We are called to be captives set free:
"Come and lead forth from his prison, the captive sitting in darkness, in the shadow of death" (Traditional O Antiphon)
We must follow him, Our Lord, out of this culture of death, into His culture. We can hold ourselves back, pinning for the things of this world, and the things that we think will satisfy. But this will only prolong the misery and captivity.Get up and go. Don't sit there in darkness.
We have to look at Him, follow Him and trust Him. Don't be afraid to give Him your all. He will never let you down. Reflect back on your life. Has He ever let you down? Then why do you fear now, that he could let you down? He can't. It is not in His nature. He comes to lead you out. You must look at Him, and follow Him. You must muster up all the trust that you can, and go forward out of the darkness into His light.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Friday, December 9, 2011
Learn from Mary, Stand firm from the begining, Rule 12
Mary rejected temptations, always and completely, right away, as was discussed by Fr Craig, in his homily on the feast day of the Immaculate Conception.
Rule 12 instructs us to stand firm in the beginning. Mary knows how to battle Satan, and she practiced this rule perfectly. She did not engage him, or have conversation with him or his ideas. She rejected any and all thoughts form the enemy. She is our most wonderful role model. We study her, and she teaches us how to battle Satan.
With God's grace, we too can respond as she did. How can we do this? This goes back to the silence and the reflection and the examine prayer, that allow us to BECOME AWARE that the stirring are from the enemy. This brings us also to realize that these temptations are opportunities to sharpen our spiritual battle skills and to become more practiced warriors. We are then learning and getting better, by the fortification of our will...to REJECT the uncovered inspirations from the enemy!
For example the Chaos that we allow, that brings disorder to our life is just in reality a big distraction for us, from serving Our Lord, in the peace and power of our God.
We build the skill set and our strength and we see that we truly are CAPTIVES SET FREE.. In this simple practice we learn to overcome him. Not bound to sinning over and over, we can stop it through becoming aware, understanding and rejecting. Then with this new skill, that we repeat over and over, we become more proficient, as we imitate Mary, who teaches us to practice Rule 12, by rejecting the enemy in every situation.
Rule 12 instructs us to stand firm in the beginning. Mary knows how to battle Satan, and she practiced this rule perfectly. She did not engage him, or have conversation with him or his ideas. She rejected any and all thoughts form the enemy. She is our most wonderful role model. We study her, and she teaches us how to battle Satan.
With God's grace, we too can respond as she did. How can we do this? This goes back to the silence and the reflection and the examine prayer, that allow us to BECOME AWARE that the stirring are from the enemy. This brings us also to realize that these temptations are opportunities to sharpen our spiritual battle skills and to become more practiced warriors. We are then learning and getting better, by the fortification of our will...to REJECT the uncovered inspirations from the enemy!
For example the Chaos that we allow, that brings disorder to our life is just in reality a big distraction for us, from serving Our Lord, in the peace and power of our God.
We build the skill set and our strength and we see that we truly are CAPTIVES SET FREE.. In this simple practice we learn to overcome him. Not bound to sinning over and over, we can stop it through becoming aware, understanding and rejecting. Then with this new skill, that we repeat over and over, we become more proficient, as we imitate Mary, who teaches us to practice Rule 12, by rejecting the enemy in every situation.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Make straight the path
John the baptist cries out to us now in Advent, to " make straight the path" so that our Lord and King can reach us. The roads had to be straightened and the valleys filled in when the king was to make a trip to the people. The roads had to be repaired. God says he will do it, " I will cut a road through all my mountains" isaiah 49, but we must as always do our part. We must fervently will it and ask for it, then act in accordance with the request..
For us to allow our Lord to make His way to us, we straighten the path by staying on this ladder. By keeping our eyes on the goal, true north: God as king of our hearts. We constantly meditate on this realty and this allows us to let other choices be ignored. There are so many distractions from this life, led with our Lord, so we find it imperative to keep our eyes on the goal. Daily, during our holy hour, and many times during the day, and then we examine, with our examine prayer, how did we do? How many times did we not practice the three fold paradigm ( be aware , understand , take action,) and find ourselves looking off to the right or the left. Veering off, becoming concerned with things that won't further our spiritual life or that of others. What good has this been for you,how many opportunities to stay close to our Lord, to keep the path straight have we passed up?
Did we give into distractions, to anger to hurt to judgmental thoughts to anger to jealousy. Reject these temptations! See them for what they are. They are distractions, they are making a very crooked , and not - straight path to our Lord. This is the spiritual battle that we must fight against. Hold tight to the straight path.
Let us do this particular examine today. How did we not stay on the path, eyes forward? Did we allow distractions to take us off the straight path to our Lord? Resolve to reject those temptations tomorrow, and " make straight the path" once more.
As I mentioned in the blog below, on Oct 25th, rule 11 admonishes us to stay close to God. To not only minimize the side ways distractions but the highs and lows as we mature into a deeper more disciplined path towards God. A straighter path!
For us to allow our Lord to make His way to us, we straighten the path by staying on this ladder. By keeping our eyes on the goal, true north: God as king of our hearts. We constantly meditate on this realty and this allows us to let other choices be ignored. There are so many distractions from this life, led with our Lord, so we find it imperative to keep our eyes on the goal. Daily, during our holy hour, and many times during the day, and then we examine, with our examine prayer, how did we do? How many times did we not practice the three fold paradigm ( be aware , understand , take action,) and find ourselves looking off to the right or the left. Veering off, becoming concerned with things that won't further our spiritual life or that of others. What good has this been for you,how many opportunities to stay close to our Lord, to keep the path straight have we passed up?
Did we give into distractions, to anger to hurt to judgmental thoughts to anger to jealousy. Reject these temptations! See them for what they are. They are distractions, they are making a very crooked , and not - straight path to our Lord. This is the spiritual battle that we must fight against. Hold tight to the straight path.
Let us do this particular examine today. How did we not stay on the path, eyes forward? Did we allow distractions to take us off the straight path to our Lord? Resolve to reject those temptations tomorrow, and " make straight the path" once more.
As I mentioned in the blog below, on Oct 25th, rule 11 admonishes us to stay close to God. To not only minimize the side ways distractions but the highs and lows as we mature into a deeper more disciplined path towards God. A straighter path!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)