is all about relationship - my relationship with my God: the Father - He told me to call Him Papa. . .the Son - my dear sweet Jesus. . .the Holy Spirit - He's Sasha to me. It's about my journey with Them, my Catholic faith, the Family of God, and the way it shapes my life.
It’s already near the end of the fifth week of Lent and a reflection that I read on Ash Wednesday has stayed within my heart and soul.
It’s a continuing theme that resonates deep within me, and in talking with different spiritual friends, I hear it echoed in our conversations.
“Create a clean
heart in me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me.”
We were already into the second week of Lent, and I was a failure!
“My daughter, you give Me most glory by patiently submitting to My will, and you win for yourself greater merit than that which any fast or mortification could ever gain for you. Know, My daughter, that if you submit your will to Mine, you draw upon yourself My special delight. This sacrifice is pleasing to Me and full of sweetness. I take great treasure in it; there is power in it.” Jesus to Saint Faustina
I am well aware that accepting God’s will in my life is what He truly wants, and I really try my best to do so. But if I’m perfectly honest, it is often not with patient submission. Instead, it is more a “white knuckling” submission in the hope that things will soon change and be more to my will.
“He came to His own, and His own received Him not.” John 1: 11
I was suffering! Suffering for Our Lord and suffering for myself, or so I thought!
“Consult not your fears but your hopes and dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what is still possible for you to do.” St. Pope John XXIII
I read this quote and although I recognized it as truth, I could not receive it.
“To always be close to Jesus, that is my life plan." St. Carlo Acutis
I was very excited and felt encouraged, that two young people from “our time” were being canonized on September 7, 2025: Carol Acutis and Giorgio Frassati – both Italian laymen.
Although I was familiar with both “Blesseds,” because of my great love for Jesus in the Eucharist, Carlo’s journey resonated more deeply with me.
“When the devil looks at a man who sincerely desires not to sin, he is not so unintelligent to suggest to him (as he would to a hardened sinner) that he go and commit fornication or go and steal. He knows we do not want that and he does not set out to tell us something we do not want to hear; but he finds out that little bit of self-will and self-righteousness and through that, with the appearance of well doing, he will do us harm.” St. Dorotheus of Gaza
If asked to describe myself, the words that come to mind would be kind and thoughtful, strong but yielding, steady and dependable, but the word rebellious would never enter my mind. But quite unexpectedly and suddenly, a storm of rebellion has moved in!