The Jesus Prayer Again

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

There are times in our lives when we just can't seem to pray. We try to open our mouths, but nothing comes out. Willie Nelson sings about it, " I've been too sick to pray Lord." Our minds become weighed down by the burdens of life, and in our pride, fear, anger, depression, laziness, etc..whatever it is, we simply can't talk to God. As I have mentioned before, I came across the book, "The Way of A Pilgrim" many years ago. I think this book saved my life. This book gave me the "Jesus Prayer", and there have been many times when this prayer alone got me through. When the devil brings those despairing thoughts, replace those thoughts with this prayer. When illness or pain fills your mind with "what if?", replace those fears with this prayer. When you are angry at God for being so hard to understand, fill your mind with this prayer. This prayer is always the truth, at it will always open the door for more dialogue with God.

wkm

I Blame God

 I Blame God
 
Failure follows me around
Like a dog I shouldn't feed
God fills me with His visions
And they just won't let me be
 
I would dream when I was young
Now I'm older and confused
His words of love drip from my tongue
and I beg Him to be used.
 
Used for the troubled
Used for fools
Used for the lonely
For the weak and abused
 
The songs come like birds gliding on a silkened wind
Some blue some gray some strangers some friends
They speak and I write as fast I can
I'm a vessel of the wind with a pen in my hand
 
I blame God for my pain and the road I'm on
For this temperamental hope, sometimes here sometimes gone
He would rather us fail and gain His bright home above
Than get everything we want, while down here in the mud
 
I don't mind the loneliness or the tempest in my mind
I don't mind the fearfulness or the way some people lie
I don't mind the sleepless nights or the days that drive me mad
As long as He stays with me, and holds me in His hands
 
The songs come like birds gliding on a silkened wind
Some blue some gray some strangers some friends
They speak and I write as fast I can
I'm a vessel of the wind with a pen in my hand
 
I blame God for my pain and the road I'm on
For this temperamental hope, sometimes here, sometimes gone
He would rather us fail and gain His bright home above
Than get everything we want, while down here in the mud
 
wkm for Fr. Greg Michaud
June 6, 2009
Oxford MS

Treasure

Wherever your heart is, there your treasure will be.--Jesus

 

Where do we think Jesus would have us seek our treasure? Does He want us to find our treasure in money, fame, sex, education, power, drugs, alcohol, etc...? He wants us to find it in Himself. Why would He want this? Is it because He is an ego maniac? Is it because He is insecure and needs the praise of humans? He needs nothing, so it must be something else. When someone places all of their hope, treasure, and love in something, that something becomes why they wake up everyday and get out of bed. If Jesus is why we live, then we will live for beauty, forgiveness, grace, truth, creativity, holiness, love, and others well being will come before our own. Where are our hearts today?

 

wkm

I AM

I AM...--God, speaking to Moses

 

Moses had just been told by a voice from a Burning Bush to go back into the dragon's jaws and rescue the Jews. He asked who he could say was sending Him. "I AM" came the reply. His name is "I AM", God must be an existentialist. This answer He gave Moses is very philosophical. It's as if He is saying He is never 'I WAS, or I WILL BE', He is the eternal now. Time means nothing. He always IS, which we can logically assume means He always was and always will be. And this is the exact answer Moses needed to hear. The God calling him to this impossible task is ever with Him in this impossible task. He is ever in the moment. Jesus comes along and uses this same language and it gets Him crucified. He said, "I AM the Bread of Life...Before Abraham, I AM.., I AM the Way the Truth and the Life..,I AM the door,, etc.. If Jesus was just a man, then He was nuts to use these words around the Jewish leaders! No wonder they wanted to kill Him, He was calling Himself God every other day! But we know, as our doctrine teaches us, He is fully man and fully God. Knowing this teaching makes His, "I AM" very encouraging to us. He is ever with us as our "Good Shepherd", our "Bread of Life", our "Door", our "First and Last", our "Light", our very present help..... This is very encouraging.

 

wkm

God is for us..

If God is for us, who can be against us.--St. Paul to the Romans

 

If we would ever stop and consider these words, "God is for us", if we would mull them over and over in our minds, we may discover there is more hope to be had than we realized before. It is a complicated and sometimes loaded truth, but it is truth none the less. When we lose a job, or can't find a job, God is for us. When we lose a parent, spouse, child, or friend to an unforeseen tragedy, God is for us. When our plans and dreams fall to pieces, God is for us. When we feel depressed, afraid, lonely, or it seems we are losing our minds, God is for us. When we find out we have some kind of nagging ailment, God is for us. God is for us. God is for us. This should be our mantra in this world of trouble we live in. To believe that God is for us, even when it seems He is not, is to see with the eyes of faith. To believe He cares, even when His silence is so loud it scares you, is to live in the wonderful world of sweet detachment.  God is for us. We must let these words wash over us, and pray they will change us little by little as we go.

 

wkm

He is Creator, I am creature

What advantage can I expect from this ruin of my life which leaves me desperate and hopeless?...But wait awhile and you will see that by it God is preparing you to receive the greatest marks of his favor...There is nothing harder for a Christian than to break the last tie that binds him to the world or to his own self. He knows he ought to do it, and until he does it there is something wrong with his life ...The misfortune which has befallen you will soon do what all your exercises of piety would never have been able to do.---St. Claude de La Colombiere

 

 The mystery of being a follower of Jesus is immense. We are never in control. If we think we can control and manipulate God in any way we are mistaken. But for some reason, we keep on trying to make Him do things for us whether they are what He wants to do or not. We are creatures. He is Creator. Sometimes I treat Him as if He is creature, and I blindly hold on to something that simply ruins my life. Whether it is a dream, a person, a "good idea", etc.. whatever it is, if it even slightly comes between me and Jesus, our Jealous God will let it ruin us until we break from it. I am learning to blame God for my dreams that don't come true, and He happily accepts the blame. He would rather my soul be free in His perfect love than my soul be enslaved to some temporal dream that if came true would only take me further from union with Him.

wkm

A Violent Wind

Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.--Acts 2:2

 

God knows when to affect our senses for His purposes. It is rare when He does this kind of thing, but when He does it is not soon forgotten. It seems though that most of the time He speaks to us in very quiet and common place ways. A thought comes from nowhere. We read something that enforces an idea we were praying about. This can happen reading scripture, a novel, hearing a song, a sermon, during a conversation, etc... We must always be open for Him to speak to us. The day the apostles and Mary were there in the upper room, and the Holy Spirit came in this sensational manner, they were open to God speaking to them. Their obedience to pray and wait brought about this violent wind that changed everything! That wind still blows in every baptism, confession, in the the Eucharist, in all the sacraments. This Holy Wind blows through every priestly prayer prayed during the consecration of the host at every Mass, in every place, all over this planet. Even as you read this now, the Holy Spirit is doing this somewhere in the world. He still shakes the rooms of our lives. What happened that day brought thousands to the Way. If we will give ourselves to prayer and waiting for God, like those in the upper room were doing, we will see people come to Jesus too. He will give us the words to say, but even more, the lives to live.

 

wkm