Monday, January 30, 2017

The Fixer

     “Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen.”  
                                                                                                                Hebrews 11: 1


     I have been struggling lately with issues of control.

     From the time I was a little girl, because of situations which I could not control, I became “The Fixer.” Now, I’m not sure if anyone else saw me as such, but it was my way of coping or dealing with difficult situations. It was an identity that I saw as useful and helpful and clung to it tightly, believing it to be a “good thing.”

Monday, January 23, 2017

Both Hands on the Wheel

     “Prayer is not a ‘spare wheel’ that you pull out when in trouble, but it is your ‘steering wheel’ that directs your path throughout life.”             
                                                                               Author Unknown

     Think about it. Who would plan a trip, get into the car, discover the steering wheel is missing and try to make the trip anyway? None of us would want to drive our cars without a steering wheel, since we would be unable to navigate to our desired destination. So why, when prayer is the steering wheel that directs our path throughout life, do we try to navigate without it, or think we don’t need it at all?

Sunday, January 15, 2017

The Garden of Your Soul

     “Our first duty, therefore, precisely in order to heal this world, is to be holy, configured to God; in this way, we emanate a healing and transforming power that also acts in others, on history . . . In this regard, it is useful to reflect that the Twelve Apostles were not perfect men, chosen for their moral and religious irreproachability. They were indeed believers, full of enthusiasm and zeal but at the same time marked by their human limitations, which were sometimes even serious. Therefore, Jesus did not call them because they were already holy, complete, perfect, but so that they might become so, so that they might thereby also transform history, as it is for us, as it is for all Christians.”                                                                                                      Pope Benedict XVI


     As we look at the morals, values and shape of our world, we are tempted to entertain a feeling of hopelessness; to believe it has fallen too far and can never turn around for the good! Just when we think things can’t get any worse, they do!

     Where is God in all of this? What does He think of man, His beloved creation? Is His heart broken? Will God lose His patience with us and just let the end come? Is there anything we can do to help? Can we make a difference?

Monday, January 9, 2017

Stop! Read! Listen!

     “Indeed, the word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart.”     
                                                                                        Hebrews 4:12

     God never ceases to amaze me, at the ways in which His Word in Holy Scripture, touches my heart, mind and life.

     As I journeyed through Advent, the richness of the liturgical readings was chock full of treasures, overwhelming me at times, with the generosity of our God!

Monday, January 2, 2017

Not Alone

     “What worthy return can we make for so great a condescension? The Only-begotten God, ineffably born of God, entered the Virgin’s womb and grew and took the frame of poor humanity. He who upholds the universe, with Whom and through Whom are all things, was brought forth from common childbirth. He as Whose voice the archangels and angels tremble, and heaven and earth and all the elements of this world are melted, was heard in childish wailing. The Invisible and Incomprehensible, Whom sight and feeling and touch cannot measure, was wrapped in a cradle.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         St. Hilary of Poitiers


     The rush of preparing for our Christmas celebrations, along with the hustle and bustle of our holiday visits, can make it both challenging and difficult for the true meaning of the celebration to penetrate.

     “And the Word became flesh, and made His dwelling among us” (Jn 1:14).