Lent, Mercy and the Holy Spirit
If you are a practising RC or other Christian denomination that has sacred liturgy, you are aware that it is now Lent. Lent means Spring. While I am in the Winter of my life I remember the Spring. This year I gave up alcohol for Lent. I’m sure my wife would prefer it if this were for keeps. I gave it up for Lent once before but it didn’t last. I was 15 when I had my first taste of rum. When I was at an Ottawa Rough Riders football game in the end zone bleachers someone spiked my coffee. My father had rum in the house which he hide from my mother but only had it as rheumatism medicine rarely, and by the teaspoon just. My mother was tea total. I needed much mercy in the Summer of my life.
When I was a toddler I learned what mercy was. When my mom scolded me and told me to pick up and put away toys, granma did it for me. When I was 3 I prayed God watch over me always. As a small child and I wasn’t given supper, hungry, I snuck in the kitchen and opened the bottom drawer of the stove, where my mom kept dried crusts of bread. Dad came in there and just said he was hungry too. My dad had a voracious appetite, for food, work, and philanthropy. He vetoed moms decision and we had the best tasting bread I can remember. Dad let his parents stay in our upstairs. Grandpa had to go to the hospital with mental health issues at the time I was born. A former owner of the house, Mrs. Sprat didn’t want to move when dad acquired the house, he let stay upstairs too.
When I was 7 I gave my heart to Jesus and the next day asked him to keep me from sin. Many people are unchurched and have no idea what mercy is. In the Summer of my life I was one of those too. There is no point to the Prayer, fasting and generosity of Lent unless we accept the mercy of God. That is the key to Conversion, to the Sacrament of Penance. Unless we demonstrate our acceptance of mercy, others in the Church and the rest of the world will not know God’s mercy. Not unless we are merciful to all as well. We can’t do this without the gift of the Holy Spirit. In the Fall of my life there was much mercy and grace given by the Holy Spirit.
Another thing RCs are aware of right now is the Conclave of Cardinals are electing a new Pope to replace Benedict XVI. There has been 2 ballots cast with nobody elected, the last I checked. Will you join me in praying that the Holy Spirit will guide them?
Wednesday, 13 March 2013
Friday, 8 February 2013
For the First Fruits
For the first fruits of our labour
is a peaceful calm
no more belligerant behaviour
humility is our alms
we offer to Jesus
courage for our hope
for too we have faith with Mary
we set no limits on our scope
we worship now in Spirit
for in truth here we know
our lives have merit
we have something to show
for our pilgrim's progress
for the battle rageth on
we need not always digress
our wantonness is gone
now we are drunk with Holy
Spirit from our Dad
God the Father solely
and the Beloved Lad
with the Holy Spirit
now we can cope
now we shall win it
our life has hope
Our hope is in Jesus
our brother and our Pasch
our friend through Mary
we don't just mask
our worries St. Joseph
take to your babe's throne
from the heart reapeth
a new lease we own
not to appear changist
there is inward change
we have Eucharist
our thoughts rearange
we tell a story
for a world to be
Christ child come in glory
for our eternity
is a peaceful calm
no more belligerant behaviour
humility is our alms
we offer to Jesus
courage for our hope
for too we have faith with Mary
we set no limits on our scope
we worship now in Spirit
for in truth here we know
our lives have merit
we have something to show
for our pilgrim's progress
for the battle rageth on
we need not always digress
our wantonness is gone
now we are drunk with Holy
Spirit from our Dad
God the Father solely
and the Beloved Lad
with the Holy Spirit
now we can cope
now we shall win it
our life has hope
Our hope is in Jesus
our brother and our Pasch
our friend through Mary
we don't just mask
our worries St. Joseph
take to your babe's throne
from the heart reapeth
a new lease we own
not to appear changist
there is inward change
we have Eucharist
our thoughts rearange
we tell a story
for a world to be
Christ child come in glory
for our eternity
Tuesday, 22 January 2013
10 favorite tenets to ponder
My top ten things to bring to mind.
One. God is number one. There is one Way. We are of one mind. There is: one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one Baptism and one God.
Second; salvation: Jesus saves us from our sins.
Third, the truth of the Trinity; Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
The right ring of our real reward for righteousness through grace solely.
Finally forgiven we are when we forgive.
From the evening of January 19th, ’13 and Ephesians 4:4-6, on one hand and the other:
God is love,
God loves us,
we must love God,
we must love one another;
Love never fails!
One. God is number one. There is one Way. We are of one mind. There is: one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one Baptism and one God.
Second; salvation: Jesus saves us from our sins.
Third, the truth of the Trinity; Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
The right ring of our real reward for righteousness through grace solely.
Finally forgiven we are when we forgive.
From the evening of January 19th, ’13 and Ephesians 4:4-6, on one hand and the other:
God is love,
God loves us,
we must love God,
we must love one another;
Love never fails!
Saturday, 12 January 2013
post epiphany from yesterday
The Baptism of Our Lord January 11th ‘13
In these last days of the Christmas season and first days of the New Year, I see I haven’t posted anything and I really don’t know what to do but try to start to blog some more. I did make resolutions, but am not sure how determined I am to keep them. Ones like spend more time writing and less time at work may have been born from laziness, and discontent, rather than commitment to improvements. What seems as an epiphany sometimes comes from delusion.
In the Gospel readings at Mass this past week we are reminded how many times, in Christ’s time, God showed the world the divinity of Jesus. There was the Visit of the Wise Men, dreams and angels’ warnings and prophetic messages for this time. Jesus touches a leper clean. Jesus starts to preach in the home town. Jesus walks on water and calms the storm. Jesus multiplies bread and fish to feed five thousand men. From the first Jesus performed miracles and healings of everything.
John 3:27 John answered, “No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven.
Luke 3:21&22 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
Even though Jesus came in the room with me and I could see him like he ascended into heaven as everybody shall see him at the end of time I still did not experience an epiphany. I could hear him say I am coming back for you but it was many years later that I would give him any reason to do so other than to send me to purgatory or worse.
Many times the disciples’ hearts were hardened and many times the chosen people were stiff necked. It seems no matter the profundity of revelation we fail to see Jesus, fail to see the Father. What would it take? Obviously it takes the grace of God for us to have the virtues we need to experience Conversion.
And thanks be to God these graces can come from the Sacraments. With the gift of the Holy Spirit we can bear fruit. What gift did you give Jesus this year? I want to make the gift of my heart most complete.
In these last days of the Christmas season and first days of the New Year, I see I haven’t posted anything and I really don’t know what to do but try to start to blog some more. I did make resolutions, but am not sure how determined I am to keep them. Ones like spend more time writing and less time at work may have been born from laziness, and discontent, rather than commitment to improvements. What seems as an epiphany sometimes comes from delusion.
In the Gospel readings at Mass this past week we are reminded how many times, in Christ’s time, God showed the world the divinity of Jesus. There was the Visit of the Wise Men, dreams and angels’ warnings and prophetic messages for this time. Jesus touches a leper clean. Jesus starts to preach in the home town. Jesus walks on water and calms the storm. Jesus multiplies bread and fish to feed five thousand men. From the first Jesus performed miracles and healings of everything.
John 3:27 John answered, “No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven.
Luke 3:21&22 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
Even though Jesus came in the room with me and I could see him like he ascended into heaven as everybody shall see him at the end of time I still did not experience an epiphany. I could hear him say I am coming back for you but it was many years later that I would give him any reason to do so other than to send me to purgatory or worse.
Many times the disciples’ hearts were hardened and many times the chosen people were stiff necked. It seems no matter the profundity of revelation we fail to see Jesus, fail to see the Father. What would it take? Obviously it takes the grace of God for us to have the virtues we need to experience Conversion.
And thanks be to God these graces can come from the Sacraments. With the gift of the Holy Spirit we can bear fruit. What gift did you give Jesus this year? I want to make the gift of my heart most complete.
Wednesday, 26 December 2012
Boxing Day
On the Feast of St. Stephen
Isaiah 52:8 TEV&NRSV Those who guard the city are shouting, shouting together for joy. They can see with their own eyes the return of the Lord to Zion. & Listen! Your sentinels lift up their voices, together they sing for joy; for in plain sight they see the return of the Lord to Zion.
If you’ve even shopped for a Bible perhaps at Christmastime, you know it isn’t as easy as just asking a clerk where their Bibles are. Not only do some Protestants and Catholic Bibles differ, there are so many translations, interpretations, and versions, I no longer keep track. Protestant scholars used to tell me the only authentic, authorized Bible was the KJV; the only one used by us. Catholic scholars have disagreed as to whether the Hebrew and Greek or a Vulgate Latin was better. Most scholars say it is better now to use more than one Bible. Some have one text right beside the other. And a further complication is many have aids, helps, maps, pictures or commentaries, concordance, all of which confuse the shopper and Bible student. You may use few of these or want more. You see this is a complex and confounding process, selecting a Bible. Most Evangelicals have embraced an NIV which I used to only use.
I’ve settled on the TEV and NRSV, and above is the same verse from both. Here the prophets are foretelling the birth of the Messiah. They are giving us the proper attitude for us to look for God in our lives and the lives of others. How we expect the Word made Flesh, the Christ Child, our Bread from Heaven, who was born into the World to give us, for the past two thousand years, the new birth. How we are to anticipate seeing the Creator again when we die or see the Lord and Master of the Universe at the end of the age.
I had to ask myself if lately I truly had my head up, looking for Jesus’ return. Maybe with all the talk about the world ending the just past solstice last week and all the mention of the second coming in all the homilies this past Advent, I’m giving it more thought.
St. Stephen, before he was martyred could see God in Glory. This Christmas Season I am going to try to not lose sight of a heads up attitude that my Saviour and my God is coming for me. The Light of the World, can be in plain sight, seen with your own eyes. Like Mary, Joseph, the shepherd’s, the wise men, Simeon, Anna, and St. Stephen, who saw Jesus, like the prophets proclaimed, we know the King is coming, then and now. Here is our hope for our present, for the New Year, for all our futures and our joy. So heads up and stay alert like watchmen.
Isaiah 52:8 TEV&NRSV Those who guard the city are shouting, shouting together for joy. They can see with their own eyes the return of the Lord to Zion. & Listen! Your sentinels lift up their voices, together they sing for joy; for in plain sight they see the return of the Lord to Zion.
If you’ve even shopped for a Bible perhaps at Christmastime, you know it isn’t as easy as just asking a clerk where their Bibles are. Not only do some Protestants and Catholic Bibles differ, there are so many translations, interpretations, and versions, I no longer keep track. Protestant scholars used to tell me the only authentic, authorized Bible was the KJV; the only one used by us. Catholic scholars have disagreed as to whether the Hebrew and Greek or a Vulgate Latin was better. Most scholars say it is better now to use more than one Bible. Some have one text right beside the other. And a further complication is many have aids, helps, maps, pictures or commentaries, concordance, all of which confuse the shopper and Bible student. You may use few of these or want more. You see this is a complex and confounding process, selecting a Bible. Most Evangelicals have embraced an NIV which I used to only use.
I’ve settled on the TEV and NRSV, and above is the same verse from both. Here the prophets are foretelling the birth of the Messiah. They are giving us the proper attitude for us to look for God in our lives and the lives of others. How we expect the Word made Flesh, the Christ Child, our Bread from Heaven, who was born into the World to give us, for the past two thousand years, the new birth. How we are to anticipate seeing the Creator again when we die or see the Lord and Master of the Universe at the end of the age.
I had to ask myself if lately I truly had my head up, looking for Jesus’ return. Maybe with all the talk about the world ending the just past solstice last week and all the mention of the second coming in all the homilies this past Advent, I’m giving it more thought.
St. Stephen, before he was martyred could see God in Glory. This Christmas Season I am going to try to not lose sight of a heads up attitude that my Saviour and my God is coming for me. The Light of the World, can be in plain sight, seen with your own eyes. Like Mary, Joseph, the shepherd’s, the wise men, Simeon, Anna, and St. Stephen, who saw Jesus, like the prophets proclaimed, we know the King is coming, then and now. Here is our hope for our present, for the New Year, for all our futures and our joy. So heads up and stay alert like watchmen.
Friday, 21 December 2012
Short, short prayers
Today it is St. Peter Canisius Day. And I wrote these short prayers on St. John of the Cross Day, December 14th , ‘2012; before rising at Five o’clock at home:
Grace
Bless us Father with the Gift of Your Holy Spirit. Spirit bless this food we are about to have. You are so gracious. Make us spiritually and materially a blessing to others. In the service of God’s Son we ask in Our Lord’s Name Jesus, amen.
Morning Offering
Today I want to be a holy man and with the help of Jesus, Mary, the Saints and Angels; the support of Daily Bread: I shall be. I offer our prayer, way and exuberance and for all intentions today, amen. Nothing Guardian Angel and myself can’t master today. Amen.
Prayer to Mother Mary
Gracious Mary Mother of Jesus
Take us to the Master now
And take us when we come to this pilgrim’s end
You are our advocate here
May we say then that you are our friend
For tho we have the Father’s love
And the Spirit’s guidance to console
We need your consolation too
And care for our weary soul
Lest the next time we meet your Son
In the “least of these”, Sacrament, or heaven
Succumbed to the trial and temptation of life
He wont be able to say “well done”
For “in as much as” we’ve “done it unto them”
He’ll forgive and reward us
His be the glory; was, is, will be
Forever and ever: may we praise Him
With our yes, like your fiat
Just as you were humble, may the Lord
Bless us – world without end, Amen, Amen.
Grace
Bless us Father with the Gift of Your Holy Spirit. Spirit bless this food we are about to have. You are so gracious. Make us spiritually and materially a blessing to others. In the service of God’s Son we ask in Our Lord’s Name Jesus, amen.
Morning Offering
Today I want to be a holy man and with the help of Jesus, Mary, the Saints and Angels; the support of Daily Bread: I shall be. I offer our prayer, way and exuberance and for all intentions today, amen. Nothing Guardian Angel and myself can’t master today. Amen.
Prayer to Mother Mary
Gracious Mary Mother of Jesus
Take us to the Master now
And take us when we come to this pilgrim’s end
You are our advocate here
May we say then that you are our friend
For tho we have the Father’s love
And the Spirit’s guidance to console
We need your consolation too
And care for our weary soul
Lest the next time we meet your Son
In the “least of these”, Sacrament, or heaven
Succumbed to the trial and temptation of life
He wont be able to say “well done”
For “in as much as” we’ve “done it unto them”
He’ll forgive and reward us
His be the glory; was, is, will be
Forever and ever: may we praise Him
With our yes, like your fiat
Just as you were humble, may the Lord
Bless us – world without end, Amen, Amen.
Wednesday, 12 December 2012
Faith, War and Peace
My thoughts this Advent this Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe and also the Day of St. Jane Francis from text of Ephesians 4:4-10,14-16 and Luke 2:13&14 NRSV
Ephesians 4:14a We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about
With these words St. Paul gave his spiritual children in Ephesus a directive that is just as true now as it was 2000 years ago. Only then they believed Christ would come again soon and we have lost the faith that we will see Him in the clouds to end the mayhem that is in the World today. Before Christ came into the World as the Babe of Mary only a few believed their Messiah would be found to give them Hope and Peace. Today all persons are in a spiritual battle with the powers of the all evil one.
Many have said organized religion causes war. Certainly in the history of western civilization and Christendom there seems a pre-eminence of war fought in the name of religion. It really does pallor in the face of the wars and genocides fought in the name of socialism in particular; Asian and African conflicts, especially ethnic and cultural in origin: not to mention the Holocaust, the European slaughter of innocents. This seems to me to only be one of the devils horns aimed at the Church today.
The other horn to wrestle with is that of the greed so prevalent in North American countries. While the United States is blamed for being the predominant cause of the collapse of the capitalistic empire itself; Canada has had just as much greed as a Common Wealth, NATO and G7 nation. I get the Virtue of Selfishness but just because God has blessed us in Canada with every material blessing does not mean we cannot bless others in the Christian Way who do not have as much as we do.
This is the way to peace. This is true religion: it does not cause war, it brings about peace. This is the reason for the season of Advent and the true meaning of Christmas. This is why Christ came into the World in the first place. And Jesus said that when upon return will there be Faith found in the world?
So if your world seems helter-skelter; there are wars, or even just a bit hectic in the Christmas rush remember
Luke 2:13&14 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying “Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth peace among those he favours!”
– and then you won’t fear the end of your little world or His return.
Ephesians 4:14a We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about
With these words St. Paul gave his spiritual children in Ephesus a directive that is just as true now as it was 2000 years ago. Only then they believed Christ would come again soon and we have lost the faith that we will see Him in the clouds to end the mayhem that is in the World today. Before Christ came into the World as the Babe of Mary only a few believed their Messiah would be found to give them Hope and Peace. Today all persons are in a spiritual battle with the powers of the all evil one.
Many have said organized religion causes war. Certainly in the history of western civilization and Christendom there seems a pre-eminence of war fought in the name of religion. It really does pallor in the face of the wars and genocides fought in the name of socialism in particular; Asian and African conflicts, especially ethnic and cultural in origin: not to mention the Holocaust, the European slaughter of innocents. This seems to me to only be one of the devils horns aimed at the Church today.
The other horn to wrestle with is that of the greed so prevalent in North American countries. While the United States is blamed for being the predominant cause of the collapse of the capitalistic empire itself; Canada has had just as much greed as a Common Wealth, NATO and G7 nation. I get the Virtue of Selfishness but just because God has blessed us in Canada with every material blessing does not mean we cannot bless others in the Christian Way who do not have as much as we do.
This is the way to peace. This is true religion: it does not cause war, it brings about peace. This is the reason for the season of Advent and the true meaning of Christmas. This is why Christ came into the World in the first place. And Jesus said that when upon return will there be Faith found in the world?
So if your world seems helter-skelter; there are wars, or even just a bit hectic in the Christmas rush remember
Luke 2:13&14 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying “Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth peace among those he favours!”
– and then you won’t fear the end of your little world or His return.
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