Easter: Day Fifty, Pentecost Sunday May 23, 2010

Today is Pentecost Sunday, the last day of Easter. Today is the day the Holy Spirit filled the hearts of the apostles and gave them the gifts to fulfill the journey Jesus had set out for them.

Many of us live today in the darkness of Hell which is simply the absence of God in our lives. In this darkness we seek happiness from everything outside of ourselves instead of seeking true happiness which is the Trinitarian life of God which lives within all of us. Because we seek happiness outside, we tend to be very critical and judgmental of others. We do this because we expect that others will give us the happiness we seek. And if we cannot get that happiness from another, we seek it in things. It could be houses, cars, etc or it could be alcohol, drugs, etc.

We can live in the joy and light of Heaven here on earth when we discover the Trinitarian presence of God within. When we do this, we discover the sin in our own lives and it humbles us. Remember that pride was the first sin and continues to be the first sin. Our humility over our own weaknesses and faults will allow us to be compassionate, understanding and caring for those God has put into our lives. We can then find something good to say about the other each and every day where before we could only find something bad to say about the other. Seek God first and all good comes from that seeking. He lives the Trinitarian life within which is the love of God the Father for the Son and the love of God the Son for the Father which love produces the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit desires to give us gifts -

• The gift of wisdom, by detaching us from the world, makes us relish and love only the things of heaven.
• The gift of understanding helps us to grasp the truths of religion as far as is necessary.
• The gift of counsel springs from supernatural prudence, and enables us to see and choose correctly what will help most to the glory of God and our own salvation.
• By the gift of fortitude we receive courage to overcome the obstacles and difficulties that arise in the practice of our religious duties.
• The gift of knowledge points out to us the path to follow and the dangers to avoid in order to reach heaven.
• The gift of piety, by inspiring us with a tender and filial confidence in God, makes us joyfully embrace all that pertains to His service.
• Lastly, the gift of fear fills us with a sovereign respect for God, and makes us dread, above all things, to offend Him.
  (Taken from New Advent - a great resource on the web)

And from the gifts of the Holy Spirit proceed the fruits which are our actions. You can tell that we are alive with God by the way we live. Those fruits are -
 St. Paul (Galatians 5:22-23): "But the fruit of the Spirit is, charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity, goodness, longanimity, mildness, faith, modesty, continency, chastity." 
(Taken from New Advent)
God yearns to give you the fullness of life. His love never fails and is always unconditional. If you grew up with a punishing God then you have much to learn. He is love - pure love - and love cannot not love!!
God bless!!

Easter: Day Forty-Nine, Saturday May 22, 2010

Galatians 5: 16-25
"Live in accord with the spirit and you will not yield to the cravings of the flesh. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patient endurance, kindness, generosity, faith, mildness and chastity. Since we live by the spirit, let us follow the spirit's lead."
God bless!

Easter: Day Forty-Eight, Friday May 21, 2010

"Paradoxical as it may seem, it would not even occur to a person - no, nor to an angel or saint - to desire contemplative love were it not already alive within him. I believe, too, that often our Lord deliberately chooses to work in those who have been habitual sinners rather than in those who , by comparison, have never grieved him at all. Yes, he seems to do this very often. For I think he wants us to realize that he is all-merciful and almighty, and that he is perfectly free to work as he pleases, where he pleases, and when he pleases."
The Cloud of Unknowing - author unknown

Easter: Day Forty-Seven Thursday May 20, 2010

1 Corinthians 2: 9-10
Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it so much as dawned on man what God has prepared for those who love him.

Yet God has revealed this wisdom to us through the Spirit. The Spirit scrutinizes all matters, even the deep things of God.

God bless!!

Easter: Day Forty-Six, Wednesday May 19, 2010

Ephesians 2: 8-10
By grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast. For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them.

St Teresa of Avila
Our best plan is to place ourselves in the Lord's presence, meditate upon his mercy and grace and upon our own lowliness, and leave him to give us what he wills... He knows best what is good for us.

God bless!!

Easter: Day Forty-Five, Tuesday May 18, 2010

From the Magnificat:
Psalm 90: 12 - Make us know the shortness of our life that we may gain wisdom of heart.
"A human life may sometimes look too short to be worth much, but God, who sees the works of his hands from the perspective of enduring love, clothes even the passing wildflowers with splendor. We may be but a breath, a puff of wind, a handful of dust - but the breath of life that animates us is the Spirit of God!
God bless!!

Easter: Day Forty-Four, Monday May 17, 2010

Excerpts taken from "Theology and Sanity" by Frank Sheed:
"Of spirit we have already spoken as lacking the properties of matter... Spirit would still be something even if matter did not exist... material things have constituent parts, and spiritual things have not... a spirit has no parts: therefore it cannot be taken apart . It can exist only as a whole... What has parts can occupy space - space indeed may be thought of as the arrangement matter makes to spread its parts in... The air is beyond the reach of one particular sense, namely sight, because it lacks color. Spirit is beyond the reach of all the senses (and so of imagination) because it lacks all material qualities."

Some words to think about! Read the book! Wonder no more whether there is a God!! There is much more that we do not see nor do we understand just because we are material beings and the spirit is outside our realm of understanding. We can only imagine what our senses have experienced. What our senses have never experienced, we can never fully understand or begin to imagine.
God bless!!

Easter: Day Forty-Three, Seventh Sunday of Easter May 16, 2010

Today is the Day of the Lord. The Day God planned for us to not only rest, but to be fed by the Body and Blood of His Son Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This was planned from the beginning of time that we might taste the sweetness of Heaven while still on this earth. Blessed are those who receive Jesus' presence today!!
God bless!!

Easter: Day Forty-Two, Saturday May 15, 2010

Psalm 8:
How great is your name, O Lord our God, through all the earth!

Your majesty is praised above the the heavens: on the lips of children and of babes you have found praise to foil your enemy, to silence the foe and the rebel.

When I see the heavens, the work of your hands, the moon and the stars which you arranged, what is man that you should keep him in mind, mortal man that you care for him?

Yet you have made him little less than a god; with glory and honor you crowned him, gave him power over the works of your hand, put all things under his feet.

All of them, sheep and cattle, yes, even the savage beasts, birds of the air, and fish that make their way through the waters.

How great is your name, O Lord, our God, through all the earth!

God bless!!

Easter: Day Forty-One, Friday May 14, 2010

Jesus ascended into Heaven and promised to send the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit. And the Spirit will give us these gifts:

1. Wisdom - desire for the things of God, and to direct our whole life and all our actions to His honor and glory
2. Understanding - enable us to know more clearly the mysteries of faith
3. Counsel - warn us of the deceits of the devil, and of the dangers to salvation
4. Fortitude - strengthen us to do the will of God in all things
5. Knowledge - enable us to discover the will of God in all things
6. Piety - love God as a Father, and obey Him because we love Him
7. Fear of the Lord - have a dread of sin and fear of offending God

In order to receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit, we must open our hearts and seek God's ever present Love. Be not afraid!! For this world is passing away and all that you desire here will be gone some day. Desire God first. For He will never pass away!

God bless!!

Ascension Thursday - Day Forty, Thursday May 13, 2010

Pope Benedict XVI
"The meaning of Christ's Ascension expresses our belief that in Christ the humanity that we all share has entered into the inner life of God in a new and hitherto unheard of way. It means that man has found an everlasting place in God." It would be a mistake to interpret the Ascension as "the temporary absence of Christ from the world." Rather, "we go to heaven to the extent that we go to Jesus Christ and enter into him." Heaven is a person" "Jesus himself is what we call 'heaven.'"
God bless!!

Easter: Day Thirty-Nine, Wednesday May 12, 2010

God is everywhere! God is in all things and all people!! He is everything!! Then why do so few of us recognize His presence? Why are we not aware of His presence? We are all chosen! We live because He wills it. Everything we have and everything we are is because our good and loving God has willed it. He is patient and kind. He waits! He has eternity to wait. To wait for us to acknowledge His presence in our lives. And when we do, we come to a realization of just how much He loves us. If we truly see all the beauty and love that surrounds us each and every day, we would then only have a glimmer of the love that God has for us. He desires to give us everything, but He waits for us to choose Him first. We can see the beauty of this earth, but we don't realize it is only a shadow of the beauty of God. Take time today to thank God for His presence in your life. For His great love for you.
God bless!!

Easter: Day Thirty-Eight, Tuesday May 11, 2010

Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity
"'The Spirit himself gives witness with our spirit that we are children of God. But if we are children, we are heirs as well; I mean heirs of God and co-heirs with Jesus Christ if only we suffer with him so as to be glorified with him.' It is to bring us to this abyss of glory that God has created us in his image and likeness... This is the measure of holiness of the children of God: to be holy as God, to be holy with the holiness of God; and we do this by living close to him in the depths of the bottomless abyss 'within.'"
God bless!!

Easter: Day Thirty-Seven, Monday May 10, 2010

Do you ever miss the reception of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ? Do you ever yearn to go to the table of Our Lord and be fed? He calls us and desires our presence. And when we go, we go with deep humility and sorrow for the sin that has defaced our souls and marred our spirits. We go knowing that He alone can cleanse and heal and truly forgive us. He gave us this great sacrament to feed us and strengthen us for the journey. But he also gave us the great sacrament of confession so we can know our sins and share them with the person of Christ who forgives and heals us. Who longs to give us the sacramental graces we need to complete this journey and return to our Heavenly Home!
God bless!!

Easter: Day Thirty-Six, Sixth Sunday in Easter May 9, 2010

(I messed up the count for the days of Easter since I counted the first day as Monday instead of Easter Sunday.)

Today's Gospel - John 14:23-29

Jesus said to his disciples: "Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me.

"I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you. Peace I leave with you: my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. You heard me tell you, 'I am going away and I will come back to you.' If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it happens, so that when it happens  you may believe."

Ascension Thursday is this week!! God bless!!

Easter: Day Thirty-Four, Saturday May 8, 2010

Luke 6: 45
A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good; for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.
God bless!!

Easter: Day Thirty-Three, Friday May 7, 2010

From Magnificat:
"At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it." (Heb 12: 11)

"When seen in the light of Easter joy, our sins can weigh us down with discouragement. Yet God's love does not deal in punishment as human vengeance does. God's love disciplines and prunes us in order to free and purify us - sometimes a painful process - so that we may not die like a withered branch but live and bear much fruit in the risen Christ."
God bless!!

Easter: Day Thirty-Two, Thursday May 6, 2010

We walk each day with the presence of the Trinitarian God within us - God loves the Son, the Son loves the Father and their love begets the Holy Spirit who desires to give us the gifts of wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord. In order to know the presence of God within we must open our hearts and receive his love.
“I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them; 

 I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh 

…then they shall be my people, I will be their God.” Ezekiel 11:19 

God bless!!

Easter: Day Thirty-One, Wednesday May 5, 2010

Father Bede Jarrett, O.P.
"The peace of the world meant that I had all that I desired, the peace of Christ that I desired no more than all I had."

Easter: Day Thirty, Tuesday May 4, 2010

From the Magnificat:
"Jesus shows us the way to true peace: obedience to the Father's will rather than to the clamor of self-interest. In living as he lived, we not only live in peace ourselves, we also make a place of peace for all those around us."
God bless!!