Catholicism & Faith

The Hopeful Reality at Death

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“The day is coming soon Father. When I am going to get there (I Hope) I have strived all my life to respond to the gifts of my Baptism. To live who I am called to be. I’ve asked forgiveness when I have fallen short. And, I have set myself on it again. But the day is coming soon father and I hope that I am invited into that Kingdom. And I am looking forward to tapping Barb on the should telling her to move over and standing next to her gazing upon the Lord for all eternity and singing His praise” – Bob Iafolla

Bishop Barron Podcast “Give Up The Ego-Drama”

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I love listening to Bishop Barron’s podcasts and Sunday Sermons. One of my favorites is “Give Up the Ego-Drama!”

Today, as opposed to be focused on myself I want to try and move outside myself. I have found nothing more easy to move away from myself than my family…especially my children! More importantly, Bishop Barron uses Mary to describe how she moves in haste to do God’s Will not her own.

Paraclete

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Loved this article from Aleteia

In a brief letter released February 8, Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI gives a further response to the report on sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Munich, Germany, including during the few years that he was archbishop there.

While the letter has various deeply piercing reflections, it also includes a brief remark about Benedict’s preparation for death. His reflection can serve in our own preparation for the day that will one day come to all of us, when we go to stand before the Creator.

The 94-year-old writes:

Quite soon, I shall find myself before the final judge of my life. Even though, as I look back on my long life, I can have great reason for fear and trembling, I am nonetheless of good cheer, for I trust firmly that the Lord is not only the just judge, but also the friend and brother who himself has already suffered for my shortcomings, and is thus also my advocate, my “Paraclete.” In light of the hour of judgement, the grace of being a Christian becomes all the more clear to me. It grants me knowledge, and indeed friendship, with the judge of my life, and thus allows me to pass confidently through the dark door of death.

Love > Money

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Let Go of Wealth
Gospel Luke 12:13-21
Someone in the crowd said to Jesus,
“Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.”
He replied to him,
“Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?”
Then he said to the crowd,
“Take care to guard against all greed,
for though one may be rich,
one’s life does not consist of possessions.”
Then he told them a parable.
“There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest.
He asked himself, ‘What shall I do,
for I do not have space to store my harvest?’
And he said, ‘This is what I shall do:
I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones.
There I shall store all my grain and other goods
and I shall say to myself, “Now as for you,
you have so many good things stored up for many years,
rest, eat, drink, be merry!”‘
But God said to him,
‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you;
and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’
Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself
but is not rich in what matters to God.”

Friends, today in our Gospel Jesus tells of a rich man who has been so successful that he doesn’t have space enough to store his harvest. So he tears down his barns and builds bigger ones. But that very night, he dies—and all of it comes to naught. “Thus it will be for all who store up treasure for themselves but are not rich in what matters to God.”

No matter how good, how beautiful a state of affairs is here below, it is destined to pass into nonbeing. That sunset that I enjoyed last night—that radiantly beautiful display—is now forever gone. It lasted only a while. That beautiful person—attractive, young, full of life, creative, joyful—will eventually age, get sick, break down, and die.

An image that always comes to mind when I think of these things is the gorgeous firework that bursts open like a giant flower and then, in the twinkling of an eye, is gone forever. Everything is haunted by nonbeing. Everything, finally, is a bubble.

But this is not meant to depress us; it is meant to redirect our attention precisely to the things that are “above,” to the eternity of God.

Money can buy a house, but not a home.
Money can buy a bed, but not sleep.
Money can buy a clock, but not time.
Money can buy a book, but not knowledge.
Money can buy food, but not an appetite.
Money can buy position, but not respect.
Money can buy friends, but not love.

LUKE 21:1-4

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The LUKE 21:1-4 Gospel tells of the poor widow who gave her last penny to the temple treasury. Her behavior makes us consider our possessiveness. What do we tell ourselves all the time? That we’re not happy because we don’t have all the things that we should have or that we want to have. What follows from this is that life becomes a constant quest to get, to acquire, to attain possessions.

Do you remember the parable about the foolish rich man? When his barns were filled with all his possessions, he decided to tear them down and build bigger ones. Why is he a fool? Because (and I want you to repeat this to yourself as I say it) you have everything you need right now to be happy.

What makes you happy is always right in front of you because what makes you happy is love. Love is willing the good of the other, opening yourself to the world around you. Love is not a feeling. It’s an act of the will. It is the great act of dispossession.

Let Go Of Wealth

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Let Go of Wealth –
GospelLK 12:13-21
Someone in the crowd said to Jesus,
“Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.”
He replied to him,
“Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?”
Then he said to the crowd,
“Take care to guard against all greed,
for though one may be rich,
one’s life does not consist of possessions.”

Then he told them a parable.
“There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest.
He asked himself, ‘What shall I do,
for I do not have space to store my harvest?’
And he said, ‘This is what I shall do:
I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones.
There I shall store all my grain and other goods
and I shall say to myself, “Now as for you,
you have so many good things stored up for many years,
rest, eat, drink, be merry!”‘
But God said to him,
‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you;
and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’
Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself
but is not rich in what matters to God.”

Friends, today in our Gospel Jesus tells of a rich man who has been so successful that he doesn’t have space enough to store his harvest. So he tears down his barns and builds bigger ones. But that very night, he dies—and all of it comes to naught. “Thus it will be for all who store up treasure for themselves but are not rich in what matters to God.”

No matter how good, how beautiful a state of affairs is here below, it is destined to pass into nonbeing. That sunset that I enjoyed last night—that radiantly beautiful display—is now forever gone. It lasted only a while. That beautiful person—attractive, young, full of life, creative, joyful—will eventually age, get sick, break down, and die.

An image that always comes to mind when I think of these things is the gorgeous firework that bursts open like a giant flower and then, in the twinkling of an eye, is gone forever. Everything is haunted by nonbeing. Everything, finally, is a bubble.

But this is not meant to depress us; it is meant to redirect our attention precisely to the things that are “above,” to the eternity of God.

The 7 Deadly Sins

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  • After love make sure to take an active notice of the 7 Deadly Sins and make sure to do everything you can to avoid them!
  1. Pride – Pride is the deadliest of the deadly sins. In fact, all sin is in some way a form of pride because sin elevates our ego ahead of all else. The antidote to pride is humility. To learn humility is to learn to live in the reality that each of us is a creature of God called to worship God alone and surrender to him and his plans for us.
  1. Envy – Envy is pleasure in the sorrow of another or resentment over their happiness or success. The lively virtue for envy is admiration for all the gifts God has bestowed on each and every person.
  1. Anger – Because hurt is everywhere, anger is everywhere. Anger is a normal part of human existence and is not sinful unless used for the wrong purposes. The antidote to anger is forgiveness, one of the New Testament’s most central themes. “Hatred is a curse that does not affect the hated. It only poisons the hater. Release a grudge as if it was a poison.”
  1. Sloth – Laziness, uncaring. St. Thomas Aquinas defined sloth as “sorrow or indifference to spiritual good.”  Sloth is when a human heart becomes bored with and inert to the things of God. It is not the same as mere laziness and its countervailing virtue is zeal. 
  1. Greed – greed is the unreasonable desire for riches that drives us to love material things more than we love God and our neighbor. Generosity is, not surprisingly, the counter force for those who tend toward avarice.
  1. Gluttony – Gluttony is an excess of love for food or drink over the love of God. Our culture makes it extremely easy to believe that we should continually indulge our appetites. The antidote to gluttony is asceticism, which creates a “desert environment” within us that helps discipline our lower nature to allow the higher desires to emerge.

7. Lust – ​Dante regards lust as the least of the deadly sins, while most people in western culture would regard it as the worst. Lust is the sin of treating another person as a sexual object or as a means to an end. Chastity, meaning “sexual uprightness,” counteracts lust. The chaste person keeps their vows while refusing to use the other, even a spouse, as a sexual object. Pleasures of the body. Theology of the body John Paul II

Start With Love

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To my children…Start with Love. It is the most important! In Fulton Sheen’s book “Victory Over Vice” he writes; “The only way love can be shown is by sacrifice, namely, the surrender of one thing for another…In other words, “Love is willing the good of the other.”

Is Your Life In Focus?

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I Loved This Article From Compass Catholic.

We all know that we should love God with our while heart, yet it’s so easy to lose focus on God by the multitude of things our culture throws at us. We are constantly deluged with the idea that we can be happy if we purchase the next greatest thing that is being promoted. Advertisers try to convince us we need a new car, the latest fashions, the most up to date electronics and a bigger house.

Reality TV programs allow us to put ourselves in the place of the contestants as they vie for big money and exotic vacations. If we could only own this, or buy that, or go there, then we would finally be happy.

When we fall into the trap of our American culture, we are focusing our happiness on worldly objects and not on God. We are creating idols of these worldly objects and making them more important than God.

Matthew (19:16-30), Mark (10:17-31) and Luke (18:18-30) all contain the parable of the Rich Young Man, where Jesus explains that our attitude towards wealth and possessions is in conflict with where our true focus should be. This young man has faithfully observed the commandments and he asks Jesus what else he can do to gain eternal life.

Like most of us, the young man yearns for life in its fullest. He thinks that he may be able to use his wealth to purchase eternal happiness. Jesus understands this young man’s attitude, his dependence on, and attachment to, his wealth and possessions.  Jesus’ advice is that he must sell all of his possessions give his money to the poor and then follow him. In doing this the rich young man’s treasure and his heart will no longer be on earth, but he will put God above all else.

When the young man heard this, he turned away because he was very rich. Many of us would probably display the same sentiments as this young man. We have many possessions and these possessions are of great importance to us. Like this young man, if Jesus came into our lives today and told us to sell all that we had and give the money to the poor, there is a possibility we would also turn away. I’d like to think I would easily walk away from everything, but I am not sure how I would respond when put to the test in real life.

Jesus goes on to tell the disciples “how hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.” This amazed the disciples and so Jesus goes a little further in his explanation,  “it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

The problem is not in being rich. In fact there are many rich people in the Bible who were blessed by God. The problem is with our attitude towards worldly things. Society tells us that only things can bring us true happiness. 

But wealth and possessions will never make us happy for long. A few short days or weeks after we purchase that longed for item, it becomes just another thing we own and we are looking for something else. When our focus shifts to the material world, we lose focus on God.

First and foremost our focus should be on Jesus. When we do that, we recognize that everything we have comes from God. Nothing we have is based on our own efforts, but everything is a blessing that we have received from God. It is only in him that we find true happiness and fulfillment

The First Commandment tells us that we should have not “have strange gods before me.” In our secular society, how many people actually keep the First Commandment and honor God above all else?

We have many idols in our lives today and they all stem from the spirit of the world. Money, consumerism, greed, and coveting, are just some of the many. Spend a few minutes in your prayer time and think about how you spend your time and your money. Where do your thoughts go most often? Where is your focus? Are these things where God really wants your focus to be? Are these items as important to you as God himself?

A person’s life ebbs and flows according to their focus. We may not be consciously aware of our focus, but it does exist. It will be different in childhood, youth, and maturity.  As young a child, it most likely involved toys, games, parental support, and comfort. As young adults, you were probably focused on athletic and scholastic achievement, maybe fashionable clothes, and romance. As an adult, your focus may include marriage, children, career, friends and politics. Our lives become a reflection of our focus.  How often does that focus remain on God?

Jesus is calling us to make a radical shift in priorities and commitments. In order to shift our focus to Jesus, we must leave other things behind.  Money and possessions are the most seductive false gods on earth. Jesus was really saying to the rich young ruler: “You are carrying a security blanket that you rely on more than God.”

Do you ever wonder what happened to the rich young man? Did he become a grumpy old man, unsatisfied with his wealth? Was his life empty in some unfathomable way? Did he always regret that day when he had a chance to refocus on the real riches, but he turned away?

“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” (C. S. Lewis)

A Glimpse Into the Love and Depth of Catholicism

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  • Saint Paul said: “Love does not delight in evil But rejoices in the truth. It always protects trusts Hopes and perseveres : German soldier Joseph Schultz who had this on a piece of paper when he was killed for standing up to German soldiers as he stood next to Yugoslavian prisoners
  • The completion of fulfilment of life is in heaven, not on earth
  • When you lay down vice pick up virtue
  • We pray to give thanks to God.
  • Prayer you don’t need to say anything. Just listen.
  • In prayer don’t ask for anything for yourself.
  • The impact of our discipleship in Christianity is found in the depth of our interiority. Done internally without showing. Fasting, prayer and almsgiving. Do not lay up for you earthly treasure but instead heavenly treasure.
  • “The greatest among you must be your servant” (Matthew 23:11)
  • Those ambitious for earthly goods push and shove their way to the forefront, but Christ reminded His disciples, “The last will be first, and the first will be last” (Matthew 20:16)

Wintley Phipps

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It is in the quiet crucible of your personal private sufferings that your noblest dreams are born and God’s greatest gifts are given in compensation for what you have been through!