Wow! The Holy Spirit
has sure been “whispering” and "shouting" to me big time this last weekend!
Whisper 1—During a phone call with Mom the other day, she
mentioned that she still reads my blog, “when you write them!” Ouch.
I know I’m falling short on so many fronts. “I am doing the best I can!” I tell myself,
knowing full well that’s a lie. I told
Mom that I usually get my inspiration from the daily readings said at
Mass. Since I haven’t been to daily Mass
on a regular basis lately, I haven’t been inspired to write much. I
blamed work hours, exhaustion, and any number of other reasons I couldn’t make
it. She pointed out to me (it’s her job,
after all, as my mother to do so**) that the devil takes particular pleasure in
diverting people who hope to grow closer to God away from Him. I can do much better, and today’s entry is
the first step in my new commitment to grow in my relationship with God and to
share my discoveries with whoever is interested in reading or hearing about
them.
**Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 2223
Whisper 2-- So-called “reality” TV is
everywhere these days. I have long been
lamenting on this trend, explaining to anyone who would listen that it’s only
because the shows bring the networks big money in advertising revenue that they
continue with the drivel. The only one of these shows that I like is the
program “Storage Wars”, but only because of the campiness of the characters on
the show. Marilyn and I get a kick out
of some of the really stupid stuff the “bidders” say, either by mangling well
known sayings or by spewing some really lame innuendoes. Last weekend the ads promoting a couple of
new “reality” shows—“Hog Wars” and “Extreme Fishing”—confirmed to me that, as a
culture, we have sunk to the level of society that St. Paul describes to
Timothy (Tim2: 3):
But understand this: there will be terrifying times in the
last days. People will be self-centered and lovers of money, proud, haughty,
abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, irreligious, callous,
implacable, slanderous, licentious, brutal, hating what is good, traitors,
reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, as they make
a pretense of religion but deny its power. Reject them.
Whisper 3—I answered the door to a couple of Jehovah’s
Witnesses today, confident in my ability to counter their attempt to convert me
with some nifty Scripture readings of my own.
The older woman of the two asked me if she could read me a Scripture
passage, because she was concerned about all the violence and crime in Stockton
lately. I told her I had no problem with
her reading me Scripture, because as a Catholic, I believe the Scriptures are
the written Word of God. The passage
read she chose to read? Timothy2,
Chapter 3! (See above) I don’t think it
was coincidence. Then she asked me what
I thought we, as a society, should do about what she characterized as “the
fulfillment of this prophecy”. I
responded that first and foremost—as taught by the Catholic Church that I
belong to—we need to return to God through Jesus Christ, inspired by the Holy
Spirit through prayer, repentance and fasting.
I think I stumped her. Especially
on the “fasting” part. She took one look
at me and must have thought, “What a hypocrite!” (Just kidding, lol). She said she agreed, nodded to her partner in
“evangelization”, thanked me for my time, and left. Huh, who knew it was that easy? Thank you, Holy Spirit, for Your help.
Whisper 4—When
thinking about what Mom said concerning the devil, it occurred to me that my
prayer life in general has been less than what even I expect it to be. I preach a good line, but I haven’t practiced
it in a couple of weeks. When I realized
this fact this morning, I said a quick prayer to the Holy Spirit, “Hey, a
little encouragement would go a long way right about now!” For a reason I now find obvious, I felt
compelled to open a “Twitter” account to see what it is all about. The first person I added to my list of “Twitter”
friends was @cardinaldolan, the cardinal Arch-bishop of New York. I have grown to admire this holy man since
listening to him on XM radio the last couple of months. His obvious love for Jesus Christ and the joy
it brings to his life should be an inspiration to everyone! Anyway, the first two “tweets” I read from
Cardinal Dolan were as follows:
“If we say the
Church is a place of joy, it’s people had better be full of joy. For if we are not, we make the Good News a
lie.”
Then, today
“Daily prayer is
the foundation of sanctity. Some prefer
it in the morning. Some, late at
night. However, whenever, wherever. It’s a must!”
Now I have to put into action what I've heard.
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