Jesus Is The Answer

I've been away and if you've noticed I haven't posted an entry lately, it means you read my blog, at least sometimes. Thanks, I appreciate that. I'm not sure how many people read my blog and that doesn't really matter to me. I'm writing because I want to prevent Alzheimer's Disease (no kidding), stir up my creativity and keep it alive and share my deep faith. It's all about having dreams, and trying to realize them. I have deep faith and dreams and I believe that I have an advantage in life because of my relationship with God, because I study and pray with God's word and receive Eucharist frequently. I also listen carefully to homilies and lectures. I learn a lot from them as well as from my religious/spiritual books and articles, that are never far from me (even when I travel I select reading material for trips). The glue that holds it all together is my trust in God. Trusting in God, with confidence and perseverance is crucial on the spiritual journey, as Scripture suggests.

Good luck to people who live without faith. I don't know how they do it. Living in this uncertain world with faith, is hard enough. It seems like natural disasters are happening more frequently, there have certainly been strong earthquakes of late, in different parts of the world. That makes people anxious. I called my cousin in Hawaii last night to let her know I was praying for her at Mass on Saturday evening and she said, "We prayed down that tsunami!" Before the cancellation of the tsunami alert, it was pretty tense on the Hawaiian Islands. As my cousin explained to me, all the low-lying areas near the water were evacuated. Talk about uncertainty. How do you get through a tsunami warning without prayer? No clue.

I found an old article that I saved written by a well known Carmelite priest titled, "The Saving Role of the Human Christ For St. Teresa" by Rev. Eamon Carroll. It's the kind of article I read every few years. I like to be reminded that we should continually have our focus "fixed on Jesus." I don't think we can hear or read that enough. I know it always helps me to keep things in perspective. This is an excerpt from the article.......

Christianity has lived on the conviction that there is no true Christian prayer without Christ.... Teresa learned from the master teacher, Jesus himself. It is another depth to Teresa's Christology that she saw the achievement of full human potential in union with Jesus Christ. We become most properly human beings when in the center of our very selves, Christ is enthroned , the human Jesus who is the very Son of God, the revelation of God's kindness to us in the power of the Spirit. 

And so during Lent and in the midst of so much uncertainty, which is part of the times we are living through,  it is best to keep our focus on Jesus, because Christ is the answer, along with prayer, to all anxieties and problems. Life without Christ is a barren desert, life with Christ is filled with hope and possibility. It says that over and over again in the Bible and in varied ways throughout the New Testament. And in the Hebrew Scriptures it says over and over again, that God is faithful and true. 

NJA

Trust in the Lord and the Lord will help you.  (Proverbs 20:22)

Lenten Journey Towards God

Like the word, like Jesus in the flesh, we are invited to live our life here on Earth as a journey toward God...The ultimate truth of human life is that all our searching leads to God. In St. Augustine's timeless words, 'You have made us for yourself (O God) and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. This is something we know about every human being. He or she is made for God; there will always be an incompleteness until a person arrives at God....Opening ourselves to God is what makes us come alive (Towards God-The Ancient Wisdom of Western Prayer-Michael Casey).

Having faith, taking part in religious rituals and traditions, belonging to a faith community has always made me feel most alive, that's one of the reasons my faith is so important to me, why I couldn't imagine life without it.

In multi-cultural New York where I live, when you walk into a store on Ash Wednesday with ashes on your forehead as I did today, the clerk looks at you strangely and then asks, "What do you have on your forehead?" And so the explanation begins as I wait for my coffee, "For Catholics, today is Ash Wednesday and the beginning of the Season of Lent, a time of sacrifice, deep prayer, penance and self-reflection.........This Lent I will give up cookies and cake as I always do, but I'm adding a few other things as well. I've added "skinny vanilla lattes" which I love. You know that I love God, if I'm giving up lattes for 40 days! 

The homilist at today's Mass gave a simple homily on the words of today's Scripture readings, which is always best. Ash Wednesday is a teachable moment, the Church is full, it's good for a homilist to make the most of it. "Go towards God and away from sin. Repent from all that keeps you from growing closer to God." From the Prophet Joel, "Return to me with your whole heart, with fasting and weeping......" Thankfully the first reading ended with these words, "Then the Lord was stirred to concern for his land and took pity on his people." And so once again, this Lent, we beg for God's mercy and love. Where would we be without God's mercy and love? No where. 

Pope Benedict wrote this about faith, "Faith actually looks to God with determination and thus impels us in turn to look to God and set out towards God." 

Setting out towards God with determination, seeking God's mercy, forgiveness and love is a good way to begin Lent.  

NJA