Friends of Faith:

So, I haven’t sent out a writing in sometime, but that doesn’t mean that I haven’t written, or that I haven’t thought about what to write.

Generally, standing in the shower on Monday morning the Holy Spirit is whispering a little “title” in my heart – saying listen to me.

This morning for some reason I realized that as frustrated as I am with those who don’t see and don’t understand, for whatever reason when I am that person, or when I am the person who is seeing & understanding, but not being, acting or doing, then I am no better than those I am frustrated with.

So, hence this writing, based on this parable:

“A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep, and when the sun rose it was scorched, and it withered for lack of roots.

Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it. But some seed fell on rich soil, and produced fruit, a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold. Whoever has ears ought to hear.”

The disciples approached him and said, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” He said to them in reply, “Because knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted. To anyone who has, more will be given^* and he will grow rich; from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

This is why I speak to them in parables, because ‘they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand.’  ….

Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says:

‘You shall indeed hear but not understand, you shall indeed look but never see.

Gross is the heart of this people, they will hardly hear with their ears, they have closed their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and be converted, and I heal them.’

“But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear. Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.

“Hear then the parable of the sower. The seed sown on the path is the one who hears the word of the kingdom without understanding it, and the evil one comes and steals away what was sown in his heart.

The seed sown on rocky ground is the one who hears the word and receives it at once with joy. But he has no root and lasts only for a time. When some tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, he immediately falls away.

The seed sown among thorns is the one who hears the word, but then worldly anxiety and the lure of riches choke the word and it bears no fruit.

But the seed sown on rich soil is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.” Mt 13: 1-23

These are the questions I heard this morning in the shower: “Do you understand? Are you acting on what you understand? Do you know why you are acting? Or are you falling on rocky ground or among the thorns and failing to act, or intentionally choosing not to act?” And maybe the most important question I heard: “Are you willing to seek answers, listen to, and act upon the suggestions that the Holy Spirit is placing in your heart?”

So, who’s patience am I testing by my action or inaction? And if it is my patience that is being tested, am I doing all that I can by stepping outside of my comfort zone to seek and to understand?

May you find it in your heart to be all that you can be by using all the gifts that God has given you.

Blessings,

Charlotte

Christ is the Answer Part II

Friends of Faith:

Christ is the Answer, but Jesus says there’s more.

“I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.” Jn 14: 23-26

The Holy Spirit is the “closer,” the part of God that is who Jesus promised to leave us when He left us (Acts 2) that is alive and moving around us and through us by all and through all that we meet – Christian and non-Christian alike – whether He, the Spirit, is recognized or not.

As much as I need to follow Jesus’ example I need to be able to hear and listen to the voice of reason and wisdom that Jesus left here on earth to guide us: that of the “Holy Spirit”, God’s third and often forgotten “person.”

No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. 1 Cor 12: 3

This is the season of retreats and formation days and I have spent several days in the past two weeks listening and having the opportunity to be formed by the Spirit of God.

God obviously knew both what I needed and who I needed to hear it from. He also heard and answered my almost unknowing prayers of “send me quiet peace and the time to receive it.”

Brothers and sisters: Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh; on the contrary, you are in the spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells in you. Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is alive because of righteousness. If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit that dwells in you. Rm 8:8

The Spirit flowed from both the leaders involved in the retreats and from those whom I have spent the days with (leaders and attendees). I have pages of notes, hundreds of ideas and an invigorated desire to evangelize and be a witness for Jesus.

But more importantly I was forced to take the time to be quiet, to listen, and to reflect on God’s truth and His presence in the parts of my life I have been determined to ignore and/or avoid.

And I was given the opportunity to renew the gifts of the Spirit that I received in the Sacrament of Confirmation: Wisdom, understanding, knowledge, fortitude, counsel, piety, and wonder and awe (fear of the Lord.)

We all need to do be renewed and enriched regularly – in retreat and by formation; through prayer and study . More than just as our obligatory one hour on Sunday (if we even make or take the time to do that); we need to sit quietly, to reflect, and to actively listen to what the Holy Spirit really wants us to hear and how the Holy Spirit is guiding us to move (or be silent).

Maybe God’s messenger is different than the one we’ve come to know.

God, through the Holy Spirit is around us constantly. Sometimes the Spirit is just a whisper that we have to be willing to search for and listen to. And sometimes He comes to us as loud as thunder in a storm or as visible as fire and yet we deliberately ignore the presence that is trying to awaken us from our sleep, or pull us back from our busyness.

Come Holy Spirit Come. Enkindle in me the fire of Your love. Fill my heart with the desire to listen and to answer Your call. Come Holy Spirit Come. Open my heart to the fruit of Your Spirit: love, joy, patience, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Gal 5: 22-23)

Be in the Spirit of Christ,

Blessings,

Charlotte

Coming of the Spirit

Friends of Faith:

Appropriately for our family the next two weekends of celebrating the Ascension and Pentecost bring to fulfillment the Easter season and the gift Jesus left us here on earth – the Holy Spirit, His guidance and Our protector.

Jesus said to his disciples: "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows him. But you know him, because he remains with you, and will be in you. Jn 14: 15-21

While a greater majority may seek success, fame and fortune of this world, we forget or don’t yet know or understand, that it is not anything of THIS world that will give the greatest reward, but rather it is seeking to be Holy in God’s world that will give us the greatest reward, eternal life.

But the world does not willingly accept that it is not its own creator and boss. And reliance on God and resting in the Spirit are mostly foreign in our culture.

And yet, we are, more than ever, in this world, in need of the guidance of the Spirit and a renewed commitment to listen to and follow His commands.

Beloved: Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence, keeping your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who defame your good conduct in Christ may themselves be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that be the will of God, than for doing evil. 1 Pt 3: 15-18

And while speaking the truth and striving to bring others closer to Him may mean that our character may be insulted by those who say we are “do gooders,” or “know it alls.” Or we may suffer the consequences, rudeness and chastisement of slander and character defamation despite our good intentions. It is still better to suffer for doing what is right, if it is the will of God, than to give in to worldly causes and/or political correctness.

If we look at what divides us as humans today: being called a Christian, seeking to protect human life and the dignity of marital love between one man and one woman, even the sanctity of keeping Holy the Sabbath – these are exactly the truth of God which are under the most attack and create much of the mental anguish and physical suffering we as His baptized faithful feel in our world today.

There is so much noise, there are so many lies, that it is extremely difficult to sort one from another, regardless of our human strength or perseverance.

So it becomes all that much more important to rely on the Spirit to guide us, console us, and protect us in EVERY decision we make. And It is these very graces that our family looks forward to on Andy’s ordination this week and as we lead up to Stan’s ordination in July.

Come Holy Spirit, Come. Fill us with Your grace and Your power. Anoint us with Your love. And may we be gifted with Your hope, joy and peace. Amen.

Let the Spirit guide you and may you be blessed with an ever more abundant Spirit. Thank you all for your prayers for those being ordained this Easter season.

Blessings,

Charlotte

Monday Morning Reflection

Mystery of the Trinity

Friends of Faith:

I think Ascension and Pentecost rival Easter and Christmas as Holy days – or maybe I should say I realize that it is as necessary to celebrate them in order to fulfill the Christian Church’s very existence and God’s gift of eternal life for each of us.

Jesus’ birth, death and rising give us the promise of eternal life. His ascension into Heaven and his sending of the Hoy Spirit guides us to the fulfillment of that very life. Without any part we would have lost a piece of a puzzle without which we could not be completed.  They are the fulfillment of the mystery of the Holy and Divine Trinity.

Just as Jesus took care of us, we are called to take care of others—to care more about each other than ourselves, to live not to gratify me, but to gratify and support each other.

“Brothers and sisters, live by the Spirit and you will certainly not gratify the desire of the flesh. For the flesh has desires against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you may not do what you want. Gal 5:16-25

Our human nature makes us sinful, and yet through God’s infinite grace and mercy he gives us the example of Jesus and the guidance of the Spirit to complete us. He knew even in creating us in his likeness that we would need both example and gift so that we could eventually come back to Him—the example of selfishly serving each other through the grace and gifts of the Spirit.

“But if you are guided by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: immorality, impurity, lust, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions, occasions of envy, drinking bouts, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Gal 5: 16-25

Wow—can’t we as Christians see these faults in others, aka society (in law, in politics, in the culture.) And I don’t have to look very deeply into myself to see my own faults. No one person or culture is “exempt” from the temptations. All of us at some time or another have failed to keep our tempers, have told a lie or have done something that is more about what’s good for me than about what’s good for society as a whole.

It’s not a "judgment" to look around and realize our faults and the faults of others, it is more of a review of what is and what should be, of determining right from wrong, good from evil, of how we should change our daily lives to help others and to help others learn the truth. (We cannot however judge God’s mercy, forgiveness or condemnation.)This is the Spirit working within us, allowing us to evangelize and live our Christian faith, values and morals as an example to others.

“In contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also follow the Spirit.” Gal 5: 16-25

The Holy Spirit is what guides us to discern what is from God and what the temptations of the world are that lead us away from God. The reward of the fruits of the Spirit may be given to us personally or because of our example the entire Christian community may grow when it sees how our faith helps us to overcome the sacrifice and sufferings of daily life.

I think the Saints (apostles and modern day disciples like Dorothy Day, JPII and Mother Theresa) are most “rewarded” when we follow their example and study their lives—when we strive to learn and live as they themselves did by living with less and giving more of our time, talents and treasures to others.

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth. O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations, Through Christ Our Lord, Amen.

We are called to live in the Trinity, in the reception of the Spirit, in the mystery of living and dying through faith by protecting and treating with dignity every life (born and unborn) (legal and illegal) (sinner and saint).

God’s law cannot be enforced politically—rather we must each strive to live not for ourselves but for the common good of others.

Renew in us our faith,

Blessings,
Charlotte

 

God's Divine Design

Families of Faith:

It could be said that the BIBLE is the “Basic Instructions (we must know to live properly) Before Leaving Earth.” Many would say God or Christ wrote the bible. But in fundamental truth – the CHURCH Jesus established wrote the bible, INSPIRED by God the Holy Spirit.

So while the New Testament is written with many “factual” events of Christ’s life as experienced by the apostles, the literal facts lead us to focus on the SPIRIT of each event. Simplified: neither God, nor Christ actually, or physically, wrote down the words that are written there, rather the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostles and the Fathers of the Church as to what was important in faith to be passed on thru our faith—the Tradition of God’s Divine Design.

While the Church is the bearer and holder of the truth of the divine design, each of us personally is called to know him, love him and serve him within the beauty of His design.

So what did God tell us? What examples in Christ’s life were important enough to be written down? In what Spirit did the Apostles record in writing God’s design for us? How are we to know Him, love him and serve Him?

“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love. In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him. In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also must love one another. No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us. This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us, that he has given us of his Spirit”. Jn 4: 7-13

What a different world we would live in if each of us gave it our all to live by this design: To truly love one another as He loves us.

A short walk in the bible has God in Genesis creating woman from and for man. He creates for us a perfect helpmate so that we together can recreate His love (human birth) -- children. It shows us God’s power and His promise – from the promise to Noah of continued life after the flood to the depth of that love given by the death of His own Son: a death not for himself, but a death to perfect love by manifesting for us His/God’s forgiveness and mercy.

And He continued to teach and inspire through the writings of Paul as to how the benchmarks of a “serving love” should be acted out. The divine design is completed in Revelation with an inspiring picture of heaven—the purpose, the be all that ends all, THE reason for life – to remain in Christ and to return to His love eternally.

His divine design, love, is proven in the very gift of life itself, procreated within human families, with the support of the helpmate God fashioned for me (a spouse). It is passed on to our children, in new families, and shown to others around us in a Spirit of community service: whether that community is in my own home, or taken out into the world.

A lofty goal, yes; but like Christ, a goal that I should accept freely, totally, faithfully, fruitfully and with great passion. A design in which like Christ, I am asked to give up my own life (my selfish desires) by suffering (not nearly as much as those that are persecuted for their faith) and sacrificing (not nearly as much as much of the world that does not have enough food, shelter and clothing) because the final achievement is the promise of an eternal life of love with the designer of love, God.

Heavenly Father, You have created me in Your image and likeness as a product of heavenly love and born out of the bond of love thru my parents marriage. Help me to participate willingly in your divine design for marriage and family by passing that love on to my own family with the help of my spouse. Allow the world to see how you created in me your divine design. Amen.

In God’s design of love we are created.

Blessings as you go forth to live and share His love – BE His design,

Charlotte