Getting Answers from God

Recently my eight-year-old daughter asked me the following question during our ride to school, “Daddy, what does CCC stand for? I see it in my religion book at school.” Regan is in the second grade in Catholic school and is preparing to receive her first Holy Communion in April of 2016. I replied, “Honey, CCC stands for Catechism of the Catholic Church, it is where we can learn much about our Catholic Faith. We are able to look things up in the CCC when we have questions about our Faith.” Regan replies, “Okay, Daddy.”

My wife told me later that day that Regan made it a point to tell her teacher that she knew what CCC stood for. Regan’s teacher subsequently asked the sixth grade class if anyone knew what CCC stood for to which no one could provide a an answer. The teacher then exclaimed, “Even one of my second graders knows the answer to that question!”

When I learned of what happened that day. I was so proud of my little girl, but more importantly grateful that I was given the opportunity to answer the question that she cared enough about to ask. I was reminded of how important it is for us as parents to share the knowledge of our Faith with our children, and that it is never too early to do so.

On a side note, I learned from my wife that Regan also informed her that she had “an in with God.” When Liz asked what she meant by that, Regan replied, “When I want to know something, I ask God the question and He answers me, not with words, but by showing me pictures in my head.” I immediately thought to myself, do we have a mystic in our midst?

How nice it is to know that my eight year old has that kind of relationship with God! Regan, and all of my children have always been an absolute source of pride and joy in my life, thanks be to God!

 

Surges of the Heart and Looks Turned Toward Heaven

 

I love St. Therese of Lisieux’s definition of prayer found in (CCC 2558). She says, “For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy.” The beauty of prayer as described by St. Therese of Lisieux, and by the Church, is that the “surges of the heart,” the simple looks turned toward heaven,” come spontaneously to those who are humble enough to acknowledge their dependence upon the loving and merciful care of a Heavenly Father.

Prayer is a gift from God to those humble enough to acknowledge dependence upon His love and mercy and respond with praise and thanksgiving (CCC 2559). It is a covenant relationship with God as we come into communion with the love of the Trinity and our brothers and sisters in Christ (CCC 2564). Effective prayer stems from the heart. “According to Scripture, it is the heart that prays. If our heart is far from God, the words of prayer are in vain.” (CCC 2562)

Reflections on the Eucharist

Lord, I am eager to participate in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as often as I am able! It is there that you give me yourself in the Eucharist! And when I am properly prepared and disposed to receive you, the grace that you offer is astounding!

It is equally awesome to think, that the Creator of the vast universe in which we live, the designer of the complexities of it all, and the one who keeps it all in perfect balance, even as we fail to take proper care of what you have given us, humbles himself to become truly present in the form of bread and wine in order that I may be nourished for my journey back to you, Lord! How can I thank you, Lord, other than to say, “I am yours, I want to do your will, use me for the purpose for which you created me!” Amen!

All Saints Day

Halloween is in 2 days; a time when many children and some adults have fun dressing up, going to parties, or trick or treating, but more importantly is the day that follows, which is All Saints Day.

Saints are special because they showed God how much they loved Him by the way they lived their lives. Saints are important to us because they set the example of how we are to live our lives doing God’s will! Learn more about this special day here. You will also find a collection of great prayers fitting for this day in the Church year.

Pray the Rosary

Why pray the Rosary?

The Church believes that it is necessary for a Christian to meditate (prayerfully think about) the will of God, the life and teachings of Jesus, the price He paid for our salvation, and so on. Unless we do this we will begin to take these great gifts for granted and ultimately fall away from the Lord. Every Christian must meditate in some way in order to preserve the gift of salvation (James 1:22-25). Many Catholic and non-Catholic Christians prayerfully read and apply Scripture to their lives, that is, meditate on them. With the rosary this can be done virtually anywhere and anytime . . . read more

Here is a great resource for praying the Rosary online . . . Come Pray the Rosary

God Is Not A Genie!

In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus gives us the example of how we are to ask for our Heavenly Father’s help. As Jesus awaits his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, He prays the following prayer, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet, not as I will, but as you will." (Matthew 26:39 NAB)

Again in Matthew’s gospel we are given another example of how to ask God for help. This time the example is given to us by a leper who approaches Jesus asking to be healed. And a leper came to Him and bowed down before Him, and said, "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean." Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, saying, "I am willing; be cleansed." And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. (Matthew8:2-3NASB)

The point is that God knows what is best for us and wants what is best for us, which means that He will sometimes choose not to respond to our requests for reasons that are beyond our understanding.

He may also choose to delay answering our prayers because immediately doing so would not conform to His divine plan of salvation.

When it seems that God has not heard our prayer, or that He is an uncaring God who ignores our pleas, we must remember to trust that He knows what is best for us!

It is truly unfortunate when people become angry with God when their prayers seem to go unheard, as if God were some genie who is under an obligation to grant our every wish and desire.

Trust in God! His love is eternal and perfect! He desires the best for us! Never allow yourself to stray from His loving care!

For the wages of sin is death . . .

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23 NAB)

A question often raised by those who have wandered away or have lost their faith is – How can a “loving God” allow so much pain and suffering in the world, i.e., the atrocities of war, starvation, disease, abortion . . .?

The answer is simple yet difficult for most to accept because the counter argument for these skeptics goes something like this – “If God is all powerful He could put an end to it at any time!”

Let’s address the two questions:

First of all, pain, human misery, and suffering all began with the original sin of Adam and Eve, whose free will God respected. Think of the following analogy: God is the perfect parent who knows what’s best for His children, i.e., His will for us! As human parents we strive to lead our children in certain directions in an attempt to ensure that they have the best life possible, but in many cases they reject these attempts because they believe their way is better! Most of us know what happens when we do not follow our parents’ advice!

As human history continued man’s continuing rejection of God’s will eventually led to more and more misery and suffering up to the present day.

Secondly, although He has the power to end it all immediately, God cannot! By doing so He would in effect be saying, Go ahead, behave anyway you like without consequences.

Like any parent, God our Heavenly Father hates to see His children suffer! But again, God will not interfere with our free will to love or reject Him. Human parents have very little, or sometimes no control over their children once they have reached adulthood! Remember, without the free choice to love someone, true love cannot exist, and God wants us to choose to love Him freely!

Through the passion, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, God has provided the means by which death, sin and suffering is defeated. Most Christians believe that this will only occur when Christ returns, but if you think about it, although man will continue to sin because of his nature, much of the death and suffering we now experience in this world could be eliminated if we only followed what Jesus taught us!

In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus is asked by a Pharisee (a scholar of the law), "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" Jesus responded, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments." (Matt 22:34-40 NAB)

In conclusion, most who have seen Mel Gibson’s movie, Passion of the Christ, I’m sure would agree that Christ painfully suffered immense physical torture. What the film does not accurately portray however, is what must have amounted to the greatest source of Christ’s suffering, and that is the visions he must have had, and the knowledge he possessed of the suffering and atrocities humankind would endure due to their rejection of God’s will which Jesus came to reveal.

Throughout history, man has an spent an inordinate amount of time, energy, and resources devising ways to inflict death and suffering upon one another. If only it had been spent caring for and loving one another!

The following video is graphic and only one example of the many things Christ must have visualized during his passion. It’s no wonder he sweat blood in the Garden of Gethsemane! PLEASE! Let us repent and pray that all will turn to Christ so that the suffering depicted in this video and all such human suffering will not be repeated!

"Woman, Behold Your Son - Behold, Your Mother"

Jesus appointed Mary to be the Mother to all Christians when he said the following words as he hung on the cross.

“When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son." Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother." And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.” (John 19:26-27)

Our Blessed Mother’s words to the servants at the wedding at Cana, “Do whatever he tells you," (John 2:5) are the very same words she has for us today, ‘Do what Jesus tells you!’ Mary wants nothing more than to lead us to her Son!

If you have ever been told by well-meaning, but uninformed Christians about how wrong Catholics are to “pray” to Mary, David MacDonald offers some valuable information concerning the truth about our relationship with our Blessed Mother . . . read it here

Pray and Fast NOW!

Brothers and sisters, we need to pray and fast NOW! Watch the video below. WARNING and CAUTION! It is extremely graphic!

Beauty of the Liturgy of the Mass

Brothers and sisters,

Have you ever really listened to the Liturgy of the Mass or taken the time to read these beautiful prayers? I urge you to do so!

A simple reading of these prayers and petitions by anyone who claims that the Roman Catholic faith is a cult, or that Catholics aren't "saved" should serve to convince them otherwise!

Please, click on the title of this post to link to a place where you'll be able to read and meditate on the Liturgy of the Mass!

How Do I Serve You Lord?

Please click the title of this post to be re-directed to a very enlightening post by Pillar Novice.

I'm sure you'll be blessed!

Prayer of St. Ignatius Loyola

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my

understanding and my entire will, All I have and call my own.

You have given all to me. To you, Lord, I return it. Everything

is yours; do with it what you will. Give me only your love and

your grace. That is enough for me. Amen

Prayer of St. Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;

to be understood as to understand;

to be loved as to love;

for it is in giving that we receive;

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen

Prayer To The Holy Spirit

Breathe into me, Spirit of God, that I may think what is holy. Drive me, Spirit of God, that I may do what is holy.

Draw me, Spirit of God, that I may love what is holy.

Strengthen me, Spirit of God, that I may preserve what is holy.

Guide me, Spirit of God, that I may never lose what is holy. St. Augustine

Christians Unite In Prayer and Fasting!

A co-worker and I were talking about the state of the world the today. We spoke of the many concerns over the world economy, genocide, hunger, homelessness, and the ever growing lack of respect for human life, which has dramatically increased ever since we legalized the torturing and murdering of babies while they are in what should be the safest place in the world, their mother’s wombs.

While we standby and watch all that is happening, the enemy sits back and laughs over the lack of Christian unity. He gloats over this sin and its devastating effects!

With God’s grace let’s mount up a defense and defeat this attack!

Now is the time for Christians to unite and become the one body in Christ that we were meant to be, to pray for the renewal of faith, and to ask God to use us as instruments through which others will come to know of the salvation Christ obtained for us through his passion, death, and resurrection!

During this Lenten season, let us become united in prayer and fasting for the many who need to hear God’s call to come home with repentant hearts, seeking to restore their relationship with Him!

We ask this through Christ our Lord! Amen!

On Devotion To Our Blessed Mother

True devotion to Mary leads us closer to Jesus

The following is a letter Pope John Paul II wrote on St. Louis de Montfort's “Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin”

On December 8, 2003, Pope John Paul II wrote a letter to the Montfort religious family, on the occasion of the 160th Anniversary of the publication of the Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, written by St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort. Here are large excerpts from this letter:

A work destined to become a classic of Marian spirituality was published 160 years ago. St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort wrote the Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin at the beginning of the 1700s, but the manuscript remained practically unknown for more than a century. When, almost by chance, it was at last discovered in 1842 and published in 1843, the work was an instant success, proving extraordinarily effective in spreading the “true devotion” to the Most Holy Virgin.

I myself, in the years of my youth, found reading this book a great help. “There I found the answers to my questions”, for at one point I had feared that if my devotion to Mary “became too great, it might end up compromising the supremacy of the worship owed to Christ” (Gift and Mystery). Under the wise guidance of St. Louis Marie, I realized that if one lives the mystery of Mary in Christ, this risk does not exist. In fact, this Saint's Mariological thought “is rooted in the mystery of the Trinity and in the truth of the Incarnation of the Word of God” (ibid.).

Since she came into being, and especially in her most difficult moments, the Church has contemplated with special intensity an event of the Passion of Jesus Christ that St. John mentions: “Standing by the Cross of Jesus were His mother, and His mother's sister, Mary, the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing near, He said to His mother, ‘Woman, behold, Your son!’. Then He said to the disciple, ‘Behold, Your mother!’ And from that hour the disciple took Her to his own home” (Jn 19: 25-27). . . Read More @ http://www.michaeljournal.org/montfort.htm

Pray for Wisdom

At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, "Ask for whatever you want me to give you."

Solomon answered, "You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day. "Now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?"

The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. So God said to him, "Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be. "

"Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for—both riches and honor—so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings. And if you walk in my ways and obey my statutes and commands as David your father did, I will give you a long life." Then Solomon awoke—and he realized it had been a dream. 1 Kings 3:5-15 (NIV)

A Prayer to Know & Follow One's Vocation

O Jesus, I desire that you make your will known to me; I wish to follow you. Enlighten my soul and give me the strength and courage to choose the state of life in which you wish me to serve you. Dearest Mother Mary, obtain grace for me through your powerful intercession. Amen.

The Universal Prayer

The following prayer is contained in a small booklet which was given to me by a wonderful Dominican Friar at the conclusion of receiving the sacrament of Reconciliation. He directed me to a prayer, entitled, "The Universal Prayer", listed on page 30 of the booklet, and suggested that it be incorporated into my daily prayers.

The prayer booklet is entitled, "The Pocket Prayer Book", edited by Rev. Victor Hoagland, C.P., published by Regina Press, New York, 1998 copyright - ISBN: 0-88271-059-1.

It is a prayer that I would like to share with as many as possible! Please feel free to pass it on.

THE UNIVERSAL PRAYER

Lord, I believe in you: increase my faith.
I trust in you: strengthen my trust.
I love you: let me love you more and more.
I am sorry for my sins: deepen my sorrow.
I worship you as my first beginning, I long for you as my last end, I praise you as my constant helper, and call on you as my loving protector.
Guide me by your wisdom, correct me with your justice, comfort me with your mercy, protect me with your power.
I offer you, Lord, my thoughts: to be fixed on you;
My words: to have you for their theme;
My actions: to reflect my love for you;
My sufferings: to be endured for your greater glory.
I want to do what you ask of me: In the way you ask, For as long as you ask, because you ask it.
Lord, enlighten my understanding, Strengthen my will, Purify my heart, and make me holy.
Help me to repent of my past sins and to resist temptation in the future.
Help me to rise above my human weaknesses and to grow stronger as a Christian.
Let me love you, my Lord and my God, and see myself as I really am: A pilgrim in this world, A Christian called to respect and love all whose lives I touch, those under my authority, my friends and my enemies.
Help me to conquer anger with gentleness, Greed by generosity, Apathy by fervor.
Help me to forget myself and reach out toward others.
Make me prudent in planning, Courageous in taking risks.
Make me patient in suffering, unassuming in prosperity.
Keep me, Lord, attentive at prayer, Temperate in food and drink, Diligent in my work, Firm in my good intentions.
Let my conscience be clear, My conduct without fault, My speech blameless, My life well-ordered.
Put me on guard against my human weaknesses.
Let me cherish your love for me, Keep your law, and Come at last to your salvation.
Teach me to realize that this world is passing, That my true future is the happiness of heaven, That life on earth is short, and the life to come eternal.
Help me to prepare for death with a proper fear of judgment, but a greater trust in your goodness.
Lead me safely through death to the endless joy of heaven.
Grant this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

attributed to Pope Clement XI
AKA Giovanni Francesco Albani
Born: 22-Jul-1649Birthplace: Urbino, ItalyDied: 19-Mar-1721Papacy: Roman Catholic Pope, 1700-21