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Rann, over at "This that and the other thing" has been a great linky host for Catholic bloggers to gather on Sundays. Please check her blog out and especially on Sundays to see who has linked up and sending a treasure or a nugget of their lives to share with you.
January 22, 2010, 11:30 am at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC, my daugher and I sat in a pew among thousands of other Catholics and friends making a stand in the defense of our unborn precious fellow human beings. Singing the Processional Hymn, "All Creatures of Our God and King" the moment caught me, I couldn't continue singing, tears flooded my eyes. I found myself saying,
"I'm here, I finally made it here for you."Tears flooded my eyes and ran down my face without warning. All I could do was stare into the face of the "Christ in Majesty" behind the altar with His mighty expression, strong muscular physique, flames of power, and glorious nature knowing full well that we have let Him down on this one. At this moment we were presenting ourselves in penance and sorrow for the millions of souls that went unrecognized and discarded as inconvenient matter.
About a year ago, I starting another blog, "keeping my ear to the ground" which is where I wanted to just talk about politics with a Catholic worldview. It got to a point where I felt that I needed to separate my emotions concerning politics from this blog. But today, I wanted to touch on something that was quite disturbing to me and I know many others concerning this new president of the United States.
During a European trip, the president described our country as not being a Christian nation, and at another time, the citizens of our country as arrogant at times.
My heart sank at the arrogance of this man to even come close to thinking that much less speaking it on foreign grounds.
This morning at Mass, at the request of the Pope, all parishes in the United States were to have a second collection for the people of Haiti. I have been an usher for over 4 years now, so I know that the second collection isn't as large as the regular collection, but this morning.....wow. Nearly every family gave something, 20's 10's, checks, whatever they had in their purses and wallets were donated. The baskets were brimming!
Back in the pew with my family, I was able to catch my breath and realize what I had just witnessed. The people in my parish are truly generous, loving, caring, and above all moved to help all they can. We are helpless as we sit in front of the TV watching the devastation, pain, suffering, and death of these people. We are helpless in physically helping this nation pick up the pieces for the most part, but we can reach out some way. My parish did that today. We are even sending out a group of physicians and nurses to the area later this week or next.
Arrogant, not Christian? As the saying goes, when you point a judgemental finger at your neighbor, there are 4 fingers pointing back at yourself.
It has been several months since the official Catholic Carnivals ceased to exist, I personally miss it. I think several of us tried to keep it going to help our dear host keep it going, but alas it was not to continue.
Anyway, happy news has come with Rann taking the helm in her own way and hosting a place to link our favorite posts from the week at her blog, please check it out, I noticed several great bloggers have posted a nugget for this week.
Blessings
My family enjoys using Netflix for our movie resource, perusing through Blockbuster with all the violent, sexual labels, blood and guts visuals were disturbing. With Netflix, we don't have to go through all that, we just select the movies we want and not have to see things contrary to our comfort level.
Anyway, last night we watched the movie Julie & Julia together. What fun, we laughted, cried, and drooled over the recipes and dishes prepared thorughout the story. Not wanting to spoil the movie for anyone, I won't go into too much detail here, I promise. My mom told me that she rented it and loved every minute of it. My mom has a pretty good sense of humor and usually her movie choices are pretty good, so we rented it. Meryl Streep WAS Julie Childs, I agree she was delightful, if not completely gitty. Oh, it was great watching all the delight and approvals she portrayed as Julia, it only led me to believe that if I don't get her cookbook, my family will be deprived forever!
We need more movies like this, no immoral living arrangements, a couple of 'f'words, but nothing near normal for today's movie standards. I wouldn't have young children watching as there are sexual implications, but they are between married couples that are truly in love and respect for each other. It was beautiful. I would encourage you to rent this movie, it is great fun, but....
Beware of the butter, it's everywhere!
If there is one thing that mystifies most people, it's prayer. Why? Because we really don't know how it works. Does it put in a request? Does it tell God what we want? Does it work like a Christmas list or a grocery list? If we do enough praying, fasting, and being good to everyone, will we get a yes? Will it work? Does prayer change history? Does it change a predestined situation? Well, does it?
All through the Bible, even the most influential and saintly folks questioned God and what was happening to or around them, wondering if they even had influence. But at the same time, they continued to make supplication to God...and as we know, it all worked out for them one way or another. We know where they are now and from much of what they wrote, they one became stronger in their faith. How? With prayer, persistent prayer.
Are afraid of doing God's Will? Do you think He will make you have to do things you don't want to do? Remembering when I was a teen and a young 20's person and the mere thought of doing God's will sounded way too sacrificial for my weak heart. I was frightened by the thought of doing God's will, why, what was it anyway? God's will was setting me up for some really scary, serious stuff that I had no preparation for. It was too hard, to way out there for me. Surely, I was not the only young Catholic that had that attitude about God's will.
While still in my 20's, I found myself lonely and depressed and a friend told me to pray the psalms. One night, crying myself to sleep, remembering what my friend said, I reached for my Bible and began my long journey through the Psalms each night for several months. At one point, I realized how scared I was of God's will for me. As I continued to read about the sorrow, remorse, desperation, anger, and questioning that went on about God arm-wrestling His will upon these folks. Then, came the praise, the thanksgiving, and the love-fest in the many other Psalms of the wonders of God and His love and care for those who follow His Will. I realized, slowly albeit that God's will isn't a scary thing at all, but a gift. God gives us what we need, when we need it and as much as we need in His time, but through prayer, we are changed, calmed, strengthened, encouraged, and relational with and by God.
So, through prayer we reach a place that gives us hope. Through prayer, we are transformed, through prayer; we can hear God's Will for us. Not immediately, spontaneously, formally, and even informally, but it is prayer that makes us stronger, developing a relationship with God.
Prayer changes us.
We begin to realize that we need God to both heal us and help us understand the situation. We need to lean on Him to give us understand and wisdom to get through. Being silently prayerful, we begin to hear His voice. We can begin to feel His love and care for us and become reassured and comforted. A prayerful life is an offering, a turning over the wheel to God, a surrendering to His leadership and guidance, and as we continue to pray, we begin to be more open to responding to God in ways we never thought we could before. Our relationship with God grows and our love for God grows and the more we see Him working in and through us.
Does prayer change history?
Probably not, remember that He knew us before we were formed in the womb, He knew us before we were born, don't you think that He knows how it all plays out as well? But, possibly, He wants to show us how to love Him and how He loves us. Whatever happens, we grow, if we give God permission to teach us, care for us, and love us.
Keep praying, pray constantly, don't stop praying, but remember to be silent and listen. You will be changed, you will be better, stronger, wiser, and probably totally in love with your Creator, God our Father, our Triune God; love itself!
Alleluia! AMEN!
Reflects on the Depth of the Human Face
VATICAN CITY, JAN. 1, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Peace begins when we look at one another as persons, regardless of race, nationality, language or religion, Benedict XVI says. But, he maintains, this is only possible when God dwells in our hearts.
The Holy Father reflected on how to achieve true and lasting peace during his homily today in a Mass at St. Peter's for the feast of Mary, Mother of God. Jan. 1 marks the annual celebration of the World Day of Peace.
"To meditate on the mystery of the face of God and man is a privileged path that leads to peace," the Pope suggested. "This [peace], in fact, begins by looking upon others with respect, recognizing in the face of the other a person, regardless of the color of his skin, his nationality, his language or his religion."
"But," he continued, "who, if not God, can guarantee [that we see] what we could call the 'depth' of the face of the person? In reality, only if we have God in our hearts are we in a condition to detect in the face of others a brother in humanity -- not a means, but an end, not a rival or an enemy, but another 'I,' a facet of the infinite mystery of the human being.
"Our perception of the world and, in particular, of our peers, essentially depends on the presence within us of the Spirit of God.
"It is a type of 'resonance': One who has an empty heart does not perceive anything more than flat images, lacking depth. But, the more we are inhabited by God, the more sensitive we are to his presence in those who surround us -- in all creatures, and especially in other people."
Nevertheless, the Pontiff acknowledged, the "human face, marked by the harshness of life and evil" sometimes struggles to be an "epiphany of God."
"Therefore," he continued, "in order to recognize and respect each other for what we truly are, that is, brothers, it is even more necessary to make reference to the face of a common Father, who loves us all, despite our limits and errors."
Unveiling God's face
Benedict XVI's homily was a reflection on the face of God and the faces of man, which he proposed as a key for understanding the issue of peace in the world.
"The face is the expression of the person, par excellence," he suggested. "It is what makes him recognizable and where he shows sentiments, thoughts and intentions of the heart."
"God," the Holy Father continued, "by nature, is invisible. Nevertheless, the Bible also applies this image to him. [...] The whole of biblical history can be read as a progressive unveiling of the face of God, up to the point of his full revelation in Jesus Christ."
Referring to Mary's title as Mother of God, the Pontiff explained that "the face of God has taken a human face, allowing himself to be seen and recognized in the son of the Virgin Mary."
"She who guarded in her heart the secret of divine maternity was the first to see the face of God made man in the tiny fruit of her womb," he reflected.
"A mother has a very special relationship -- unique and exclusive in every way -- with a newborn," the Pope continued. "The first face that a child sees is that of his mother, and this gaze is decisive for his relationship with life, with himself, with others, with God. It is decisive as well so that he can become a 'child of peace.'"
The Holy Father went on to offer a reflection on the Byzantine icon of the Virgin of Tenderness, which depicts the Child Jesus with his cheek against that of his mother: "The Child looks at the Mother, and she looks at us, almost as if reflecting to what she observes, and praying, the tenderness of God, descended in them from heaven and incarnated in this Son of Man that she carries in her arms.
"But this same icon also shows us in Mary the face of the Church, which reflects upon us and upon the entire world the light of Christ, the Church through which the Good News arrives to every person."
Laughing together
Benedict XVI maintained that it is important to be educated in respect for those who are different starting in childhood.
He renewed his call to "invest in education, establishing the objective -- beyond the necessary transmission of technical-scientific notions -- of a broader and deeper 'ecological responsibility,' based in respect for the person and his fundamental rights and duties."
"Only in this way can a commitment to the environment truly become education in peace and the construction of peace," he contended.
The Holy Father observed that "today it is ever more common to have the experience of classrooms made up of children of various nationalities, though also when this doesn't occur, their faces are a prophecy of the humanity that we are called to form: a family of families and peoples."
These children, he said, "despite their differences, cry and laugh in the same way; they have the same needs; they communicate spontaneously; they play together ..."
"The faces of children are like a reflection of the vision of God for the World," the Pontiff affirmed. "Why then wipe away their smiles? Why poison their hearts?
"Unfortunately, the icon of the Mother of God of Tenderness finds its tragic opposite in the sorrowful images of so many children and their mothers in the claws of war and violence: fugitives, refugees, forced immigrants."
The Bishop of Rome spoke of "faces eroded by hunger and sickness, faces disfigured by pain and desperation." And he declared: "The faces of innocent little ones are a silent call to us to take responsibility: Before their helplessness, all of the false justifications for war and violence come crashing down."
"We should," the Pope affirmed, "simply become designers of peace, lay down every class of weapons and commit ourselves together to building a world more worthy of the person."
A cosmic celebration
Benedict XVI contended that people are capable of respect to the degree that they "carry in their own spirits a full sense of life."
"Otherwise, [the person] will be led to despise himself and what is around him, to lack respect for the environment in which he lives, for that which is created," the Pope cautioned. But, "one who knows how to recognize in the cosmos the reflection of the invisible face of the Creator is led to have greater love for creatures, more sensitivity for their symbolic value."
"There exists, in fact, a very direct link between respect for the person and the safeguarding of creation," he contended. "The duty [to protect] the environment is derived from that to [protect] the person considered in himself and in relation to others."
"If the person is degraded, the environment in which he lives is degraded; if the culture tends to nihilism -- if not in theory, then in practice -- nature cannot fail to pay the consequences," the Holy Father affirmed.
And he reflected that there is a reciprocal influence between the face of the person and the "face" of the environment.
"When human ecology is respected in society," he said, "environmental ecology will also draw out benefits."
Finally, Benedict XVI emphasized that the "coming of God transfigures creation and creates a type of cosmic celebration."
"The celebration of faith becomes a celebration of the person and all that is created," he suggested. "The Church renews this mystery for people of every generation; she shows them the face of God so that, with his blessing, they can walk the path of peace."
WOW!
