Christ is Risen!

Christ is Risen!


I went to Mass last night, and the Epistle was actually a favorite reading of mine.
Rom 6: 3-11

Brothers and sisters:
Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus
were baptized into his death?
We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death,
so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead
by the glory of the Father,
we too might live in newness of life.

For if we have grown into union with him through a death like his,
we shall also be united with him in the resurrection.
We know that our old self was crucified with him,
so that our sinful body might be done away with,
that we might no longer be in slavery to sin.

For a dead person has been absolved from sin.
If, then, we have died with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with him.
We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more;
death no longer has power over him.
As to his death, he died to sin once and for all;
as to his life, he lives for God.
Consequently, you too must think of yourselves as being dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus.


I try my hardest to live by this, because it's my motto. I'm involved with youth group, and we have DTS meetings. DTS stands for Dead Theologians Society and at each meeting we study the life of a Saint. We wear black hoodies in the cold weather which has a monstrance on it & around the monstrance it says: "Mortuum mundo, vivum in Christo."
Which means: Dead to the world, alive in Christ in Latin.
Being dead to the world means to be dead to the sin which this world has to offer, no matter how glamorous it may appear.

We are all called to be a witness in this world, a light that can set the world ablaze. But, we can't do this without first resting in the Eternal light-- God.
We need to reflect HIM!

I hope everyone has reflected on all these readings-- especially this one.
Because it's a constant reminder of what we are called to--holiness!!!
And while it's not easy, we have all of Heaven on our side cheering us on.

Easter is a time of renewal, and by His death and resurrection, we are RENEWED!
It is time to spread fire that burns bright within us.

I also hope that everyone has had a wonderful Easter. :)

The Crowning Of Thorns.

I'm working on a talk for a Catholic camp program. I might use this, but edit parts.
----------------------------

As I have stated in previous posts, I love to meditate on Christ's passion, especially the crowning of thorns.
Why, you ask? Because, we have many of our own "thorns"--things that bother us. Meditating upon the suffering Jesus experienced when the crown of thorns was placed upon his head will teach us to accept suffering in our own life.

If you're praying the Rosary and meditating on the Crowning of Thorns, you will see that the fruit of the mystery is: Courage. To get through suffering, we should always pray for fortitude/courage, so that we can do what's right no matter how difficult it may be.
Everyone needs courage to keep persevering, to keep carrying their cross. Without it, and without prayer, we will most definitely fall.

I believe for a lot of people, it's hard to pray during the hard times. I never understood why, because I've never had this problem, personally. I've always felt closer to God through suffering. There's only one thing I can think of and it's this:
There's people that must not be well educated in the whole suffering aspect, and don't even how to deal with it. And I'm not even sure people know the greatness that can come from it.




Suffering can......

*Save souls.
Let's say you have a horrible flu-bug. This would be considered as a "thorn". You have a choice to waste this suffering by complaining, or you can bring good from it. You can offer that up for the conversion of sinners/souls in purgatory..which would be the good thing to do.

*Can show you how to love.
*Bring you closer to Jesus.

St. Teresa of Avila said:

"We always find that those who walked closest to Christ were those who had
to bear the greatest trials."

Right now, you may not be suffering the greatest trials.
Maybe you have yet to face them. Maybe you already have though. Maybe a family member passed away. Maybe your parents got a divorce. Whatever it is, these are sufferings that we can take to Jesus. Even if it's small!

Our Lord's suffering is still going on. One of the last things he said was: "I thirst". His thirst was not for water, but for love. He desires for all mankind to know Him, love Him, and serve Him.
If we are suffering, then let's cling to Jesus, who has suffered the most.
Begin by simply telling God how you feel, it doesn't have to be long. Sometimes "Jesus, help me" is enough. But, by running to Him in a time of distress, we are being a bit more like Christ.
Even Jesus ran to the Father during His hardships.


The Rosary is a wonderful way to get familiar with the life of Jesus. Mary will show you just how much her Son suffered through the Rosary. Suffering is not an easy thing, but this is why we have Our Lady. She will shed down the graces we need to get through anything. Pray for strength. Pray for perseverence. Pray for courage.


On good Friday, really meditate on the suffering that Christ through. Allow it to really touch you.
Unite your sufferings with HIS, and you will begin to feel a transformation.

"Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone."

As a Catholic, there has something that has been bugging me (and many other Catholics, I'm sure) for a while now. You are probably aware of all this talk about the "sex abuse scandals". First off, I'm not concerned about when these abuse "events" took place. My main concern is not about this information being hidden from us, either.

My problems don't have anything to do with the political issues, actually.
I'm more sickened by the awful comments that have been directed towards priests and the Catholic Church. I can no longer keep silent about something like this.


In defense of the common comments that all seem to say the same thing "well, maybe if priests could have sex/get married..." You people act as if they are forced to choose the celibate road. They themselves chose the celibate road. No one forced them into it.

Pedophilia is a mental problem. You can't play a race, religion, age, single or taken card on this.
It doesn't matter what type of person they are. It's a mental illness.

There are good priests, but the priests that have gravely sinned, is it right of us to judge and say they are "bad"? No, we don't know what they've been through, what has gone through their minds, and it is not our job to point out their sins. We don't know their soul! To take proper action in a case like this is one thing, but to insult and speak ill of them is another.

It's unfortunate that priests have done this, but they are human just like us.
They can sin, just like us. I don't support the sinful actions, but I will support the work of priests until the day I die, because Christ WORKS through the priests to do His work.

Christ works through the Priests to forgive sins in the sacrament of confession.
Christ works through the Priests to celebrate the Mass- the highest form of prayer!
Christ works through the Priests to give us communion. Body, blood, soul, and DIVINITY of our Lord Jesus Christ.
They bring us into the Church through Baptism.
Because of them, they keep us alive SPIRITUALLY!

We need priests! Good and Holy priests!

And we fail to understand that Satan is working HARD to try to bring the Church down.
And he HATES priests, so he will do anything to get them to fall.
Many priests have it hard. They have to live a Holy life, but they are still part of this world. They are still exposed to all the sin. Is this still any excuse to commit such a sinful act? No, there is never an excuse to sin, but being amongst sin does not make anything easy.

When are WE going to start praying for these Priests?
When are WE going to start defending the Church?
We need to take action. We can't let the enemy win!

I don't care if they did the worst thing in the world. This will be taken up by God in the end.
We all have sinned in some form, so who are we to judge? Pedophilia isn't right, and neither are our sins. What kind of message is being sent out if we just LET people say this kind of stuff about our priests? If people only KNEW and BELIEVED in what the Priests do, they wouldn't be saying anything! But people will never know, and will never believe, if we don't speak up.

To all the Catholics, DEFEND the Church! Defend the PRIESTS! And we MUST defend our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI.
I'm not asking you to defend the sinful actions, but the sinner.
Don't be the Catholic that just simply attends Mass, and leave it at that.
Be the Catholic that will DEFEND everything about the Faith That LOVES their Faith.
Anne Frank said...

"Despite everything, I still believe people are good at heart."

And that's how I feel. Without priests, I probably wouldn't be here writing. There's a number of writings that have been inspired by their talks. It angers me, and makes me cry when people think they can just rattle off a bunch of offensive comments. The situation is awful, yes, I understand this.

But the abuse and slander doesn't help the abuse that has supposedly already taken place. People are angry about this, which is understandable. I'm angry, too. Our abusive words only proves that there isn't just a loss of good in certain priests, but in mankind. This PROVES that we are no better!

If we're acting this way, then we're broken. And it's GOD that can heal the broken! Trust in Him!

We need to really start forming a relationship with Our Lady.
We need to bring others to her. SHE is the one that will crush the serpent's head.
SHE is the one that will bring us to our Lord and Savior.

I've had dreams of angels and demons fighting. There IS a spiritual battle going on.
It's real, and it's awful. It's going on everywhere--including the Church.
If we don't fight for what's right, then who will?
If Pope John Paul II forgave the man that shot him, then why can't we forgive and pray for the priests that have done wrong?

Is "hate" our answer to everything? How pitiful.
http://www.shjolg.com/page21.html

Love letter III

Dear child, you had it all right all along. The way the symphony of love danced through your head.
And the way you believed in the Faith...
You just accepted the fact that His blood was shed.
You didn't live off of ignorance. You lived by simplicity.
You were living by what little you knew.
Your little heart was set on fire for Jesus.






Light of the world, I am weak.
Hear my cry, and quench my thirst for love.
Light of the world, renew me by grace.
Light of the world, set my soul ablaze.
Light of the world, teach me simplicity.
Light of the world, set me free.





Innocence and simplicity; transform me.
Purity and righteousness; transform me.
Courage and patience; transform me.
Make me your faithful child.



Ignite my soul with Your infinite love, O Lord.
Ignite my soul with Your infinite mercy, O Lord.
Ignite my soul with Your wisdom, O Lord.



By your flames, sanctify me.
By your flames, cleanse me.
By your flames, enrichen my ability to understand.
By your flames, make me a holy human.


In awe, let us look to you, O Lord.
In awe, let us sing praise!

When He comes, when we are filled with the power..
In awe, let us sing: Glory, glory, glory!
Glory, glory, glory to the King!


Come Holy Spirit,
enrichen me in love.
Come Holy Spirit,
send down your light.
Come Holy Spirit,
make me your Faithful servent.
Come Holy Spirit...
teach me simplicity.
Come Holy Spirit...
Free me from the enemy.

Come Holy Spirit...
Give me all the right words.
Come Holy Spirit...
_____________________

I put a trivia question on Twitter & Facebook.
The question basically was: "Three things inspired me to write this. Fire, love, and a painting from a certain event. The event can be found in the book of Acts. Which event is this?"

Answer: The Descent of the Holy Spirit.

The will of God

My writings have been delayed a bit. I apologize. I've been sick. I still have a minor cough, but I'm getting energy back. Hopefully this writing makes up for loss time.
To my small group of amazing readers, I appreciate your prayers & your patience.




It is important for us to really know what the will of God is, and to live it out.
But, how can we do this if we don't really know what His will is? What if we don't know how to become Saints? Today I will be talking about the will of God.

You'd think that it'd be a simple thing to explain: "It's the 10 commandments!" and this is true.
But, we're also forgetting other parts of His will for all of us. The will of God for all of us is to get to Heaven so we can spend eternity with Him. It's for us to come to know Him, love Him, and serve Him. He calls us to be holy. In this world full of sin, how do we be holy? How can we come to know, love, and serve Him? It's certainly not easy. But, I believe God and the Catholic Church has so much to offer! We have so many things to help us on our journey to eternal salvation. We have the Saints to look up to. We have all the sacraments. We have Eucharistic Adoration. We have the Mass, which is the highest form of prayer. Holiness is a constant effort, and we aren't expected to reach perfection on earth. But, love is a choice we make. We choose to love our Lord. And by choosing to love our Lord, we are choosing to be holy.



How do we become Saints? We need to cooporate with God. Our brothers and sisters in Heaven that have gone before us are Saints because they followed God. They were (and still are) prophets of the nations. And what do I mean by this? I mean...they lived by example, they wrote, they put together Catholic organizations, they converted people,the list goes on. They are Saints because they did something. They took action. But, in order to be Saints, we need to be RADICALLY in love with our Lord! There are Saints that have died for their Faith. Obviously this won't be the way that everyone leaves this world. But, St. Paul says to "be dead to the world"..in other words.."Be dead to sin." If you're attached to a specific sin, getting rid of it will hurt. But, rejoice in the pain! The greatest form of love is to surrender. To give it all to God. If we follow this, then it it will show how radical our love truly is.



We are called to die to sin.
Mortuum mundo, vivum in Christo. (Dead to the world, alive in Christ)

Another thing we can do to be Saints is to do everything with love. Another thing Christ calls us to lay down our lives for others. This obviously takes a whole lot of love. A perfect example of someone that had great love for God, and did all things with love is St. Therese. I keep mentioning her, because truly..she's a great role model. When we do things, we should ask ourselves: "Is this an act of love?". With love, we can serve. We can serve by praying for the whole world, or even just a few people. We can give up things for others (ie: the conversion of sinners)

We can't experience the will of God, unless we are open to it. We have to constantly strive to stay holy, therefore..we must repent. We have to realize that it's God's way and not our way.
Through prayer, and openess, offer your body up as a living sacrifice.
Ask Him to live His life through you. Ask for holiness, and a holy desire--it's a grace!

Do all these things and...
...Thy will be done.

Let us strive every day to be holy. So that one day, we can see our family in Heaven.

A message from the Holy Father

I thought this was so good.
I just had to share!

VATICAN CITY, MARCH 7, 2010

Benedict XVI says that God is good and cannot will evil, though in his plan of love, he sometimes allows his children to be tried through suffering to lead them to a greater good.
The Pope reflected today on the mystery of suffering when he addressed those gathered in St. Peter's Square to pray the midday Angelus.

The Holy Father spoke of the passage from today's Gospel, which recounts Pontius Pilate's order to have some Galileans killed in the Temple, and the collapse of a tower on some passers-by.
Since people had concluded that these deaths were the "effect of divine punishment, Jesus restores the true image of God, who is good and cannot will evil," the Pontiff explained.
He continued: "Jesus invites us to interpret these facts differently, connecting them with conversion: misfortunes, sorrowful events, should not arouse curiosity in us or a seeking of people presumed to be guilty, but they must be occasions for reflecting, for overcoming the illusion of pretending to live without God, and for reinforcing, with the Lord’s help, the commitment to change our life.

"In the face of sin, God shows himself to be full of mercy and he does not fail to call sinners to avoid evil, to grow in his love and to concretely help our neighbor in need, to live the joy of grace and not risk eternal death."

The Holy Father added that the "possibility of conversion entails that we learn to read the events of life in the light of faith, animated by the holy fear of God."
He said that in the presence of suffering or grief, "true wisdom is to let oneself be called from the precariousness of existence and to read human history with God’s eyes, who, always and only wanting the good of his children, by an inscrutable plan of his love, sometimes allows them to be tried through suffering to lead them to a greater good."

The Passion--thoughts

Brothers and sisters in Christ,


I am going to speak about the Passion of Jesus Christ.

I honestly have to say that I am very attached to the passion. I like to meditate on it.

The sorrowful mysteries touch my heart very deeply. Because of Our Lady and her gift of the Rosary to us, I have found myself growing in knowledge and love towards the life of Jesus.


I often find myself in adoration, praying, and I just begin to wonder: "how?"



Not in doubt, but in awe.
How could He die for ME when MY sins crucified Him?!




How could Jesus survive the whippings?
How did Jesus deal with the emotional/spiritual pain?

He was humiliated, rejected, hated, and put to death.





I've found that adoration is kind of like my "pit stop" in my spiritual journey.
I can't carry my cross without it. It's through adoration I feel the strength and peace to keep moving. When I'm there, every wound doesn't seem to hurt when He's right there.
I focus on his passion, and that's when all pain begins to subside (temporarily, of course).




Uniting our sufferings and troubles with His is what we should all strive to do.
He is the greatest example of love & suffering that we have. When Jesus was suffering, He turned to God the Father. Now we are in the world, carrying our own crosses, and we must turn to God for strength. Our sufferings can be a fragrent offering, if we give it over to Him.

Do you think the enterance into heaven is easy? Do you think the only way to get there is by living a good and joyful life? No. Life won't always be joyful, and our good works won't be the only thing getting us to heaven. We need to suffer and accept it all. The thorns in our sides can save many souls. The thorns in our sides can take off our time in purgatory. We need to take our sufferings to God! It's through suffering we can experience love.

One thing Jesus said before He died was this:
"I thirst." And it's LOVE that will quench our Lord's thirst, not water. It's LOVE that He desires. He desires to be loved by all. His love & mercy is so great that He WANTS to share it. He wants everyone to experience His greatness. It displeases Him when there are those that choose not to follow Him. In His mind, I bet He's thinking: "If only you knew the greatness!"

During this season of Lent, let us work on taking these thorns, our every day sufferings, and really try our best to accept them for the greater good.
Let us take the time to pray the Rosary, and focus on the passion, so that we may grow in LOVE for You, Lord!

Behold me, my beloved Jesus,weighed down under
the burden of my trials and sufferings,I cast myself at Your feet,that You may
renew my strength and my
courage,while I rest here in Your Presence.Permit me to lay down my cross in
Your Sacred Heart,for only Your infinite goodness can sustain me;only Your love
can help me bear my cross;only Your powerful hand can lighten its weight.O
Divine King, Jesus,whose heart is so compassionate to the afflicted,I wish to
live in You;suffer and die in You.During my life be to me
my model and my support;At the hour of my death,be my hope and my
refuge. Amen.