True Happiness only comes from God

In this past week, we have been trying to hear God's voice within the silence of our hearts. Usually, this is not easy because we live in a very noisy world. And to be able to turn off the noise of the world requires a lot of discipline.

When God calls, He wants our full commitment. He doesn't want our YES with conditions. We are either in or out. We are either hot or cold. But we can't be warm. God doesn't want us to be warm of spirit. We are either with God or with the world. We can't have two masters. "No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." Matthew 6:24

The world will be our biggest obstacle in our journey to God. The world, with all its glitter, holds an incredible attraction for us. It's like a magnet that is constantly trying to pull us apart from God. We just went through a season that gives us a bird's eye view of how the world tries to absorb us and separate us from God. Last month we celebrated Christmas, which is purely the celebration of the birth of Jesus. And yet, the world is trying to convince us that Christmas is not a religious holiday but a commercial holiday. And sadly, they are succeeding. We spend more time in the stores shopping for "Christmas" than we do in church celebrating the birth of our Saviour.

The world tries to make us believe that we will find happiness in material things. But the truth is that material things only bring us a false sense of happiness. We can only find real happiness when we are in communion with God. We cannot even find everlasting happiness in other human beings. We need other human beings because we were created to live in community. God does not want us to live in isolation. But we can't find happiness through others. We can only depend on God who is the source of all happiness. When we lose a loved one, they leave a big hole in our hearts. This hole can only be filled with God.

Once we find this happiness in our relationship with God, our personal circumstances won't matter. If we are in true communion with God, it won't matter whether we are sick or healthy, old or young, rich or poor, male or female. There is a lady in my church who has serious health issues, but you wouldn't know it if you met her. Even though she lives in constant pain, she radiates joy, the joy that can only come from God. I have visited the sisters of charity near Jackson. They live in the most humble conditions and yet, when you walk into their home, you can't help but feel a tremendous sense of peace. The reason is that they have consecrated their lives and what little they possess to God. And on the other side of the spectrum, I have also met very rich people who are very happy but their happiness doesn't radiate from the things they possess, their happiness comes from God. They have heard His voice and they are following Him.

God is calling each one of us in whatever circumstances we find ourselves. It doesn't matter if we are healthy or sick, rich or poor, young or old. He needs our time, our talent and our treasure. He needs the healthy and the rich to help the poor and the sick. He needs the poor and the sick to help out in His church. He needs the energy of the young and the wisdom of the old. He needs all of us because we are one body and each one of us has a special talent that is unique and different from the rest.

God is calling us to put our entire beings at His service. If you are not ready to commit one hundred percent, then He will continue to wait. He is very patient.

Speak Lord for your Servant is Listening

"Speak Lord for your servant is listening." 1 Samuel 3:10

It's truly amazing that when the Lord wants something from us, He keeps reinforcing it.  I went to mass yesterday and when I heard the first reading, I knew I had to pay close attention to the homily because there would definitely be a message for me.

Samuel is having a hard time recognizing the Lord's voice. God calls him three times and even though he hears the call, he doesn't realize that the voice belongs to God.  In his homily, Father Emanuele de Nigris, the pastor from St. Cecilia Catholic Church, said something that I had never thought about before.  He said that "listening requires humility." If you think about it, that is so true.  Most of us love to talk but have a hard time listening.

In order to recognize God's voice, we need to be humble. Otherwise, His voice may get lost among all the noise in the world.  In 2009 I was very blessed to attend one of the last Spiritual Exercises led by Father Amado Llorente. He passed away in 2010.  Father Llorente gave us some tips to help us discern what God wants from us. He told us that if we have to choose between two different options and we are not sure which option is the one God would like us to pick, to follow these steps:

1. Pray to God for enlightenment.

2. Do a list of pros and cons for each of the options.

3. Think which option would you prefer to have accomplished if you were to die tomorrow.

4. If it was a friend the one that had this dilemma and he/she came to you for advice, what would you advice them to do?

More than likely, by the time you get to the 4th step, you will clearly know what God wants from you.

A few years ago I found myself with two different options to choose from.  Both were good options and both seemed to be coming from God, but I just didn't have the time to commit my time to both.  I followed the above steps and God clearly led me where He needed me.  I was very happy because when we accept His call and we are obedient, He will fill us with joy.

Even though I don't always attend mass where he preaches, I receive Father Robert Vallee's homilies by email. In his homily yesterday, he shared some insight that is very important to keep in mind.  "We must do that which makes us happy.  And we are not going to figure it out in our heads.  We are going to figure it out by listening to the silence in our hearts. That's where God speaks."

God is not going to ask anything of us that will bring us unhappiness. It may be hard. It may be difficult.  But it will ultimately bring us happiness.

Father Vallee concluded his homily with these wise words:  "It took Samuel a while to figure out that God was calling him and even longer to figure out what God was calling him to.  It takes all of us a while to figure out the call as well.  But keep at it.  It is worth it.  On the day you stop chasing your dearest dream, on the day you stop listening for the voice of God, on that day, you get old."

Go and Serve the Lord

"Let us look to Mary, the highly beloved daughter of the Father, endowed with every gift of grace, as the unsurpassed model for all those who follow Christ in love of God and service to their neighbor."
--Pope Francis, November 21, 2014

Father Gabriel, the pastor of St Francis Catholic Church, stopped by the hospital to give my father the anointing of the sick and a special blessing. I had the wonderful opportunity to talk to him for a little while.  He was telling me that he feels very blessed that he has a few retired priests that help him on Sundays with the six scheduled masses. He is the only priest assigned to St. Francis so that extra help frees his time so he can serve the parish in other ways: visit the sick, plan the parish festival that is coming up, prepare the church budget for the coming year and numerous other responsibilities that we don't realize our priests have.

Pope Francis proclaimed 2015 the Year of Consecrated Life.  What an opportunity to thank our priests for everything they do for us.  Unfortunately, the media only emphasizes the negative.  But we have so many amazing priests in our parishes, humble men that gave their YES to God and live their vocations quietly and obediently.  Most of the time, we only see our priests when we go to mass or confession.  Many times we grade them by their speaking abilities. If they are great preachers, we try to find out at what time they are giving mass so we can go listen to their homilies.  I'm the first one to admit that when I notice that the priest that is about to give the mass is the one that loves to talk and talk to the point that he puts me to sleep, I utter a silent complaint: "Oh no, this is going to be a long, boring mass."  And then, I feel guilty because I know there is so much more to the mass than just the homily and there is so much more that our priests do and we don't see. 

Even though we have not consecrated our lives to God the way religious persons have, each one of us is called to serve God.  Every time we are dismissed from mass we are instructed to "go and serve the Lord."  "Each member of the faithful shall be led in the Holy Spirit to the full development of his own vocation in accordance with Gospel preaching, to sincere and active charity and to exercise that liberty with which Christ has set us free. (cf. Presbyterorum Ordinis, 6)."  And our priests can help us immensely in this task, if we allow them to guide us in discerning what God wants from us.  "The Pastor fulfils his role precisely when he guides and protects his flock and sometimes prevents it from scattering.  Sustained by a sincere desire for the salvation of each believer, he is particularly precious and necessary, also in our time. If the aim is to spread the message of Christ and to lead men and women towards a saving encounter with him, so that they may have life, then the task of guiding appears as a service lived in pure giving, for the edification of the flock in truth and holiness, often going against the tide, and remembering that he who is greater must act as the lesser, and he who governs as he who serves (cf. Lumen Gentium, n. 27).  Jesus' way of governing was not through dominion, but in the humble and loving service of the Washing of the feet, and the kingship of Christ over the Universe is not an earthly triumph, but reaches its highest point on the wood of the Cross, which becomes a judgement for the world and a point of reference for the exercising of that authority which is the true expression of pastoral charity."
--Pope Benedict XVI, "The Essential Task of a Priest: Authority and Hierarchy in the Church--Service Lived in Pure Giving," General Audience, May 26, 2010

Let's make it a point to seek our priests for their valuable spiritual guidance and let's not forget to thank them for the service they provide to us.

Today

Last night I was still struggling with my yes.  In spite of all the positive messages that I received from my Emmaus sisters, I still had my doubts. But I plunged forward, I created the blog, I posted the first meditation and I went to sleep. This morning I went to my weekly Bible class and God confirmed His message loud and clear.  Listen to the song that was played in Bible class today:

Today I choose

There is no going back. Today I choose to give my YES to God.  Today I choose to be obedient to Him.  He is calling me to bring His message of truth to others and even though I don't feel qualified, He will give me the grace and the ability to share what He wants others to hear.  All He is asking of me is to be faithful.  And I know that with Him and with the power of the Holy Spirit, I can do it.

How about you?  Are you also struggling with your YES?  Jesus is asking you to be obedient to His calling. In the words of St. Thomas Aquinas, "If obedience is lacking, even prayer cannot be pleasing to God."  Jesus is challenging you to serve the Lord.  And He wants your response TODAY.  We don't know if we have tomorrow. If we are going to serve Him, we must decide TODAY.  Our hearts will resist and we will come up with excuses (later, tomorrow...) but Jesus is calling us NOW.

"We think we are free and truly ourselves only if we follow our own will.  God appears as the opposite of our freedom... When human beings set themselves against God, they set themselves against the truth of their own being and consequently do not become free, but alienated from themselves. We are free only if we stand in the truth of our being, if we are united to God. Then we become truly 'like God'--not by resisting God, eliminating Him or denying Him." Pope Benedict XVI, "Mass of the Lord Supper," Basilica of St. John Lateran, April 5, 2012

Seek the Lord today.  Listen to His calling.  And give Him your response TODAY.

No More Excuses

Dear sisters in Christ:

As I sit here at the ICU at Mount Sinai Hospital, while my father recovers from yet another surgery, I've decided to do what I enjoy the most and usually don't have the time to do.  Actually, it's not really about time, it's more about inspiration or the desire to write.  I spent the morning reading magazines about the European royals and socialites, playing Solitaire and scrolling through Facebook.  I could have been writing yet I chose to do pointless tasks.

"If only I had the time for it..." is a typical sentence all of us utter at some point.  But how we use our time or waste our time is really up to us.  Personally, I use that sentence a lot but yet I find time to watch "Madame Secretary" and "Blue Bloods" every week, I find time to play "Word Chums" every night, I check Facebook not constantly but definitely daily and a number of other wasteful activities that take away time from doing what I should be doing but simply have no desire of doing.

And what should I be doing? Every day I pray, God help me hear your voice. What should I be doing? What do you want from me? And everyday I hear His answer loud and clear: "Write. I want you to write. Spread my message." And as soon as I hear Him, I answer immediately: "Why do you keep asking me the same thing? Don't you see I don't have time?" But I do have time and I do keep a journal. But He wants more from me and I keep shutting my ears to his request. Maybe is fear to share my inner thoughts. Or fear to make a commitment. And therefore I keep using the "time"excuse.

What is God asking of you? Do you hear His voice? You are not going to hear His voice with your ears, but if you make "time" for Him, you will hear his voice within your heart. You may hear Him while you read the Bible or you may hear Him while you pray or You may hear Him at mass or You may even hear him in an email you receive.  Trust me.  If He wants something from you, He will let you know loud and clear.  The question is: "how are you going to answer Him?"  Are you going to answer "NO" using the "lack of time" excuse or maybe the "I'm not capable of doing that" excuse? Or are you going to answer "YES God, I will do your will"? 

This last answer is pretty scary, I'm still struggling with it.  But I know someone who can give us the courage to answer "YES."  She gave the most important YES ever given in human history.  “I am the handmaid of the Lord.  Be it done to me according to thy word.” (Luke 1:38)  Mother Mary's YES to God can help us put our fears aside.  Mary doesn't come up with excuses.  I'm sure she was busy. Yet, she didn't say: "God, I don't have time right now for a baby." Mary has no doubts.  She doesn't say: "I'm not capable of being the mother of your Son."  I'm sure she was terrified but the angel told her, "Do not be afraid," and she listened. She placed herself completely at God's mercy and He led the way.

So it's time to put all the excuses aside, listen to God's voice and answer YES to whatever it is He's asking of us.  In my case, it's "writing" so sorry ladies, get ready to be bombarded.  I may create a "blog" or who knows what, I'm not there yet. He will lead the way.  But with you as my witnesses, I'm ready to allow God to change my life the way He changed Mary's life.  Why should I be afraid if He's the one in charge? If I follow Mary's example and abandon myself in His hands, He will inspire me with His thoughts and His messages.  So I ask you to hold me accountable.  If you don't hear from me by the end of this month (I'll start with baby steps), reprimand me because I'm not obeying God and it has nothing to do with lack of time.

When God comes knocking in our hearts, we must always answer YES.

Blessings to all of you and I hope you are encouraged to allow God to change your life.

YSIC,
Christy