What time is it? **

I like to find a quiet place to pray, as there are fewer distractions. I can compose myself better and it seems there is a better chance that I can "hear" Jesus.
That's where the Disciples find themselves in the 9^th Chapter of Luke – alone, in a quiet place with the Lord.
Jesus asks them a question: "Who do the crowds say that I am?"
In prayer and in our lives how do we reply?
If we answer as Peter did: "The Christ of God" (Luke 9:20), we'd better also think of the cost: "The Son of Man must suffer greatly" (Luke 9:22)
Jesus doesn't want us to tell others who He is, but rather to know that in our hearts and to see Him in our daily lives and to live as He lived no matter what the cost.
"There is an appointed time for everything."

**Now is the time for the Lord.

Find the laziest person around (notice me raising my hand), and he’ll show you the easiest way to get something done.  I had a grandiose idea to read the Catechism of the Catholic Church in its entirety during this upcoming Year of Faith proclaimed by Pope Benedict XVI.  Today I found a website being “tweeted” and “re-tweeted” all over “Twitter” that will accomplish this goal!  The Holy Spirit came through for me yet again!  Won’t you join me?   Just click on the widget at the top of the column at the right and you will be sent portions of the Catechism every day by email.  It cost nothing.  Just a little bit time each day to reflect on the beauty of the teachings of the Holy Catholic Church.

Gratitude for forgiven debts

One of my favorite Gospels is when Jesus is invited to a dinner party at Simon’s house, and a woman provides a service that His host had failed to offer. (Luke 7:36-50) The other guests at the party were scandalized because the woman was considered by them to be a “sinner”.  They murmured among themselves that Jesus should have known! Jesus responded first by pointing out His host’s lapse, and then by telling a little parable about two individuals forgiven debts, one small and one large, and asks His host which would be more loving. The host correctly answers that the one forgiven the most would likely be the most grateful and loving. Jesus then tells the assembled guests that the woman’s sins have been forgiven. The guests are shocked and wonder how Jesus could presume to forgive sins, which is something only God can do.

But here’s something I’m betting a lot of people don’t understand about this episode. The story doesn’t say that Jesus did the forgiving, and the parable that He told makes it clear that the forgiveness preceded the woman’s gratitude. Jesus tells His fellow guests that He could tell that the woman had been forgiven (past tense) by virtue of the loving service she provided. She couldn’t have done it had she not already accepted God’s forgiveness.

When we are forgiven much, we tend to return love for forgiveness. Think how grateful we are to someone who says “I’ve got this” when at Starbucks or at lunch, or who with little or no complaint allows us ahead in line. Think what relief we have when we apologize for some small fault and the person we're apologizing to says, "It was nothing."

How much more then should we love the Person whom we have killed by our faults, the Savior who forgives everything, completely! How much can we love Someone who has forgiven before we even ask it of Him? Our debt to Jesus is a debt of profound, complete, all-encompassing love and a greater debt because we have been forgiven so much.

An exercise that can't hurt

Anyone who reaaallly knows me knows that exercise is not high on my list of things to do.  There are many reasons why I should, but only two why I don't--I'm so out of shape it hurts to exercise, and I love to eat.  However, I can exercise my faith and spirituality and humility.  There are no excuses for not exercising those.  That can't hurt, can it?
 
Sister Mary Martha teaches us a pretty good way to exercise humility.
 
Thank you, Sister, for writing my entry tonight.  I, too, have been a little remiss in writing as often as I should.  (I'm sorry, but you brought it up!)

Thanks to those of you who are still reading this humble little attempt to spread the Good News.

I love a good challenge, as long as it's not physical--that was for the younger me.  And this will be a challenge.  And I hope--as it was for Sister Mary Martha--a life-changing eye-opener that opens me up to some of those physical challenges as well. I'll be honest.  I may or may not report back on my results.  But if I do, you can thank me later.

In the meantime, Thanks be to God.  That's really the crux of all of this, isn't it?

Without God, we're sure to sink!

I have tried my best to stay clear of politics on this blog.  My intention has only been to ponder the Word of God and share my thoughts with you.  I will try to make this my last political statement in this forum.  I made the decision to opine on politics because of  because of THIS DISTURBING UNREPORTED NEWS  that quite frankly scares me. And in all humility, my faith gives me enough courage that I don’t scare easily.  I am frightened for my family, my friends, and my country--from the youngest (those still in the womb) to the oldest, who handed this great country on to us only to see it come to this!

 

What scares me most is that I have friends and family who just don’t get it!  Life is eternal, folks!  Where you spend it is YOUR choice.  God does not punish us.  God does not send people to Hell.   They CHOOSE to go there.  He will give us what we ask for.  Will you choose eternal life in HIS presence or eternal longing for HIS presence?  He doesn’t force us to love Him.  I love Him for Who He is and what He has done for me.  I have been nothing but blessed in my life, despite the ups and downs.  How about you?  Please make an honest examination of your conscience.  Isn’t there room for the God who created you?

Then, join me in THIS NOVENA starting today, up until Election Day 2012.  I will post the novena on the side bar until then.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners NOW, and at the hour of our death.  Amen.

   

My Almighty God Bless us.  In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Never was heard a discouraging Word

Wouldn’t you love to have been able to actually hear Jesus speak?  What was it about Jesus that people felt he spoke with authority?  What convinced them of his power?  What was there about his word?  We have the gift of scripture, so we can know what Jesus said.  And from scripture, we can know who He is.  Would I be willing to trade that gift to be able to hear Christ speak?  I wonder.  If I heard Him speaking directly to me and if He was saying things I didn’t want to hear (but I needed to hear for my salvation!), would I listen?

Words.  What power they hold! Encouraging or discouraging.

We ran a contest this month at work for a select group of managers who needed to improve their performance in a particular area.  We allowed the managers to select the standard to be met based on their own confidence in their abilities to reach the goals.  The goals were quite modest in my opinion.  I would have loved to see a higher goal set, but it appears that I have more confidence in their ability than they do.  We discussed the game plan that would help us achieve our newly set goals and agreed to stick to the plan, even if we ran into obstacles. 

We were tested the first few days into the contest.  Our performance did not improve.  In fact, it worsened from last year.  We had dug a hole so deep even our low goals seemed way too high.  My boss and I were commenting on the performance daily (“To keep the focus up”, we told ourselves).  Our comments at first were of encouragement and confidence.  After it was apparent this tactic was not working, and a couple of the managers were grumbling that we needed to lower our goals or their teams would become discouraged and quit trying altogether, our comments became more sarcastic and less than charitable.  We thought of lowering the goals to a break-even level, but that would have made the whole idea of the contest meaningless.  Instead, we decided to keep the goals we had set, look for reasons for our reverses, and change our behavior.   We looked at the game plan we had written at the beginning of the contest and felt confident it was the right direction to follow. We returned to more encouraging and charitable comments on the daily progress.  

We then took our plan directly to the individual team members one by one and made sure they understood their part of the plan.  We did not meet our goals—sort of.  What we did manage to do was to climb out of the hole we had put ourselves in and finish positive over last year!   The boss is so happy with the late surge he decided to reward the managers anyway.  (However, instead of a steak barbecue cooked by the boss, all we will have is hamburgers and hotdogs—and I will be the “chef”).  What the experience told us was that if we had followed our plan from the beginning or at the very least followed most of it better, we may very well have blown the modest goals out of the water.  I think the managers learned something.  I know I did.  They want to repeat the contest this month and have already set higher goals!     

The world’s standards seem so low at times and yet, whenever we run into a standard that causes us a problem, the solution seems to be to change or lower the standard.  Then there are God’s standards - which seem impossible.  Love your neighbor?  I even have to love that so-and-so down the street?  Love my enemy?  Really?  And yet Paul says we have the mind of Christ.  I know I’m a sinner and I know I’ll fall short of God’s standard.  So, should I repent and try to do better or simply change and lower God’s standard?  Well, since God’s standards cannot be changed, the Good News is that we worship a loving, forgiving God who welcomes our repentance.

One of my problems is I always want to sit in judgment of the world (and its inhabitants).  I need to realize that the judge position is already taken and my job is to simply live in obedience to God’s Holy Will.  Simply?  Right.  So much easier said than done.  I have to realize, it’s not about me, it’s about Christ and to keep my focus on Him.