The Questions..

Let Him do with me whatever He wants, as He wants, for as long as He wants. If my darkness is light to some soul----even if it be nothing to nobody-----I am perfectly happy----to be God's flower in the field.----Mother Teresa, from "Come Be My Light"

 

Is there a burning desire deep within us to live only for Jesus? Is there a fire in the soul to be on fire for the things of God? Is there pain inside when we sin against His love? Is there a craving for union with the Trinity?! Is there a growing awareness of the needs of those around us? These are the questions we should stick on our refrigerators. These are the questions that lead us to honesty, humility, hunger, and holiness. Mother Teresa is the worlds example of burning for God and for those around us. She saw Jesus in every person she met, especially the suffering.  In a time when everyone is worried about the economy, let us be people who are concerned with holiness, love, and giving ourselves away.

 

Lord, have mercy on us all.

 

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The Jesus Prayer

Pray without ceasing.---St. Paul

 

"Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner." This is one of my favorite prayers. This simple prayer becomes more and more important for me over the years. I learned it in 1998 after reading the book, "The Way of a Pilgrim." The author is unknown, but he was a wandering seeker of how to "pray always" in the 19th century. He heard the words of St. Paul one Sunday during the liturgy of the Word at Mass. Paul said to "pray without ceasing". The pilgrim started asking everyone how this could be done in the midst of life's daily toils. His question took him many places and through many experiences. Finally, he learned the "Jesus Prayer" from an old priest who took him in and fed him. It is a very simple prayer, the simplest, but it has within it the key to our deepest longings. The pilgrim prayed the prayer so often during his day that it became a part of his very breath. The prayer slowly began to change his view of the world and the people he met. He became more and more truthful, caring, forgiving, and detached from the things of this world. His love for Jesus overtook his simple little life and joy flooded his soul.

 

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.

 

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Stop grasping, start receiving!

You will be like God.---Satan

 

Why did Adam and Eve grasp at the knowledge of good and evil? Some mysteries are only meant to be received from God, not grasped at and taken. It may not have been that God didn't want Adam and Eve to know about good and evil, but it was a sublime knowledge that He alone could give them. As soon as Eve grasped at this, her image of God changed. Satan made God out as a killjoy tyrant who was against her, keeping things from she and her husband. This is why they were afraid and hid from God when He came for their daily walk in the garden. St. Paul tells us that Jesus "did not regard equality with God something to grasped at; but, He emptied himself, taking the form of a servant." The new Eve, our mother Mary, received the word of God and said yes. In doing so, she reversed the "no" of  the first Eve. What did Mary call herself in her prayer of praise to God? She called herself the "handmaid of the Lord." Mary's hands were not grasping, they were receiving. We must stop grasping and start receiving. The new Adam, our Lord and Savior Jesus, received His Father's will and did only what He saw the Father doing. (Isn't it fascinating that Jesus spent so much time in gardens?) Mary received the word from Gabriel, and in her humble yes, she became the means by which God would come to us in the flesh. Jesus gave us His flesh, and blood, for our food and drink; or as He says in John 6, "My flesh is real food, my blood real drink." These are the mysteries of an all loving God Who wants to give us everything pertaining to life and godliness, which is true liberty and joy! He has proved this in His passion, death, and resurrection. When we stop grasping at what Satan tells us is rightfully ours, and receive whatever it is that God wants to give us, we will find Jesus waiting to walk with us in the garden again. We must resist the devil and he will flee from us!

 

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Francis

Preach the gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words.---St. Francis of Assisi

 

Today is the feast day of Francis of Assisi. Probably more people have heard of this Saint than any other. He is so prevalent that Walmart keeps plenty of his statues on hand for customers flower gardens all over the country. He is the patron Saint of animals and nature, and he is very misunderstood. Yes, he preached to the birds, he tamed a wolf, he called the moon sister and his own body brother ass. He was a mystic in that he saw God's mercy in both the hardship and victories of life. But more than any of this, he was deeply dedicated to the Holy Trinity, to the Virgin Mary, the Catholic Church, the poor, and to the salvation of souls. He was so intense in his love for Jesus that he wanted to be like Him in every way. So much did he want to be like Christ that he would often refuse any comfort that might cause him to forget his need for the Lord or the suffering of those around him. He was a radical soul. He heard Jesus tell him to rebuild His Church. He obeyed, and by example brought sweeping renewal. He did this by abandoning himself to the strange and upside down ways of the Kingdom of God. He called himself a clown for God. He prayed for God to make him an instrument of peace. This once very comfortable son of a wealthy merchant father became poor for the sake of the poor in his little town. In this, Francis was simply showing the world Jesus.

 

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Fully Alive!

For me to live is Christ...St. Paul
 
Fr. Robert Barron's incredible DVD, "Untold Blessing" ( www.wordonfire.org), is an eye opening introduction to what it means to become a friend of God. He talks about the paths to Sainthood. One of the most radical and beautiful statements he makes is this, "Your life is not about you. Yes, it is your life, but it's not about you." He goes on to cogently show that this is the mind of Paul, and how this thinking flies in the face of our culture which screams to us daily, 'It's your life, grab all you can, it's all about you.' Somehow, when we realize that our life is not about us, it fills us with a tangible sense of liberty and detachment. It frees us to focus on the mind of Christ in our daily situations and not the mind of CNN, FOX, or Oprah. We are in a battle and the battle is for our souls. Jesus asked the question, "What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?" We must guard daily against the temptation to make our lives about ourselves. This is hard, we need help. Jesus knew how hard this would be for us. This is why He gave us His Church through the sending of His Spirit. This is why He gave us the Sacraments administered by the Apostles and those who have followed them through the laying on of hands. We cannot do this alone. We need His Body and His Blood, we need His forgiveness, we need His Real Presence, we need the Mass. Paul warned against failing to meet together and going it alone, how these people shipwreck their faith. We need one another in this journey. St. Paul said for him "to live is Christ...", he was truly a friend of God. His life was not about himself, how joyous and alive he truly was!
 
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What Lies Behind

I forget what lies behind...St. Paul

 

Good memories should encourage us. Bad memories should inspire us. St. Paul was speaking of good and bad memories when he said he forgot what was behind him. He had the memory of being a faithful Jew. He also had the memory of persecuting the Way. He gave his approval to St. Stephen's stoning. His example is vital to our walking with Christ. So often we hang up on our past , good or bad. Maybe we can't let something go or can't forgive someone.(even ourselves)  Or maybe a dream we had prayed for never came true. We blame others, and often, deep down, we blame God. Paul says to forget what lies behind. God is bigger than our memories. His love is a crazy love! He is not against us is any form or fashion. He wants us to move on, to learn, to forgive, to be free to serve Him and others in a way that fills us with even more life. He wants us to be fully alive! St. Paul was fully alive. Even with all of his anxiety, concerns for his "children" in the faith, his imprisonments, his beatings, shipwrecks, arguments with fellow disciples, tangles with Satan, St. Paul lived! And here is the most important part, "It is not that I have reached it yet, or have already finished my course; but I am racing to grasp the prize if possible, since I have been grasped by Christ Jesus. Brothers, I do not think of myself as having reached the finish line. I give NO thought to what lies behind but push on to what is ahead. My entire attention is on the finish line as I run toward the prize to which God calls me---life on high in Jesus Christ."  Paul to the Philippians, chapter 3.

 

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God's most precious flower..

Unless you become like little children you will not enter the Kingdom of God.---Jesus

 

Today is the feast day of St. Therese of Lisieux. She lived in the late 19th century. She was nobody. She did nothing grand. She died before her 25th birthday. Listen to what she said, "O Jesus, my love, at last I have found my calling: my call is love." She sought ways to serve God but realized she could do nothing great. She understood that not everyone in the body of Christ could be the heart, but some had to be an ear or an eye. Something little. She dedicated her life to being one of the little flowers in God's garden, and her life inspires millions around the world today to love Jesus. Her simple childlike faith inspires my sometimes complicated self important "faith" to see the beauty of humility. I hope that I might, by God's grace, become more and more the child I should be. A child simply trusts the Father, no matter where in the garden he or she is planted. One man's weed is God's most precious flower.

 

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