A well thought of and applicable article for our current situation.
Cancellation of Mass and What it Means Going Forward
Thank you William Hemsworth for writing this!
Month: March 2020
This Prayer will Give You Comfort during these uncertain times
❤️ The Chaplet of Divine Mercy is an incredible devotion. Singing it after meal times helps center me.
✝️ It focuses my attention on our Lord’s Presence. I am reminded me that my sacrifice of being without his comfort in the sacrament is nothing compared to the sacrifice he made on the Cross.
❤️ I am offering my pain as a gift to the Father. Here is a link to the version my family sings often.
✝️ My it provide you peace during our absence from the source and summit of everything.
🙏 Thank you St. Maria Faustina for the beautiful witness and sharing this prayer with the world.
May God comfort you today and always!
How You Can be the Hands and Feet of Jesus during the Pandemic
Pray for everyone affected by the coronavirus. Is the toilet paper shortage frustrating? Definitely, but remember we are all on the same side—Team Humanity.
We should be helping the most vulnerable. Why? Because Jesus did that. He dined with sinners and tax collectors. Allowed the prostitute to wash his feet with her hair and perfume—even though the elite ridiculed him for that decision.
Christ let the children come to listen to him. He wasn’t afraid to help the leper. When he was tempted by the Devil, despite being hungry and thirsty, Jesus never gave into worldly power.
Social distancing makes it tougher to help our neighbor in the same tangible way that Christ helped those around him. But that shouldn’t cause us to lead to inaction.
As a Catholic, I became an adopted son of God. The Holy Spirit swells within all baptized individuals. A creative force of Love, the Holy Spirit will never cease to inspire us and grant us the gifts of courage, understanding, wisdom, knowledge, and wonder. The key is we have to be ready to ask for the gifts. Humble ourselves.
Here are a few ways to be the hands and feet of Christ during this pandemic crisis:
1️⃣ Hand write letters you your family members, especially those lonely, neighbors, or even contact a nursing home to get names of senior citizens to write to.
2️⃣ Don’t take more than you need
There is a difference between gathering for reasonable concern over a quarantine versus hoarding goods in panicked response or because you want to turn a profit.
3️⃣ Exercise charity online
Social distancing doesn’t mean people will stop being social. Digital interactions will increase. While we have been used to social media for years, the newsfeed has become saturated with negativity about the virus.
Fighting fire with fire only leads to more flames. The same is true with negativity. Match pessimism with a greater dosage of positivity. Be kind and empathetic online to others. Share a funny anecdote about how you are dealing with this crisis.
Jesus forgave Peter for being a jerk who denied him three times. You can certainly forgive those people who acted uncharitably regarding this issue or those individuals whose hysteria led to hoarding.
St. Paul was right in writing in Romans 8:28, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Be the hands and feet of Jesus. Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no better time as the present to start. Learn from the suffering caused by this pandemic to love others!
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How Unity is Created in Suffering
The greatest writing ✍️ occurs during the worst suffering.
Suffering is universal. It is inevitable. Humans do not have to travel long or far in this world before suffering rears its ugliness!
This is the primary reason why I believe my writing on my personal suffering appeals to others—because people suffer daily.
But I have seen beautiful words from countless people across social media channels.
We long for truth, goodness, & beauty. In the face of a faceless enemy, we unite.
There exists tremendous beauty in unity.
I can’t remember a crisis where I smiled so much during the present moment. I learned to find the grace of my past pain over through hindsight.
But we are presently in 2020 (hindsight). The mystery of suffering leads us to the mystery of Truth.
United we stand. Divided we…never mind. I don’t think we will get too divided. This crisis is too big to let our differences to get in the way.
I wish it didn’t take suffering to unite. But that is the way reality often works.
Let’s be thankful for more time at home.
Focus on fostering unity in your family. Thank God for social media as we can stay connected mentally & emotionally in spite of physical distances.
One day you will be able to hug your brother or sister or friends.
Until the virus is contained, please exercise good hygiene, common sense, and ask the Holy Spirit to give you fortitude and kindness. 🖖
Why Perspective is Needed when Facing Your Problems
😟Anxiety is part of life. It stems from a desire to control all aspects and realizing you can’t.
I have experienced that in a real way the past week.
My kids stayed home from school with influenza A for a week.
Sorry about being able to pay the bills is always a struggle.
Tiredness and the inability to push through tasks frustrated me to no end.
Today is better. But I only accomplished 5% of what I wanted to get done.
The latest news about everything going all with the pandemic gave me perspective:
1️⃣ My problems pale in comparison to others.
Even our struggles with teaching our special needs children how to communicate and deal with daily tasks is nothing versus the struggle others are facing.
2️⃣ I still have my faith and my wife—both foundations for me to cling to in difficult times.
I trust in God that good will prevail. My wife is a special education teacher so she is having to face the reality of how to juggle students absences and their make-up work.
Focusing on sacrificing my work goals to alleviate her stress gives me peace.
A simple step I will take is to focus on smiling more—and getting others to smile back.
Reading the Scriptures helps provide me peace. Here is a Bible passage that gives me comfort—Matthew 6:25-34. I hope it helps bring you peace too.
How will you bring more cheer and less gloom in your life?
3 Reasons Why I Thought Purgatory was Basically Overtime in a Football Game
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on May 26, 2017.
One of my favorite things to watch is to watch NFL football games. I even own a cheese head to don during Green Bay Packer games. Nothing in sports is more exciting than when a football game goes into overtime and for the first time in NFL history the 2017 Super Bowl went to overtime.
Extra regulation is needed in instances where teams end the fourth quarter in a tie. Neither team played well enough to earn the victory or bad enough to lose the game. I used to have a similar mindset when it came to the doctrine of Purgatory. Let me give 3 reasons for why I had this limited view when it came to arguably one of the more intriguing teachings of the Catholic Church.
Legalistic Outlook of Right versus Wrong
I thought for the longest time that if you followed the law [i.e. the Commandments] and your good actions outweighed your bad actions than you were on your way to Heaven after death. I viewed God as a divine accountant who tallied up all the good and bad that we committed in this live and granted us purgatory as an extra period for instances of ties.
Limited view of suffering
Until recently, I do not truly suffer much. I always thought that purgatory was a period of “time” after death whereby people got extra suffering to make up for the comforts they received in this earthly life. My view on this has since changed immensely. I came to learn that suffering has not only a redemptive, but a purgative quality to it.
On a quite practical level, my marriage and family life has schooled my in this topic. For example, my lack of patience especially during our children’s bedtime routine, causes me much suffering. Through prayer and spiritual guidance I learned that God is using my children to help me grow in the virtue of patience- and sometimes growing is painful!
Learned More about the Saints
Until a few years ago, I did not know that St. Therese of Lisieux suffering from tuberculosis and that St. John Paul II’s mother died a mere month per his 9th birthday and his father passed away about 10 years later. And yet, there was something different about these two individuals and really all saints in general—their faith grew in spite of the suffering and loss experienced.
Looking at the lives of the canonized saints I became aware that purgatory is not something that needs to begin after our earthly death. Rather, for them it begins in time and space. Because of this purgatory does not need to be limited to an “extra period” given since we failed to achieve sanctity in this life. We can start the process to being SAINTS today!
Conclusion
I will continue to write how my journey toward a more Catholic understanding of purgatory has changed my life for the better in future posts. St. Maria Faustina saliently wrote, “Jesus says; ‘My daughter, I want to instruct you on how you are to rescue souls through sacrifice and prayer. You will save more souls through prayer and suffering than will a missionary through his teachings and sermons alone.”
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How to Cure the Universal Virus Humanity Suffers from
We are all infected with a virus. Right now. I’m not referring the coronavirus. Is it serious? Definitely. Apocalyptic like the media portrays? I’m not quite sure about that. But I do know that humanity suffers from a spiritual sickness. A universal virus—sin.
Lent is period patterned on the 40 days that Jesus prayed in the desert. Though tempted by the Devil, Christ never came into the allure of sin. You may feel an intense pull to put yourself over others. To gossip at work. Or despair over news coverage of the coronavirus.
Don’t give up if you failed your Lenten promise already. I am the first to admit that I failed miserably so far. Fear has controlled me. Dealing with my children who had influenza the past week combined with my overnight work schedule has led to me feeling worth down and susceptible to the attacks of the Enemy.
Fear is the Work of the Enemy
Driving to work around 9 p.m. I thought to myself, “Will this schedule ever end? I can’t keep going like this. I am already wanting to sleep and my shift hasn’t even started!” Honestly, I have been having similar thoughts more and more frequently.
Getting a good night sleep is necessary for both your body and your mind. While my body finally got used to the erratic sleep schedule, my mind still is scrambling. Inadequate sleep during the winter is a scary combination. I have been depressed for the past several months.
Tonight I finally had even of it. I was struggling so much with doubts I had to rely on a proven strategy that helped me during negative times in the past. Finding a blank post-it note I wrote the sentence: “I am feeling an attack from the Enemy. He is using the weapons of despair and doubt.”
Subtle over Sudden
Satan creeps up on you gradually before going for the spiritual kill. Naming your sins or spiritual struggles specifically are important in an examination of conscience before the Sacrament of Confession. Why not name the sins you are battling right now?
That is what I did. I named my failings: despair and doubt. The opposite of trusting in God. Trust involves not knowing the whole story. I gave into pride. I wanted control of my narrative and desired a guarantee of the outcome. How short was my memory? Had I forgotten the countless times God’s saved and provided for me in the past?
Light Dispels the Darkness of Doubt
As mentioned before, rarely does the Devil go for the sudden approach. Temptations and attacks occurs in stages. Succumbing to sin is like using the dimmer on light in your living room. Slowly your life gets dimmer, darker, and ultimately light is gone—unless you turn back to the light.
In John 1:5 we read, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” This light that John is referring to is Jesus. He became man for the salvation of all. We don’t have to live long to learn that light will dispel darkness. As children we asked our parents to have a nightlight to shine brightly to ward off fear of the dark. Lights in the form of lamps or lanterns prove effective in caves or dark forests.
Jesus is the Light of the World. He is the Light for us individually too. Trusting in God leads to a dispersal of doubt. Fear disappears from the trusting Light of Christ illuminates your life. I found this powerful quote by St. Maria Faustina. The Polish saint wrote, “I will not allow myself to be so absorbed in the whirlwind of work as to forget about God. I will spend all my free moments at the feet of the Master hidden in the Blessed Sacrament.” Incredible. How often do you find yourself swept up in the whirlwind of life. Work, suffering, or fleeting pleasures? All end in doubts and despair.
While sickness has prevented my family from attending the Mass or going to Eucharistic Adoration lately, I can still turn to Jesus in the forms of Scripture and writings from the saints. Sin is a spiritual virus. The only cure is Jesus.