Polar ice caps

I HAVE mentioned before Romans 8, which describes nature as "groaning", awaiting the revelation of the sons and daughters of God. It’s as though nature is paralleling what is occurring in the spiritual realm.

During prayer a couple days ago, the melting of the Polar Ice Caps came to mind. Scientists are saying that the rapid meltdown will have an avalanche effect on other eco-systems. It seems to me that this is a parallel of things which are in motion and yet to come in the economic and social realm; that once they start, things will unfold rapidly.

The words of Gandolf from The Lord of The Rings come back to mind:

"It’s the deep breath before the plunge."

In His mercy, Jesus asks, "Are you ready?"

THIS Sunday, the Feast of Divine Mercy, is a significant day of historical and cosmic proportions that I believe few in the Church realize. Pope John Paul II called the Feast of the Divine Mercy the “last hope of salvation for the world.”

He who has ears ought to hear.

(To the one who disposes himself to Confession and receiving the Eucharist that day, Jesus promises that all sin and temporal punishment will be wiped away. But I believe God will also give to the “open” soul much more.)

LIKE a car whizzing by a highway sign, it seems the Lord has been giving me brief glances into the various structures of the world: economies, political powers, the food chain, the moral order, and elements within the Church. And the word is always the same:

I FELT a strong word for the Church this morning in prayer regarding television:

Happy indeed is the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked; nor lingers in the way of sinners, nor sits in the company of scorners, but whose delight is the law of the Lord and who ponders his law day and night. (Psalm 1)

Christ’s Body-—baptized believers, bought with the price of His blood-—are wasting their spiritual lives in front of the television: following "the counsel of the wicked" through self-help shows and self-appointed gurus; lingering "in the way of sinners" on sitcoms; and sitting "in the company" of late night talk shows which mock and scorn purity and goodness, if not religion itself.

I hear Jesus shouting the words of the Apocalypse once again: "Come out of her! Come out of Babylon!" It is time for the Body of Christ to make choices. It is not enough to say I believe in Jesus… and then indulge our minds and senses like pagans in corrupted, if not anti-Gospel programming. God has so much more to give us through prayer: to the one who ponders his Word day and night.

So gird the loins of your understanding; live soberly; set all your hope on the gift to be conferred on you when Jesus Christ appears. As obedient sons and daughters, do not yield to the desires that once shaped you in your ignorance. Rather, become holy yourselves in every aspect of your conduct, after the likeness of the holy One who called you (1 Peter)

Lord Jesus, our affluence is making us less human, our entertainment has become a drug, a source of alienation, and our society’s incessant, tedious message is an invitation to die of selfishness. —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Fourth Station of the Cross, Good Friday 2006

GOOD FRIDAY. That day when we, the fruit of the Cross, seek to console the Consoler; to comfort the Comforter; to love the Lover.

O Beloved Jesus, all I have to offer you is the vinegar of weakness on the sponge of humility. That you would receive my efforts to console you… and my gratitude for so great a gift as your very Life.

THE word fell into my heart like the first droplet of Spring from an icicle: “There is coming a “Lord of the Flies” moment.”

If you have seen the motion picture The Lord of the Flies, then read on. If you haven’t, you will need to rent it or read the book before continuing (WARNING: the film’s language is raw, but real). I honestly believe it is a picture of what is happening in the world, and what is coming, and that Christ is bringing this picture back to memory for a reason. When I watched this movie recently, keeping in mind the “word” I seemed to hear from the Lord, it blew my mind.Continue reading →

WHAT the heck.

I decided to drive our tour bus down Times Square, New York City.

It was late at night. Our faces stared upwards at block after of block of bright lights, billboards, and video screens. New Yorkers stared upwards at us: six kids, faces plastered to the windows. They were as amused as we were dazzled.

Dazzled. During Eucharistic Adoration after Mass this morning, I pondered on these brights lights which lit Broadway like daytime. And the words came to me, “It is a false light.” Indeed, behind every bulb was the promise of some “thing”: visual pleasure, money, sexual gratification, souvenirs, liquor… things. But no where did I see a promise of lasting happiness–inner peace and joy which can only come from the Light of the World.

It was all alluring… but in the same way, perhaps, that a moth is drawn to a bug zapper.

WITH URGENCY I write this tonight… we must put our hearts right with God. We must look squarely at our sin, and repent of it — leave it behind, at the foot of the Cross.

CONFESSION… we must go regularly. St. Pio said every 8 days. Pope John Paul II said every week. Once a week… come to the Father, pour out your heart, and let him speak words of forgiveness and healing. Why be afraid of so great a gift?

I can hear objections. But it is more important than work. More important than kid’s soccer. More important than watching television. Our soul is more important than these things.

We must prepare our hearts to receive a great Light by ridding anything in our heart which would create a shadow.

IN REPLY to someone who wrote, doubting that God could speak through the violence of nature:

Creation belongs to God, and as such, he has the right to assert his presence when and how he pleases. We know from the revelation of Jesus Christ, and of scripture, that God is not just loving, God IS love. Thus, he is merciful, patient, and forgiving. But he is also just, and because he is our Father, scripture teaches that he also disciplines us.

Neither does God force humanity to love him… but the wages of sin is death. In other words, humanity reaps what it sows. If we sow destruction, that’s what we reap, both naturally and spiritually. Continue reading →

LOVE has no denomination.

DURING prayer today, a word came to me…

It is no longer the eleventh hour. It is midnight.

Later on around noon, a group of women prayed over Fr. Kyle Dave and I. As they did, the church bell tolled 12 times.

AT MORNING Mass, the Lord began speaking to me about “detachment”…

Attachment to things, people, or ideas keeps us from being able to soar like an eagle with the Holy Spirit; it muddies our soul, preventing us from perfectly reflecting the Son; it fills our heart with other-ness, rather than with God.

And so the Lord wishes us to be detached from all inordinate desires, not to keep us from pleasure, but to enrole us in the joy of heaven.

I also understood more clearly how the Cross is the only Way for the Christian. There are many consolations in the beginning of the sincere Christian journey–the “honeymoon”, so to speak. But if one is to progress into the deeper life toward union with God, it requires a self-renunciation–an embrace of suffering and self-denial (we all suffer, but what a difference when we permit it to put to death self-will).

Didn’t Christ already say this?

Unless a grain of what falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit. –John 12:24

Unless the Christian embraces the crosses of life, he’ll remain an infant. But if he dies to himself, he will produce much fruit. He will grow into the full stature of Christ.

FROM the first night of the St. Gabriel, LA parish mission:

Pope John Paul II seemed to speak as the eternal optimist — the glass was always half full. Pope Benedict, at least as a Cardinal, tended to see the glass half empty. Neither of them was wrong, for both views were rooted in reality. Together, the glass is full.

TODAY’s best line on the tour bus (writing from St. Gabriel, Louisiana):

Mommy, I lost my gum!

Where is it Greg?

In Levi’s mouth!

JESUS continues to send me to near empty churches… but there is at least one lost sheep in attendance. This I am sure of.

Which of you men, if you had one hundred sheep, and lost one of them, wouldn't leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one that was lost, until he found it? –Luke 15:4

AT times God seems so far away…

But He is not. Jesus promised to remain with us until the end of the age. Rather, I think there are times when He draws so near in His transfigured brightness, that one’s soul squints until it closes its eyes. Thus, we think we’re in the dark, but we are not. The soul is blinded by Love itself.

There are other times also when the sense of abandonment comes because of adverse trials. This too is a form of Christ’s love, for in permitting this particular cross, He is also preparing for us a tomb from which to rise.

And what is supposed to die? Self-will.

FAITH is not believing because we have proof; faith is trusting when we’ve run out of proof. –Regina concert, March 13, 2006

Consolations, warm feelings, spiritual experiences, visions, etc. are all like fuel to get one down the runway. But that invisible thing called faith is the only force which can lift one toward heaven.

I JUST walked into my prayer room, and my third son Ryan, who just turned two, was standing on his tippy-toes trying to kiss the feet of a crucifix. He just turned two… So I lifted him up and held him there for the kiss. He paused, and then turned his head and kissed the wound on Christ’s side.

I began to tremble and was overwhelmed with emotion. I realized that the Holy Spirit was moving deep within my son, who cannot even form a sentence, to comfort Christ, who is looking over a fallen world about to enter its Passion.

Jesus have mercy. We love you.

AFTER the Divine Liturgy (Ukrainian Mass) during Lent, all of us enter into the aisle beside the pew, while the priest recites a prayer: “Having suffered the passion, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy us.” Then everyone kneels and bows their face to the ground. This is sung three times–a beautiful act of humility and homage.

This morning, as the priest began to recite the prayer, I heard in my heart what I felt immediately was my guardian angel speaking: “I was there. I saw him suffer.”

I bowed my face, and wept.

FEELING the drag of my flesh after Communion, I had the image of being on the edge of a very dense and ancient forest….

Barely able to move through the dark thicket, I was entangled in branches and vines. Yet, the occasional ray of Sonlight pierced through the foliage, momentarily bathing my face in its warmth. Instantly, my soul was strengthened, and the desire for freedom was overwhelming.

How I long to reach the open plains, the rugged wild where the heart runs free and skies are limitless!

…then I heard a whisper, seemingly carried on a shaft of Light:

OFTEN we enter Lent with a sense of trepidation–a fear of the sacrifice of dying to self.

I suppose it is how the grain feels as it is buried beneath the furrow, or the caterpillar as it is entombed by the cocoon, or the trout as it is encased beneath the winter ice.

But how tragic if the seed were to lay on top of the furrow, only to be blown away by the wind! Or the caterpillar to refuse the cocoon and never rise with wings! Or the fish to escape icy waters and suffocate in the snow!

O Soul, embrace this Cross before you. There is Resurrection beyond the tomb!

ALL day, I sensed the Lord wooing me to prayer. But for one reason or another my regular prayer time was bumped until after midnight. “Should I pray or go to bed? …it will be an early morning.” I decided to pray.

My soul was flooded with such joy, such peace. What my heart would have missed had I given way to my pillow!

Jesus is waiting for us, yearning to fill us with indescribable love and blessings. As we carve out time for supper, we must carve out time to pray.

Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. –John 15:5

JESUS said "the truth will set you free."

The first truth which sets us free is the recognition not only of our sin, but of our helplessness. To admit one’s poverty, one’s emptiness, is to create a place in the heart which can then be filled with God’s riches and fullness.

It is actually liberating to admit one is a slave; healing to admit that one is wounded.

We must realise the necessity of accepting our weaknesses and God’s strength, and of showing them to the world. —Catherine Doherty, Staff Letter

FROM today’s talk at the Okotoks Teacher’s Faith Days:

“As I have traveled throughout Canada, it has become clear: what makes a school “Catholic” is not the name bolted to the side of the school; neither is it the religious policy statement of the school district; nor is it the spiritual programs initiated by the school board or principal. What makes schools truly Catholic––truly Christian––is the spirit of Jesus living in the staff and students.”

WHERE is the cure to cancer??

“I provided it,” said the Lord. “But the person to find it was aborted.”

TO ENTER into the cenacle of the world–the shopping mall–is to my heart, what cement boots are to a jogger.

Sometimes, one is so poor, weakness is all there is to offer: “O Jesus, this is what I am, nothing but weakness and poverty. This is all I have to give you that’s truly mine. But even this I give you.”

WHY can’t we give ourselves completely to God? Why don’t we make holiness our one pursuit? Why do we cling to this or that thing, knowing we would be happier if we let it go?

We must answer this. And when we do, we should place the truth before Him, and let it begin to set us free.

FAR from “stealing Christ’s thunder”

Mary is the lightning

which illuminates The Way.