Live Local

In these days of instant communication and up-to-the-second news, it is easy to become overwhelmed and cynical about the state of everything. Everything.

The environment. Global politics. National politics. The Economy. Education. The Church.
Yes, literally everything is under the scrutiny of literally everyone, everywhere.

Add to that the tribal nature of news reporting, youtube, wiki-this and insta-that, and we find ourselves at the center of a war of words, straining our eyes to see the truth through the haze of vitriol.
It seems that one outlet "knows" everything there is to know about a given topic or issue, until you scroll down and click and you find that all  they "know" is the opposite of what the next person "knows".
How is the average person supposed to navigate these waters of obfuscation?
I don't have an answer to that question, but I do have a suggestion that may help.
Get out of the water.

These days, trying to become informed and active about world and national events can be confusing, stressful, and leave a person feeling very small and helpless. Maybe it's time to let the world take care of itself for awhile, while we set ourselves about taking care of our own. Our families, parishes, and communities.
These are places that need us, where we can actually experience the gift that we can be to, and accept from, other people.
In these places we have an opportunity to be effective, to change things for the good, and to understand the other person without the filter of opinion.

Start small, and practice every day.
Fix a meal for someone, and eat with them.
Turn off the TV, or the computer, or the phone, for the majority of the day, while there are people present. Even if you are just reading or doing a puzzle or listening to music, you are approachable.
Get to your Faith community more often than Sunday.
Churches always have something going on. Ask what needs doing and go do it!
Give someone a ride to Church.

Get out and walk in your town or on your street. Get to know the neighbors. Look at their flowers, their dog, the new paint job on the house, and make a nice comment.
Learn about the services in town that need help. Is there a soup kitchen? A house being built by Habitat for Humanity? Maybe your town has a community garden.
Start a maintenance co-op for yards and homes. Older people need this so much!
Start a walking group.
Bring yourself to the table.

We can do so much in our smaller spaces. We live there, we love there.
These are our people, and our communities need us!
If we attend to the smaller places, the ripple effect will reach the bigger picture eventually.
Being mindful of our business can have tremendous benefits!

Turn off the news. Turn on your smile.
Start really living where you have been existing.

Christopher Says It Best!

This is such an excellent video on the Scriptural background for the Theology of the Body!

Teach The Children

In the pages of Scripture we read of God's requirement that His chosen people, the Israelites, teach their children the Faith that He had given to them. This precept was of vital importance to keeping the family of God together.
When they began to slip, when they ignored the family rules of the Lord, and began to assimilate with  people that were not living under God's Law, they also stopped teaching the children about Him.
This always ended badly. Through intermarriage and pagan lifestyles, the people would lose the connection with God and go "off road". They would get lost in the desert, and God would have to do something to bring them back, and remind them that leaving Him would leave them empty and miserable.

Until He sent His Son, Jesus, this was a pattern that would repeat over and over, about every fourth generation. When Jesus came, He gave His life for all people, and gave us the Church, which provided a constant infusion of Grace into the world and is a direct connection to the Kingdom of Heaven through the Sacraments. The pattern was broken, but sin is still in the world, and people still go "off road", trying to be satisfied with what it offers.

What we do with our lives matters. Our lives, and the lives of our children, are gifts from God, and the only way that we will be truly whole and find meaning, is if we give our lives back to Him, and teach our children about Him so that they have an opportunity to choose to give their lives to Him as well.

Since the beginning, the world has been a place of beauty, and possibility, but it has also had a darkness, that crept in to tempt our first parents, and has been working against our relationship with God. The Devil is real. He is a person that desires our ruination and ultimately the loss of our souls. He waits in patient envy, to whisper ugly lies, trying to tease us out of our relationship with God. He is a con-artist and a master of deceit. He can make what we have been made for look like drudgery, and make the path to death look like a party. If we aren't on our game, if we don't stay in the family of God, we will lose the ability to recognize the devil, and then the way of the "world" will look like the only way to live. We find ourselves without a compass and without a way back to the one that we were made by and for. We find ourselves hungry, wanting, lonely and seeking something to love.
Lesser loves are all that we can recognize, because over the course of generations the family bond with our Creator has been weakened by sin and ignorance.

God wants us to know Him. He has built a GPS system into our hearts. These hearts are always seeking God, their true Love, and are never satisfied with cheap imitations. This is why so many people are never satisfied with their lives.
Our hearts truly are restless until they rest in Him.

Our children need to know this. They need to be taught that there are no substitutes for God. They have to be exposed to His love, and be taught how to listen for His voice.
The voice of the Devil is loud and insistent.
Families are being decimated by the culture. Children are being lost. Children are being sacrificed to gods that gobble up their innocence and leave them with broken hearts.
Some children are being sacrificed before they even have a chance to draw breath.

This is real. It is as serious as God's Love is true.
The voice of the Father is loving and persisent, but He won't force us. He wants us to love Him with an authentic love.
Bring the Children to the Father. Teach the Children His loving plan.
It's the only way to get back on the road to the Promised Land.

Joy

13 Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. 14 As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.

15 While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16 When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

17 On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Lord, you draw those who are lost in sin. The joy of being in Your presence is so much greater for those who have strayed and been away from You. You are healer, and You heal the deepest wounds of the heart. Levi must have invited his friends with such excitement. He would have told them to come and meet this man who had seen him and called him in love. He would have shared his joy at finding You. They would have laughed and listened to Your stories, and had the best time!

The Pharisees were probably so confused. Here You were spending time with people who were so unworthy. You brought joy into joyless hearts that would welcome You, but you couldn't bring joy to hearts that were puffed up with self-righteousness. What sad people, those that can't see Your love and embrace it. 

Help me always to see my littleness, and my need for You. 

I Love You, Jesus

Enough Is a Lie

Last week I was so blest to attend another course hosted by the Theology Of The Body Institute.
This course was on the Writings of Pope St John Paul II, and it was just wonderful. Being able to focus on the words of his amazing mind, and feel the touch of his loving spirit was just a moment of joy. Of course the time spent with Jesus in Adoration was, as always the most important part of the week.
I learned some very good things in the classroom, but the things that I truly know were given to my heart by Our Lord.
One of those things was debunking the concept of "enough".

I think that this was probably a large component of Eve's temptation in the Garden.
I know that I have always struggled with it.

Eve was told that the glorious life that they were living with God was not enough.
Satan whispered that there was much more and that to have anything less than everything was to be cheated. 
Her love for Adam was not enough, her understanding of the world and it's joys was not enough.
We are wired for the same sad story, by our heritage of that sin.
We hear the whispers of satan and all too frequently we let him convince us that we just need more...
more admiration, more money, more education, more popularity, and at some point it will finally be enough.

I have fallen for this lie over and over, all my life.
"Your femininity is not enough"
"You're not pretty enough"
"You're not smart enough"
"You don't try hard enough"
"You aren't talented enough"
"You aren't cool enough"
"You aren't Holy enough"

My whole life I have listened to the lies of enough, and I have been striving.
Of course that's just what the enemy wants us to do. He wants us to run all over creation trying to figure out how to be enough to all the people and for all the things that we are told we should want.
Trying to please other people, out of worry about not measuring up, has always led me to further anxiety and feelings of inadequacy.
I was never one of the "in" crowd, and never quite understood the code. I didn't really care, until the in crowd became people that I wanted to be close to. I would join a group or an organization, start a class or get a job, and I would always sense that there were people in the room that knew something that I couldn't quite figure out.
A comment or a certain look, and I would know that, once again, I wasn't "enough" for them.
I thought that I would "grow out of it", as a mom and teacher, and a member of a wonderful parish.
But while I was at the institute that feeling just kept rising to the surface. I was struggling with a few concepts, and feeling like the material was more unfamiliar than I had expected.
I kept imagining judgement. I would walk up to talk to someone and think "Who are you kidding? There are all these brilliant people here. That person is probably waiting for a chance to talk to one of them." I know that is ridiculous. I know that everyone that was there is a wonderful, loving and giving person. I couldn't have been in a more accepting and generous group.
This was all the lies of the evil one, who did NOT want me to be able to reach the place that the Lord wanted to take me.

And then I went to spend time with Him in Adoration.

On Thursday, while I was before Him, Jesus spoke such beautiful words to my heart.
He said "You know that enough is a lie. You don't have to be enough because I AM."

I belong to him and that is enough. It will always be enough.

Heart Food

It has been quite a day up here at the Theology of the Body course on the Writings of St John Paul II!
We have been going all day! There is so much to try to wrap my head around, but as always, it is a process. God is so good. He has given us so much in the amazing teaching of TOB, and in all of his other writings. As usual, I hear the teaching, feel like I have so much to unpack, and how will I ever take it all in, and then I go to Adoration, and Jesus just fills me with His care and brings me to a place of complete surrender. I can't help but feel the goodness of it all. He has me right where He wants me.

Tenderness and Touching Hearts

Tenderness is a key, especially when it comes to matters of the heart and spirit.
It can unlock places that have been closed off for years.
What is buried in the hearts of the people around us is either baggage, or staples for the journey.
To help them discover what is baggage, and help them separate it from what is necessary, is a great thing, but it is the work of the Holy Spirit. It is asking the questions and letting them find the answers, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

It is becoming clear to me that I have a particular struggle with defensiveness in certain conversations. One thing that I know is imperative when encountering people, especially during difficult conversations, is to remember to be tender toward their hearts. No matter what my ears are hearing, my heart should be sensing the place that they are coming from.

Defensiveness has no place in Christian relationships, even when defending Christ. Defensiveness is actually my fear of not being heard, or understood.  There is no place for fear in these conversations, because the Holy Spirit is right here, all the time, and He speaks the Truth to my heart. He will give me the words to say. In fact, maybe the right words will be no words. Listening and praying may be what He asks at that time. A conversation with a person should not be seen first as a battle in the war against the Faith, and then as a personal mission to "save" them. It is the Holy Spirit that is doing the saving.

 Defending the Faith will not be accomplished by a crusade against people's opinions, or their understanding. The attacks on the Faith are coming from powers that most people aren't even aware of, so when words are spoken that are in opposition to the Truth, the majority of the time the person speaking them is simply repeating something that the culture has whispered. It isn't a personal attack on me or the Church.

There is so much work to be done, and we are all called to it!
The harvest is massive, but there has been much damage. Some of the laborers have been asleep, and others have actually been destroying the fruit.
The call to enter the vineyard can't be ignored anymore. Lives are being lost.

It is a great Blessing to be about this kind of work, and I want so much to answer the call, but I have such a long way to go.
I have to be more of a help, and not a hindrance.

To know in the head, is a long way from being able to touch hearts.

There is no place for "You just need to...."

There is no room for inserting personal bias.

There is only room for Truth. Truth will fill the emptiness and heal the wounds.
Not "my" Truth, but The Truth.

Grace Heals

The journey through this world is truly frought with peril, and most of the peril that I have encountered I have stumbled into of my own accord.

We are put on the way of Light at Baptism, but there is always something beckoning from the darkness, and too often I have been willing to step over in that direction to satisfy my curiosity or my appetites. Once there, I have found myself engaged, and participating, in things that I know are not of the light. Not terrible things, not the kind of evil things that kill the soul outright, but the kinds of things that my heart thinks I need. Selfish pusuits, wasted time, idle gossip. These things have a way of permeating the soul and making it weak and sick. Not dead, just weakened. When the will is weakened it is much easier for evil to push into the heart and create havoc.

Havoc has been a state in life for me more than once.

I have prayed and I have asked God to forgive my discretions, and I know that He does, immediately.
He is my loving Father and he is so good. His mercy accompanies me in every moment of my life, of that I am confident.

Forgiveness is vital to the life of the soul, but as a Catholic, I can't express enough that incredible Blessing that the Sacrament of Confession has been for me.
The Grace that pours from the Cross of Jesus fills my soul and the weakness and sickness is cast out.
I am stronger and I am back on the path of Light.

Numerous times I have found myself struggling with a stubborn pattern of sin, usually relating to my selfish will and a relationship. I have taken those things to Jesus in Confession and He has poured the Grace of Reconciliation into my heart. That Grace is a real thing, it is like a powerful vitamin that builds me up. After a while, I will realize that I am not struggling with that any more, and indeed, I can confidently say that I have been healed!

Grace is the life of God and we who are Baptized do have that life within us, but the Sacraments are such beautiful sources of special graces, and we are so incredibly blessed to have these treasures.

We can't grasp Grace on our own. We have to open our hearts and ask for it. It is given, and we receive. As the Children of God and the Bride of Christ, the Church, we are fed and nurtured though the mother's milk of Grace. Christ loves the world so much that He brought the Church into being so that everyone could receive what He so very much wants to give us.

It is sad that so few people are in the habit of seeking out the Grace of this Sacrament.
It is healing, and it is ours for the asking.