Sunday, April 30, 2017

Golf

Bobby Jones, a golfer, said that golf is like life.  You hit a really good shot and it ends up in trouble.  You hit a really bad shot and it ends up in good shape.  You hit the ball beautifully, with that solid feel  to the golf club.  The ball seems to be going just as you planned, high and far.  Then it lands, in a sand trap, or tall grass, or worse, behind a tree.  "Why am I being punished by a good shot?", you might ask.  Then you hit a shot that does not feel good.  It does not go up in the air much, bounces along, hits the side of an off course hill and bounds back onto the fairway, in perfect position for a shot to the green.  The Golf Gods?  Isn't life like golf?  You do good, all the right things, and you get punished or penalized.  You do not so good, but get lucky.  Life is a bit of luck and a bit unfair.  Golf is supposed to relieve the stress of life.  Oh really?

Saturday, April 29, 2017

I Am Sorry

Do you ever suffer someone saying, "I am sorry,"  but then they go on to do the same old stuff over again?  My experience of "Sorry" is that it is the best someone can do before they take action to change.  "Sorry" may actually be moving toward the door of "change."  The door is not being opened but "sorry" might be moving in that direction.  It could be worse.  Many people do not say they are sorry about anything.  They may even think they did nothing wrong.  "It is your problem" they might say.  Real change takes place only with action, not just repentance, or sorrow.  I get the latter in confession all the time.  Lots of sorrow, but no change.  Change takes steps, one step at a time and it is not easy.  Maybe that is why few people do it, and only when their own lives are too miserable even for themselves.  Your life being miserable will not change them for the better.

Friday, April 28, 2017

Beginnings And Endings

A drug is something that changes us.  It is the purpose of the drug, be it pill, liquid, solid food, and sometimes exercise.  We go from pain, discomfort, unhappiness, out of sorts, to a new happiness and new freedom from whatever pained us.  The drug does for us what we could not do for ourselves,  just by our existence.  It has a power greater than singular me.  This is "beginnings" reactions.  Over time, we grow dependent.  Even the gym becomes a must or else we cannot go on with any contentment.  In the end we become bonded to the drug.  We cannot do without it, and it begins to bring on new pains, different from the initial miseries we wanted to escape.  Left to ur own devices, we generally cannot escape from the escape.  We are hooked.  Injuries may get us out of the gym.  It can be a physical bottom.  Car wrecks, divorce, liver issues, unemployment, homelessness are some of the things that accompany the endings of our drug.  That pill that made me "well" is killing or destroying my life.  When I am hurting, before I go for that elixir of relief, I try to connect with someone else, do some good for someone, or go for a jog.  Oh, I forgot.  That last one could be a drug.  But so far for me, it still works.  I am so skinny!  Light jog.  Easy does it.

Thursday, April 27, 2017

Behavior

Too often, institutional religion is into behavior rather than relationship.  The emphasis is on how well or badly you behave.  Ethics comes into play.  If you act correctly then you are in a good relationship.  This is the deity as a parent or boss.  You are "good" according to how you act.  Go to church, keep rules, and you are good.  Relationship on the other hand, that which most post modern searchers want, is not about behavior, but rather love and intimacy.  How do I experience the love of the deity when I am not so good, when I am shattered, broken and imperfect?  Does this Spiritual Power, Force, Personal God, love me just as I am?  It is only from there that we can begin to grow, change for the better, and become all that we are supposed to be.  The latter is a much harder and more demanding path than simply keeping rules.  Love is what changes us.  Behavior only keeps up in line.  Institutions like control.

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Attendance

People think that going to church will make them better people, or make them "good."  Attendance does not change us much.   We go in with faults, recognized or not, and we come out with the same faults.  Church is not magic.  It is the same with recovery meetings.  Attendance might keep you from drinking or drugging for an hour, the same as church might prevent you from jay-walking, or commiting mayhem for the time you are in church.  We won't change our behavior, or become better people until we realize that we are the enemy.  The problem is ME.  Once we recognize this we can begin to take spiritual steps, that is, God help, to discover my faults and weaknesses.  We come to recognize in our behavior that these have become bad habits, or vices.  We cannot get rid of them on self-will or self-power.  Self is weak and damaged.  This can bring humility.  We ask our God for help, which is prayer.  We apologize for damage caused to self and others.  Now good stuff is happening.  Attendance is good as a beginning habit.  We cannot hear what we need to hear unless we get out of ourselves, we bad self-advisors, and listen to another voice.  Could this blog be another voice?  Hopefully for someone.  It did help me though!

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Solution Issues

I hear people say that they got some help so that they could stop ingesting an addictive substance, or stop partnering with the wrong people, or stop some other destructive behavior.  In the beginning the process is one of stopping something.  But there must be more than stopping.  Why?  Well, there is the solution and there is the problem.  People choose a solution such as alcohol, food , drugs, sex, work, shopping, that does not seem to make them happy.  That is, they chose the wrong solution.  If you focus only on this, your solution,  you are left with the problem that the solution was meant to "fix."  That is why all successful solutions are spiritual.  The problem is an interior one of soul.  I meet people who stopped drinking and said, "I am OK now."  Really?  Short term they feel physically better.  But the problem that alcohol addressed remains. They thought that alcohol was their problem, but alcohol was their solution and it did not work.  Soon enough they are back to the bottle.  All our addictions are our solutions to a problem, but the problem is ourselves.  Many more people are always giving up something for a short time, but far fewer are those who will do the inner work.  The inner work is the tougher journey, one step at a time.

Surgery Got It All

The pathology report came in.  The surgery got all the melanoma.  I am free.  The stitches irritate on my shoulder because of friction with clothes.  But this is minor and may get me a few days off from purgatory.  I also realized from the blog hits I got, on the day I announced my melanoma diagnosis, I have over 1400 people responding.  This social media is powerful.  Nowhere do I go that 1400 people come to listen to me.  So many people prayed for me.  I think I am loved.  With all the silliness of my life, of which these people know so much, I am loved.  I may cry now, but there is another more substantial blog posted for this day as well.

Monday, April 24, 2017

Non-Believers


This Good Friday prayer is one I like as well, for non-believers, judged "Pagan" or "Infidels" by some.  Here is the prayer:
For those who do not believe in Christ,
That, enlightened by the Holy Spirit,
They, too, may enter on the way of salvation.
Nothing here about enlightenment coming from torture, or death threats.  Our trust is in the Holy Spirit, to show them their way to salvation.  It does not say that they have to be Catholics to get there.  The prayer does not say that they have to believe in Jesus as their Lord and Savior.  Could there be another way to fulness with God?  Perhaps.  We believe that Jesus came to save all, not that all would believe in him or what he did.  I am a Paulist priest, so I still like conversion work, but I am reminded that I am but a piece of God's great plan.  If I can keep loving God in my actions, that is the best introduction to Christ I can give.  

Sunday, April 23, 2017

Non-Catholics


On Good Friday, following up on yesterday's blog, we Catholics pray for Non-Catholics, the ones we were killing or forcing into conversion in our history.  Here is this prayer:
For all our brothers and sisters who believe in Christ,
That our God and Lord may be pleased, as they live the truth, 
To gather them together and keep them in his one Church.
This is a prayer for unity among Christians, called Ecumenism, so that we can speak the Gospel with one voice, but it does not call for punishment or damnation.  Nor does it call upon anyone to force someone to join up.  We call one another, brothers and sisters, not heretics, and leave it to God to join us together in one Church.  Go visit a Church building of other Christians.  Maybe you will find God there?  

Saturday, April 22, 2017

Jews

On the Catholic Good Friday service, there are official prayers for three groups: Jews, Non-Catholics, and Non-Believers.  None of these prayers ask or focus on any of these groups becoming Catholics or joining the One, True Church, as some Catholics would say.  There is nothing about we are right, and you outsiders are doomed.  Here is the Prayer For Jews:
We pray for the Jewish people, to whom The Lord our God spoke first, 
That he may grant them to advance in love of his name
And in faithfulness to his covenant.
We simply pray that they be good Jews as God called them first in his covenant with them.  This prayer keeps us out of hate, prejudice, and judgment, all good things to be rid of.  Do a Mitzvah today. That means a kindness expecting no return.

Friday, April 21, 2017

Melanoma

I found out this morning that I have Melanoma.  I thought that I was a "Dead Man Walking."  More bad news was that the cut would be deep and long.  There would be stitches in the shoulder joint where the Melanoma resides.  The stitches would remain in for two weeks because the shoulder joint moves and the stitches need time to do their job.  No drugs will be necessary or used.  I was given a piece of wood to bite on in the night.  The good news, for my disfigured body, is that the cure for my level of cancer is 100%.  It was found just as it moved from simple cut to Melanoma.  So I went from being dead to being merely disfigured in my aging.   If you pray, I could use the power of prayer.  I believe in a here after, but not just yet. I  will have to deal with my "yets."  What I take from this is don't postpone seeing old friends.  If you believe in God, make intimate friends.  I don't want to spend eternity with a stranger.  Satan and I had  done some business, but I would rather not live any more in that neighborhood.  Pray that I don't rip my stitches apart carrying baggage to airport for trip to San Francisco next week.  Is Netflix healing?

Thursday, April 20, 2017

Netflix

Anyone want an excellent library?  I have one.  But I don't use it anymore.  You see, my niece, Satan, in this case, gave me a birthday present.  I now have a subscription to Netflix.  I am watching "The Crown" episodes, as I notice my books languishing on the table nearby.  Plus, I discovered Google has as part of its app, a way to call up just a piece of information, and Google finds the movie.  Then I can go to my movie app and call it up from their library.  I asked Google, "Polish nun," and Google came back with the title, "Ida."  I had missed this movie in the theatre.  But it had gotten good reviews in the press.  And so it goes.  Will it stop in the monastery this summer?  Satan is everywhere.  The monastery has wi-fi...in my room.  I have ear plugs.  Please pray for me.  My soul is in grave danger.  But "The Crown" is really good!  My advice, is to read some each day before you go to that iPad.  I just blew the dust off of my book.

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Spiritual Suicide

What is spiritual suicide?  For me, it is to make plans that concern ourselves or someone else, without getting a second opinion, without some consolation.  Often, we believe that our ideas, our goals, our plans are the best and no one else could see it otherwise.  Then we an destroy others and/or ourselves.  I call this "The Judas Way."  Judas had an idea, a plan.  He kept it to himself, so he thought.  The results he expected in betraying, or handing Jesus over to the authorities, did not happen.  It devastated Judas in his heart and then his next plan, without consultation, was to hang himself.  If only he had talked to someone about his plans and solutions.  And I don't mean talking to someone, but actually listening to them.  Getting counsel is not the same as informing someone of what you have made up your mind to do.  People "invest" money only to find out later that many others knew that to be a bad investment. People decide to run a marathon,  climb a mountain alone, move away, marry a particular person, become a priest.  A lot of these end up in disasters such that suicide seems like an option, especially since you don't consult with anyone anyway.  A mind left alone to make a decision can be a dangerous situation.

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Cremation

In ancient Israel from whom Christianity is descended, cremation was a punishment for criminals and enemies.  It was a dishonor to be cremated.  Jesus had friends, not the Twelve, who made sure that he was not cremated.  The good people in the tribe were buried within 24 hours.  No elaborate funeral services or embalming.  Then stuff happened, such as six billion people, a non-expansive earth, and the expense of the funeral/church burial customs.  If you are going to bury a body, you do it soon after the death, maybe three/four days.  Friends and relatives no longer live in a small village.  People are spread out all over the globe and cannot easily get to a funeral in such a short time.  If you cremate, then you can have a funeral or a celebration of life at whatever time is convenient.  Cremation is less expensive.  No casket for instance.  Cemeteries are filling up.  Any cemetery expansion near a city would have to compete with housing and construction interests.  Cremation takes less space.  I am OK with cremation.  My Paulist community will do whatever is in my will.  What is in my will?  I forget, but it is there.  My parents and sister were all cremated.  I would like to be buried at sea.  But don't think that will fly with my community.  Maybe.  If you are buried in the ground, after two generations that follow you, who will visit the grave or even think about you?  One reason I would like my body to be buried and not cremated is so that if someday people decide that I was really holy, they might want to dig me up to see if I am incorruptible.  Spooky?  Well, pride and ego never die I guess.  I won't be that holy except in my imagination.

Monday, April 17, 2017

Adversity

I hear pious people say that God only sends or gives good things.  I assume by "good" they mean things they like or fit into their program for happiness.  Cannot God send adversity?  I meet many a person who suffered lots of adversity, and thought God did not exist or did not care.  Those same people hit such a bottom of mess in their life that they decided even they could not put up with that level of misery.  They sought a spiritual solution or path.  In their spiritual path they came to realize that God was there all along, patient and waiting until misery and adversity sought a healthy solution.  For me, my God allows adversity for a reason in my life.  God loves me, but knows me well. Sometimes I will only open to change for the better, when adversity builds to an intolerable level.  Crazy?  So I am crazy, but then I have met some very good friends who are crazy like me.

Sunday, April 16, 2017

Attendance

I remember that on my report card I got a grade for "Attendance."  This graded how many times I was present or absent from school since the last report card.  Everyone walked to the neighborhood school.  Bad children would leave the apartment as if to go to school, but then would play hooky.  The report card would reveal this to the parents, when "Attendance" got a C or a D grade.  So children then would attend school to avoid consequences of punishment.  But is attendance enough?  We were called "Good" children because we showed up regularly.  What if we day-dreamed while the teacher talked, or doddled in our notebook when we were supposed to be taking notes or completing an in school assignment?  This behavior might get us into the habit of attending life but not participating.  This is an issue for me on a daily basis.  I want to participate in life and not just show up.  Showing up is important, or else I cannot participate.  But showing up is not enough.  I can be physically present, but not listen, or care.  I can attend an event, even a spiritual event, but let my mind doddle.  Only my body is in the room.  This would make a marriage partnership messy.  It would make my priesthood messy, as people come to me to participate by listening and caring about their issues.  I can attend meetings, but say nothing, not because I am listening intently, but because I have mentally, or emotionally left the room.  Attendance alone is still tethered to mediocrity.

Saturday, April 15, 2017

Triduum

We are hip deep into the "Triduum."  What's that?  Well, yesterday was Good Friday and tomorrow is Easter Sunday.  Two days ago was Holy Thursday.  In short, Last Supper, Crucifixion, Resurrection.  There was a time when I skipped all this, and I was a believer, though none of my life then was predicated on any of these three events.  It was a three day weekend, and if I got away to camp or ski, I would not even notice a church or church-going people.  I and the religion of my youth were on a holiday.  So don't feel too badly if you are reading this and think, "Oh, is it Easter?"  It happens.  Even if you have no faith or a slumbering one, do some spiritual practice that is good for your body.  Rumor has it, that God had a body just like yours at one time and let it get trashed out of love.  Then there was Resurrection and that body sure changed from trashed to new life.  So I have heard.  What I do know, is that I once trashed my body, or let it get trashed, and I got Resurrected.  So I feel a kinship with this Jesus Christ.  Each day is an Easter for me, celebrating new life.  Happy Triduum!

Friday, April 14, 2017

Conversion

I often hear my church leaders say that we should pray for the conversion of non-Catholics to the Catholic church and non-Christians to Christianity.  Which Christianity or Catholicism are we talking about asking people to join?  The church that is about creed and worship or the one that actually follows Jesus, as in love God and neighbor as you love yourself.  I would rather pray for the conversion of Christians from mediocrity to actually following the things that are said in the Bible.  I certainly pray for my own conversion which can easily be tepid on any one day.  Why would I want to ask a person to join a group that does not even practice its call to discipleship?

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Postpone

I am bemused by some people who have an alcohol addiction and then get into recovery.  Many often say that they have given up drinking.  Really?  If you are addicted, is saying you stopped drinking all there is to do?  Even if they are in some program like AA, they may have given up drinking for that day.  But to say "forever!"  What is the guarantee?  If you are an addict then that does not change.  What changes is what one does on a daily basis to stay sober and away from a drink.  I prefer to think of it as "I continue to postpone that drink today."  Eventually, if one gives up what got them sober, they will go back to the drink.  So you have no addiction to anything you say?  Well, what is it that you think you have given up "forever?"  I would advise you not to take spiritual growth for granted.  My sense is that daily effort is necessary.  I have found it so in many areas of my life.  "Postpone" keeps me on my toes.

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Maureen

My big sister Maureen died on this date in 2004 when she was only 64.  Maureen is a person who did a lot for the people who were in her life.  Since she was shy and enjoyed her routines, not a whole lot of people got to meet her.  But the ones who did were very much impressed with her talent, work ethic and commitment to her family, coworkers and friends.  Her office was very organized.  Things had there place, as did little brothers and Maureen was good at putting things and little brothers in their proper place.  She had a wonderful smile that attracted people to her and warmed a room.  Only if you were a little bratty brother who needed to be baby sat, did the smile disappear.  But she made me good.  And when I was ordained, I made her smile.  She taught me how to practice unconditional love.  That is a good thing for a priest to do.  She did it better and more consistently than I do.  You think maybe she is in heaven now?

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

The Message

Whatever message I might be trying to preach will best be done by my actions, by what people see rather than by what they hear me say.  Action is what carries the message.  In my world of religious professionals I find a lot of people who are quite talented with words, but are less so with how they live their lives.  Such people are a message to me to check on whatever bad behavior might be showing up in my life for all to see.  Now there are some people who will speak well and in some cases act well too.  But those cases of right action are usually to avoid some penalty or to get something, be it adulation or material benefit.  This too is a reminder to me to check on my motives.  The people I admire the most and are challenged to emulate are people who act well toward and with others when there is no reward, or anything to gain from the other person.  All the spiritually transformed persons seem to share this in common no matter what the words of their message.  Kindness is a virtue I very much admire.

Monday, April 10, 2017

Extra Time

Why do I jog for an hour in a day?  I enjoy it, yes.  But there is that "other" reason, which is to prolong my life.  I strive for a little more length of life, as if I have some control.  Do I also spend an hour that same day, striving for what is sometimes called, "eternal life"?  This is a quality of life rather than a length of life.  Quality of life, eternal life, is a spiritual dimension and it comes with some spiritual practice.  For me, this might be meditation, spiritual reading and the Bible.  There are days when I exercise "religiously," with staunch discipline, in my physical doings, but realize when I review my life that night, that I gave a "Quickie" to my spiritual life.  How about you?

Sunday, April 9, 2017

New Day

Each day that I wake up I thank God for the New Day.  Not just the day, but the NEW day.  This is to remind me that I have no experience living today.  It is my first time in today.  I want to be part of God's plan for this day that has been given to me.  I am alive for a purpose.  My plans alone may have nothing to do with this purpose.  Each day is NEW.  Remember when you began school?  Did you know how to do school?  No.  You had to learn.  It was all new.  And if you went away to college, did  you know how to do college?  No. It was all new.  Marriage?  Significant first relationship?  Being a teenager?  All new.  Priesthood was all new for me.  When I asked for God's help each day, Grace, I did better than when I skipped God to get on with my plans.  If you are reading this early in the morning, you are a smarty pants because now you are reminded to ask God to direct your day.  If you don't relive in God, then check with some source to get a second opinion.  We start out each day as amateurs. Find a mentor of some sort.  This blog?  At your own peril!

Saturday, April 8, 2017

Sunglasses

I like this analogy.  I carry around my sunglasses.  Where I live, we get some sun most days.  Just because the sun is not shining brightly does not mean I ditch my sunglasses.  When the sun does shine then I will have my sunglasses with me. I am vigilant about my sunglasses.  Prayer is like sunglasses.  Both are for everyday.  If I skip prayer when life is going my way, when times are not difficult, then when suddenly life gets messy, I won't have my prayer maintenance to fall back on. I will either scramble to pray, or just whine and complain about the situation.  Had I maintained some spiritual vigilance on a daily basis, I might find that what seems to be a mess, is simply an opportunity for growth outside of my plans for the day.  So I pray regularly, just like I carry around my sunglasses on a daily basis.  This way I am ready for the light.

Friday, April 7, 2017

Smarty Pants

My big sister Maureen used to tell me not to act like a "Smarty Pants."  This meant that I should not act like I know something when I don't, or when I show off all that I do know in order to impress others.  My sister was very wise, but then so was Satan.  See, you don't get into heaven for being smart.  Maureen was very smart.  Since I have never been smart, I can only speak of one side of the smart downfall.  Sometimes, I try to act like I know something when in fact I am just stumbling in the dark.  This is from fear of looking stupid, or false pride in showing off.  On my few good days, when I am humble, I am capable of saying that I simply do not know.  This can disappoint people who have come to me for answers.  But there are times when I act like a smarty pants, and give answers, brilliant sounding ones, though I am not sure if it is so, or I am rubbing up against clueless.  I should not be in the priest business, since people do approach priests for answers of light in the darkness.  Maybe I should get married, since I know many a husband who is clueless.  How?  Just ask the wife.

Thursday, April 6, 2017

Idolatry

I read in the Bible that idol worship is about people building statues and images of something and calling it a god.  They worship a golden calf for instance.  How silly, right?  Maybe not.  Do we so called believers not do the same at times?  We create or mentally build our own gods and then worship them.  Do we not create an image of a god who comforts or is passive to our mediocrity?  The people of the Bible build a false god with their hands.  I tend to build one with my mind.  I prefer a god who is not too demanding, who keeps the bar rather low, and shrugs no matter my mediocre response to the power and the glory of the everyday.  No wonder I can be bored or listless or feel closed off, or that I might be missing something.  Now and again I read someone who is tuned into the dial of a more demanding God, the real one, and I am brought into the wow moment.  That stuff about take up your cross, love your enemy, care for the poor, just might be the way out of idol worship and the mediocre life.

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Forgive

If someone hurts you and you find that you cannot forgive, it might be because you are focused on what they did, the action or deed.  As long as this is your focus, you will not forgive, and you will go on suffering because you will relive the event every time you think about it.  I don't care to suffer forever because of what someone did to me.  So I try to focus on the person rather than what they did.  It takes time to make the shift, but I can only heal me, not them.  Again, it is empathy that helps me.  I begin to feel or think about what that person might be suffering from their past that made them become the hurtful person they were or are in my life.  We all start out as innocent little babies.  At least for now. Who knows what science will create someday.  As innocent babies, stuff happens.  That stuff shapes us.  Though someone has hurt me, I believe that they are suffering too and their life is a response to what happened to them when they were growing up.  Or maybe something happened to them when they were an adult, and they cannot get beyond it.  Maybe they cannot forgive either.  Anyhow, I seem to have healing in my own life when I can forgive, rather than live with feeling over and over the pain of a person or event in my life.  The memory can hold onto past happenings, but the heart needs to let go.

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Solutions

I was reading a story about a young woman who thought marriage would cure her drinking problem.  You laugh.  I did not laugh.  You see, I thought that by becoming a priest I would cure my partying.  I believed that when I left my bachelor life in San Francisco and entered the seminary I would not drink.  It worked, but it took twelve years.  And it was not the priesthood that did it.  But it helped.  Why did I not drop the priesthood solution when it did not work?  A good question since that was a rather radical solution anyway.  What happened, to keep me in seminary and priesthood, was that from time to time I would actually, somewhat selflessly, help someone who was struggling with their own life.  I liked doing this.  Why?  Empathy.  I connected to their pain.  I know priests you can contact because you are struggling, and they won't even call you back.  They don't have a drinking problem.  My heart is what saved me. It connected with some of the miseries of others.  These suffering people were not so much a burden for me, as my lifeboat.  They gave me hope that I was in the right place even if my original reasons were insane.  Whereas a priest might try to focus on getting a girl to go to church or know her catechism, or live a good moral life, I would connect with her loneliness, self-doubt, and anxiety. Fortunately, most of them did not know that I was sicker than they.  So don't worry if you think you are a little crazy.  Pray that your heart is right.

Monday, April 3, 2017

Better

Someone gave me this thought.  When people ask me how I am, I usually say, "fine."  Don't most of us?  But if I want to stay in touch with spiritual growth and emotional maturity, that is, work on these things on a daily basis, than my response might be, "better."  That is, I am better than I used to be when I would mess up big time.  If I am still practicing old behavior, it is not old, and I am not feeling, "better."  And if I am not better, then I am only getting worse.  So I try each day to keep in mind, "how am I doing?"  Ask myself that question early in the day.  If I cannot say, "better," than in the past bad behavior, I need to do something now.  I have the tools.  Start by getting out of myself.  Sometimes solitude is simply isolation with a nicer name.

Sunday, April 2, 2017

The Value Of Work

From earliest times in monasteries, work was valued as worthwhile and virtuous.  It was part of the Christian ethos way before so called Capitalism.  Monks and nuns worked as part of their spiritual life in the monasteries.  And when there was a lack of working, monasteries tended to reform.  Idleness was the enemy of the soul if you will.  Not all religious groups valued work.  Ancient Rome did not value work.  Have the slaves do it.  In a class society, the rich distained work.  A "Gentleman" did not work.  The Mandarins grew their fingernails very long to make it evident that they did no labor.  Buddhist monks meditated and begged.  Part of the spiritual transformation of a Christian is in the area of work.  Deep prayer can actually make us more industrious in a helpful and loving way.  These blogs are work, though some days I just want to be a "Gentleman." Clean your room without whining.  It could be part of your transformation!

Saturday, April 1, 2017

God's Will

I am leaving the world and moving to the monastery for good and never speaking again.  APRIL FOOLS!
Some people pray only for "God's will be done."  Where is the action on the part of the one praying?  Do you expect God to do all the heavy lifting?  Our faults and failings do not allow us to be useless or helpless.  I prefer the prayer, "Knowledge of your will and the power to carry it out."  This means that I have to do something positive and selfless!  OMG.  How else do we expect to change unless we learn to practice action that is different from the way we acted in our full-blown faults?  We have to practice good behavior and do it according to God's will.  This way we get The God Help we need, the Power, to live a life of service to others as God would have us live it.  When I simply say, "Your will be done," it seems that I then go off with my will, damaged as it is if left unaided, and do as I please with my agenda.  This rarely ends up with good results for the world around me.  My unaided will is a bit broken.