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A sick person should not feel obliged to accept very painful treatments which she is not convinced will cure her. But she is right to expect humane care, which every human being deserves, receiving food and nourishment, and also pain relief if available.
Every day is a new day, in the life of a Christian, no matter how mundane or routine was the previous day. Each day stretches ahead like an area of countryside to be traversed - with no knowing what might happen. God can intervene in our quiet lives through people: through phone calls received, sermons heard, or through insights and requests offered by the Lord in prayer.
The great MIND of God, that made human DNA and the genome, cannot be understood by human beings; nor can the Godhead by pierced by thought alone. He should be adored; yet He has revealed Himself in and through His Son, God-made-man; and Christian mystics, through Christ, can see deep into the 'heart' of God.
The Church teaches the truth, in every age of our history, yet each of the mystics experiences it - for example, St Paul, St Teresa of Avila, St Thomas Aquinas. It is the Christian mystic who prays with trust, reverence and humility, who knows God better than anyone, through union with Christ in prayer. The mystics have produced the most lyrical and intellectually-coherent accounts of what they have learned of God - which knowledge echoes and confirms the truths taught by the Church, and illumines them.
In Lisieux, St.Therese was grateful to God, in every circumstance. We cannot dictate to God about when we will experience His love, and His glory, in earthly life. What is important is that we do His Will; and He who is good always trains His friends - and rewards them. A person like St.Therese who lived much of her life in spiritual darkness had a special vocation to show out naked faith, as well as love.
The Lord has a plan for every life: an invitation which, when heard and accepted, enables each one to love and serve Him and to find true happiness, both in this world, even amidst differences, and in life after death.
God is loving, pure and wise; therefore God chooses, for intimate friendship, a person who loves Him and is reverent, prayerful, humble and obedient. That obedience includes loving his neighbour, and the Church. God cannot bring into close union with Himself those who hate fellow creatures, or believe Jesus was a liar, or hide away in sin, or despise the Church, or are self-important, or pray with little reverence, or despise popular devotions that lead people closer to Heaven, including honour to the Blessed Sacrament, and to the Virgin Mary and other Saints.
There are people in many places who wrongly believe that we can earn Heaven by our repeated prayers and laborious religious practices. Heaven is a free gift, received in the end as a free gift, through faith in Jesus Christ Who Himself came down from Heaven to show us the Way, and to free us from our sins.
In every age of Christian history, Christ makes Himself Present, under sacred signs, in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Christ prays for us, from our altar. He praises the Father, with praise worthy of Him: praise that we can offer as our own.
Every priest needs a charitable heart. God the Father, like Jesus, knows what a man is like. He sees each man's soul and personality, gifts and background and attitudes. He calls to the Sacred Priesthood only men who are suitable for that special vocation.
The living God is a 'Holy Fire', blazing with love in our sanctuary, it seems, as we gather to offer Him honour and praise in His house of prayer, through the Holy Mysteries. Christ is Present; with His Angels and Saints, enfolded in the glory of the Father: glory into which we hope to plunge at death, having been purified in the Sacred Liturgy. Our reverent attention should be drawn towards God, for Whose glory this Church was built.
The Lord wants us to remember that our Catholic churches have been built for the glory of God and not the glorification or parishioners or Clergy. That is why it is not appropriate to have self-assertive, frivolous or irreverent behaviour taking place within.
Christ invites every woman who has had an abortion to turn to Him, and not to lose hope. He loves her. She need only say to Him: "I did wrong, and I am sorry!" to show her regret and repentance. Christ wants the Clergy to speak more about the Sacrament of Penance, and about how the sin of abortion can be forgiven.
It would please Christ very much if priests were to say: "We all do wrong. The Church can tell us what is right and wrong, but we can be forgiven. I shall be in the Confessional at certain times, this week, and every week". Christ wants them to invite people to repent, to change their lives, and to find freedom and peace-of-soul at last.
When I prayed, on the coach to London, Christ said: "Picture me on the coach with you". This would be a representation of the truth, since He is everywhere as our God, and He is with me, in my soul, since my Baptism; and He wanted this knowledge to make me joyful, now and always.
There are near-misses on the roads every day, and even fatal crashes. Christians in other circumstances even risk death for their Faith. Are we all ready for Heaven, if we meet sudden death? Christ wants us to examine our lives, to make an honest assessment of our spiritual state, in case we have not repented of mortal sins.
It is commonplace to see Catholics on television who deny the truths of the Faith; yet people call them 'practicing Catholics'. It would never be said, or people of another religion, who despised its teachings, that they were faithful to it. This is one sort of danger that Christ warned his followers to expect.
The journey to union with God is only a slow journey, if a person is half-hearted in serving Him and fearful of His demands. The one who surrenders completely to God by obedience to Him in everyday life makes swift progress in prayer, as if travelling in a fast vehicle, not on foot.
To meet Christ at death whilst in a state of grace is to be wearing the wedding garment necessary for Heaven, even if it is stained, and must be washed clean in Purgatory. Good people who have never known Christ meet Him at the edge of Heaven; some greet Him gladly, when told He is the Saviour of the world and so receive a white garment. Others refuse to accept Him, and condemn themselves, and cannot therefore enter Heaven.
The Lord asks us to persevere in prayer for atheists. When we do so, it's as if He lets down a rope from Heaven, into the hole in the ground where they choose to live. They have blinded themselves to His existence by ignoring the glory of the natural world, the weight of human testimony, and the call of conscience.
Showing 1061 - 1080 of 1911