Religion.

For the past few months the words “religion” and “orthodox” have been on my mind. I have encountered many people in the past year who, at the mention of the word “religion”, practically turn gray in the face out of disgust. The word religious is now equated with something very counter-Christian. In the introduction to a book by G.K. Chesterton called “Orthodoxy”, Chuch Colson says this...

“Along the way, “orthodoxy” became an epithet, a term of disparagement. Referring to something as orthodox has become synonymous with calling it “discredited,” “antiquated,” “unimaginative” and of course, “repressive.” This is true regardless of the subject: calling something the “orthodox” view on the matter is a tacit invitation to the reader or listener to disregard that view.”

And HOW TRUE that is. Many of my non-Catholic friends often question me about the Catholic Church and about my beliefs, with little or no intention of listening to anything I have to say, because, Catholic = wrong. In all circumstances, no matter what.

Well, I am a practicing Catholic and am here to say that the Church is not antiquated, unimaginative, or repressive. Shocking, right? How could I love a Church where I worship Mary and the Saints, have never read the Bible, and attend a boring Mass every Sunday. The simple answer to that is that I DON’T. If a person listened to what the Catholic Church believes, from an authentic Catholic perspective and not from the media or an anti-Catholic group, you would receive the truth. I was very struck this morning by the 1st reading from 2 Timothy 4:2-4,

“Preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not tolerate sound doctrine, but following their own desires and insatiable curiosity, will accumulate teachers and will stop listening to the truth and will be diverted to myths.”

That time isn’t coming, that time is now. No one wants to hear about how any form of contraception is wrong, how abortion is wrong, how women priests are wrong, how gay marriage is wrong, or any of the other issues of the day. To acknowledge these things as wrong means a change in lifestyle, and God forbid we would have to change our ways even if it is to help us get to Heaven. People start disagreeing with these and many more things because it doesn’t sit right with them, so they start a new Church. Luther didn’t believe in the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist so, logically, his human mind must not have been mistaken. New church, division. Anglicans separate. New church, further division. Calvinism, Baptist, Adventist, Methodist, Church of Christ, Pentecostal, etc. New churches, further division. There are now around 30,000 different division of Protestant churches. How is that leading to unity of the Body of Christ that I hear is so often prayed for? Fr. Don Calloway, in a discussion on his conversion said this regarding all of the varying denominations and people seeking them,

“...it baffled me that a lot of them were just church hopping, they went wherever the preaching seemed good until it ruffled them and challenged them, then they didn't like whatever that pastor said so they went and found a new church to comfort them and I thought to myself if that’s it then I should just become my own pastor start my own church and do my own thing but I said I want the real message not one that is just adapting to my likes and needs. I need the real one even though it sting me, your never going to catch a fish with a dull hook, it has to have a point and a barb to it, it has to get in, that's the mystery and beauty of Catholicism is it comes with a sting, but it’s going to set you free.”

When you come with an open heart, with faith seeking understanding, the Church will answer all the questions that you have been asking.

People now are no longer going to Church, they are going to stadiums, to concert halls, to secular buildings for their “services”. There are slogans and statements being made at these places that they are distinctly going for a non-churchlike atmosphere. There are bands playing, couches, fancy coffee being served; anything to make you feel like you aren’t really at church. Who want’s to be there, right? These “churches” are taking away everything sacred that Christ wanted for us to have. Why do we dress up for Mass, why genuflect, why kneel, why bow your head, why pray in silence... it is out of reverence for our Savior. God doesn’t create lasting and interior change through the noise of the world, He does it through the quiet and gentle promptings of the Spirit. Why would I want to go to a church that wants me to feel like I’m not at Church? I have had enough of the world, I want Jesus, I want the Mass. I have experienced how unfulfilling the world is, ultimately, and I don’t want it. We have lost the truth that right now on earth we are in exile, this is just part of our journey to Heaven. This place is TRANSITORY. We were never meant to stay here. People say the Mass is boring but,

“Mass isn’t flashy... I don't know if you caught that. Mass is a marinade. That's what this worship, this Catholic worship is, its a marinade. Its all about God, we just soak in Him. The whole time I’m being shaped and transformed.”

This is a quote from a priest from my hometown, Fr. Mike Schmitz. God molds us interiorly and quietly. It isn’t extravagant or flashy; His grace is poured out upon His people as we thank Him for the sacrifice He made. In the Mass we are joining with the Angels and Saints in Heaven in their worship of Him, bringing Heaven to earth out of the sheer gratuity of Jesus Christ and his love for us. We are taking part in the New Covenant which he calls us to participate in, receiving His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in the Eucharist. This is what Christian worship is supposed to be focused on, the new temple that is His body. Not a symbol of His body, but His body truly present.

Just because one person does not agree with the teachings of the Church does not mean there is something wrong with the Church it means that there is something wrong in the heart of the person. I am not excluding myself from this it has taken a lot of prayer and time spent studying the Catholic Church to be able to delve into the mystery and beauty the Church has offered to her people for almost 2000 years. Yes, there have been some unholy clergy and members of the Church but that does not mean there is something wrong with the office of the Priesthood or the Church, it is some sinful individuals who have messed up. Thanks be to God that He has in the past and will continue to preserve his Church from division. I thank God for the tradition that we hold dear, for the lives of the Saints that inspire me daily to pick up the Cross of Christ and continue to serve Him. This doesn’t mean I solely look to the lives of the Saints for encouragement, and I feel that is something that people get confused about. When we look to holy people for encouragement, they lead us closer and closer to Christ. Mary the Mother of God being the ultimate example of this. In the past year I have grown extremely close to her and the only thing she has done and continues to do is lead me to the beautiful heart of her Son, Jesus Christ. Why would I not want to honor someone who was SO important in the life of Christ?? She is His mother. He derived his flesh from her flesh, His blood from her blood. She raised him and was with him during his public ministry, she remained at the foot of the cross with him. She is the perfect example of obedience to our Lord.

I read in the diary of St. Faustina the other day this quote, “And in spirit I saw how many souls are calling out to us, “Give us God.” And the blood of the Apostles boiled up within me. I will not be stingy with it; I will shed it all to the last drop for immortal souls.” This really hit me and is a good description of how I feel amidst the attacks on the Catholic Church. The blood of the Apostles boiled up within me, and I will defend this Church until I die. The world is crying out for God, for Jesus, and we are giving them more of the world. Don’t try and sugar coat Christianity with coffee, lights, and bands. We are living in an age of extreme evil and we are being called to proclaim the fullness of the truth and salvation that Christ has already won for us if we would only follow him. Jesus said this to St. Faustina, and I truly believe it.

“Do not fear, My little child, you are not alone. Fight bravely, because My arm is supporting you; fight for the salvation of souls, exhorting them to trust in My mercy, as that is your task in this life and in the life to come.”

Jesus is with us every step of the way. Stand firm in your faith. Proclaim the truth. Fight for your brothers and sisters in Christ. Entrust your intentions and actions to the most Sacred Heart of Jesus, do all things for God and Souls.

God bless you.

Envy

The Lord has been teaching me a lot about obedience. There have been many times in the past couple months where weekly, daily, even hourly, something will happen and I will have no other choice but to give it over to God. It took me a long time (and I am definitely still in the process) to realize that what I think is best for me is in actuality, not the best for me. In fact when I follow my own will it leads me down paths that I wish I never would have taken. Jesus has been gently prompting me to offer up all that I have to Him, so that He may show me what he wants of me.

As I have grown closer to Jesus and his Blessed Mother in the past few months, I have received a strong conviction of sin. Many things that I have done or didn't think were hurtful to others or myself have been unveiled to me, leaving me with a stark image of a sin I didn’t know was there. After this process of further conviction of sin in my life, there came a profound realization of my nothingness apart from Jesus Christ. Again, after this realization of my own nothingness, I finally grasped that I must cleave to the Truth in all things. This was more than just saying that I need to “put Christ first in my life” as many people put it. I’m talking about an acute, severe, and overwhelming sense of my broken human nature... and the only way I will ever be able to survive is to beg God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to be with me always. Apart from the Trinity, I can do nothing.

A sin that I was not aware of in my life is envy. You’d think I would have been able to recognize that, right?

“Simply put, envy is a resentment of others based on the conclusion that they have what we do not possess."

The devil must rejoice over those who are caught up in envy! He must be thrilled when he sees a child of God, a child blessed with His graces and infinite love, but who still thinks they are missing something. What a trick satan plays on us, but worse... we fall for it. I do, at least. I found this quote on envy which pretty much perfectly sums it up...

"Envy is void of any good feeling. We are not seduced by envy as much as we are consumed by it, as if being swallowed by a monster. This image was not lost on Shakespeare whose character Iago (in the play Othello) says, “O! Beware, my lord, of jealousy (envy); it is the green-ey’d monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on.”

Exactly it. Envy does not attract us, it is not something we are seduced into as this quote says.. but it is something that consumes us. One experience of envy I had not too long ago hit me just like that. I thought someone had something that I wanted myself. Now my initial response to this (for no reason other than my sinful nature) was envy; I was devoured by this empty sinking feeling. I even knew at that very time that I had no good reason for being upset but I couldn’t stop it. It sat with me, in me, and didn’t budge. A quote from the same article says,

"Envy is indeed a monster that consumes us, making us uncomfortably aware of the emptiness we have within, of the hunger that we possess for we know not what. As a result, envy drives us to accumulate, to possess and to consume in order to fill the empty space."

But that empty space is not intended to be filled with the person/object/possession we desire on earth. It can’t be. We were not created to be fulfilled by something anything other than God. Our beginning and end is not a boyfriend or the latest fashion. Our beginning and end is Jesus Christ. I thought that I was offering up to Jesus everything that I had, but I was keeping something to myself. Jesus doesn't want most of us, half of us, some parts of our life. He want’s it all. I wasn’t offering all of me and the Lord made that clear to me tonight. I was convicted of this sin. Jesus definitely used something awful like envy to draw me even closer to His merciful heart, because in Him all things are made good.

When we allow the devil to lead us into this sin, we are greatly grieving the heart of our Lord.

“Envy comes from people’s ignorance of, or lack of belief in, their own gifts.” It is indeed the symptom of an illness — a condition characterized by our inability to recognize our own good fortune.”

Each person is blessed with all of the gifts they need. When we fall prey to envy, we are rejecting the fact that God has given us talents and gifts... we think that we must have the characteristic, appearance, or gift of another in order to be good. The fact of the matter is each second we take a breath is a gift from God. He made us exactly as He intended to: with all of the characteristics necessary for us to rise to the fullness of life on earth. It doesn’t matter what someone else’s walk looks like. What matters is my walk with Christ and what he is calling me to do. He didn’t need to create us but He did as a completely gratuitous gift, and that alone should leave us in a state of constant gratitude. If from this second forward I never “felt” the love of God again, that would be fine. I should be constantly rejoicing in the fact that He was generous enough to give me LIFE at all. This leads into detachment which I will discuss at a later day.

"I became the most humble and the most abject of all men, that you might overcome your pride. Learn O dust, to obey; learn to humble yourself, and how to bow under the feet of all. Learn to break your own will, and yield yourself up to all subjection."

Let us pray to Jesus, Mary, and all the saints... that we might be humble, obedient, and loving in all areas of our lives, living with complete abandon to the will of God, our perfect and worthy Creator.

God be with you, and please pray for me as I pray for you...

Kelsey Maria

Vigilance

I want to be a candle for the Lord. I was in the adoration chapel at a local church a couple weeks ago, and as I was praying I was looking at this candle that was lit. Immediately I thought, I want to be a candle for the Lord. The purpose of our lives here on earth is exactly that. Jesus wants us to be lights of His love, to expel the darkness this world is made up of, to be a constant and steadfast in our faith. I was thinking about the purpose of a candle and what it is made of and found this...

Candle wicks are designed to draw liquid fuel into their own bodies and provide a steadily burning flame. Candle wicks are generally made of braided cotton around a core that gives the cord its rigidity (so that it stands up). The composition and position of the candle wick affects how a candle burns.

As human beings we, like the candle wicks, are designed to draw Jesus Christ into our own bodies and provide a steadily burning flame of his love. The wicks are made of braided cotton which reminded me of the three pillars of the Church: the Magisterium, Sacred Scripture, and Tradition... all three of these things strengthening us in our faith and leading us closer to God. Our core is Jesus... allowing us to stand firm in the world. Our position affects how we burn for the Lord. If we are in a place far away from the Lord and deep into sin, our candle is so feeble no one will be able to see. In this place of darkness no one will be able to see an example of the Lord through you, no one will be led to Christ through you.

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11,14-22: Concerning times and seasons, brothers, you have no need for anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief at night. When people are saying, “Peace and security,” then sudden disaster comes upon them, like labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you, brothers, are not in darkness, for that day to overtake you like a thief. For all of you are children of the light and children of the day. We are not of the night or of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us stay alert and sober. Those who sleep go to sleep at night, and those who are drunk get drunk at night. But since we are of the day, let us be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and the helmet that is hope for salvation. For God did not destine us for wrath, but to gain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live together with him. Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up, as indeed you do ..... We urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, cheer the fainthearted, support the weak, be patient with all. See that no one returns evil for evil; rather, always seek what is good [both] for each other and for all. Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophetic utterances. Test everything; retain what is good. Refrain from every kind of evil.

The Lord is calling us to live as lights in the world. In 1 Thessalonians, Paul is asking us to “stay alert and sober” we are being called to “admonish the idle, cheer the fainthearted, support the weak, and be patient with all”. Brothers and sisters, the Lord wants us to act on our faith. When we see one of our fellow Christians staying content, encourage them! Instead of gossiping about another person or putting them down, we need to uplift them and show them Christ’s love. Everywhere and everyday I hear so much gossip and tearing other people down, this does NOTHING for Jesus, yourself, or the other person. All three parties involved are hurt . What gives us the right to ruin someone’s day? Instead of snapping at your co-worker or friend or a random stranger, smile and show them Christ’s love; emulate his patience. Think of the patience God has with us all the time.
If we are being candles of Jesus in this world we will be doing as the later part of the passage said. When we rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks for everything, we are being lights for Jesus. When we refuse to listen to a degrading song or watch a degrading movie, we are being His lights. When we encourage someone, smile at someone, help out someone in need: we are being his lights. The title of this section in the Bible was “Vigilance”. This means “keeping watch for possible danger or difficulties”. Don’t make things harder on yourself by going to the party where you will be tempted, watching a movie with sexual material, or listening to music that only degrades. We need to be watching for danger. Avoid the near occasion of sin so that your candle may stay brightly burning for the Lord. Let’s pray to the Holy Spirit for conviction on what we need to work on in our lives, so that we may see our faults and know what is displeasing to the Lord. Avoiding these things allows us to more clearly hear what the Lord is saying to us, and leads us to a deeper union with Him.

Mother Mary, Queen of Peace, pray for us.
Peace and blessings to you all,
Kelsey

HELLO!

So basically I've never really had an official blog before, but I decided it was time for me to have one place where I can kind of organize some of the things I have written in the past, and different things I will write in the future. There are a lot of ideas in my brain right now of things Jesus is working in my heart and sooner or later I hope to have some new blogs up. It really isn't my aim to have a lot of followers, comments, and the like (but if you feel so inclined you are most welcome!) ... it just brings me joy to work out what the Lord is doing in my heart through words.

Let us always search for Truth, and do all things for the glory of God and his kingdom.

God bless,

Kelsey

Divine Praises (5/2/09)

After Jesus died for us on the cross, how can we deny Him anything He asks of us? No matter what the cost or sacrifice is nothing can ever measure up to what He did. Even the greatest or the least of sufferings we endure can be offered up to Jesus to give Him glory. What you offer to him he returns to you a hundred fold with great joy. We only need to trust Him. If it is too hard for you to believe that Jesus Christ offers Himself to us in His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity.. start to pray. Why wouldn't Jesus want to be with us in a tangible way on earth. The Eucharist is Jesus Christ, masked under the presence of bread because if He showed Himself to us in all of His Glory our souls and hearts would not be able to take it. He humbles himself daily to be received in the Eucharist because He cannot stand to be apart from us. We are constantly on His mind, from the moment we were born He is constantly saying our names, breathing life into us. Every day He waits for you to come to Him so He can love you even more deeply. We leave in less than a week for our homes, we shouldn't be sad to leave Franciscan but see summer as our opportunity to evangelize, to love the Lord with all of our hearts and to show that love to our family and friends at home. Each day is an opportunity, a challenge, to go out of your way to love Jesus and grow in that love of Him. When we are not surrounded by our FUS family, it gives us the chance to stretch our wings and demonstrate what we have learned from the past year. A chance to say no to temptation as Jesus did in the garden at Gesthemane, to deny what the Devil wants us to accept. We should always remember that we are never separate from our families anywhere, because we are all united in the Body and Blood of Christ, the Eucharist. We are united in constant prayer for one another through this great Sacrament. This world has nothing to offer but distractions, keep close to Jesus who longs to fulfill fully. Delight in Him as He delights in You.



" Look into My Merciful Heart and reflect its compassion in your own heart and in your deeds, so that you, who proclaim My mercy to the world, may yourself be aflame with it."
- Jesus to St. Faustina


Blessed be God.
Blessed be His Holy Name.
Blessed be Jesus Christ, true God and true man.
Blessed be the Name of Jesus.
Blessed be His Most Sacred Heart.
Blessed be His Most Precious Blood.
Blessed be Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
Blessed be the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete.
Blessed be the great Mother of God, Mary most holy.
Blessed be her holy and Immaculate Conception.
Blessed be her glorious Assumption.
Blessed be the name of Mary, Virgin and Mother.
Blessed be St. Joseph, her most chaste spouse.
Blessed be God in His angels and in His Saints.

May the heart of Jesus, in the Most Blessed Sacrament,
be praised, adored, and loved with grateful affection,
at every moment, in all the tabernacles of the world,
even to the end of time.

Amen.

Pentecost Sunday (5/31/09)

We ought to all be running around like crazy today, especially, on this day that the Church celebrates Jesus sending us his Holy Spirit!!! Wooo!! As he completes his Paschal mystery we are blessed in abundance, with this new baptizing of the Holy Spirit. It is so easy to forget everything that we are blessed with, but we are constantly called to remember our first moments of conversion, the moment when we were set on fire with His love and grace and made promises to change and align our will with His will.

"I know your works; I know that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, "I am rich and affluent and have no need of anything," and yet do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked. I advise you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich, and white garments to put on so that your shameful nakedness may not e exposed and buy ointment to smear on your eyes to that you may see." -- Revelation 3:15-18

We cannot be a people of mediocrity, of lukewarmness. The Lord has proclaimed that He will spit you out. He doesn't want a wishy-washy faith. He does not want you to love Him in some aspects of your life and not in others. This day as the Catholic Church was founded, is SO BLESSED by God. Breathing his ruah, his breath of life, upon us and upon the fullness of the faith that is found in the Catholic church. We are called to constant conversion - not just the initial one, but a fuller and deeper conversion. As you get rid of the major sins in your life we are called to work on the smaller ones. Get rid of the gossip, disrespect, being uncharitable, over-indulging.

Often people talk about how they cannot hear God speaking to them, or they feel as if God has forsaken them. It is not God that has separated himself from you, it is you who has filled yourself up with other things so much so that you can no longer hear the soft whispers from Jesus. He was there, and He still is there now. Our world tries to offer you any kind of noise to block out what will truly make you happy. Silence with Jesus is so important, it keeps the soul focused on the only thing that can sustain it God in all of his Trinitarian love.

One word that Jesus has been repeating to me lately is one thing that our world struggles with badly. Arrogance. Arrogance is defined as "an attitude of superiority manifested in an overbearing manner or in presumptuous claims or assumptions." People think they know exactly how to be holy, exactly how to interpret the Bible, exactly what God wants them to do. For example, people go to church sometimes not even on Sunday anymore, opting just to go to church another day and that will suffice - no longer keeping the Lord's day. They think they know better. The people that think the Catholic church is too "stuffy" too "traditional". These traditions are ones that Christ himself put into place, ones that He wanted us to have. It is arrogant for someone to think that this is the wrong place, and basically says to Christ "No, I think the Church you set up is wrong. I have a new and better way, one that I think is better for ME. So, thanks but no thanks." The Lord is just pressing this upon my heart, especially on this Pentecost Sunday. The prayers we pray, the traditions we have, Confession, Lent, Holy Days, feast days, the prayers to the Saints we know are with Jesus and who lived out his true faith on earth - they are what Christ wants for us. For those of you that think you know what the Catholic Church does and preaches - for those of you that think bad things about it based on an article or something you saw somewhere. I ask you to talk to a priest or to ask someone within the Catholic church to explain why we do what we do.

I am proud to proclaim my Catholic faith. I know that this is the Church that Christ founded and He reveals His plan, grace, love, and comfort to me daily. I challenge you to see where your church began. I know where mine started.


I will not be lukewarm.

The Reason God Came (11/12/09)

God did not come to earth to make bad people good, He came to make dead people live.

We are living in a culture of death. The people of this world are believing and clinging to the lies that the devil is preaching, absorbing every word as if it is truth. One thing I'm not quite sure we understand about satan is that he is the master of mockery. Satan thrives on mocking all things good. He senses our weaknesses, any and all weaknesses that we may have, hones in on them and hits us where we are most vulnerable. It is so easy to give into temptation, to believe the lies that he tells and to just give up because it is easier that way. We (at least I) sometimes think that we will just live in this zone of comfort; even if that comfort is dragging us towards the devil.

This is from Dominum et Vivificantem, Pope John Paul II's encyclical on the Holy Spirit:

The analysis of sin in its original dimension indicates that, through the influence of the "father of lies," throughout the history of humanity there will be a constant pressure on man to reject God, even to the point of hating him: "Love of self to the point of contempt for God," as St. Augustine puts it.143 Man will be inclined to see in God primarily a limitation of himself, and not the source of his own freedom and the fullness of good. We see this confirmed in the modern age, when the atheistic ideologies seek to root out religion on the grounds that religion causes the radical "alienation" of man, as if man were dispossessed of his own humanity when, accepting the idea of God, he attributes to God what belongs to man, and exclusively to man!

this is perfectly explained. The Devil wants us to believe that God is holding out on us. We cannot be tricked into thinking the Devil wants anything less than our complete and total destruction, he plays hardball: but so does God. GOD DOES NOT HOLD OUT ON HIS CHILDREN. God gives over abundantly. When we give God our whole selves, He returns that gift with more gifts. We do not have to fear the Lord. In the Lord we are truly free to love.

This is from Hebrews...

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us 2 while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith. For the sake of the joy that lay before him he endured the cross, despising its shame, and has taken his seat at the right of the throne of God 3 Consider how he endured such opposition from sinners, in order that you may not grow weary and lose heart. 4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood. 5 You have also forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as sons: “My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord or lose heart when reproved by him …. 11 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.

This seriously blows my mind. Every verse is so powerful. LET US RID OURSELVES OF EVERY BURDEN AND SIN THAT CLINGS TO US AND PERSEVERE in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus... We are being called to rid ourselves of sin and burden. all of them, we should not hold onto anxiety, fear, confusion, sadness, and most especially despair. The Divine Mercy of Jesus is never ending. In seeking this Mercy, he will shower you with grace upon grace upon grace...
Verse 4: In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood. Imagine the agony in the garden... the pain and loneliness that our Lord went through, being completely human (and fully divine). He resisted his temptation to give up, to the point of sweating blood for us. To the point of being scourged, mocked, beaten.
Verse 11: at the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it. Our culture is also one that thinks that comfort = happiness. If you have all the luxuries in the world you will be happy. That is a lie. Discipline and Sacrifice are what we are called to as sons and daughters of the Most High King who is the exemplar of sacrifice. Sometimes God is calling us to sacrifice. Sometimes we need to do something that God is asking of us that seems to hurt us now, and we DO THAT, because we LOVE HIM. Sure it hurts, yes its tough to give up something that makes you feel good, but maybe, just MAYBE the creator of the universe has a better idea of what you need than you do. We ask God, where were you when I was suffering? When I went through trauma and tragedy and my whole world was falling apart? He was on the cross, calling out Your name for you to come back to Him. He was there through all of your suffering, he knows everything you went through and he was there with you through everything, waiting to embrace you like only the true lover of your soul can. And God will bless that sacrifice and suffering united to His passion. We sacrifice for those we love, we are supposed to love all our brothers and sisters in Christ, so it logically follows that we should sacrifice for all.

We are not in this alone. Brothers and sisters we need to look at what God has left for us, what is before us now. Jesus left us with the Sacraments. The Eucharist, Christ's very own body and blood to sanctify us and draw us ever nearer to him. The sacrament of Confession, where our Lord eagerly waits to wrap us in His love. We have Mary the most holy mother of God. Mary who contained within her the bread of life, she was the first tabernacle. Luke 1:42 ...most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Luke 1:28 … Hail, favored one! The lord is with you! The Lord has proclaimed Mary's glory to us."Am I not here with you? I who am your mother?" - Mary calls out to us to draw nearer to her Son. She is here with us to guide us when we need help. The whole communion of saints is here with us... who better to pray for you than our fellow Christians in Heaven, who could be closer to God?? (thanks fr. mike). Make use of the blessings and gifts God has given to you.

The Ruah Elohim, the breath of God, the Lord the giver of life, the Holy Spirit.
From Dominum et Vivificantem: It is precisely this Spirit of truth whom Jesus calls the Paraclete-and parakletos means "counselor," and also "intercessor," or "advocate." And he says that the Paraclete is "another" Counselor, the second one, since he, Jesus himself, is the first Counselor, being the first bearer and giver of the Good News. The Holy Spirit comes after him and because of him, in order to continue in the world, through the Church, the work of the Good News of salvation.

We need to rely and trust in the Trinity. We need to rely on the Holy Spirit to wash over us, to bestow gifts upon us. This isn't selfish to ask for, to want to receive, God wants to bestow gifts on us, to honor us, to help His children see himself. Gifts help us to know the Giver, and and the closer we get to the Giver, the more gifts we receive. Jesus longs to bless us, and that is hard for me to wrap my mind around because the world is not a place that seems to want to do good to people. But God is not of this world, but His people on earth are His alone. He is a jealous God who has redeemed His people, and he does not want us to be sold out to lies. Seek the graces from the Holy Spirit: WISDOM, UNDERSTANDING, COUNSEL, FORTITUDE, KNOWLEDGE, PIETY, AND FEAR OF THE LORD.


It isnt easy to do, but we need to say “Jesus I trust in you. I trust in the plan you have for my life. I trust that you, my creator, redeemer, and breath of life, know what is best for me. I trust in you."

Stop running from the One who can heal you, who can help you and bring you to everlasting life. Quit trying to fill the pain you carry inside you with passing pleasures and empty lies. In full abandon to God we will be truly set free from the chains of the world. All of our despair will be turned to an everlasting peace we never could have imagined.

True abandon is my prayer for all of you, and I hope you will keep praying for me.

St. Faustina, Pray for us!!

Kelsey