Know the Lord

What is the reason that we are all Christians? What are we trying to do? How are we trying to do it? As Christians we are all asked to love and serve the Lord. We are given the Ten Commandments and asked to obey them. We are given the Beatitudes. We are given one additional request to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. We are asked to praise and give thanks to God. We are encouraged to pray to God. What is the real purpose for all of this activity? What will happen to each of us if we do it with love in our hearts, kindness in our souls, honor and holiness in our minds? Our entire being as Christians is a preparation for our eternal life with God. Each moment of each day we are asked to work for our salvation. Each moment of each day we are asked to be compassionate, humble, merciful. Each moment of each day we are asked to work to please God. Our daily lives give us opportunities to serve God. We must work to establish, nurture, and protect a relationship with God. The most important relationship for a Christian is his/her relationship with God. Wanting salvation by itself is meaningless, completely worthless unless we want to know the Lord. Prayer is essential to this. We must learn how to pray. We must make time for prayer in our lives. Prayer filled with kindness, truth, goodness, love, holiness and hope can lead us to closer relationships to God. As Christians we must take time to listen for God's voice, God's gentle call. We are all living, breathing, articulating, gesticulating members of God's ministry. We must understand this with the entirety of our being and then use our lives to share the Good News with everyone with whom we interact. Our actions as Christians are often more important than our words. Each generation searches for something new, something improved. Each generation listens to the campaign promises. Christians have been given a better covenant with better promises. We simply have to believe. We simply have to remember our baptismal promises and try to live a better, more loving life of charity, humility, and obedience. Our purpose here is not to purchase the biggest house, wear the trendiest clothes. Our purpose is to love and serve God. Our purpose is to prepare ourselves for eternal life, to prepare ourselves for salvation.

of erring heart

We have become partners of Christ if only we hold the beginning of the reality firm until the end, for it is said: "Oh, that today you would hear his voice: 'Harden not your hearts as at the rebellion.'" Hebrews 3:14-15

Faithful. Glory. Honor. Faithful in all his house. Take care. Encourage yourselves daily.

These words leap into my imagination as I think of the building a relationship with God. Jesus Christ asks for our love, our mercy, and our honor. Good Christians are people filled with the faith and grace of God. These people are filled with charity and hope which they freely share. Their existence is one of serving the Lord, asking others to serve the Lord. Their existence reflects the hope of God for all human beings and for the followers of Christ. Their existence begins with simplicity of faith, with spirituality organic and growing, with solidarity for all human beings especially those who are forgotten, marginalized. Their relationship with God is the most important relationship in their lives. These Christians live quiet lives of great humility and sacrifice.

Each day is an opportunity to praise and exalt God by their deeds of compassion and mercy. Each day provides one more instance of their obedience to the teachings of God. With faith and courage each one of us can learn how to serve the Lord, each one of us can learn how to listen for the Lord’s voice. With prayer and patience we can learn the will of God when we allow ourselves to be loving, unselfish, quiet.

Modern life creates anxiety. Each day we are encouraged to be selfish, gluttonous, avaricious by the secular world. The flesh is seen as more important than the spiritual. Sometimes modern life seems dirty, dangerous. The media likes presenting images of all types of sin and vice. There is always the possibility of a passive indoctrination, animosity and loathing is encouraged, often heralded. Being good, following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ is often presented as weakness, being boring.

There is an intense need for cleansing now. Our society is unclean. Our faith can help us. Our love and obedience to God can save us. We must remember prayer. We must remember God’s greatest gift to each one of us.

We all need compassion, charity, humility, mercy, hope, civility, love.

We must be willing to help our neighbors with deeds and prayers. We must be willing to praise God with deeds and prayers.

The world is filled with demons, with evil. With God’s help we can survive and flourish. We must ask for help, we must obey his commands.

has given us discernment

So this joy of mine has been made complete. John 3:29

Being Christian is a journey to warmheartedness. It is a journey to love, a journey of faith, a journey of loyalty, a journey of confidence. The destination is a close relationship with God. Being Christian is a journey of sacrifice.

Patience is a necessity which all Christians need to possess. Anxiety can cause doubt, can impair a person’s judgement.

Simplicity is a Christian’s best friend. Learn how to love unconditionally; learn how to love all mankind universally. The love that Jesus wanted us to share with each other is more broad, more powerful than romantic love and infatuation. Keep love simple, keep love humble.

Learn who is your beloved in Jesus Christ. Allow yourself to be silent, to look for goodness, kindness, holiness in yourself and in others. Remember that a Christian life is a journey. Remember to avoid complaining, remember to remain alert. As Christians we should always be ready to accept God’s request for us to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, accept God‘s request that our lives be filled with charity, compassion, humility, and obedience, and accept Jesus Christ as the only begotten son of God who will lead us to eternal life.

Each Christian is asked to believe and embrace love universal, love unconditional. It is important that we learn how to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. It is important that we learn how to praise and petition God. It is important that each Christian learns how give thanks to God. Having a close relationship with God is the primary goal of Christianity. Love, universal and unconditional, is a vehicle for faith, hope, mercy to be shared. This form of love is difficult to master. It requires a selflessness, it is completely unselfish. This love is simple, youthful, fair; the basis for this love begins with the social justice teachings of Jesus Christ.

Universal and unconditional love prepares each Christian to remain in a state of welcoming to all people encountered, especially those in need. As Christians we must be prepared to welcome God into our lives.

Pureness in thought and deed will help us find righteousness, help us move closer to God. Christian morality starts with obeying the word of God. We must honor and praise God with our entire lives. Our hearts, minds, and souls must become incorruptible to sin.

If we observe anyone sinning or if we ourselves are on the verge of sinning always remember to pray. Prayer does help. Use prayer to walk on the right road, to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ.

Learn the power and beauty of self-appraisal. Always seek to improve all your activities done for or all the activities in the name of the Lord. Examine yourself fairly, learn from your vulnerability, learn from your fear. Be fair, be just. Remember that you are human. Accept that you might fail, accept that you might sin. Learn to forgive both yourself and others.

This is a great expedition of faith and hope. Allow it to be your life’s great purpose and pilgrimage.

Always remember Jesus and the Apostles preaching and baptizing in Judea. Let your life proclaim that Jesus Christ is the true son of God and he is the true God.

Hear Them

Learn all you can about love; learn the meaning of love; learn the signs of love; learn all you can about Jesus Christ, his life, his times, his ministry, his death, his resurrection. Allow the knowledge about Jesus Christ guide you toward holy living. Learn how to lift up your soul and others. Seek and understand goodness and kindness. Fill your mind with the Good News and words from good books. Allow yourself to remain ignorant of about much of the secular world when it goes against the laws and wishes of God, when it blocks access to God with deceit, deception, distraction, diversion. Learn to confess your sins frequently as needed. Always strive to be humble. Always read and reflect on the Word of God. Search for ways to serve and to obey God. Remember that life begins with love.

Are you a member of God's flock? Are you one of the herd? Is this your weekly rendezvous? How do you consociate with God? It is time to be lionhearted for God, to display a bold dauntlessness defending the faith, to share a compassionate valiance in the name and glory od God.

Allow charity, humility, obedience to help create the hypotenuse of your relationship with God; explore the hypostasis of love, universal and unconditional; and seek the essence of goodness, kindness, and holiness within your soul.

Simple Thoughts

Being Christian is being part of a never-ending expedition. It is an adventure. It is a way of life. Words like morality, moralistic, morals, good character, incorruptibility, virtue are frequently mentioned. Being Christian is an exercise in charity, humility, obedience to God. It is not simply high ideals. It is action, it is reaction. It is prayer and reflection and hope. It is tears and laughter. Being Christian is an eternal struggle of good against bad. Being Christian is an intimate interior dialogue between the soul, the heart, and the mind. It is an argument. It is a choice. Being Christian is often difficult. Being Christian means saying yes to God, yes to sacrificing for God, yes to being obedient to God's wishes. Being Christian can be very public or very private. Being Christian means believing in and loving God. Being Christian means seeking out those others who believe and love God, too.

Courage is needed. Faith is required. Simplicity is needed. Love is required.

Getting the Right Steps

Now is the time to think of the International Date Line! Now is the time to wish that there was an International Prayer Line. Each Christian must always remember that God is always close by, that God is always waiting patiently whether we are in the Black Forest or in the Loire Valley or Palestine.

Now is the time to renew the quest for goodness.

Now is not the time to talk about morals; it is the time to create and to protect them. Each second of our lives should be filled with the charity, humility, obedience, and love which Jesus Christ preached about.

Now is not the time to talk about high ideals; it is the time to fill each moment of our lives with love and service for God. It is time action. It is time for prayer. It is time for righteousness. Whether we are in Death Valley, or listening to an anecdote about a vacation in the Great Sandy Desert, or looking at a photograph of the Painted Desert allow your eyes to discover the beauty, the mystery within each minute of your life. Allow yourself to accept God's love, to welcome God's call, to embrace humility, charity, obedience.

God is present in Aberdeen and Bethlehem. God receives prayers from Bangkok and Buenos Aires. Canterbury provides God with tales and reconciliation. God is present in London and Thunder Bay. God receives prayers from Saint Andrews and Sarajevo. Tokyo provides God with tales and reconciliation. God is present in Uranium City and Zurich. Where is God in your life?

A Moment Please - January 1, 2011

It is great to begin a new year wishing everybody warmheartedness. It is great to begin each year with an expanding feeling of tenderheartedness. Now, prepare for the journey thru the next twelve months. Accept that each day will not allow you to feel "fine and dandy" but resist the temptation to complain. Now is the time to accept life, to accept all that is presented with great humility. Embrace pain and adversity with love and charity. Avoid anger and rudeness. Allow yourself to welcome the mystery and beauty of each moment of your life. Avoid rushing, avoid anxiety. Time does not stop for a slice of apple pie but you can. Always remember to pray. Always remember to praise God each and every day. Always remember to give thanks to God, each and every day. Always remember to love God forever.

Do not be afraid to be moral. Allow yourself to use the lessons of the Bible to develop your moral code. Love, universal and unconditional, is the foundation of moral integrity. Avoid jealousy, selfishness. Look to those who exhibit qualities of charity, humility, obedience, mercy, goodness, holiness, kindness, and love. Learn from those. A good character leads to honor, honor leads to virtue, virtue leads to God. Always move toward God.

Live a life that is favorable to God; listen for God's request; allow yourself to make loving sacrifices for and to God.

Let each second of your life be in service of God, each second be lived with the wonder and mystery and newness of a first pilgrimage, a grand pilgrimage of love, obedience, and service.

We have fellowship with him - December 28, 2010

Have the courage to allow yourself to be humble. First read the Bible. Reflect upon the lives and the decisions of each individual mentioned in the different books and chapters. Each person mentioned is important; each person provides a clue about acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Not all people in the Bible are humble. Not all people in the Bible are Good. The Bible provides valuable lessons about how to serve and how to love God. Humility is very important.

Remember to always share and present reverence and respect for God. Have the courage to seek the charity in others as a way of finding it within. Remember to praise those who need to be praised, to love all without condition, and to use each moment of your life to praise God, to love God, to serve God.

Allow your faith to move you closer to God naturally. Allow your faith to help you become God's loyal servant.

Strive for humility, avoid pride. Learn from the Bible. Love humanity with the entirety of your being. Have the courage to allow this love to direct you toward the heavenly kingdom.

Each movement taken forward in the name of God, for the glory of God, is important when done lovingly, when done with charity, humility, and obedience to God.

Spirit of holiness - December 19, 2010

When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home. Matthew 1:24

Each year the true message of Christmas is submerged beneath more hype, more consumerism, more angst. Christmas is not about giving and receiving; finding the perfect present; getting the best deal. There is so much hype that the real Christmas story is hidden from view.

The birth of Jesus Christ is important but that occurs after two very important events which are not mentioned outside of Mass.

What are the two events? What type of implications do these two events have on contemporary life?

The Nativity scene is very beautiful, very powerful. The entire story about the manger is gentle, natural, believable. The world and the time of Jesus Christ is rendered in such organic boldness that everything always is fresh when the story is told.

The two events which are central to this story concern Mary and Joseph. For the birth of Jesus to occur, both had to say yes to God's request. They both had angel visitations. They both had reservations. They both put their faith in God, complied with God's wishes. Both Mary and Joseph obeyed God. They each had free will. They could have said no. They decided to say yes.

The true message of Christmas begins with two people doing as God requested. The true gift of the season is their obedience, their faith.

All Christians should remember the angel visitations and prepare their lives for the tasks which God may request to be done.

Christmas can be a time of spiritual renewal if time is left for reflection, discernment. The presents should not be the focal point of this season. The focal point should be finding ways to serve God. The focal point should be saying yes to God. All Christians should be attentive, patient, and listening for God's call. All Christian's are asked to serve, are asked to have lives with foundation of charity, humility, and obedience.

Christmas reminds each one of us of the importance of listening and obeying God.

The true Christmas story is about the spirituality of two individuals, the simplicity and beauty of both their faith in God and their unwavering obedience to God. Their acceptance of God's requests fulfilled prophecy and suggested the foundation of a mystical union with God. Mary and Joseph together present a purity of heart, purity of obedience, purity of compassion and love, purity of conformity to the will of God.

The true value of the Christmas story rests in the lessons of preparation, renewal, and acceptance that the season offers when the spiritual needs are nurtured. Christmas is a time to open up each heart, open up each soul, open up each mind for God and for God's work.

Christmas reminds each Christian of the importance of saying thank you to God, of praising God.

The perfect gift for God is our obedience to his will.

your redeemer is the Holy One - December 9, 2010

Whoever has ears ought to hear. Matthew 11:15

Different generations have had different people that they have listened to, followed, imitated, and been entertained by. Each of us have both the responsibility and the ability to share the Good News with others, to use our lives to evangelize. This does not mean fire and brimstone oration on street corners or in parks on Saturday afternoons. Each choice we make, each word we speak is important when it is done for the Lord. Each of our little decisions when done with charity, humility, and obedience to God’s rules can lead others to follow us, to deepen their relationship with God.

Our goal is to nurture and grow the grace of Lord in our daily lives. We must always remember to proceed with faith and love in Jesus Christ.

Our goal is to trust in Jesus Christ and to allow ourselves and our faith to be strengthened by the grace that flows from Jesus Christ.

As we search for salvation we must also want our neighbors to find and experience salvation. Our prayers are always inclusive, our hearts are always open, our souls are always filled with hope, love, compassion.

When you attend Mass listen attentively, actively with all your senses, participate actively with all your senses. Allow yourself to be vulnerable, allow yourself to listen and feel the words of the Good News. Allow yourself to be God’s “Beloved.” Understand and accept the responsibility of being God’s servant.

The Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist feed and nurture our minds, our souls.

As Christians we are encouraged to find our individual way to examine the beauty of living life following in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is so many things happening within our lives, so many opportunities to evangelize, so many questions to discern.

We each can and must create our own snapshot of our life with Christ.

Comfort, give comfort - December 7, 2010

A voice says, "Cry out!" I answer, "What shall I cry out?" "All mankind is grass, and all their glory like the flower of the field. Isaiah 40:6

Fact and opinion are often in conflict now. Intelligent men often use rhetorical tricks to help opinion masquerade as fact. There is so much anxiety, so much angst. Everyone is always looking for the quick answer, the easy answer.

Please accept these generalizations. The generalizations are true. Our society is always in a hurry to get somewhere, to approve a new wonder drug, to make a quick dollar.

It is often difficult to know what is right and wrong in our society because so many conflicting messages are sent. Christians have one set rules which theoretically form the structure of our society. But, society has watered down the application of these rules.

Being good is not always the most desirable thing anymore. Everyone is allowed to exist within an area of grey, neither good, neither bad flexible, ready to go either way based upon changing conditions.

Living in the greyness often allows and encourages modern life to speeds by an individual at such a fast, dangerous pace, that common sense urges him to slow down, to evaluate his decisions, to discern whether he is doing the right thing. The brave ones will ask themselves whether they are serving God. Discernment is a beautiful frightening thing. Looking at our lives, asking ourselves if our lives are based upon charity, humility, and obedience to God can be a frightening thing. Discernment can help us escape the greyness, the confusion of modern life.

Each individual should slow down, reflect upon all parts of his life, both good and bad, rough and gentle, and then listen for a soft voice to give direction, a soft voice to give hope.

Each Christian should allow and encourage his heart, mind, and soul to always listen for the voice of God.


In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost.” Matthew 18:14

Send Them - December 1, 2010

"My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, for they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, for fear they may collapse on the way." Matthew 15:32

How we interact with each other is very important. Each person's interactions can have either a negative or positive impact upon other people. Whether one person acknowledges another, listens attentively, opens a door can affect the actions and statements of others. Human beings exist within a hazy blur of hyperbole, creating crazy hypothetical questions about life, using hypotenuse triangles to explain this and that while trying to find each other's hypostasis. It is the search for the essence of the individual which sometimes leads men to God. The key ingredient of this search is whether we can see and/or sense evidence of goodness, kindness, holiness in each other. The essential element which we are all looking for is a sign of love. For unconditional love is the meat and potatoes of charity, humility, obedience to God. The key component is the ability of the individual to act in a way that is tender and non-selfish, a way that expresses honest concern and shows honest compassion. When this occurs, there is a moment of bliss, a moment of peace, a moment of hope when everything else is forgotten. This is a moment which should be cherished. The lessons of goodness, kindness, holiness are difficult to hear, process, accept, and imitate because they are often in direct conflict with how the popular culture dominated society behavior patterns where nothing needs to be respected, where being irreverent is considered the norm. Popular culture does not respect the soul of the individual, the souls of all human being. The essence of the individual is courageous in goodness, kindness; faithful in compassion, obedience; caring in words, actions.

Christians are asked to be gutsy, to have moxie, to develop and display dauntlessness, to be lionhearted, to have valor, to be valiant in the name of Jesus Christ, in both their thoughts and their deeds. Christians, simply, are asked to love and fear God and to love their neighbors. When a person is able to love, unconditionally, without compromise then finding the inner peace and the inner strength to be courageous.

Learning to commiserate with other people is a beautiful skill to have. This skill requires a level of courage. Being truly, honestly empathetic can provide understanding, hope. Being empathetic is active, asks each person to participate, to use their senses to explore and share the experience in a way pleasing to God, in a way that leads toward God, in a way that reinforces the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Christians are part of a group. How each individual describes and interacts with the group is very important. Attending Sunday Mass is important, but there is an underlying desire for each Christian to do more than that, to incorporate the lessons of love and sacrifice of Jesus Christ into their daily lives. Christians are often described as a flock of followers, a herd of believers, the assembled, the gathered. Christians consociate. Each Sunday Christians rendezvous and experience the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist.

Each Christian has the responsibility of sharing his experience, the responsibility of asking others to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. The experience of being Christian can provide hope, love, courage. Being Christian is a beautiful consociation. Being Christian asks us to find the essence of goodness, kindness, and holiness within ourselves.

Each Voice - November 30, 2010

"Their voice has gone forth to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world." Romans 10:18

Each time I speak or write a word, a choice has been made. One word, one choice, one voice. Being Christian means lowering your gaze, lowering your voice, kneeling down. Being Christian is an inward journey, listening for sounds from God within prayers, announcements, conversations; listening for comments from God within the wilderness of neon lights; listening for the music of God within crowded bars filled pints of beer and floating television screens. Being Christian means searching and striving for goodness, kindness, holiness. Being Christian will often be difficult. Each word, each choice, each voice can be important for our individual salvation and for the salvation of our neighbors. Being Christian means following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ and asking others to do it also. Within each Christian there is a voice haunting, a voice heavenly, a voice comforting. Within each of us is God's love and we are encouraged to share this news and to rejoice.

Each day presents many of us a battle of choices, ideas, actions. Do we make time for prayer? Do we take time to praise and thank God? Do we simply have another cup of coffee, another cigarette, another two minutes of office chitchat. Each prayer is worth a million jokes. Prayer illustrates our faith, our hope. Prayer illuminates our charity, our humility, our obedience when it is done honestly, lovingly, kindly with reverence. Prayer asks only for our truth, in emotion, in spirit. Prayer offers patience, kindness, wisdom. We can choose to live each day filled with prayer. Prayer is both harmony and melody. Prayer is passionate. Prayer is creative. Prayer offers tranquility. All's prayer that loves prayer.

As Christians each day that we are alive is a day for discernment, a day for giving thanks and praise to God. Our search for goodness, holiness, kindness never ends. Our journey to charity, humility, obedience never ends.

Each day we are given opportunities to improve our lives and the lives of our friends, families, neighbors. This is a wacky culture of conflicting moral messages. This is a time when goodness, kindness, holiness are often seen as the voice of dissent, the voice of the minority. Here is a world, pernicious and licentious, starving for attention, acceptance, love. Here is a world of pill-popping, make-believe, instant solutions with many dangerous side effects written in extra fine small print. Every day this world, our culture attacks us, tempts us, tries to seduce us, tries to lead us away from goodness, holiness, kindness. Every day our culture tries to lead us away from God for a second, an hour, a day.

Every day we must use each word, each choice, each voice to remain steadfast with charity, humility, and obedience within our hearts, minds, and souls.



How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news!

Messages

I took the small scroll from the angel's hand and swallowed it. In my mouth it was like sweet honey, but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour. Revelation 10:10

What a mysterious reading! What a beautiful reading! What a great mingling of good and bad! How wonderful it is to receive the good first, then deal with the bad. All Christians should be encouraged to learn this chapter and recite it every day. Depending on how you want to interpret this chapter, it describes our daily lives as Christians. We have God’s love; God’s love asks us to make sacrifices. Our choices help us on our journey to salvation and eternal life with God. As Christians our choices are not always easy.

When I first read this chapter, I imagined this as a pharmaceutical commercial on television extolling why this new drug should be taken before mentioning the countless side effects. How sweet the pills sound to us until we hear about the side effects!

I like the scene of the angel, the scroll, and John. I like the idea of the angel standing on sea and on land. I like the familiar voice instructing John. I like the angel’s message, the order of the words. John is first warned about his stomach’s reaction to the scroll. His stomach is going to turn sour. So, this message will upset his stomach. Then, the angel told him that the scroll would taste sweet in his mouth like honey. How pleasant that sounds! How good that sounds. What rich symbolism this chapter provides for us to reflect upon!

As Catholics we accept our Faith. Being Christian is difficult. Each day there is a choice of goodness, kindness, compassion, mercy, and love to be made. Being Christian is complicated. Our eyes must be open to looking at the world, through both our eyes and God’s eyes. Our reactions should be his reactions. His love should always be displayed in our every action. Our lives should present a view of happiness and peace built upon a foundation of obedience, hope, charity, and love.

As Catholics we must be listening for God’s personalized, individual messages to each of us. We do not know when or how the messages will be sent. We simply have to be prepared to receive and to obey God’s messages to us. We must be ready to be faithful and obedient. Remember that God had a message which was followed by a message from the angel. We must be prepared to hear God’s voice and to hear an angel’s voice.

Saints and Other Models

Once upon a time, in a school district far, far away, each morning half-asleep school children would place a hand over their heart and recite the “Pledge of Allegiance.”

“Neither Hollywood nor Broadway produces entertainment the way they used to. They just don’t create great movie dialogue the way they used to. As a culture we don’t say great prayers the way we used to. As a culture we don’t dream great dreams the way we used to. Now, everybody wants to be a pampered, photographed local celebrity.”

It is natural to seek goodness and kindness in others. Our lives are filled with the search for the perfect role model, someone with whom we can identify, someone with whom we can imitate. It is natural to want a hero. We need to have someone to believe in, to encourage us to dream, to inspire us to be better, to challenge us to be more, do more. From our childhood we seek companions, we seek heroes. We create a private mythology filled with damsels and demigods, wishes and wisecracks. The situation is lyrical, the implication is ethical, the circumstance is moral. We look to literature, cinema, everyday life for role models, for unofficial teachers to help us navigate the lows and highs of the human condition. As Catholics we have the lives of the Saints to provide a blueprint on how to live a good Christian life of chastity, humility, charity, and obedience.

The existence of their Faith provides them with an excellent courage and conviction to do God’s work, to help the poor. Each day I think of the veracity of good men. Each day I think that humankind is moving away from being wholesome and altruistic toward being selfish and vain. Being Christian allows me to view the world with hope and mercy. Being Christian allows me to see that the Holy Eucharist is beautiful and nutritious. Prayer, believing in God, attending Mass sweetens life, makes each moment more tolerable. Our belief in God can help us improve our lives and our society, when actually, or ideally, we manage to love our neighbors unconditionally without any strings or expectations. Remember we are children of God. We listen for his call. We obey his Commandments. We have the Bible and other good books to guide us toward God, with meditation, with prayer. Remember that love and hope create the language of God. Let our humility, charity, mercy and each circumstance of our days create anecdotes of tenderness.

The search and desire for goodness and kindness often is the dream of youth, and the most serious occupation of our mind. We travel into different neighborhoods, different churches to find evidence of God, to see a glimpse of him in the life and actions of others. We must always remember and cherish our faith. We are Christians; we are hospitable and hopeful; we are believers; our Faith is more valuable and precious than gold; our Holy Eucharist is more delicious, more nutritious for our souls; we gather for prayer; we gather to remember the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Our lives do not have to be comfortable but we must have humility and offer hospitality to all, especially those who are destitute, marginalized in any way and who need mercy, charity and compassion. Our lives do not have to be comfortable but we must create a time for prayer in each day, for prayer and reflection can make our Christian lives intrinsically rich with love, hope, and understanding. As Christians we must always be hospitable, humble people.

An Opportunity

Remember that each time you attend Mass, there is an opportunity to learn more about God and an opportunity to share your faith with others after you leave. This does not require a recitation of the Gospel or the homily. It can simply be how you treat your neighbors, with compassion and love. Each moment of our lives should have some movement upward, higher, heavenward. Our gaze should always be upward, toward God. Each moment of our lives we should strive to avoid the mediocrity of sin. Our aim should always be toward pleasing God. Our ambition should be for eternal life and salvation. The arena of life presents us with an opportunity for prayer, penance, and obedience.

We must strive to be pure and triumphant servants of God.

Be ambitious then, with sincere prayers, keep love in both your heart and your life; remember to pray for something great for yourself and for mankind. Each of us will have only one life in this world, prayer will help us to make the most of it. Take advantage of each opportunity to praise and thank God. Attend Mass and pray as often as you can. Let your life be filled with the Good News. Each day increase your knowledge and learning about your faith. Allow your prayers to carry you higher and higher, closer and closer to God.

Allow your prayers to guide you to legitimate pursuits of love, life, and peace. Allow your prayers to guide you in the path to serve God. Allow your prayers to teach you fidelity to duty. We each have the opportunity to bring glory to God, to sanctify ourselves, and to be a soldier for God.

My Conversion

I sometimes think of my conversion and wonder how I would ever explain it to another human being. Would I stress love or would I talk of my soul. My conversion is incomplete. The journey continues. The itinerary changes each day, the destination remains the same. There is great charm in my conversion, endlessly reminding me of the need to be good, to be devout, to love others and myself. My baptism was remarkable. Over a period of a few weeks I learned the grace, delicacy, and confidence of faith, of believing in the Mystery of God. There are endless books on the philosophy and metaphysics of religion. I heard many conversations on those subjects and others. But, the most important idea which I learned and which I retained is that I am not insignificant in the eyes of God. I am loved by God. I have to respect God every second of my life. I have to be humble before God. I have to be obedient to God’s will. My conversion is more expansive than history or philosophy, in many ways is a movement orchestrated and influenced by God. There is always a desire to be like Christ. There is always a desire to love, to show mercy to all, to experience a grand universal love filled with an infinite awareness of the details of goodness and holiness. It is the experience of this love which teaches me how to be Christian, which keeps my mind aware of my strengths and weaknesses. Loving and serving God is an acquired taste, an acquired desire to be loyal, obedient, reverent, and loving. The psychology of a life with Jesus Christ begins in the sphere of love and continues to sphere of social justice; a life with Christ revolves around ideas of simplicity, sacrifice, and fairness. Oh, true hope, true faith are delicacies waiting to guide each one of us. A life with Christ is filled with many subtleties of emotion and awareness; I learned to close my eyes and to feel the presence of Christ Jesus in my life. My conversion is often in direct conflict with my personal affectations, my personal preoccupations. My conversion is a renewal of my social and educational interests, directed outward, searching for ways to serve God. My imagination finds new ways to serve him, new desires for goodness and holiness within my life. My conversion is the search for a pure and clean ingenuity and sagacity, created with a foundation of compassion, obedience, and love. Serving God faithfully with my entire heart, soul, and mind is my goal. There is something very exquisite in the Liturgy of the Eucharist. How fine the prayers are, how they tug at my heart, encourage me to desire to live a priestly life of love, obedience, and sacrifice. Each word teases my ears, plunders my imagination, leads me closer and closer to God. There is a gentleness, something very soothing, very renewing in the Liturgy of the Eucharist. And there is a bold rush, a zephyr pushing me toward goodness, holiness, serenity, pushing anxiety and thoughts of the secular world aside.

There is great beauty in my conversion. It is hopeful and peaceful. There is admiration, tenderness, gratitude.

My character now feels like that of a child filled with wonder and possibility.

Oh, I am dreamy at times. I am learning to pray.

Mingling of Hope and Confidence

And so before the orange juice fills the glass or the coffee finds the cup, I wonder about serving God, with goodness, with holiness, with love. There are days when I am more willing and obedient.

Each day there are many unspoken arguments within our minds and souls. Each day as we go about our lives we experience moments of love, moments of despair. Each day our minds are bombarded with terrible conflicts from all around the world. We pray for our loved ones, we pray for ourselves. We hope to see each other again. God offers us a certainty, a beautiful mingling of hope and confidence when we are obedient to his will.

Being humble, obedient before God allows us to experience a gentle, soothing hope that leads us to being good, to being holy.

Before we learn to speak we must learn to listen not with our ears but with our entire being. Our Christian lives begin with hope. Before we act we must learn to observe not with our eyes but with our entire being. Our Christian lives offer mercy and compassion.

Each day we learn how to pray, from reciting simple prayers aloud to the beautiful unspoken prayers for friends, loved ones, and strangers which flash in our minds. Always allow time for prayer and reflection. Spiritual health is important. We must have a healthy, loving relationship with God. Allow time for prayer. Remember to praise God for all the wonderful and good things he has done for you.

Be prepared for the upheavals which may appear as you strive to be humble and obedient. Being faithful to God might cause conflict within your life. As Christians we must nurture and protect the courage and confidence to adapt ourselves to an existence of obedience, charity, mercy with a foundation of social justice taught by Christ Jesus. We must expand our definition of love, we must learn how to love universal and how to be love universal. Such love although beautiful and nourishing asks us to believe in Christ Jesus, to believe in God. Such love can create upheaval which can lead us to a closer relationship with God. Do not be afraid of upheaval. Do not be afraid of change. Trust in God, trust in your existence as God’s children.

Do not allow your mind to be swayed by personal happiness, convenience, or comfort. Remember life is not meant to be easy. Life is pain. Life is suffering. Let your conscience guide you toward goodness, holiness, righteousness. Live to satisfy God. Live to nurture and to share hope, love, and mercy.

Forty Days, Forty Opportunities

Lent offers each Christian the opportunity to improve our communion with God. Each Christian must pray, examine his/her conscience, test our faith, our resolve to follow in Christ’s footsteps and create lives based upon humility, charity, obedience. Lent is a time for each Christian to remember Christ in the desert and to test ourselves. Doing the simple things we say that we are going to do during this time is a test. Will we be able to fulfill our penance.

Penance is not about giving up, penance is for moving forward, learning something about yourself, your relationship with God, learning how to strengthen and improve that relationship.

The forty days of Lent provides each Christian with a glimpse of God beautiful loving design for our lives if we allow ourselves to trust in his magnificent, omnipotent love.

Penance allows us to draw direct parallels with Christ’s life; Christ did not take the easy path; Christ made all types of sacrifices; Christ suffered. As Christians penance reminds us that goodness requires effort and is difficult to achieve; as Christians we must be prepared to offer sacrifices and to suffer. As Christians we must always remember all the things that Christ did to save us, all the things that Christ did to show us how to be like him.

The gift of salvation waits for those who are able to demonstrate their free will to live like Jesus, to follow in his footsteps. Lent is a journey; penance is the map guiding us through life’s mendacity, mediocrity, morbidity, temptations. Lent is not a time for solitude; each Christian must remember to invite and to include Jesus in their Lenten journey.

Lent offers each Christian the choice of following Christ on the road of humility. Lent offers each Christian a moment to examine each action, to make the right choice, to be victorious over sin with Christ.

The itinerary of the Lenten journey was hopefully decided before the penitential sign of the ashes was placed on a forehead. Lent is a period of hope and good will. For penance to be successful, some effort and prayer must be connected to it. It is not enough to simply give up chocolate or coffee for Lent without adding something, some moment of prayer or reflection, some way to move closer to God.

Ash Wednesday reminds each Christian that we are made of earth and someday we will return to earth. Lent reminds us that we are created in the image of God and that if we are humble, obedient servants we will live in heaven with God.

We must remember that God loves us. We must teach ourselves to recognize and respond to God’s call. We must understand free will means choosing to obey God.

Secular life downplays the beauty of the mystical and spiritual life for the clamorous diseases leading people away from God, into all types of sinful, bad behavior. The secular world pollutes and infects each of our lives with disturbing, imprudent, impious images and ideas attacking basic decency and morality. Human beings should live in harmony with each other and the world; secular interests encourage lust, envy, gluttony, pride.

Lent offers a time and a manner to turn away from the secular world, a time and a manner to turn toward God.

Lent offers us a time to reflect upon our own unfair behavior and hopefully will provide us with the desire and ability to permanently make changes which will make us better people, better Christians. Lent reminds us of the necessity of social justice and then encourages us to add alms giving, prayer, and fasting to our lives. These should not be directed toward other men, but directed toward God’s gaze.

As we journey through each day of Lent remember human dignity. Remember that we all need to pray for and have hope in social justice. Life’s disappointments and tragedies should direct us toward God. Lent is a time of spiritual renewal. Each of us is responsible for both our personal and community conversion. Our lives must not only reflect the teachings of Christ, our lives must project the teachings of Christ and his love for each of us.

Ash Wednesday symbolizes our humanity and the continuing struggles of our daily experiences, of our daily conversion.

This Generation

Although there are all types of electric light, the hearts and souls of many human beings remain in complete darkness or are very dimly lighted. Neon signs and other artificial illumination confuse many. It is easy to make typographical and grammatical errors; detecting them is sometimes easy, sometimes difficult; it is easy to make mistakes and to sin; discovering sin is sometimes easy, sometimes difficult. Sin prefers the darkness, tries to cover each willing heart with a balmy blindness, momentarily calming and pleasant but then leaves us agitated and anxious.

The current generation enjoys the repentance of their neighbors; the media has turned this into a spectacle, a cheap entertainment where the mistakes and failings are illuminated not for education or erudition but to satisfy a moribund curiosity. This is the time when false principles and all types of fallacies rule; opinion dominates fact; instant deductions are preferable to intense contemplation. The scientific method is applied to everything.

The current generation has been taught to view confession lightly, for titillation. For newspapers and television talk shows frequently have people confessing some moment of weakness, despair, interpersonal destructiveness. There is sometimes talk of regret, sadness; however, there often is a question of true contrition. Sometimes after the confession there is forgiveness. But, then there is a commercial break and life continues.

Jesus Christ needs to be inserted into the consciousness of this modern generation. His life and ministry should be studied by all human beings. His character and obedience should be models for all.

This modern generation worships wealth and celebrity; all things science are revered; religion is relegated to the periphery and often viciously attacked because of its simplicity, rituals, and mysteries. Today science is often used as an ally against religion.

At no time since the days of Jesus Christ has the need for his presence and instruction been needed more than now. The scientific method lacks something, offers only questions and possibilities and endless side effects. Everywhere there is need for a renewal of doctrine of charity, humility, obedience, which could help each human being learn how to love their individual selves, their neighbors, and God. Human beings need expressions of affection and love to flourish. There are many human beings deprived of love, searching for it in dangerous places, forgetting that God provides love for everyone. Somehow this starvation of the heart and soul is acceptable according to the scientific method.

What each human being must always remember the simple fact of salvation: believe in God, live as his humble servants, and be loving obedient.

As Christians there is an explicit expectation and responsibility to create lives which illuminate the goodness and holiness of the faithful, the love and respect for God; this illumination will guide the lost to God and protect others from becoming lost.

True simple prayer remains as the best way to illuminate both hearts and souls with the natural light of God’s love.