Deepest Desires

Earlier tonight I attended a talk on "Our Deepest Desires Reveal What God Hopes in Us" by Rev. Joseph Tetlow S. J. and it was very refreshing. He was a beautiful speaker, just put things in a wonderful way that was both elegant and easy to understand. While I could regurgitate his talk for you, I won't, mainly because I do not have time at the moment and because I don't think that I could do it justice. However, I have some images I created using pictures and quotes from tonight that I will share with you! Enjoy :)

Suffering of Christ

"It is infinitely easier to suffer in obedience to a human order than it is to suffer as the result of one's own free choice. It is infinitely easier to suffer in company than alone. It is infinitely easier to suffer publicly and with honor than out of the public eyee and in disgrace. It is infinitely easier to suffer in one's physical being than in the spirit. Christ suffered in freedom, alone. out of the public eye and in disgrace, in body and soul, and subsequently many Christians along with Him."

~Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Pope's No Dope

Last Friday at our CIA (Catholics in Action) meeting we were talking about Prayer and Almsgiving as two of the three pillars of Lent and we read this years Papal Lenten Decree. It. Was. AWESOME. I really loved it, and am going to work on integrating some of his wise words into my life and relationships to improve my contribution to the Catholic community.

I highly recommend reading the Decree, and I encourage you to set aside atleast 20-30 minutes to truly read and reflect on it. You can read the Decree here: http://www.zenit.org/article-34255?l=english

If you don't have time at the moment to read the entire thing, here are some of my personal favorites nuggets!

• "Look at others, first of all Jesus, be concerned for one another, and do not remain isolated and indifferent to the fate of our brothers and sisters. All to often, however, our attitude is just the opposite: an indifference and disinterest born of selfishness and masked as a respect for 'privacy'."li>
• "Concern for others entails desiring what is GOOD for them from every point of view: physical, moral, and spiritual."
• "It is important to recover this dimension of Christian charity [fraternal correction]. We must not remail SILENT before evil."
• "There will always be a nee for a gaze which loves and admonishes, which knows and understands, which discerns and forgives (cf. LK 22:61), as God has done and continues to do with each of us."

If you like what you read here...check out the rest of the document! Be not afraid...the Pope is human too, and he actually writes in a way you can understand!

Hope your Lenten journey is going well, and if it's less than satisfactory this halfway mark is a great opportunity to refocus!

Peace be with you all!

Do the Unusual

We are told that often times living as a Christian or Catholic in society today we will have to go against the grain. To say no to the pressures, ideals, and gods that society tries to force on us. This is not some new reality, it has been true since the days of Jesus! Check out this example:

Matthew 5:43-48
"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect."

So, let's get this straight....we are called to
1) Love our enemies
2) Pray for those who persecute us
3) Greet everyone as if they are our brothers

What?! These tasks are not only difficult, they are down right unusual! In all likelihood, we will never hear society to tell us to love and pray for those who have hurt us, but we are called to do just that all the same!!

Maurice Davis once said, "As salt and light, we are also called to be different, for one must be different before one can make a difference."

Go, and live an unsual life!

(Maybe if enough of us live the unsual life, it won't be so unusual after all! <--That would be epic)

May We more Closely Imitate Christ

Until God ordains otherwise, a man ought to bear patiently
whatever he cannot correct in himself and others.
Consider it better thus-perhaps to try your patience and to test you,
for without such patience and trial your merits are of little account.
Nevertheless, under such difficulties you should pray
that God will consent to help you bear them calmly.
If all were perfect, what should we have to suffer from others for God's sake?
But God has so ordained that we may learn to bear with one another's burdens,
for there is no man without fault,
no man without burden,
no man sufficient to himself nor wise enough.
Hence we must SUPPORT one another,
console one another, mutually help, counsel, and advise,
for the measure of every man's virtue is best revealed in time of adversity;
adversity does not weaken a man but rather shows what he is.
~The Imitation of Christ