Saying Yes to God

Mary said yes to God as did the Apostles.  Saying yes to God leads to an extraordinary life.  Want adventure?  Want a challenge?  Say yes to God, He will lead you to places you never imagined.he will put you with people you didn't think you would like that you will come to love.  He have you do things you didn't think we're possible.  All you have to do is say yes and to go where He leads you.  It may be a different country or a different part of town.  He may lead you to convert strangers or your own family.  It may be a life of hard labor or a life of hard prayer. Say yes, and start your adventure.

Getting in the Christmas Spirit

I am not feeling so great about this Christmas and the silly thing is that it is for the most childish reason.  This year for the first time, we are not exchanging gifts as a family.  We are going to adopt a family.

Part of me really resents this because really we should be giving all year long and not just showering a family at Christmas with things that make us feel better.  My Franciscan fraternity runs a food pantry and feeds the homeless as well.  I want to do more but my family is happy with once a year things.  where did I go wrong?

The other, childish part of me, wants presents under the tree for me.  What about me?  Me, me, me!  Isn't that what Christmas is about.  The silly thing is we gave gifts under $5 and I will still have presents, but not as many.  This is what makes me upset, why do I feel this way?  Why am I so selfish?

Advent Refugee

It struck me today that as I startmy Advent journey along the road to Christmas, that I should keep in mind the refugees seeking a safety and a new home away from war and fear, especially those from Syria.  I think of the Holy Family who were refugees in Egypt seeking refuge from Herod.  I am a refugee in a very small sense from the hatred and indifference in this world.

Oddly enough I think I will find refuge in helping those who seek refuge.

Am I a Christian?

  What does it mean to be a Christian?  Does it mean someone who reads the Bible or someone who lives it?  Of course it has to be both, you can't just live it you have to know what it says but you can't just read it either, it has to be lived.  If we know all it says and that has no impact on our lives what good is the "Good Book"?

  I need to ask myself every day have I lived the teachings of Jesus Christ fully today?  Every day my answer will be no, in some way today I took the easy way out.  Today I was cruel or lazy or worse, indifferent.  I know I will never get it right, I will never give myself as perfectly as He did.  I may make some grand gesture but even then my reasons for doing it wont be pure, or secretly I will be hoping the person I offer it to will decline my offer.

  On the face of it I do a better job of living the Gospel then I do in my heart.  In my heart I want to be seen as being a great Christian, someone other people admire.  I want people to see what I do.  I want people to be impressed with the books I have read the speakers I have listened to.  I want to be seen praying by those who would think better of me for it and not by those who would find it weird.

Practical Relativism isn't Prolife

  Chapters 122 and 123 of the Pope's latest encyclical are profound.  Everything has to be convenient for me.  I will volunteer but only when it is convenient, I will donate to a cause, only when I have money that I don't want for something else I don't need.  I don't want to be inconvenienced saving our planet so instead I will wait and hope someone else does it or they invent someway of doing it that won't mean driving less often.  In the meantime I will just not believe in it.

It is convenient for me to buy a $5 tee shirt so I won't care about the working conditions of the people halfway across the world.  I like cheap food so I won't care about how farmers are effected by GMO crops or how that chicken was treated.  We treat people and living creatures like objects everyday.  How can we be Pro-life if we do this?

Encountering Jesus and Mary

This past Saturday was the anniversary of the death of a man I greatly respected, Dr Ed Shirley, theologian and professor at St Edwards University.  Ed used to tell a story of encountering Jesus and Mary on the bus one day that I always had a hard time with.  Jesus and Mary were homeless people who shared their breakfast with Ed.  On Saturday I had a similar encounter.

I was at Our Lady of Guadalupe parish in Austin for our regular Secular Franciscan meeting and I was outside with another Secular Franciscan when a man came by in some distress.  I don't know for sure what was wrong and he may have been high or sick.  We were having Mass so I got him a bottle of water and left it for him.  He had laid down and looked like he was sleeping.  I thought about him during Mass and prayed for him.

After Mass I got him some food and put out by the water.  We were praying a Holy Hour and I offered my prayers for him but still felt the need to do something else.  I went outside and pryed near him.  I have done this before but never have I done this and felt such peace.  Normally a battle is set up with whatever daemons are around the person.  After a while someone else walked by and spoke to the man who got up looking refreshed and they talked about the food he had there.  I waited and as I went back inside a woman approached me saying she had a young girl with her who was homeless and pregnant and did I have any food for her as well.  I said yes and got her some.

Our holy hour wasn't done so I went back inside and felt such grace wash over me I cried.  God does come to us in those close to us.

Pope Francis's New Encyclical is wholly Pro-Life

I haven't finished reading it yet but I am far enough through that I wanted to start blogging about it.  I would encourage you to read it yourself and not to rely on what you hear in the media or even on what I write about it.  Parts of it are difficult to unstand so have a dictionary handy.

By far my favite part is paragraphs 63 through 100, the biblical reasoning behind what the Pope is saying.  It is so beautiful and yet reminds us that we are stewards of Gods creation and that God loves all He created.  We are also reminded that we are responsible for all our actions.  Mindless consumerism that hurts someone half way around the world is still our responsibility.

The Pope lays out the case for global warming but the part I like the best is that he says even we are not the total cause for this shift we are still obligated to all we can mitigate the problem.  The polar ice caps are melting and so are the glaciers, we can't deny that.  This will effect people around the world and so we are obligated to do what we can and we can not just sit back and hope that technology will save us.

Even if a technical solution is found we still can't keep going with our materialistic way of living.  We can't insist that people half way around the world work as slaves to give us cheap clothing and cat food.  God obligates us to care for those people as much as we do those in our won country.  That to be Pro-Life means to love and care for all people.