In loving the creature,
Have you discerned the Creator?
If not,
Why not?
By Joann Nelander
Archive for the Just Thinking Out Loud Category
Why Not?
Posted in Catholic, Christian, Just Thinking Out Loud with tags Christian, creation, God on August 26, 2011 by JoannaThe Eucharist, Pledge of Our Resurrection
Posted in Just Thinking Out Loud with tags Eucharist, God, Just Thinking Out Loud, resurrection, St. Irenaeus, Word on April 22, 2010 by JoannaFrom the treatise Against Heresies by Saint Irenaeus,
The eucharist, pledge of our resurrection
If our flesh is not saved, then the Lord has not redeemed us with his blood, the eucharistic chalice does not make us sharers in his blood, and the bread we break does not make us sharers in his body. There can be no blood without veins, flesh and the rest of the human substance, and this the Word of God actually became: it was with his own blood that he redeemed us. As the Apostle says: In him, through his blood, we have been redeemed, our sins have been forgiven.
We are his members and we are nourished by creatures, which is his gift to us, for it is he who causes the sun to rise and the rain to fall. He declared that the chalice, which comes from his creation, was his blood, and he makes it the nourishment of our blood. He affirmed that the bread, which comes from his creation, was his body, and he makes it the nourishment of our body. When the chalice we mix and the bread we bake receive the word of God, the eucharistic elements become the body and blood of Christ, by which our bodies live and grow. How then can it be said that flesh belonging to the Lord’s own body and nourished by his body and blood is incapable of receiving God’s gift of eternal life? Saint Paul says in his letter to the Ephesians that we are members of his body, of his flesh and bones. He is not speaking of some spiritual and incorporeal kind of man, for spirits do not have flesh and bones. He is speaking of a real human body composed of flesh, sinews and bones, nourished by the chalice of Christ’s blood and receiving growth from the bread which is his body.
The slip of a vine planted in the ground bears fruit at the proper time. The grain of wheat falls into the ground and decays only to be raised up again and multiplied by the Spirit of God who sustains all things. The Wisdom of God places these things at the service of man and when they receive God’s word they become the eucharist, which is the body and blood of Christ. In the same way our bodies, which have been nourished by the eucharist, will be buried in the earth and will decay, but they will rise again at the appointed time, for the Word of God will raise them up to the glory of God the Father. Then the Father will clothe our mortal nature in immortality and freely endow our corruptible nature with incorruptibility, for God’s power is shown most perfectly in weakness.
Michelle Obama “Barack’s Home Country in Kenya”
Posted in Just Thinking Out Loud with tags citizenship, Just Thinking Out Loud, Kenya, Michelle Obama, Obama, unconstitutional on April 19, 2010 by JoannaInteresting read at Constitutionally Speaking.
Big Brother in the Age of YouTube
Posted in Just Thinking Out Loud with tags EPA, federal, Just Thinking Out Loud, propaganda.Pbama, regulations on April 19, 2010 by JoannaPresident Obama’s power-grabbing Environmental Protection Agency is now getting the public to propagandize their propaganda for them. The EPA announced a contest to make videos explaining how good their laws are for us freedom loving people. The EPA wants us to flood YouTube with government regulation-loving “propaganda” that federal regulations are “good for us”. Sounds like vitamins, but it’s just more mind pollution. The EPA gets a big bang for their buck; the winner gets $2, 500 and all the rest of the contributors speading their message get squat. This is actually a low budget expenditure as government programs go.
“Regulations have the power of law. Breaking them can result in fines and even jail time. Regulations outnumber Congressional statutes. For every statute passed by Congress and signed into law by the President, federal agencies create about 10 regulations, each of which have the force of law.”
H/T Happy Catholic
“The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help’.” Ronald Reagan
Israeli Settlements and the Obama Myths
Posted in Just Thinking Out Loud with tags Charles Krauthammer, Israel, Just Thinking Out Loud, Obama, settlement on April 19, 2010 by JoannaI resurrected this Charles Krauthammer article because it is a must read in these days of White House misdirection, betrayal and double speak.
What’s the issue? No “natural growth” means strangling to death the thriving towns close to the 1949 armistice line, many of them suburbs of Jerusalem, that every negotiation over the past decade has envisioned Israel retaining. It means no increase in population. Which means no babies. Or if you have babies, no housing for them — not even within the existing town boundaries. Which means for every child born, someone has to move out. No community can survive like that. The obvious objective is to undermine and destroy these towns — even before negotiations.
To what end? Over the past decade, the U.S. government has understood that any final peace treaty would involve Israel retaining some of the close-in settlements — and compensating the Palestinians accordingly with land from within Israel itself.
That was envisioned in the Clinton plan in the Camp David negotiations in 2000, and again at Taba in 2001. After all, why expel people from their homes and turn their towns to rubble when, instead, Arabs and Jews can stay in their homes if the 1949 armistice line is shifted slightly into the Palestinian side to capture the major close-in Jewish settlements, and then shifted into Israeli territory to capture Israeli land to give to the Palestinians?
This idea is not only logical, not only accepted by both Democratic and Republican administrations for the past decade, but was agreed to in writing in the letters of understanding exchanged between Israel and the United States in 2004 — and subsequently overwhelmingly endorsed by a concurrent resolution of Congress.
Yet the Obama State Department has repeatedly refused to endorse these agreements or even say it will honor them. This from a president who piously insists that all parties to the conflict honor previous obligations. And who now expects Israel to accept new American assurances in return for concrete and irreversible Israeli concessions, when he himself has just cynically discarded past American assurances.
Read the rest here.
Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Posted in Just Thinking Out Loud with tags consecration, Jesus, Just Thinking Out Loud, Sacred Heart on April 18, 2010 by JoannaA Solemn Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
by Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque
I give myself and consecrate to the Sacred Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ, my person and my life, my actions, pains and sufferings, so that I may be unwilling to make use of any part of my being other than to honor, love and glorify the Sacred Heart.
This is my unchanging purpose, namely, to be all His, and to do all things for the love of Him, at the same time renouncing with all my heart whatever is displeasing to Him.
I therefore take You, O Sacred heart, to be the only object of my love, the guardian of my life, my assurance of salvation, the remedy of my weakness and inconstancy, the atonement for all the faults of my life and my sure refuge at the hour of death.
Be then, O Heart of goodness, my justification before God the Father, and turn away from me the strokes of his righteous anger.
O Heart of love, I put all my confidence in You, for I fear everything from my own wickedness and frailty, but I hope for all things from Your goodness and bounty.
Remove from me all that can displease You or resist Your holy will; let Your pure love imprint Your image so deeply upon my heart, that I shall never be able to forget You or to be separated from You.
May I obtain from all Your loving kindness the grace of having my name written in Your Heart, for in You I desire to place all my happiness and glory, living and dying in bondage to You. Amen.
The Eucharist
Posted in Catholic, Church, Church Fathers, Irish, Just Thinking Out Loud with tags Catholic, Church, Church Fathers, Communion, Eucharist, Irish, Just Thinking Out Loud, Justin Martyr on April 18, 2010 by JoannaFrom The First Apology of St. Justin Martyr:
No one may share the Eucharist with us unless he believes that what we teach is true, unless he is washed in the regenerating waters of baptism for the remission of his sins, and unless he lives in accordance with the principles given us by Christ.
We do not consume the eucharistic bread and wine as if it were ordinary food and drink, for we have been taught that as Jesus Christ our Savior became a man of flesh and blood by the power of the Word of God, so also the food that our flesh and blood assimilates for its nourishment becomes the flesh and blood of the incarnate Jesus by the power of his own words contained in the prayer of thanksgiving.
The apostles, in their recollections, which are called gospels, handed down to us what Jesus commanded them to do. They tell us that he took bread, gave thanks and said: Do this in memory of me. This is my body. In the same way he took the cup, he gave thanks and said: This is my blood. The Lord gave this command to them alone. Ever since then we have constantly reminded one another of these things. The rich among us help the poor and we are always united. For all that we receive we praise the Creator of the universe through his Son Jesus Christ and through the Holy Spirit.
On Sunday we have a common assembly of all our members, whether they live in the city or the outlying districts. The recollections of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as there is time. When the reader has finished, the president of the assembly speaks to us; he urges everyone to imitate the examples of virtue we have heard in the readings. Then we all stand up together and pray.
On the conclusion of our prayer, bread and wine and water are brought forward. The president offers prayers and gives thanks to the best of his ability, and the people give assent by saying, “Amen”. The eucharist is distributed, everyone present communicates, and the deacons take it to those who are absent.
The wealthy, if they wish, may make a contribution, and they themselves decide the amount. The collection is placed in the custody of the president, who uses it to help the orphans and widows and all who for any reason are in distress, whether because they are sick, in prison, or away from home. In a word, he takes care of all who are in need.
We hold our common assembly on Sunday because it is the first day of the week, the day on which God put darkness and chaos to flight and created the world, and because on that same day our savior Jesus Christ rose from the dead. For he was crucified on Friday and on Sunday he appeared to his apostles and disciples and taught them the things that we have passed on for your consideration.
Life in Our Own Image
Posted in Just Thinking Out Loud with tags Just Thinking Out Loud, life, Man, Quotes, Stephen Hawking on April 16, 2010 by JoannaStephen Hawking:
“I think computer viruses should count as life. I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. We’ve created life in our own image.”
God, the Fine-tuned Universe/Multi-verse
Posted in Just Thinking Out Loud, life with tags atheists, creation, creator, D'Souza, dimensions, God, Hawkins, Just Thinking Out Loud, life, multi-verse, Reflections, universe on April 15, 2010 by Joanna
Middle-age should be a thoughtful time. You be the judge:
(Speaking of Santa Claus) as unbelievable as those tales are from the north pole, the tales from Jerusalem leave it in the dust. Snakes that can talk, the Universe built from nothing in 7 days flat, procreation without copulation, walking on water, building a single ship to accommodate 3 million animals (1,589,361 species times two), turning water into wine, feeding 5000 people with a couple small fish a few loaves of bread, rising from the dead, etc… It certainly flies in the face of reason based on everything I’ve seen in this world, but it is firmly believed by at least a billion big humans on the planet tonight.
Just because it is the person’s will and desire to make it true, sadly does not make it truth.
I don’t doubt there is much more to this world than what we can see, hear, smell, feel, etc…. Quantum physics has gone much further and deeper than regular old atoms/matter… There are most likely many more dimensions than the four that we experience. I don’t even doubt the power of prayer or other group-think exercises.. I wholeheartedly support many of the values espoused by many of the religions of the world. I just am not buying the unbelievable stories sans proof and with so much proof against.
As to the four last things…
death — empirically it’s looming for all of us, no way around it.. is it final? not too sure — if consciousness survives to go another round, it probably has a more scientific multi-dimensional explanation.
judgment / heaven / hell — empirically haven’t seen any evidence of these, but it sure sounds like a good concept for a king to control a kingdom in the here and now. If I were the man behind the curtain, I’d be telling my subjects all about the this stuff to make sure they didn’t cause too many problems for me.”
This enlightened summation of the Bible, doesn’t actually deal with the Bible. Nowhere here is there evidence of serious inquiry. The understanding and reflection of holy men and scholars are rather ceremonially dismissed with ridicule and from a distance of disdain. The Holy Scripture, an anthology and compilation of priestly, prophetic, scholarly and apostolic construction guided by the Holy Spirit, suffers a verbal sortie of “trash talk.” I look for a sense of respect for the sacred and fail to find it.
What I see in the derision is a sophomoric cliff notes overview filled with disdain and a lack of true familiarity with the revealed Word of God. The foray is little more than a stylish dance of words and ego perhaps for the amusement of others. What is gained? What is lost? Knowledge? Grace? Having brushed aside the pesky gnat of Holy Revelation, the author reaches for the stars or to be more exact, to other dimensions. Though playful, the piece uncovers a well of cynicism usually reserved for the old and broken.
Does the grandeur of the Universe or a multi-verse diminish or dismiss a Creator? Doesn’t the smallest living cell give us a sense of a plan? Doesn’t a plan of necessity infer a planner, somewhat like finding a copy of Hamlet would point to a Shakespeare. Darwin conveniently starts with a creature with cells, so he doesn’t theorize about how they came to be- just how and/or why they might have changed.
Do untold dimensions rule out a Heaven or Hell, or increase the likelihood in the realm of the possibilities raised by new dimensions governed by rules unlike those of our own universe and time?
If the Universe, Time and the Laws that mapped out the direction of our destiny came into being with the Big Bang, what of these other dimensions, other Times and possibilities? “Eternity”, according to Dinesh D’Souza, “has become a coherent concept.” New universes, new dimensions, ergo new equations? While new stuffs and equations don’t equal life or worlds, we can dream dreams and wonder.
Stephen Hawking reveals that even he doesn’t know who or what put the fire into the stuff and equations. (“Even if there is only one possible unified theory, it is just a set of rules and equations. What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe?” Stephen Hawking)
By reaching for fantastic and even far-fetched ideas, the question of a Creator/God doesn’t go away. D’Souza does note that while there is evidence for the Big Bang there is not an iota of evidence for the multi-verse. However, in the multi-dimensional scenario, our existence is no longer improbable. In our Universe fine tuning is necessary for us to exist. Fine tuning is of course indicative of a plan. However in a multi-verse,we are no longer privileged and unique but possible and expected to have popped up along the way. By the same token, however, with the new multi-dimensionalism, the multi-verse, emerges new laws, new realms and new possibilities. The existence of Heaven and Hell now becomes as probable as any other combination of world characteristics. The pièce de résistance… there is nothing in the multi-dimensional theory that precludes a Creator. One can still see in the grandeur of the scheme of things, the One who schemes, just as a thought reveals a thinker.
Matter which is the stuff of atheistic materialism now serves to raise questions to which we thought we had the answers. Quantum theory pokes all kinds of holes in our understanding of matter. Atheists are big on matter but are they prepared to deal with Dark Energy and for that matter, Dark Matter. Ordinary matter and energy make up only 5% of the matter and energy in the universe. If 95% of all energy and matter is made up of dark energy and dark matter doesn’t that make all arguments about matter, as atheist insists on it operation, irrelevant. How can you make any claims for it, if you can only account for 5% of it, or so asks D’Souza.
We haven’t even touched on mind, consciousness which acts as an observer of the creation about us. What are the rules governing mind which is not matter/material. Mind and consciousness do exist but they are immaterial. If you doubt that, tell me how much a mind weighs? What are its dimensions, its length and width?
In the end, Quantum Theory is not an escape from God. It, rather, gives us pause to marvel at how God has chaos under control. Which brings us back to the Bible, the very beginning, Genesis: “the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind swept over the waters.” Genesis 1:2 “The waters” in biblical-speak refers to primordial chaos and “a mighty wind,” a poor translation of the Hebrew phrase “ruach Elohim” (literally the “wind/breath of God. ) While Science investigates Nature, God is not probed like a microbe or star dust. He is seen with the eye of Faith, keeping in mind that “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, nor the heart of man imagined, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.”1 Corinthians 2:9
Divine Mercy – Proof vs. Faith – A Study in Contrast
Posted in Catholic, Christ, Christian, Culture, Faith, Just Thinking Out Loud with tags Catholic, Christ, Christian, Culture, Darkness/Light, Divine Mercy, Faith, faithfu., faithless, Faustina, Just Thinking Out Loud, magisterium, pride, synic on April 14, 2010 by JoannaIn life God gives us time to probe the wounds:
H/T Julia : Golgotha of Jasna Gora – Artist: Jerzy Duda Gracz
Pride, the one man Magisterium speaking for this Age:
(Speaking of Santa Claus) as unbelievable as those tales are from the north pole, the tales from Jerusalem leave it in the dust. Snakes that can talk, the Universe built from nothing in 7 days flat, procreation without copulation, walking on water, building a single ship to accommodate 3 million animals (1,589,361 species times two), turning water into wine, feeding 5000 people with a couple small fish a few loaves of bread, rising from the dead, etc… It certainly flies in the face of reason based on everything I’ve seen in this world, but it is firmly believed by at least a billion big humans on the planet tonight. Just because it is the person’s will and desire to make it true, sadly does not make it truth. I don’t doubt there is much more to this world than what we can see, hear, smell, feel, etc…. Quantum physics has gone much further and deeper than regular old atoms/matter… There are most likely many more dimensions than the four that we experience. I don’t even doubt the power of prayer or other group-think exercises.. I wholeheartedly support many of the values espoused by many of the religions of the world. I just am not buying the unbelievable stories sans proof and with so much proof against.
As to the four last things…
death — empirically it’s looming for all of us, no way around it.. is it final? not too sure — if consciousness survives to go another round, it probably has a more scientific multi-dimensional explanation.
judgment / heaven / hell — empirically haven’t seen any evidence of these, but it sure sounds like a good concept for a king to control a kingdom in the here and now. If I were the man behind the curtain, I’d be telling my subjects all about the this stuff to make sure they didn’t cause too many problems for me.”
A Voice of Faith speaks:
“There is no soul more wretched than I am, as I truly know myself, and I am astounded that divine Majesty stoops so low. O eternity, it seems to me that you are too short to extol the infinite mercy of the Lord!
Once, the image was being exhibited over the altar during the Corpus Christi procession (June 20, 1935). When the priest exposed the Blessed Sacrament, another choir began to sing, the rays from the image pierced the Sacred Host and spread out all over the world. The I heard these words: These rays of mercy will pass through you, just as they have passed through this Host, and they will go out through all the world. At these words, profound joy invaded my soul. (Sr. M. Faustina Kowalska – St. Faustina canonized April 30, 2000, Divine Mercy Sunday, the Sunday after Easter 2000)
Happy Didgeridoo to You!
Posted in audio, Culture, Just Thinking Out Loud, Music with tags audio, Australia, Culture, Didgeridoo, instrument, Just Thinking Out Loud, Music on April 13, 2010 by JoannaA didgeridoo has entered the life of the Anchoress by way of her son. She may never get the rest she craves. Here’s why!
Life After Death: The Evidence
Posted in audio, Christian, Culture, Just Thinking Out Loud, People, Video with tags audio, Christian, Culture, Dinesh D'Souza, Just Thinking Out Loud, Life After Death, People, Reflections, Video on April 13, 2010 by JoannaEvolution – “Kinds Becoming Other Kinds”
Posted in Just Thinking Out Loud with tags cells, D'Souza, DNA, Evolution, Just Thinking Out Loud, life, reproduction on April 13, 2010 by JoannaEvolution, the theory of the origin of Life? I don’t think so. Dinesh D’Souza in “Life After Death, the Evidence” plays Devil’s Advocate and gets to the question Darwin avoids completely, the question of the cell – the building block of life, complete with DNA, a plan and a plant, a manufacturing plant that is. The cell is itself alive with wonder and activity without which any life could not be.
“How did we get cells? This is another way of asking how life began. Darwin didn’t even attempt to answer this question. He recognized that there is was no way to explain the integrated functionality of the cell by appealing to evolution or natural selection. Evolution itself presumes and requires cells that come fully formed with the capacity for metabolism and self-replication; no reproduction, no natural selection!
Clearly the basic template of life came fully formed when life first appeared on this earth about 4 billion years ago. Michael Shermer in “Why Darwin Matters” admits that Evolution is not a theory on the origins of life but of how kinds became other kinds.”
Time of Mercy Before “Day of Justice”
Posted in Catholic, Christ, Christian, Just Thinking Out Loud, Religion, Spiritual, St. Faustina with tags Catholic, Christ, Christian, Divine Mercy, Jesus, Just Thinking Out Loud, Kowalska, Last Days, predictions, prophecy, Reflections, Religion, saint, Spiritual, St. Faustina on April 13, 2010 by JoannaPerhaps, we are always to think of ourselves as living in “the Last Days”? After-all, the Christians of the very first century expected that the return of Jesus was imminent. As each arch-enemy to the Faith lifted his fist, there were those who saw Jesus’ Second Coming just over the horizon. The end didn’t come immediately, but purification came to prepare the way into the future, and with the future the promise of the Day of the Lord. Again and again, the Cross has led the way and with the Victorious Cross looms on the horizon in the East the promised Return.
What are we to make of these days? The Church gives us a new Saint in Sr. Faustina Kowalska, who spoke of “the Last Days,” because the Lord, Himself, put the words on her lips.
St. Faustina wrote in DIVINE MERCY IN MY SOUL The Diary of Sister M. Faustina Kowalska :
(Jesus to Sr. Faustina)
“Write this: before I come as the Just Judge, I am coming first as the King of Mercy. Before the day of Justice arrives, there will be given to people a sign in the Heaven of this sort:
All light in the heavens will be extinguished, and there will be a great darkness over the whole earth. Then the sign of the Cross will be seen in the sky, and from the openings where the hands and feet of the Savior were nailed will come forth great lights which will light up the earth for a period of time. This will take place shortly before the last day. “
St. Faustina wrote at the behest of Jesus. He called her, “My Secretary”.
“…In the old covenant I sent prophets wielding thunderbolts to my people. Today I am sending you with My mercy to the people of the whole world. I do not want to punish aching mankind but I desire to heal it pressing it to My merciful heart…” (Diary 1588)
“Your task is to write down everything that I make known to you about my mercy. For the benefit of those who by reading these things will be comforted in their souls and will have the courage to approach Me. I, therefore want you to devote all your free moments to writing.” (Diary 1693)
“…You are the secretary of My mercy. I have chosen you for that office in this life and the next life” (Diary 1605)
“…I demand that you devote all your free moments to writing about My goodness and mercy. It is your office and your assignment throughout your life to continue to make known to souls the great mercy I have for them and to exhort them to trust in My bottomless mercy” (Diary 1567)
“My daughter; tell souls that I am giving them My mercy as a defense. I, Myself, am fighting for them and am bearing the just anger of My Father.” (Diary 1516)
What’s Hot – What’s Not
Posted in Just Thinking Out Loud with tags Just Thinking Out Loud, thingies, tips on April 3, 2010 by JoannaSomebody stop me! or Obama Cures Insomnia: just ask him anything. ……..a la Wahington Post
How Hungry Can A Little Black Hole Be? - a question for Switzerland and the Large Hadron Collider folks……….a la Another Think
…..a la Glenn Reynolds
Surprise – Sin Abounds!
Posted in Catholic, Christian, Church, Faith, Just Thinking Out Loud, Lent with tags Catholic, Christian, Church, Faith, forgiveness, grace, Just Thinking Out Loud, Lent, perfection, Reflections, romans, sin on April 2, 2010 by Joanna
It should be no surprise; Sin abounds! The human race is awash with, riddles with, mired in and drowning under, Sin. It is our natural state of being without a Savior. From the day we are born, leaving Eden, so to speak, we become the star of our universe, maybe, more like a Black Hole. We can’t help trying to draw all things to ourselves. With myiads of rationalizations and excuses to suit our ages and pretensions, the event horizon is approached and we are doomed. Sin in its rational disguises is irrational and drives us like a madman. It is the Dark, clouding out the true Sun.
The real surprise in life is that where sin abounds grace abounds all the more! It can be stated that God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant. Romans 5:20.
Our Savior comes still today to save us. Being “churched” does not perfect us; God does, in His own time. If we open our hearts in repentance, Jesus gives us His forgiveness and cancels the debt against us. Perfect comes later, sometimes, much later.
The euphemistic blessing, “May you live in interesting times.” is said to be the least severe of three curses, the others being:
- “May you come to the attention of those in authority.”
“May you find what you are looking for.”
Fortunately, for us, the Living, we live in glorious times. Sin abounds and we are saved! God for His part has done the work, we need but claim the Victory. The offer is always at hand in nail-pierced hands. Grace abounds all the more! Alleluia!
Must Read: Why I Remain A Catholic
by Elizabeth Scalia The Anchoress
“Put Government in Support Role”
Posted in American, Just Thinking Out Loud with tags American, Just Thinking Out Loud, rasmussen on March 18, 2010 by JoannaSweet Confession Refreshing the Soul
Posted in Catholic, Christian, Church, Faith, Just Thinking Out Loud, Religion, Spiritual with tags abortion, Catholic, Christian, Church, compassion, confession, courage, Faith, Just Thinking Out Loud, reconciliation, Religion, Spiritual on March 3, 2010 by JoannaA young woman called into Immaculate Heart Radio,hesitantly asking the host, how to return to the Catholic Church. She had stopped going to church after the sixth grade in Catholic school. The caller described her life as, “let’s say a miserable life.” She had been thinking a lot about returning to the Church but had no idea how to proceed. The woman had had an abortion which now bothers her a great deal. “But, obviously, she said, “I can’t bring that life back.” All she wanted to know was could she come back and what was the way back?
Sweet Confession! Jimmy Akin, the host, gently described how to go about making her confession including the possibility of writing down what she couldn’t bring herself to say out loud. Impressed by his thoroughness and great compassion, I thought, wouldn’t it be wonderful if everyone thinking of coming close to God again could find a helping hand as well as the courageous this young woman found to take the first step.
H/T Anchoress for March 1st – to Confession.
The Archdiocese of New York , in a move that will be replicated in many Diocese throughout the country, will be offering ’round the clock confession on March 5-6.
A well-publicized 24-hour period of confessions has proved to be an effective invitation to the sacrament, and there are always big “turn-outs,” which some might find surprising. As I am swamped today (in a good way) I wanted to direct you to Deacon Greg’s very personal, thoughtful and inspiring story of his owntransformative experience of a confession, which occurred when his lukewarmness was giving away to renewed love for the sacraments and fervor for the Mercy of Christ ( more.)
