Tag: jesus

Why Civilized Society Needs God

I came across this article on The Jerusalem Post about the decline of people who believe in God in Britain and the detrimental effects it has had on their society.  The article cites a research study that found that only 35% of the British population believe in God while it’s 92% in the USA.  The article has this to say about the effect of this low percentage:

This decline of faith and optimism may account for why Britain – once the most advanced nation on earth, which gave the world parliamentary democracy and inimitable centers of higher learning – is today more famous for exporting reality shows like Big Brother and Project Catwalk. For while religion affirms the infinite dignity of the human person, its absence robs life of its sanctity. Universal exploitation and humiliation for fame and fortune are the inevitable outgrowth.

Of course, America is no prize pig either.  Religion is under assault from all sides whether it be from a president who believes that a large part of America has backwards beliefs and “cling to their guns and religion” to government bureaucrats who eagerly disregard our Constitutional right to practice religion.  And one only has to read the news to see the negative affects our move away from God and religion has had.  Without recognizing a higher authority and a better life to come, people just live for today.  They live for money, fame, lust, and sloth.  Just look at some of today’s headlines on the Drudge Report:

That is just a small glimpse of the fruits of a more secular society.  And since we cannot appeal to a sense of morality (since morality implies religious beliefs) the only solution in a secular world is more rules and regulations.  Because people are not encouraged to develop a native sense of right and wrong, bigger government interference is the only remedy.  Our founding fathers realized that a stable, free, and open society is one based on religion.  For example, George Washington had this to say about the role of religion and government:

Enough with the political talk.  After all, this is a prayer website focused on the rosary.  So as spiritual people, how are we to respond?  With the rosary of course!  Pick a mystery and think of how it relates to society moving away from God and then pray for those poor souls.  For example, think about The Second Sorrowful Mystery and Jesus’ suffering.  Now think of all those people who suffer because they try to live without God in their lives.  We pray that their suffering may be redemptive and that they come back into God’s grace.  Or we can focus on The Third Luminous Mystery and how Jesus asks us to live for His kingdom of Heaven.  Now think of all those people who live solely for this earthly kingdom.  We pray that they will one day respond to Jesus’ call to conversion.  Finally, think of The Fifth Glorious Mystery and pray to Mary, Queen of Heaven, for Her intercession in all the ills this world has brought upon itself because we refuse to live as God calls us.  Any rosary mystery can apply to this issue of society moving away from God.  The important part in reversing this trend is to PRAY, PRAY, PRAY!  And when you think you’ve prayed enough, PRAY SOME MORE!

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Our Lady’s Messages: May, 2011

May 02, 2011

Dear children; God the Father is sending me to show you the way of salvation, because He, my children, desires to save you and not to condemn you. That is why I, as a mother, am gathering you around me, because with my motherly love I desire to help you to be free of the dirtiness of the past and to begin to live anew and differently. I am calling you to resurrect in my Son. Along with confession of sins renounce everything that has distanced you from my Son and that has made your life empty and unsuccessful. Say ‘yes’ to the Father with the heart and set out on the way of salvation to which He is calling you through the Holy Spirit. Thank you. I am especially praying for the shepherds (priests), for God to help them to be alongside you with a fullness of heart.

Confession

Remember when you pray the Fourth Glorious Mystery of the rosary that God assumed Mary, body and soul, into Heaven so she could be our guide to eternal salvation.  Also remember the Second Glorious Mystery of the rosary.  Jesus ascended into Heaven to judge the living and the dead.  However, while He is our ultimate judge, He does not wish to condemn us but instead wants us to live with him forever in happiness.  May we try to avoid sin and receive mercy through the Sacrament of Reconciliation to show that we want to live in God’s grace as much as He wants to give it to us.

May 25, 2011

Dear children! My prayer today is for all of you who seek the grace of conversion. You knock on the door of my heart, but without hope and prayer, in sin, and without the Sacrament of Reconciliation with God. Leave sin and decide, little children, for holiness. Only in this way can I help you, hear your prayers and seek intercession before the Most High. Thank you for having responded to my call.

Think about Mary’s message when you pray the Third Luminous Mystery and remember that Jesus calls all of us to lead a life of conversion.  May we turn away from sin and strive to live in God’s grace.  We should remember that each day is an opportunity to forge a deeper relationship with God.

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Gospel for May 8, 2011 — Awareness

Man and woman (holding her child) walking by t...
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The Gospel for Sunday, May 8 is from Luke 24:13-35 where some disciples of Jesus met Him on the road to Jerusalem but did not recognize Him.  They did not realize Jesus was with them until He ate with them and broke bread similar to what He did at the Last Supper.  Only then did they realize how foolish they were that they did not recognize Jesus in their presence.  Likewise, when we pray the rosary Jesus is in our presence both listening to us and trying to guide us to His kingdom of Heaven.  But often we do not recognize Jesus’ presence in our prayers or in our lives.

This Sunday’s Gospel follows the same theme as last week’s in that it shows that all too often we look for God in our lives in all the wrong places.  Last week Thomas the apostle had so little faith he would not recognize Jesus’ resurrection until he saw Jesus face to face.  And now in this week’s Gospel two of Jesus’ disciples did not recognize Jesus although they were walking and talking with Him.  They did not see Jesus despite the fact that He explained all the scriptures and the teachings of the prophets explaining His death and resurrection.  And yet they still did not recognize Him.  We too often fail to recognize Jesus in our lives although His truth is all around us.

I touched on this briefly when discussing Doubting Thomas and how we do not always take those telling the truth seriously.  In this case I mean the truth of Jesus Christ as taught through the Catholic Church.  We hear this truth all the time whether it be during Mass, in the Catechism or Bible, Papal decrees, or simply the Church’s traditions that have been practiced for centuries.  We hear them and yet we so often do not follow them because we do not think of them as Jesus’ teachings.  We hear them as the thoughts and opinions of fellow humans much like the disciples in the Gospel thought that Jesus was just some normal traveler.  And so we do not give the Church’s teachings the consideration they deserve and go about living counter to its teachings.  Would you argue about abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, contraception, and human cloning if you stood face to face with Jesus?  Probably not.  So why do we so readily argue with His Church and disobey His teachings?  Are we like the disciples in the Gospel who discovered how foolish they were for not recognizing Jesus in their presence?

We should remember this Gospel reading when we pray the Third Luminous Mystery of the rosary and remember Jesus’ proclamation of Heaven and His call to conversion.  Really meditate this week on the areas in your life where you do not hear Jesus through the Church’s teachings and challenge yourself to learn what Jesus is trying to tell you through His Church.  You will probably not be converted in some of your beliefs overnight.  But just researching what the Church really believes and teaches and humbling yourself to the possibility that there might be areas of your life where you have not let the Holy Spirit guide you is a huge step in the right direction.  There is no doubt that questioning your deeply held beliefs is hard especially if Jesus leads you in a direction that runs counter to popular opinion.  But the Third Luminous Mystery points out that we need to choose whether to live for God’s kingdom or our earthly kingdom.  Do you see that Jesus walks beside you every day and is trying to lead you down the right path or are you too wrapped up in living solely for what this world has to offer?

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Gospel for May 1, 2011 — Belief

Just Believe: ( John 20:29)
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The Gospel for May 1, 2011 is from John 20:19-31 where Jesus appears to His apostles after rising from the dead.  Thomas, who was not there when Jesus appeared, did not believe the apostles’ claim since he had not seen Jesus personally.  This Gospel teaches the meaning and value of faith and how we are often like doubting Thomas where we do not see the wonderful works of Jesus in our lives.  Like the Second Luminous Mystery of the rosary, the Miracle at Cana, Jesus performs miracles all around us every day and yet we often overlook them.

When you pray the rosary think about spending some time thanking God for all He does for He performs both small and large miracles every day.  At Cana, Jesus turned water into wine.  But that seems almost trivial when you consider the miracle of your life.  Just the fact that you are alive is miracle enough.  After all, you came from nothingness, started life as a little group of cells, and are now a moving, breathing human being with the ability to spread so much joy and happiness in others’ lives.  Throw on top of that the friends and family God placed in your life.  If you are married, think about the fact that out of the billions of the people in the world and the centuries of human existence God placed you and your spouse together at this specific place and time.  Think about all the skills you posses whether they be physical or mental.  We should remember to thank God for even the small miracles of a sunny day or a comfortable bed to sleep in at night.

Despite all the miracles around us we act like Thomas in John’s Gospel.  Thomas needed to personally experience that BIG MIRACLE to believe in Christ’s resurrection.  He would not take others’ word for it.  We too often look only for only that big miracle in our life to truly believe and love Jesus.  We want the booming voice from the sky to speak to us.  We want to see a hand reach down from the clouds to prevent an almost certain disaster.  We want our prayers to win the lottery answered.  Unfortunately, we are often so blinded looking for that big miracle that we overlook all those other miracles that show God’s presence in our lives.  Like Thomas not believing the word of the other apostles, we often ignore or do not believe the teachings of the Catholic Church.  The message of the Gospel and the Second Luminous Mystery is to have faith and rejoice in EVERYTHING God does for us and not be disappointed because He does not perform a specific, big miracle.

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Easter Sunday — Joy

Jesus resurrected and Mary Magdalene
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The Easter Gospel is either from John 20:1-9 or Matthew 28:1-10.  Both talk about how Mary Magdalene came to Jesus’ tomb only to find it empty for He had risen.  Naturally this Gospel relates to the First Glorious Mystery — Jesus’ Resurrection.  Realizing the sorrow of Jesus’s passion and death only makes His resurrection that much more joyful.  For while Jesus’ earthly life ended in great suffering and sorrow He rose to His eternal, heavenly life in glory.  We too should remember that in our greatest sorrows and suffering we are called to one day rise to new life in the eternal joy of God’s heavenly kingdom.

Everyone have a happy and blessed Easter!

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Palm Sunday — Sorrow

Christ in Gethsemane (Christus in Gethsemane),...
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The Palm Sunday Gospel for April 17, 2011 covers the Last Supper, the Agony in the Garden, and Jesus’ Passion and death (Matthew 26:14-27).  This Gospel covers all the Sorrowful Mysteries of the rosary.  There is just so much in this Gospel it is almost a shame that we read it all at once instead of breaking it up over several Masses.  But just because you read the Gospel straight through during Mass does not mean you cannot meditate more on it yourself.  Take your time in this last week leading up to Easter to really absorb the central themes behind the Sorrowful Mysteries of the rosary.  Meditate on Christ’s Passion and death and thank Him for all he does for us.

I know that many times we walk into the church on Palm Sunday and it hits us that this is that LONG Mass and we develop a bitterness because the Mass might run longer than an hour.  Try not to think about how long the Mass is or how it seems to upset your plans for the day.  That extra time should be seen as a gift, not a burden.  Use that time to focus on all Jesus does for us and what He asks us to live.  Jesus sacrificed His life for us so the least we can do is spend a few extra minutes with Him in prayer.

I encourage you to read my postings on the Sorrowful Mysteries throughout this week.  Think about the quantity and quality of your prayers when you read the First Sorrowful Mystery — The Agony in the Garden.  Pray for all those who suffer, especially those who suffer because they strayed from God’s path, when meditating on Jesus’ Scourging in the Second Sorrowful Mystery.  Ask yourself how much respect you give to Jesus and His Church in the Third Sorrowful Mystery — The Crowning of Thorns.  Look around at the crosses other bare and see if you can help them any way you can when you think of Jesus taking up His cross in the Fourth Sorrowful Mystery.  And finally, follow Jesus’ example in His crucifixion and ask God for the strength to do His Will no matter where that takes you.

Make the most of Holy Week.  Do not treat it like every other week of the year but really make an effort to turn it into a time of more intense prayer and meditation.  God Bless!

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Gospel for April 10, 2011 — Eternity

Raising of Lazarus by Jesus
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The Gospel for April 10, 2011 is John 11:1-45. In this Gospel, Jesus performs the miracle of raising His friend, Lazarus, from the dead.  This Gospel foreshadows Jesus’ resurrection which we pray in the First Glorious Mystery of the rosary.  Both this rosary mystery and the Gospel remind us that there is more to our existence than this earthly life.  God’s divine plan for all of us does not end with the death of our physical bodies.  His plan also includes our souls living for all eternity in His heavenly kingdom.

News flash, we all have a terminal illness.  I do not want to be a downer, but we all had this illness from the we were conceived.  Our terminal condition is our earthly existence.  No one will physically live forever.  But we should not despair as Jesus said this in the Gospel:

This illness is not to end in death, but is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.

While Jesus was referring to Lazarus, He might as well have spoken about the human condition and our mortality.  None of our lives will end in death if we define death to be a transition to nothingness.  Instead our souls will live for all eternity.  We should recognize that reality and adjust our lives by avoiding sin and doing good works.

In addition to our final, physical death we also encounter little deaths throughout our lives.  I refer to the death of our relationship with God when we commit mortal sin.  When we sever ourselves from God’s grace our soul experiences a type of spiritual death.  However, like how Jesus physically raised Lazarus from the dead, the Holy Spirit raises our soul from its death through the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  Our return to God’s grace is just as miraculous, and I would say vastly more important, as if Jesus raised us physically from the dead as He did with Lazarus.  Especially in this period of Lent, it is so critically important to do a little spiritual spring cleaning of our souls and go to confession.  We all should experience the miracle of God rising our souls from their spiritual sleep.  And we must pray for all those in this world who are spiritually dead through sin that they have the courage and humility to return to God’s grace.

In this Gospel reading Lazarus’ rise from the dead foreshadows Jesus’ resurrection.  We remember Jesus’ resurrection in the First Glorious Mystery of the rosary.  One of the central themes of this mystery is that our physical death is not the end of us.  Rather, it is just the beginning of a new life either in Heaven or in Hell.  I believe that our spiritual life is actually our real life as it is eternal.  Our life here on earth, even if we live one hundred or more years, is nothing compared to eternity.  So which existence is really the one where we live as our true self?  Our current, temporary, and imperfect life or the eternal existence in the afterlife?  When we pray the rosary, think about this Gospel, and meditate on Jesus’ resurrection may we remember to make the most of this short time we have in this life by being a testament to the glory of God.  God desires all of us to be with Him in Heaven.  Through Jesus’ resurrection, He showed us that there is so much more to our existence than what we experience in this world.  Let us not become so obsessed and consumed by all the material wants of this life as they will all one day disappear.  Instead, we  should pray that we can endure and reject the temptations of this world and live for the greater goal of an eternity of joy and happiness in Heaven.

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Gospel for April 3, 2011 — Judgement

Gavel | Andrew F. Scott: P6033602
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The Gospel for April 3, 2011 is John 9:1-41 (yep, it is a long one).  Jesus angers the pharisees by healing a blind man on the Sabbath.  The high priests are outraged because they see Jesus as someone who undermines their authority and performs miracles without their approval.  But Jesus says that He came to open the eyes of the spiritually blind while also blinding those who see through a lens of self-righteousness like the pharisees.  We remember in The Second Glorious Mystery of the rosary, The Ascension, that Jesus will one day judge us and so we must not be blind to His teachings.

The pharisees question nearly all of Jesus’ miracles throughout the Gospel and the healing of the blind man is no different.  They throw out the usual accusations — Jesus must derive His power from Satan or that He is not sent from God since He disobeys the Mosaic laws.  Each time the pharisees question Jesus they end up embarrassing themselves as Jesus points out the flaws to their blind adherence to the Mosaic Law. You would think they would have learned their lesson the first couple of times Jesus set them straight.  By interrogating the blind man, his family, and Jesus we get a sense of the pharisees’ growing frustration with Jesus since He threatens their authority.  Like modern-day politicians, the pharisees’ goal is not to show God’s truth but keep as much earthly power as possible.

Jesus’ response to the pharisees’ criticism is found in verses 39-41:

Then Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see might see, and those who do see might become blind.”  Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard this and said to him, “Surely we are not also blind, are we?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin;  but now you are saying, ‘We see,’ so your sin remains.

We see like the pharisees in that we know the truth of Jesus’ divine nature.  We know Jesus’ will through the teachings and traditions of the Church, the Bible, in prayer, and the natural law written on each of our hearts.  God gave us the law through Moses and completed that law through Jesus Christ.  And yet, despite making His will known to us we often disobey Him through sin.  As Jesus implies in the Gospel, our sin remains because we can see the difference between right and wrong but we choose to sin anyway.  We look at the silliness of the great lengths the pharisees went to to discredit Jesus.  And yet we too go through great lengths to sidestep living according to Jesus’ teachings.  If you think about all that Jesus, the saints, and prophets have revealed to us about God’s will we also look very silly when we choose to sin in the face of all that knowledge.

We often take a self-righteous view of ourselves and believe that God approves of all that we do in life.  Like the pharisees, we holler and yell when the Church tells us that our world view conflicts the truth of Jesus Christ.  We shout, “How dare you say abortion is evil!”  Or, “The Church’s teachings are so out of touch regarding premarital sex!”  To many, the idea that we must humble ourselves and ask for forgiveness through the Sacrament of Reconciliation seems draconian.  No one likes being told they are wrong or punished for bad behavior.  But instead of avoiding bad behavior we seem to go out of our way to redefine what is bad and what is good.   We try very hard to make God conform to our worldview instead of changing our worldview to fit God’s plan.   Do we see that we are like the pharisees in the Gospel when we argue and rebel against God’s teachings instead of embracing them?

Jesus said in the Gospel that He came into this world for judgement.  We remember Jesus’ coming judgement when we pray the Second Glorious Mystery.  He ascended into Heaven to judge the living and the dead.  Jesus will judge us based on His divine law.  That judgement may be harsh since we have knowledge of His laws and yet chose not to follow Him.  Remember, because we can see God’s truth, our sins remain.  God will not care whether something was legal in some worldly court.  He does not care about popular opinion.  And so, an important goal in life should be following God’s laws because in the end, that is how He will judge us.  When you pray the Second Glorious Mystery of the rosary acknowledge that we are all subject to God’s judgement one day.  And may that knowledge translate into the courage to live according to God’s will by avoiding sin.  Pray that we can humble ourselves and admit when we do stray from God’s path and embrace the Sacrament of Reconciliation, especially in this period of Lent.

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Gospel for March 27, 2011 — Eternity

peppermint marshmallow squares
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The Gospel for March 27, 2011 is from John 4:5-42 where Jesus encounters a Samaritan woman at a well.  Jesus talks about how He offers water from which someone will never thirst and He has food the world has never known.  One interpretation of Jesus’ words is that He is talking about His body and blood found in the Eucharist which we pray about in the Fifth Luminous Mystery of the rosary.  The Eucharist provides us spiritual energy so that we have the power to focus on what should be the goal of our lives — to one day live in eternal happiness in Heaven.

Jesus compares physical bread and water to spiritual ones.  He explains that when people consume physical bread and water they will be hungry and thirsty again.  But spiritual bread and water are eternally sustaining.  But Jesus is not just talking about being hungry or thirsty.  Jesus essentially compares all our physical wants and needs against our spiritual ones.  It is too often that we tend to focus on our physical needs and neglect our spiritual side.  For example, many of us spend so much time and energy handling finances, world events, politics, social problems, family issues, and work anxieties.  But how often do we focus on our relationship with God?  Do we only give Him one hour a week at Mass if that?  And yet, how much more important is our spiritual health considering that it will determine whether we will spend all eternity in the happiness of Heaven or suffer the misery of Hell?  And even when we do focus on our spiritual needs, do we have the energy and courage to follow the Holy Spirit and do what is right?

Unfortunately, we often are not even putting our physical needs in front of our spiritual ones.  More often, we put physical wants ahead of everything.  We focus on our jobs and finances, not to provide for ourselves and our dependants, but for our wants.  We work for iPods and iPads, expensive clothes, flat screen TVs, movies, and smart phones.  And while none of these are inherently bad (we all need ways to relax), problems arise when we put those wants in front of our spiritual needs.  Like the women in the Gospel who had five husbands, we often live in pursuit of moments of temporary happiness.  We can probably picture this Samaritan woman choosing husbands for all the wrong reasons and getting involved with people mostly because they provided her with some short-term happiness.  But like many things rooted in worldly happiness, they are shallow and it is not long before we crave something newer, different, and better.

In contrast to what this world can provide, Jesus offers us eternal happiness.  But to obtain that we have to look past the temporary joys of this world even if that means temporary suffering.  Unfortunately, many times we lose site of that long term goal of Heaven and settle for shallow, temporary happiness.  Our challenge is to see past our temporary wants and live for eternal joy.  After all, what’s 80, 90, or 100+ years of life compared to an eternity of love and happiness?

Life is basically a much longer and tougher Marshmallow Test.  Watch the video below and notice how difficult it is for the children to forgo the smaller reward (one marshmallow) and wait for a larger one (two marshmallows).  Yes it is humorous to watch and wonder why it is so difficult for kids to wait for a better reward.  But as adults we really are not any better.  Instead of marshmallows, we often settle for worldly happiness at the expense of eternal joy.  We so easily accept what the world offers even when it goes against our faith.  We do this because it makes our life easier, makes us popular, and avoids confrontation.  It is amazing how we so easily throw away that grace through sin or just not putting a lot of effort into growing our spiritual endurance.

[youtube]QX_oy9614HQ[/youtube]

The Eucharist gives us the spiritual energy we need to live for the long term goal of eternal joy in God’s Heavenly kingdom.  That is why we should receive it with a heart and mind focused on doing Jesus’ will.  If we truly have the desire to live in God’s grace then the Holy Spirit will show us the way and the Eucharist will provide us the energy.  When you pray The Fifth Luminous Mystery of the rosary meditate on this Sunday’s Gospel.  Ask yourself, are you living for the temporary happiness of this world at the expense of eternal joy?  This week and throughout Lent may we all pray for the strength to focus on what’s really important — living for God’s Kingdom of Heaven.

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Gospel for March 20, 2011 – Hear Him

Poland, Mielno, church, stained glass - Transf...
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The Gospel for March 20, 2011 is from Matthew 17:1-9.  It is about The Transfiguration which is also the Fourth Luminous Mystery.  There is not much more I can add beyond what I already wrote about this mystery of the rosary.  I want to point out that this Gospel not only connects to this mystery, but it also connects to the Gospel for January 9, 1979 on Jesus’ Baptism in the Jordan.  In both cases, God reminds us through a booming voice in the sky that Jesus is His son and that we should listen to Him.  In this time of Lent, may we focus on listening to Jesus’ message, not because He is a prophet with some good ideas, but because Jesus is God made man.  May we hear Him in prayer and find the strength to always do His will.

Sometimes showing strength to to God’s will is more than avoiding sin.  For many of us, it might take just as much strength and courage to open our wallets to those who are in desperate need of help as it is to not avoid the temptation to do evil.  This Lent, we have much opportunity to be a Good Samaritan to those who are in need and I urge you to help however you can.  I am fond of Catholic Relief Services who are always responding to the major disasters around this world.

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