Powerful Presentation by Father Jim Blount - Must Watch

Follow the Science

Harold Gans is a retired Senior Cryptologic Mathematician with the U.S. Department of Defense. Mr Gans, citing equations concerning the probability of complexities and orderliness occurring in creation by chance, has concluded that the existence of a Creator is a mathematical certainty. You will be amazed!

The Warning! Illumination of Conscience! What is it?

I wanted to post this video of an interview with the author of The Warning, Christine Watkins, by Father Dan Rehill. Although Mrs. Watkins' book deals with private revelations, I found the concept of The Warning quite interesting. We all need to be made conscious of the gravity and far reaching effects of sin. An illumination of conscience would certainly help us achieve that knowledge and awareness!  

Watch the video and check out The Warning and see what you think.

"Do Not Let Me Trust What I Can Grasp Between My Fingers"

My Lord, I have no hope but in Your Cross. You, by Your humility, and sufferings and death, have delivered me from all vain hope. You have killed the vanity of the present life in Yourself, and have given me all that is eternal in rising from the dead.

Why should I want to be rich, when You were poor? Why should I desire to be famous and powerful in the eyes of men, when the sons of those who exalted the false prophets and stoned the true rejected You and nailed You to the Cross? Why should I cherish in my heart a hope that devours me-the hope for perfect happiness in this life-when such hope, doomed to frustration, is nothing but despair?

My hope is what the eye has never seen. Therefore, let me not trust in visible rewards. My hope is what the heart of man cannot feel. Therefore let me trust not in the feelings of my heart. My hope is what the hand of man has never touched. Do not let me trust what I can grasp between my fingers. Death will loosen my grasp and my vain hope will be gone.

Let my trust be in Your mercy, not in myself. Let my hope be in your love, not in health, or strength, or ability or human resources.

If I trust You, everything else will become, for me, strength, health, and support. Everything will bring me to heaven. If I do not trust You, everything will be my destruction. ~ Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude, Part I, Ch. VII

 

Great Reflection from Thomas Merton

 

It is God’s love that warms me in the sun and

God’s love

That sends the cold rain. It is God’s love that

feeds me in the bread I eat,

and God that feeds me also by hunger and

fasting.

It is the love of God that sends the winter days

when I am cold and sick

and the hot summer when I labor and my

clothes are full of sweat:

but it is God Who breathes on me with light

winds off the river

and in the breezes out of the wood.

His love spreads the shade of the sycamore

over my head . . .

It is God’s love that speaks to me in the birds

and streams;

But also behind the clamor of the city God

speaks to me in His judgments,

and all these things are seeds sent to me from His will.

If these seeds would take root in my liberty,

and His will would grow from my freedom,

I would become the love that He is, and my

Harvest would be

His glory and my own joy. ~ Thomas Merton, (New Seeds of Contemplation, pp. 16-17)

 

A Word About Human Suffering and the Political, Cultural, and Religious Division of Our Time

It seems whenever there arise instances of human suffering, God is the first one to be blamed for not doing anything to eradicate it. People experience the atrocities of war, catastrophic illness, natural disasters, famine, and the like. We become angry at God for not intervening to stop the suffering or we stop believing in Him altogether unable to reconcile how a loving and all powerful God could allow His children to suffer so much.

The truth is that God never intended humanity to suffer and certainly did not create the circumstances by which suffering entered the world. We did! God created a perfect world full of everything we could ever need or want. God’s will for us was, and still is, perfect happiness and well-being. At the moment mankind strayed from His will,  the ingredients for every form of human suffering entered our world. What do I mean by this? Well let’s take a look at how different forms of sin attributed to human suffering.

With regard to the suffering created by war. Think of the sins that would cause us to impose our wills on the lives of others by force; thinking of others as less human because of race or ethnicity; to unlawfully take possession of the property of others by force; This is not God’s doing but the exercise of our free will choice not to love our neighbor the way God loves us. We act outside of His will! His fault? Not!

What about illnesses such as cancer? The resources God provided us with initially were pure and good for our health and well-being. The water and food provided by God was all we required to nourish and sustain us. It is when man fueled by greed and pride began to alter God’s perfect providence, not with the pure intention of benefiting mankind, but intending rather to benefit his bank account. Over time, harmful chemicals were introduced and other injurious farming techniques served to deplete nutrients from our food were introduced, many of which were driven by a desire to increase the profit margin and not the quality of the produce. We began to pollute our water sources and the food sources within them with the poison chemicals produced by greedy manufacturers while never giving much thought about the impact it would have on the health of humankind. Once again greed, power, and control. How was this God’s fault?

Think of the money, energy, and resources that have been spent on the proliferation of weapons and methods to annihilate one another rather than assist one another. How is this God’s fault? If the money, energy, and resources spent on destroying one another were applied to helping and loving one another, I dare say that the suffering caused by war, famine, and illness would be dramatically decreased. I don’t think one person on earth would ever have to go hungry, thirsty, or without health care or shelter!

Look at the cultural and political division of our time. Pride, greed, self-aggrandizement, and corruption are at the heart of the division we are experiencing, a division in which nothing can get accomplished to make the world a better place in which to live.

We can tremendously help to eliminate much human suffering and strife if we put our selfish, prideful agendas away and begin to work together for the common good. This is what God wills for mankind. Politicians and leaders of countries, do you hear what I am saying? Abandon your pride, humble yourself and repent. Ask God to help us work together for the common good. Ask for wisdom and all the virtue necessary to lead in a way that brings us together for the good of all mankind! This is God’s will and He will say yes to those prayers. God’s grace is always available to us. We only need cooperate with that grace!  

“if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14

A Reflection on Beatitude from Thomas Merton

"There are two levels of beatitude. One is the incomplete happiness which man can achieve on earth by his natural intelligence, contemplating and loving God after the manner of a philosopher. Perfect beatitude, which is foreshadowed in the obscure mystical contemplation of God on earth and is perfected in the light of glory, is the clear supernatural vision of the Divine Essence as it is in itself. This vision cannot be reached through any created medium, and therefore it consists in an immediate union of the glorified human spirit with the Divine Essence. This union is the only thing capable of finally satisfying man's desires for complete happiness and perfection." ~ Thomas Merton from his work, The Ascent to Truth

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This is a must watch regarding the crisis in the Church over the loss of faith and knowledge of Christ's Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament

Grieving the Loss of a Loved One

 

My goal in the following post is to help bring comfort to those grieving the loss of a loved one.

Love is a source of great joy and at the same time a source of great sadness. It brings to mind the title of the 1976 song by Nazareth, Love Hurts. I am also reminded of the 1986 song by Garth Brooks, The Dance, in which we reflect on the words,

“Looking back on the memory of

The dance we shared 'neath the stars above

For a moment all the world was right

How could I have known that you'd ever say goodbye

And now I'm glad I didn't know

The way it all would end, the way it all would go

Our lives are better left to chance

I could have missed the pain

But I'd have had to miss the dance.”

We must remember that the people God places in our lives are gifts to be treasured; they are not our possessions; they belong to Him. As parents we tend to forget that children are God’s gifts to us as parents. God entrusts them to our love and care until He calls them home, sometimes sadly before He is ready to call us home. A fact hard to swallow, but true, nonetheless. We should remain forever grateful for the time our Lord has given us with our children and all the ones we love.

The “good news” is that our earthly separation has been rendered temporary by the life, passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus. We die with him and rise again to an eternal life in his presence. And the reunion with our loved ones will be permanent and eternal. “He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, [for] the old order has passed away.” Rev 21:4 

Love is eternal, God reveals this to us in the writings of St. Paul; “Love never ends.” 1 Cor 13:8, as well as in many other places in scripture I’m certain.

True, our physical time together on earth ends, but the love we have for each other endures for all eternity.

The fact that we experience life within the confines of time and space is the reason that physical separation from our loved ones is difficult, especially for those who live life without faith because the separation for them becomes permanent. There is no hope for those without faith; our Lord tells us differently.

Our journey in this earthly existence is extremely brief as St. James writes, “You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.” James 4:14

God has placed us here, but this is not our permanent home; we are visitors on a journey to our heavenly homes prepared for us by our Lord from all eternity.

When I experienced the loss of my sister, who was suddenly called home at the young age of thirty-one after a brief illness, and with whom I had a close relationship; when I was fortunate enough to be at the bedside of both my parents holding their hands as their souls left their earthly bodies; when I learn about friends, family, and co-workers who grieve the loss of loved ones, there are two scripture passages that come to mind to remind me that this separation is temporary, albeit painful. These scripture verses have brought peace and comfort to me during these times, and I pray they will for you as well.

The first scripture passage is one in which Jesus is preparing his disciples for his imminent suffering and death; the other is one in which Jesus in his human nature weeps as he shares the grief his friends Martha and Mary are experiencing over the loss of their brother Lazarus. It is said to be the shortest verse in the Bible, “Jesus wept,” found in Jn 11:35. Jesus wept even though in his divine nature he knew what would become of Lazarus. Jesus empathized with Martha and Mary to the point that he wept with them. Jesus also weeps with each of us in our times of sorrow.

Below are the two passages of scripture to which I have made reference to above:

Jn 14:2-4  

2“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And where I go you know, and the way you know.”

Jn 11:1-44

1Now a man was ill, Lazarus from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.

2Mary was the one who had anointed the Lord with perfumed oil and dried his feet with her hair; it was her brother Lazarus who was ill.

3So the sisters sent word to him, saying, “Master, the one you love is ill.”

4When Jesus heard this he said, “This illness is not to end in death, but is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

5Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.

6So when he heard that he was ill, he remained for two days in the place where he was.

7Then after this he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

8The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you, and you want to go back there?”

9Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in a day? If one walks during the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world.^e

10But if one walks at night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”

11He said this, and then told them, “Our friend Lazarus is asleep, but I am going to awaken him.”

12So the disciples said to him, “Master, if he is asleep, he will be saved.”

13But Jesus was talking about his death, while they thought that he meant ordinary sleep.

14So then Jesus said to them clearly, “Lazarus has died.

15And I am glad for you that I was not there, that you may believe. Let us go to him.”

16So Thomas, called Didymus,^* said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go to die with him.”

17When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days.

18Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, only about two miles^* away.

19And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother.

20When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him; but Mary sat at home.

21Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.ⁱ

22[But] even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.”

23Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.”

24Martha said to him, “I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.”

25Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live,

26and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.”

28When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary secretly, saying, “The teacher is here and is asking for you.”

29As soon as she heard this, she rose quickly and went to him.

30For Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still where Martha had met him.

31So when the Jews who were with her in the house comforting her saw Mary get up quickly and go out, they followed her, presuming that she was going to the tomb to weep there.

32When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

33When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, he became perturbed^* and deeply troubled,

34and said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Sir, come and see.”

35And Jesus wept.

36So the Jews said, “See how he loved him.”

37But some of them said, “Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man have done something so that this man would not have died?”

38So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay across it.

39Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to him, “Lord, by now there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days.”

40Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?”

41So they took away the stone. And Jesus raised his eyes and said, “Father,^* I thank you for hearing me.

42I know that you always hear me; but because of the crowd here I have said this, that they may believe that you sent me.”

43And when he had said this, he cried out in a loud voice,^* “Lazarus, come out!”

44The dead man came out, tied hand and foot with burial bands, and his face was wrapped in a cloth. So Jesus said to them, “Untie him and let him go.”