Not sure where I found this painting or the words:
Nikolai Ge’s 1891 painting Conscience, Judas shows us a more layered Judas, here grasping his cloak tight around him, the darkness closing him, the light of Jesus being led away shrinking in the distance, the weight of his betrayal sinking in. Treachery has left its mark on all involved. The betrayed as well as the betrayer. Jesus as well as Judas. Here, alone in the dark, Judas finds himself — as I so often find myself — betraying that which he was meant to love. We, as Christians go with Jesus to the cross. Yet, we as Christians, too, stay with Judas in the garden as the dark closes in, mourning our betrayals.
For as long as I could remember, before my conversion began, I used to think of Judas as just a misunderstood soul, trapped for some reason, in the “Bad Guy” role for what he had to do to our Lord. Until I came to hear and ponder this scripture:
“But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected,”Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.” John 12:4-6
With the imagery of Judas, being a thief while he was with our Lord and the Apostles, stealing from them, I can’t help but ponder now, the Good Thief and the Bad Thief, crucified alongside our Lord. The Good Thief being the Apostles who did repent and turn back to our Lord, and Judas, having the time and being given everything he could to turn back to our Lord, being the bad thief and not changing, not taking advantage of the grace he was given to repent in the presence of our Lord.
For someone to hang himself for what he had done, I do know he was a troubled soul with a conscience that would not allow him to rest, who was unable to face life anymore, who was unable to go to the Apostles to seek forgiveness from his brothers because of one simple thing. Pride. The rest of the Apostles were just as guilty of other sins, but did not take their own lives. They repented. They held their ground and asked for forgiveness.
I don’t like to think about Judas as I am sure not many do like to think about him. We all hate to come to the realization that we all have a little Judas in us at some time, that truly needs to be purged and replaced with grace and mercy.
Lord Jesus, you were betrayed by the kiss of a friend:
be with those who are betrayed and slandered and falsely accused.
You knew the experience of having your love
thrown back in your face for mere silver
be with families which are torn apart by mistrust or temptation.
To you, Jesus, who offered your face to your betrayer,
be honor and glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
now and forever. Amen.
O Jesus,
I pray for your faithful and fervent priests;
For your unfaithful and tepid priests;
For your priests laboring at home or
abroad in distant mission fields.
For your tempted priests;
For your lonely and desolate priests;
For your young priests;
For your dying priests;
For the souls of your priests in Purgatory.
But above all, I recommend to you
the priests dearest to me:
The priest who baptized me;
The priests who absolved me from my sins;
The priests at whose Masses I assisted and who gave me
Your Body and Blood in Holy Communion;
The priests who taught and instructed me;
All the priests to whom I am indebted in any other way
(especially).
O Jesus, keep them all close to your heart,
And bless them abundantly in time and in Eternity.
Amen By St. Therese of Lisieux
Pray for Priests and Vocations
“Now we ask you to respect those who work hard
among you. Hold them in the highest regard in love
because of their work.” (1 Thess. 5:12, 13, NIV)
I reached that point in my conversion back home to where our Lord has told me to go and LIVE. Its been 17 years on this road to this point.. (no, its not over, Its a lifelong process until He takes me home)
For a while, I began to feel like a pill bug, turned in on myself afraid to move, for a VERY long time. I can only assume it needed to be, in order for me to see myself, in every direction, for who I was and for who God created me to be. But more to see God for who He is. I take His words to heart now: “Be not afraid”. Rather than taking them in fear and trembling… Thank you Lord. Glory to God.
I TRUST in You O Lord.
EDIT TO ADD:
We can’t all have that metamorphosis in such a grand way as the worms changing to butterflies. Sometimes, all the changes that need to take place are simply in direction…
This IS Demonic America. Even the LEAST faithful soul who believes in God, knows the devil is real and demons are real.
1 John 5:19
“We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.” Who is controlling you and your family? What do you place first? That is what is controlling you and your family…
You probably saw my post Sister explains the situation. Spittle-flecked nutty, bullying, intimidation ensue.
Sr. Jane Laurel, OP, gave a talk at a Catholic High School. Hell broke loose.
If you want to sample her talks, go HERE. Her talk at the High School was “Masculinity & Femininity: Difference & Gift”. Presentations with that title are on that website. Listen to a few. At the High School, Sister included comments about homosexuality, divorce and single parents. Some people lost their minds. Read more here.
I suspect that what happened, to build this up into such a thing, is that parents heard vague reports – I say vague because teens are such great sources of accuracy in reporting – about her remarks from their politically-correctly conditioned children and, stung in conscience, got out the pitchforks and torches.
The nutty built up into grand mal nutty in the form of the increasingly inevitable “town hall” meeting.
Am I entirely off base here? Did Sister actually say things that were so outrageous, so unacceptable, so lacking in truth and in charity, that the resulting furor was appropriate, proportionate and justified? Really? Go listen to some of her talks using that link, above. Does it seem likely?
Now I read that Sister is going to have a sabbatical. HERE
It looks as if Alinsky’s Rules were at work here. “The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself. … Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.”
Look. This is just the starting line for some observations.
It seems to me that this sad episode is one of many which reveal the building in our midst of a mob mentality akin to that which drove the Salem Witch Trials. If you speak in public now with any clarity about the Church’s teachings on sexuality, marriage, etc., or avert to conclusions which rational people reach about the same derived from the Natural Law, you will be met with fury. “I saw Lizzie Procter speaking with the devil!” Well… bad example, since most of the people who will join the snarling pack likely don’t believe in the devil.
There is a new and twisted “normal” coalescing. This new “normal”, violating the dictates of reason, will prompt the more aggressive and ideologically driven to impose iron norms, which, when violated, will spark vicious attacks from the now easily manipulated mob.
Watching episode in Charlotte build, I had the image of one of those mobs protests a G8 meeting. In these mobs there are professional instigators, anarchists and so forth, who are dedicated to getting the crowd of the curious, the young, the dumb, the enthusiastic, etc., whipped up into a frenzy. Then, as the frenzy rises, someone pitches a garbage can through a shop window and the havoc begins.
What is happening in our society that accepts so readily the hounding to ruin of the head of some business because he says that he supports true, natural marriage and does not endorse homosexual unions?
Surely there is something of a mob mentality building, and swiftly. The speed is driven by the new phenomenon of social media arriving in your hand 24/7. It is also driven by the erosion of the ability of many to reason (thanks to decades of poor education) and incessant mass media exaltation of self-satisfaction and base carnality, which also switches off higher functions.
But there is also something of the demonic in this present movement.
Some of you readers will remember back in the 50′s and 60′s the benign anti-littering campaigns. “Don’t be a litter bug!” education camps once teachers in schools were daily pounding on their empty-skulls heads about “pollution”. That campaign was probably also an outgrowth of the early ecology movement and neo-Malthusian efforts, but, hey, cleaner streets and roads were good.
Gramsci got it right: get control of the schools and, over time, you’ll control everything else. Have an agenda? Focus on school curricula and teachers. Extirpate anyone who doesn’t conform. Silence any discordant voice.
The campaign that we are seeing now, however, anything but benign. It is brush fire fast and there is in it something of the demonic.
The good news? God already won… The choice is yours to make.
In the recent events of the CEO of Mozilla and now another man from another site being fired from their jobs because in 2008 who supported Traditional Marriage, I see the entire world consumed by hate.
All the rhetoric from the secular world for years, about how the Church hunted down “Witches” is coming back to bite the very accusers.
Hate beguiles hate, and when we hate another with such venom and destruction, we become the very thing we hate. The secular world is now on a “Witch” hunt, seeking to destroy anyone and any idea that does not comply with their way of thinking.
The world that despised what it thought was hate, has been consumed by its own hatred…
Here is the thing.. There will come a time when he can’t do this anymore and he will need someone else to do this. To often we look and say, boy that was great when SO & SO used to do this or that.I miss that. I miss them..
The reality is we miss the message to pick up where he or she left off, and do it where we are, right now.
Please read and DO! Far to many souls receive our Lord like they are buying a new pair of shoes…
Taken from Saint Peters List:
Personal Prudence and Objective Standards
1. Presenting oneself to receive Holy Communion should be a conscious decision, based on a reasoned judgment regarding one’s worthiness to do so, according to the Church’s objective criteria, asking such questions as: “Am I in full communion with the Catholic Church? Am I guilty of grave sin? Have I incurred a penalty (e.g. excommunication, interdict) that forbids me to receive Holy Communion? Have I prepared myself by fasting for at least an hour?” The practice of indiscriminately presenting oneself to receive Holy Communion, merely as a consequence of being present at Mass, is an abuse that must be corrected (cf. Instruction “Redemptionis Sacramentum,” nos. 81, 83).
Abortion, Euthanasia, and the Law
2. The Church teaches that abortion or euthanasia is a grave sin. The Encyclical Letter Evangelium vitae, with reference to judicial decisions or civil laws that authorize or promote abortion or euthanasia, states that there is a “grave and clear obligation to oppose them by conscientious objection. […] In the case of an intrinsically unjust law, such as a law permitting abortion or euthanasia, it is therefore never licit to obey it, or to ‘take part in a propaganda campaign in favour of such a law or vote for it’” (no. 73). Christians have a “grave obligation of conscience not to cooperate formally in practices which, even if permitted by civil legislation, are contrary to God’s law. Indeed, from the moral standpoint, it is never licit to cooperate formally in evil. […] This cooperation can never be justified either by invoking respect for the freedom of others or by appealing to the fact that civil law permits it or requires it” (no. 74).
For longer than I can remember, I have come to accept the evil one has taken control of my dreams. Hear me out. But he can only set the stage. He can not control the content, nor the direction. I only know this because I have not been able to stop dreaming about someone in my past. This person is NEVER in my thoughts, words, desires nor is his name ever on my lips. I could care less about this particular person or where he is or doing. I forgave him and prayed for his conversion. He was someone who I loved very much and was hurt by immensely but I had forgiven him and moved on.
I KNOW the evil one is doing this because of the state of my soul at the time I was with this person. The evil one keeps trying to bring this person back into my thoughts and actions, by trying to make me do things that in my stupidity while with this person I would have done without even thinking, and I find it rather funny because the devil is showing his cards and he lost. I forgave this man for doing what he had done to me. I released him. Its obvious, the devil hasn’t gotten the memo. I had also repented deeply for being that person and our Lord is showing me, who He intended me to be. No more to chase after the things and people that used to hold me back from who He, our Lord, needed me to be. Who He created me to be. I love our Lord.
Every time I dream about this person, it’s always in his home where he can control the situation. Its his turf and I am unwelcome. It’s always the same. The house is falling down and held together by garbage that he treasured over me. He is always very plastic in his actions to me and is always waiting for someone other than me to come over and my being there is just another inconvenience. The only reason I am there ever in my dream is a mystery. Last night was different. He told me, you can stay here with me, I missed you and my response back to him, but I don’t love you that way. I don’t want to be with you.I never want to be with you.
Prayers please, that these dreams stop already. I haven’t lost any sleep over them, because our Lord is protecting me. I do love this person as if I didn’t, I would have never forgiven him nor would I pray for him and his family. But I do not want to dream about him anymore. He is NOT my dream boy and that ship sailed a long time ago.
I know I am battling Satan. I may not ever be able to defeat Satan.. but I, through Christ have defeated my sins and death. That is enough… Game over “It was you who saved us, Lord: we will praise your name without ceasing.”
Glory to God.
Its Saturday and now two days after my surgery. I want to thank all my readers for your prayers for me. Its been a wonderful couple of days spent in total prayer, while all this has been taking place.
I’ll share with you a bit…
I had planned on attending Holy Mass before my surgery on Thursday as it was scheduled for 11:00 AM. My plans did not pan out. I wanted to attend Mass, get anointed and receive our Lord only then to be shuttled away to the hospital for my surgery.
It seems our Lord had different plans. My doctor’s office called on Monday to inform me that the time had changed and I needed to be at the hospital by 5:30 AM on Thursday morning. So I made a point of getting to Holy Mass on Wednesday morning, received our Lord and was anointed before going in for all my preliminary tests. I had planned on receiving the sacrament of Confession Wednesday night and was still able to do so. I do understand that receiving the Anointing of the Sick wipes away all my sins and at that moment I was covered, but seeing that the Sacrament of Confession was available, and I knew there were things I felt I needed to say, I went.
I arrived at the church and as I began to walk into the hall, I could smell incense. I smiled as I walked in not expecting to see what I was seeing. It was our Lord in Exposition! Keep in mind, this particular church had suffered a fire at the hands of an arsonist in October and was not able to use the Sacristy. Our Lord was in Exposition on what used to be the Schools stage. As I write this now, I understand our Lord speaking to me and telling me that He is not pretending. He was never “acting” when he said “Take, eat; this is My body.” And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.”. What He is doing to me and others is not pretend. Its not an act as the world would assume it to be, but an act of God.
The Sacrament of Confession was still offered and two Priests were available. It was as if I had seen the Holy Trinity of Healing in the presence of our Lord in the Eucharist, in the Priests hearing confessions and in His words not only of Absolution of sins but in every single word He had said.
This truly is Him. In all the years I had been chasing after what I wanted to see Him to be, what I wanted Him to be, this is truly who He is. Simplicity.
I was able to spend time with Him that night before my surgery and it was beautiful. I have been in prayer ever since. When I woke up in recovery, the surgical team asked me if I needed anything and the first thing off my lips was yes! I need a Catholic Priest to bring me my Lord. I’m sure I threw them for a loop because the look on their faces was somewhat puzzled. I knew that our Lord was there with us, but I couldn’t control my tongue. Someone needed to hear what I had said..
I can’t tell you how beautiful this past few days have been. Thursday night as I lay in bed, my pain medication began to wear off and the bedroom door was closed. I couldn’t yell because the pain was rather high. I asked our Lord to please send my husband to bring me pain meds and not five seconds later, I heard my husband walking down the hall, and he entered my room to ask me if I needed anything. I knew in an instant, that was our Lord answering prayer, very quickly.
Glory to God! One more thing before I go back to resting that I need to say, and this goes for the body and soul, you never realize how sick you are until you begin to heal. When the soul can see even the slightest change for the better, the soul makes every effort to pull closer to God. When the body sees how sick it is, it makes every attempt to become healed…
Until later, God bless you all and thank you for your prayers. Keep them coming and I continue to pray for all of you! I love you!
Spent some time with our Lord in Exposition. Strange thing took place, like always LOL. A thought of how wonderful it was to finally be back home (In the Catholic Church) after being separated for so long came, as I knelt in front of our Lord and as always I thanked Him for His grace and love..
I remembered something personal, about how the bells would ring out for a returning repentant sinner. LMBO as I got in my car on the way home, the radio station decided to play a Block of Bell songs. It was songs all about bells on my way home and the last one to play was If Only You Knew by Patti Labelle… You tell me.
As I got ready to go to bed, I opened Divine Office and began to pray. Part of the prayers for the night included:
1 Corinthians 2:7-10a
What we utter is God’s wisdom: a mysterious, a hidden wisdom. God planned it before all ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age knew the mystery; if they had known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory. Of this wisdom it is written:
“Eye has not seen, ear has not heard
nor has it so much as dawned on man
what God has prepared for those who love him.”
Yet God has revealed this wisdom to us through the Spirit.
Glory to God!
LMBO! After posting this story on this blog, I tried to share it on Stumble. LMBO It wouldn’t let me. I couldn’t STUMBLE! LMBO Glory to God (Not making this up)
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for me. Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on me, a sinner…
Hello my wonderful readers (Brothers & Sisters in Christ). I have a personal prayer request. We all need prayers and I am no different. I am asking for your prayers for me, as I am going in for gallbladder surgery in the next few days. I have had some other health issues including a partially collapsed lung and some nodules found on my thyroid along with a hiatal hernia that is producing an over abundance of acid so much so that it is finding its way into my lungs. Yup! I’m a mess but I have for many years been offering up all my suffering to our Lord. If it is Gods will that this is my time, let it be known that I join all my suffering to His, including my death. In that case, please pray for my soul. I trust in our Lord as He is the spouse of my soul. The foundation of my faith has always been rooted in the fact, He said so. No matter how frightening things have been or can be the simple fact our Lord has said and done everything already, is consolation enough for me to understand, His will be done, not mine. I have received Anointing of the Sick and if any of my readers are in the same health way as I am, please go and be anointed before any medical procedure like surgery.. Its best to be prepared.
Please pray for my healing and for my children and husband to pull closer to our Lord during this time . God bless you and thank you. I love you.
EDIT TO ADD: I received my Surgery date and it seems its going to be held off until March 13th, 2014 at 11:00 AM. Glory to God.
This is what ZERO light from man looks like. The Church of the Good Shepherd on New Zealand’s South Island is surrounded by starlight, thanks in part to night-sky preservation efforts
This is what light pollution prevents you from seeing: The constellation Orion, imaged at left from dark skies, and at right from within the Provo/Orem, Utah metropolitan area.
In the photo above, I can imagine our souls, dim with sin looking the same way…
“Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born.
” Revelation 12:4 Comes to mind…
A Facebook Friend posted something very interesting this morning on Light Pollution. She said she had never heard of it and I found her comments rather sad. You see, when I was very little, my dad would break out his telescope and we would look at the stars. It was a time that was beautiful. He used to tell me all the time about light pollution. He would tell me of a sky FULL of stars where a telescope was not needed because the beauty was breathtaking as it was.
As cities grew and crime became a greater issue, more man-made lights became needed. All that was needed was one crime and blaming it on darkness (lack of light) rather than actual (darkness of evil). What causes a man to commit crimes? Certainly not the fact that it is dark outside, but rather there is a darkness within.
You see, when man loses sight of God and His creation, he forgets that God is watching him. He forgets that God is God. He begins to make himself a god.
Such is evil in this world in the ways it seeks to trick the soul into believing it needs what it is providing much more than what God has created for it, to see God in His creation, to adore Him and give Him the glory since the beginning. This is where evil separates man from God. When you can no longer see or hear Him, man forgets about his need for Him and life becomes “dark”. Slowly removing the Light of God, and replacing Him with mans own “creation”…
We had a MAJOR power outage in 2011. No power was available from San Diego to AZ. We were celebrating Rosaries for Peace and had a precession of Our Lady of Fatima planned just before the power went out. We continued on without electric. The moon was full and beautiful in the sunset sky as the procession began.
It was SPECTACULAR! Inside the Church everything was candlelit throughout the entire Mass. When I arrived home after, driving through town without any lights anywhere, I was amazed to see how BEAUTIFUL the sky was. How peaceful the night was. People were out and enjoying the evening.
I was able to see things I never dreamt of before. It was the most beautiful night I had ever had in my life. Granted, it was spent with our Lord in one of the most spectacular ways it could have been in this world. I am very happy without “light pollution”. As I am just as happy right now with it.
Revelation 22:5 There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.
Glory to God….
After understanding my FB Friend had no clue what I was talking about, and telling me good luck with banning the sale of light bulbs, I had to clarafy what I am actually speaking about to her:
The price has already been paid to let the light shine from within. But the world doesn’t want that. It wants to suck the faithful into the “black hole” of its “manufactured light”. All you have to do is “plug in” to what our Lord is telling you. The reason manufactured light is used today is for “security”. LOL Do you see what I am talking about now? Trying to stop the sale of light bulbs would do nothing nor is that even where my thoughts are. My heart knows, man is so infatuated with false security that they do not understand Gods security. We live in an imperfect world, I can not change that. I do however understand it.
“We can find such reasons in the order and beauty of creation itself, which speaks of its Creator; in the longing for the infinite present in the human heart, which finds satisfaction in God alone; and in faith, which illumines and transforms our lives through our daily union with the Lord. By the witness of our living faith, may we lead others to know and love the God who reveals himself in Christ.” – Pope Benedict XVI
The flower-like image of this star-forming region in Earth’s southern skies was imaged using a 64-megapixel Mosaic imaging camera on the National Science Foundation’s Victor M. Blanco telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory.
Cometary globules are isolated, relatively small clouds of gas and dust within the Milky Way. This example, called CG4, is about 1,300 light years from Earth. Its head is some 1.5 light-years in diameter, and its tail is about eight light-years long. The dusty cloud contains enough material to make several Sun-sized stars. CG4 is located in the constellation of Puppis.
The head of the nebula is opaque, but glows because it is illuminated by light from nearby hot stars. Their energy is gradually destroying the dusty head of the globule, sweeping away the tiny particles which scatter the starlight. This particular globule shows a faint red glow from electrically charged hydrogen, and it seems about to devour an edge-on spiral galaxy (ESO 257-19) in the upper left. In reality, this galaxy is more than a hundred million light-years further away, far beyond CG4. The image from the Blanco 4-meter telescope was taken in four filters, three of which are for blue, green and near-infrared light. The fourth is designed to isolate a specific color of red, known as hydrogen-alpha, which is produced by warm hydrogen gas.
Pondering the thought of anyone who subscribes to “We have to save the Catholic Church”. Huh? She never needs to be saved. EVER! Our Lord said so. The Catholic Church does not need you to save her. She is here to save you. Period.
There is NOTHING to fix. There is NOTHING to save in regards to the Church. She is the perfection of our Lord. She is here to save us!
I came across the story while walking through my family’s past, reminiscing about my Great Uncle in Slovakia who survived the Nazis and the Communists. Some days I am just overwhelmed by not being able to stop thinking about what took place in that time. How so many souls went to their death in Nazi Camps. How souls living near the camps allowed it as if it was nothing. Because they just didn’t care and it didn’t affect them. I would be willing to bet the justifications by so many today FOR Abortion, and pro Choice are exactly the same as the justifications by those who did NOTHING to stop the slaughter of millions back then. Today, truly is no different. With great understanding, nothing has changed.
While the Nazis nurtured the illusion of limitless technological and social progress and a racially purified utopian worker/agricultural paradise…they created the archetypal “culture of death”
The Germans murdered over a million Jewish children. Like the sick and the old, they were viewed as useless mouths to feed and often among the first killed. Some were used in medical experiments, but newborns were typically murdered at birth. – Sound familiar today? Tell me what has changed? Nothing. Evil always hides behind a name. Nazi was that name in the 30’s & 40’s. But the evil is still here. Hiding behind another name. The key is not to stamp out the name, but the evil itself. As long as we continue to feed the “culture of death”, by way of complicity, lackadaisical caring, or just not giving a damn, we are doomed to repeat the past. And we are repeating it today. How many children today are murdered daily through Abortion because we view them as less than human? How about post birth abortion? Aborted children used in stem cell research? How can they be less then human when we ourselves we that little once. They are no less human than you or I.
This is not just the “culture of death” mentality but evil itself. The pro death (Pro Abortion) argument today is no different than the pro Nazi argument of the past. Its LEGAL. Just because man creates a law that goes against what is right, does not make it okay.
Can you all see what is going on today? Can you see the facts? Can you see how evil has exposed itself for what it truly is? Its time to get back to God boys & girls…
This isn’t a joke…This isn’t a game. This isn’t a drill. This is evil exposed. This is your chance to escape. Return to your first Love. Repent…
March For Life 2014. Prayers for all the “Catholics” who support the culture of death through ignorance about their Catholic Faith. There is no such thing as a Pro Abortion or Pro Choice Practicing Catholic.
Man gives up everything, walks across U.S. making reparation for sins of abortion, family breakdown
Thank you Mark. May God bless you and protect you. Please keep him in your prayers and pray to end abortion worldwide.
TEXAS, January 7, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – It can be a temptation living in these dark times to simply throw up one’s hands in despair as the world descends from one blackness into another. But accepting defeat has never been an option for Mark Byerly.
Instead of standing idly by witnessing western civilization become more and more corroded through abortion, the breakdown of marriage and family, and the loss of a sense of sin, the 49-year-old decided on a radical course of action: He would embark on a journey across America on foot, praying for the spiritual needs of his countrymen.
“Ultimately, I just couldn’t stand around and watch this happen anymore,” Byerly told LifeSiteNews.com by phone during his brief stop in Odessa, Texas for Christmas.
Byerly’s journey would be a pilgrimage of penance, prayer, and sacrifice to make amends for his own crimes and the crimes of others committed against God and neighbor.
The word “pilgrim” conjures up images of someone from the Middle Ages dressed in tattered robes and traveling across Europe or Russia with a staff and a ragged bundle slung across his back. While Byerly is a modern pilgrim with modern tools, such as an iPad for communicating and for tracing out his route, he is driven by that same mysterious hunger felt by pilgrims of all ages, a hunger for God and for his Kingdom to come.
Byerly set out on his pilgrimage from his hometown of Newark, Delaware on July 25, 2013. Prior to this he had disentangled himself of his worldly responsibilities. He left a successful job as a manager of a private Spanish restaurant. Then he gave away, sold, or threw out everything he owned, except for what he needed for his journey.
Please continue reading at the link in the story above.
A week ago, I was contacted by a man with questions about Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. I was taken back at his call because I had not been the Captain of the Adoration Society for at least 8 months. You see, he held on to a very old Church bulletin with my contact information inside, in regards to sitting with our Lord.
As the call came, I was going to give him the churches contact information and send him on his way. He began to ask questions, and I knew in my heart he was crying for help. As we talked he opened up, and the Holy Spirit began to do His work. The man on the other end of the phone, began to tell me what he had been through in the past few years, and ever time he said a word, I could see myself. In all he was saying, I had been there. You see, the man, who I will call David, was emptying his heart out to me, in regards to how he wanted to come back home to the Catholic Faith.
Since my ties to the parish he was inquiring about had been in the past, I gave him the contact information to do what he needed to do. We talked for over an hour and he made it very clear, he was screaming for Our Lord to help him. We cried together in discussing the faith and the love our Lord has for us, and the rocky road we had been on. I was overcome with a love that no one could understand. I could see the pain this man was in and knew the help he needed as I had screamed out for the same help many years ago. When I was lost, unknowingly on the road “down from Jerusalem to Jericho.”
A few days later, he called me back and in the midst of our conversation, he had revealed to me that no one was contacting him for the numbers I had given to him. He then began to reveal many struggles he was enduring even in his own home for simply praying. He began to pray more, and his sisters began chastising him. “What are you praying for?” Why do you want to go to Church?” “Whats wrong with you?” “Are you crazy?”. Simply because he was turning away from sin, and to our Lord. This poor man was being “beaten” and “robbed” of his faith in his own family.
I had a few concerns in speaking to him as I was now Married and in all honesty, I didn’t think it was a good idea to carry on a relationship, EVEN one on one Spiritually, with someone I had not known, nor who had known my husband. In listening to David, he had revealed to me that he had a cousin who was a Catholic Priest but had not talked to him in some time. I advised David that he NEEDED a good strong Spiritual adviser to help him out and since no one was getting back to him, it would be a fantastic idea to contact his cousin the Priest. David agreed, and begged me to join him in Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament on Friday, as he was afraid to go alone, and so I agreed to join him.
Not sure of David would call his Priest Cousin, I tracked him down myself. I had given Father the background and told him that I would LOVE to continue to help David, but didn’t think it would be good, under my circumstances. He had revealed to me that David did in fact contact him but he wanted to talk to me first and was glad he did. He assured me that David would have adequate care now in his spiritual needs. I said “God bless you Father”, and hung up the phone, knowing I had brought this beaten man to the Doctor that can nurse him back to health.
Last night, while praying Divine Office, as I arrived at Psalm 91, I remembered what it was like to be a small child. To be secure. To be protected. To be safe. To be loved. To not have a care in the world. For a brief moment I snuggled under that Wing of Abba Father. I didn’t want to leave the amazing comfort I found there. All I desire is that.
As brief as that consolation was last night, what came next was unstoppable crying. As I was pulled from the shelter of Abba Father, a memory replaced the comfort. I was a little child in my pajamas with my slippers on. It was the heart of winter and bitter cold outside. I had just gotten ready for bed and walked into the kitchen. Something called me to the side door in the kitchen and I remember going outside to do something. I don’t remember why I left the house. But I did, and did what I needed to do, quickly, as I walked back to the side door, my dad closed the door and locked it. I was very little at the time and my slippers were sliding on the ice. I knocked as hard as I could and he wouldn’t come to let me back in. He couldn’t hear me. I started crying very hard because it was very cold and no one knew I was outside. As I walked through the snow, around the house to get to the front door, I fell and was now wet and freezing as I slipped on the ice on the sidewalk to get to the front door. I pounded as hard as I could and my dad was still not coming. I reached up with all my might, climbing up on the railing on the porch and rang the bell.
The door opened and there stood my dad in SHOCK, seeing who it was as I shivered at the door. He opened the door fast and let me in. Nothing mattered at that moment. NOTHING! I was back in warmth. My dad was never a “hugging” person or very affectionate. But he was at that moment. He knew how cold it was out there. He could tell how long I was pounding. He wrapped me in his blanket and he warmed me up on his couch.
That security of a parent can never be matched or replaced. When Abba Father allowed me last night to see it again, for as brief as it was, it truly has become all I ever want. Just to spend eternity wrapped in His warmth. With Him, holding me tight.
That time I had spent on the “outside”, was extremely dangerous. As it was with my faith! It became apparent to me how important it is to TELL Abba Father everything before I just go “thinking” I can handle anything alone. Such is my journey back home from “exile”. And yes, its cold “outside”.
What sparked this reflection:
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
and abides in the shade of the Almighty
says to the Lord: “My refuge,
my stronghold, my God in whom I trust!”
It is he who will free you from the snare
of the fowler who seeks to destroy you;
he will conceal you with his pinions
and under his wings you will find refuge.
You will not fear the terror of the night
nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the plague that prowls in the darkness
nor the scourge that lays waste at noon.
A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand fall at your right,
you, it will never approach;
his faithfulness is buckler and shield.
Your eyes have only to look
to see how the wicked are repaid,
you who have said: “Lord, my refuge!”
and have made the Most High your dwelling.
Upon you no evil shall fall,
no plague approach where you dwell.
For you has he commanded his angels,
to keep you in all your ways.
They shall bear you upon their hands
lest you strike your foot against a stone.
On the lion and the viper you will tread
and trample the young lion and the dragon.
Since he clings to me in love, I will free him;
protect him for he knows my name.
When he calls I shall answer: “I am with you,”
I will save him in distress and give him glory.
With length of life I will content him;
I shall let him see my saving power.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is now,
and will be for ever. Amen.
“Night holds no terrors for me sleeping under God’s wings.”
MUST Read from Sr. Lisa. I had to share and I will be writing about St. Mary of Egypt here soon.
Make this year a great one by journeying with a Saint!
It’s a great opportunity to be inspired by someone who found the sweet spot between living life and growing toward holiness at the same time. You always have that saint accompanying you in your prayer and daily routine. The Church has so many examples to choose from … the question is, then, how do we pick one?
Let Him enter your heart. Let Him take hold of every aspect of your life.
Fill every day He has given you, and gives to you, with Him. In deed, in thought, in prayer in love.
Cast away your past sins and sinfulness. Don’t continue in the past but prepare for the future. A new year is upon us. Be the change in the world for the good of all and to the Glory be Gods. Live the faith, daily. Love God above all else, daily.
The Year of Faith has concluded. May we Christian Family’s, make it our Mission to ensure we do
the Will of God. Stand up and be what our Lord has called you to be, HOLY.
Not just for 2014,but for all time, teach your children to be holy by your example. One need not be a Catholic Priest or Sister to be Holy or to be a Great Saint. We are ALL called to be saints first. Teach them to love God above all else as with this ONE lesson for life, everything falls into place in perfection of Christ Jesus, thus all society reaps the bountiful harvest of the fruits of faith. When you love God above everything, it becomes VERY easy to see, all sin stems from the soul breaking the very first commandment. “You shall have no other gods before me”
As a Catholic Parent, you have ONE job. To teach your children to love God above EVERYTHING else. Sainthood is the ONLY “Profession” we should encourage our children into. Profession of Faith. Parents are so caught up in wanting their children to succeed in the world and overlook how much more important it is to do the Will of God – the faith becomes secondary. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” Our Lord then doubled it to Love your neighbor as yourself.
With the first command to love God above all else and teach your children to also, the second command becomes natural and easy to do. If you love God above all else, doing the Will of the Father, becomes your will. The Great Saints placed God first. Not their desire to become “Scholars” as the reason they became GREAT Scholars is because of their Love for God therefore becoming Great Saints first. St. Augustine did not set out on the path to God thinking about how fantastic it was to write. He wrote everything he EXPERIENCED through God. Thus, doing the Will of God, and God giving him the title after his entering into Eternal Life. Leaving a visible path behind for others to our Lord, and thereby to Abba Father. As did all the great Saints.
In 2014, let’s make it clear to the entire world that as Christians, we love God above all else. Placing worldliness and sinful behaviors behind us. And if you fall, He will pick you back up to continue on through His Sacraments. If we do just this one thing, the entire world would never be the same. Don’t allow 2014 to become just another secular year, make it HOLY. Dedicate it to Him who gave His life to you. What is just one year to give Him in return? In one year, living the faith with your entire heart, you will never want to return to who you once were without Him. You won’t be able to remove your eyes from Him ever again.
I for one am looking forward to placing 2013 in the past. I am grateful for all God has done for me and my family. Lord may we all move forward into the new year, with YOU and never without You O Lord. May we apply all the gifts you have given to us, in all aspects of our lives, to give Abba Father all the glory and honor through Jesus Christ and the most gracious Holy Spirit, Three, eternally in the One God of all. Amen
Good news for the destitute…nothing matters but God alone
All I can say is AMEN! AMEN!
December 30, 2013
Did you ever have a day, or a year, or a decade, where it seemed that you were the cosmic whipping boy? Your spouse blamed you for the wetness of morning dew, your children exercised disobedience like a muscle man devotedly curls a dumbbell, your pets were irresistibly attracted to urinate in all the wrong places, your car clanked worse than your mother-in-law, and your spiritual experience resembled only the Cross.
Well, I have good news, nothing matters but God alone!
“Do not love the world or the things of the world.
If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world,
sensual lust, enticement for the eyes, and a pretentious life,
is not from the Father but is from the world.
Yet the world and its enticement are passing away.
But whoever does the will of God remains forever.” 1John 2:12-17
Unemployed, unhealthy, unwanted, seemingly unimportant and under-appreciated? Does everyone, to include ‘family and friends’ offer only criticism and condescension? Does the world seem like a cold used car lot? Good news! It’s all a fart in the wind! It’s all the devil’s passing gas!
Yesterday Pope Frances reflected on “Silence”. Pope: silence guards one’s relationship with God. I have been struggling with this for many years. Since my conversion began back in 1998. There are no coincidences. I truly feel as if my journey is over in seeking some sort of answer for what has taken place in my life. The changes that have overtaken every aspect of who I used to be, and who God has created me to be. As I went out to lunch yesterday, “Fire on the Earth” on Immaculate Heart Radio was on and answered EVERY question I have had since my conversion began. Everything is out of my hands. I cannot control a thing that takes place in what I see, hear, or in what other do. Everything is in God’s hands. All I can control is my sinfulness through repentance and the Sacraments our Lord has given to us. All I need to know is that the reason for all of this is simply because God loves me and I am a child of God. I am called to live this life as His.
That is the best gift anyone can receive. Forgiveness and repentance from the sinful life I had led is only achieved through the grace He has given me. I accept His gift freely and without any soul on earth coming to me to say YES! It was Him. Or NO! That is not Him. You see, “Silence” is our Lords way of allowing the soul to discern what is from Him and what is not. Silence is the way He speaks the loudest. The way He allows us to continue on to Him without a push or force, but freely. What truly is odd about Pope Frances comments is that I made a Christmas Video to share with all. It was made over a week ago and it does exactly as Pope Frances has asked. Taking into account the first video I made was deleted by another media outlet because it contained things with a copyright. Its okay. Everything happens for a reason. Here it is:
I have spent many years speaking about my experience’s and trying way to hard to explain to souls who could never comprehend what our Lord has done with me, to me, and it truly is personal. For me and only today, after 15 years of this journey, I have come to understand there isn’t a soul on earth that can answer for Him. That can justify for Him what He has done to me. It is truly Him who I seek. Him who I live for and Him who I give the glory to for all that has taken place. I have said all I need to say. Now, I leave this blog, and the talking and actions and everything to our Lord. I pray that I have not said too much. It truly is time for me to be silent and relish in the gifts our Lord has given to not just me, but to all who seek Him.
This does not mean that I return to the old way of life but continue on in the new life He has given to me. I continue to pray for all until He calls me back home. I truly have PEACE! This is not the end. But the beginning.
We start the fourth week of Advent tonight.. Its time..
Time to finish the journey back into the “town” of our birth, to be counted among the “faithful”.
St Joseph, pray for us that we carry with us always, love, hope, faith and joy, and share the gifts we receive from our Lord with everyone on the road back home, as the route of repentance we now take is much different then the route we took to encounter our Infant Lord, laying in the arms of our Virgin Mother Mary. That we may give the glory to God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, Three eternally in one, for all time and eternity. Amen
Tonight brings with it, the Third Week of Advent. Our journey to the Newborn King is almost complete.. There is a Light in the darkness. A hint of Sunrise just after the darkness is about to pass..
In this week, I have been blessed to see our Lord in His infancy. Pure innocence through the gift of my daughter, by simply asking me an innocent question. A question born from her gift of “innocence” from our Lord, asking about His.
I spent a good portion of my time able to see just how beautiful His gift is to us in the relationship He had with Mama Mary. That first look of His and hers after the moment of birth, was the exact look between the both of them at the moment of His death on the cross. His “innocence” of infancy, being the Son of God, was exactly the same on the Cross, in His sacrifice, as His “innocence” at birth.
I sat in contemplation in front of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament in Exposition last night. As I examined MY conscience, and pondered how guilty I was, I could see the Infant Christ in front of me, cooing and looking at me, without a care in the world for my sins, looking for me to simply love Him. To pick Him up and hold Him in my heart. To carry Him. And Mama Mary was right there to hand Him to me. For a repentant sinner, the greatest gift there is, is to hear and comprehend, that the Innocent Infant truly loves me and wants me to love Him.
While praying the sorrowful mystery’s of the Holy Rosary, I couldn’t see our Lord as a 33-year-old Man. I could only see Him as the Innocent Infant in the manger for each and every mystery. The Babe, unable to speak at times. At other times when able to speak, no one could comprehend what He was saying and punished Him for their inadequacies. It brought me great consolation in regards to how Abba Father seen His Son and the magnitude of His sacrifice. It also brought me in for a closer look as to how Abba Father sees ALL His “children”. It’s no wonder that a single drop of His blood covers a magnitude of sins.
Truly, a wonderful gift this is. The gift of Gods Son, giving me life, and giving me a life to ask an innocent question, about the Life of the One, where all life is created.
May you be filled with wonder and awe and may reading everything here be a gift, to give glory to God and fill you with joy.
In this world, the reasons we hate are vast. So vast you can’t count them. No matter the circumstances, reason or justification from any soul, the reason to Love is greater. As Love has conquered the many reasons to hate.
The life of St. John of the Cross, was full of many reasons for him to hate. But he choose to love instead. For all the reasons in the world to hate and despise can never match the one reason we Love.
I never knew until today how much I can identify with this wonderful Doctor of the Church. I sit here and ponder and contemplate everything. I have been doing this most of my life and never understood the reason why I can’t become angry anymore about the sufferings I have gone through and still go through every second in exile, until I received that wonderful grace today at Holy Mass in honor of St. John of the Cross.
What good can come from anything other than Love?
Thank you, on your feast day, St. John of the Cross, for prayers answered. I hold my cross with Love to give all the glory and honor to our Lord. I carry it in Love. There is no other way to hold it or to carry it.
“Who teaches the soul if not God?”- St. John of the Cross
My daughter, who is only 8 years old always seems to ask me questions that are just so amazing about the faith, because they are so innocent. Most times, leaving me in a deep state of wonder. The latest question, is no different.
Her question to me was this: “Mommy? What was Baby Jesus first word?”
It set me off on a road of very deep pondering and contemplation of the relationship between our Infant Lord and our Holy Mother. I don’t ever want to leave this place where my daughter brought my thoughts.
As I thought of it deeply, it wasn’t until my girls and I set out tonight to the store that I simply asked Mama Mary out loud in prayer with my girls. Before the final word left my lips, an answer came to my heart.
Mama Mary, being full of grace and humility would never have taught our Lord to say Mama first, just as today she does not seek any glory for herself but only for Him. Abba! Came to my heart..
Glory to God in the highest…
EDIT TO ADD from my Facebook Page:
Whatever the normal first word uttered by any baby in the first century area around Bethlehem, in Aramaic, was probably the first word spoken, most probably related to mother and father. His perfect humanity is in the commonness which he shares with all of us in our infancy. That is the beauty of that humanity as is the look of love between mother and child as “she wrapped in him swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger.” That gaze of love rests in the heart of our Christmas celebration in Gift Given, Gift Received, Gift Shared. But since he is the Word-made-Flesh, he IS the First Word. A powerful question which leads to the simple Beauty and Goodness which draws us anew to the manger. – Fr. John P Mack Jr
Peg Pondering Again 