“Keep holy the Lord’s day.”
To keep the Lord’s Day as it ought, we need to do more than
worship. God always intended that there
be a day or rest in the week. From Genesis, with God resting from creation on
the 7th day to all of the Jewish laws forbidding labor on the
Sabbath, it is clear that we are to rest on Sunday as a part of fulfilling God’s
command to keep the day holy. Jesus did
show us that sometimes people do need to work.
That ought to be the exception.
By necessity, people who minister to others, man or beast, need to work
on Sunday. But the rest of us, need to
step back from our jobs and chores and recharge. Sunday is a day for people to focus on God
and relationships, not work. It is a day
for us, if needed, to reconnect with God and people. Sunday anchors us to what is important-our
relationships with God and others in our lives.
Stresses of the job and other things we encounter during the week can
disconnect us from God, if we are not careful.
They can disconnect us from loving others, if we are not careful. The more one thinks about it, the more necessary
God’s plan for the Sabbath becomes for
our spiritual and physical health.
Likewise, we ought to refrain from activities which would cause others
to miss the Sabbath rest. So many things
that we do, shopping, dining, going to movies, that we may think of as restful
are the cause of someone else having to work on Sunday. So, we need to think about our schedules and
our activities. Can what we planned to
do on Sunday, be done on another day?
Even if these people still need to work because of the state of society,
our not going out will ease the hassle of their workday. There is a direct correlation between the
increasing hours of labor on Sunday and the growing distance between God and
society in general.
"What matters in life is that we are loved by Christ and that we love Him in return. In comparison to the love of Jesus, everything else is secondary. And without the love of Jesus, everything else is useless." St. John Paul II
+++++++++++++++++++++God's timing is not our timing, but He is never late.+++++++++++++++
"If we're open to it, God can use even the smallest thing to change our lives." Donna Van Liere, The Christmas Shoes
"If we're open to it, God can use even the smallest thing to change our lives." Donna Van Liere, The Christmas Shoes
Layers - in the knowledge of God and the path to holiness
Learning about God is like unwrapping a head of lettuce, pealing back one leaf at a time. Always there is another leaf below. We will eventually reach the center of the head of lettuce; but we will never unwrap everthing there is to know about God.
The path to holiness is like pealing an onion. God shows us what is sinful and convicts us that we have sinned. No matter how sweet the onion, there are always tears in the peeling. No matter how sweet the grace of repentence, there are always the pain of letting go of the sin. As the peeling of the onion reveals another layer, so God shows us what we lack in holiness, drawing us ever closer to "be(ing) perfect even just as your heavenly Father is perfect." Matthew 5:48
The path to holiness is like pealing an onion. God shows us what is sinful and convicts us that we have sinned. No matter how sweet the onion, there are always tears in the peeling. No matter how sweet the grace of repentence, there are always the pain of letting go of the sin. As the peeling of the onion reveals another layer, so God shows us what we lack in holiness, drawing us ever closer to "be(ing) perfect even just as your heavenly Father is perfect." Matthew 5:48
What I Believe
Why I am and always will be a Catholic. "So Jesus said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. Tthe living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever." John 6:53-58 The words and actions of man cannot sanctify. Only the priest, empowered by his ordination, can invoke the Holy Spirit to transform the bread and wine into Jesus so we can receive Him - Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity into our bodies and souls. This is the core of the Catholic Church; without this there is no purpose or meaning to the Catholic Church. There are other ways to holiness, to grow in grace; there is no better way than union with Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist.
Visitation Catholic Church
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