The words from Isaiah 58:1-9 are like brilliant beams of light, cutting through any false notions we might have about this season of repentance that we call Lent. Often we tend to think of Lent as a time to share in the suffering of Christ yet when we do so, we become morose and end up centering more on our own wonderful sacrificial devotions than on God.
I wake up feeling like I had never slept. Why am I so tired? Then it comes crashing back to me, the whole scene, like reliving a movie, the finding of porn on my daughters twitter feed. Does she honestly think I believe that she doesn’t know whose it is or how it got on her feed? I cannot wrap my mind around it.
Taking it to the Lord, I decide to go to another Parish for daily Mass, because I need to be alone, I need to sort this through, and I need to be anonymous. I feel the weight of 100 bricks on my shoulders. In the pew, I beg for guidance and answers. I lift my needs up to the Lord, I ask mamma Mary to help me, mother her daughter. Continue reading
Join me for the next post to read what the Grace of the Sacrament of Marriage reveals, please pray for me!!!
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Humbling yourself for the glory of God is the goal. Yet how does a person get to that point with regularity? Once again, I draw on Fr. Jonathan Morris, from www.christophers.org to shed some light on the subject: Read more… to see a video from Father Jonathan Morris and to read Mother Teresa’s 15 Points of Humility.
Humility: How utterly misunderstood this virtue can be in the minds of humankind! I will be the first to admit that I fall into the camp of those who have truly misunderstood the value of the virtue of humility until I started to research this virtue in depth. Once I knew what humility was really all about, I began praying to Jesus for a clean and humble heart.
Thoughts to Ponder
I choose to surrender the clutter in my life, heart, spirit so Jesus will set me free from stuff and fill me with His Loving Presence.
May the things of this world fall away, so I may fall in love with God.
Pride entices me to work harder, pray more, fast religiously, perform heroic acts of virtue.
Teresa of Ávila wrote these words on a bookmark she kept in her breviary:
Let nothing disturb you;
Nothing frighten you.
All things are passing.
God never changes.
Patience obtains all things.
Nothing is wanting to him who possesses God.
God alone suffices.St. Teresa was determined to reach the heights of holiness. Yet at the same time she was realistic, based on her own experience and those of the nuns under her care as head of the Discalced Carmelite Order. Put these two characteristics together, and you have one of the wisest guides to the spiritual life. Let’s take a closer look at her advice.
Perseverance is a key to success Remember the parable Jesus told about the persistent widow (Luke 18:1-8)? We must never give up praying when it seems God is not hearing us. Teresa advised her sisters to apply this lesson to growth in prayer.
… I say that it is very important – it is everything to have a strong and firm resolution, not to stop till we arrive at the water [union with God], come what may, or whatever may be the consequence, or whatever it may cost us. No matter who complains, whether I reach there or die on the way, or have not courage to endure the troubles which I may meet with, or though the world should sink under us… (Way of Perfection, Chapter XXI)It’s easy to get discouraged in prayer. Seeing no measurable growth in intimacy with God, we might be tempted to give up. We might wish to say along with the doubters in the end times, “Where is this coming He promised?” (2 Peter 3:4). Don’t!
Continue reading at Contemplative Homeschool.
This response at Mass seems to me to sum up the whole spiritual life. It provides wonderful material for meditation.
I am not worthyOn my own, I cannot please God. I can only vaguely know His character. He had to reveal Himself to me through Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the teaching authority of the Church. He gave me parents who were loving enough to have me baptized and teach me the faith. He continues to show me His design for my life. All this is a pure gift which I could not merit.
But I have found the Christian life to be a constant battle. I fall every day. I repent, make resolutions to be good, then sin again. God’s purity is so beyond me. His holiness is a burning fire that I would never dare approach.
Except…
Read the rest at Contemplative Homeschool.
It is telling, however, the on the morning of his first full day in the chair of St. Peter that Pope Francis visits Salus Populi Romani and also brings flowers. This icon is of particular significance to Romans. For example, when Rome was going to fall from Axis control in World War II, Adolph Hitler vowed to bomb the Eternal City to smithereens. Pope Pius XII arranged a procession of the Byzantine Salus Populi Romani through the streets and miraculously a fog enveloped the city, so the angry Nazi bombs only fell on a Roman cemetery. This humble act continues Pope Francis identification with his new Roman Diocese.