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Yesterday, my family went to the movies to watch “You Gotta Believe.” It’s a baseball movie based off a true story.
One of the coaches of the team comes down with brain cancer and it’s serious. He has to step back from coaching while he does chemo.
At one point in the story, this coach’s son, devastated that his father isn’t getting better, runs out on the ballfield at night and yells out to the sky, “I hate you! I hate you!”
That was enough to make the tears flow hot on my face because I once did just about the same thing, except it was a football field and I was 17.
After my night on the football field, I went on to “wrestle with God,” much like Jacob in the Bible for years.
Yesterday, after I got home from the movie, I read a comment on my post from the other day that was wildly misunderstood. So many people missed the point of my post on burdensome rules.
Anyway, a woman, still missing the point, commented that respecting Christ in the Eucharist means that we dress up for church and women cover their heads. Boom. End of discussion.
Part of me wanted to defend my deep love of Christ, but the Holy Spirit kept saying, “Stay. Just stay. Don’t do it.”
While I was standing there at the stove with tears in my eyes, I asked, “Why not? Why not let me defend my love for You?”
What I heard was, “Because for some, it will never be enough what you do. Let me handle it. I know your heart.”
I realized how true that is. Because we humans are always trying to one up each other and prove we are better, sometimes, it will never be enough for many.
I have been to the depths with God and fought my way back to a relationship that I never thought possible after that night on the football field. Nobody but God truly understands my love and respect and nobody ever will.
There are a million and one ways, Catholic Pilgrims, that we can practice our Faith. And even if we did all those ways, there would still be someone who comes along and says, “Not enough.”
Of course with God, we can never give Him enough, but the only one we need to prove anything to is Him. He knows our hearts and His understanding of our hearts is all that really matters.
Live the Faith boldly and travel well this Tuesday.
*Picture is from the synagogue in Capernaum from our Gospel reading today.
It’s been almost half a year, but I finally finished “The Brothers Karamazov.” It’s not because I didn’t like it that it took me so long. It’s just that other book clubs, traveling, and moving got in the way. This is probably the most complex fiction book I have ever read. It feels like Dostoevsky took a year, watched his town and the people in it, and then weaved all their lives together in this story. There are at least five different stories running through this book and, in my opinion, they don’t all fit together in a way that is satisfying. The central story follows four brothers—Mitya, Ivan, Alyosha, and Smerdyakov—as they live out their very different lives. Alyosha being the only one who isn’t sunk in some kind of sin. Only two of the boys—Ivan and Alyosha—have the same mother. Their father is not a good man and he ends up murdered. Mitya is the one arrested for his murder and put on trial. By the time you finish the book, the beginning with Father Zosima seems like a lifetime ago. I was disappointed in the ending. After such a long book with so many details, I was frustrated that it kind of just leaves you hanging and ends abruptly. Overall, I enjoyed the book and am happy I read it. It is a book that is referenced so much that it is good to gain an understanding of it. It is very involved and isn’t a light-hearted read, so be ready to put in some effort. The man, Luke Thompson, who reads it on Audible does a fantastic job of giving the characters voices and dramatizing the sentences. He really makes it come alive and helps you to see how something should be read. So, I would recommend his reading of it. All in all, a great piece of literature that probably takes more than one reading to fully let it seep into your bones. Not my favorite book of all time, but worth the read. Have a great Wednesday, Catholic Pilgrims!
Continue ReadingGood morning, Catholic Pilgrims. Light is a very strange thing. You can see it, but you cannot hold it or grab it. You can pass your hand through it and nothing really happens. It's called a wave and a particle. It delivers energy. It allows us to see color. I'm sure you've noticed how in a dark room, nothing has color until light hits it. I find light fascinating and to me it is one of the things that proves that God is real. There is nothing like light here in our created world. We are completely dependent upon it and people even suffer sadness when there isn't enough of it. When God decided to create everything, it was light that kicked the whole thing off. Light was brought into existence by God's word. It's hard to fathom what that even means. Jesus is called the Light. Whether we want to acknowledge it or not, we are dependent on Him. He adds "color" to our world and without Him, sadness will consume. He is, also, what brings us out of darkness. Have a wonderful day, Catholic Pilgrims. Live the faith boldly and travel well this Monday.
Continue ReadingOver these many years of being on here writing about God, I’ve had a lot of commenters that have shown up to say things like: “I don’t need church. I feel God out in nature.” “I don’t need to sit in a pew. I can get the same experience praying in my car on the way to work.” “Jesus never said go to church. You don’t need the walls.” Sure, you can “feel” God out in nature and it’s good to pray in your car on the way to work. However, in the Old Testament, God did lay out a very specific way that He wanted to be worshipped. He wanted the Lord’s Day kept holy and the Jews knew that it was a day to go to the Temple or the synagogue. There was a liturgy and principal players. The people were there to offer worship and sacrifices and the Rabbis taught and the priests offered the sacrifices. Now, a lot of people think that Jesus trashed all that and decided that from now on, people can just practice their faith however they desire on their own. But, this is wrong and prideful. Everything in the New Testament elevates what was in the Old. We are still meant to be a community coming together to worship. We are meant to assist at the Mass. We are meant to be there as the priest offers the perpetual sacrifice of the Son to the Father and receive that sacrifice back as the Eucharist—the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Our Lord. You can’t do that on your own on a hiking trail or in a car. Dom Hubert von Zeller once wrote, “But God wants something more out of us than sympathy. And if we attend Mass properly, He gets something more out of us than sympathy. He gets our wills, which mean more to Him than our feelings. He gets our obedience, which means more to Him than the warmth of our devotion.” Give God your will, Catholic Pilgrims. That is the best sacrifice you can offer. Have a blessed Sunday.
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