Eternal Designs

     “The action of God upon His saints is most gentle. How He respects our liberty! How He condescends to our weakness! He does not run or jump or act violently. We, being weak creatures, rush; but God works slowly, because He deals with eternity. We bewail the passage of minutes; but God serenely watches the flow of years. We wish to achieve the goal of our desires with a single rush; but God prepares His work gently, nor does our inconstancy weary Him, nor do our failures startle Him, nor do the complicated vicissitudes of life overturn His eternal designs.”                 Archbishop Luis M. Martinez



          Our soul is priceless and fragile, created to spend eternity with God, and we must begin to treat it as such. We need to become gentle with ourselves, as God is. We often beat ourselves up because we fall, without taking into account the times we overcame our weakness. We have to learn to be patient with ourselves, and not expect sainthood to be achieved overnight.

Don't Stand God Up

     “Pray with your whole being even though you think it has no savor for you. For such prayer is very profitable even though you feel nothing, though you see nothing, even though it seems impossible to you. It is in dryness and barrenness, in sickness and feebleness that your prayer is most pleasing to Me, even though you think it has little savor for you.”                             God to St. Julian of Norwich


     Prayer to God is essential, if we want to grow in relationship with Him. It is the way we stay connected to Him and commune with God in love. It is an avenue of grace and love, where we can learn to grow past ourselves and focus on God. It is an opportunity to waste time, to keep God company, just because we love Him.

Your Hourglass

     “Like an hourglass with a certain number of grains of sand within it, God has appointed your life to last only a certain number of days, and you have absolutely no idea how many there are . . . In God’s presence consider: I have no idea when my life will end. All I know is that death will come for me eventually. Am I doing anything to prepare for the real possibility that God may call me, sooner than later? If He called me into eternity today, would I be ready?                                           Patrick Madrid


     During the month of November, the Church, in Her wisdom, has asked us to reflect on The Last Things: death, judgment, heaven and hell.

Love's Clock

     “The distance separating Our Lord from the house where Lazarus lived was about a day’s journey . . . in all it would have been four days since He received the news. God’s delays are mysterious; sorrow is sometimes prolonged for the same reason for which it is sent. God may abstain for the moment from healing, not because Love does not love, but because Love never stops loving, and a greater good is to come from the woe. Heaven’s clock is different from ours.”          Bishop Fulton J. Sheen


     Why does God allow suffering? Why does He delay in answering our prayers, or at times, appear not to even hear them? Those were probably the thoughts of Martha and Mary when they contacted Jesus and He failed to come to heal their brother Lazarus. Lazarus was already dead four days by the time Jesus arrived.

Fanning the Flame

     It was March 19, the feast of St. Joseph.

     Feeling burdened and insecure, I had gone to the Adoration chapel to make a visit and seek divine assistance. Later that evening, because of my suggestion, our faith enrichment group was going to read The Flame of Love, an abridged version of Elizabeth Kindelmann’s diary. Although familiar with the FOL Movement since late last spring, I could not articulate much about it, let alone facilitate a study. So why was I going to do it? Although filled with fear and apprehension, it did seem like the next step to take.

Becoming Love

     “As we have seen, there is a difference between what God is actually asking of us, and what we imagine He is asking. We won’t have the grace to do what God is not asking of us. But for what He is asking, He has promised His grace: God grants what He commands. When God inspires us to do something (if it really is God who is the source of the inspiration), at the same time He supplies the ability to do it, even if it is beyond our ability and scares us at the start. Every motion that comes from God brings both the light to understand what God intends, and the strength to accomplish it: light that illuminates the mind, and strength that gives power to the will.”  
                                                                                         Fr. Jacques Phillipe


     It is not unusual for those of us who are zealous for God, to want to do great and grand things for Him. We love God so, and want everyone else to love Him with their whole being.

Be Stouthearted and Wait

     “When uncertain about God’s will, it is very important that we tell ourselves: Even if there are aspects of God’s will that escape me, there are always others that I know for sure and can invest in without any risk, knowing that this investment always pays dividends: these certainties include fulfilling the duties of our state in life and practicing the essential points of every Christian vocation. There is a defect here that needs to be recognized and avoided: finding ourselves in darkness about God’s will on an important question . . . we spend so much time searching and doubting or getting discouraged, that we neglect things that are God’s will for us every day, like being faithful to prayer, maintaining trust in God, loving people around us here and now. Lacking the answers about the future, we should prepare to receive them by living today to the full.” Fr. Jacques Phillipe


     There are times in our lives when we flounder. We believe that God is calling us to do something: sometimes a very specific task, while other times something totally unknown to us. We begin to doubt and become impatient and restless because the opportunity has not yet presented itself, or our questions appear unanswered. We make the judgment that it should have happened within a certain amount of time, and when it hasn’t, we question both ourselves and God. “Was this just my imagination, or was it really You God?”