How significant are you?

By Nancy Ward

Christ and Child by Bloch (Wikimedia Commons)

Disappointment crept into my heart when I failed to land a plum writing assignment. This came after I visualized my writing glorifying God and my work becoming significant. I thought that would help me become significant.  It got me thinking about how we become significant and how we judge the significance of others in our life.

I remember hearing someone say, “The more you love, the more significant you become.” God is Love, and he is huge compared to me. Not because he is bigger, stronger and more powerful, but because he gave his Son for love of me.


How significant is God in your life?

Measure that by how much he loves you. Can you measure God’s infinite love for humanity and specifically for you? The cross points out how much.

Don’t wait until you grow into that charming, loveable person that you visualize everyone can love. God created you the person you are right now, his beloved child. You are already that loveable person because he already loves you unconditionally. You can’t earn God’s love by trying to acquire more holiness.  You can only allow his holiness to come forth through all the clutter of your fears and self-expectations by embracing his love for you.


Continue reading at Nancy's blog JOY Alive.

Salty kind of love

By Beryl Baterina

 

 

 

A Helping Hand by Eugene von Blaas
(Wikimedia Commons).

 

"Keep salt in yourselves and you will have peace with one another."

When I was in First Grade, I read a story entitled "Love Like Salt."  It is a story of a princess who told her father that she loves him like sallt.  Of course the King became angry because he could not believe that her daughter would compare her love to salt.  That princess went away and later on came back home unknowingly to her father.  She told the servants to prepare food without salt and serve it to the King.  When the King ate, he was furious with the taste of the food.  He asked who is responsible for the food preparation.  The pincess appeared and told him, "I told the servant to serve the food as that.  I am a daughter who loves her father like salt."  With that the King realized how much his daughter trully loves him.

Salt is a very useful condiment for food.  It gives taste and it preserves.  And what if it lose its taste?  It's purpose will not work after all.  How can the taste be restored?

 

 

Continue reading at Beryl Baterina.

The fruit basket of the Spirit

By Nancy Ward

Painting by Abraham Brueghel (Wikimedia Commons).

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23)

At a Day of Reflection Carmelite Fr. Stephen Sanchez led us through a meditation on the Fruits of the Spirit. These are the attributes of God that the Holy Spirit gives us, develops in us and inspires us to give away. As Fr. Stephen guided us through each of the nine fruits, I visualized a fruit basket filled with specific fruits to remind me of each fruit of the Spirit in my life.

1.    Love is a red pear. If you hold it stem down this beautiful fruit resembles a heart. There are many kinds of love in our lives, as there are many varieties of pears – Bartlett, Asian, D’anjou – but none as rich, tasty or with such a beautiful deep color as a red pear of God’s unconditional love.

2.    Joy is found in a variety of apples, as joy is found in many forms and places in our lives. It is loud and crunchy! A red delicious apple makes a quick healthy snack or a lunchbox treat. There are gala or Fuji apples for salads and pies. My favorite is the granny apple, the joy I share with my grandchildren.

3.     Peace is a mango. It sits quietly in the bottom of the fruit basket, waiting for you. It is soft, mellow, smooth, and calm and invites you to sit down and savor it slowly.

4.     Patience is a grapefruit. It takes patience to dig out the fruit of the grapefruit, bite by bite. This is one of the most beneficial and most neglected of fruits.

5.     Kindness is a banana. We demonstrate kindness spontaneously and quietly to a small child when we hand him or her a banana we have peeled for them so they can effortlessly eat the fruit.

Find more Fruits of the Spirit at joyalive.net.

 

"You will burn up the whole world"

By Patricia

Dove Window, St. Peter's Basilica (Wikimedia Commons)

“Francis, put out that fire in you, or you will burn up the whole world!”

Thus said one of Francis of Assisi’s friars to the seraphic Saint.
I had never heard this before, but we had a visiting Franciscan friar for Mass today, and I was delighted with the story.

Can you imagine setting the world on fire with love for God? St. Catherine of Siena said something similar: “If you become what you should be, you will set the world on fire.”

I love the Saints. They fascinate me endlessly. How did they get like that?  Why are they all on fire? What is their secret?

Father Bob said that Saints are not so much about loving God as they are about being astonished at God’s Love for them. They come to know His Love, and are consumed with the desire for everyone to love Him. The flames leap out of them, catch others, and they begin to burn too.

I ponder my own little heart which has a few smoldering embers at best. After all this time, I can barely keep my fire lit. Yet Father said we are all like containers into which God pours His Holy Spirit to inflame us, and everyone we encounter. 


Continue reading at Patricia's blog I Want to See God.

Hard questions, simple answer

 By Mallory Hoffman

Infant Christ as the Good Shepherd by Murillo.
(Wikimedia Commons)

 
"When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together,  and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.  “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”  He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’  This is the greatest and first commandment.  And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
(Matthew 22: 34-40)

Can you imagine how frustrated the Pharisees and the Sadducees must have been to hear Jesus answer their questions?  Each time they tried to make Him stumble by giving Him a question  they thought would trick Him, Jesus came back with an answer that made these learned men retreat from Him with their heads hung in shame.  They hoped to humiliate and silence Jesus, but each time, Jesus, silenced them. 


Continue reading at Mallory's blog His UnEnding Love.

Visitations

By Nancy Shuman

The Visitation by Strueb (Wikimedia Commons)

The Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth is one of my favorite feasts.  On so many levels, it speaks... I would even say it sings... to my life as a cloistered heart.

As we've said in the last few days, Mary visited Elizabeth (Luke 1:39-56) because she had BEEN Visited by God.  She didn't go to Elizabeth alone - she went with the Presence of Christ inside her.  As one living "cloistered for Jesus" in the midst of the world, I carry Christ inside me as well.  Oh, not in the same unique way, certainly.  But according to Scripture and Church teaching, I indeed carry Him within.

Mary went on a simple visit to Elizabeth.  It was an occasion that I'm sure went unnoticed by many.  A woman went to visit her kinswoman; something that happened all the time.   No one would have cried out: "look, there goes Mary on mission!" or "how about that!  This visit will be written of in the Bible!"  From the merely human perspective, it was simply a time of normal interaction between two women, two relatives.

And so it is with us. You and I have opportunities every single day to visit people with the presence of Christ.  In the everyday activities of life, we visit family members, neighbors, store clerks, e-mailers, callers on the phone.

I find it extremely helpful when I make a conscious effort to visit these persons with the love of Our Lord.  That is - with an awareness of Christ within me.  I have found that it makes quite a difference in my attitude when I think of things this way.


Continue reading at Nancy's blog The Cloistered Heart.

Is it truth or sophistry?

By Melanie Jean Juneau

St. Mary Magdalen Listens to
Christ's Teaching by Brisset
(Wikimedia Commons)

 


Years ago, I was washing up some pots, just before dinner, when all of a sudden a word popped into my head, seemingly out of nowhere. I turned around and blurted out to my kids, who were doing homework around the kitchen table,

“Sophistry! The word that keeps coming to me is sophistry.”

Of course everyone burst out laughing because no one had a clue what I was talking about or what that word even meant. The word sophistry describes language and logic used by Satan, in Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost. Sophistry could describe the logic used by a lawyer intent upon persuading a jury to find a criminal not guilty. When the intent of words is not to reveal the truth but to confuse people, the speaker is using sophistry. Sophistry is all too common in out society, from the world of politics to the world of advertising,Modern man uses words to influence people for their own purposes.

Just the other day, the word sophistry popped into my head again because we often resort to sophistry without realizing exactly what we are doing. Words often keep us running in circles and keep us from discovering freedom and truth. Thank God for the power of the Holy Spirit. The word of God cuts through sophistry like a two-edged sword.

My only hope of living in reality, to cut through lies, to see myself  and others in  truth and to embrace truth is by embracing the Word made flesh.Sometimes I might think that I am in the truth or that I am ruthlessly speaking the stark truth to another but if I do not speak with Love, it is still sophistry.  The evil one can speak a condemning truth, a truth without love that seeks to destroy.Only God and those who carry the Love of God speak a liberating truth that heals and sets free.


Melanie originally posted this on her blog joy of nine9.

Simon, do you love me?

By Heidi

Christ's Charge to Peter by Raphael (Wikimedia Commons)

 

 

Do you pray with the Scriptures?  When you read them, do you allow a word or a scene from the passage to speak to you in your heart and draw out from you a prayer?  It is essential for each of us enter into prayer in this way.  Yet, it is a direction that many "voices" - from the world, and from your own ego - will dissuade you from; because it will reveal your idols, your weaknesses.  

 

The Lord seeks to lead us out of those "Egypts" in each one of our souls.  To do so demands much; it demands a love that endures all things, hopes all things and to be completely truthful, I do not have that love yet.  That is important for me to understand, not for me to despair but so that I can live in His truth, endure in His light and be drawn up into a more perfect love by following His voice.

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”  Simon Peter answered him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”  Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He then said to Simon Peter a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”  Simon Peter answered him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”  Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.”  Jesus said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”  Peter was distressed that Jesus had said to him a third time, ‘Do you love me?’ and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.”  Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.  Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” He said this signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God.  And when he had said this, he said to him, “Follow me.” 
John 21: 1-19

Continue reading at Heidi's blog Journey to Wisdom.

A mystical maelstrom

By David Torkington

The Ecstacy of St. Francis by El Greco
(Wikimedia Commons).

 When Christ came, it was to announce something that no other religion had ever  taught, nor any other religion taught since. Namely that the ultimate power, the ultimate energy the  infinite source of all creation, is not some impersonal super-power, but infinite love, no,  infinite loving.

Love cannot exist without a lover. Before time began, Christ was the recipient of his Father’s love. He was inextricably caught up in a mystical maelstrom of loving that flowed to and fro between him and his Father  from all eternity.

When human beings love, their love is both physical and spiritual, but God has no body, so he loves with his spirit alone. As a mark of respect therefore, tradition has taught us to call his loving,  The Holy Spirit. Jesus not only came to tell us this, but to enable us to receive this loving for ourselves. So when, after the Ascension he returned to where he had enjoyed his Father’s love before,  he returned not just as a divine being, but as a human being too.


Continue reading at David's blog David Torkington.

The second greatest commandment

By Beryl Baterina

Two Fighting Children  By Giulio del Torre (Wikimedia Commons)

"You shall love your neighbor as yourself." 

As I reflected on that, there are other verses which I can relate to. There is "Give until it hurts" and "Whatever you do to the least of your brothers, you do unto Me."

I can easily say that I love my neighbor yet I am not sure if I was able to live what comes out of my mouth. I know in my mind that it is not right to judge others based on how I see them. But most of the times I am not strong enough to resist the temptation. I know I should give kindness instead of hatred. But it is not very easy to love others especially those who are not lovable. I can rationalize that in order to love others, I must love myself first. If I think about it, it is somehow a selfish act. "Love one another as I have loved you." That was what God said and not "Love yourself as I have loved you." I may not hurt God physically right now, but I do hurt Him spiritually. I hurt Him when I think of myself more and fail to help others in anyway I can. If I can love others more than myself, then it is loving God more than myself.

My prayer for this, "Lord, make my heart filled with more of Your love and less of me. Make me love my brothers and sisters more and fill my heart with kindness. Empty me of my hatred and make me forgive them as I also ask for forgiveness. Amen."

Beryl blogs at Beryl Baterina.

Dust Into Flames

By Cynthia Scodova

In ancient times God spoke to us
Through prophets, and in varied ways,
But now he speaks through Christ his Son, 
His radiance through eternal days.

To God the Father of the world,
His Son through whom he made all things,
And Holy Spirit, bond of love
All glad creation glory sings.

                           Universalis Hymn Stanbrook Abbey Hymnal

                                                                                                               Google Images 



                                                     You cannot be grasped.
                                                     You enter all facets of closing
                                                     The myriad doors hinge.

                                                     You brush by 
                                                     Trailing
                                                     Your blinding 
                                                     Brilliance                                                                                                                                                                                                     Through the moors 
                                                     Of our exile:
                                                     Our hearts’ vast dark.

                                                     You are 
                                                     The bristling presence                                                                                                                                                                                Illuminating all forms 
                                                     You sustain
                                                     In your love
                                                     Stooping down

                                                     Stirring this dust
                                                     Into flames.


Cynthia blogs at The Mad-Eyed Monk.

The Romance of Religion

By Robert Batch

Christ at the Cross by Bloch (Wikimedia Commons)

Today I was reading St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, and if you get the chance to actually read it carefully you discover a pattern of him mentioning the fact how there is more and more digression in humanity and loss of life.  The faith today has left the realm of a relationship with the Lord, and has turned into a theory through modern technology, media, and sciences.  Who do we have to blame other than ourselves?  As a result of our dependency of these new technologies, we have lost sight of the idea of believing in faith, and have turned to the mindset of always being connected.

G.K. Chesterton said  “Let your religion be less of a theory and more of a love affair”

So what does this mean to us?  I will propose to you to following: Ordinary people often go on extraordinary adventures in their lives, bringing our ordinary struggles that we experience in our lives to a whole different meaning.  We can relate this idea to Christ’s sacrificial love for us that can be expressed through the Crucifixion.  His suffering that he experienced on Calvary is part of something greater, and is part of a greater sacrifice.


Continue reading at Robert's blog Love is Calling.

Litany to the Love of God

By Melanie Jean Juneau

St. John and Jesus at the last Supper
by Valentin de Boulogne (Wikimedia Commons)

God whispered:

You think that you are building my church with all your business

 but you are hindering my work on earth,

not helping me.

All I want,

all I need is for you to stand before the cross

and allow the love of my Son to transform you

into His Presence on earth.

 

 

 Read Melanie's revised version of the Litany to the Love of God at her blog, joy of nine9.

 

Love your priests--all of them

By Michael Seagriff

 

 

Ordination of a Priest, 15th century engraving
(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

 

 

 

Blessed John Paul II gave the Church many beautiful gifts; among them were the Year of the Rosary (2002-2003) and the Year of the Eucharist (2004-2005).  In doing so, he encouraged priests, religious and laity to use these gifts and harness the spiritual power and strength that flows from them. Both he and his successor have urged their priests to make the Eucharist the source, center and summit of their priestly lives and to fully embrace and live their unique vocation as "another Christ." 

During the Year for the Priest (2009-2010) Pope Benedict XVI held St. John Marie Vianney up as the model for all priests because the Cure of Ars accepted the cross, was full of zeal for the salvation of souls, was an ardent Adorer of the Blessed Sacrament, was greatly devoted to our Blessed Mother, a lover of sinners who spent hours daily reconciling them with their merciful God, a model of purity, humble in all things, lover of penance and mortification, and a good and holy priest.

Not a single priest should be hesitant to imitate this great priest and saint! There have always been John Vianneys in our midst. Thankfully, more priests are responding positively and wholeheartedly to the Holy Father’s challenge. We are beginning to experience the fruits of their faithful embrace of that call! While we certainly need more priests, we first need holy priests whose Christ-like example will attract other men to the priesthood they love.

 

 

Continue reading at Micheal's blog Harvesting the Fruits of Contemplation.

The "yes" God wants from us

By Nancy Ward

The Annunciation by Tanner (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

What God wants is for us to say “yes” to him and “no” to everything else. Of the millions of good things available to us, he wants us to have the best. That’s because he loves us so much. He loved us, even while we were yet sinners.

Every one of us doubts that we are loved. After all, each one of us knows who “we” are. It surprises us when someone loves us completely and thoroughly. But the Lord is after us to believe it. He wants us to know that he loves us inside and out.

We can begin by saying “yes” to believing that we are worthy of God’s love. We can say “yes” to believing deep within our being, that God, our Creator and Savior, loves us. We belong to him. He loves and cherishes us. He wants to protect us with his gift of faith and trust in him. Before we can serve him and love him fully we must first say “yes”’ to letting him love us.

How does he convince us that he loves us? That’s up to us. He’ll do whatever it takes to convince us, but not against our free will. When we can believe it, then we can try it on. Act like he loves us by loving others the same way he love us. By sharing his love we prove to ourselves and to them how much he loves us.


Continue reading at Nancy's blog  JOY Alive in our hearts.

Do you have a personal relationship with God's people?

By Michael Incorvia

St. Lawrence giving alms to the poor
(photo: Wikimedia Commons)

  
Faith is more than a personal relationship with God; faith is a personal relationship with God and His people.

Jesus preached a faith where: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:34-39, Mark 12:28-34, and Luke 10:25-28) And where is our neighbor to be found?  Our neighbor is found in the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, and the imprisoned (Matthew 25:35-36).

As Jesus indicated, “On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22:40)  The inability of Israel and Judah to follow these two commandments was part of God’s indictment against them (see for example Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Joel and Micah), which, in part, lead to their exile.

These two commandments have been and will continue to be fundamental to a relationship with God.  For this reason faith is not only a relationship with God, it is a relationship with God and His people.


Michael blogs at To Love and Truth.

In praise of family life

By Michael Incorvia

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

The activities of family life can be overwhelming.   Man was created not to be overwhelmed by family life, but to be overwhelmed by God’s love and to embrace family life in union with God.

God instituted the family as a domestic church to reflect his covenantal relationship, to be co-creative with him, and to drawn all to him.  These are the critical aspects of family life.

To the domestic church God bequeathed, through the marital union, the ability to be co-creative in union with him and bring new life into the world.  To shun this co-reactive aspect of the marital union is to shun God, his creation, and his love for mankind.  The covenantal relationship of the marital union makes no sense if the co-creative aspect of the marital union is absent.


Continue reading at Micheal's blog To Love and Truth.

Jesus, teach me to pray

By Monica McConkey

Woman Kneeling at Prie-Dieu by Alexandre Bida
(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Jesus, I want to know Your Truth AND live it. Jesus, I'm so easily distracted, so easily jostled, startled, untethered. Jesus, I worry about so many things.

Jesus, I want to pray. I want my words to be deliberate and heart-felt. I want to say what my heart feels and listen intently and hear Your Words to me in my heart, with no doubt, no second guessing. I want to be focused and consumed by You and undistracted.

I want to know You, bathe in Your Love, be directed by Your Priorities and I want to receive Your Love and Your intentions for me, correctly, fully, purely.

I want to brim over with the fire of your Love, uncontained, unfettered, unlimited, unconstrained so that I can only reflect Your Love, enthusiastically and untarnished by human limitations.

I want to see and think clearly, without muddying Your message to me, and to those around me.

I want to use the creative gifts You have given me to serve You and draw closer to You and to lead others to pursue You as You desire. I want to fulfil my vocation to the best of my abilities, recognizing but not giving in to my failings, offering up the little chores, the monotony and the little annoyances, frustrations and worries, surrendering my will and my lack of control, my pride for Your Greater Glory.

I want to pray. I want to express the yearning of my heart, to remain undistracted but focused on You. I want to connect with You, feeling Your unconditional Love, a love that is impossible for humans, only possible for God, loving me as if I was the only human, loving me incessantly despite my faults and failings, loving me without hesitation or requirements, expectations or conditions. Loving me because You have made me worthy through Your Suffering, for me, when no one except You could have even known I would exist.

Jesus, I don't want to get distracted by the meaningless details. I don't want to be preoccupied with menial concerns.



Continue reading at Monica's blog I blog Jesus.

Learning to pray with the heart

By Mallory Hoffman

An Old Woman Praying by Maes
(Wikimedia Commons)

 


Ask God for the Gift of Prayer.  Ask God for the Gift of Prayer with the Heart.  Then become aware of what God is doing in your life.

Pray with your heart.  Begin with simple, vocal prayers, favorite prayers, perhaps prayers remembered from childhood.  As you vocalize these prayers, focus your total attention on God.

Put yourself in the presence of God knowing that He knows your thoughts before you think them.  He knows your heart, and He loves you.

Put yourself in the presence of God knowing God is madly in love with you.  Remember that He thirsts for souls.  He thirsts for your soul.

Put yourself in the presence of God and listen.   “Be still and know that I AM God.”  Be still.  Listen for that whisper that comes from the heart of God.  He loves you.  He loves you in silence.

Whisper in the silence.  Tell  God how much you love Him.


Continue reading at Mallory's blog HisUnEnding Love.

Like nails on a blackboard

By Patricia

Statue of St. Therese with her father, Bl. Louis Martin
(Wikimedia Commons).

“….I saw only too well how very imperfect was my love for my Sisters; I did not really love them as Jesus loves them. I see now that true charity consists in bearing with the faults of those about us, never being surprised at their weaknesses, but edified at the least sign of virtue.”

The Hidden Face by Ida Gorres, p. 240

Today I had to deal with someone whose total self-absorption gives me that nails-on-a-blackboard feeling. They frequently seek me out to relate their most recent trials and tribulations, which they deem to trump any that others will ever have to bear. Never is there an inquiry as to how I am doing, and if I happen to mention any of my problems, I am met with deafening silence. This goes on regularly, and my association with this person is such that I cannot avoid these encounters.

I am grateful as always for the wisdom of Therese, which makes me look beyond the surface. I know that this is a wounded person, and that they probably need the attention. As for me, should I really be seeking sympathy from others?

When I truly need it, I’m sure the Lord will send it. But most often, I believe He loves us to turn to Him for comfort, rather than to fellow creatures. I know that he permits us to be rebuffed to whittle down our pride, and remind us to be willing to suffer our little travails for love of Him.


Continue reading at  I Want to See God..