Are We Fit to Receive the Spirit? Do We Cooperate with His Gifts and Grace?

We exist because God willed us into existence. We have life because of Him, and the awesome gift of His grace is free, but it is our responsibility to cooperate with that grace.Someone can fill your car up with gas, but if the engine is not working properly and you don't start the car and drive to your destination, what good is the fuel?

I often think of the many times I have not cooperated with God's grace, and in particular, how I allowed the grace received in the sacrament of Confirmation to lay dormant for years before cooperating with it. Unfortunately this happens with so many who receive the sacrament of Confirmation.

St. Basil the Great says the following in his work, On the Holy Spirit. "All that live virtually desire him, as they are watered by his inspiration and assisted toward their proper and natural end. . . He is the source of holiness, an intellectual light for every rational power's discovery of truth, supplying clarity, so to say through himself. . . He fills all things with power, but only those who are worthy participate in him. He is not participated in all at once but shares his energy in "proportion to faith" (Rom12:6). . . He is present as a whole to each and wholly present everywhere. . . He is like a sunbeam whose grace is present to the one who enjoys him as if he were present to such a one alone, and still he illuminates land and sea and is mixed with the air. . . Just so, indeed, the Spirit is present to each one who is fit to receive him, as if he were present to him alone, and still he sends out grace that is complete and sufficient for all. The things that participate in him enjoy him to the extent that their nature allows, not to the extent that his power allows."

The Big Bang - Who was there before it? Who put it all into motion?

 

The creation of the vast universe, billions upon billions of galaxies, containing billions upon billions of stars, the universe in which we live upon this tiny planet we call earth, is an awesome thing to ponder!

Unlike a man-made bomb, which explodes into existing space, the “Big Bang” explosion created even the space into which it exploded and expanded. Space did not yet exist.

Today, astrophysicists estimate that the temperature of the entire universe at just a tiny fraction of a second after the “Big Bang” explosion was 1000 trillion degrees Celsius. Even the cores of the hottest stars in today's universe are much cooler than that. As mere humans, we lack the ability to begin to even imagine the intensity of such force, energy, and heat!

Man looks to science for proof of God’s existence. But science has its limits.

With regard to the “Big Bang” theory, science has the authority to tell us how things are only from the moment of the explosion until today. Science has no legitimacy, no power to tell us anything about what happened or Who was there prior to the explosion. It cannot tell us why the explosion took place in the first place. That is the province of religion and spirituality, and the legitimate authorities on that subject are the great saints and prophets, and all to whom God has revealed such knowledge.

Fr. Larry Richards on Obedience to God!

Many people fall away from the faith because they're angry at God for a variety of reasons. We bring many of our problems upon ourselves by rejecting what God has planned for us!

Many extremely bad and sorrowful things happen to the best of people, and while we watch the innocent suffer, we must always remember one thing, and that one thing is that everything that is evil and unjust in this world is the result of sin, not God. Sin is man's disobedience to God. It is living outside of His will!

Don't be mad at God! Come home to Him!

The following is a video of Father Larry Richards speaking on Obedience to God:

You Raise Me Up!

The youtube video below is a beautiful version of the song, You Raise Me Up performed by a band called Selah.

This Lent, let us meditate on how God raises us up, especially in our darkest hours! Let's also reflect on how we can best serve as God's instruments in helping to raise up our brothers and sisters who are in need!

"And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these my brethren, even these least, ye did it unto me." (Matt 25:40)