Doing Penance for the Church

i firmly believe that all need to do penance as a church for the scandal that is threatening the Church. You might say it was others who abused the children and others who covered it up, but we are all part of the body of Christ and so all must do penance.  When someone steals we don’t just punish the hand, the whole body goes to jail, so it should be with us.

In small ways we all bear responsibility, it is the culture we were part of that allowed this to happen.  Penance is the only way to atone for our part.  Pray for me Church, give up something, do this everyday and not just for a week or a month keep doing it. Give your time to help others.  Make the world better by loving more freely.  This is how we can atone.

Human Rights are Prolife

i have been thinking over the last week or so with the issue of Harvey Weinstein and what he did that really this is a Prolife issue.  Anyone who disrespects and denigrates the life of another person, is not Prolife.  Using another human being as if they were an object for their pleasure and not another human life is not Prolife.  I think that we are only just beginning to respect the life that God has given to us and to others.  In the past a woman who had a baby out of wedlock was shunned and both made to keep the baby and refused all opportunity to work.  We condemned them mostly to an early death in the workhouse.  We lynched minoritys and enslaved them.  We murdered Native people's

Only in the last century have we woken up to God's will for us, but it is a painful awakening and just when we think we are there someone reminds us we have a very long way to go.

Morning Prayer

Thank you Dear Lord for today!
Thank you for waking me up today to celebrate the beauty You have given us.
Thank you the beautiful stars, so bright, so calm.
Thank you for coolness of the air and the sounds of the birds and animals.
Thank you for loving me and teaching me to love others.
Thank you for today, help me to carry You in my heart out to your most beautiful world.

Jealousy and God's Love

Jealosy over the gifts of God is a sign of spiritual immaturity.  If we are joined to God, then we are joined to those who are also joined to God.  If we are joined to those others as part of one body and spirit in God then how can we be jealous?  We are all part of a whole, there is no need to be jealous, is the eye jealous of the ear because it can hear?  I get jealous but I am working hopefully toward joining with God and this is a sign for me to look for that I am there.  I am not there yet.

Only in God

only in God and through God can I become who I truly am.  Only by becoming who I am in Christ can I fully see truth.  Only by getting living in God and getting out of my own way can I do this.  I can't actually do this, God does this and I allow it.  To be the small petty person I want to be in myself would be a shame.  My vision of life is so small.  God will give me a big life full of things I can't even imagine, and because I can't imagine them I resist.  I get so caught up in daily living in the wants and desires of those around me that if I didn't start my day here with Him I would be lost in my own mask.  Without Him I would be so miserable and lost in exchanging one mask for another trying so hard to find the one that fits me, but none of them fit.  We are not meant to live under a mask, we are meant to live as free beings under Christ.

Finding Truth

How can we recognize truth in the world if we never seek to find it in ourselves?  Thomas Merton said of those who never seek to find their true selves in God "If we have chosen the way of falsity we must not be surprised that truth eludes us when we finally come to need it!".  Those who can not find truth or think it is all relative may never have found their true selves.  Until we know ourselves, who we are in God's eyes and strive to be that person is it a wonder that we fail to see any truth?  If we spend our whole lives hiding, we have to blind ourselves to who we are and in blinding ourselves we lose the ability to see anything faithfully.  If we can't accept ourselves, the one we know best, how can we ever have compassion for anyone else?

Becoming your true self

How do we become our true selves?  At this point in my life I think it is an ongoing project for our entire lives.  I am not there yet and what little I have found can slip away at any moment.  I need God to be even a little bit of my true self.  I have to have a daily relationship with God, I have to spend my day with Him.  I also have to be forgiving of myself.  I fail constantly and in order to not spend time mulling over all my past failures I have to ask for His forgiveness, make amends, and go on.  I could waste my whole life in regrets.  I have to be alert with my eyes and ears open, waiting for God.

He will send people to you.  Last nights get He sent me a young lady whose car wouldn't start.  I have been her and while I couldn't get her car started I could make sure she had someone coming and not leave her alone to worry.  God will send you things like that big and small that will make you life bigger than it would have been.