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MariaChristi
Guest
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Saints know Whom to seek, as St. Faustina did, writing in her “Diary”:
Saints know Whom to seek, as St. Faustina did, writing in her “Diary”:
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dmftx
Guest
Such prayer is desperately needed in the DFW area now.
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mlz
Guest
Her Diary is so very good to read! She is a dear Saint to me and a friend who understands and will intercede for you!
mlz
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liturgy96
Guest
St. Faustina, pray for us!
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RPRPsych
Guest
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MariaChristi
Guest
Dear dmftx,
Yes, I thought of those families of the police officers who were shot in Dallas, and of so many persons hurt by the hatred we all pray to overcome. St. Faustina was given a share in God’s wisdom which always leads us to Christ. Thanks for your reply.
Jesus, we trust in You!
Mary, Mother of Mercy, pray for us.
St. Faustina pray for us.
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MariaChristi
Guest
Dear liturgy96 and RPRPsych,
Thank you both for your replies. By God’s Grace, please let’s continue to pray for one another and for all those in most need of God’s Mercy, through Mary, as St. Faustina did.
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BobCatholic
Guest
She had a very close and intimate relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
I am jealous. I wish I could have that.
I am jealous. I wish I could have that.
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MariaChristi
Guest
Dear Bob,
You don’t need to be jealous, or just wish for that. God wants to have an intimate relationship with you and with each of His children. We are all called to holiness, but I wonder – how many believe by God’s Grace and cooperation with His grace, holiness is really is possible for ordinary people?
Without God, I can do nothing, but with Him all things are possible, so by His Grace, I want to grow closer to Jesus through Mary each day. I urge you, Bob, and anyone else reading this, to pray earnestly to the Holy Spirit to guide you into the holiness God intended for you when He created you. Leon Bloy once wrote, “The only real sadness, the only real failure, the only great tragedy in life, is not to become a saint.”
I’m also suggesting a small book for lay persons that can help: The Ordinary Path to Holiness. See HERE
It’s an inexpensive paperback written by a layman primarily for lay persons, but priests and religious can also be blessed in reading it. The late Father Groeschel said in the Introduction he wrote for the book:
Remember as one member of the Body of Christ grows in holiness, we all grow. Please let us pray for one another, for the Church and for all those in most need of God’s Mercy.
Thanks so much for your reply to this thread.
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mlz
Guest
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MariaChristi
Guest
Dear miz,Who says you can’t?!!!
It is His desire and our will.ray:t2:
In His love,
mlz
If you read my reply to Bob, you’ll see my opinion on the possible reason some people say, they can’t be saints. Bob can answer for himself, and he may be expressing a profoundly humble heart. Nevertheless, there seems to persist among some Catholics the false notion that only priests and nuns can be holy, and not “ordinary lay persons” like themselves.
Some just don’t believe it is possibe for them to become holy, or grow in holiness, despite the fact that the Church teaches ALL are called to holiness. I think some people do not realize the subtle temptation of the devil who wants us to believe his lies. God said “Be Holy for I am Holy.” God does not lie! The devil is the “father of lies” and he will seek to disguise himself as an angel of light and he will seek to “counterfeit” whatever is good into something false.
Eve believed the lie the devil told her and she did not obey the Truth God told her. Adam likewise did not believe God and did not obey God’s truth. The choice remains for all: Whom will you serve? Jesus and Mary and all the saints give us the lived Truth of their lives on earth. We need to do the same, so I recommended a book to Bob yesterday, The Ordinary Path to Holiness. The author also wrote another book (almost a sequel to the Ordinary Path) entitled The Interior Liturgy of the Our Father. If anyone is interested in continual growith in prayer and holiness, I encourage you to read both books. I’ll give links to both:
The Ordinary Path to Holiness, see HERE
The Interior Liturgy of the Our Father see, HERE
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BobCatholic
Guest
I do have to be jealous.
I read about how God is looking for us, searching for the lost sheep, being the “hound of heaven” - but when it comes to me, I’m an exception. I try to get closer to him, he steps away and says “nope” Every attempt I did to get closer to God has failed.
An example: I’ll go to a healing service, with a prominent healer. Miracles occur all around me (and I’m happy for them).
OTHER people get healed. I don’t. My son doesn’t. God passes me by.
I even carry my son to the healer, humbling begging Jesus to have mercy on my son, and the healer places his hands on my son. No healing occurred.
I ask for help with my employment situation. Nothing.
90% of my prayers are for others, and I’m sure God says yes to them (since I don’t benefit). When I pray for benefits to me, the answer is ‘no’
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MariaChristi
Guest
Dear Bob,
Thanks so much for your reply. No doubt, anyone reading your reply can say with me, “I’ve also gone to the Lord and begged for someone’s healing in body or soul and yet it “appears” that nothing happens. I prayed for myself and I appear to be the same”.
I say “appears” because what we see with our human eyes is only what is on the surface; we cannot know what is going on inside a person, not even in our own souls. Only God can “see” beyond appearances and only God can allow some persons to see, occasionly what others may not see. God’s ways are not always our ways. His Ways are always ways of Perfect Love.
God is the Good Shepherd and He truly seeks to draw you closer to Himself, because He is Love and He is Faithful to His Word. We on the other hand are not always faithful nor are we always loving, or docile as Jesus, the Lamb of God is to His Father’s Will. We do not always listen to God, so we do not always hear His Voice, nor what He says in Scripture, Tradition and the Magisterium, and thus we do not always know or do His Will.
I hope you will look at the link and consider the book I suggested. Prayer is more than words – it is a relationship with God. The same author who wrote “The Ordinary Path to Holiness” also wrote a second book on the perfect prayer which Jesus taught us. It grew out of one of the chapters of the “Ordinary Path”. His second book could almost be called a sequel, as I told “miz” in my reply to her. The second book is entitled “*The Interior Liturgy of the Our Fathe*r”.
Please do not stop speaking to the Lord in prayer and listening for His “still small voice” calling you into a more intimate relationship than you have known before, because He does call us all to holiness. God does not lie. In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus invites us: “Come to Me”, He says, and “I will give you rest”. ( cf Mt 11: 28)
At least follow the links to consider these books, and listen …to hear in your heart … a call from God to deeper prayer and understanding of God’s Love for us even when he does not “appear” to answer our prayers. We may simply not “see” or understandd what He is giving us and why.
I’ve read both books more than once and I know others who have read them and been blessed by them. I know the author very well – he is my husband.
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BobCatholic
Guest
Then he needs to stop being so mean.
How does one attract by being repellant?
I’ll continue praying. 90% of the time I pray for other people. It is the only way I know my prayers have any value, because the 10% where I pray for my benefit, are worthless (because God has no room in his will for my needs.)
The rest happens in heaven, not here on this planet.
God cares about the spiritual so much, that the temporal is an afterthought at best. That’s why he tells us to take care of the temporal because He doesn’t want to.
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MariaChristi
Guest
Dear Bob,
Jesus on the Cross “looked” repellant because on the outside were the wounds inflicted by sin. Jesus was suffering yet only by faith can we “see” His love for us and His glorifying God. God is not repellant nor is He mean. God is Love and the more we look at the crucifix the more we see how much He loved us and also what the sins of all of us have cost Him. By His wounds we are healed.
St. Teresa of Avila told her sisters that true prayer requires attention and devotion. If we do not pray with attention and devotion towards God, we may be moving our lips, but we are not praying. St. Teresa knew God intimately, praying to Him with attention and devotion. God gave His Son for you and me. Are you sure you are not the one who has no room? God’s Will is our sanctification.
Jesus gives peace, but not as the world gives. God cares for everyone and everything He created, but He gave to man and woman the gift of free-will to choose life or death. Sin and death entered the world with Adam and Eve’s disobedience. God continues to offer us a new birth in Baptism – we come out of sin and death and are truly born again in Christ.
God gives us a share in His Divine Life in Baptism. We are intended to grow in that life as we age naturally. All the saints give examples of this. When they die their natural death, their soul remains immortal and will one day be reunited with their resurrected bodies. We too can live as saints in this world, in intimate union with Him as St. Faustina and others did but we will also endure suffering until our lives here are over and our eternal life in heaven begins. God wants us to share in His love for all He created.
As a Catholic, I think you know this, but I’m repeating what I know to be true in case you may have forgotten or never heard these things in the same way as I did.
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BobCatholic
Guest
I’m not talking about on the cross. I understand what you’re saying there.
I’m talking about when he’s harsh and unpleasant.
“I don’t care one iota about your temporal needs, I only care about your spiritual needs.” is the message I’m getting from God.
I want to have devotion to God. I want to love him. I really do.
I can’t love someone who won’t talk to me, won’t comfort me, won’t help temporally, or someone who treats me horribly.
“Deliver us from evil” - oops, doesn’t apply to me, I’m delivered to the evil because all I’m having is bad luck in life now.
How do I trust someone who refuses to deliver me from evil?
I have room. But nothing is good enough for him.
God’s grace is fragile, it gets broken very easy. It is hard to keep.
But not the gift of the ability to KEEP life. I don’t have the gift of final perseverance.
who were created imperfect, and the bug in their software caused the fall (software crash).
Imagine creating someone imperfect and then punishing them for the natural result of imperfection (failure). That is harsh!
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MariaChristi
Guest
Dear Bob,
God is Good, but it seems to me that you are not able to see His Goodness on the Cross and His willingness to suffer and die, so that you and I may have eternal life. That is the ultimate Spiritual need we all have: To live eternally in union with God in the perfection of Charity. Our temporal needs are taken care of also, if we seek Him first in our lives. Now, I am not saying God gives us everything we want, or think we need in temporal goods, but He does provide us with what we need when we truly put Him first.
Love is an act of the will. If we will to love God, we love Him; and our devotion shows Him that our love is willing to do all He asks and accept all He permits because we believe in Him and trust Him. Faith, Hope and Love grow together. Grace build upon Grace.
If we only love God when He comforts us or He does whatever we want Him to do for us, we are mercenaries, not lovers. Love is the gift of self to God who loved us so much He gave His Only begotten Son on the Cross for us. He has delivered you from the evil of sin in Baptism and continues to give you grace to overcome sin. “Bad luck” is not being delivered to sin. All of us suffer from the sins of others as Jesus suffered but like Jesus we can continue to be free from sin and love God through difficulties, by the grace He gives us. We trust God because we believe in His Love for us.
You seem to have no room to welcome what God permits for you; you seem to want what you want, and not what He gives. It seems as if you have no room for God’s greater wisdom because you are full of your own ideas of what you think is best for you. The saints show us how willingly they gave themselves to God, without counting the cost. They gave everything and so they had plenty of room for God to fill them with what He knew was best: Himself! If you want to know Him like St. Faustina and all the saints , you need to give yourself to Him, humbly and like a child, trusting and believing in His Love. Nothing is good enough, so He tells us to let go of our “selves”, and He will fill us with His Love which is more that we can ever repay. He is never outdone in generosity.
Bob, let me reply to your last few statements in this short paragraph. God’s Will includes all that He allows in our lives and He works all those things for good if we cooperate with His grace. Adam and Eve were created good but they lost what God gave them by disbelief. They chose to believe satan’s lie and not believe what God had told them. It is basically the same with us. In Baptism we are given that friendship with God, that Adam and Eve lost. We pray for final perseverance becasue we are weak and sometimes fall into sin but God has given us the sacrament of Confession to be cleansed and begin a gain. If we truly repent, we can sin less and less and become more and more like Christ.
Read the Gospels. Read the lives of the Saints. Pray to become Holy. God is willing to work great good in you and all of us. Renew your Faith, Hope and above all your Love for Him.
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mlz
Guest
Dear Catholic Bob,
Look at Christ on the Cross- fix your eyes on Him and think about how He felt. Really spend time contemplating this… He knows how hard it is for us because he too suffered… Only far greater… And He being God… No pride- great humility and the ultimate example of what love truly is. When you suffer He is with you yearning to be with you in your suffering… But in His great love He has given you a free will to choose to trust Him through this all. Remember even Christ asked His Father to take this cup of suffering away but ended with…but not MY will but Yours be done! He asks the same of us. Placing your hand of trust and hope He joins with us in suffering and takes what is evil/ bad and turns it to good. The evil of Christ on the Cross is a perfect example of God taking what appeared evil to good ( Reserrection from the dead and salvation for all souls WON!!!) Suffering is very hard but when you look to Him trusting in His plan for ultimately turning it for good it gives you an eternal perspective !!! Our life here is soooooo short compared to ETERNITY:smiley: It would be good for you to stop looking at what you think He isn’t doing and start thanking him for what He IS doing! You will be amazed how much can change when you let go of your own will and place your trust in HIS will:smiley: Please do not allow the root of bitterness take hold of your soul as it will choke the life out of you! He can do abundantly more than we ask or think when our Trust in His Divine Will. ( not ours) I will pray for you to as they say " let go and let God"ray:t2:ray:t2:ray:t2:
My love in Christ,
mlz
Look at Christ on the Cross- fix your eyes on Him and think about how He felt. Really spend time contemplating this… He knows how hard it is for us because he too suffered… Only far greater… And He being God… No pride- great humility and the ultimate example of what love truly is. When you suffer He is with you yearning to be with you in your suffering… But in His great love He has given you a free will to choose to trust Him through this all. Remember even Christ asked His Father to take this cup of suffering away but ended with…but not MY will but Yours be done! He asks the same of us. Placing your hand of trust and hope He joins with us in suffering and takes what is evil/ bad and turns it to good. The evil of Christ on the Cross is a perfect example of God taking what appeared evil to good ( Reserrection from the dead and salvation for all souls WON!!!) Suffering is very hard but when you look to Him trusting in His plan for ultimately turning it for good it gives you an eternal perspective !!! Our life here is soooooo short compared to ETERNITY:smiley: It would be good for you to stop looking at what you think He isn’t doing and start thanking him for what He IS doing! You will be amazed how much can change when you let go of your own will and place your trust in HIS will:smiley: Please do not allow the root of bitterness take hold of your soul as it will choke the life out of you! He can do abundantly more than we ask or think when our Trust in His Divine Will. ( not ours) I will pray for you to as they say " let go and let God"
ray:t2:ray:t2:ray:t2:My love in Christ,
mlz
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BobCatholic
Guest
I see this, no problem. God has done WONDERFUL AWESOME things when it comes to solving spiritual problems. He rocked there!
But temporal problems…hmmmm…not so much.
God seems to care about the spiritual so much that temporal concerns are maybe an afterthought at best.
Here’s the problem.
First, how do I put God first if God doesn’t want to talk to me or even show me the pleasant side of himself?
Second, if there are times when God said “no” to taking care of my temporal needs, and there have been many times this has happened, how can I trust him to be more stable in this area, when he hasn’t done it in the past?
Faith is not supposed to be blind.
Hard to trust God when all he seems to be doing is allowing bad things to happen to me. When will he stop the bad luck?
Bad luck is being delivered to evil.
I have no room for unpleasant things because I’m flooded with them.
Because they actually had a personal relationship with God, I don’t.
In addition, most of them were monks, nuns, priests, bishops - people who worked for the Church. I’m a layman, and have to worry about taking care of my family, which must be an evil thing since I can’t put 100% to God.
But the “love” means what? Only the spiritual.
And if God doesn’t give me the grace to cooperate, game over.
I’ve done that, and got depressed. They were not laymen and didn’t have to worry about taking care of a family. In addition, they had a personal relationship with God which I don’t.
Not doing that again.
I need to figure out how to get God to want me.
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