Our Will, to Cooperate...

Therefore, though it is God who takes the initiative of coming to dwell in the midst of men, and he is always the main architect of this plan, it is also true that he does not will to carry it out without our active cooperation.

The Good Shepherd

“Sick, our nature demanded to be healed; fallen, to be raised up; dead, to rise again. We had lost the possession of the good; it was necessary for it to be given back to us. Closed in the darkness, it was necessary to bring us the light; captives, we awaited a Savior; prisoners, help; slaves, a liberator. Are these things minor or insignificant? Did they not move God to descend to human nature and visit it, since humanity was in so miserable and unhappy a state?” ~ St Gregory of

Rules...

Christianity is not a mass of restrictions and rules, but the true path to peace, joy, life and fulfillment. If only we had more strength to trust in the God who shaped the mountains and carved out the seas, instead of trying all the time to avoid his wise law, we would find the peace we long for but search for vainly everywhere else.

~ Father John Bartunek

Lost...

Dear Jesus,

Unless you make my heart more like yours, I will continue judging my neighbor just like the Pharisees. Unless you give me a deeper experience of your goodness, I will keep slipping into the wrong idea about you. I see the Pharisee in myself, Lord, and I don’t want him to win out. I want to be your ambassador, not your adversary

I was that lost coin, and you found me. I have been the lost sheep many times, and you have always come after me. Thank you, Lord. I don’t thank you as I should. I am glad you haven’t given up on me. Now please teach me to be like you, to seek and find lost coins and lost sheep, so as to repay your love to me by bringing joy to your heart

How patient you were with the stubborn, self-righteous Pharisees! Pour some of that patience into my heart, Lord. I have too short a fuse. I know I’m acting like a fool when I harp on others and become exasperated with them – as if I were perfect. Help me to think more about the good of my neighbor than the satisfaction of my own desires. Teach me to love as you love

~ Me

The Better Part...

Read the Gospel of St Luke 10:38-42

“From the top of a hill the rain flows down to the valley. Just as more water collects at the bottom of the hill, so Mary, sitting in a low place at the feet of Jesus, listening to His words, receives more than Martha, standing and serving the temporal needs of her Master. Mary, loving Jesus, the one thing needed, is in port. Martha, occupying herself about many things, is still at sea.” ~ St Augustine

If Christ truly is the one Lord of life and history, the one Savior, the one Way, Truth, and Life (which he is), then it is certain that “only one” thing is needed for a fulfilling, meaningful, and fruitful life: to stay as close to him as possible at all times. When we address Christ (from our hearts) as Lord, we are acknowledging our conviction that he truly is our one thing necessary, and he will be as pleased with us for doing so as he was with Mary.

The Lord already is the one thing needed. Our task is to choose to shape our lives accordingly. Jesus doesn’t congratulate Mary because she won the spiritual lottery or had received a particularly beautiful soul from God. He praises her because she has “chosen the better part.” She chooses it. She chooses to submit to the Lord, to let him be for her what he in truth is for everyone – that one needed thing.

Once again we are confronted with this amazing truth about Christ’s Kingship: he offers the benefits of his rule to all people, but he leaves each person supremely free to accept or reject them. And the offer is not a one-time affair. Martha had chosen to busy herself with her own plans on this occasion, but you can bet she adjusted her behavior the next time the Lord came around. Mary had chosen to adore the Lord this time, but she would still be free to make the same or a different choice the next time. Every single time we choose to give Christ and his will priority in our lives, we are pleasing him and extending the borders of his Kingdom in our lives. And every single time we bring his message to others, we give them a chance to do the same.

Praise be to Jesus Christ, now & forever!

Best Friends Forever

"What more do we want than to have at our side a friend so loyal that he will never desert us when we are in trouble or in difficulties, as worldly friends do?"

~ St Theresa of Avila

Read:
The Gospel according to St Luke 10:13-24

"You have given me the universe. All that I see around me, Lord, is mine, because it is yours, and you have given me your very self, and you continue to give me your very self every time I receive Holy Communion. You hold me in the palm of your hand. You, the all-powerful, all-knowing God, shower me with gifts. Thank you, Lord. Blessed by your name through all the earth”

I bear your name, and you have anointed my forehead with the sign of the cross. You have given me a mission in life, just as you gave one to the seventy-two. I am to bring the sweet aroma of your truth and love into the world where I live and work. Make me your faithful disciple, Lord, so that I can experience the joy of your victory, and so give joy to your heart”

Why do I insist on walking alone through life? You are always thinking of me, like a lover in the full, fresh bloom of love. You are interested in me, wanting to teach and guide me in all my responsibilities, activities, and relationships. You are on the edge of your seat, waiting to see how I will respond to all the blessings and opportunities for growth that you send me. Thank you, Lord”

From: "The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer"

Heirs...

“The Father sent his Son out of his immeasurable love for us sinners. He sent him to free us from the tyrannical power of the devil, to invite us to heaven and lead us into its innermost sanctuary. He was sent to show us truth itself, to teach us how we should live, to share with us the source of all goodness, to enrich us with the treasures of his grace. Finally, he was sent to make us sons of the Father and heirs to eternal life” The Church wants us to understand that as he came once into the world in the flesh, so now, if we remove all barriers, he is ready to come to us again at any minute or hour, to make his home spiritually within us in all his grace.”

~St Charles Borromeo, Pastoral Letters

Build Your House...

“My friends, in the heart of every man there is the desire for a house. Even more so in the young person's heart there is a great longing for a proper house, a stable house, one to which he cannot only return with joy, but where every guest who arrives can be joyfully welcomed. There is a yearning for a house where the daily bread is love, pardon and understanding. It is a place where the truth is the source out of which flows peace of heart. There is a longing for a house you can be proud of, where you need not be ashamed and where you never fear its loss. These longings are simply the desire for a full, happy and successful life. Do not be afraid of this desire! Do not run away from this desire! Do not be discouraged at the sight of crumbling houses, frustrated desires and faded longings. God the Creator, who inspires in young hearts an immense yearning for happiness, will not abandon you in the difficult construction of the house called life.

“My friends, this brings about a question: ‘How do we build this house?’ Jesus” encourages us to build on the rock” Building on rock means first of all to build on Christ and with Christ” In short, building on Christ means basing all your desires, aspirations, dreams, ambitions and plans on his will. It means saying to yourself, to your family, to your friends, to the whole world and, above all to Christ: "Lord, in life I wish to do nothing against you, because you know what is best for me. Only you have the words of eternal life" (cf. John 6:68). My friends, do not be afraid to lean on Christ! Long for Christ, as the foundation of your life! Enkindle within you the desire to build your life on him and for him! Because no one who depends on the crucified love of the Incarnate Word can ever lose.”

~Pope Benedict XVI

Put on your 3D Glasses

Dimension: a measurable extent of some kind, such as length, breadth, depth, or height.

Recently in my life I have been faced with the task of viewing things multi- dimensionally. This quest has been handed to me in the many areas that I face on a daily basis; conversations with those around me, in looking at our created bodies, in looking at the creations of nature that we pass by without notice, in looking at our salvation history, in looking at the Church, and in our view of not only God, but of how God works and moves in our lives. EVERYTHING that God created, and I mean everything, has dimension to it. Nothing is "flat". Even our very God Himself has a tri-dimensional nature. Father, Son, & Holy Spirit.

As many of you know, I love to fish. On my last trip out I was recently in a river in search of the biggest smallmouth that I could find, but instead I found something much greater. When fishing a river we typically fish as we walk upstream, fighting the current. As I was walking along, trying to pay close attention to every little change in current and every rock that may be holding the exact fish that I was after, I got excited when we came upon a section where there were many visible objects sticking out of the water; rocks and fallen trees; strong areas of current leading to still pools (basically a visual heaven for a fish to sit and feed), but I lost that excitement when we came to a section of the river where there was a stretch of still water; a section where I could see absolutely nothing other than the still surface. I thought to myself as to why we would even be fishing in this section...I wanted to move on to 'where the action was'; a section where I could see what was going on and an area that gave me confidence in where I thought a fish should be.

So, against my judgment we continued to fish this 'dead' section which required a bit more time and work to fish and pretty soon to my surprise, a bite; a fish caught out of this 'desolate' part of the river. After fishing there for a while we walked further to the next section and I was now walking in the area where we had just fished. I began to see things that were hidden to me earlier. We walked around many rocks and boulders hidden under the surface of the water; there were different sand bars and different depths where I could feel current moving under the surface. Pretty soon a fish jumped out of the water nearby and I could see a little school of minnows swim by. You see, this area was deeper and in this deeper water it was hard to see all of the 'treasures' that were hidden beneath it's surface from a distance, but it contained much more than I imagined. The same river current was there; the same rock formations were there and in fact there were many more places for fish to live in this area of the river due to it's depth. It was dimensional beyond my comprehension at first glance. If I had acted on my first feelings, I would have walked through this area and ruined my chances at catching the fish that it contained.

Our lives are like that river. God is constantly working and moving just like that current is constantly moving and feeding life to those beings that are contained in it. There are times in our life where God isn't showing us all that He has in store for us at first glance. We must slow down and study the depths of the water and act in faith, trusting that God will show to us Himself on a deeper level; we must know that God IS at work even if we can't see Him working...we must pay closer attention to what's beneath the surface in order to find out what God may be trying to teach us. God wants us to know to Him fully...to seek Him out and seek out His truth even when we think we know what's best, or when we think we have truth already; then to our surprise, a bite, a fish. Our God and His truth is shown to us in all of His creations and when we actually take the time to look into them, we can see God at work...even in the blades of grass; in the smallest molecules of life; in the very atoms that make up our being.

It's in the dimensions of life that we grow; it's in the dimensions of God and His Church, and our understanding of that Church, that cause us to grow in our relationship with Him (1 Tim. 3:15). There is nothing created by God that is worthless or useless to us, sometimes it just requires a bit more attention to detail in order to grow and know Him better. We must let go of our own understanding and look to God in order to gain.

St. Ignatius of Loyola said, "Man is created to praise, reverence, & serve God our Lord, & by this means to save his soul. All other things on the face of the earth are created for man to help him fulfill the end for which he is created."

Thank you God for humbling me and showing to me your multiple dimensions; thank you for helping me to continue to seek you out in everything in my life. Thank you for your Church and the authority of that Church that hands down to us your Word and your Holy Spirit, for without them we would not have the opportunity to know you, to love you, & to serve you!

Praise be Jesus Christ, now and forever!

Called To Serve

Another great devotional so I thought I would share...hope you enjoy.


Matthew 20: 20-28

Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons, and kneeling before him, she asked a favor of him. And he said to her, "What do you want?" She said to him, "Declare that these two sons of mine will sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom." But Jesus answered, "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?´´ They said to him, "We are able." He said to them, "You will indeed drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left, this is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father." When the ten heard it, they were angry with the two brothers. But Jesus called them to him and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

In an era in which catch-phrases such as “called to serve” have been overused to the point of becoming clichés, we risk forgetting how central service is to the Christian life. The minutes of our lives are consumed in an incessant cascade of apparently important and urgent things to do. Doesn’t it happen, however, that in the midst of all this we actually miss any number of opportunities to serve? Called to serve, yes, but we miss the call! And our service gets sidelined. If service to my brothers and sisters is not an ordinary element of my daily life as a Christian, I can be sure that I have succumbed to self-deception or taken a critically wrong turn somewhere.

We are called to give ourselves unreservedly to others as a continuation of Christ. “A continuation of Christ”: now, wouldn’t that make a wonderful epitaph?! For truly, if our Christian service is not a prolongation, an extension of Jesus’ love, if we are not giving him to others, if those whom we serve are not discovering him in us, then our service is simply not service. It might be empathy, but it falls short of genuine Christian service if those whom we serve do not discover Christ in us. Like John the Baptist, we must become less so that Jesus can become more in us, so that our brothers and sisters are not cheated out of encountering that Christ whom they secretly long to discover in each of us.

Resolution: Out of love for Christ, present in the least of my brothers and sisters, I will examine myself on what genuine Christian service means to me in practice, and what place it usually has in my daily life.

Like Little Children...

Matthew 11:25-30

If every heart innately yearns for God (which it does), this Gospel passage ought to be prized above all others, for it teaches us the secret for satisfying that yearning. To encounter God requires only one thing. Not intellectual prowess, worldly excellence, or sophisticated achievements, but simplicity. God gives himself to those who are “mere children”, to those who are childlike. The mark of children is not innocence; most often they are quite mischievous. It is not ignorance, for they often surprise us with their insights and thoughtful questions. Nor is it helplessness, for many of them are streetwise survivors, as often seen in situations of poverty and war.


The mark of the child is trust. Children readily put their trust in those given charge over them (until that trust is violated). It is natural for children to depend on their parents, to follow unquestioningly their older siblings. They have not yet developed the average adult’s haughty air of self-sufficiency. By word and example (as for example in the Garden of Gethsemane) Jesus teaches us that intimacy with God requires trust above all. Faith is trusting that what God reveals is true; hope is trusting that what he promises will come about; love is trusting that what he asks us to do is what we should do. If we put our trust in God, and not in ourselves, we will find God.

-From "The Better Part - A Christ Centered Resource for Personal Prayer" (A Fantastic Daily Devotional)

Fundamental Awareness

“The Church's fundamental function in every age and particularly in ours is to direct man's gaze, to point the awareness and experience of the whole of humanity towards the mystery of God, to help all men to be familiar with the profundity of the Redemption taking place in Christ Jesus. At the same time man's deepest sphere is involved – we mean the sphere of human hearts, consciences and events… Jesus Christ is the stable principle and fixed center of the mission that God Himself has entrusted to man. We must all share in this mission and concentrate all our forces on it, since it is more necessary than ever for modern mankind. If this mission seems to encounter greater opposition nowadays than ever before, this shows that today it is more necessary than ever and, in spite of the opposition, more awaited than ever.” Pope John Paul II, Redemptor hominis