All thanks and gratitude arise to dance before Your throne.
All praise and honor bow with swelling heart to glorify my God.
Make me a vessel overflowing,
A chalice full of grace willing for the good,
Desiring but one All Holy Love.© 2013 Joann Nelander
Tag Archives: Religion and Spirituality
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The Crisis of the Western World
“The crisis of the Western world exists to the degree in which it is indifferent to God.” Whittaker Chambers
William F. Buckley Jr.called this Russian spy, Whittaker Chambers, “the most important American defector from Communism.” Whittaker had lived under such indifference and saw its consequences. Empirical evidence led to his change of heart and country. He warned us to be vigilant. Are we vigilant?
We are living in a society that prides itself on its humanity, and credits itself with such as its accomplishment, all the while, being unaware of the source of such blessedness. We are living and enjoying the vestiges, perhaps,the last vestiges of Judeo-Christian ethic, morality and virtue.
Do we yet recognize the Western world’s indifference to God? Let’s start with the image of God. Where do we find it if not imprinted on every child created within Woman? Look at the way that child is provided for, by God’s design, within the woman’s womb. “Love”, “nurture”, “protection”, all these words and more come to mind. How do we recognize God, if not primarily in His creation.
Many think themselves, their thought and policies, humane, yet act in a way that can only be characterized as “sub-humane” toward the image of God in the womb. Where are we in our Western thought and society? Can we recognize Crisis when confronted with it. Do we even care?
Perhaps, God is confined to the box with such as the Sunday morning sermon, forgotten as we get back to “the real world.” God, the Creator of All, a matter of indifference!? His life and image in the flesh and substance of every innocent human procreation goes unrecognized in our law and land. Where the sublime humanity of this age?
Remember The Poor | The Jewish Week
Remember The Poor | The Jewish Week
Increasingly in modern society we do not see the poor in our daily lives. Wealth insulates and allows us to live among others who are doing well. There are still numerous challenges to life, but the grinding poverty that is a feature of so much of the world (and was prevalent throughout the ancient world) plays an increasingly small role in our everyday reality.
That separation is call to conscience. Our good fortune should be a spur to empathy and compassion. We who are so blessed must be more beneficent; we who have more gifts must show more gratitude. God has “grasped you by the hand … and appointed you … to bring prisoners from the dungeon” (Is. 42:6,7). Our mission is goodness and the right time is always now.
Practice What You Preach
From a sermon given during the last synod he attended, by Saint Charles, bishop
Practice what you preachI admit that we are all weak, but if we want help, the Lord God has given us the means to find it easily. One priest may wish to lead a good, holy life, as he knows he should. He may wish to be chaste and to reflect heavenly virtues in the way he lives. Yet he does not resolve to use suitable means, such as penance, prayer, the avoidance of evil discussions and harmful and dangerous friendships. Another priest complains that as soon as he comes into church to pray the office or to celebrate Mass, a thousand thoughts fill his mind and distract him from God. But what was he doing in the sacristy before he came out for the office or for Mass? How did he prepare? What means did he use to collect his thoughts and to remain recollected?
Would you like me to teach you how to grow from virtue to virtue and how, if you are already recollected at prayer, you can be even more attentive next time, and so give God more pleasing worship? Listen, and I will tell you. If a tiny spark of God’s love already burns within you, do not expose it to the wind, for it may get blown out. Keep the stove tightly shut so that it will not lose its heat and grow cold. In other words, avoid distractions as well as you can. Stay quiet with God. Do not spend your time in useless chatter.
If teaching and preaching is your job, then study diligently and apply yourself to whatever is necessary for doing the job well. Be sure that you first preach by the way you live. If you do not, people will notice that you say one thing, but live otherwise, and your words will bring only cynical laughter and a derisive shake of the head.
Are you in charge of a parish? If so, do not neglect the parish of your own soul, do not give yourself to others so completely that you have nothing left for yourself. You have to be mindful of your people without becoming forgetful of yourself.
My brothers, you must realize that for us churchmen nothing is more necessary than meditation. We must meditate before, during and after everything we do. The prophet says: I will pray, and then I will understand.When you administer the sacraments, meditate on what you are doing. When you celebrate Mass, reflect on the sacrifice you are offering. When you pray the office, think about the words you are saying and the Lord to whom you are speaking. When you take care of your people, meditate on the Lord’s blood that has washed them clean. In this way, all that you do becomes a work of love.
This is the way we can easily overcome the countless difficulties we have to face day after day, which, after all, are part of our work: in meditation we find the strength to bring Christ to birth in ourselves and in other men.
The #Saints Crowned in Glory
The Saints are longing for us,
Longing that we share their glory.
No harm in such ambition,
Says Bernard.This glory is to be spread abroad
By God’s sovereignty
And generosity.
This glory is none other
Than the glory in which the Father
Robed His dying Son.It is now reflected in His Saints,
Who in life picked up their cross,
And followed Him upon their knees.The battle they fought on Earth now is ours.
They continue with us,
The Church Triumphant,
Pleading for the Church Militant.Blessed are those who were poor in spirit,
Who were merciful, loving their enemies,
Who mourned and who were persecuted,
Who were pure of heart,
And sought peace
Through the wood of the Cross.Blessed are all those gathered
To the Father’s bosom.
Blessed are they and generous,
Interceding for the saints,
As they look for us to follow in their steps.Brothers and Sisters,
Radiant in glory,
Beam forth Christ.All happiness to His Saints
Rewarded now and forever.
All glory to the Father,
The Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen!By Joann Nelander
Be Holy! 