Month: October 2015

Transforming your Life

I was visiting a patient the other day and we got into a conversation about the fall which led to a conversation about transforming. How we are transforming each and every day. Today I am different than I was yesterday, and I will be different tomorrow. I’m a day older, and I think differently because of my experiences yesterday. I miss the summer and the leaves are falling from the trees. There are other things about us that are changing, transforming, and perhaps renewing us.

Reflection – Our human lives are linear—they move forward from birth until death. The years, however, go in a cycle with each repeating seasons and celebrations. When the seasons change for instance, as the fall approaches, do you feel transformed or renewing of yourself? How new and different are life experiences in a given year and can they change your perception of life year after year?

I have not thought of our lives being linear and a cycle before.  We do move from birth to death, yet I feel that we do live a cycle.  As we live the cycles of life much like the trees, the grass, and the flowers.  We have trials and tribulations in our life that change and transform us.  Hopefully the trials and tribulations will bring us closer to who we truly want to be and deepen our awareness of how life should be.

I think that the seasons are transformative and renew us.  Think about the fall and how the leaves change then they fall on the ground where the flowers have since died. It sounds pretty bland and dull.  Some of us look at it negatively; the beautiful colors of flowers are no longer.  Yet, I look at it as shedding things that I no longer want in my life.  That no longer gives me happiness.

Reason being, as we go through the different stages of our lives we find ourselves growing and learning.  The seasons help with this as we search for meaning within the trials of life.  As we go through the fall season we let go of the summer and move towards celebrating thanksgiving.   We learn during this time how to let go of our selfish ways so we can receive the graces of our renewed self.  We learn that we need to go through the suffering trusting our higher power and knowing that there is something better waiting for us.  We need to trust our higher power to show us the way.

I’m sure we have all heard about the happenings with Pope Francis.  Taking all the titles aside, Francis is a wonderful example who we can learn from and a great spiritual man.  He wants to share himself with us and celebrate us as we are all good people.  I believe we can all learn something from him as he himself has gone through many transformations.  He shares his faith in Christ with us and how his belief system renews him each day.  In a way he renews us by his sharing of himself.

I truly believe that as our perceptions change with the seasons of the year they are felt and heard by others around us.  The transformation and renewal is permeated throughout our community.  When this happens life is transformed for all.

Prayer, the lifting of the mind and heart to God, plays an essential role in our life. Without a life of prayer, we risk losing the life of grace in our souls, grace that comes to us first in baptism and later chiefly through the other sacraments and through prayer itself (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2565). Through prayer we enter into the presence of the Godhead dwelling in us. It is prayer which allows us to adore God, by acknowledging his almighty power; it is prayer that allows us to bring our thanks, our petitions, and our sorrow for sin before our Lord and God. 

While prayer is not a practice unique to some, that is, the teaching Church/synagogue sets before us how we ought to pray. Drawing from the words of Christ, the writings of Scripture and the saints, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, she supplies us with prayers grounded in religious tradition. Further, our informal, spontaneous prayers, both vocal and meditative, are informed by and shaped by those prayers taught by the Church/synagogue, prayers that are the wellspring for the prayer life of all spiritual/religious. Without the Holy Spirit speaking through the Church and through her saints, we would not know how to pray as we ought (CCC, 2650). 

As the prayers themselves witness, some Churches teach us that we should pray not only directly to God, but also to those who are close to God, such as Mary, Joseph, Jesus, those who have the power to intercede upon our behalf. For example, some pray to the angels to help and watch over us; some pray to the saints in heaven to ask their intercession and assistance; some pray to the Blessed Mother to enlist her aid, to ask her to beg her Son to hear our prayers. Further, we pray not only on our own behalf, but also on the behalf of those souls in purgatory and of those brothers on earth who are in need. Prayer unites us to God; in doing so, we are united to the other members of the Mystical Body. 

This communal aspect of prayer is reflected not only in the nature of prayers, but also in the very words of the prayers themselves. In reading many of the basic formulaic prayers, it will become apparent that prayer is often meant to be prayed in the company of others. Christ himself encouraged us to pray together: “For wherever two or more are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them” (Matt. 18:20). 

 

 

Let our hearts not be troubled. (John 14)

Let our sorrows and sadness be taken away.

We all know we can feel lost and afraid yet there is someone who would like to love us unconditionally. Whether it by God or a mother, father, sister, brother, a spouse. For we all can have a second chance. Isn’t that why we are here?

Will God fill us with a love that will sustain us? We are told God loves unconditionally. That God will sustain us through our troubles and our trials. Give us the support and endurance that we need.

If we let ourselves believe (have faith) God can and will sustain us through this time, this time which we sometimes feel we will not get through.

Sometimes we feel as if we are void of emotions. Perhaps we feel as if doors are beginning to open and some are closing. Perhaps over the holidays we were with the ones we love. Caring for them, loving them and wanting to be without pain and without suffering. We did everything we could to make them and ourselves comfortable.

Jesus tells us to love with all our heart. Let our hearts not be troubled, for he paves the way. He is the way and the truth and the light.

God gave us a wonderful life, a life to be shared. We are grateful for the good times and the bad times we have in our life.

Our hearts become connected with those around us and our hearts ache yet we are here. Things change around us and then we change for the better. We cherish the important things in life. We cherish each day. God is the ever loving teacher who is patient, kind even when we get angry and make mistakes.

In fact I’m told that God loves no matter what, unconditionally, we can do the silliest things over and over again yet it won’t ever affect His love for us.

What a gift!

We often hold grudges, staying angry at those who have hurt us.  We have a hard time forgiving others and a harder time forgiving ourselves.  Staying angry or not forgiving someone takes a lot of energy more energy than it takes to forgive.  God knows our anger and those we hold grudges against.  God showed his own anger in the Old Testament and his forgiveness through his son in the New Testament.

Psalm 6 The poet of this first of the seven penitential psalms pleads with God for deliverance from the dreadful misery of sin.  Our foes are really our own distorted thoughts and selfish habits, which wreak more damage than we often imagine (Magnificat p.252 Jan 2013) Once we realize we are acting out of anger we can then move to the realm of forgiveness.

Psalm 78 is a recital of history to show us past generations did not respond to God’s gracious deeds and were punished by God making the gift into a punishment. Israel fails to appreciate God’s act— The introduction of the psalm invites Israel to learn the lessons hidden in its traditions (Ps 78:1–4, 5–7, 8–11); each section ends with the mention of God’s acts as in this section of the psalm. There are important messages in this psalm such as gracious act (Ps 78:12–16, 40–55), rebellion (Ps 78:17–20, 56–58), divine punishment (Ps 78:21–31, 59–64), God’s readiness to forgive and begin anew (Ps 78:32–39, 65–72).

Then in Mark 2:1] He was at home: to the crowds that gathered in and outside the house Jesus preached the word, and the necessity of repentance and faith (Mk 1:14). [2:5] It was the faith of the paralytic and those who carried him that moved Jesus to heal the sick man. Jesus’ emphasis is on faith as the requisite for exercising his healing powers and forgiveness. Mk 5:34; 9:23–24; 10:52).

Ver. 4. The sinners friends had such diligence to bring their sinning friend to Christ, by means of raising the roof, what wonderful friends he has.

Ver. 5. When Jesus saw their faith. Our Lord is moved to show mercy to sinners, by the faith and desires, and prayers of others; for this man was not more helpless in his limbs, than in his soul. From this example, we are taught that in sickness the sacraments and helps of the Church, which are the medicines of the soul, should be called for in the first instance; for Christ first healed the sick man’s soul, before he removed his bodily infirmity. We also learn that many diseases originate in sin, and that we are to remove the effect by removing the cause.

Ver. 10. The Son of man. Jesus Christ here proved that himself as man, and not as God only, hath power to forgive sins; by this, that he was able to do miracles, and make the sick man suddenly rise; so the apostles and their successors, though they be not God, may in like manner have authority from God to remit sins, not as God, but as God’s ministers, and acting in his name, and vested with his delegated authority. — On earth. This power which the Son of man hath to remit sins on earth, was never taken from him, but is perpetuated in his sacraments and ministers, by whom he still remitted sins in the Church, and not in heaven only. Relative to sin, there is one court of conscience on earth, and another in heaven, and the judgment of heaven followed and approved this on earth; as is plain by the words of our Saviour, to Peter first, and then to all the apostles: Whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall by bound also in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven. See Matthew xvi. 19. and xviii. 18. Whereupon St. Jerome said: that priests having the keys of the kingdom of heaven, judge in some manner before the day of judgment. (Ep. v. ad Heliod; and St. Chrysostom, more at large, lib. iii. de Sacerd.)

The story is powerful in the way that no matter what we do, we are forgiven if we believe. It is our faith which sets us free. It is our faith in our selves which forgives. Have you forgiven yourself? Are you still holding grudges against others?   How do you relate to the story?