Food for Thot

The Feast of St. Mark

                Our Lord used a lot of references that were rural in inference. The Gospel writer St. Mark portrays this in the parable of the sower. The Word is the Lord and the Good News and the seed. The seed cannot grow if demons or birds snatch it away. If we are listening to the wrong words or having negative thoughts, good thoughts cannot grow. If our hearts are hard like stony ground we don’t have the word rooted in our hearts. When the weeds of daily care, concerns, wealth and image choke the seed as our spiritual growth in Jesus is stifled, we can’t focus on positive things. When the harvest is white and ripe sometimes the labourers are few. St. Mark was a martyr whose robe is white and a great harvester of souls. The Lord of the harvest is also the Bread of Life. When Christ fed the multitudes they still asked for signs. Jesus walked on water. The Lord is the Eucharist. The Father gave them bread from heaven, manna, and the bread of the presence.  Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.” – John 6:26,27; NRSV

The Seed (Mark 4:23) My own paraphrase.

I heard they were scattered in a field

With messages which had taken seed

By the way scavengers ate it up

‘Til doldrums come and take it away

Some have had rocky occasions

Not too deep soon sprouted

Gladsome prematurity won’t sink

Long lasting past trouble

Amongst persecution young shoots

Sun burnt not deep nor grown dry up

Anxious pressure comes with messages

Give up at once

Amid brambles desires crowd choke

In too deep for riches soil wealth

Some roots don’t bear fruit from seed fallen

In good circumstance situations sprouts lent growth

Here yields accept bore fruit indeed

Thirty-fold sixty times one hundred per cent increase

You have been given the secrets of the Kingdom

Bear fruit increase and multiply

If you look and look but do not see

Listen and listen but don’t understand

Here if you did you’d hear our message

And be fruitful, filled with forgiveness

Put light beneath beads or a table or on standards

“Whatever is hidden away will be brought out into the open

And whatever is covered up will be uncovered

Listen then if you have ears!”

Divine Mercy Sunday

Friday the 13^th, April ‘2012

Turn Around

There is joy in my little old heart

And I must do my part

To gladden the heart of God

Giving up the past

Sin that would make you aghast

And saddened the Sacred Heart of God

There is hope in my heart to swell

With confidence say all is well

With me and Jesus Son of God

And now do the will

On the Way to heaven still

And the wedding of the Lamb of God

There is peace in my heart today

From the sacrifice made Easter day

Then followed flowed Holy Spirit of God

Once I craved unholy union

Now just Holy Communion

Lord fills me Divine Mercy of God

The little way heart accept it

With humbleness don’t reject it

Ones roll like the Little Flower of God

Stubbornness and pride

Forsake as incoming tide

Faith, Hope, Love abide with Triune God

Sunday Morning, April 15^th ‘2012

Brothers and sisters we are invited to a feast

Of the Body and Blood of the Lamb

We have been gathered for a wedding banquet

To be united with Christ our head

Each humble part brought together

In the Divine Mercy to be restored

Healed forgiven we offer thanks and praise

To God the Father through the Spirit and Son be adored.

Happy Easter!

Why is there a Jesus on a Catholic’s cross?

One might better ask why isn’t there one on a Protestant’s. I don’t want to get into the history of it, the early church didn’t start with a cross as the symbol of Christianity but it just about universally is accepted as such now. They have recently banned the wearing of a cross in Great Britain but they have ostracized and persecuted Christians of various denominations before. It would be well protested somewhere with bombing if they tried to ban Islamic dress anywhere. But it was mentioned at our local Belleville Catholic Men’s Fellowship that all Catholics should wear a cross.

However my main point is about the problem of suffering.  When I was a Protestant, we obviously had some sermonizing on offering up our suffering to the Lord. I have an impression rather that there is instruction from some pulpits to give the impression because Christ suffered, we shouldn’t have to do so. I realize Protestants are still being martyred for Christ, right alongside our Catholic brothers and sisters. I’m sure too Protestants have burned Catholics at the stake and vice versa. But today we hear, mostly from Conservatives and Republicans, that we can be comfortable, healthy and not give up our affluent society, because the Lord has blessed us. This even means we should support abortions, euthanasia, and not marriage for life between members of the opposite sex, by some people, who are for some social justice; from the “new left.” And I’m not saying that Protestants don’t teach and preach that we should take up our crosses.

I am saying that the issue of suffering gets put on the back burner a lot. If the image of Christ isn’t seen on a cross in every room, church, business or Cathedral, I tend to forget that I have to suffer for Christ. No I get to suffer with Christ and crucifixes just remind me of that. They remind me that Christ suffered and died for me.  I suppose so does a cross without an image of Jesus on it. But somehow when I was a Protestant, that all got forgotten, by myself, at least. We don’t pray to images of Jesus or any of the Saints, they’re statues, paintings, or just images. But every year, Catholics venerate the cross publicly. Many have great devotion to the cross or their crucifix, I know I do for it and mine. God doesn’t want us to suffer but he asks us to do so. So: if you venerated a Cross yesterday,  do so on a regular basis, even if you just admire Catholic art of the Crucifixion, and you respect the Cross, I’m sure you’ll agree with me it really puts a positive prospective on the Passion and suffering, but if your perspective is that a crucifix is an idol or shouldn’t be in your church, home, or place of business, perhaps you’ll reconsider.