To Courting God

Posted on September 21, 2013 by Michael

To Courting GodPrayer, a time set aside to engage and know God and for God to engage and know us.  Throughout the Old and New Testaments God represents His relationship with His people as a spousal relationship.  Prayer can be viewed as a type of courtship leading to a spousal relationship with God.  Prayer can be a period of excitement and anticipation, a period that leads to betrothal and marriage.

What is our courtship of God like?   Is our prayer time dominated with the wants and needs we desire from the relationship?   Or, is it a time spent listening and learning what God desires in us as a spouse?   Does our prayer reveal our true self?  Or, do we present a false image of who we are?  Comfort should be taken that God loves us as He created us, not how we try to remake ourselves.

Is our prayer time a casual time, a time convenience?  Or, a time reserved for God, free of distractions, a precious time reserved for our future spouse, a time revered, a time looked forward with anticipation and joy?

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To Perseverance in Faith

Posted on September 19, 2013 by Michael

To Perseverance in FaithGod does not call us to perfection but to persevere in faith, and thorough our perseverance and His grace He perfects us.   Our imperfections like the cross that Christ bore can burden us, or if united with Christ lift us up.

I find great solace in the lives of the saints.  For most, including many of the greatest saints did not lead perfect lives – David murdered and committed adultery, Peter denied Christ, Paul persecuted the Church, Augustine committed adultery.  Each of these great saints repented of their sins and persevered in faith.  God forgave them, lifted them up, and perfected them.

We are similarly called.  We can be burdened or lifted up by our imperfections.  To be lifted up, we must repent with a truly sorrowful heart, unite them with Christ, and tenaciously persevere in faith.  Through repentance, perseverance of faith and hope, we too can be perfected as they were by God’s grace.

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All Are Important

Posted on September 18, 2013 by Michael

All Are ImportantGod created all with a uniquely important purpose within His Kingdom. Sometimes we discount our purpose as unimportant, when compared to others.  This is a mistake.   Just as God loves all, all have an important purpose within His Kingdom.  The Holy Spirit endows each with a specific talent or charism to fulfill their created purpose.

Consider a stained glass window. All pieces are unique.  All pieces are important.  The stained glass window is incomplete until each piece is included.  Likewise with the Kingdom of God, each member of the Kingdom has a uniquely important purpose in building of the God’s Kingdom — how beautiful and magnificent the Kingdom when each serves their purpose and the glory of God shines through.

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A Short, Beautiful, Powerful Prayer

Posted on September 16, 2013 by Michael

A Short, Beautiful, Powerful PrayerThe shortest, most beautiful and power prayer is the Holy Name “Jesus”.  It is the name that saves us from death, the name that brings us eternal life.  The name God is “well pleased” with.  It is the name of most Holy Sacrament of the altar. Whenever the name is spoken, all knees in heaven bend.

The Holy name “Jesus” should before us at all times, on lips constantly, and deep within our heart.

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To Sustaining Life

Posted on September 15, 2013 by Michael

To Sustaining LifeWhat sustains human life?  God the Father reveals in Deuteronomy 8:3 “that man does not live by bread alone, but that man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.”  All that man is and has came to be through the spoken word of God, and God said let there be light, a firmament, waters, and ultimately “let us make a man in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis 1:3, 6, 9, and 26).

Through the fall, man was condemned to return to the dust from which he was created (Genesis 1:19).  But God so loves humanity that his “Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1: 14) offering man remission from the effects of the fall and a return to eternal life.   The Word, Jesus Christ, came to offer bread that “if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever” (John 6:51).

This bread that sustains human life forever is Christ Jesus, “the living bread which came down from heaven” (John 6:51).  The bread that Christ gave “for the life of the world” was his flesh, and Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”  (John 6:53-54)

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Child-Like Love of God

Posted on September 15, 2013 by Michael

Child-Like Love of GodGod desires a child-like love.  Nothing should prevent us from loving with such a pure, simple love, a love that does not question if it is sufficient.

Public opinion prevents some from loving God with a child-like love.  What others think or say should not be a concern, nor should time be wasted anxious about what others may say or thing.   We must think only of God, his love of us, cling to him as a child clings to its mother and father, with a love that desires only to love, seeks only its beloved, and loves freely and simply.

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To Hearing the Word of God

Posted on September 13, 2013 by Michael

To Hearing the Word of GodMany think of God’s withdrawal of protection in terms of famine of food and water, but the prophet Amos warns of another, “Behold, the days are coming,  ‘says the Lord God, ‘when I will send a famine on the land: not a famine of bread, nor of water, but of hearing of the word of the Lord.’”  (Amos 8:11)

When food and water are scarce, what little there is: is to be savored and husbanded.  And, when the world is experiencing a famine of hearing the word of the Lord and the call to follow his son Christ Jesus, those who hear the Lord should savor his word and call, husband them in their hearts, and bring them to a starving world.

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To Being Aligned

Posted on September 11, 2013 by Michael

To Being AlignedMisalignment occurs when our earthly endeavors are contrary to our created purpose. We were created out the infinite goodness of God to gain his everlasting happiness in heaven through knowing, loving and serving him in this world.

We become misaligned when our earthly endeavors differ from our created purpose.  Making the acquisition of power, wealth, prestige, or pleasure the primary aim of life conflicts with God’s plan of serving him.  When a heart sets an earthly endeavor above God, the heart neither fully knows nor completely loves God, for the earthly endeavor is given precedence over God and seeks to serve self rather than God.  Such a heart lacks true happiness, is never at rest, and feels incomplete, because it is misaligned with its created purpose.

A heart aligned with God, serves him, knows him through prayer, and express love of him through worship.

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Approaching God in Prayer

Posted on September 8, 2013 by Michael

Maria Magdalene PrayingGod desires prayer that presents him with the emotions and feelings that dwell within the heart—fear, anger, pain, loneliness, brokenness, joy, praise, and thanksgiving.  He is not so distant that emotions and feelings should not be shared.  God, our father, desires to hear what lies within the heart.  He is not a distant God who should be addressed in a detached, reserved manner.

God desires a prayerful heart that patiently listens. For, “whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive” (Matthew 21:22).   To hear God’s answer the heart must attentively listen in silence and with patience.

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To the Eyes of Faith

Posted on September 7, 2013 by Michael

To the Eyes of FaithIn Lumen Fidei (18) Pope Francis states, “Faith does not merely gaze at Jesus, but sees things as Jesus himself sees them, with his own eyes: it is a participation in his way of seeing.”

Seeing things as Jesus sees them is challenging.  It was difficult for the Apostles.  Jesus rebukes the Apostles throughout the Gospels for not seeing things as he sees them.  The Apostles would gaze upon the miracles of Jesus, hear his parables, and follow him along the way, but they were unable to see things as he saw them.  This inability to see things as he saw them is why Judas betrayed Jesus and why the others, with the exception of John, could not gaze upon Christ Jesus crucified.  After the resurrection, slowly and steadily their faith grew and they were able to see things as Jesus sees them.

How does Jesus see things?  I believe the answer to this question is found in how Jesus describes himself: meek, humble, the way, and the truth.

So, to see things as Jesus sees them is to see with eyes of his meekness, his humility, his truth and his way of the cross.  Not through our human eyes that see only:  “What is in it for me?” “What can I get away with?” “I will do it my way!” “I have my own set of values, principles, and truths that I live my life by.”   These are the fruits of pride that weaken the eyes ability to see as Jesus sees and will eventually lead to blindness and death.

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