Defending Our Faith

                “My Lord, my God, today I see Your blessed holy Church under attack once again. I am not much of a historian, but I do know Your Church has been under attack since You first instituted it when You walked on earth. In fact, You Yourself were brutally persecuted and condemned to death so of course, those who follow You will also be under attack. It makes no sense to me, however, why people want to persecute You and all that You teach when everything You do is out of love for all of us and with the goal of eternal joy for everyone. How can people be so blind and driven to hatred and murder of those who follow Your teaching?

                “When I read about the many martyred saints who died simply because they said yes to You, I am overwhelmed. Do I have the same conviction and determination as they do to stand up and defend You in the face of imminent death? Your holy Church is under attack now and we as members must be able and willing to fight as holy soldiers. Our training must begin in prayer to strengthen our bond of love. Next, we must be educated about our faith. We need to understand what it is we fight for. We must not be caught unprepared when someone asks a question regarding the faith. “I don’t know why the Church says that,” is not an option for Catholics today. We must learn Your teachings the way we learn a language so that it simply flows out of us naturally and infuses all our thought processes. Once we learn the facts and foundations of the Catholicism that You have given us, then we need to dig a little deeper to understand why we believe what we do. Just saying, “I believe because I do,” isn’t strong enough to build the heart and soul of a holy warrior. We need to have the conviction and passion grounded in knowledge and understanding to be willing to be persecuted and to withstand the threat of death for our belief. That level of commitment and strength requires a deeper understanding of why we believe what we do.

                “Dear Lord, shape us, train us, form us and then transform us into Your holy army, ready to defend You and all You have given us. The martyrs understood this, lived this and died in that spirit. May we follow their examples just as they followed Your example.”

Replacing Addictions

“My dear Lord, what do You ask of me today? To show people Your love here on earth? There are so many people in the world and so many that don’t even think about You. That makes me sad. Help me show them that You exist, that You love them, that You created them for love.

                “For those that do love You and live for You, may they be an example and inspiration for others to see that there is more in the world than living for ourselves. Especially touch the hearts of those addicted to drugs, alcohol, sex, food; all the things that feed the desires of the flesh. They make people feel good temporarily, but in the end, they end up devoured by these things, broken and extremely unhappy. They end up hating the very flesh they have been feeding and pleasuring. The flesh takes over their souls and leaves them physically ill, weak and wanting to retreat in darkness and solitude until they can be lost in the haze of their chosen addiction once again.

“Help them Lord to break this vicious cycle. Help them to realize for what You created them. May they once again love themselves as You do. May they desire only the love of their souls. Once they can allow You in again, then they can recognize their bodies as temples for You. Then they can love their flesh properly and care for their bodies, nourishing them to be holy temples for You, not for themselves. I understand this but don’t know how to share this with someone who is lost in their addiction. Open their understanding and use me as You wish to help them turn away from the hell they are living, the hell they have allowed to grow around them.”

“People can be so desperate and will cling to any ‘quick fix’ but when it comes to real work to save their souls, they sometimes give up and look again at a quick fix. Help them to see You as the ‘quick fix.’ Help them cling to You the way they cling to their addiction Let Your love be what they crave. Let that be their addiction.”

The Vortex

                “My Lord, my God, my awesome Creator whose genius goes so far past what we could ever comprehend, I am in awe today meditating on You. When You created Adam and Eve, You created the very flesh and form that You would ultimately choose to be conceived in and placed in Mary’s blessed womb and then grow into the person of Jesus to dwell among us. This very flesh was used to allow You among us and then to die for us so that we could dwell among You for all eternity. The incarnation, the crucifixion, the resurrection, all occurred through the very same kind of flesh that we also have. You also inspired the descendants of these original creatures of Yours to use the gifts of thought and speech to articulate in prayer the great love You embody and give to each of us. You thus inspired Your blessed creations to write the prayers that You would ultimately use to give thanks and praise to Your beloved Father. This timeless connection of Your works leaves me awestruck, trying to contemplate and understand. Your world is so big and vast and we are so small and limited by time and space.

“I see Your vast spectacular heavenly world being swirled into a vortex that spirals down into the womb of a blessed humble young maiden who simply said, ‘Let it be done to me according to Your will.’ That swirling vortex pulled Your heavenly presence into the flesh of a man through the womb of a woman. I see the swirling vortex once again, but this time, it spins in the opposite direction as Jesus Crucified breathed His last precious breath on the cross. Your heavenly world swirled back out of the body of Jesus, raising Him from the dead and then ultimately carried the resurrected Jesus Christ back to Your blessed dwelling, reuniting the Father to the Son, but also including each of us through the Holy Spirit. It is a dynamic process that will eventually place us all in Your Kingdom together.

“I thank You for allowing me to spin in that vortex through Jesus to You. My Lord, my God, I am in awe meditating on Your genius.”

Today, I Pray for Unity

                “Oh dear Lord, today I pray for unity. When we all unite under You and join our forces, our talents, our strengths, our thoughts, our prayers and our desires, we become one powerful force with You as our guide, and You as our source of energy and power. Oh dear Lord, when we join ourselves to Your blessed Sacred Heart, all together, we can affect change in this world of chaos and noise.

                “I think of a crowded room, everyone talking individually about their own interests with each other – it sounds like a buzzing noise with no distinct words standing out; maybe a laugh here and there but mostly it sounds like the buzzing of a bee hive. When you take these individuals and put them in groups, they start saying the same thing. Now we begin to hear individual words and phrases peppered throughout the room. Next, take all the people in the room, inflame their hearts with a passion for something – suddenly, they want to shout together to be heard. They look to each other and say, ‘Yes, Yes I agree.’ Now inflame them with a deep love for You, and a burning desire to please You permeates the whole room. With You fanning the fire in their hearts, they draw upon everyone’s strengths to fulfill one purpose of loving You. One person is pushed up front because of a beautiful singing voice. Some are pulled out to organize the group, some are singled out to orchestrate the sound and now, all together, one concrete message emerges from this group. When united under You, the message reflects their love for You which mirrors Your love for them. Now they can unite and do something powerful all together for You and their unified voice can affect change. The buzzing room of individuals is transformed into a powerful part of Your whole body making one cohesive sound in a unified fashion.

                “Oh dear Lord, I am so humbled to be a part of You. May I always unite with Your people within the shining light of the infinite love that emanates from Your blessed Sacred Heart. May I always remember that as an individual, I can buzz around and around, but united with You and Your people, I can loudly proclaim and bravely demonstrate my great love for You.

                “Today, I pray for unity.”

Gather Your Army

“My dear Lord, my love, my life, I am here for You and all that You wish. My whole life is one long journey to find You and to be with You. Lent has been a time for all of us to search together, losing the things that block us from finding You. Lord, You have taken me by the hand on a walk through my soul. You revealed what pleases You and what does not.So now, together, let us decide what is useful and what is not. Help me discard what we don’t need – truly toss it out, not just tuck it away in some corner to be dealt with at a later date only to fester in the shadows, ready to rise up again and darken the soul. 

“Lord, help me walk with my neighbors as well. Help me love them as You do as they discover what lies in their souls. Now is the time to call together Your holy soldiers, to train for an eternal life with You. Let us train together in these current days of spiritual degradation and persecution. Let us train as a holy army, powerful because of our mutual great love for You. Place us together, as one body strengthened in faith and love for You. May this body be led by You as our head. Heal our ills and set us all to work on purifying ourselves so that this body won’t be weakened by the disease, injury or handicap of any of our souls. Then and only then can we come together and join You as one holy Catholic and apostolic Church. Our final purity, though definitely our goal, is not what will unite us, but instead, it is our desire for purity that You seek; the greater the desire for purity, the stronger the soul.

“Gather Your army of these people this Easter season. May we all willingly and joyfully enlist in this army and together, journey through our souls, hone our holy skills, increase our desire for purity, allow our love for You to be our daily guide and be thankful for this unification of purpose.”