dressed in White 'we had the impression that it was the Holy Father'. Other bishops, men and women Religious going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark, before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way; having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him, and in the same way there died one after another the other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious, and various lay people of different ranks and positions. Beneath the two ares of the Cross there were two Angels each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God.

That's all of it.

I'm sorry for overly alarming some of you. Some of the other items are taken from the book of revelations etc.

The main message is REPENT, get close to God. Pray and do penance so you'll be ready for heaven when the end does come.... at a time we least expect it.

Thank you for understanding me and my over reaction. I'll try to do better in the future.

Love,

Claudia :)

To question and to learn

2011-03-27T08:54:00.000-07:00

On March 22nd I read the following articles and linked them to the question of why the world seems to reject the catholic message. It occurred to me that Catholics are being conditioned to be quiet and tolerate beliefs and behaviors. It is a fundamental teaching of the church to love the person and judge (and speak out against) the beliefs and behaviors (gently or bluntly as the situation demands).

I would like some comments from you on this.

Author: Benedict XVI Is Unafraid of Causing Discomfort

Calls Pontiff Gentle and Humble, Plain-Spoken and Perturbing

ROME, MARCH 22, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI is distinguished by gentleness and humility, but that does not stop him from touching the bare nerves of the world and the Church.

How does he do that? By proclaiming a God who is Love and who is Truth.

This is the observation made by Stefano Fontana in his book "L'Eta del Papa Scomodo" (The Age of the Plain-Speaking Pope), published by Cantagalli with the support of the Magna Carta Foundation.

Fontana, the director of the Cardinal van Thuân International Observatory for the Social Doctrine of the Church, presents in the book three years of articles (2007-2010) published on the Web site loccidentale.it.

He spoke with ZENIT about his view of Benedict XVI as a Pope who might shake people out of their comfort zone.

"By confirming that Christianity is the true religion, this Pope has caused two explosive consequences," he said. "The first is his having drawn the world to question itself about its own truth; the second is his having claimed a public role for the Christian religion. These are two exacting requests that many sectors, whether in the world or the Church, have trouble accepting and often openly oppose."

Presenting Christianity as truth, Fontana asserted, means that the world is "called to redo its reckoning of truth itself, in fact with the subject of truth as such, after thousands of philosophies have said, and continue to say, that truth doesn't exist."

Then, "to ask for a place for God in the world" goes against a view of politics without any absolutes," the author continued.

Challenging a widespread mentality is "difficult and painful," Fontana proposed, and that's why this Pope can cause discomfort, not only to the world, but also within the Church.

Supernatural

"Benedict XVI preaches two things: that God is love and that God is truth. He causes discomfort above all because of the second affirmation," Fontana said. "The world, in fact, accepts in some way that Christianity announce a truth proposed with love, but it does not accept that it proposes a love respectful of truth."
The Pontiff proposes "non-negotiables," the author told ZENIT, and this brings opposition, from society and churchmen both.

"[I]n present-day society there is nothing that is 'non-negotiable,' that is absolutely true or false, good or bad," he said. And "in order to have 'non-negotiable' principles there must be a place for God in the world. Without God everything is negotiable. For this reason the 'non-negotiable principles' of life, of the family, of liberty of education become continually grounds for this Pope's 'uncomfortableness.'"

Other reasons are more specific, Fontana proposed: "The subject of the liturgy, for example, or that of the evaluation of the Second Vatican Council, of the use of the condom in the fight against AIDS, and women priests. In the end, however, all these more specific topics, can lead back to those that I have mentioned above.

"The logic of the world would like to impede the logic of the Church from existing and would like her also to be conformed to the logic of the world. Is there equality of rights among men? Then why can a woman never become a priest? Is there the right of liberty? Why, then, can one not procreate as one wishes? Is democracy not a value? Then why can there not be a liturgical democracy with the individual communities inventing their own liturgy? As can be seen, the world does not accept that the Christian religion should express a truth and would like to extend to her the truth of the world.

"But the Pope says precisely the contrary. He does not deny the natural truths, but says that if they are deprived of supernatural light they also lose the way. Hence it is understandable that this Pope, though with the gentleness that distinguishes him, touches all the bare nerves of the world and also of so many sectors of the Church."

Vatican: Priests Can't Skip Metaphysics

Calls for More Philosophy Study at Ecclesiastical Institutions

VATICAN CITY, MARCH 22, 2011 (Zenit.org).- With the human ability to think under fire from relativism, priests and theologians need to study more philosophy, the Vatican says. This was one of the main points of the "Decree on the Reform of Ecclesiastical Studies of Philosophy," which Benedict XVI approved Jan. 28 (the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas), and Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, presented Tuesday.

The cardinal explained that the Church is always adapting to respond to the needs of changing historical-cultural circumstances, and that many ecclesial institutions today are lacking in philosophical formation.

This absence is particularly noteworthy at a time "in which reason itself is menaced by utilitarianism, skepticism, relativism and distrust of reason's ability to know the truth regarding the fundamental problems of life," he reflected.

New guidelines are in accordance with Pope John Paul II's "Fides et Ratio," the cardinal added, which notes that "theology has always had and continues to have need of a philosophical contribution."

Deep questions

Cardinal Grocholewski said the Church intends to recover metaphysics, namely a philosophy that will again pose the most profound questions of the human being.

The Vatican official stressed that technology and science cannot "satiate man's thirst in regard to the ultimate questions: What does happiness consist of? Who am I? Is the world the fruit of chance? What is my destiny? etc. Today, more than ever, the sciences are in need of wisdom."

He said that the "original vocation" of philosophy needs to be recovered: "the search for truth and its sapiential and metaphysical dimension."

The cardinal also emphasized the importance of logic, calling it a discipline that structures reason and that has disappeared because of the present crisis of Christian culture.
No contradiction

The rector of the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum), Dominican Father Charles Morerod, added that there is no contradiction between philosophy and faith.

"Christianity presupposes a harmony between God and human reason," he said.

"The importance of philosophy is linked directly with the human desire to know the truth and to organize it," the rector explained. "Experience shows that knowledge of philosophy helps us to better organize, in cooperation with other disciplines, the study of any science."

"Metaphysics seeks to know the whole of reality -- culminating in knowledge of the First Cause of everything -- and to show the mutual relationship between the different fields of learning, avoiding any closing in on themselves of the individual sciences," he added.

Ecclesiastical philosophy degrees will thus increase to 180 credits, going from two-year programs to three-year. There will also be more stringent requirements for professors, with greater demands for doctors in philosophy, preferably with degrees earned from an ecclesiastical institution. Theology degree programs will not be longer, but will have more philosophy credits during the first years.

Sacrifice

2011-03-18T12:58:00.000-07:00

Sacrifice as a verb means:

1) To make a sacrifice or offering of.

2) To surrender or give up, or permit injury or disadvantage to, for the sake of something else.

3) To dispose of (goods, property, etc.) regardless of profit.

If you sacrifice out of love, does it hurt that much? If you love someone enough to give up your time, money or possessions so that they are better, do you really suffer?

If you love God enough to spend time with Him, at Adoration or in prayer, (giving Him what He wants most>>openness to help you be better and a relationship with you) does it really put you out that much?

Are you loosing a chance to do something else or gaining a lesson from God?

When a parent of a mentally or physically challenged child, sacrifices their time and money for the love of the child, do they really loose freedom or gain lessons about love that others may never even understand?

Is Adoration of the Eucharist loosing an hour or spending time with the greatest of friends?

Lent is the time to think about such things and to strengthen our soul muscles by disciplining ourselves with drills like fasting, giving up sweets, increasing prayer time, etc. Just like a golfer tries to better his game by doing putting drills an hour a day and going to the driving range three times a week. He is also asking his coach how he can improve!

Power

2011-03-14T08:08:00.000-07:00

At Mass this past weekend the priest asked the question: Why does God allow us to be tempted? His answer made me stronger. He said God wants to give us power.
You see, when we are tempted, we have to ask for God's help. That is an act of humility. The love of God is your motivation to even humble yourself and ask for help. That builds your relationship with God. The help you get builds your trust in God. And when you don't give in to the temptation, you gain power over it and yourself.

He also explained that lent is a time to practice humility by loving God so much that that you ask Him for help in giving up something that you don't have to so that in time of temptation you have strong "soul muscles".

Power from God and freedom from self ..........then the Holy Spirit is free to direct a persons life for the will of the Father through the Lord.

'WE' Integration

2011-03-05T16:13:00.000-08:00

This past week I have been integrating the new way of thinking by trying to be constantly aware of the partnership of the Holy Spirit in my life. Here are some examples of the way I am now thinking.

When I have a temptation (in this example an impure thought), in addition to thinking about love vs. use, I also focus on ‘we’. “Do we (the Holy Spirit and I) really want to think this way? What do ‘we’ feel for this woman?” Then I feel love and respect for His daughter and my sister. It is a similar process for other temptations, frustrations and irritations.

And

When I do sin it hurts more because I feel the pain of hurting a part of me. As if I was married and broke all the windows in the house or smashed my wife’s car with a hammer. I am allowed to sin, but I hurt the one I love and that hurts ‘us’.

And

In addition to seeing other people as my sisters and brothers, I see them as little churches with the Holy Spirit in them.

It is work too. I have to train myself to think in these terms and to fend off the temptations of the devil. So far the attacks have been about fear of being different, loosing a part of myself, not fitting in……..but the joy and freedom and courage that I gain is worth it. Adoration has always been very powerful for me. Now it is simply beyond words.

My confidence is building. My trust is building. My level of docility is rising. My thoughts and emotions are changing. I hope that I continue to realize how little I am and how powerless I am. I hope to be always aware of how much I depend on God.

I have a long way to go to reach freedom from self, but I have a taste of it.

I know it’s peaceful.

WE

2011-02-25T21:56:00.000-08:00

During my morning prayers and especially during the rosary this morning, I got the feeling that I did not have the “we” concept exactly right and that I had been forgetting to live it. The events of my depression tie into the correction of “we” as well. Let me explain.

A few years ago I heard Fr. Larry Richards speak at a local parish. He said the problem with most people is that they refer to themselves as singular. “I am having trouble do this…, or I did that.” He explained that Jesus gave us His spirit, the Holy Spirit and ‘YOU’ can’t DO anything. You AND the Holy Spirit do things. I embraced this and for a while, I actually thought that way.

The last few months, out of pride or lack of trust or just plain laziness, I fell back to the ‘I’ thought patterns. Lack of sales, and all the other pressures I noted in the past few posts played right into the hands of the enemy. All the while I did not notice that God was doing wonderful things. Some of my friendships got stronger, I saw the Holy Spirit working in the beautiful people in my prayer group, after reading some of my past blog post, I realized that I did not even see what the Holy Spirit was trying to say, I also have been helping a friend become a Catholic, and other nice things.

During the last few days I have been working a home and garden show. I am in a booth, pitching to try to get appointments. I have been having a lot of fun because I love people and I really like to make them laugh. How can I be happy and sad at the same time?

This morning, in the rosary, it hit me. I was thinking of myself as ‘I’ and not ‘we’. (I can’t believe I even read a book on the Holy Spirit by John Paul II that took me a year because it was so deep and still slipped into ‘I’ thinking).

The burning love that I have for God and His people is the Holy Spirit. WE love. WE are praying. I am nothing and can not do anything, but WE can do the impossible. I was depressed because I did not notice God in me.

The last few days I have just let go and trusted and this morning my mind and heart were opened. I understand because of US.

How can WE stress or worry. The creator who let His creatures torture and kill Him out of love gave His spirit to me. How can I/WE not trust Him.

We are happy and peaceful.

Thank you for all your prayers!

Lost, Trust & Hope

2011-02-18T09:47:00.000-08:00

I am still lost. I have asked the lord to help me love Him enough so that I can let Him love me. That means being obedient, docile and open enough to do His will and, even deeper, go through whatever He wants me to go through.

I hope and pray that this is what is going on. But I do not know.

From the Pope on John of the Cross:

……….”In the "Spiritual Canticle," St. John presents the path of purification of the soul, that is, the progressive joyful possession of God until the soul feels that it loves God with the same love that it is loved by him.

The "Living Flame of Love" continues in this perspective, describing in greater detail the transforming union with God. The example used by John is always that of fire: as the fire burns and consumes the wood, it becomes incandescent flame, so also the Holy Spirit, who during the dark night purifies and "cleanses" the soul, then in time illumines and warms it as if it were a flame. The life of the soul is a continuous celebration of the Holy Spirit, that enables one to perceive the glory of the union with God in eternity.

The "Ascent of Mount Carmel" presents the spiritual itinerary from the point of view of the progressive purification of the soul, necessary to ascend to the summit of Christian perfection, symbolized by the summit of Mount Carmel. This purification is proposed as a journey that man undertakes, collaborating with divine action to free the soul from all attachment or affection contrary to the will of God. The purification, which to arrive at union of love with God must be total, begins with the way of the senses and continues with the one obtained through the three theological virtues -- faith, hope and charity -- the purification of intention, memory and will.

The "Dark Night" describes the "passive" aspect, that is, God's intervention in the process of "purification" of the soul. On its own, in fact, human effort is incapable of getting to the profound roots of the person's bad inclinations and habits: It can restrain them, but not uproot them totally. To do so, the special action of God is necessary, which purifies the spirit radically and disposes it to the union of love with him. St. John describes this purification as "passive" precisely because, though accepted by the soul, it is realized by the mysterious action of the Holy Spirit who, as a flame of fire, consumes every impurity. In this state, the soul is subjected to all types of trials, as if it were in a dark night.

These indications on the saint's principal works help us to approach the outstanding points of his vast and profound mystical doctrine, whose objective is to describe a sure way to arrive at sanctity, the state of perfection to which God calls us all. According to John of the Cross, everything that exists, created by God, is good. Through creatures, we can come to the discovery of the One who has left his imprint on them. Faith, however, is the only source given to man to know God exactly as he is in himself, as God One and Triune. All that God willed to communicate to man he said in Jesus Christ, his Word made flesh. He, Jesus Christ, is the only and definitive way to the Father (cf. John 14:6). Anything created is nothing compared with God, and nothing is true outside of him. Consequently, to come to perfect love of God, every other love must be conformed in Christ to divine love.

This is where John of the Cross derives his insistence on the need for purification and interior emptying in order to be transformed in God, which is the sole end of perfection. This "purification" does not consist in the simple physical lack of things or of their use. What the pure and free soul does, instead, is to eliminate every disordered dependence on things. Everything must be placed in God as center and end of life. The long and difficult process of purification exacts personal effort, but the true protagonist is God: all that man can do is to "dispose" himself, to be open to the divine action and not place obstacles in its way.

Living the theological virtues, man is elevated and gives value to his own effort. The rhythm of growth of faith, hope and charity goes in step with the work of purification and with progressive union with God until one is transformed in him. When one arrives at this end, the soul is submerged in the very Trinitarian life, such that St. John affirms that the soul is able to love God with the same love with which he loves it, because he loves it in the Holy Spirit. This is why the Mystical Doctor holds that there is no true union of love with God if it does not culminate in the Trinitarian union. In this supreme state the holy soul knows everything in God and no longer has to go through creatures to come to him. The soul now feels inundated by divine love and is completely joyful in it.

May the Holy Spirit burn love from within all of you!

Lost

2011-02-12T10:26:00.000-08:00

I am trying to post every week so that my struggles my somehow help someone. I must confess that today I am fighting depression. This last year my income has been cut in half, and I am looking for a second job. I’m not going to whine about how hard life is, but I am going to relate my internal battle.

On one hand, I can’t catch a financial break and I’m working my butt off. Sometimes everything in like annoys me and I feel pressured with life and overwhelmed.

On the other hand, I am in love with the triune God and His spirit burns in me with hope. I can’t help love others. I know He is teaching me and training me. Mass, confession and adoration let me feel His arm holding me up. When I help people in any way, I am participating in His love and that brings me comfort.

Humility and a hard life seem to be His will for me now. I don’t understand it fully, but He is the smarter one and I trust Him.

Paul

Opportunity and Trust

2011-02-05T08:36:00.000-08:00

I have a bad case of the flu so I have to make this short.

All the pressure I’ve been under has caused me to pray for trust in God. I think it is the hardest thing for any of us, to let go and trust Him completely. In adoration I was asking to see my situation the way He wants me to see it. That’s when the word opportunity came to me.

Dealing with my boss is an opportunity to strengthen the soul muscle of loving someone no matter what they do. Driving so much is an opportunity think, pray and forgive. Being this busy is an opportunity to MAKE the time to pray. (You get the idea)

I also felt that it will be easier for me to handle similar situations in the future because I’ve had practice.

And then I just lost all the stress. I gave it to God and let go. It felt like He gave me a hug and told me not to worry.

Pressure

2011-01-30T19:22:00.000-08:00

Pressure:

–noun

harassment; oppression: the pressures of daily life.

a constraining or compelling force or influence: the social pressures of city life; financial pressure.

urgency, as of affairs or business: He works well under pressure.

–verb (used with object)

to force (someone) toward a particular end; influence: They pressured him into accepting the contract.

Lately I have been under a lot of pressure from different sources. This has caused me to ask God for guidance. Pressure brings stress.

To give you some back round without getting to far off topic. I am getting pressure from my boss and my roofers to sell more and quickly, I drive 100 to 200 miles a day, I am working a ton of hours so my body is feeling old (I’m only 47), I am slipping on my prayer life and I must do household chores and help the people depend on me for advice.

Yes, it could be worse and some of you are going through tougher times. Maybe that’s why God is letting this happen to me. Maybe by passing on what He is teaching me it will help you.

This is what I have learned or relearned so far:

1) I don’t have it in me to lean on booze. Years ago that would have been my answer. I love Jesus to much. He is the answer to all questions and problems……a future post.

2) At my request and continued prayer, He is doing whatever it takes to convert me into a better participant of His love for others. That includes teaching me by letting me struggle with money, an obnoxious boss, bad drivers and whatever else He has to do.

3) The submissiveness of Jesus to His father’s will in His agony, the willingness of His mother to give herself in service for God and countless other examples of obedience for the love of God and His people, help me.

4) It (all the crap that I am going through) is worth it. I don’t know all the reasons He is allowing it to happen, but if it is His will, it has to be good. I trust Him.

5) My life is not that bad. Whatever happens I will always love God and everyone on the planet, so all of the things that bug me are minor.

6) Suffering would not be that good of a prayer if it didn’t suck.

7) I am realizing a new depth of dependency on God.

You are always in my prayers.

I will post soon

2011-01-28T18:56:00.000-08:00

I am in the process of being taught about pressure and a few other 'not so fun' things. I will try to post Sunday. I will explain.

"Church"

2011-01-20T10:18:00.000-08:00

As is often the case, this concept came to me while I was in Adoration. I was asking God for help in my thought process. I reasoned that if I think the way God wants me to think, it will be easier to avoid sin. It is also true that education in the truth of a subject allows you to be free of any deception about it.

Take stealing for example. I think the way God wants me to about it and I am educated about it enough to never desire to do it. I am free of this sin.

So I’m sitting in a church asking God to let me see things the way He wants me to and it hits me. When did Jesus use the word “church”? He said to Peter: “Upon this rock I will build my church.” He is referring to the future Catholic Church. Another time He said: Destroy this temple (church) and I will raise it up in three days.” He is referring to Himself.

Stay with me on this. He is the Catholic Church, His body is a church, He is a man, He is man’s food (the Eucharist) and He gives us His spirit (the Holy Spirit) to live in us (Pentecost).

That means we are churches. Our person, body, mind, soul, everything is a parish.

I must act like a little parish. What do parishes do? They love people in different ways, they pray, they bring Christ and His love to people, they teach and so much more.

They don’t do sinful things. Imagine your parish getting together to get drunk and gossip or to doing any other sin you can think of. I can’t imagine my parish priest using some of the language caused by impatience that I use on the road ways. In my new way of looking at myself, this parish (Paul), asks God to help the other driver and me.

I ask you to consider thinking of yourself as a parish. You are part of a community of parishes (the church you attend) and part of the Body of Christ (the Catholic Church). Would St. Thomas parish do bad things or think bad thoughts about St. Joseph parish? All the people you interact with are little parishes.

This reprogramming of my mind will take a lot of practice and patience, but I can tell you that I already find it harder to sin. I pray Jesus continues to humble me and help think the way He wishes. I am nothing and without His help, I can not do His will.

My View of Sin

2011-01-13T16:41:00.000-08:00

How a person views reality directly reflects how they view sin. In my continual drive to see things as God wants me to see them, I have noticed that my view of sin is different than most other people's.

I see reality as a coexisting of the two realms. One realm is of the time-less, matter-less and space-less God, Heaven (and the people in it), hell (and the people in it), and the angels (fallen and not fallen), Purgatory and the saints. The other realm is the physical world that we see and live in every day.

They interact all the time. Miracles such as a bleeding host or the incorruptible bodies of some saints are easy to see. I also feel Christ in some people and I get high when receiving Communion. Generational dysfunctional behavior, abortion and terrorism are also some examples.

We live in both these realms at the same. We belong to God and Heaven is our home.

When we sin, we choose to give in to the temptation of a time-less, space-less, matter-less fallen angle and turn our backs on the creator of everything. We betray Him knowing that He will love us anyway. He proved that on the cross.

We also disappoint all those in heaven that are praying for us, including our angle and our mother. (Our family)

We also betray ourselves because the Holy Spirit lives in us and is the source of our life.

We also betray the Catholic Church and her members, which is the body of Christ.

Sin to me is hurting the creator that IS love and disappointing if not hurting my family (of both realms).

This also limits my ability to do my Father’s will……….another post.

Sacrifice

2011-01-06T08:18:00.000-08:00

I have been reflecting and thinking about my last post a lot. For a hockey club or an individual to achieve greatness, sacrifices must be made. What does that mean for an individual?

To be a average person, you have to go to work, pay your bills, take care of you body, go to church on Sunday and be nice to people. You have to be inconvenienced a little and play by the rules. To be a good person, work a little harder and go for the raise, pay your bills, save a little and give some to charity, eat less and work out once a week, be nice because feel for others. The good hockey teams practice more and make the playoffs.

Greatness is a whole new level. It involves looking at the bigger picture and desiring something more. It involves sacrifice.

Sacrifice: the surrender or destruction of something prized or desirable for the sake of something considered as having a higher or more pressing claim.

Sacrifice ties in with will to do what it takes for the big prize as the last post points out.

“The good or ill of a man lies within his own will.” – Epictetus
People succeed because of their inner drive.

You have to be willing to sacrifice your time, your bad habits, your money, …………………..your very self. You have to be willing to give up your worldly vision and ask for divine sight.

I desire virtues. My inner drive (The Holy Spirit) pushes me to sacrifice on a lot of levels. One is giving up an hour a day in prayerful activities and more time in silent prayer. Another is sacrificing my popularity with my secular friends, and the world at large, because I see the divine vision of love. God is working on changing my bad habits and sinfulness.

I want the higher claim of being nothing, so Christ can be everything through me.I want to sacrifice for love of God and His people. He did it for me!

What does it take?

2010-12-16T07:10:00.000-08:00

I was going to write about Christmas, but I read this blog and was inspired. All of us battle sin. I get frustrated when I fail. As I was reading this blog the answer hit me. I have to admit, I want to be lazy. It is easier. I also want to be a saint..............The two can't coexist.

As you read this, have the mind set of sainthood not winning hockey games.

Posted by Drew-Remenda

"Devastating, embarrassing, humiliating — I don't know what word you want to use, but it's not going to be a good one. I don't really understand. That's what ticks me off so much. We know what we have to do as a team to go out there and find a way to win with five minutes left and up a goal. Then we do the things we know that set us up to fail."

Chicago Blackhawks Captain, Jonathon Toews after his team blew a 3rd period lead to the Avalanche.

"It was a good divisional game. There was a lot of passion in that game. You'd like those types of game to go on forever. It's just too bad we lost in a shootout."

Sharks Captain Joe Thornton on the same night his team lost to the Dallas Stars in a shootout.

It's just one of those things, "We've been switching up lines, too. But there's really no excuses. I'm still getting chances, so there's nothing to worry about."

Patrick Marleau when asked about his lack of goals and minus 17 rating.

“If you wish to know the mind of a man, listen to his words.” - Chinese proverb

Ask anyone around the Chicago Blackhawks about Jonathon Toews and you will find out he is a very serious young man. Blackhawks insiders rave about his professionalism and competitive fire. They say at 22 years of age he displays a maturity and focus that is unparalleled. He doesn’t say much, but when he speaks his words carry meaning in the Stanley Cup Champions dressing room. His actions? Well last season he was MVP at the Olympic hockey tournament, Conn Smythe winner and Stanley Cup Champion.

Every now and then I would like to hear two of the Sharks leaders and two really nice guys go off after a loss or bad stretch of games. I don’t doubt their passion to win or succeed, but once in a while I would like to hear some affirmation of that passion.

“The good or ill of a man lies within his own will.” – Epictetus

People succeed because of their inner drive. I have twin boys who are A students, but they weren’t always that way. Davis who is the oldest by 2 minutes, has always been a strong student who was dedicated to his schoolwork. Subsequently he always brought home great marks. His brother, Donovan we had to cajole and badger to just hand in his work on time. On the final day of the 6th grade the kids brought home their report cards. Davis had straight A’s. Donovan had a mixture of B’s and C’s.

Later on that day I found Donovan visibly upset in his room. When I asked what was wrong he said he was embarrassed by his marks and that his brother was so much smarter than he was.

I asked him, “Do you really think Davis is that much smarter than you?”

Donovan thought for a moment and said, “No he worked harder than I did.”

Since then Donovan has matched his brother’s work ethic and dedication and has matched his grades as well. I’m not writing that to be a boastful parent, but because it is an example of an individual being accountable and changing, on his own, through an unmistakable inner drive.

So why bring it up on a hockey blog? Because I believe the biggest problem for this team is a lack of inner drive. They are always seeking some sort of external motivation. This season, we have witnessed that external motivation come in many different forms. Coach McLellan has provided it on more than one occasion, calling a time out to jump start his team or tearing a strip off them during an intermission. Other times it has been the looming specter of hot opponent, like the LA Kings earlier this year. Then there was a rematch with the team that knocked the Sharks out of the playoffs, the Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks. The most public external motivation was on display when Dany Heatley returned to Ottawa for the first time. On every one of those occasions the Sharks responded and won.

Unfortunately those outside sources of inspiration happen a few times a year, so if you depend on those events to get you going then you will be a talented, but inconsistent or underachieving team. I once heard Detroit General Manager Ken Holland talk about his teams “Inner Police”, when trying to explain the Red Wings amazing consistent run of success. The Inner Police are the leaders, the core players, the top players for the Red Wings. Nick Lidstrom, Henrik Zetterberg, and Pavel Datsyuk are the Wings best and they are the most prepared, focused, detailed and hardest working players on the team. Other players may not be as talented or skilled as the top guys, but they are pressured or motivated to approach the game with the same amount of drive and focus and professionalism.

Now I’m not calling anybody out, but when other teams succeed I ask the people with that team about the secret. The answer is always the same, it’s the guys in the room and the strength of their mind combined with the will and desire to be the best. I don’t see that every time I stroll through the Sharks dressing room. Probably I’m just too negative or pessimistic. Because an NHL GM told me the other day, “If your guys ever figure it out, lookout!”

For the Broadcaster Blog, I’m Drew Remenda.

Christmas List

2010-12-10T09:23:00.000-08:00

Who do you love the most?
Who has your best interest at hart?
Who has given the most to you?
Who loves you the most?
Who never stops loving you, even when you hurt Him?
Who is the Way, the Truth, the Life and the Church?
Who can never hurt you?
Who will never hurt you?
Who gave you His own mother?
Who gave you His own Spirit?
Who gave you His own life?
Who gave you His own Son?
Who gives you His own body and blood?
Who listens to you the most?
Who knows you better than you know yourself?

Who prays continuously for you to know and love her son?
Who gave her life to God so you can be saved?
Who watched her Son die for you?
Who was given to you, as your mother, by Jesus on the cross?
Who loves you like her own child?

Who is on your Christmas list and who is not?

Spiritual Muscles

2010-12-04T08:59:00.000-08:00

Last week I mentioned to my nephew that during Advent I try to strengthen my spiritual muscles. He gave me a puzzled look. It occurred to me a lot of people would be confused by that phrase.

To me everything in life, physically, mentally and spiritually is related and many of the methods for strengthening one area can be used to strengthen another.

When a person trains for high school football, like my nephew, they work out to get the body strong. They eat right and study plays. When Advent comes around I try to do the same thing to my spiritual muscles. Extra time at Adoration and more prayer build my spirit. Eating less and small mortifications like missing a favorite TV show or not sitting in the recliner help a different set of spiritual muscles. And then there is the study (the bible) and the action (more confession and reflection to act better) part of my Spiritual Action Plan.

It amazes me how many people spent hours on end with a new class or trying to get better at a sport like golf and yet they forget about the one aspect of their lives that is the most important, their soul and their spiritual life.

Every aspect of a person’s life now and after they die depends on their spiritual life and yet we seem to put more time and money into other things.

In preparation for one that puts this into perspective, we should look at our spiritual action plan.

Life

2010-11-19T09:33:00.000-08:00

"Life is a mystery of love,
which is more truly our own
the more we donate it,
or rather,
the more we donate our own self, making a gift of ourselves,
our time, our resources and our qualities for the good of others." .....Pope Benedict XVI

Be Not Afraid

2010-11-18T10:11:00.000-08:00

The holidays are upon us and it is time to think about all the family and friends that we will see and hug and catch up with. It is also a time when the devil will tempt us to loose sight of who we are.

He will try to trick us into accepting behaviors as a way of loving persons instead of loving the person and judging the behavior as right or wrong. He will try to keep us quiet when we should speak up in defense of God and His church either gently or abruptly as the situation call for it.

If you love someone it is your duty to let them know the truth. If you love someone you owe it to them to stand up for them. Do you love your family and friends enough to risk an uncomfortable situation? Do you love God and His church enough to stand up and say BULL SH—when you have to?

I am out spoken in defending God and the church and most people know it. Some people don’t even bring up some subjects when I’m around because they know I will engage in a discussion that will carry a view point contrary to their way of thinking. I’m fine with that. Just by looking at me they know the Catholic view. If a person wants to know more about the faith, they know who to talk to and a lot of times they do.
Some behaviors I just don't tolerate. For example: I will always call a person out when they say the Lord’s name in vain. I may pull them aside so I don't embarrass them, but I will let them know that it offends me and God.

DO NOT BE AFRAID OF YOUR BELIEFS.
STAND UP FOR THEM.

Parallel

2010-11-13T11:58:00.000-08:00

About 13 years ago I found out that I was gluten in tolerant and that I had to stop eating everything that contained wheat wry or barley. That meant no more pancakes, cookies, noodles, soups, bread, soy sauce, or beer and limited choices on potato chips, candy, Japanese food, Chinese food, sauces, restaurant items and most packaged foods.

I asked the doctor what would happen if I did not change my eating habits. He told me that I would get a disease called Celiac Spree and then cancer with radiation protocol and most probably death in 15 to 20 years.

This made my choice easy. I would have to stop cold. I gave up all those things that would make me sick. I learned to read the ingredients on packaged foods. I did not go down the beer isle. I stayed away from the bakery section. Eating out became a hassle. (I would have to ask the server what was in the food.)

About a month into this I discovered that my skin was not as dry and my dandruff went away. I started seeing other health problems clear up. I realized that I had always thought these problems were perfectly normal. I told a friend about my former health issues and he confirmed that it was not normal to have all those things malfunctioning at the same time. I just did not know how great living healthy was.

The reason for the change was that my immune system was fighting the allergic reaction to gluten and could not fight the other issues. Now that gluten was no longer being ingested, my immune system could go after all those other things. I was free of the big one and now working on the little ones.

I did make a mistake about three months in when I ate a flour tortilla. I was sick for a whole day. My body revolted.

When I explain all this to people, they say things like; “I could never do that!” and, “I am so sorry for you.” I tell them that if a behavior that you have would cause you to die, you would stop that behavior. You would choose life.

Do you see how this whole thing is just like giving up sinful habits? If a soul doctor (priest) told you to change your habits or die, would you? Read this again with that in mind and you will see why I was inspired to post this.

A lot of people think the sinful way is the normal healthy way or they want to have fun now and pay with there life.

Comment:
Are bread, Chinese & Japanese food not healthy? Or is this just because of an alergy that you have?
By JLTan on Parallel

Answer: I love these foods. Gluten is in them, so I can't eat them. I don't know how healthy they are. (Gluten free bread is available but taste awful.)
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My Part

2010-11-06T14:19:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking about my last post a lot. Inviting Jesus into my temptations, putting up with my boss, driving so much and even the irritation with my shortcomings is not even close to what Jesus did on the cross. All that I go through is worth it.

That is warm and fuzzy………..but is that all?

That is all defensive. What am I doing offensively against the devil? Am I praying to not desire the repeat sins? Do I go to confession when I am not in mortal sin, (to avoid mortal sin)? Do I pray the rosary even when I am tired? How about small sacrifices? I could go on and on.

Thousands of times a day God Himself, His Angels, His Mother and or His Saints help me. Am I doing my part in this effort to get me to Heaven?

Then I thought about the bigger picture. In the future, based on what I am doing right now, I could be running a nation wide web site that unites parish communities, have a ton sales and give thousands of dollars to charity, be an empathic healer, or anything else that God has in mind.

How much am I slowing God’s plan down by not doing my part? How many people will not be helped in the future, by God through me, because I was lazy now? Is there someone right now that should be calling me for advice? But because I was lazy a year ago and not ready for God’s work, I am not getting the call.

I have many gifts from God and my love for Him and His people (The Holy Spirit) push me to use them for His plan. I have started asking myself: What am I doing right now to keep His plan on schedule? What is my best offence in this war (for souls)? How can I pre-strike the next potential temptation?

It is not just Heaven when I die that is at stake. It is fulfillment on earth by doing His will and participating in His plan.

Why go through all this?

2010-10-31T12:31:00.000-07:00

A quick note before I begin: "The Banquet" is a blog that I follow because it deeply touches me. I have a link for it on the right and I have linked it here. Please take a look.

I’m being tempted from all sides and the devil is pecking at all my weaknesses.

I drive 100 miles a day or more for sales appointments and it takes a lot of patience, concentration and forgiveness. I have to invite Jesus in to the truck and relax.
The devil pecks away.

My thoughts while driving seem to be about past failures, crosses that I have and wondering temptations. I have to invite Jesus into my mind and relax.
The devil pecks away.

When I try to fall asleep I am bombarded by all kinds of temptations. From anger from lost sales, bad drivers, and my own behavior, to impure thoughts, to worry about the mortgage (lack of trust in God) …and the list goes on. I have to invite Jesus into my thoughts, surrender, forgive and feel His love.
The devil pecks away.

It seems I have to get up early every day.
My morning prayers are great, but I know I have to grind it out the rest of the day.
Already the devil starts pecking.

My boss drives me crazy. I dread talking to him because he is so dysfunctional. (Dealing with dysfunctional people is whole post in itself) I know that whatever I tell him, I will have to listen to his winning or unfounded logic. I will then have to explain to protect his business or ward off his attempt to control my personal life. I will also try to nudge him by example or words towards Jesus. This gets old and sometimes I wonder why I even try.
The devil pecks away.

This time of year also magnifies the pain of loneliness for single people like me. I have to unite my suffering to Jesus’ and pray for single people.
The devil pecks away.

I have a lot going on and somehow feel a little empty at the same time.
I have this blog, I am in Catholic Match, a friend and I started a website in hopes of uniting the parishes in the area, I am have a hobby that lets my empathic gift help people through the pain of past abuses, and of coarse I work a lot. Yet I still feel that I have a lot of love for others that is not getting out. All the above is His. I am His. I have to invite Jesus into my hart and trust Him.
The devil pecks away.

Why do I do it? Why do I have to go through all this crap every day? Why do I have to fight so hard just to not sin? And why do I even fight?

When I thought and prayed about this, I started crying. It’s so simple.
He loves me and His people better than I do. He also loves me and all people more than I do.
I am in love with Jesus and His people.
I have no choice. I have to fight off the temptations and go through whatever crap the good Lord allows to happen to me because of my love for Him and His people. Even my ability to love is a gift from Him. He knows I don’t deserve anything and He still went through the agony of the cross for me. I have to trust Him. He is THE Answer (to all questions and all subjects).

Then I thought the people that called us (the Holy Spirit and me) for advice this past week and the woman that we (the Holy Spirit and me) just helped open and clean a past emotional wound, and the potential customer that gave me a new understanding about what the black American has gone through and continues to go through and my little sister who loves me and tells me so. I started counting my blessings.

It is all worth it. Jesus is worth it. All of you are worth it. All His people are worth it.
My Lord and my God, what ever Dude. What ever you want me to do or go through, or learn or whatever……..my answer is yes.
I love you and all people.

Sheep

2010-10-23T06:38:00.000-07:00

What do you do when you are confused about something? What do you do when you don’t know how to proceed? What do you do when you can’t seem to figure something out?

If you are like me, you seek out a few of your close friends and ask them for their insights. But what if that doesn’t help or you don’t want to share it with even your closest friend?

This happens to me a lot. It is humbling. I don’t want to admit that I can’t figure “it” out or that I am not as smart as I thought. This is good. There is a reason God calls us sheep.
Try explaining auto insurance to a sheep. That will help you understand the difference between man and God.

My solution is to pray for perspective. After I do my morning prayers, and “let it all out to Jesus”, I ask Him to help me understand His will in any confusing situation. Then I shut my brain up and listen. (If you know me, you know how hard that is for me.)

The perspective I get is humbling. Sometimes it is the simple and I feel very stupid. Other times it is profound and I am in awe. I do feel bad when He chastises me. And then sometimes it is just a reminder that it is God that I am giving my will to, and that He loves me and will not let me down. (Shut up and trust me.)

My Obsession

2010-10-14T08:31:00.000-07:00

In the last six months or so my spiritual evolution has brought me to become obsessed with the desire to have Our Lord totally posses me. I have had no way to express it and I have a long way to go. One way to get better at something is to study someone who is better at it than you are.

When I read this, I wept from my soul. It is a little long and you may get emotional. It's worth it!

13-October-2010 -- ZENIT.org News Agency

On Medieval Mystic Blessed Angela of Foligno
"Jesus Lives in the Heart of Every Believer and Desires to Take Total Possession of It"VATICAN CITY, OCT. 13, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave today during the general audience in St. Peter's Square.* * *Dear Brothers and Sisters,Today I would like to speak to you about Blessed Angela of Foligno, a great medieval mystic who lived in the 13th century. Usually, one is fascinated by the heights of the experience of union with God that she attained, but perhaps too little consideration is given to the first steps, her conversion, and the long path that led her from the beginning -- the "great fear of hell" -- to the goal: total union with the Trinity.

The first part of Angela's life is certainly not that of a fervent disciple of the Lord. Born around 1248 in a well-off family, she remained orphaned of her father and was educated by her mother in a rather superficial way. She was soon introduced to the worldly environments of the city of Foligno, where she met a man, whom she married at 20 and with whom she had children. Her life was carefree, so much so that she looked down on the so-called "penitents" -- very widespread at that time -- those, namely, who to follow Christ would sell their goods and live a life of prayer, fasting, the service of the Church and charity.

Some events, such as the violent earthquake of 1279, a hurricane, the age-old war against Perugia, and their harsh consequences affected Angela's life, who became progressively aware of her sins, until she took a decisive step: She invoked St. Francis, who appeared to her in a vision, to ask him for advice in view of undertaking a good general Confession. In 1285, Angela went to confession to a friar in San Feliciano. Three years later, her path of conversion took another turn: the dissolution of her familial ties. Within a few months, the death of her mother was followed by the deaths of her husband and all her children. She then sold all her goods, and in 1291, joined the Third Order of St. Francis. She died at Foligno on Jan. 4, 1309.

"Il Libro della beata Angela da Foligno" (The Book of Blessed Angela of Foligno), which gathers the documentation on our Blessed, recounts this conversion; it indicates the necessary means: penance, humility and tribulations; and narrates in passages, the succession of experiences of Angela, begun in 1285. Recalling them, after having lived them, she sought to recount them through her friar confessor, who transcribed them faithfully, trying afterward to systematize them in stages, which he called "steps or changes," but without succeeding in ordering them fully (cf. "Il Libro della beata Angela da Foligno," Cinisello Balsamo, 1990, p. 51). This is because the experience of union of Blessed Angela was a total involvement of the spiritual and corporal senses, and of what she "understands" during her ecstasies remained, so to speak, only a "shadow" in her mind. "I really heard these words," she confesses after a mystical rapture, "but what I saw and understood, and that he [God] showed me, in no way do I know or am I able to say, though I will willingly reveal what I understood with the words that I heard, but it was an absolutely ineffable abyss."

Angela of Foligno presents her mystical "experience" without elaborating them with her mind, because they are divine illuminations that are communicated to her soul in an improvised and unexpected way. The friar confessor himself had difficulty in reporting such events, "also because of her great and admirable reserve regarding the divine gifts" (ibid., p. 194). To Angela's difficulty in expressing her mystical experience is added also the difficulty for her listeners to understand her. A situation that indicates clearly how the only and true Teacher, Jesus, lives in the heart of every believer and desires to take total possession of it. Thus in Angela, who wrote to one of her spiritual sons: "My son, if you saw my heart, you would be absolutely constrained to do everything that God wills, because my heart is that of God, and God's heart is mine." The words of St. Paul resound here: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" (Galatians 2:20).

We will now consider only some "steps" of the rich spiritual path of our blessed. The first, in reality, is an introduction: "It was the knowledge of sin," as she specifies, "following which the soul has great fear of being damned; in this step she wept bitterly" ("Il Libro della beata Angela da Foligno," p. 39). This "fear" of hell responds to the type of faith that Angela had at the time of her "conversion"; a faith still poor in charity, namely, of love of God. Repentance, fear of hell, and penance opened up to Angela the prospect of the sorrowful "way of the cross" that, from the eighth to the 15th step, would then lead her on the "way of love." The friar confessor recounts: "The faithful one now said to me: I had this divine revelation: 'After the things that you have written, now write that whoever wants to preserve grace must not take the eyes of his soul off the Cross, whether in joy or in sadness, which I grant him and permit'" (Ibid., p. 143). However, in this phase Angela still "does not feel love"; she affirms: "The soul feels shame and bitterness and does not yet experience love, but sorrow" (Ibid., p. 39), and is dissatisfied.

Angela feels she must give God something in reparation for her sins, but understands slowly that she has nothing to give him, in fact, of her "being nothing" before him; she understands that it will not be her will that will give her love of God, because it can only give her "nothingness," "non-love." As she will say: only "true and pure love, which comes from God, is in the soul and makes one recognizes one's defects and divine goodness. [...] Such love bears the soul in Christ and she understands with certainty that no deceit can be verified or exercised. Together with this love nothing can be mixed that is of the world" (Ibid., p. 124-125). To open oneself only and totally to the love of God, which has its highest expression in Christ: "O my God," she prays, "make me worthy of knowing the most high mystery of your most holy incarnation for us. [...] O incomprehensible love! Above this love, that made my God become man to make me God, there is no greater love" (Ibid., p. 295). However, Angela's heart always bore the wound of sin; even after a well made confession, she found herself forgiven and still prostrated by sin, free and conditioned by the past, absolved but in need of penance. And even the thought of hell accompanied her because the more the soul progresses on the way of Christian perfection, all the more it will be convinced not only of being "unworthy" but of deserving hell.

Understand that, in her mystical journey, Angela understood profoundly the central reality: What would save her from her "unworthiness" and from "deserving hell" will not be her "union with God" and her possessing the "truth," but Jesus crucified, "his crucifixion for me," his love. In the eighth step, she says: "However I did not yet understand if my deliverance from sin and hell and conversion to penance was a greater good, or his crucifixion for me" (Ibid., p. 41). And the unstable balance between love and sorrow, perceived in all her difficult journey toward perfection. Precisely because of this she contemplated by preference the crucified Christ, because in this vision she saw realized the perfect balance: On the cross is the man-God, in a supreme act of suffering, which is a supreme act of love.

In the third Instruction the blessed insists on this contemplation and affirms: "The more perfectly and purely we see, the more perfectly and purely we love. [...] That is why the more we see the God and man Jesus Christ, the more we are transformed in him through love. [...] What I have said of love. [...] I say also of sorrow: The more the soul contemplates the ineffable sorrow of the God and man Jesus Christ, the more it sorrows and is transformed in sorrow" (Ibid., p. 190-191). To be immersed, to be transformed in love and in the sufferings of Christ crucified, to be identified with him. Angela's conversion, begun with that confession of 1285, came to maturity only when God's forgiveness appeared to her soul as the free gift of love of the Father, source of love: "There is no one who can give excuses," she affirms, "because each one can love God, and He does not ask the soul other than that He wills it good, because He loves it and is its love" (ibid., p. 76).

In Angela's spiritual itinerary the passage from conversion to mystical experience, from what can be expressed to the inexpressible, happens through the crucifix. And the "suffering God-man," who becomes her "teacher of perfection." Hence, all her mystical experience tends to a perfect "likeness" with him, through ever more profound and radical purifications and transformations. In such a stupendous enterprise Angela puts her whole self, soul and body, without sparing herself penances and tribulations from the beginning to the end, desiring to die with all the pains suffered by the God-man crucified to be transformed totally in him. "O children of God," she recommended, "transform yourselves totally in the suffering God-man, who so loves you that he deigned to die for you the most ignominious and all together ineffably painful death and in the most painful and bitter way. This only for love of you, O man!" (ibid., p. 247).

This identification also means to live what Jesus lived: poverty, contempt, sorrow because, as she affirmed, "through temporal poverty the soul will find eternal riches; through contempt and shame it will obtain supreme honor and very great glory; through a little penance, made with pain and sorrow, it will possess with infinite sweetness and consolation of the Supreme God, God eternal" (Ibid., p. 184).

From conversion to mystical union with Christ crucified, to the inexpressible. A very lofty way, whose secret is constant prayer; "The more you pray," she affirms, "the more you will be illumined; the more you are illumined, the more profoundly and intensely you will see the Supreme Good, the supremely good Being; the more profoundly and intensely you see him, the more you will love him; the more you love him, the more he will delight you; and the more he delights you, the more you will understand him and become capable of understanding him. You will arrive successively to the fullness of light, because you will understand that you cannot understand" (Ibid., p. 184).

Dear brothers and sisters, the life of Blessed Angela began with a worldly existence, quite far from God. But then the encounter with the figure of St. Francis and, finally, the encounter with Christ Crucified awakened the soul by the presence of God, by the fact that only with God does life become true life, because it becomes, in the sorrow for sin, love and joy. And thus Blessed Angela speaks to us.

Today we are all in danger of living as if God did not exist: He seems too far away from today's life. But God has a thousand ways, for each one, of making himself present in the soul, of showing that he exists and that he knows and loves me. And Blessed Angela wants to make us attentive to these signs with which the Lord touches our soul, attentive to the presence of God, to thus learn the way with God and to God, in communion with Christ crucified. Let us pray to the Lord that he make us attentive to the signs of his presence, that he teach us to really live. Thank you

Fantasy

2010-10-09T07:58:00.000-07:00

Have you ever thought about your fantasies? Have they changed over the years?

It seems that most people fantasize about being rich, having that perfect spouse and being very popular. Fantasy drives the pornography industry, the movie industry and a good portion of book sales. And let’s not forget the little helpers like TV, sports and that extra beer.

I was thinking the other day, how my personal fantasizes have changed over time and why. I believe that a person’s fantasies are a window into their subconscious desires. They are a window into what a person really wants.

As I have turned more and more toward wanting the will of God to dominate my life, my fantasies have changed. I used to wish for lots of money and I still do. But my fantasies about my life with that money have changed. My dreams about travel, three houses, lots of women, fluffy drinks on exotic beaches have changed to funding places that help post abortion women, giving large amounts of money to the poor and fighting to stop immoral laws. If I like a woman today, I fantasize about her finding the right man and if it is me great, as long as it is God’s will (that has changed a lot). As I write this my biggest fantasies are over powering me. They are: doing whatever God wants all the time, followed by participating with Him to bringing someone closer to Him.

Today I feel empty when I watch a movie with a ‘happy ending’, but that also had sex before marriage or maybe a murder or revenge in it. I think: “Where is God in their lives? They forgot about God”.

I say to God at various times during the: What do you want? Please override me and direct me. I can live out my fantasy now if I trust Him enough. I have true peace within me (unless I get in the way).

I am Catholic. I do not think like the rest of the world. My subconscious desires are different. I believe Jesus wants to be part of our fantasies. He is a part of mine.

All anybody wants is to love and beloved. The question is by who and how, and is it true?

Ask

2010-09-30T07:29:00.000-07:00

I few months a go I had lunch with a friend and he told me he had a hard time finding the restaurant. I asked him if he asked God for help in his frustration. He said no.

It is true that Angels are with us. It is true that the Holy Spirit lives in us. It is true that all the beings that are in Heaven, Hell and Purgatory are timeless, matter-less, and space-less. The hard part is realizing these truths all the time.

When I am tempted, a (timeless, matter-less and space-less) fallen angel nudges me toward hurting God and myself and possibly another person. When I respond with prayer, I am appealing to God and His servants (other timeless, matter-less, space-less beings) for help.

It is true that nothing exists or keeps existing without God’s permission, and so He is part of every subject.

Why not ask your Guardian Angel for help with driving directions?
Why not ask St. Michael for help with future temptations that you don’t know about?
Why not ask Jesus for better understanding of your job or you spouse?
What subject do you think God would not help you with?
What subject do you think the devil would not try to confuse you about?

In thinking about this, I realize that I have a long way to go.
Why haven’t I asked Him for help measuring roofs better?
(I sell roofing, siding and windows) I get into a zone and try not to fall off the roof. I even pray for safety, but sometimes my measurements are off and it hurts my pay and the company.
Why haven’t I brought Him into my golf game?
When I play with strangers and think of Him, I have great games and I have fun.
When I play with people I know, I try to hard and think too much. (And blow it and get frustrated and……..)

How many other subjects am I shutting Him out of?
I will ask Him to help me be aware of Him in everything I do.
I will as Him to humble me so that I do ask for help.

Getting High

2010-09-26T12:56:00.000-07:00

Getting high is that feeling of euphoria, the escape into another world and the numbness and rush that is so intoxicating.

Before my surrender to God’s will, I used to get high from a lot of things. Adult beverages, power over people, money, popularity, food and other things of this world.
My longtime friends also know that through it all I had always been willing to help someone (God in me, but I was blind).

Lately I have noticed that the things that used to get me high don’t anymore. Now the things that get me high might seem stupid to a lot of people. I get high by doing the right thing. For instance: Volunteering when I can, forgiving the driver who cut me off, admitting when I’m wrong, praying when I’m tempted, feeling small, Mass, Adoration, Confession, prayer, just making someone feel good, offering any cross or suffering that I have up as a prayer and I must mention trusting in God and……….you get the idea.

I get high everyday and I like it. Every time I give into the Holy Spirit that lives in me, I get high. I think I’m an addict.

Forgiveness

2010-09-16T17:05:00.000-07:00

For about three days last week, I had more crap thrown at me from more people than I’ve had in recent memory. Some of it was my fault, some of it was other people’s fault and some of it was no one’s fault.

As I sat in my morning prayer of silence, I let it all out to God and tried to release it. Nothing! I did not hear Him, I was not at peace. All I could do was recount what I had been through. I tried again to release. …………….Then I asked Him for help.

Then I began to see all the people involved including myself. One by one I forgave them and released them and each particular situation to God. When it came to God Himself and “Why did you let all this happen to me?” I said “Jesus I trust in You.”

My peace was restored. I feel Him again.

Only His love can put up with me!

Little Stones

2010-09-12T09:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went to confession and I had to tell the priest that it had been about two months or so sense my last confession. Then I told him that I had lost track. At that moment I realized that why I had such an urge to go.

At the moment when my 10am appointment canceled, the Spirit within me took control and I knew what I was going to do with the suddenly available time. Why? I wondered. I was not in mortal sin? Why does the Spirit want this?

The little stones were getting heavy. When I commit a mortal sin, it’s like a huge bolder is put on my back and at the same time the communication line with God is cut. I rush to confession because of the pain. When I admitted to the priest that it had been a long time sense my last confession, I felt the weight of all those little stones and the frazzled communication line with God.

To top off God teaching to me, last night a friend told me that it was easier for her to avoid venial sins when she goes to confession more often.

I have no words to express the magnitude of God's love.

I Can't Hear Him!

2010-09-03T07:59:00.000-07:00

I have no inspiration as to the topic of this post. I can’t hear Him.

This past week has been frustrating. I have had 2 days off sense August 2nd and it is catching up to me. My boss changed my commission structure after an internal political situation. So I got paid a lot less than I thought. The stress about money, the hours of work and all the little things that go wrong but are magnified when you are tired have caused me mental numbness.

The worst part of this is the fact that when I am in deep prayer in the mornings or Adoration, I can’t hear God. I am in a spiritual void. All I get from Him is a feeling that He is with me. All I can request of Him is that He keeps me out of sin while we (the Holy Spirit and I) go through this.

I have a “to do list” as long as my arm and all I want to do is sleep. I can’t even fight with my boss.

I can’t hear Him and all I can do is trust Him.

".......but YOU DO!"

2010-08-21T13:54:00.000-07:00

I’m sorry I’m late and your email nudges are well taken.
I could say that I have been busy, and it’s true, but it’s no excuse.

In my struggles to let go to God more and more I have been asking Him why some things are happening to me. I used to pretty much know what He was doing in my life and why. This is easy when He is removing some bad habits and starting some good habits. I must be in a different place now. I don’t know what He is doing in my life any more.

The only thing I am doing differently is that I am feeling His love for everyone I meet. I love people better, or He loves through me or ……..how do I explain this? I seem to see Him in people. I want to hug everyone I see. Don’t worry; I will not hug you unless you want me to.

I have stopped trying to control my life and now I am more aware than ever who is in charge. These are some of the unusual things He has done and is doing.

I am selling more than ever, but I’m not doing anything differently.
People from my past have found me again.
I have been meeting a lot of very wonderful people and budding friendships are causing me great joy.
My prayer life has changed. It now has less formal prayers and more internal and ongoing conversations and meditations with the one who lives in me.
My work is even changing for the better and my boss is taking my advice.
There is a lot more, but you get he point.

In addition to telling God that I trust Him, I find my self saying;
“I don’t know why I am in this situation (at this moment) Lord, but you do!”
“I don’t know why that just happened, but you do.”
“I don’t know why you are putting this beautiful person in my life, but you do……….and thank you!”

I am not sure what He is going to do next with my life, but He does. I love Him and I trust Him.

(I can’t describe the joy I feel just getting this on post out of me. What a release. I wish I could explain more.)

I am an adopted son of God.

2010-08-12T08:50:00.000-07:00

Jesus said I am (on the cross>>to His mother>> other places).

Do I act like it?
Do I realize that He lives in me?
Do I let His Spirit run my life?
Do I bring Him to others like His mother did?
Do I realize that He has all the Power?

These are all really nice thoughts that I ponder and try to live by. The trick for me is to beg the Holy Spirit to remind me of this during the day and to trust that God is helping me. In the back of my mind I want to have an awareness of the reality of His world (the real world) that exist at the same time as the world I see. The whole picture is bigger than what I can perceive.

It is like the knowledge that you have a body, and it is working in the background, but you are driving in traffic. You are aware of the reality of your working body and all of what it entails and that it effects what you are doing, but you are not focused on it. The whole thing is reality.

When I am selling or interacting with people, or doing anything, am I aware of the other part of reality? Do I realize that I am an adopted son of God and all the freedom from my ego and responsibility to love others that it is?

The War is Over

2010-08-03T20:24:00.000-07:00

One Monday in Adoration I was unloading (silently) to our Lord and blurted something that caused me to stop cold. I thought: “This is what I want, but you own my will…and you own me” (I could not even think for a while, I just had to realize.)

On another Adoration session I was again unloading about everything and I got a message:
"Stop! The war is over! I have won!"

After a lot of reflection, I came to the realization that I just don’t have to stress about anything. Jesus has already won. I am going to make it to Heaven because I let the Holy Spirit control my life. I have been praying for that for years, but have I lived it? A tremendous peace came over me and has stayed with me with various intensity levels.

Don't get me wrong, I am no saint. I am nothing. God's love is all you see.

God is timeless, so we can see the battles raging in others, but can we realize that the victory has already happened?

We are temples of God sent into different battles in order that we might bring Christ to the front line. We participate with Him in His love, but can we see the big picture?

Over the last few years I have had a repeating message from God and He may be getting through this time.

“Shut up and trust me!”

I am still transitioning on this. It is hard not to worry about paying bills or pending sales or my 80 year old mother. It is hard not to know the future.
(I will always pray for people.)

It is also soooooo peaceful to just let go and trust Him. I’m talking about our Father, Savior and Holy Spirit. Who can I trust more?

If the Holy Spirit runs my life,
THE WAR IS OVER!

My Dysfunctional Family and My Functional Family

2010-07-28T16:14:00.000-07:00

I’m going to open up a bit here in order that my struggles and the help I received and continue to receive from prayer might lead you to peace in a few areas. God has given me this understanding in many forms because He knows how stubborn I am.

I come from a very dysfunctional family. After reading some books and years of analyzing my self, I can safely say that I am almost totally cured, at least I thought. Funny thing about God, if you pray to get closer to Him, you will learn painful truths about yourself. I think only five of my family are normal at this point and about three are on the way (out of 30). I don’t talk to five of my seven siblings. The only rule about dealing with dysfunctional people is to not engage. The hope is that no one will play their game and they might realize that they are the problem and get help. It also protects you from getting your words twisted. Most of you know what I mean.

As you know from my previous post, I have just read a book by Fr. Larry Richards.
In it, he mentions a family that I have been reading about for years. The significance of the family just clicked this time. God must be laughing about how many of His servants it took to get through my thick head.

This is my functional family.
I have a dad that loves me very much. I spend time on His lap and put my head in His chest. Sometimes I cry, but mostly I just feel His warmth and love. He teaches me, comforts me and does all the things a great dad does.

I have a mother that constantly prays for me. All she wants is for me to get closer to God. I hug her so tight. I can feel her love. She gave me the Rosary. She does all the things a great mother does.

I have a big brother that loves me so much that He died saving my life. He is always teaching me and feeding me and helping me obey Dad. He is the best big Brother I could ever ask for. He gave me His Spirit.
(If you haven't caught on, it's the Holy Family.)

My extended family has thousands of members. They are with my Dad and Brother all the time. They are always asking Dad to help me. Most of them are dead, but lots of them are in the churches all over the world.

THANK YOU JESUS for starting me on this new way of thinking. You see my friends; I have been suffering from loneliness. I have been offering it up as a prayer. What a fool am I. How can I feel lonely? Thank you Fr. Larry for an eye opening book. I stopped blaming my dysfunctional family for my actions years ago. The void and pain of moving forward hurt. Not any more. Not any more!

"Be A Man" book review

2010-07-19T12:04:00.000-07:00

I have just read a great book entitled “Be A Man” by Fr. Larry Richards, Ignatius.
This is a “tell it like it is’ book for all men over or in the stage of puberty.
Note that if you have seen Fr. Larry speak some of this will be a refresher.
Fr. Larry is loud, blunt, funny and when needed forceful. I have studied theology for over 20 years and never have I read a book that uses this much plane, honest down to earth language to reveal deep truths. Moreover it offers practical tasks on how to be the man God intends us to be. I am changing my behavior because of this book. It is a good kick in the ass. God knows I need it sometimes.

If you are a man: Do you have a dysfunctional family? Do you want to be closer to Christ? Do you want to change the world? Read this book!

If you are a woman: Do you want better men in your life? Give this book.

Love or Use?

2010-07-14T18:09:00.000-07:00

Why is big government so concerned with wanting to help people?
Why are some big businesses exploiting people?
Why is Planned Parenthood trying to eliminate black people?
Why do some black groups want to kill whites?
Why are we being nudged to be dependant on everyone but ourselves?
Why is society taking the responsibility of teaching our children morals away from parents?

The answer is POWER and the PRIDE that causes the want of power. If a group of people have enough pride they will seek power over others. They want to control the people because they think they are better than them. (And there is the money too.)

The US constitution, the Catholic Church and all the Christian religions that I can think of, teach that power comes from God and is the responsibility of the individual to care for others.

That means all of us are equal and must love each other with the power and responsibility that comes from God; NOT the government, not the school system, not the black group, not the white group…………it comes from God.

St. Paul and Jesus state clearly that God from with in us loves us and loves others from with in us. The Good Samaritan took it upon himself to love his brother. He did not call a government agency.

Charity from the heart is what this nation and the Christian faith are all about (at least this nation used to be about). Forced charity is hollow. Dependency on our selves means independence. Dependency on government means slavery.
Our salvation is an individual journey that is fostered by voluntarily helping others.

The movements in this country to redefine morals are the latest attempt to take power away from God. You are considered intolerant if you disagrees with same sex marriage. You have to protest at an abortion clinic so many feet away, but you can protest at a fur store as close as you want. I can go on.

Pope Benedict: When government ever starts to wander into redemptive policies, it is not divine. It is demonic. ...

It is about love or use. Do we want to love each other or be used and manipulated by power seeking individuals or groups? Do we want to follow our religion and our constitution or not?

Dear God

2010-07-08T07:03:00.000-07:00

Jesus, I trust in you.
Abba, Daddy, Father, I rest in you.
Holy Spirit, I submit my will to you.

I let go of my whole being to you my God.
I am in love with you.

Catholic US Citizen

2010-07-03T18:49:00.000-07:00

The purpose of this blog is the hope of bringing someone closer to Christ, the love of my life.

I was watching “The Journey Home” on EWTN the other day and the person who was telling their conversion story stated that he was looking for a church that "fit" him. When he came to the Catholic Church he realized that it proposed that it was the truth and that he (and everyone in the world) must change to "fit" or embrace the truth.

We have the only religion where God reached out and set the way of thinking.
When I got this email today, I realized that we in the USA also have the only country on earth that states that God give humans rights (not government) and that all people are dependant on God.

To be Catholic and a US citizen is fantastic and also filled with responsibility.

The Legacy of the Declaration of Independence

by Newt Gingrich
06/30/2010

This Sunday, July 4th, we will once again celebrate our nation’s founding, marking the day in 1776 that the Continental Congress formally adopted the Declaration of Independence.The Declaration of Independence was intended to be an official statement explaining why the 13 American colonies had declared their independence from Great Britain. In the years following its passage, however, this statement of principles about the rights of man grew to mean much more. America became the only country in history founded, as Leo Strauss explained, “in explicit opposition to Machiavellian principles,” by which he meant crass, power politics. Instead, America was founded on a set of clearly expressed “self-evident” truths. Thomas Jefferson said the Declaration was “intended to be an expression of the American mind,” and indeed, no document since has so succinctly and so eloquently spelled out the spirit of America.
Our country has evolved out of the timeless truths expressed in the Declaration of Independence to develop a distinct character and set of values that distinguishes us from even other Western democracies.

This holiday, it is worth taking a look at how several key phrases from the Declaration of Independence have served as definitional statements about the aspirations of America, and how those words of our Founding Fathers’ have affected America in the 234 years since they were written.

“…all men are created equal”

The Founding Fathers who authored the Declaration were the first people in the history of the world ever to express our natural equality as a principle of government in such an unqualified way. Though neither the Constitution that followed nor the Founders personally quite fulfilled the promise of those words, it has since been the project of our country to accomplish them.

America came though to recognize that we are not all literally equal—we are born with different capabilities and attributes, and to different stations in life—the words of the founders capture the truth that we must treat each other as equals. We are “created equal” in the sense that all men (and, we now recognize, all women) have the same natural rights, granted to them by God. We are all the same under the law.

This powerful statement of universal rights was used by abolitionists as a moral cudgel to rid the United States of slavery, an institution explicitly at odds with the truths expressed in the Declaration of Independence. Abraham Lincoln consistently evoked the phrase in his famous Peoria speech against the Kansas-Nebraska Act and later during the Lincoln-Douglas debates. As President, Lincoln again included the phrase in the Gettysburg Address as the moral underpinning by which the union should be rededicated. Later, during the women’s suffrage movement and civil rights struggles of the 1960s, leaders such as Martin Luther King used the powerful phrase as a reminder to America that separate (treating people differently under the law based on their race) was not equal.

Leaders such as Lincoln and King believed that as America’s founding political document, the Declaration of Independence is our moral guide with which to interpret the Constitution. They saw that we cannot divorce the law from the moral underpinnings that legitimize it.

But by what authority does that moral underpinning exist?

“…endowed by their Creator”

The core contention of the Declaration of Independence and the principle of natural rights upon which America was founded is that there is a higher moral order upon which the laws of man must be based. The Declaration asserts the existence of “the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God,” which had a clear meaning in 18th Century England and America. It referred to the will of God as displayed by the natural order of the world.

John Locke, who was widely read by the leaders of colonial America, wrote in his Second Treatise on Government: “Thus the law of nature stands as an eternal rule of all men, legislators as well as others. The rules that they make for other men’s actions, must ... be conformable to the law of nature, i.e., to the will of God.”

William Blackstone, who was arguably the single greatest influence on the creation of the American legal system, wrote in Commentaries on the Laws of England, “As man depends absolutely upon his Maker for everything, it is necessary that he should at all points conform to his maker’s will.”

America’s founding was heavily influenced by the English and Scottish enlightenment, which specifically included a space for God and religion in its conceptions of rights, freedom and human reason. This gave the American Revolution a distinctly different character than the French Revolution, which in its most radical phase sought freedom by casting off all authority and remnants of the existing order -- especially God.

In the American formulation as declared by our founders, man’s rights come from God, not from man’s ability to “reason” them into existence. Man does not depend on government to grant him rights through a bureaucratic process, but instead to secure those rights that have been granted to him by God.

In other words, power comes from God, to you, which is then loaned to government.

Thus, the Declaration states, “That to secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

The English and Scottish enlightenment’s conscious inclusion of a space for God and religion had another key influence on the American system of government. Whereas the French Revolution believed it could create a “new man” through government education and indoctrination, the American Founding Fathers had a profound sense of the fallen nature of man. Thus, they created a system of checks and balances that would serve as a restraint on those in power.

(If you want to learn more, Callista and I have developed a series of books and DVDs to explain the deep faith of the Founding Fathers called Rediscovering God in America.)

“…the pursuit of happiness”

Here again we see the influence of the English and Scottish enlightenment on the Founding Fathers. For writers such as John Locke and Francis Hutcheson, the term “happiness” meant something close to “wisdom and virtue.” It did not mean hedonism or other shallow pleasures as the term is too often confused to mean today.

It is also essential to note that the Declaration does not say that we have a right to have happiness provided to us. It says we have the right to pursue happiness – an active verb. As I point out in jest to audiences in my speeches, the Declaration says nothing about a right to redistribution of happiness. It says nothing about happiness stamps. It does not say some people can be too happy and that government should make them less happy out of a sense of fairness.

The Founding Fathers understood that government could not give people happiness, that it was instead up to government to create an environment where the people could best work to achieve their dreams. As AEI’s Arthur Brooks has pointed out, polls of wealthy and successful people show that the harder one works for that success, the greater happiness one derives from it.

America is a land where through hard work, determination, and entrepreneurialism, people can achieve their big dreams. The right of “the pursuit of happiness” spelled out in the Declaration is a definitional statement about the nature of America that has attracted people from all over the world to come here to pursue those dreams.

Who We Are This July 4th

A bedrock belief of American conservatism is a respect for the established traditions and values of American culture. Conservatives believe from the time the first colonists landed in Jamestown, America took on a unique culture and set of values that have set us apart from our European cousins: a belief in natural rights, strong religious faith and values, the importance of the work ethic, and a spirit of community that manifests itself in a belief in limited government and strong civic participation. It is this set of beliefs – truths enshrined in the Declaration of Independence – that have made America so successful, and they deserve to be protected.

The modern Left – what I describe in my book To Save America as a “secular-socialist machine” – is using every lever of power at its disposal to dismantle our unique American civilization and replace it with a secular, bureaucratic culture in which government is big, citizens are small, and our rights are defined by the state rather than endowed by our Creator. Equality under the law is being discarded in favor of equality of results; consent of the governed is being subverted by an increasingly overbearing federal bureaucracy and imperial judiciary; and the pursuit of happiness is being undermined by a redistributive welfare state that kills the can-do, entrepreneurial spirit of America.

This July 4th, I hope you will take time to read the Declaration of Independence and consider the truths about our rights and freedoms contained within. I hope you will take time to appreciate the sacrifices made by the founding generation and generations since to secure our liberty.

But most of all, I hope you will take time to appreciate the greatness of America and how hard we must be willing to work to preserve that which makes it so special.

Happy Independence Day.

Your friend,
Newt

Your comments are always welcome.

The Real Me

2010-06-27T11:19:00.000-07:00

The purpose of this blog is the hope of bringing someone closer to Christ, the love of my life.

Truth is its own reward.
Truth is your own reward.
Truth is always the ultimate reward.
Anything else is damage.
Everything else is damage.

“I AM what IS.”

“More you and less me Lord.”

In a person you see their nothingness and their slavery.
(The glory of them doing God’s will and their struggles against His will)

Dr. Mc Coy:
“When you are in the Kentucky Derby, you don’t keep your prize stallion in the stable.”
Mr. Spock:
“The horse must first be broken.”

All this deeply applies to me.
The first came from meditating on my wounds caused by a dysfunctional family. You see, you have to find the truth behind the wound and let God clean it out before you can change your behavior. Then you have to go after the next one and keep praying that God lets you see more. This process of healing the past works into the future. After a few years you can’t tolerate being untrue about anything.

The second is God talking about Himself. I have pondered it for years. Logically in means that nothing else is. That means everything else is NOT (including me).
“More you and less me’ flows from John the Baptist and ties into it beautifully.

In a person you see their nothingness and their slavery.
(The glory of them doing God’s will and their struggles against His will)
This comes from meditating on my own pride and lessons learned from theology books about the Holy Spirit and God’s providence.
("Providence" by Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. and "The Spirit Giver of Life and Love" by John Paul II)

The last one is just how I feel. I feel like there is a great servant of God trapped inside an impatient, somewhat proud fool. A racehorse stuck in a barn because he does not follow the master’s orders and submit to the jockey (the Holy Spirit).

Please feel free to comment.

Changes soon

2010-06-24T07:34:00.000-07:00

After much prayer I have decided not to shut this blog down. I will be changing the purpose of the blog and the direction away from teens. Please continue to give me your suggestions and continue to pray for the will of God in these changes.

What Say You?

2010-06-18T08:53:00.000-07:00

My friends, I need your advice.
There are no teens viewing this blog. I will make an attempt to reach them with the facebook group. I have been praying for God to give me direction about this blog. I have been asking Him if I should shut it down.

Just one thing. .........All of you.
I can't let you down.

I do have a lot of knowledge and a lot of inspirations that come from deep prayer. I have been holding back because the blog is for teens. It is no longer. Do you want me to let loose? I also have a smart and Spirit inspired team for the things I don't know. Do you want them to let loose? What direction do you want this blog to go to?

This blog is the property of the Holy Spirit and you, the readers.
Please pray and let me know what you want me to do.

WHAT SAY YOU?

Social Justice comments

2010-06-14T14:42:00.000-07:00

All comments for the post "Social Justice" must be identified as having come from a teen or they will not be published.

Who is winning?

2010-06-14T12:05:00.000-07:00

Who is winning the war between good and evil in your heart? How does it feel? What can my team and do to help?

Social Justice

2010-05-28T15:48:00.000-07:00

I would like to discus a subject brought up by a teen, but none of you are speaking up. You can use the comment section of the blog to remain anonymous.

Today I am going to clear up what the church means when they use the term "social justice." The Catholic Church and many other churches advocate helping the poor. Feeding them, clothing them, helping them get jobs, etc. The church and the pope have been very clear that it is the obligation of the people that can afford it, to help their less well off brothers and sisters.

A lot of people I know think that this means the church is in favor of big government. This is a wrong assumption. The church does want the rich to give from the heart. Socialism, Communism, and any other form that takes away the free will of a person to give to his less fortunate neighbor takes away the love behind the gift. They give from the brain. that is not of Christ.

Socialism and Communism also form a class of people that think they know better how to run the lives of others. This leads to greed, pride and so many other temptations that i don't have room here.

Capitalism can also lead a person to those sins. When the Pope and the Church speak of "social justice", and seem to attack capitalism, they are pushing moral capitalism. They are telling us to be ethical in business. Don't make the price to high out of greed, don't take a bribe, do be honest, do pay your employees a livable wage.

The Church and the Pope are saying that no form of government, no form of commerce, no business and no person should operate without taking into account the dignity of every person and the glory to God that they are.

Your Opportunity

2010-05-24T09:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday St. Thomas and St. Joe had their confirmation Masses. I have been working with the teens all year and this is my reward. In some small way I participated in bringing them closer to the truth. The Holy Spirit will guide them in a powerful way now.

I love each one of them and all the other teens in the world. Why, because I did not have the greatest teen years. My parents told me that he loved me and all about the church. I did not listen enough. It did not penetrate enough to prevent a lot of mistakes. When I got sick of my way and worn out by my sins, God called me back to Him. He answered the prayers of His mother. She never gave up on me. I was 30 years old. When I think about what you teens have to face today, I want to cry.

I created the blog and now facebook group so that teens will have a way to ask questions about the catholic faith anonymously. Just use the comment section.
THIS IS YOUR OPPORTUNITY.

If you look at past posts, you will see that my team and I have answered a lot of different questions. You will also find that my team is well qualified. (Blog Team 2/6/10)

Please spread the word. I am not god at facebook, so I will need your help. I do know that I want to help you in your journey toward God and I love you.

THINK "WE"

2010-05-05T14:06:00.000-07:00

Teens,
This blog is for you. It is not for adult questions.
(Adults are welcome to read and become followers.)
What's on your mind?
Ask your questions?
My team and I will answer.

I have a direct email link or you can use the comment section to be anonymous. Please tell other teens about this blog.

I don't have a question from a teen this week so...............
From deep prayer I have been inspired to think differently. God has used many people to facilitate this new thinking. The two that have helped the most are
Fr Larry Richards, and Pope Benedict.

First we must accept the facts.
I am a temple of God.
He (Jesus) is the way, the truth, and the life.
His spirit lives in me.
Jesus is the bride groom of my soul.
God is what is. Therefore nothing exists without Him and His permission.
No one can do anything good without the help of God.

When I say “I do this” or I do that” I am not taking into account the reality of the above truths.

I must now think;
“We (Jesus and I) are looking at this.”
“We are going to the appointment.”
I am never alone.

I can now ask the Holy Spirit questions concerning our next action.
“What do you think we should do about this problem?”
“How do you see this Jesus, and how do you want us to see it? Help me see it through your eyes.”

It now becomes easier to ask for help, to invite the power of the Spirit in times of temptation, to avoid sin and be humble.
“Holy Spirit, I need you. Please remind me of who lives in this temple (body) and what we should be doing and thinking. Help me. Please let me have more you and less me.”

With this reality taking hold of me it is becoming easier to trust God. An awareness of the indwelling love between myself and each person of the trinity is filling me with warmth and breeding trust in God.

I now love a person for who God is within them. More on this in a future blog, let’s just say it becomes easier to forgive and love people.