Getting to Nebraska, we passed a lot of dry, brown land. Colorful Colorado was a grayish tan. But here and there bright green fields told you things were ready to burst out at the first fall of rain.
On the surface things can look bleak. Beneath the surface, they are ready to pop. What I have to keep reminding myself is that life is thriving on planet Earth. God is in His heaven and that makes all the difference. Somewhere the bountiful and beautiful is happening, maybe not here, perhaps in distant, hidden places, but it’s happening and its abundant! While, there are dry spells, and dormant periods with things that go wrong, other things are so very right.
Change, for all my discomfort, is as ordinary as air. I know that if it’s happening, at very least, God is permitting it. He always has a plan and I don’t understand simply because He hasn’t run it past me. That does make even the present dilemma a work in progress – mysterious design and all that.
In the world or in the Church, it all hangs together. We are waiting for rain. John Paul II spoke of a Springtime for the Church and I believe that now, in this very dark hour, we are actually living it. Beneath the materialism and relativism and all those other ism’s, is a harvest in the making. It waits, perhaps, on laborers and a rain of prayer, but it none-the- less is hanging fire.
I find my Springtime in my prayer. Whether my experience of prayer is dry or consoling, doesn’t matter, anymore. I am praying. Day by day, I’m just doing it…. and I’m not alone in this. Whoever is waiting on change can actually move the hands of God in His heaven, turning the dreary grey of their waiting, into a poppin’ Springtime.
For me, it’s hidden but it’s happening. For each of us, it’s a “Just do it!” thing, hanging on a decision. What you don’t see, none-the-less, is building beneath the surface of our day to day. Days past, present and to come, days for forgiving, repenting, and imploring; all prayer, all the time. Springtime will come without me, but don’t want to miss it. I want to run through the fields and feel it in my soul.
No one can stop you from praying; not the liberals, the progressives,as they call themselves, not the brights, no government demagogue or Board of Education. Wake up America! God is waiting for an honest conversation. Pray without ceasing…. and no less! Who will stop your inner dialogue? Who will monitor your thoughts? Who will censor your constant bombardment of the Divine with the entreaty that His Will be done?
Do it, America! Your life depends on it. Your children deserve it. For your own sake, your God demands it. God is not an afterthought, waiting for you to solve your problems. God is the prime-mover, the beginning and the end.
If my people, upon whom my name has been pronounced, humble themselves and pray, and seek my presence and turn from their evil ways, I will hear them from heaven and pardon their sins and revive their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14
In a universe replete with Space and Time and Bounty,
the Sign of the Times reads “No Room In The Inn.”
Conceived first in the Mind of God, and then in Mother’s womb.
There remains but little of Time for you.
Come home to My Arms, O Little One.
Outside of Time, in Mysterious Space,
My Angels will sing you a welcome.
Home, now, the Sonshine of Father’s Face.
Everyday begins with God’s mercy. Everyday is a new beginning. As we open our eyes on this day, we begin again. As long as we are living and breathing this side of the Judgment, the sun comes up on our second chance.
Lent is the trumpeter sounding before the Final Trumpet of our lives. The noise of cacophony is interrupted with a clarion call “Repent.”
“For He says: ‘In an acceptable time. I heard you, and on the Day of Salvation I helped you.’ Behold, now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is the Day of Salvation.”2 Cor 6:2
The death penalty is being debated in New Mexico. “It’s quite a debate” according to my pastor who finds irony in the fact that this debate rages while the death penalty is in fact “the most common penalty” known to man. “Every single one of us is under a sentence. We are born, so to speak, with a noose around our necks.”
“Our death is an absolute certainty..no second chances, no reincarnation!… ‘Human beings die once, and then the Judgment.’ Hebrews 9:27 ” What our pastor finds absolute madness, “insanity to the highest degree,” is that most people on this “Death March” to the grave, never ever stop to consider their end. “If we die in a state of grace, we shall live for all eternity. If we die in mortal sin, we shall be damned for all eternity.” No do-overs!
“The only guarantee of dying a holy death is living a holy life,” Monsignor Raun concluded.
Be Holy! 