.png)
Back when I was in my late teens or early twenties, my family went on a trip to San Diego.
At one point, my dad and I were standing on the beach watching the waves and he said, “Isn’t it hard to imagine that there’s more stars in the sky than there is sand? How can that be?”
I said something like, “Or that we can never even really count all the stars? And some are so far away their light left them thousands upon thousands of years ago and it’s just now reaching us?”
On a roll now, my dad continued, “Or that God has always been and always will be. How is that possible? It just doesn’t make sense to my mind. There are some things that if we think about them too much they become difficult to wrap your mind around.”
When I was younger, I used to wonder about what God did with His time before the universe was made. I didn’t understand that time wasn’t actually a thing for God. I’d always somewhat childishly thought that God was up somewhere just hanging out all alone twiddling His thumbs while saying, “Doot do do,” he then got bored and decided to make the universe.
Again, wildly off target and immature, but that’s what I thought.
Our deacon said something at Mass this weekend that made a few things click in my head. He said, “God, the Triune God, shows us the importance of relationships. Forever, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have been in the most perfect and intimate relationship with each other, so much so that they are One.”
See, for some reason, even though I knew about the Trinity, I still pictured God all alone. But He has never been that way, The Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity have always be together.
And since we are all made in the image and likeness of God, we, too, were created for relationships—with God, with our families, with the Communion of Saints, and with others.
Something clicked just a little bit more in my head this weekend, which just goes to show, God is always revealing something new about Himself if we only take the time to think about Him.
Thank God that He gave us the ability to wonder about such things, Catholic Pilgrims.
Have a beautiful Tuesday.
My dear Jesus, what am I supposed to think about how you've allowed corruption into Your Church? Jesus, "The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field." Okay, then why aren't all your priests and bishops perfect? Why are many in the laity going off the rails? Jesus, "While everyone was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off. When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well." So, I ask you, "Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where have the weeds come from?" What should I do, despair? Leave? Jesus, "An enemy has done this." Do not "pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them. Let them grow together until harvest; then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters, 'First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning; but gather the wheat into my barn.'" Saints stay with the Church that Christ founded. We stay and use our gifts and our talents to be good wheat to build up the kingdom and make it strong. "If God were to remove all struggles from our lives, we would no longer receive the crown of glory." -- Blessed Franz Jagerstatter Hear the voice of St. Joan of Arc: We "were born" for this time, this place, and in this period of the Catholic Church. God always builds up Saints in times of trial, Catholic Pilgrims. Be good wheat. The Holy Spirit will hold the Church, just as Christ promised. Have a blessed Sunday.
Continue ReadingYesterday, I saw perhaps one of the most moving interviews. Matt Fradd was interviewing Peter Kreeft, who just recently lost his wife of 63 years. Matt Fradd asked him, "Do you have any advice for those that are newly married or about to be?" Dr. Kreeft said, "Do you think when you are very old and your wife is very old and ugly and wrinkled and fat and not very bright, or even nasty, you will still find her beautiful? If so, marry her." He continued, "The last view I had of my wife in the nursing home, about an hour after she died, I fell in love with her again. Here was a wasted, emaciated, wrinkled suffering body." And then after a pause and through tears he said, "It's as beautiful as a crucifix." "Because that body ain't gonna last, but the soul is. So if you don't love her soul, and just love her body, don't get married." Matt Fradd was speechless and choked up. I was crying watching Peter Kreeft talk about his bride. It was a very intense moment watching a husband fully describe what real love is. Dustin and I married at 22-years old. When you look at our wedding photos we look like fresh-faced babies. Now, almost a quarter of a century later, I see the effects of the aging process in both of us: The wrinkles, the grays, the pains that come more easily, less hair, eyes getting worse. There's nothing that can be done. Time will have its way. Sure, you can eat well, exercise, drink enough water, limit sun exposure, but, in the end, we all get old. And, oh, how I’ve fretted over this. Would Dustin love me when I'm not his beautiful Amy anymore? But, hearing Peter Kreeft talk about his wife helped me to realize that it will all be okay. Dustin loves my soul. He always has. I love his. I am the mother of his children. He is the keeper of our memories. I married him because I wanted to grow old with him, not young with him. That inevitably means our bodies will stop being youthful, but our love and our souls will be more beautiful then when we met. And that's why, after all this time, Dustin is more handsome to me than on our wedding day and I fall in love with him over and over again. Love your spouse well, Catholic Pilgrims.
Continue ReadingYesterday was fun. Whew! Since I got accused yesterday of only ever talking about HELL AND DAMNATION on here, I thought I'd show me tip-toeing through the...uh...Black-eyed Susans to make sure you all can see that I'm a nice person. 😉 Okay, enough of me being snarky. 😎 It's always interesting to me the reactions I get whenever I write about something mildly convicting. Some people only want me to write about how "Jesus loves us this I know, for the Bible tells me so." Never mind that Jesus doesn't always talk about warm, fuzzy things. Like in our Gospel reading from yesterday where Jesus was pretty harsh to the people of some cities in the north Galilee region. "Woe to you!" Others see what I have written and do the whole, "Oh, yeah, well what about this!?" Okay, but I want to talk about what I wrote about. A few who have never said a word before and just happen to show up one day proceed to sling all kinds of accusations at me. They want me to only talk about love, but they feel the need to be ugly to me. Like, hey, maybe stick around and see what else I've written over the many years. It is so important, Catholic Pilgrims, so important that we understand that we can't just talk about good-feeling things all the time when it comes to our faith life. Sin is real, evil is real, eternal punishment is real, and justice is real. God does love us more than we can possibly comprehend and He has called us to live a holy life and that simply can't be done if we ignore those things that endanger our souls. The good news is that God pours out grace and mercy to us all the time, we just have to cooperate with it. He provides us with Sacraments that help cleanse us and restore our souls to health--Confession and the Eucharist. We just have to frequent them with a humble, contrite, obedient heart. We all can have hope that God will give us everything we need to join Him in Heaven, Catholic Pilgrims. This is your one nice post of the year, tomorrow I'm back to FIRE AND BRIMSTONE!!!! Just kidding. Have a good day and live the faith boldly and travel well.
Continue Reading.png)
.png)
.png)