Friday, May 31, 2013

Morning Prayer - Reflections on Solitude

Solitude is not the act of being alone.  It is being separate interiorly.  To be separate does not have to mean not being in the world, but instead it means not being part of the world.  When you have interior the interior solitude that is a gift from God you can stand back and truly see the world as it is because you can stand back from it but you can still engage it because you are physically there.

True solitude, when it engages the world, can make a lasting difference.  It can bring Gods light into the world.  Because it can bring the true light into the world it will draw to itself persecution.  The darkness hates and fears the light.  The light drives out the darkness, but only in the light can we see and learn who we really are.  Only by knowing who we really are can we understand that God loves the true us, not the one that hides our faults in the darkness.

Solitude comes from prayer and communion with God and takes time.  Solitude brings a peace and strength to our souls that no one can permanently shift, not even the Devil.  In the depth of our solitude we dwell with God.

Thursday, May 30, 2013

What is Love?

What is Love?  More specifically what is the Love that Christ calls us to?  To love everyone (not just those who love us or whom we are attracted to) as He loves us.  How can we do that?

If the love you are thinking of is the kind of love you feel toward someone you are attracted to that isn't the kind of love we are talking about.  That kind of feeling itself isn't always love.  What is Love?  To love someone is to want what is best for them, to want them to go to heaven.  You can be attracted to someone and want to possess them and keep them for yourself.  Or you can be attracted to someone and want what isn't best for them.  Attraction isn't love.

Love is more of a decision than a feeling.  Love isnt that giddy feeling you feel when you are romantically in love with someone.  We have to love even those who repulse us and even those who have sinned against us.  We love them by praying for them and leading them to reform through our love.

Our love should bear fruit.  If it doesn't bear fruit we need to examine what we think is love and root out all pride and judgement.  Only by striving to love as Christ loved can we bear fruit.  We don't have to do great things, as Mother Teresa says we just have to do small things with great love.  Our love should push us to love the poor and to really assist them with not only money but with our our time.  We have to love the unlovely, even if that person is ourselves.

Love comes from the truth.  It is based in the truth and it has to start with ourselves.  We have to truly know ourselves and love ourselves.  Not in a self-centered way.  We have to truely know ourselves and our faults and know that God loves us to truely love ourselves.  We have to love who we are and not some ideal of ourselves.  Once we do that in some small measure we can move out of ourselves and love others.  We don't have to know and love ourselves perfectly before we love others, but we have to start.  When we move out of ourselves we will learn more about ourselves.

I have struggled greatly with loving myself and others.  I could see all my faults and I didn't unstand how I could love someone so flawed?  How could anyone love someone who was so wrong?  Then one day God made it clear to me He loved me.  That was so hard to accept.  I didn't understand what He was doing.  I fell in love with the Beloved slowly.  As I came to love Him I came to accept myself.  Loving God and accepting myself I have been drawn to accept and now love others.  I am working on truly loving myself and all others.  I now know that i love imperfect people so as an imperfect person I am also lovable.  The one thing I know now, God loves ALL of us and wants us to know and love Him.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Morning prayer reflection before the Blessed Sacrament

My Lord, my God, my King, my Savior, Beloved, open my heart to You my love. Beloved let me rest my head on your chest and hear Your heartbeat.  Keep me close to You enveloped in Your love.  Keep your arms secure around me, protect me and guide me.  I know that You love me and I love You unreservedly.  You are my King, my Joy, my Reason.  I fall into Your arms and abandon myself to You and Your will.  I give You my life, I am Your servant.  I will do You will for I know Your will for me is Your love for me.  Blindly I will follow You.  I give You all that I am, I am Yours.  You my Beloved have taught me to love.  Without You my life was empty and hollow.  You have filled me with all that is good.  You have removed my fears and given me strength.  You have healed me.  You give me all I need for all I need is You.  Let me rest forever in Your arms.  Let me do Your will and my joy will be complete.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

What ProLife is and isn't

Over the last week I saw three interesting And disturbing posts on my Facebook page that for me crystallized what it is to be ProLife.  The first one pictures from Syria of a group of small children all about 5 years old or less who were victims of the blood shed there.  All were dead.  The next one was the picture of a beautiful and smiling young girl, a toddler, who has Downs Syndrome.  The last one was a meme that asked, "if the infant in the womb was gay would you still fight for its rights"?

For me the first picture was a reminder.  In all wars there are innocent victims who need to be protected at all costs.  Children have been killed during drone strikes, have I said enough about this?  Have I emailed my or called my Congressmen about this enough?  No I haven't.  I think that pictures like this though very disturbing, need to be seen.  We need to know so we can react properly.  Being ProLife means standing up for these lives.  I know these deaths happened in Syria, what am I going to do?  What can I do?  First, I can pray.  Second, I can call my congressman.  Third, I can use social media to bring attention to the issue.

The second picture of the little girl with Downs Syndrome was so beautiful.  Her smile made me smile.  There were people who objected to seeing the child's picture.  They didn't think the parents should post pictures of their child, like everyone else does, because of her condition.  They even questioned the parents love for their child.  They seemed to say we don't think you should be proud of your child.  Most people currently have the tests done to check for Downs Syndrome and abort the children if they have it.  We don't want these imperfect children.  The funny thing I'd that most of the people who responded who had downs syndrome children called them a blessing or angels.  ProLife means accepting ehat the world calls imperfect children and people.  We know that she is made in the image and likeness of God so she is perfect.

The third post made the most upset.  The meme that asked if we knew that the child in the womb was gay would we protect it's right to life?  Wholeheartedly yes.  The funny thing is that if there were a test for homosexuality how many of those infants would be aborted by so called progressives?  My guess is a lot.  In the quest for the perfect child many babies are aborted because they aren't "normal".    As Christians we are called to love everyone because they were made by God, even our enemies.  Gay people aren't our enemies and we have to love them so we could never abort them.

It's funny how the Pro abortion side tries to portray us as hypocrites.  In part because there are some hypocrites in the PrLife movement but we just need to educate both the pro abortion side and the hypocrites that ProLife comes from God and is based in Love for all of Gods creation.

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

The Ultimate Union

The ultimate act of union between two souls is accomplished in prayer to God.  That is why marriage takes place during the Mass but is accomplished by the man and the woman as they for God to bless and join their union.  The world tells us it is our bodies that must be united.  That the sexual union is the most important part of a marriage but if the souls are not united in God, the sexual act loses its meaning and grace.

We see this today in the world.  We skip the union of mind heart and soul and jump into sex.  The threat to marriage isn't gay marriage.  Gay marriage is the result of our wholesale abandoning of marriage as a union of two people to God and the fruits of that union.  We lost marriage when it became something that was just between two people for their pleasure and at their pleasure.  When marriage became something disposable it lost its true meaning.  If marriage is solely for our own pleasure can you blame them for feeling it is their right?  Divorce has lead to the demise of marriage and the rise of cohabitation.

People today treat sex like shaking hands, something you do to get to know someone.  If you want to get to know someone, pray with them.  Invite the God of the universe into your relationship.  He knows that person better than they know themselves and He can reveal that to you if you let Him. Sex confuses all that.  How can you even get to know yourself when you are exposing yourself at your most vulnerable to someone you don't know.  It isn't safe and so you hide parts of you, the physical and emotional you.

Prayer is the true union of two people.  Pray to God together and if it is His will He will enter your hearts and draw them together.  If you continue to pray together He will strengthen you when times get hard and heal your wounds.  If your union is not His will He will show you and lead you where you need to go.

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Laying our burdens at God's feet

The last few days I had been really struggling.  The boogeyman, so to speak, had come to get me.  I was filled with doubt and anxiety.  When I feel this way I see myself as unloved and unlovable.  Somehow so wrong that No one could love me and anyone who cared for me must have something wrong with them.  I get this way from time to time,  but infrequently now.  Before I came to God I lived this way.  I doubted myself and those around me.  I was too scared to lift up my head.

But one day, unexpectedly, I enter St Peters in Rome to see the art and instead God spoke to me in heart and let me know He loved me.  I trembled and cried.  I actually had to back to the hotel and lay down.  At first I didn't believe that He could love me.  I thought He wanted me and if I was good enough, He might love me.  Now I know He loves me, but I forget sometimes when I get caught up in myself.

This morning before Morning Prayer, I offered my Beloved my gift.  He asked us to share our burdens with Him, so I layer it at His feet.  Immediately I felt lighter but I knew there was more to come.  He had something for me.  In my prayer He reminded me that because He loved me, I was lovable and that those who love me are not wrong because He loves me. I didn't hear this but I felt it in my heart.  God can speak to you if you will listen.  He talks to us all the time but we don't take the time to learn to listen. He reminded me that I am safe in His arms and because of that I can go out into the world.  I may get hurt but He will be there to help me carry my burden.

The God of the universe loves you.  He loves you and wants what is best for you, He wants you to be with Him for all eternity.  Even if you have turned away from Him, He is standing there waiting for you.  If turn and go back to Him, he will run out to meet you.  If you have any burdens he will help you carry them.  In fact be like a little child.  Hold your arms out and He will lift you up and carry you in His arms.