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.

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.

Ash Wednesday Reflections - Entering the Desert

I sit here in the dark cold church, in the quiet, thinking about the next 40 days.  Forty days of prayer and renewal.  This year is different.  I used to spend Lent contemplating how I fell short of Gods plan for me, how I had failed.  This year I am going to contemplate how much God loves me and what I can do for Him.  I want to spend these 40 days letting my heart grow bigger.  Once my heart grows bigger it can let in whatever needs to come in.

I am reading Fr Richard Rohr's Wonderous Encounters Scripture for Lent.  Today he says that we can start with a desire to desire.  We don't even have to know what to desire, but just desire to desire. The desires of our hearts will come from the Holy Spirit.  What is it that you desire deep down?  Not the desires of the world but what is deep down in your heart?  What is God calling you to do?

We don't need to know today what that desire is.  This time of Lent is a time strip away.  It is a time to pare down our world, to slow down our lives, to take time to think and to pray.  Remember this is a time to pray for ourselves, our family, friends, and most importantly our enemies and those who hate us.  Watch out for distractions.  The closer we come to God, the more we will be attached.  If we pray and act out of love we cannot go wrong.

Morning Prayer - Further Reflections on Advent

I am very lucky, not only do I live near my church but I have a key so I can get to church early in the morning and pray before the tabernacle.  These mornings are do like Advent.  Sitting there waiting for God, listening for God.  Finally He comes and I am enveloped in Him and in His light

It is a pregnant time, full of so much longing and yearning.  Wanting to see Him, feel Him,and speak to Him.  It is still dark, but I know that dawn is coming.  Others will arrive and we will start the ritual of Morning Prayer.  Morning Prayer something shared, a lot like Christmas.  Now it is quiet and dark and I sit here watching and waiting for the coming of the Savior.  How Blessed is this time!  It reminds me of how much I long for Him.

Today, I will try to carry this feeling with me, to be always looking for Him today in everyone I meet.  Everyone I see has a spark of Him and it is my job to see it, my job to look for it.  I have heard that Buddists spend their whole day looking for the Budda in every person.  They walk down the street saying to themselves Budda?  Budda?  Budda?  We can learn from them.  We know that God is there in each person.  So when I answer the phone today, I shouldn't be annoyed, I am not just talking to someone, I am also talking to Christ.  He is there in each person, if only we look for Him.  And how do we see Him?  We have to look with Love.  I am still working on that.  May God Bless you.

I still believe in life

Today I am reminded that the most important value in my life is one that underpins every thing else in my life.  I believe in life.  Life, every life, is important.  I know that the man who killed all those people had problems in his life.  He must have been very angry or mentally ill, but no matter what, what he did is an abomination that makes heaven itself weep.  Barring mental illness, he is responsible for what he did.  It was his choice, and I leave it to God to judge him.

Why does this keep happening?  Lives are seen as something disposable that can been thrown away to make a statement or when they are inconvenient.  We place the rights of the individual as paramount.  We have a right to treat each other as trash.  We use each other sexually, we cheat on our spouses and throw them away when we get tired of them, we refuse to set up social systems to keep the unfortunate from demeaning poverty.  The people around us are just there for us to use, like we do with the rest of the world.  We consume.  Why are we suprized then when someone uses the lives of the innocent as a way to say what they want to say?

How can we treat any life as disposible?  Life is a gift given to us by God, it came from God and we have no right to destroy it.  Until we resign ourselves to the fact that all life is precious and we have no right to destroy it, or hamper it, or make it not worth living, I fear we will continue to see these kinds of killings.

I pray for all those effected by this tragedy.  For all the parents, siblings, grandparents, friends, etc whose hearts are broken.  I pray for all of us.

I've got work to do

I've got work to do on myself. I need to make sure that the Pro-Life movement doesn't get a black eye because of me. I need to make sure that no one thinks of me when they think of Catholics as not the "Good Guys". Sometimes we think that we are on the right side so everything we do is okay, but really being on the right side means we have to be even better. We have to convince everyone else that we aren't doing this to spoil their fun or to punish anyone for sinning. We have to recognize and admit our own sinfulness and our own past mistakes. We need to correct those in the Prolife movement who are elitist, racist, judgemental, uncharitable, or just plain mean. Above all we have to do all we do with love, true love where we wish all others to be with us in heaven. We have to be strong and we have to live our faith in our everyday lives. I have a lot to do and I will start with prayer.

Another Day a new blog.

I realize that the person who needs to do more to support life is me. I'm the one who needs to do more to support candidates who I agree with. I'm the one who needs to talk more to people about life. I need to challenge those who say they hate abortion but still want to keep it legal for others. It's rediculous, if you think abortion is wrong then you can't support it. And I feel as strongly that you can't say abortion is wrong and allow other types of murder. Either all life is sacred or none is. None of us are pure and we can't say we are better than someone else, we don't know their hearts, only God does. God thirsts for their souls, even the souls of murderers. If a murderer fails to convert it is our own fault as well as theirs, especially if we kill them instead of keeping them in prison.

There are many souls in this world that are in darkness. I believe these souls are waiting for us to call them out of that darkness. If we never reach out to them and they never see the light aren't we also at fault? Some souls need intercessory prayer to prepare them the light. I need to pray more.