Lent - Day Twelve - Between Heaven And Earth

BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH

Second reading Philippians 3:17-4:1 © Our homeland is in heaven, and from heaven comes Christ to transfigure us My brothers, be united in following my rule of life. Take as your models everybody who is already doing this and study them as you used to study us. I have told you often, and I repeat it today with tears, there are many who are behaving as the enemies of the cross of Christ. They are destined to be lost. They make foods into their god and they are proudest of something they ought to think shameful; the things they think important are earthly things. For us, our homeland is in heaven, and from heaven comes the savior we are waiting for, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he will transfigure these wretched bodies of ours into copies of his glorious body. He will do that by the same power with which he can subdue the whole universe. So then, my brothers and dear friends, do not give way but remain faithful in the Lord. I miss you very much, dear friends; you are my joy and my crown. This morning we almost had a tragedy and it was just the luck of the Irish that kept it from happening.  One of the brothers whose turn it was to make breakfast started the fire which had gone out during the night.  He went over to the bag which held the cooking utensils and noticed that it had not been sealed properly the night before.  He opened it and reached in and got the coffee pot and the pot used for making cereal.  As was his custom he grabbed a towel and was going to dust the inside of the pot but something made him look inside it first.  Inside was one of the deserts most fearsome creatures, a deathstalker scorpion had taken up residence there during the night my companion was just inches away from getting what could be a lethal injection of the neurotoxin that this delightful desert creature uses to kill its prey.  The tiny beast was ready and willing to dispense a jolt of his special elixir but to his credit, the man holding the pot did not panic.  Instead, he went to the edge of camp and catapulted the creature out of the pot as hard as he could.  The little guy had an experience most deathstalkers do not receive, the experience of flight!  Now, in spite of the colorful name of this creature, death to a healthy human, while not unheard of, is unlikely if they are stung by this scorpion.  From what victims say it is not an act of mercy to survive the sting as the potent venom causes great pain.  Children and the elderly are most vulnerable but it is considered a medical emergency if you are stung by one of these and in our present situation, medical help and the antivenom that is required is so far away that any dying that the victim would be doing would be done by the time any help could arrive.  So it was on this cheery note that our day began and in our morning prayers, we thanked God that our friend was spared the agony of a sting from this scorpion. After breakfast, as usual, we broke camp but it took a bit longer because we were carefully checking to make sure that the little fella hadn't brought any friends of his own.  No other examples of this miniature death machine were found and as the sun rose above the horizon, we began our trek.  While walking today, I began thinking of death but not death itself with all of the pains that might be attached to it but rather what happens after death. Physically, once the blood stops pumping your body begins it's the journey back into the elements that it is made of.  Tissues break down and in no time the only thing left of bodies that are not specially embalmed such as the Egyptians of old will be our bones.  And years from now, even those bones will return to dust.  All that was "me" will be gone.  The flesh that I work so hard to keep animated, the brain that fuels my thoughts and emotions will be no more.  Yet, through this all, I survive not as a memory on a tombstone with a date of birth and date of death and if I were rich enough some clever saying to mark my time on earth. What will remain of me is any of the good that I accomplished.  My mark will not be a long obituary story nor a small death notice.  My mark will be the seeds of love I planted while I, a body and a soul, walked and talked on this earth.  My soul will be in heaven.  I will be next to those I love and those that love me and we will glorify God together in songs of worship and praise.   This reward, this new life after death is as certain as gravity and as we are counter-culture people, our ways will receive persecution for "forward thinking" men and women who only can see what is in front of them and who take no notice of God, His laws, and His rewards.  They will be furious when we point out that their way of life is contrary to the Word of God.  They will tell us to follow our God in our own way and to leave them alone.  If that was only possible.  They do not live and let live as they want us to do, they pursue through the rule of law to make their rights to sinful things the law of the land.  They will do all that they can to enforce their rights while limiting ours.  But these people who are the most pitiful creature on earth are the enemies of Christ and the Cross. They existed at the time of Christ, at the time of the early Church, at the time of the great revolt of the Protestants, and exist until today.  Our Church is built on rock and in spite of the scandals of the moment it will survive and thrive because Jesus said so.  Paul tells us that our real homeland is in heaven.  We cannot keep silent about this because God wants a bountiful harvest and wants as many as possible to join Him in the never-ending feast. So, stir up your spirit, gird your loins and announce the Good News by the way you live and by the people you love.

Lent - Day Seven - It Was So Important That He Said It Twice!

Gospel	Matthew 6:7-15 ©

How to pray

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘In your prayers do not babble as the pagans do, for they think that by using many words they will make themselves heard. Do not be like them; your Father knows what you need before you ask him. So you should pray like this:

‘Our Father in heaven,

may your name be held holy,

your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven those who are in debt to us.

And do not put us to the test,

but save us from the evil one.

‘Yes, if you forgive others their failings, your heavenly Father will forgive you yours; but if you do not forgive others, your Father will not forgive your failings either.’

We saw something strange in the desert today, dark rain clouds passed overhead, lightning sounded but the hot air from the desert floor ascending consumed the water before it could hit the ground. I am not even sure how this storm made it over the mountains,  On our side of the mountains, there is nothing but sun and sand like a never-ending beach but no water to sully the dry, lifeless, and hot sand. 

The day had been long and except for the ten or fifteen minutes of the "storm", the sun beat mercilessly down on us.  Every step was harder than the step before.  Everyone, except the Master, was on edge when we stopped to eat lunch. The meal was over and we were checking the camels, making sure that none of the bindings were chaffing and that the load remained balanced.   Two of my companions were checking Hercules who as usual was in a sour mood when it happened.  One of the men checked a strap by pulling on it and thus loosened it and immediately the whole load became unbalanced.  The Hercules, not a camel to suffer fools easily started to walk away and the whole load fell off the camel's back into the grit of the desert floor.  The man who had charge of the camel called the other a bloody fool and as men do he followed that up with curses, threats, and saber rattling and a description of the culprit's home life that was hard to believe.  The two began to fight. The Master came and after a moment He demanded that they stop.  Reluctantly, they separated.  One of the men had what looked to be a black eye and the other was bleeding from his nose and his upper lip. Hercules for his part was standing and peering at his masters and if a camel could chuckle, that is what he would be doing at this moment.  

The Master was not happy.  He told everyone to unload and set up the camp because we would go no further this day.  The Master walked off to be alone while what He commanded was completed.  When the camp was set, the Master came to where the fire would be built and summoned us and had us sit around as we would at night.  Except that doing this during the day was almost worse than walking through the sun.  We sat with the vain hope that our hats would protect us from the sun.  Once we were all assembled, with the two combatants separated on opposite ends of the circle, the Master joined us.  He stood near the center of the group and He looked at us with eyes that, for once, did not reveal the inner peace that dominated Him.  Rather, the eyes seemed to register concern for someone or something.  This look was as rare as a rainstorm in the desert. He stooped and picked up a handful of sand and examined it intently for a moment and then He addressed us. 

"Every man here volunteered to follow me on this journey.  Every one of you took on the responsibility for taking care of one another, looking out for the good and pushing away the bad.  What happened to us today is a symptom.  There is tension between us and that may interfere with our journey.  We are on our way to Jerusalem for reasons that have been explained to you already.  You need to keep the goal in mind and it seems we have lost that because of petty squabbling and now even fisticuffs.  The two who were fighting, arise and face one another. Now approach and each of you apologize to the other."

 One of the culprits refused.  The Master took it in stride, almost as if he expected this to happen.  He told them to sit down. He began walking around the circle and continued his talk.

"We pray a common prayer. We say "Our Father" which means that we are all brothers.  We are not strangers who pass each other in the night.  Look at the people around you.  When you get to heaven these faces and those of a million trillion others will be ones you see.  When you go to Church on Sunday, look at the people in the pews.  Among them are your companions in heaven.  Yes. the lady with the squealing baby, and yes, the man who is constantly playing with his smartphone, and even the family that arrives late to mass and leaves right after communion every week.  Besides your friends, besides the people you know and love, there will uncounted millions of people that will be brothers and sister to you.  But once again, let us look at our common prayer, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.  There! There it is!  Take heed of this sentence as you learn which is the hardest part of being one of my servants!  You must learn to forgive.  I was not kidding or exaggerating the need for you to forgive.  If you carry hate or bitterness in your heart for even one of your brothers or sisters, your entrance into heaven will be delayed or if your hate has hardened your heart so greatly, it may send you to be with the goats into everlasting torment. This fight that occurred today was minor and I know that it was caused by feelings of frustration and the uncomfortable heat we are dealing with during our journey.  But one bad word between friends can change the destiny of one or both of the brothers unless it is followed by an apology and a deeply felt need to right the wrong.  The devil looks for weakness. Imagine the dam at Aswan.  It is a marvel of human engineering.  But, all it takes is a small crack that is ignored by those whose job it is to tend the dam, and sooner or later, the dam will break and the loss of life will be great.  When you hate somebody, imagine if you will, that God's grace is in your soul protecting you and your brother insults you.  That is the crack in your dam and sooner or later the dam will burst, you will learn hate and your fate will be like that of the rich man who refused to feed Lazurus.   I say again, you must forgive those who hurt you.  In order to enter heaven, you must be a person of peace.  Now the two that were fighting, approach one another and settle this score at once." 

The two men walked towards one another.  One with his black eye showing beautifully against his tan skin and the other with a lip that seemed to be swollen twice as large as normal came together, embraced and when they dropped the embrace, each looked at the other, one pointing to a black eye and the other pointing to a split lip and they burst out laughing and took places next to one another in the circle.  The Master was pleased and he showed it with his warmest of smiles.  He left the circle and went to His tent. 

Humility

"My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;             
my spirit rejoices in God my savior.
for he has looked upon his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
and has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children forever."

Our wait for Christmas cheer to chase away the gloom of the long winter nights, cheerless cold and damp are coming to an end and the Church presents to us the words of the Virgin Mother of God.  In this prayer of Mary, we hear things that help us see how great she is and how humble she is.  She proclaims how great God is, she calls Him her savior.  How can God be the savior of Mary who was born without original sin?  Did she even need a savior?  The answer of course is, "Yes, Mary needed a savior."  I have addressed this in this blog before, but just to refresh our minds I will show how Mary could be both sinless and still require a savior.  

We must remember that God has always been and He will never have an end.  He is the one absolute in the universe He created from nothing simply by willing it.  He lives outside of the constraints of time and space and lives in the past, the present, and the future (as we see it) all at once.  The Mother of the Son being sent to Earth could have no taint of sin for in effect she would be carrying God inside of her for nine months, in effect, being a tabernacle or perhaps we could call her a human Holy of Holies as she was where God on earth was dwelling. No sin or evil can be in God's presence and that is why the Mother of God needed to be free of the taint of sin.  This was granted to her by God based on the merits of His Son dying on the cross for the sins of man.  God the Father could see this happening clearly and preserved Mary from sin.  Where we were drawn out of the pit of original sin, our bodies bruised by the fall, Mary, was carried over the pit and her soul received no injury from Adam's sin. 

Mary's life was both the same as any other young virgin in her neighborhood.  She would have been taught how to be a homemaker and would have been given the skills to turn a house into a home.  On the other hand, Mary would be quite different than her contemporaries.  From her conception, which came about in the normal way through the passion her mother and father had for each other, her soul would be pure white and this soul would take up residence in her and she would be turned towards God from the first day of her life to her last breath on earth.  She had in her the same free will that all of us were born with but she would be more inclined to say "Yes" to the things God asked her to do.  She could have refused the job of being the Mother of God but was not likely to. 

Well, this is all very well and good for Mary but what does it mean to ordinary people like you and me?  True, we were born under the shadow of original sin and we bear its mark in our soul to this day. This original sin of Adam, however, was removed by our baptism.  On the day of our baptism, we became sinless and we too could use our free will to live in the way God wanted us to live but all of us eventually had moments of weakness where we turned away from God.  This is the difference between us and Mary.  She was, from the day of her conception, able to use her free will to do the things that God asked of her without thinking of herself.  We on the other hand very often look to our own comfort and our own ambition because we exercise our free will to satisfy the "me" that resides inside of our soul.  Mary's first thoughts would be how to serve "thee." 

So in a matter of days, all of our planning for Christmas will bear the fruit of the effort we put into it. The real question will be, have we converted this holy day into a commercial feast or have he taken time to consider what Christmas really means?  

Have you lost someone you love to death recently?  A mother, father, sister or brother?  Perhaps a grandparent has passed away or maybe a close friend?   It is possible that they went right to heaven but maybe not.  We cannot judge the soul of another person, only God can. Purgatory is a place of preparation where the vast majority of us will begin our eternity as we purge those things that are incompatible with the Glory of God.  I am not saying this to be mean, just reminding you of what might be.  I would urge you to pray for the poor souls in purgatory, by name if you think someone you love is there. Your prayers will not be wasted because if the soul you are praying for is not there, the prayers will be applied to another.  Please, in these closing days of Advent, wrap a beautiful present for someone in Purgatory and pray for them.  They will be your forever friend if you do so.   Remember where they are today you someday also you may be. 

Don't Fall Asleep At The Wheel

Jesus said to his disciples:

"Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy  

from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise like a trap. For that day will assault everyone who lives on the face of the earth. Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man."

The human mind needs sleep.  Your brain will tell you when it has had enough.  You will lose your edge, you may daydream a bit and you just will not be alert.  

I had a job once working third shift, midnight to nine in the morning. Working third shift is not for sissies, I can tell you that.  During the day you are trying to sleep while the world works. Where I lived the noises of everyday life included gardeners with lawn mowers and leaf blowers doing their work almost every day of the week. This coupled with the sun which does not change its schedule for you does make sleeping a challenge.  If you were to have seen me during those nine months that I endured the torture, you would have seen a man who needed some real sleep.  Once. after my shift, I picked up my wife and we went to our favorite restaurant.  On the way there we encountered a stop light.  I stopped the car.  My brain which was in driving mode said, "Oh good, we've stopped."  I promptly fell asleep and my foot slipped off of the brake and we began to creep through the intersection.  I felt the motion and immediately awoke from my three-second slumber and re-applied the brake.  I was now awake, but only slightly alert.  We got to the restaurant safely and I had scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, and toast and four cups of coffee, black, to fortify myself to drive me and my wife back home. 

When we take on too much activity and do not get the rest we need we get drowsy.  It's nature's way of saying that something is wrong. Today Jesus tells us to not allow the cares of the world make us drowsy because we must stay alert and be ready the return of the Lord.   If we allow ourselves to fall into the traps that the world sets for us and we get all wrapped up in attaining temporal things, we will lose our focus on the kingdom of heaven and we will become drowsy when it comes to our salvation and will not ready for Jesus to return. 

This must be an important concept because Jesus returns to it several times in the Gospel accounts.  So, for this first week of advent let our watchwords be "Be sober and alert Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour."

Please remember to pray for your dear departed friends and relatives who may be at this very moment in Purgatory.  You can help them by prayer and sacrifice for them.  It takes about fifteen minutes to pray the rosary for them and you are going to Mass and communion anyway, can't you offer these things for their good?

The King Comes In All of His Glory!

Today is the Feast of Christ the King and it marks the last Sunday of the Church Year.  Next week we begin anew with Advent as we begin our wait for Christmas when we celebrate the birth of a baby. But today we study the end of things. Much has been written about the end times and this blog entry is not going to prophesy when the end shall come, that I leave to God who alone knows the day and the hour.  I do, however, make use of the scriptures to show just what will happen on that day. 

Jesus, Himself, tells us exactly what will happen.  He will come in all of His glory and He will gather the nations together.  We will be separated, the sheep from the goats, and he will address each of the groups separately. 

To the sheep:

'Come, you who are blessed by my Father.
Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 

For I was hungry and you gave me food,
I was thirsty and you gave me drink,
a stranger and you welcomed me,
naked and you clothed me,
ill and you cared for me,
in prison and you visited me.'

The sheep will be amazed, they could not remember when they had done all of these things.  To them the King will say:

'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did
for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me.'

To the Goats:

'Depart from me, you accursed,
into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
For I was hungry and you gave me no food,
I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,
a stranger and you gave me no welcome,
naked and you gave me no clothing,
ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.'

The goats will be puzzled and will wrack their brains trying to remember when they had seen Jesus in need. To them the King will say:

'Amen, I say to you,
what you did not do for one of these least ones,
you did not do for me.'

The sheep will go to heaven and the goats will go to hell. 

There are those in this world that believe that just believing in Jesus and saying the sinner's prayer will forever protect them from losing their salvation. The scriptures, specifically the reading from Matthew that we have above tears down this comforting but dangerously erroneous belief.  To believe in Jesus and to make Him your personal Lord and Savior is absolutely required and is a wonderful first step.  But to believe in Jesus is just not enough.  The devil believes in Jesus as do all of the devil's demons. We have to believe in Jesus and do the work that needs to be done.  The work is described in Matthew as helping those that need help.  To believe and not do will not get us anywhere.

Each of us needs to develop a sensitivity to the state of the people around us, those that live in our cities and towns that are in need and we need to address those needs as if we were doing them for Jesus Himself.  Can you imagine what the world would be like today if all of God's people did the work of Christ?  It boggles my mind why Christianity has not had more of an impact on the problems that have plagued us over the years. As this church year ends with this sobering Gospel reading, let us begin today to look for ways to improve the lives of those who have less than us.  Let us remember that the face of Jesus is in the face of the person that is in need. 

The month of November is the month we remember those that have gone before us.  Some of those who have died recently have ended up in purgatory and they need our help.  Please, pray for the poor souls.  They will remember your efforts on their behalf for all eternity.  

Every Tear Will Be Wiped Away

We do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters,

about those who have fallen asleep,

so that you may not grieve like the rest, who have no hope. 

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose,

so too will God, through Jesus,

bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 

Indeed, we tell you this, on the word of the Lord,

I have been present at both the deaths of my mother and my father.  They died eighteen years apart, my mother in nineteen-ninety and my father in two-thousand eight.  My mother died young, at age sixty-four and my father at eighty-seven years of age.  Both slipped from this world to the next without much trauma, they went peacefully.  In both cases, I cried but when my mother died I went into what I now know was depression.  My sorrow at the passing of my father was just as great as when my mother passed but I was older and was able to deal with it better.  Death will happen in all families.  Just as sure as there is a God that loves us, there is the certainty of death. 

I do not want to bust up your Sunday and bring you down to consider the ultimate facts of life and death.  I want to encourage you to remember that the death of one we loved is not an ending but rather it is a new beginning.  We are assured that we will meet those that we have loved in the afterlife and we will be together again. More than that, at the end of time, we will not be disembodied spirits but we will have our bodies back and they will no longer be subject to decay and disease. They will be resurrected bodies that will be recognizable as our own but endowed with miraculous powers.

Then there is where we will be. We cannot imagine what heaven will be like. It will be a place where love reigns and there will be no tears of sorrow ever again.  Sickness will be something that no longer exists.  The aches and pains we suffer today will forever be gone.  The light will forever be bright in heaven because it's source will be from the holiness of God.  The rich people of the planet earth live in great splendor here where rust and moth take their toll.  For us, there will be the mansion built by Jesus Himself for us and it will be grander and more beautiful than any dwelling place ever constructed on earth because it will be built just for us! 

Today, all around us, are people who are closer to death than we are.  Some are in hospital or hospice counting the days, hours, or minutes until their destiny is wrought.  Or they have received word from their doctor that there is nothing more to be done and that they should plan for the end.  There are those that are afraid and are holding on to what they know with grim determination and grasping at torturous medical procedures in the vain hope of prolonging their life.  There are those also who are but moments or even seconds away from their encounter with eternity and with God.  We have to pray for all of these people.  We have to pray that they are given the help they need to accept God's invitation to experience eternity to not hold foolishly to the things of time but to embrace the things of eternity.  Each of them is beloved by God and no matter what kind of life they have lived, they will all have a final chance to claim their birthright as a son or daughter of the Great King in that final moment.  For those who have lived their lives in a worthy manner who have loved God above all, the choice will be simple, sweet, joyful, and immediate. For those who are still attached to the world, who carry with them the burden of sin, forgiveness will there for the asking, but many will choose to remain mute before the great judge because their guilt, their sinfulness, their rejection of the graces that were sent them will be self-evident and they will move away from the light of Christ towards the everlasting darkness.  Others, who are aware that they are not yet ready to stand in heaven will choose to purify themselves in Purgatory.  There they will have the joy of knowing for certain that in the future they will experience the joy of heaven when they are cleansed of the effects of sin and from attachments to worldly things.  That joy will never be taken away from them.

So today, my friends, make it a point to pray for all of those among us who are at a point in their life where they approach a crossroads. Pray that all of them experience a peaceful and joyful death and that those among them that need to accept the final chance that God will give them.  It will be a tough choice to turn away from a life filled with hate for the Holy but it can be done.  And for our friends and relatives in Purgatory, pray for them too.  Remember, as they are, you might someday be. 

All Souls Day - A Final Pilgrimage

For Christ, while we were still helpless,

died at the appointed time for the ungodly.

Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person,

though perhaps for a good pperson one

might even find courage to die.

But God proves his love for us

in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.

The day will come when each of us will take our last breath and say goodbye to everything that is familiar to us. All of the things that we considered important, all of the property we owned, all of the money we had in the bank will remain behind and only the things that we can carry in our heart will follow us.  This is the truth for all men, not just Christians, or Jews, or Muslims, or Buddhists, or even atheists.   Our lot as human beings is the same.  Death pares down the differences between us and makes us all the same. 

But, death does not mean an end, it means only a change. We change mortality for immortality.  We acquire a new dwelling place where we will live forever.  The choices are three, and we ourselves will sentence our souls to what we will know in that awful moment our fate should be.  Heaven for those who are completely turned to God.  Purgatory for those of us who need to release attachments to sin and to purify in us what needs to be purified.  Sadly, for some, hell will be their place of eternal sojourn, forever blaming ourselves for hating God and turning fully away from Him. 

Has someone you've known and loved passed away during this past year?  This holy day was instituted for them.  Take a moment before you retire for the evening and pray for the souls of the dear departed.  Pray especially for the souls that died recently and suddenly who have found themselves unprepared for eternity.  Pray for the Holy Souls in Purgatory.  They will remember those who prayed for them, even once, and will be forever grateful. 

May the souls of the faithfully departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.   Amen.   

We Are Being Called To Our Destiny

Then one of the elders spoke up and said to me,
"Who are these wearing white robes, and where did they come from?"

I said to him, "My lord, you are the one who knows."

He said to me,
"These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes
and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb."

November first is the feast of All Saints.  The feast exists for two reasons.  First, the Church wants to recognize all of thousands upon thousands of people who were faithful to God and His Son Jesus and accepted the promptings of the Holy Spirit and lived a life that won them the greatest prize of all, heaven.  While it is true that the Church does declare that certain of her members are in heaven and are enjoying the Beatific Vision of God and the bliss of eternal life with God, she also wants to recognize these millions of others who also are in heaven.  The vast majority of us who lived worthy lives in private. She recognizes those of us who did the laundry, brought up the children, worked to earn the bread that they ate all while giving God the things that were God and following in the footsteps of Jesus. Secondly, the Church reminds us today. those of us still on the earth that we are called to be saints.  There is no other destiny worthy of souls than to be with God in heaven.  So today as you think of your favorite saint, no matter if it is Saint Francis, or St, Maximilian Kolbe, or Mother Teresa, remember too that this feast day is made for you.  After all, you are a Saint In Training! 

PRAY FOR THE POOR SOULS TODAY

Today, please say this prayer devoutly at least once.  Jesus appeared to St. Gertrude the Great and said that every time a person recites this prayer devoutly one-thousand souls are released from purgatory.  Let's get together and empty Purgatory today! 

“Eternal Father,

I offer You the most precious blood

of thy Divine Son, Jesus,

in union with the Masses said

throughout the world today,

for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory,

for sinners everywhere,

for sinners in the universal Church,

for those in my own home,

and in my family. Amen.”

The Sound of Silence

Jesus said to his disciples: "I tell you, everyone, who acknowledges me before others the Son of Man will acknowledge before the angels of God. But whoever denies me before others will be denied before the angels of God. "Everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.

There is a cost to being silent and it is a terrible price to pay indeed!  If we acknowledge Jesus, He will acknowledge us. If we deny that we know Him before others, He will deny that He knows us as well.  Can you imagine arriving at eternity and being friendless?  At the judgment, it will truly be a case of not what you know but who you know!  Some of us will gather there and feel self-assured because we studied hard and we know all about Jesus, every fact, the significance of every word He spoke that is recorded in scripture, the fine nuances of every parable and the history of the time Jesus lived and even why He came. But, when we look for Him on that awful day we will not see Him because we only knew about Him but we never truly knew Him. Standing to our right will be that little man who spent his life in obscurity, who gave to God what was God's and who ministered to The Christ by acts of piety and charity that went unseen by those with means and power on the earth.  This little, insignificant man will be trembling with excitement because he will be able to clearly see Jesus, his friend, his counselor, his king. He will jump up and down with great excitement and holler, "There He is, there He is."  Tears of joy will stream down his face while on your face they will be only tears.  The little man spent His life ministering to people that needed it.  Although he had very little, he gave what he could and cared for each person as if they were Jesus Christ in the flesh.  He spoke out when he saw a wrong, and it cost him on this earth, but he could not remain silent while the mighty stepped on the meek.  He will be shepherded into the flock that will join Jesus in heaven while you will be sent with the goats. 

Others on that day will be surprised when they are condemned when they are told that their sin against the Holy Spirit, their blasphemy against the very Love of God for the Son and the Son for the Father.  They will ask when they did such a monstrous thing and they will be told that they died in their sins and refused the promptings of the Holy Spirit to repent and so chose the road that is wide and easy to tread. 

I know that this is not a "God is Love Feel Good" message today.  But we have to remember, our lives, our actions, our speech, our acknowledgment of the primacy of God in our lives will matter more than the knowledge that we have about God.  We have to know Jesus and follow His way.  Which way is that you ask?  It is the Way of the Cross. 

Those brothers and sisters that have gone before us and are in Purgatory need our prayers to help them finish the purging of the effects of sin and the temporal effects of sin on their soul. Offer your Mass this week for them and please if you have time, say a Rosary for them. 

Friend and Foe Alike

You have to be careful out there.  The world is a wonderful place with many beautiful things. God has created it to be a thing that sustains both our body and our soul.  The world is both a friend and a foe and true wisdom will come to us when we can distinguish the difference between what is good and what is bad.  At the start, God knew this truth and he told His first children, Adam and Eve, that they should not eat the fruit of one tree and one tree alone.  Every other food source was okay. So, innocent Eve approached the tree one day, just to have a look at it and suddenly she was joined there by the serpent. The serpent posed as a friend and probably made a little small talk as he got ready to pump Eve with his venom.  He started with a lie, well not a full blown lie, an exaggeration would be fairer to say.  He asked Eve about the tree and she said God told them that they should not eat of this one tree or even touch it lest they die.  The snake smiled and said that God knew that if you ate the fruit you would become like Him and know the difference between good and evil.  Eve digested that bit of news and reached out and plucked a piece of the forbidden fruit from the tree. Keep in mind here that God had told them to not eat of the fruit, but the serpent put it in her head that she was not to even touch it.  So she had the fruit in her hand and in her mind, she was already guilty and she was bright enough to see her only defense was to become as God, so, she carefully examined the fruit and she saw it was beautiful, it was ripe, it looked delicious and since she had already gone against God, she felt that she had no choice, she brought the fruit up to her lips and took a big bite.  Her eyes were opened alright, she now saw God as an enemy instead of a friend.  She pulled another piece off of the tree and brought it to Adam.  She now took the place of the serpent and convinced him to eat the fruit. His eyes were opened too and together they hid from God.

Sometimes, our family, our spouse, our friends, can be the one that leads us to sin. They mostly do it innocently enough, often it is not their intention to do so, but it happens all of the time.  Sometimes we know where they are leading is sinful and since we do not want to offend them, we follow their lead. This is when our friend becomes our foe and becomes a person to be feared.  Your beautiful wife or handsome husband becomes for you a tempter and because you used your free will to turn away from God, you end up in a sinful condition. In this case, it would have been better for you to have been assaulted by a robber because he could only take your wallet and at the most your life while the other has managed to cheat you out of your soul.   

Now, wait a minute here. Are you saying that if something like this were to really happen to me I would be better off leaving my spouse than to stay with them?  No, because what God has joined, man cannot separate. What I am saying is that just because someone is your friend, that does not mean they are always going to be right. What we need to do in our daily life is to keep our eye on the prize and if temptation comes by way of a friend, we should take the lead and gently move them back onto the correct path.  A simple, "I don't think we should do that." may be all that is needed to change the situation.  We are called to lead those we love towards God, not away from Him.  It is the gentle prodding of one lover to another, one friend to a friend, one family member to another, that will bring them back home. 

Cooperate and coexist with evil and evil will be your only friend.  Take the lead, light a lamp and gently but firmly refuse to accept an evil direction in your life and reach out a hand to your spouse, child, neighbor or friend and with charity and love for them, help them back onto the path that leads away from Gehanna and towards the happiness of heaven. 

So, you don't believe in Purgatory?  Take my word that it exists and is a sign that God loves us very much.  Please pray for the poor souls today and today take a moment and pray for someone who is on their deathbed and is afraid, your prayers will help. 

The Journey Must Continue

When the days for Jesus to be taken up were fulfilled,

he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem,

These two sentences say so much in just a few little words and it seems that these words can be words of comfort to us as we try to get our hands around the terrible event that happened in Las Vegas the other day.  Fifty-eight innocent party goers were slain by a madman armed with an automatic rifle of some sort.  He broke out the window of his hotel room and shot indiscriminately into the crowd gathered for a concert below and minutes later blood ran in the venue and dozens lay dead or dying.  These were innocent people, out for an evening of harmless fun at a country music concert.  Why did they have to die? What snapped in the mind of a man that had been described as a self-made millionaire, a man who had everything that the world had to offer?  We will never know the answer to this question. 

What we do know is that like Jesus, we must resolutely determine that we must continue our journey.  Along the way, there will be more moments of sorrow that will slow our travel and cause us to be stunned, to shake our heads and wonder why God has such patience with his awkward and disobedient children.  The journey for Jesus was to end in death, death on a cross, a death reserved for slaves in ancient Rome.  Jesus knew this and yet he fixed his eyes on the goal of arriving at Jerusalem where he would suffer and die for us and in doing so save us from all of our sins.  Our journey, while it sometimes goes through valleys of sadness, we do not despair for Jesus, the Lamb of God has achieved the victory for us.  Our journey, unlike His, will end in the joy of heaven. 

May the souls of those taken from us in this tragic event and all of the souls of the faithfully departed, through the mercy of God rest in peace.  Amen. 

PLEASE REMEMBER TO PRAY FOR THE POOR SOULS IN PURGATORY, ESPECIALLY FOR THOSE WHO WERE THE VICTIM OF SUDDEN DEATH.  YOUR PRAYERS WILL GARNER THEIR THANKS. 

Seeking Is A Way of Life

Seek the LORD while he may be found,
call him while he is near.
Let the scoundrel forsake his way,
and the wicked his thoughts;
let him turn to the LORD for mercy;
to our God, who is generous in forgiving.



For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.
As high as the heavens are above the earth,
so high are my ways above your waysand my thoughts above your thoughts.

The first reading at mass today is taken from Isiah and is really quite a written reminder to us as to who we are and where we fit into the universe.  

We are to seek the Lord while He may be found - does that mean that there will come a time when He cannot be found? Well, He will always be within our reach, we can push Him just one arm's length away, that's as far away as He will go from us.  He will respect our privacy and our desire to be without Him in our lives but He also will be ready to come at the first whisper of His name.  But, there will come a time when it is too late.  When we take our last breath and still keep our desire to be away from God, well, He will honor our request and we will spend eternity without Him.

We are then reminded about the wonder that God is and how far above our human ways He is.  Scoundrels and the Wicked are called to repent and call upon God.  Who are these scoundrels and who are the wicked?  It is you and me. Oh, I know that there are persons in this world that are far better at being a scoundrel and being wicked than I am.  I am a poor sinner. By that I mean I am not really good at it because my conscience calls to me and the prompting of the Holy Spirit convict me of my sin.  The professional sinner can sin and think nothing of it.  He (or she) goes through life trampling on the laws of God and not fearing the consequences of the sinful acts. Those of us who are poor sinners, we know enough to call to God and to return to the path of holiness before it is too late. 

This week, in all you do, Seek The Lord Where He May Be Found!  

Please, Please, Please pray for the poor souls in Purgatory.  I know I sound like a broken record but they really need YOU to step up and pray for them,...Thank you. 

The Importance of a Good Foundation

"Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' but not do what I command? 

I will show you what someone is like who comes to me,
listens to my words, and acts on them.


That one is like a man building a house,
who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock;
when the flood came, the river burst against that house
but could not shake it because it had been well built.
But the one who listens and does not act
is like a person who built a house on the ground
without a foundation.
When the river burst against it,
it collapsed at once and was completely destroyed."

In the past two weeks, hurricane Harvey and hurricane Irma have destroyed both people and buildings in the lands that they visited more efficiently than any modern army could using conventional weapons.  Buildings on some islands were reduced to unrecognizable piles of rubble and many of those that dwelled in these buildings lost their lives.  On the other hand, I watched reporters standing in the midst of the raging rain and wind reporting on the storms.  One of the reporters had a sturdy rope around a concrete pillar that he could hold on to when the winds got too intense.  The pillar was attached to a concrete structure, built on higher ground, with the foundation sunk deeply to bedrock.  This building was not moved when the rains came and the winds sang their loud songs of destruction. 

We are like buildings.  We can build our foundation on the things of this world and watch as the storms of life take apart what we had worked so hard to build.  We can trust in electronics, and money, and glitter and glitz and when the floods of disaster touch our life we will be left with nothing but ourselves. 

On the other hand, we can build our lives based on the truth that has been given to us by Jesus. Our lives can be built on pillars sunk down to the bedrock of truth and when the winds come and floods of evil times touch our lives we will be safe and secure because Jesus is our foundation and we shall not be moved. 

Purgatory is a place of hope and those that are there are secure in the fact that they will, someday be with God in heaven. They are in Purgatory to cleanse the effects of sin from themselves and to lose attachment to sin. They need our prayers. Please remember them in your daily prayers, they will remember those that helped them.  Thank you.