Don't Get Walloped

     “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you but such that is common to man; God is faithful, and will not allow you to be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also give you a way out that you will be able to bear it” (1 Cor 10 vs. 12-13).



     Complacency is a great temptation for those of us who have been striving to grow in our relationship with God. Because of our efforts to do what pleases Him -- practicing virtue and trying our best to avoid sin and imperfections -- we can let our guard down. We believe we are in a “good place” and suddenly “wham,” we get walloped by the devil. This is a favorite tactic of the Evil One and if we are not careful, we will fall! The devil knows us, along with our weaknesses and never tires in his efforts to trip us up.

Everything Matters

     A dear friend had asked for my help in choosing a comforter set for her master bedroom. I loved to decorate and considered it one of my gifts from God. I quickly said “yes,” and we were off to see what we could find.

     As we sat in the store’s parking lot, I suggested we pray that God would lead us to the set He had waiting for us. As we proceeded into the store, I grabbed a shopping cart. My friend was surprised at my audacity in believing that our cart would be filled. I remember telling her, “you always know your item is from God, when it’s both beautiful and a good price!” We both laughed and walked over to the comforters.

Put Out into the Deep

     “I want to go fishing sometimes. How? I will tell you. The most holy passion of Jesus is a sea of sorrows but, at the same time, a sea of love. Pray to God that He teach you to fish in this sea. Then dive into its depths. No matter how deep you go, you will never reach bottom.” St. Paul of the Cross



     Our minds have become so accustomed to the fact that Jesus suffered and died on the cross for us that we fail to see the immensity and intensity of His passion. His love was met with rejection and brutality. We forget that Jesus was God who became flesh, to offer His body to the Father for our sins. We forget that He was sinless, yet took upon Himself all the sins of the world, from the beginning of time until its end. During His passion, Jesus, in His humanity, felt fear, anxiety, forgotten, betrayal, anguish, and excruciating pain. His love was so pure that His feelings were intensified and crushing. Jesus came, out of His great love for us, to show us how to love by giving of Himself completely and laying down His life.

Get Connected

     “We need to admit humbly that we are poor creatures, with confused ideas . . . We are fragile and in constant need of interior strength and consolation. Prayer gives us strength for great ideals, for keeping up our faith, charity, purity, generosity; prayer gives us strength to rise up from indifference and guilt, if we have had the misfortune to give in to temptation and weakness. Prayer gives us light by which to see and to judge from God’s perspective and from eternity. That is why you must not give up praying! Don’t let a day go by without praying a little! Prayer is a duty, but it is also a joy, because it is a dialogue with God through Jesus Christ.”                             St. John Paul ll



     Prayer is power! Prayer is powerful! Prayer is the great privilege where we get to “connect” with our God! To think that God, the almighty, is so readily available to listen to us is truly mind boggling! Yet, minutes, hours, and days go by, when we fail to remember Him. We forget we are His children, who are madly loved by Him: that He is our Father who longs to hear from us.

Patiently Enduring

     “In this existence in time and finiteness, we constantly find the tension between what man is and what he would like to be; between that which has been realized and that which remains to be accomplished. And it is patience which endures the tensions.”                                     Romano Guardini



     How impatient we can be with both ourselves and others! We expect that we, and they, should have “arrived,” at the state of perfection to which God is calling us. We grow restless and annoyed with faults as they exhibit themselves, and wish for a magic wand to make them disappear instantly and effortlessly!

Faithful Souls

     “The life of faith is nothing less than the continued pursuit of God through all that disguises, destroys and, so to say, annihilates Him. It is in very truth a reproduction of the life of Mary who, from the Stable to the Cross, remained unalterably united to that God whom all the world misunderstood, abandoned, and persecuted. In like manner faithful souls endure a constant succession of trials. God hides beneath veils of darkness and illusive appearance which make His will difficult to recognize; but in spite of every obstacle these souls follow Him and love Him even to the death of the Cross.”                                                                                                                                                                        Fr. Jean-Pierre de Caussade


     Pursuing God, when hardships and tragedies strike our lives, would be impossible without the tremendous amount of grace that God lavishes upon us. While we might feel anger or blame God for our circumstance, He is readily available to help. How tragic it is, that we often abandon Him in our greatest time of need. We see Him as the cause, and not the Curator of the situation. He is the God of love, yet stays silent, even if we shake our fist at Him.

Sarah and I

     I loved my sister Sarah very much and except when she was a “big shot” eighth grader and I was in her eyes, a “nerdy” sixth grader, we got along famously.

     Our names were often spoken in unison, like Peter and Paul, James and John, Simon and Jude. Where Sarah was, I was not far behind. We both felt very blessed, not only to be sisters, but very dear friends.