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Nothing can happen to us except what God permits, in this life. Someone who trusts in Christ has no need to panic when illness arrives. There are problems to face, with unpleasant symptoms, procedures - and ways of sustaining the family. But if we are on our way to Heaven, anyway, we are wise if we not only consult doctors, and make day-to-day wise decisions, but also abandon ourselves to God's plans, allowing Him to carry us closer towards Heaven, as if on an escalator.
Through the Sacraments we receive Divine Life; and so the Lord wants everyone - especially every Catholic - to remember that a Catholic church is God's House: a place of holiness. It should therefore also be a place of reverence and dignity, worthy worship of God, and beauty, as well as having artworks that tell out the truth about the Gospel message or symbols, and God's plan of salvation. It is not a place for frivolity and silliness.
As a person in a story found herself trapped in a tiny room, we can become trapped, hiding away from God not in sin, but in fear and lack of confidence. It's as if we have fallen by fear or carelessness into a state of inactivity. Our prayers are infrequent and fruitless because we don't want to hear what He has to say, in case He asks us to take risks, in His service.
If we decide, by God's grace, to leave our hiding-places, where we were nearly paralysed by fear at the thought of doing God's risky work, that requires sacrifices, we must perhaps emerge backwards from our hiding-places, in a posture of humility. Then, free from remorse, fear, and all that bound us, we can stand upright, breathe deeply, and find joy in living in the light as confident children of God.
Jesus Christ is Divine. He is God-made-man, whereas His mother is only human - though very pure and holy. Christ did not simply use the Virgin Mary as a conduit for His arrival on earth. Her life is inextricably entwined with His, and will be so forever, as she intercedes for the Church, at His side in Heaven. It was by Divine grace that she was conceived Immaculate, worthy to be the mother of the Infant Jesus. She taught Him in His boyhood, then saw Him teach others, in His adult life. She suffered with Him, as He endured the Cross; and after His Resurrection and Ascension she guided the disciples. She was with them at Pentecost. But when her work on earth was done she was assumed, body and soul, to Heaven, to be with her beloved son forever, interceding for us who need their prayers.
Our Blessed Lady assists her son, the unique Saviour, Jesus Christ, in making known the Father's plan. It is His desire for each of us to accept His invitation to repent of sin, to be transformed by the Divine life given in Baptism, and to follow the Way of His Son: a Way that, for all who persevere, leads to a sharing in Divine Glory in Heaven, at the heart of the Blessed Trinity.
The newspapers depict, from time to time, horrible pictures of cellars where sadistic men have entombed helpless victims, for the satisfaction of their perverted plans. If they do not repent before they die, such men will find themselves 'entombed'. by their own choices, in Hell, where the 'treatment' inflicted by the demons is worse than anything suffered on earth.
The Book of Revelation describes God's grace as flowing like a river of life-giving water, flowing from His throne and from the Lamb. Do all the thoughts and actions that pour out of our hearts and lives engender charity, make people holy, and do so in every circumstance? Are we God-like, in the fruitfulness of our lives?
Life is sometimes like a building-site, or derelict area: one where the ground has been cleared from sin by confession and penance. Any priest who has been out of active ministry and is about to return has some preparation to do just as any priest who has had severe spiritual problems has work of another sort to do: perhaps a work of reparation: hence the stony ground pictured here, and the willingness of this priest to set to work.
New plants, vigorous growth: Where the Lord sees a Diocese infested with poisonous plants which damage or destroy those they touch, He does not root them out, but plants vigorous new flowering plants which by their astonishing growth, cause the others to be cast into shade and wither. Thus it is with the new movements, today, which He has planted to outgrow the weeds.
Notes about prayer: Practical tips to help in prayer
Ways of praying
As I sat up in bed that night, reading, I read "the Mass was abolished" in England. I discovered that it was the Catholic Church, not the Anglican communion, that continued to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass just as it had been offered throughout Christian history. I had to be Catholic.
I saw a woman hurled into Heaven at top speed, as if from a cannon; so great was her charity at death. She had thrown away her own life to save people in danger. That fire of charity in her heart - she was not baptised - carried her swiftly to the heart of God.
This man had entombed himself within the sins of which he refused to repent. When he died, the sins in which he had blanketed himself burst into flame, enclosing him in fire, cutting him off from the love of God which, time and time again, he had rejected.
He who had carried out the wishes of the Beast in his own life was seized immediately after death by that same Beast, and carried away to his lair, which is Hell.
I used to gaze over the cot, from my hospital bed, lost in wonder that God should allow human beings to 'create' children, and to have families.
It's as if each soul bears a flame of charity; and some fires are so great that they perpetually burn in praise in union with God and one another.
A pony waits patiently before moving up with his load; and the Holy Spirit 'waits' in patience, until we are recollected in prayer, before drawing us up high towards God's heart.
Christ is truly Present in the Blessed Sacrament; and the Virgin Mary prays beside Him