04/12/2006

Good Works divorced from the underlying reason for performing them are sterile things.

The church is not a social service organization.

Social Services would quickly become a meaningless catch phrase if believers would live as engaged Christians in the world.

We would clothe the naked
We would feed the hungry
We would slake thirst (both physical and spiritual)
We would instruct our youth (and in the instruction, learn our own deficits and address them)
We would open the doors of our overly insular world(s)
We would open our jealously guarded hearts
We would embrace our faith in the face of opposing views, with the courage, with the joy of the apostles on Pentecost.
We would understand that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is not a theological concept, but rather, a reality that can enliven each moment with purpose and direction if we affirmatively embrace the choice to acknowledge that reality of God with us.
Here.
Now.

Lord Open my Lips and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.

Amen

4/10/2006 - Monday Holy Week - "Snippets"

I cover the walls of my cubicle at work with art and photos and "snippets" which help me when the going gets tough. Today's my day to share my "snippets".

Esurivi enim et dedistis mihi manducare; sitivi, et dedistis mihi bibere.
I was hungry and you gave me to eat; thirsty, and you gave me to drink.

Hineh matov umah nayim shevet achim gam yahad.
Behold, how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.

With God I can accomplish great things. Saint Francis Xavier Cabrini

One cannot prove faith, one can discover it through experience.

Experience active love.....

Love your neighbors tirelessly. The more you succeed in loving, the more you'll be convinced of the existence of God and the immortality of your soul.

Vivi Bene, Ridi Spesso e Ama molto
Live well, Laugh often and love much.

04/06/2006

I can hear the whistling of the days of the season breezing by.

Sodden with the mundane requirements of my life, my soul shivers with cold of inattention.

I rely on grace and mercy and a sense of humor on the part of God.

I found this bit from Padre Pio which helps:

Stay with me, Lord, for it is necessary to have you present so that I do not forget you.
You know how easily I abandon you.

Stay with me, Lord, because I am weak and I need your strength, that I may not fail so often.

Stay with me, Lord, for you are my life, and without you,, I am without fervor.

Stay with me, Lord, for you are my light, and without You, I am in darkness.

Stay with me, Lord, to show me your will.

Stay with me, Lord, so that I hear your voice and follow you.

Stay with me, Lord, for I desire to love you very much, and always be in your company.

Stay with me, Lord, if you wish me to be faithful to you.

Stay with me, Lord for as poor as my soul is, I wish it to be a place of consolation for you, a nest of Love.

It goes on, but the overwhelming point that I get out of the prayer is my absolute dependence on the goodness, on the grace of God.


A second quote from the Padre and I'm done for today:

You must have boundless faith in the divine goodness, for the victory is certain.

How could you think otherwise?

Isn't our God more concerned about our salvation than we are ourselves?

Isn't He stronger than hell itself?

Who can ever resist and overcome the King of the heavens?

What are the world, the devil, the flesh and all our enemies before the Lord?

04/04/2006

Faith trumps scepticism.

Faith is the gift of knowledge of the unknowable.

You don't attain to this knowledge, it is a gift, given.

God exists, get used to it.

Love is hard work.

No relationship is a picnic. A good relationship is worth the effort.

Don't cling to things, they all pass.

Value yourself by how you measure up to the ideal that you know to be correct.

The world is one oversized temptation, time is the precious currency with which we spend our lives, choose to do the right thing consistently.

The innocence of children is heaven's gift, when we do violence to that innocence, the angels weep and devils dance.

When anger is your first impulse, be the dam, be strong, don't feed the agony of the world.

Seek amity when it is hard to do so.

Don't waste yourself judging. Seek understanding. Pray that others will seek understanding when they disagree with you.

Acknowledge hypocrisy in self, then take a hammer to it.

Be the reason that someone else had a better day.

No charge for an extra smile.

The barriers that we build between people are the stones and the mortar that are used to build barriers between ourselves and God. Do you really think that perfect love could have a hand in the creation of hell? We are the ardent laborers in that task.

03/27/2006

If you spend all of your energies waiting for that perfect moment that will "make" your life, you will have missed the point entirely.

When I get that big break....

When I hit the lotto.....

If I can just scrape enough money together......

If only he/she could see the real me......

When I get to pitch this project to him/her, I know in my bones that it'll all connect.......

Life is not waiting, life is living.

Love is not just around the corner, Love is here, now, vibrantly present.

Grace is not stored/waiting, it saturates existence.

Each involuntary spasm of the diaphragm that draws breath into my body is a miracle.

Every vagrant thought that flashes into and out of existence in that ephemeral concept of mind/soul/self is inconceivable, yet present nonetheless in spite of it's absurdity.

To wait for "the" moment, is to miss "the moment".

Live unabashedly in the now, on the way to whatever tomorrow your life's tale points you toward.

Be an ear to hear. Be eyes to be looked into. Be present to those who need you this very moment.

03/14/2006

Pray even when you're uninspired.

I catch myself doing it....

Waiting for the right moment to pray.

That's like saying to a friend "Not now, the moment's not right" when they come up to you with a smile on their face and a thought on their tongue.

You can get away with that once in a while (friends will understand) but if the stars have to be in alignment in order for you to say "word one" to them, they will quickly stop referring to themselves as your friend.

Prayer is relationship building.

Be brave. Allow the messy, disheveled you that is already apparent to you, be the honest you present (and presented) in prayer, ever acceptable to the Father who wishes you nothing if not well.

Push the myriad failures of the day to the side. Let them whisper to themselves "unworthy", "Hyppocrite!", "Is he kidding?" as you remind yourself of the everpresent quality of God and are given, once again, the grace to pray. Pay them no mind.

Remember the communion of Saints. We are surrounded by those who know perfect peace, perfect joy. They are "rooting" for us as we slog through the day to day. They are there to talk to, they are not simply fond remembrances of the past.

03/13/2006

Happy Birthday mom


The harder you try, the harder the going gets.

So get going.

The myths say that the cyclops lived a life of desperate resignation, because with their one eye, they could see the exact circumstances of their own death. The day, the time, the method, the circumstance.

We can tend to a cyclopian vision of the life we live. Today is all. Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow is ephemeral.

Don't tell me that Heaven and Hell, God and the Devil, good and evil are merely delusions dreamed up by an accidental convergence of meat and mentality, in order to assuage it's fear of the awareness of it's own eventual demise. There's more involved than that.

Temptation is not an accidental reality.

Lent is a journey.

Not all such trips are made on endless flat roads.

Lent is a reacquaintance with the dips and rumble strips and steep inclines of our lives.
We've trained ourselves to ignore, avoid, absolve ourselves of these deviations from the straight, uninvolved path.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

So I start my lenten journey on the road to hell.

I intend to fast.
I intend to abstain.
I intend to be introspective and learn from my errors.
I intend to be at peace with my fellow travelers.
I intend to pray more.
I intend to hold my tongue when anger rises.
I intend to be a better father.
I intend to feed my soul, to pay attention to that poor neglected, emaciated thing.
I intend to be the saint, not the sinner.

Free will has nothing to do with smooth sailing.

Free will is the ability to choose to do the right thing.

It is also the ability to choose to do the wrong thing, or worse, to fall into the habits of sinful behavior.

Ash Wednesday is like the day that a 20-plus-year smoker takes the pack out of her pocket and throws it away.

The rest is a breeze, right?

Not Quite.

I believe in God, therefore I believe in the Devil.
God is love and wants what is best for us.
The devil wants us to Forget that both God and He exist.


I intend to fast. (Little dizzy today at lunchtime, better just grab a little something)
I intend to abstain (Beef stew sounds good......After the last spoonful: "What day's today? Friday! Oh well....)
I intend to be introspective and learn from my errors (I don't have the time right now. Too much going on. Maybe later)
I intend to be at peace with my fellow travelers (Unless that fat broad in front of me on the subway knocks that d*mn purse of her's into my newspaper one more time.....)
I intend to pray more (as schedules permit)
I intend to hold my tongue when anger rises (Who exactly do you think you are kidding?)
I intend to be a better father (When the kid messes up, I still end up coming down on him like a ton of bricks. Nice changeup!)
I intend to feed my soul, to pay attention to that poor neglected, emaciated thing.


You get the idea.......

The intentions are great in a Platonic sense.

Their inherent goodness is in the execution, the doing, the work of striving for perfection.