Me, Myself, and I

What is it that you do when you're proud or you lack humility? You kind of nourish yourself: "Mmm, I'm wonderful, I'm always right, I'm always good, I'm always persecuted.  I'm always this, I'm always that."  It's me, myself, and I.  You see, you're going to live with a trinity one way or another.  The trinity is either me, myself, and I, or it's the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  The choice is yours.  But if you're not with God, you're with yourself.

~ Mother Angelica, Private and Pithy Lessons from the Scriptures

Straight to Heaven?

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately about whether or not I will go to Heaven, Purgatory, or Hell. I would like to think that I'm definitely not going to Hell. I used to think that Hell was only for the really, really bad. That it was for murderers, adulterers, the God-less.... Now I'm not so sure. Could I possibly be going to the same place that these people are going, even if I try to live a holy life? Will God not accept me to Heaven if I forget to confess a sin? Will He not accept me with Him if I continue to yell at my children? Will He deny me eternal life if I continue to gossip?

Could these sins that I consider to be small, carry the same weight as these others for other people? I think the more I know about how to behave, God expects more of me. If I know I'm not supposed to gossip, then I should sure try hard not to. If I know I'm supposed to practice patience, then I darn better be doing that! So even if I weed out the big stuff, and mess up on the small stuff, will God deny me?

Then a friend of mine sent me this link to a sermon by Saint Leonard of Port Maurice. I'm not sure of who exactly he is, but his sermon certainly woke me up. I began thinking that I just might not make it to Heaven, even though I'm trying so hard. He says that there is a very small amount of us that actually even get to purgatory, never mind Heaven itself. I thought, "Boy, if I can make it to purgatory, at least I know I have a chance of getting to Heaven!" After reading this sermon, I'm not sure I would even make it to purgatory!

But I must not let that discourage me. I'm not about to give up. I want to be among the few who make it. I want all of my family and friends to be also. I think about getting to Heaven and what it will feel like to feel Jesus' love around me and to see God in all of His glory. I can't even imagine, but it's sure sounds like something I will want to experience.

Then today, I came across this video from Mother Angelica on
How to Avoid Purgatory:


She says it's easy! I suppose when you think about it, the rules are the rules. God says do this, and don't do that. It is really easy when you think about it that way. It's the devil that makes it hard for us. He is always there whispering in our ear that, "It's OK, God will understand. God wants you to be happy, right?" It's those nudges from the devil that makes our job a little harder here on Earth. And at the end of this video, Mother says that we must go to Church and participate in the Sacraments. We must live in the present moment and do God's will, right here, right now.

Mother talks about this very thing in her book Little Book of Life Lessons and Everyday Spirituality. In her chapter, The Present Moment, she has this to say:

Your Whole Life Is Now

In the Gospel of Matthew, the Lord tells us, "Set your hearts on His kingdom first and His righteousness, and all these other things will be given you as well. So do not worry about tomorrow" (Matt 6:33-34). Now here is sentence we forget entirely: "Tomorrow will take care of itself." Why? Because tomorrow will soon be now! Have you ever noticed that there really is never a tomorrow? It's always now. Your whole life is now.

You know, people come to me and they consider their past life, and they say, "Oh, if I could just do the whole thing over again." You can. Maybe you can't change your situation-we can't always do that-and you have no way of knowing that any other situation would be better, it may be much worse.

Every moment of life is like God saying, "Look, I know you messed up the last moment, but here's a new one." Every moment you breathe, God's power envelops you and sustains you in existence. So every moment, no matter what you did in the last one, no matter if you were sinful, mean, impatient, unkind, or caustic, you have a fresh start in this new moment. Every day, every instant of your life is brand-new--you make it old by living in the past. And you make it a dream world by living in the future.

This seems so simple, but just really hard to do. But I know that God gives me plenty of opportunity to practice! It's so nice to think that God knows that I messed up, but enables me to make it right.

I figure if I follow the Commandments and all of the teachings of the Church, go to Confession often and make sure I get to Church every weekend, my soul will be in good shape! I just might stand a chance.

So what do you think? How easy do you think it is to get to Heaven? Where do you think you will end up?

Love Your Enemy

St. John Francis Regis

I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you... Matthew 5:44

I'm the type of person who wants justice for all. I not only worry about myself, but also everyone that I care about. So when I see that someone else is hurting that I care about, it makes me angry. I get into this mentality of, "How could they do that to you? What in the world is wrong with them?" And it almost feels like it has happened to me. So because this person/these people, hurt someone I care about, I see them as my enemy as well. And it's easy to be angry with someone else and blame them for someone else's unhappiness, but it is certainly terribly difficult to love them and pray for them.

But I must say, in my efforts to do so, my anger has diminished. Yes I think time plays a part, but prayer also does. And if you love your enemy and are praying for them, it's pretty hard to carry anger, and possible hate, in your heart. Mother Angelica from her Private and Pithy Lessons from the Scriptures says:

In the Lord's mind there can be no difference between a person who is holy, a person who is faulty, a person who is a big sinner, or a person who is pious. There's no difference. Jesus in His love always said He hated sin- hated sin- but He loved the sinner. We seldom separate the sin from the sinner. So, if I hate your way of life, I hate you. If I despise your faults, I despise you.

Love has a way of minimizing faults. They've got these minimizing bras- what do they do? They're supposed to make something big look like something small. Well, that's what our love should do. Love minimizes the faults of others.

Isn't Mother Angelica great? She always makes so much sense, even when I don't really want her to. But it's true. If we can look past all of these faults we have deemed others to have, and love them and pray for them, those faults don't seem so big anymore and we can get past them.

Is there someone in your life whose way of life you don't particularly agree with? How can you overcome your anger or hate?

Daily Readings:
2 Corinthians 8:1-9 Psalm 146:2, 5-9 Matthew 5:43-48

Pride

Pride either keeps you back from doing what you should do for God and His kingdom or it pushes you forward into things you are not able to do.

-Mother Angelica

LOVE THIS!! And how in the world do we tell the difference? There have been so many times in my life where I wonder if what's happening is God's will, my will, or the devil's will. My pride has gotten in the way of a lot of things in my life. It gets in the way of having good relationships with my friends and family. And as I read this quote over and over again, I suppose my pride has gotten in the way of being successful at certain things.

One thing that I'm proud and thankful for my pride taking a backseat, is in my role as a wife and mother. I'm so glad I was able to push that down so I could be successful here. It has made such a difference in my life, I can't even explain it.

Judge as the Father Judges

He doesn't judge you at all in this life, so why should we?

-Mother Angelica

A Prayer for Inner Healing

Lord God, Father of all, we come before Thee today
empty with our soul in need of healing. We need that
confidence and hope that comes from Your Holy Spirit.
Help us to realize Your love for us and to give that love to
our neighbor. We need to build and renew. There is in
each of us something in our memory that keeps us from
being compassionate and merciful. So deeply rooted are
the gnawing resentments that they obstruct us from the
good You have for us. We ask You to reach into each of our
memories now and heal them. Touch that unforgiving
spirit within us and drive it away, Father. We know You
forgive us, but we find it so hard to forgive ourselves.
Remove all the regrets of the past. Lord Father, we know
You are present now and beg You to remove all of our guilt
and make us new so we can be used by Your Son. Lord
Father, reach in and heal us all and fill us with the love
and compassion that surpasses all understanding.
Amen.

- Mother Angelica

Pray for Little Things

How often do we pray for the little things? It's hard to remember to do that because we don't appreciate those little things as much as the big. Well, for me it's that I have to make a conscious effort to remember those little things to pray for.

I think that we also tend not to appreciate those little things that we do for each other, especially our spouses. There are things my husband does that I appreciate, that are little, but I don't say anything. But because he does those little things, like get wood in, fill our heater, come home every night, coach baseball, I know that he loves us. And I try to do little things for him in return. The same can be true of our kids too can't it? I can't even count how many times my kids do little things that are good and sometimes they go unnoticed. I know in my head that that was a nice thing that they did, but I don't vocalize it all the time. But boy, when I vocalize it, it's AMAZING how they react! They are just so proud of themselves.

My point is, is that those little things really add up. And whether we consciously know it or not, those little things are the things that we truly appreciate. So Mother Angelica wants us to ask God for those little things too. Because that's one of the many ways we can show Him that we love Him.

Food for the Soul

Prayer is food for the soul.
- Mother Angelica

Detach Yourself

Detachment is an overwhelming attachment to God.
- Mother Angelica

Detachment from what? Well, I think what Mother is saying here is that when we detach ourselves from the "things" of this world, we become more attached for God. When we pay less attention to the "things" we want, the "things" we think we might need, the more we can focus on God and the "things" He wants!

Does that make sense to you? It makes sense to me. When we can let go of ourselves and our stuff, we can grab ahold of Him and His holiness. We can become more tuned in to our Lord and His wants and His desires for us as Christians following Him.

So what could you let go of in your life today that will bring you closer to God's holiness?

Prayer of Frustration

I swear God hears our prayers and really does His best to answer them. Yes, I know that we don't always like the answer, but He answers. I spent some time last night pondering over a particular situation, and then said a quick little, informal prayer to God this morning to ask for His help in pulling me out of this mental mess.

I cracked open Mother Angelica and entered in the Fourth Degree of Prayer, and then kept reading. The next section, lo and behold, was on frustration. And it is weird, but I didn't highlight anything in that section. But it's amazing how much it applies to life, more than we realize.

When we are in a situation where we can't see the light, His light, it's difficult to think that there is something good He has in store for us. Mother says that we must remember to pray in the Present Moment. What I think she means by that is to remember Him, even in our times of frustration.

My most recent time of frustration has been in the past couple of days. I feel so deeply rooted in learning all I can about being Catholic and trying to speak the truth, that I get frustrated. My family and I when I was little, went to Church. While I don't remember looking forward to going, I don't remember fighting with my parents about it either. I remember having to be quiet, but not much else. I remember talking to my friends and wondering why my Church didn't sing more. As an adult, I understand a little bit more about why we do what we do, and now I can explain that to my kids so they can understand better too.

Well, I got my Communion, one of my other brothers got Communion, and soon after that, we stopped going. Mom and Dad said it was because the priest talked too much about money. Which may be true, but we didn't find another Church to go to. So I guess Church wasn't a priority to my parents. That's not a knock-down, it's just maybe the way it was.

But I always felt this closeness that I wanted with God, even after we stopped going to Church. I wanted to be this perfect little girl that God loved very much. What I didn't realize was that He already did. I don't remember anyone telling me that God loved me.

As an adult, after having 3 children, I felt the need to hit Church again. I took up an RCIA class and learned all about God's love. God's love?? How enthralling! I was excited. I finished RCIA and began reading "A Woman After God's Own Heart" by Elizabeth George. After picking it up and putting it down quite a bit, I finally finished it and it was probably one of the best reads I had in a long time. That book changed the course of my life with God. While it was not a "Catholic" book per say, it was a book that explained how much He loves me, all of us, and how I can show my love for Him. It was wonderful.

As I adopted certain principles in the book, my marriage got stronger, and I became a better mother. I now had the words to be able to talk to my kids about God's love and what He expects from us. Something that I didn't have when I was growing up. I'm not saying my life was bad, I'm just saying I was missing God.

Mom, Dad, if you're reading this, for the record, I think you guys did a great job raising us. We all turned out as contributing members of our society, married, having wonderful children. So I don't want you to think that I think you did a bad job. You took your childhood and turned it around so we had a good one. God sees what you did, and I'm sure He's happy.

Anyway. I feel blessed to have found God and developed this love for my Catholic faith. And there are a lot of people out there who have their opinions, which are often stereotypes, about our faith. It happens and stereotypes will not go away. But how we treat each other can.

That's the part that's frustrating for me this morning. I'm frustrated with the way people treat each other. I'm frustrated with the cruel words that come out on the Internet about people. Not just in my own experience, but for anyone. There is a lot of hate in the world, and I just need to calm down and come back to prayer and let God show us our erroneous ways.

So, I'm going to ask you guys what you like about being Catholic? What is it that keeps you going to Church? What is it that you love about the Mass? What is it that changes, or has changed, your life in regards to being Catholic in particular?

Can't wait to hear your responses!

The Fourth Degree of Prayer

The fourth degree of prayer is Prayer of the Soul. This one is a tough one because it's when you can feel God's presence in everyone. How hard is that?! How hard it is to see our Lord in others when they are saying mean things to us. How hard it is to see our Lord in others when they support abortion, the killing of our unborn children. How hard it is to see our Lord in others when we see them stealing or committing some other crime.

I definitely haven't gotten there yet!! I try. I keep it in my mind, but I haven't quite perfected this one. I don't think that too many of us can say that we have!! :)

Third Degree of Prayer

The Third Degree of Prayer is the Mind. This is where we start to examine ourselves and we start to feel far away from God. I think this is because we realize with our minds that we are imperfect and maybe we start to feel that we are not worthy of His love.

This is when we have to rise above that state of mind and increase our spirituality. Sounds easy right? Or maybe it doesn't sound so easy to you. Either way, it's not easy. I find myself doing this all the time. I'll be reading Scripture and read something that just doesn't make sense in my mind because sensibly, or in our human world, is not possible. That's when I have to mentally rise above that and look to my heart for my spirituality. For my belief in our Father and all of His good and faithful works that He makes apparent to me daily.

First Degree of Prayer

Good Monday Morning!

Today I'm going to talk a little bit about the First Degree of Prayer: Strength. Mother says, "It comes when you begin to realize that God is your Father and you've got this vacuum in your heart."

We take all of our sins, frustrations, fears, and bring them to Him. We realize that we don't have as much control over our lives as we thought we did. It takes strength to "give in" to Him and His will. It's hard for us to feel like we don't have any control. So that takes a certain degree of strength. And when we pray, our prayers turn into what He wants, instead of what we want.

I was just explaining this to my daughter today. Have you ever said, "I had such a good idea!!" Of course we have! Well, was that your idea or God's? It's God's. Everything is God's. God works through us and plants seeds and thoughts in us. Whether we choose to follow that or not is a different story.

Let me give you an example of what I mean. This week, I was blogging with women who didn't agree with me (which was wonderful because I learned something). We were blogging about sex and feminism, and of course we disagreed with how we got to where we are in society today. I get up very early to take a shower and sit down on the computer to get my thinking, praying, reading, or blogging in. When I sat down with my computer here and turned on the television, I was going to turn on the news. But then I thought, let's see what's on EWTN today. I turned the station and guess what? It was a program about... drum roll please... sex and kids!! Coincidence? I think not. My idea? I think not. God talks to us all the time. He whispers and if we listen, we will learn His ways and He will be able to live through us.

See, we are His. He does His works through us if we let Him. I guess I decided to let Him that day. I could have turned on the news because that's what I wanted to do, but I didn't. I realize a little more each day that my life is not mine. It belongs to our Lord. That takes strength, but it also brings comfort.

Once we come to terms with our sins and feel repentance, it turns into the Second Degree of Prayer: Heart.

Four Degrees of Prayer

The next section of Mother Angelica's book deals more with prayer. More specifically, it deals with Four Degrees of Prayer: Strength, Heart, Mind, and Soul.

So stay with me next week where I will post each day with an explanation of what each one entails.

Have a safe, wonderful, and Blessed weekend!

Silence for God

This is something that is a little hard for me to explain. At first, I thought Mother Angelica wanted me to turn off my t.v., my radio, quiet my kids, maybe go to a quiet room, so I could concentrate on God in silence. But I don't think that's what she means.

She says that our "...powers of concentration are so diverted that [we] cannot concentrate on God." So what I'm thinking is that we should be in a sort of meditative state. We should erase our worries from our minds. Take away thoughts that divert our thinking from God. "[We] have to feel that silent place in the depths of [our] soul, in that place where [we]can always concentrate on God."

This meditative state keeps out influences that are not God's. She tells us that this place we go is somewhere we have control of. No one can come in unless they are invited. So if we don't invite the devil, he cannot come in. So I'm thinking this silent place must be a place of peace where we are always in tune with God and what He wants so that we can stay on the right path.

If this sounds right, let me know!! If you have something else to share, please do that too! This was a tough one!

Love

Prayer is your heartbeat in rhythm with His.
Pray as you love.

- Mother Angelica

GIMME

Mother Angelica reminds us that prayer isn't always about us. If we see our brother in pain or in need of God's help we should pray for him. If we see our brother sinning, we should pray for him: "If anyone sees his brother sinning, if the sin is not deadly, he should pray to God and He will give him life." (1 John 5:16) I posted more on that at Daily Catholic Devotionals.

So not only think about you when you pray, open your mind and your heart to others who may need Him, especially if they don't know they do....

PRAY!

The next section of Mother Angelica's book deals in prayer. I think this is something that we significantly lack as a whole as Christians. Some of us are afraid to pray because we're not sure if we're doing it right. Others of us pray for something to go our way, and then get upset when it doesn't come out the way we want it to.

Well, I'm just going to share a couple of quotes from the beginning of the chapter today, and continue to share thoughts and quotes throughout the week.

Prayer creates a disposition of assurance- not that you're going to get every answer that you want- but assurance of God's presence and His love.

God is always here. If you want to be able to count on someone all the time, God is your man. Have you ever had something that you want to talk about so badly that you feel like you're going to explode? And you call your best friend, wife, husband, sister, brother, mother, father, daughter, son and they weren't there? I have! So who do you talk to? GOD! "A lot of people today pray, but they never talk to God." Mother tells us that we don't have to wait for that magnificent thing to happen, but "talk to Him about everyday things right now."

The closer that I become to Him, the more I find myself talking to Him. In my van, making breakfast, doing chores around the house.... He's becoming more like a best friend. I can talk to God about ANYTHING. And why not? He knows everything anyway! I ask Him questions, I ask for help, I give Him thanks. I do that many times throughout the day. It keeps Him in my mind and in my heart. And the more I do it, the more I don't even realize I do it because it's such a big part of my life.

Luck

There is no such thing as luck. God is the author.
-Mother Angelica

Isn't that neat?! I knew when I read that, I just HAD to post it! I have been correcting myself lately when I want to say "lucky" or "luck." Because I firmly believe there is no such thing!

Instead of saying lucky now, I say that I'm "blessed." Or I tell someone they were "blessed" instead of lucky. Because that's what it is. God Blesses us with His love! It may be a tough love sometimes, but it is love nonetheless. And it is an unceasing love that we can always count on!

A Trusting Soul

A soul that trusts God is invincible.
- Mother Angelica

Isn't that so true? From our trust comes love and faith. When we have those things, we have belief! And that belief gives us our eternal life with Our Father.

BEAUTIFUL!