Saturday, October 30, 2010

Injustice is Temporary

Injustice is temporary; it is of time. In the same way that Faith and Hope are temporary, once we get to heaven, injustice too will cease to exist. God, who is Love, will judge and no injustice will stand. Justice is outside of time; it is eternal. In the same way that Love is the greatest virtue and Love never ends and Love is eternal -- Justice too will reign forever.

Mercy is boundless. God’s mercy is inexhaustible. But alongside His perfect Mercy is His perfect Justice. Jesus has told us that now is the time of Mercy, but it shall come to an end. It comes to an end for each soul who chooses separation from Him. But Justice never ends. God is Love and God is Mercy and God is Justice. The enemy is injustice and judgment and hate. For all of those souls who turn their backs on him and turn their faces and hearts to our Lord, injustice, judgment and hate will end. Only Mercy and Justice and Love will remain. We will sing of them forever.

In these strange times where the enemy has such great success through the weapon of confusion, we are tempted to believe that injustice is an illusion. It is very real. Look at a Crucifix. It is very real. However, the enemy betrays that he too knows the limits to his power. Injustice is not an illusion, but it is temporary. This slight twist is so typical of how he works in the minds of those who are sort of seeking truth - those who are seeking a truth that is convenient and does not require them to leave any behaviors behind. So he whispers, "Injustice is an illusion; truth is unknowable; good is relative and evil does not exist."

Taking this bait leaves a sick feeling in the stomach. Listen to that feeling. It will not always be there. It will gradually be deadened. Listen to it and admit that you know there is truth, there is good and there is evil. Look at the Crucifix and listen to your heart tell you that injustice is real, but it is only temporary. The day will come, praise be to God, when His Justice will reign forever more. Please, please choose to be with Him when that day comes.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Break the Chains

On Jesse Romero's radio show this past March 16th he mentioned an amazing statistic. More fallen away Catholics go to Church on Ash Wednesday than on any other day of the year. This includes Christmas and Easter! More people go to be marked with the truth of their sins than go to rejoice on the great feasts of the Church. It is so terribly sad that there are many, many souls who come in with their shame and sorrow, but leave before receiving His Mercy. They are the walking condemned. They listen as the enemy whispers in their ear how bad they are, but can not hear Jesus telling them how much He loves them and desires them to come home.

This Lent is almost over. The prayers, sacrices and almsgiving we offer to our Lord for love of Him, may be used by Him to break the bondage that sin has over an eternal soul. It's time to push through until the end, to persevere with Jesus on the Cross. Remember the times in your life when you were enslaved to sin. Remember the joy of being released through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Press on for someone. Press on for Jesus.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Father Gerard Manley Hopkins

More of not my own thoughts that I want to share. This Jesuit priest and poet gave his own slant on the sacrament of the present moment in his description of the thisness of things. He called us to be present to this flower, this person, this sunrise. He loved nature and saw God clearly through His creation. Here is my favorite of his poems:

The Windhover

by Gerard Manley Hopkins

To Christ our Lord

I CAUGHT this morning morning’s minion, kingdom of daylight’s dauphin, dappledawndrawn Falcon, in his riding

Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding high there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing in his ecstasy!

Then off, off forth on swing, as a skate’s heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend; the hurl and gliding, rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding, stirred for a bird, -- the achieve of; the mastery of the thing!

Brute beauty and valor and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!

No wonder of it: sheer plod makes plough down sillion shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear, fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion.

___________________________________________________________________

I stumbled across Fr. Hopkins in a most providential way. I was typing at this computer, looking out the window and saw an unusual bird. The word "Kestrel" came to mind. I love birds, but know very little about them. I decided to look up the kestrel and found that this little bird in my backyard was not one. I was intrigued though and read about the kestrel, looked at some amazing pictures and thought about hawks and other solitary birds. Then, on the search, there was a poem listed under the nickname for kestrels, the windhover. The search showed, "to Christ Our Lord" and so I had to check it out. And so I found Fr. Hopkins. I've since taken a book out of his collected poetry, letters and sermons. A new friend; a new treasure! Then, the next day, what appeared in that backyard tree? Yup, a petite, and very beautiful, American Kestrel. Praise be to God.

Blessed Father Dolindo

Well it has been so long since I've posted, and this time I am not even going to post my own thoughts, but those of Blessed Father Dolindo. This writing has been such an absolute Godsend to me and I have sent it to many of my friends and family. We are all tempted to anxiety these days and here lies the antidote as given to Father:


I don’t want to worry, my God: I put my faith in you

Let us change our worry into prayer

Jesus speaks to our souls: “Why do you confuse yourselves by worrying? Leave the care of your affairs to me and everything will be peaceful. I say to you in truth that every act of true, blind, complete surrender to me produces the effect that you desire and resolves all difficult situations.
Surrendering to me does not mean to fret, to be upset or to lose hope, nor does it mean offering to me a worried prayer asking me to follow you and change your worry into prayer. Surrender means to placidly close the eyes of the soul, to turn away from thoughts of tribulation and to put yourself in my care, so that only I act, saying: ‘You take care of it.’ It is against this surrender, deeply against it, to worry, to be nervous and to desire to think about the consequences of anything.

It is like the confusion that children feel when they ask their mother to see to their needs, and then they try to take care of those needs for themselves, so that their childlike efforts get in their mother’s way.

Close your eyes and let yourself be carried away on the flowing current of my grace; close your eyes and do not think of the present, turning your thoughts away from the future just as you would from temptation. Repose in me, believing in my goodness, and I promise you by my love that, if you say, ‘You take care of it.’ I will take care of it all; I will console you, liberate you and guide you.

When I must lead you on a path different from the one you see, I will prepare you, I will carry you in my arms; I will let you find yourself, like children who have fallen asleep their mother’s arms, on the other bank of the river. What troubles you and hurts you immensely are your reason, your thoughts, and your worry, and your desire at all costs to deal with what afflicts you.”

In spiritual and material needs…

“How many things I do when the soul, in so much spiritual and material need, turns to me, looks at me and says to me: ‘You take care of it,’ then closes its eyes and rests. So few graces do you have when you strive so much to create them; and yet you have so many when your prayer is full trust in me. In pain you pray for me to act, but that I act in the away you want… You do not turn to me; instead, you want me to adapt to your ideas. You are not sick people who ask the doctor to cure you, but rather sick people who tell the doctor how to. So do not act this way, but pray as I taught you in the Our Father: ‘Hallowed be thy name’, that is, be glorified in my need; ‘Thy kingdom come’, that is, let all that is in us and in the world be in accord with your kingdom; ‘Thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven’, that is, in our need, decide as you see fit for our temporal and eternal life.

If you say to me truly: ‘Thy will be done’, which is the same as saying: ‘You take care of it’, I will intervene with all of my omnipotence, and I will resolve the most difficult situations. You see evil growing instead of weakening? Do not worry, close your eyes and say to me with faith: ‘Thy will be done; You take care of it.’ I say to you that I will take care of it, and that I will intervene as does a doctor and I will accomplish miracles when they are needed. Do you see that the sick person is getting worse? Do not be upset, but close your eyes and say: ‘You take care of it’. I say to you that I will take care of it, and that there is no medicine more powerful than my loving intervention. I take care of things only when you close your eyes.

Unable to sleep, we want to judge everything, direct everything, having faith only in men. You are sleepless; you want to judge everything, direct everything and see to everything, and your surrender to human strength, or worse - to men themselves, trusting in their intervention - this is what hinders my words and my views. Oh, how much do I wish from you this surrender, to help you, and how I suffer when I see you so agitated! Satan tries to do exactly this: to agitate you and to remove you from my protection and to throw you into the jaws of human initiative. So, trust only in me, rest in me, surrender to me in everything. I perform miracles in proportion to your full surrender to me and to your not thinking of yourselves; I sow treasure-troves of graces when you are in the deepest poverty! If you have your resources, as little as they may be, or if you look for them, you are in the natural world, and you follow the natural progress of things, which is often hindered by Satan. No person of reason, no thinker, has ever performed miracles, not even among the Saints. He does divine works whosoever surrenders to God.”

When instead we confide in God…

“When you see things become more complicated, say then with the eyes of the soul closed: ‘Jesus, take care of it’. And don’t think about it anymore, because your mind is acute, and for you it is very hard to see evil and to trust in me and to not think of yourself. Do this for all your needs; do this all of you and you will see great, continual, silent miracles. By my love, I promise this to you. And I will take care of things. I promise this to you. Pray always in readiness to surrender, and you will receive from it great peace and great rewards, even when I confer on you the grace of immolation of repentance and of love. Then, what does suffering matter? It seems impossible to you? Close your eyes and say with all of your soul: ‘Jesus, you take care of it’. Do not be afraid, I will take care of things and you will bless my name by humbling yourself. A thousand prayers cannot equal one single act of surrender: remember this well. There is no novena more effective than this:

Oh Jesus, I surrender to you, you take care of it.”

For more information on Blessed Father Dolindo: http://www.dolindo.org/english/

My own thoughts on this writing:

Paragraph 4 - "...close your eyes and do not think of the present, turning your thoughts away from the future just as you would from temptation." - This made me think of the prayer during the Our Father at Mass, "Deliver us, Lord, from every evil and protect us from all anxiety." It's like there are two sides to the coin of temptation - Evil and Anxiety. As many of us who have faith are not as easy prey to temptation to sin, the devil tempts us to anxiety instead. He still is tempting us to believe God is a liar and will not take care of us.

Paragraph 8 - "...the jaws of human initiative." - It just struck me how society teaches us that initiative and ambition are such good things, but God is looking for us to grow in the virtues of obedience, trust, wisdom and perseverance. Human initiative is like a false god that gets in the way of our doing what God really wants us to do, and those things He will pour out graces onto.

Paragraph 8 - "No person of reason, no thinker, has ever performed miracles, not even among the Saints. He does divine works whosoever surrenders to God," - So many apparitions and prophets of today talk about how this is meant to be a time of miracles, this time of His Mercy. Yet God cannot use us to perform those miracles if we choose our own strength over His, if we choose anxiety over trust.