Monday, June 28, 2010

Love Letter V


From now on, I'm just going to write "Love Letters" once a month, and post it whenever I can. So it won't have to be on a Wednesday.

------------------

Dear Child,
Remember when you spoke to the Father,
and asked Him to change all things?
Oh, how many years have passed since then. And yet, the Father still remembers your request...because you never ceased to ask. Let us thank the Lord, our God!


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Sons and daughters, thank the Lord.
All the works, thank the Lord.
Cherubim, seraphim, six winged and many eyes, thank the Lord.
All ye' Saints, thank the Lord.
Sun and moon, thank the Lord.


Praise and exalt Him forevermore.



Let us thank the Lord for what good He has done.

For the Catholic Church, let us thank the Lord.
For His Holy word, let us thank the Lord.
For Holy Communion, let us thank the Lord.
For His infinite mercy, let us thank the Lord.
For His abiding love, let us thank the Lord.
For graces brought forth, let us thank the Lord.
For Holy Priests, let us thank the Lord.
For the Holy Father, let us thank the Lord.
For religious women, let us thank the Lord.
Servants of the Lord, let us thank the Lord.






Praise and exalt Him forevermore.



Night and day, let us praise the Lord.
Joy and suffering, let us praise the Lord.
For impossible cases, let us praise the Lord.
For all families, let us praise the Lord.
For the sick and dying, let us praise the Lord.
For the unborn, let us praise the Lord.
For those without Faith, let us praise the Lord.
For sinners everywhere, let us praise the Lord.
For those struggling with addiction, let us priase the Lord.


Praise and exalt Him forevermore.






Lord, You know all things.
You know that I love You.
I am in love with all that you do.
Be with me, all the days of my life.
That through you, I may serve You
in such a way that is fit for a king.

And Mother Mary, grant me the the graces that I need
to willingly accept the will of the Father, with great humility and love.
I ask that you grant me the graces that I need to get through each day.
May we become men and women of Faith, and torch bearers for the ultimate queen.


Show me the way, Mother Mary.
Lead me to your Son.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

The evils of sin.



The saints tell us that a soul in the state of grace looks so exceedingly beautiful that it could even be mistaken for Almighty God! They also tell us that a soul dead in sin is repulsively ugly. When we were baptized we were filled with grace and became God’s children; our souls were breathtakingly, magnificently beautiful. But we can lose that grace by sinning.


Sin: Why is this 3 letter word so dangerous to all of mankind? Because it's the one thing that separates us from God. It keeps us from ever being happy and fulfilled. Sin turns us into servants of the devil. Sin weakens our soul, which makes us lazy. When one is not in the state of grace, it's easier to keep sinning. Why is this? Because you have completely cut God out of your life! He didn't want to go away, He never wants to go away. You chose to throw Him out of your life. You chose not to accept the graces that flow from Him. Your soul is His home, if you trash it, do you expect Him to stay?






Think of it this way: Say you're on a trip, and you're looking for a cheap motel to stay at. You find one, and the motel is old. You walk in, and the room smells like smoke, the shower is rusted, and it's just gross. This is a true story that happened to me, and if you're anything like me...you'd be running out the door. That's the same thing with God. In a way, our souls are like the "motel" for God. When we sin, we trash it. When we are in mortal sin, we completely kick him out.


Sin is a horrible thing, because when we sin we are disobeying God. The root of all our sin stems from disobedience. Whenever we sin, we aren't doing what God asks of us. This is also what happened with the fall of Adam and Eve. They disobeyed God. And, it's important to know the tricks of the devil. The devil works in sly ways, and he can easily make something sinful, alluring.


I'm sure you hear those common phrases: "Oh, it's not that bad", "Nobody will find out", etc. Is Satan trying to tempt us. We're human, and we're bound to fall, but that doesn't mean we have to. In Confession, we can't say "the devil made me do it", because we have free will. We willingly chose to sin, and we're responsible for our own actions.



We should flee from sin, and the best way to do that is by educating ourselves on how Satan works in his sly ways. I recommend reading "The Screwtape Letters" which was written by CS. Lewis. In the book, it talks about how the attack is much easier when man's inner world is drab.
Drab? What does this mean? Perhaps it means if you are despairing, and feel weak, and your relationship with God isn't that strong.


Unfortunately, it is possible to become attached to sin. You have, I have, I'm sure we all have.

It's a battle that we face between good and evil. We're always the "monkey in the middle" and God and Satan are constantly tugging away at us. I recall a time in my life when I fell so hard, I thought I wouldn't be able to get back up. I felt this way because I was attached to sin. In a way, chains were wrapped around me. I became a slave to sin to the point where my relationship with God suffered immensely. This made it very hard for me to pray. The best that I could say was: "God, help me!" or "God, help me change!"


Eventually, He did help me change. Why? Because I begged for change, and I begged for holiness. Unceasingly, I prayed because in my heart I knew He could change the mess I was in.

I prayed with confidence, and that's what we must do when we pray!



"We shall not make ourselves holy until we have a great desire to become so.
Nothing great is achieved without desire...."



Prayer is KEY to overcoming attachment to sin. It won't be easy, but you need to have patience. Pray for the graces you need to get through each day. Strength, perseverance, and courage are things that we must pray for. And I wouldn't suggest just praying. Go to the extreme! Go to daily Mass and go to confession often. And let's say you have an addiction to porn...I'm not going to say: "throw your computer out!"But, the computer can easily become an occasion of sin for those that are addicted to porn. Change your online atmosphere. Make your background of Jesus crucified, listen to EWTN/homilies while browsing the internet, and stay close to Mary through the Rosary. She is the greatest example of purity.

Purity: When we are pure, we are not limiting ourselves from loving. Instead, we are expanding our capacity to love in such a way that is Christ-like.

Purity is not only based off of sex, but it's having a pure heart, and pure mind. Fleeing from sin, and striving for holiness would be an example of purity.

So, stay close to Jesus and Mary through prayer. Begin to get familiar with how Satan works in your own life. When you recognize him trying to tempt you, you can instantly pray at that moment. I believe that you will receive the graces to turn away from evil.



Sunday, June 6, 2010

Mass experience



Today, I realized something at Mass as I was looking at the crucifix.
It's really something obvious, and kind of one of those "duh!" moments...but it hit me hard today.

Let me start off by saying we all have friends, and friends come and go. Sometimes we will even mistreat each other. I've had my share of good friends, and bad. Friends can be a good thing, of course--if their morals are good.





And maybe it's part of my cynical views, but I believe no matter who you know...good or bad...there's going to be a chance of someone hurting you in some way. Things change, break-ups happen, friendships sometimes end, and fights happen.

It's not fun, but that's all part of life.





As humans, we were made to love. We want to be loved, and love back.



It's normal, because that's how God created us! In a way, He kind of wrote "love" upon our hearts. He created the universe, and all the animals, but he created US to get to know Him, love Him, and serve Him. With his infinite love and mercy, he is the perfect friend.



And yet, why don't we treat Him as such? Why is it so hard for us to keep close to Him?

Is it simply because we can't see Him, or hear Him? How silly that is. If you pray, you begin to know Him. Keeping a prayer life is not always easy, so we need to pray for perseverance. If you read scripture, you hear Him, because that's His word. Can you see Him? In a way-- through the Eucharist. The Eucharist is ALL of Him. Body, blood, soul and divinity. Yes, it may appear as bread and wine, but as Catholics...that's not what we believe. We believe that it's the TRUE presence of Christ. We believe that the Holy Spirit works through the priest to give us the bread of life.





I speak of the Eucharist because of the feast of Corpus Christi. Every time we go to Mass, we experience the last supper & Christ's passion. It's not like taking a time machine into the past, no. We're actually experiencing it NOW. We are present with all the angels, with all the Saints, and with Mary at the foot of the altar just as she was at the foot of the cross.

At Mass, we are given the greatest opportunity to really get to know our friend by eating His flesh and drinking His blood. We receive an opportunity to fall in love with our friend. This friend is God. At Mass, we join the angels in Heaven with unending praise.
It's beautiful...to have a friend that loves you, and that you can love back.
“I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full” (Jn 10:10). This is what Jesus desires the most: to fill us with the fullness of His life. It is by His presence in the Eucharist that Jesus best communicates to us His divine life: “in him, in bodily form, lives divinity in all its fullness” (Col 2:9).

We have a God that is standing there, waiting with open arms, to embrace us.
It doesn't matter how bad you have sinned, He STILL loves you. His love is unconditional, and we can't even begin to fathom how great it truly is.
If everything seems to be changing in your life, remember that His love never will.



So, basically..what I realized is this: if you're ever feeling lonely, or just went through a break up, or lost someone, whatever it is.... just remember that you have a friend that's always waiting for you. Someone that will love you unconditionally, and will never leave your side. We're all in this together, and we all need to encourage one another to strive to get to Heaven. To to daily Mass if you can. Pray, go to adoration with someone, join a rosary group, there is endless possibilities. Bottom line is just to really get to know God, love God, and serve God, so that we can be with Him in the next life.
We have the best friend there is. That should be enough.
As long as you're living, don't ignore Him.
He thirsts for our love.

“I so ardently thirst to be loved by men in the most Blessed Sacrament that this thirst devours me”
-(Jesus to Saint Margaret Mary)






Tuesday, June 1, 2010

An explanation of the banner on my page.


I realized I never explained the banner on my page. Some may find it disturbing at first, until they look at it with depth.

I've spoken about this "battle" in previous writings.







It all started when I was six years old. I had a dream about Satan.

I was living in a house. It looked haunted, almost.
My mother's bathroom was made out of pure gold.
The walls, sinks, everything was just gold.
I remember seeing the devil appear in the middle of the house, and he started destroying everything in sight. But, the only object that I really remember him destroying is the computer.


Now, here's my thoughts on it:

I think this dream means that the world is blind. They can't see the battle between good VS evil because our focus isn't of anything "Spiritual" We often worry about the worldly things. What new gadget we have to have to be"happy." (I think this is what the gold bathroom means)

We need to open up our eyes. Satan's army is sneaky. They lie. They deceive. They get you hooked on the wrong things.
This world is full of sin, and just the internet world is awful. Google the word "porn" and you get
219,000,000 results. Google the word "sex" and you get 96,600,000 results. Google "gay pornography" and you get 16,700,000 results. It's everywhere! Satan is seeking the ruin of souls, and the internet is the perfect way to do it. Trust me.

Webcams/Cyber sex
This is a perfect way to commit a grave sin. And not only you are committing a grave sin, but the other person is as well.

The internet is probably the biggest trap. In my dream, it was not the devil destroying the computer. He was destroying the souls that are trapped "inside the computer".




Of course, I didn't really think much of this until high school. It wasn't until high school that I figured there must've been a reason why the dream was still fresh in my mind years later.


Now, I feel as if it's a message I'm called to give out.



As I've gotten older, I've had some other dreams. Dreams that have taught me to pray and stay close to God. That's the only way we can battle evil.


A dream that I had just last year, was probably the most intense out of all my dreams.

In my dream, I literally saw a battlefield. I saw Satan's army VS Christ's army.

I saw angels and demons fighting to death. Hell's army had more followers.
Heaven's army had some followers, but not as much. The majority were the angels.

The Angels were fought with all their might. Then it flashed to a scene where one angel stabbed a demon...then there was a flash of white.


The battlefield was like none other. They weren't fighting on land.

It was like a place of shadows and Holy Fire coming together.


So, that's the purpose of this banner. I want to make people think: "Which army are you a part of?" because I truly believe there's a battle going on.

Within the media.
Within the Church.
Within the whole entire world.







EDIT:
New song. It's "The Mass" by "Era".
Have no idea what it's saying, and I'm pretty sure it's not Catholic.. but I like it.

It kinda gives me a "battle march" vibe...
It's like gregorian chant mixed with New Age music. Haha.

"My Confession" is still on the playlist. It's just #2 now. :)