Monday, March 31, 2014

But the hour is coming, and is now here,
when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth;
and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him.
God is Spirit, and those who worship him
must worship in Spirit and truth.”
The woman said to him,
“I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Christ;
when he comes, he will tell us everything.”
Jesus said to her,
“I am he, the one speaking with you.”
I read this and get the feeling that Jesus is tired of everyone asking, "Where should I pray? What should I say?" as if there is a formula for the right words and actions that will magically make our prayer more pleasing to God. As if we use incense because God likes the smell of that better than the smell of roses or as if we usually avoid drums and electric guitars during Mass because God is just really more of a piano kind of guy.

The purpose of liturgy isn't to find a scientific equation for the physical actions that look prettiest to God. The purpose of liturgy is to draw our hearts and minds closer to Him, to focus our attention on Him and to help us worship Him. God would much rather have our hearts than any amount of incense. Music and incense and formal attire and formulaic words are not what we are offering to God during Mass. What we are offering, the one thing He really desires, is ourselves. He offers Himself to us and for us, and in return, we offer ourselves to Him. The rest of that stuff is just the means by which we offer ourselves. It is what orients our mind towards Him and helps us to lift up our hearts and souls.

God is Spirit. And to worship Him, we must worship in Spirit. We should become like God to worship God. Our imitation of Him is a profound form of worship. We offer ourselves as He first offered Himself.

I guess the woman senses that Jesus is at least a prophet by this point, and she is eager to show her own knowledge. I know the Messiah is coming, and He will tell us everything.

Jesus is very direct with her. Other times, with His disciples especially, He makes people guess, or answer questions ("Who do people say that I am?"). But He does not do that here. The woman professes her belief that the Messiah is coming, and Jesus replies, "I am he." He is the Messiah, come for all people, since He did not tell her, "But you are a Samaritan." He does not hide the truth from her, because He has come out of love for her and every single human, even the Samaritans.

I'm praying for you!

:)

Sunday, March 30, 2014

No earthly pleasures, no kingdoms of this world can benefit me in any way. I prefer death in Christ Jesus to power over the farthest limits of the earth. He who died in place of us is the one object of my quest. He who rose for our sakes is my one desire.
-Saint Ignatius of Antioch

I'm praying for you!

:)

Saturday, March 29, 2014

I'm half asleep, so I probably shouldn't try to unpack any more of the gospel passage tonight. Instead, I will leave you with yet another Mark Hart quote:
Love is not give and take. Love is give, period.
I'm praying for you!

:)

Friday, March 28, 2014

The woman said to him,
“Sir, I can see that you are a prophet.
Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain;
but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”
Jesus said to her,
“Believe me, woman, the hour is coming
when you will worship the Father
neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
You people worship what you do not understand;
we worship what we understand,
because salvation is from the Jews.
At this point, it seems to have sunk in that Jesus is talking about more than just physical thirst and physical water. She must be talking to a prophet! If I had just said, "I do not have a husband" because I was on my fifth "marriage," and then the stranger I was talking to said, "Yup, that's right. You've had five husbands, so you don't really have a husband," I'd be pretty taken aback. I would start asking, "How did you know that? Who are you?" I might even get kinda mad. But this woman recognizes that Jesus is a holy person, she assumes a prophet, and she sees this encounter as an opportunity to get answers to her most burning question. That question is about the difference between Jews and Samaritans.

At first glance, her question framed as a statement seems kinda random and mundane. Basically, should we pray in Jerusalem or on the mountain? And Jesus' answer seems cryptic: Soon, neither. But her question is not merely, "In what physical location should we pray?" Her question is about the entire divide between Samaritans and Jews. The Jews scorn the Samaritans. Her own people even scorn her because of her sins. Is the scorn deserved? If you're going to be scorned and belittled, you at least want to have the moral high ground. So, this statement is really a question: Who's right, the Jews or the Samaritans?

And Jesus says that soon, the answer will be neither. I'm not a Biblical scholar, but this looks to me like foreshadowing of the Church. The Jews are correct now, but there will soon be more to the faith. The Jews and Samaritans who reject Christianity will be in the same boat, only privy to a partial revelation. The Christians are the ones who will worship neither in Jerusalem or on the mountain.

Jesus does indicate, however, that the Jews are the chosen people rather than the Samaritans. "You people worship what you do not understand," He says. The Samaritans do worship the correct God, but they do so without understanding. This line makes me think of a lot of my protestant and Mormon friends who pray so much and want so much to love Christ, but they do not truly know Christ. They fail to recognize Him in the Eucharist. They do not know His Church or unite themselves to Her. They do not recognize the depths of His love because they do not know of His wondrous plan for His Bride. But they want to know Him, and they try to know Him. To the best of their ability and knowledge, they do love Him. But they are trying to love Him without having recognized, understood, or accepted His love for them and His Church, so they are trying to draw water without a bucket.

"We worship what we understand." Jesus explicitly refers to Himself as a Jew in this statement. The woman has already identified Him as a Jew multiple times, and far from denying it, Jesus says, "We worship what we understand." Jesus worships. Jesus prays to the Father, whom He adores and honors above all others.

"...because salvation is from the Jews." The hour is coming when Christianity arrives and the Church worships neither in Jerusalem or on the mountain, but Jews are still the original chosen people of God. The Catholic Church is the daughter of the Jewish people, and salvation has come through the Jews. The Savior has been born to a Jewish woman, into a Jewish household descended from Jewish royalty. He was promised to them and He has come to and through them. Salvation is from the Jews, but it is not only for the Jews. The Church worships neither on the mountain nor in Jerusalem. The Church is founded upon the Jewish faith, but it is not a Church for the Jews. It is a Church for all people, even the Samaritans if they will accept Christ. And so Christ sits down with this Samaritan woman, alone at the well, and talks to her about her past and her future, her sins and His healing mercy, thirst and water.

I'm praying for you!

:)

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Jesus said to her,
“Go call your husband and come back.”
The woman answered and said to him,
“I do not have a husband.”
Jesus answered her,
“You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a husband.’
For you have had five husbands,
and the one you have now is not your husband.
What you have said is true.”
The Samaritan woman asks Jesus for this living water, and He tells her to go get her husband. Why? Because He knows how she will respond. And she responds by saying, "I do not have a husband."

Why does she say this? She obviously has a man at home she calls a husband. For some reason, though, she cannot lie to Jesus. She feels drawn to tell Him the truth. Of course, there is also the possibility that she wants to hide her sin. She does not say, "My husband is not really my husband." She says, "I do not have a husband." Perhaps she is afraid that if her sin is discovered, she will not receive the living water. We often fear the same thing. We're so thirsty for Christ, for His forgiveness, His mercy, His love, but we tell ourselves that if He were to discover the truth of our sin, the depths to which we have sunk, He would never give it to us.

But Christ sees everything, just as He sees the true meaning in the Samaritan woman's statement. "You are right," He says, because she has had five husbands and she is living in adultery. He sees the truth and He tells her the truth, without sugarcoating anything. It is a difficult truth to accept, but it is the truth nonetheless. Notice that Christ does not say, "You are living in terrible sin and shall surely die." or "Yeah, you don't have one husband. You have five!" He doesn't mock her. He doesn't threaten her. Calmly and clearly, He states the truth. She is living in sin. She is living in sin, but she has spoken truthfully to Him about it.

Christ sees all that we do. He sees all of our sins, and yet we get so worried about examining our conscience and confessing our sins to Him, as if He doesn't already know. It's like we think Jesus is fooled by the act we put on. I love that in some of the hardest confessions of my life for me, when I was confessing sins for which I was sure I deserved hell, the priest has shown absolutely no shock. Sometimes, priests look bored. Other times, I've even got chuckles at my frantic confession. I love this because I think it's how Jesus responds. He's not shocked by our confessions. He's been there the entire time. He's known from all time exactly how each of us would disappoint Him. He watches us sin, begging us not to sin even as we do so, and then He patiently waits for us to come to Him. We walk into the confessional often in the same way that a little kid shuffles into the living room where their dad's waiting, head down, afraid of how He'll respond. We mumble out, "I have sinned," and God calmly replies, "I know." We start the Act of Contrition, sorrow weighing on our heart, "Oh my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended you," and God's response is to wrap us in His arms and say, "Oh my child, I know."

I'm praying for you!

:)

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Samaritan woman at the well: Pt.3

The woman said to him,
“Sir, you do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep;
where then can you get this living water?
Are you greater than our father Jacob,
who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself
with his children and his flocks?”
Jesus answered and said to her,
“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again;
but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst;
the water I shall give will become in him
a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
The woman said to him,
“Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty
or have to keep coming here to draw water.”

Jesus just said He could give her living water, and the Samaritan woman very obviously does not understand what He's talking about, because she tells him the well is deep and He has no bucket.

I think there's something more going on in this statement of the well's deepness, though, although the woman who spoke the words didn't know it. So often, we try to provide our own water. We want to rely on ourselves. I think of this especially when I'm trying to overcome temptation. But the cistern is deep and we have no bucket. Our sin is deep and we have no way out alone. Everything we need and want is in a deep well and we have no bucket. But instead of asking our Father for water, we are reaching over the edge frantically, trying to reach the water, almost falling in. As long as we're alone, the well seems too deep for us to ever get whatever it is we want or need. Then Jesus comes along and says, "You could have just asked."

The woman then asks if Jesus is better than Jacob (spoiler alert: He is). He just asked for a drink and then said He actually could give her living water instead (why would you want to drink water that is alive? Waters of Mars...run!) But Jacob and his sons dug this well and drank from it? What better water does He have? Possibly, she's asking why this water isn't good enough, since it's what Jacob drank.

Then here's the kicker: Jesus says He has water which will quench thirst eternally. Drink this water, and you will never thirst again. It will bubble up inside you into an eternal stream and you will live forever! So imagine that you're at a well, trying desperately to reach the water without a bucket, when Jesus comes over and says, "You could have just asked." But he doesn't have a bucket with Him. Instead, He hands you a cup of water to drink and then you're completely satisfied. Water courses through you, perfectly nourishing every cell so that you're never thirsty. I think it's important that the water is still always there. It's not like you're parched but you don't mind anymore. Your thirst is quenched, truly and perfectly quenched, by an eternal stream.

At this point, the Samaritan woman still is thinking of physical water and thirst and asks Jesus for this eternal, living water. The thing is, I think she's asking for more than physical water, even though she might not realize it. We all have thirsts in our lives that can only be satisfied by Christ, and physical thirst makes us recognize that all is not right in the world. If everything were right, why would I continue to hunger and thirst? We want an end to thirst. We want it to be quenched. And along with it, we want all worldly suffering and uncertainty to cease. And to end this thirst, all our thirst, we are drawn to Christ. Along with this woman at the well, we encounter a man who promises us living water and eternal life, and our hearts and souls thirst so much for Him, although we might not know it, that even though His words seem crazy, we don't run away. We sincerely plead, "Sir, give me this water."

I'm praying for you!

:)

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

When we last left the Gospel reading from Sunday, Jesus had just asked a Samaritan woman for a drink.
The Samaritan woman said to him,
“How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?”
—For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.—
Jesus answered and said to her,
“If you knew the gift of God
and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink, ‘
you would have asked him
and he would have given you living water.”
The Samaritan woman's response is not one of indignation - "Get your own drink." Her response is one of surprise and utter disbelief. No one talks to this woman, no one at all. She is an outcast, coming to draw her water at noon to avoid even the other Samaritan women. And here is a man, a man she does not know, so, as Fr. Baker pointed out, already someone who would never talk to her, a woman, speaking to her. What's more, He is a Jew. He is breaking multiple social taboos at once to have this private conversation with the Samaritan woman, and she knows it. She has consistently been referred to as the Samaritan woman throughout this passage, neither identifier dropping for ease of description. She is a Samaritan woman, beneath Jesus in social standing in every respect, and even an outcast among other Samaritan women, and yet He speaks to her. He is asking her for a drink, and to allow her to even serve Him would be an outrage to most Jewish men of the time. It goes on to say, "For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans." Not only is He speaking to a Samaritan. He is asking to share a Samaritan well, a Samaritan cup.

Jesus responds with mysterious words as usual. He asks for a drink. She points out the social absurdity and improbability of the situation. Jesus responds by saying she should have asked Him for a drink.

I don't know about you, but if a strange guy came up to me and said, "Give me a drink," and then I basically said, "Why are you talking to me?" and he replied, "If you knew who I was, you'd ask me for a drink," I'd be super confused. But that's exactly what Jesus does. He asks for a drink. The Samaritan woman stands there stupefied, asking, "Wait, are you actually talking to me?" and He says she should ask Him for a drink. Now it's looking like He never actually wanted any water at all. He just wanted to give Her water. Which still sounds strange. She probably thinks he's crazy. A random stranger has just asked for a drink and then said that he actually has living water He can give her if she asks. I'd be backing away slowly while smiling and nodding if I were her.

But we know Jesus isn't crazy, and it seems she suspected it. So what does He mean? Why is He asking for a drink and then offering one?

Because the drink He wanted was her faith, and the drink He's offering is His mercy. And the two are connected. You need faith to accept mercy, because you have to accept mercy. So, the drink He wanted her to give Him was to ask for His living water, because in asking for and accepting His mercy, she would be giving Him her faith, for which we've already established He thirsts. Jesus getting a drink and Jesus giving a drink are two sides of the same process in this metaphor. He wants to receive her request for His mercy and give her His mercy in return. Everybody gets a drink.

The last line in this portion of the passage says, "living water," because Christ Himself is the water. Christ is the mercy and love of God, poured out for sinners, quite literally poured out, as a fountain from which to drink. This passage foreshadows Baptism, renewal through water, as well as the Eucharist, water mingling with the Blood of Christ, a living fount which quenches our thirst for Him.

Lastly, this living water is free, if only we accept it. Jesus says, "If you knew the gift of God..." Jesus has come here, to this well, to this Samaritan woman, at this exact hour, as a gift to her, a chance at redemption, an opportunity to drink of the living water. Yes, this passage shows us Christ' thirst for the entire Church and His gift of mercy which He offers to all, but it is also important because He is offering Himself to her, an individual. This is a personal moment of love, an offer to His beloved creation. He knows her and He comes to the well not just to make a statement or to talk to any Samaritan woman. He comes to the well to speak to her and to offer her a drink from the living water.

I'm praying for you!

:)

Monday, March 24, 2014

Fr. Baker told us to spend this week unpacking today's Gospel reading, so here goes, part 1 of many:
Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar,
near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.Jacob’s well was there.
Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well.
It was about noon.
A woman of Samaria came to draw water.
Jesus said to her,
“Give me a drink.”
His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.
Right off the bat in this passage, we have our attention called to the connection between Old and New Testament. This is a continuation of the story of God's covenant with His people. We also know this passage is set in Samaria, so we are dealing with people God chose as His own but who have wandered from the flock. When I see Samaria at the beginning of this passage, I think lost sheep. 

Also, early on in this passage, we are reminded of Jesus' humanity. Jesus is tired from His journey, so He sits down at the well. 

Fr. Baker pointed out that the time (noon) is significant, because that's not the time most women would be drawing water. The Samaritan woman that comes to draw water, then, is an outcast, and she is drawing water at noon to avoid everyone else. 

Then Jesus says, "Give me a drink," which seems strange for a couple of reasons:

1. He could draw the water Himself. He is sitting at the wall. 

2. A Jewish man speaking to a Samaritan woman? This quite literally never happened. 

But, as Fr. Baker pointed out, Jesus is not talking about physical thirst. He's talking about His thirst for her faith. He longs to draw this Samaritan woman to Himself. There seems to be a parallel here between this instance of Jesus asking for a drink and the moment on the cross when He cries out, "I thirst." In both instances, Jesus might be (and probably is) experiencing physical thirst. Here, He is resting at noon after a journey, and on the cross, He has been tortured. They are both incredibly clear instances of His humanity, and in His humanity, Christ experienced physical thirst. But in both cases, there is a deeper thirst. God thirsts for faith, for the love and trust of His children, for their acceptance of Him. Christ thirsts for His Church, His Bride. 

Finally, we see that His disciples had gone into the town to buy food. This is important because it means that this interaction between Christ and the Samaritan woman is private, personal. Many other times, Christ heals and teaches while His disciples watch, but this time, Christ approaches this woman alone. He asks her for "a drink," for her faith. Christ approaches each of us as members of the Church but also approaches each one of us as individuals. It is in this private moment that Christ is able to truly reveal Himself to the Samaritan woman, to call her to conversion, and to offer Himself to her. 

I'm praying for you!

:)

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Saturday, March 22, 2014

"Don’t lose heart. Today’s defeat is training for the final victory." - St. Josemaria Escriva

I'm praying for you!

:)

Friday, March 21, 2014

"To cling always to God and to the things of God - this must be our major effort, this must be the road that the heart follows unswervingly."

- St. John Cassian

I'm praying for you!

:)

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

"Who can ever attentively consider Jesus, that beautiful youth, fatiguing and exhausting himself to bring into form some rough-hewn piece of wood, and not exclaim: But, most sweet youth, art Thou not that God, who by a mere nod didst create the world out of nothing? And how comesit that Thou hast labored now for a whole day, and bathed in sweat, to fashion this piece of wood ; and even still Thy work remains unfinished? Who has reduced Thee to such a state of weakness? O holy faith ! O divine love ! O God ! O God ! how such a thought as this, if once well penetrated, would suffice, not only to inflame us, but to reduce us, so to speak, into ashes with the fire of love ! Has a God, then, come to such a pass as this? and wherefore? To make himself loved by men!" - St. Alphonsus Liguori

I'm praying for you!

:)

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Sorry for the lack of posts the last couple days! I have been in bed with a bad stomach virus, and have just now barely rejoined the land of the living. You know what's funny, though? Everyone seems to think being sick is necessarily a bad thing, but the last couple days have been pretty good. True, I spent 10 hours puking and then spent the next 5 hours at Student Health, but I've also realized how loved I am. Sometimes, I feel really, truly alone in the world. But when I said I felt sick, Paul (my Awakening husband) drove me home. The next morning, I called my parents, who were utterly confused as to why I was calling them when I have so many friends. Lindsey got out of bed and got me powerade and came to hang out with me in Student Health and went to my bio lab to ask about my homework. My ASB site leader called me to ask if she could help. My brother drove across town to bring me coke and crackers. Jeff bought me soup (and an ice cream sandwich, but we'll focus on the soup). One of my friends came over today to interview me for her class and she asked me about my perspective on living with a disability and surviving cancer, etc, and I feel like so often I give a stupid answer like, "God got me through it," or "We just have to keep fighting our battles," as if suffering is nothing more than a tragedy and God just encourages us through it or something. Really, though, deep-down, I know that suffering, whether in an overtly horrific form like cancer or in a simple stomach virus, is an opportunity for us to accept God's love and to participate in His redemptive suffering, to participate in His love. Only when we are at our lowest, most vulnerable points is Christ able to show us how much He truly loves us, because it's only at those moments that we're willing to accept that love. The idea that we can do anything on our own, even breathe, is a mirage. The truth is that God is cradling us in His palm always, but we're too proud and ignorant to notice. And the chance to participate in Christ's Passion? That is the most amazing gift we could ever hope to receive, a chance to add our suffering to His, a chance to participate in His redemption of the world. But all we ever want is out. "Just take the pain away." We should be overjoyed whenever we are given an opportunity to suffer with Christ. But we're all so weak. I'm so weak. Christ humbly accepted death on a cross for my salvation, and I literally begged Him to end my earthly life because of a stomach cramp. And yet, I'm still so loved, because no matter how weak we are, Christ never gives up on us.

I'm praying for you!

:)

Saturday, March 15, 2014

“Why should we pray? Well, why breathe? We have to take in fresh air and get rid of bad air; we have to take in new power and get rid of our old weaknesses. Just as a battery sometimes runs down and needs to be charged, so we have to be renewed in spiritual vigor. Our Blessed Lord said: “Without me you can do nothing.” O yes, we can eat and drink, and we can sin but we cannot do anything toward our supernatural merit and heaven without Him.”

— Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

I'm praying for you!

:)
"And men go abroad to admire the heights of the ocean, the mighty waves of the sea, the broad tides of rivers, the compass of the ocean, and the circuits of the stars, yet pass over the mystery of themselves without a thought." - St. Augustine, Confessions

I'm praying for you!

:)

Friday, March 14, 2014

"To cling always to God and to the things of God - this must be our major effort, this must be the road that the heart follows unswervingly." - St. John Cassian

I'm praying for you!

:)

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

It is more blessed to give than to receive. - Acts 20:25

Blessed John Paul II wrote his Lenten message on this in 2003, and you can read it HERE!

I'm praying for you!

:)
"It was not because you are more numerous than all the peoples that the LORD set His heart on you and chose you; for you are really the smallest of all peoples." - Deuteronomy 7:7

I'm praying for you!

:)

Monday, March 10, 2014

“The devil only tempts those souls that wish to abandon sin and those that are in a state of grace. The others belong to him; he has no need to tempt them.”

— St. John Vianney

I'm praying for you!

:)
“It is Jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness; He is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; He is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is He who provoked you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is He who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is He who reads in your heart your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle.”

— Bl. Pope John Paul II

I'm praying for you!

:)

Saturday, March 8, 2014

“Sufferings are a kind of paradise to him who suffers them with patience, while they are a hell to him who has no patience.” - St. Philip Neri

I'm praying for you!

:)

Friday, March 7, 2014

"One must not think that a person who is suffering is not praying. He is offering up his sufferings to God, and many a time he is praying much more truly than one who goes away by himself and meditates his head off, and, if he has squeezed out a few tears, thinks that is prayer." - St. Theresa of Avila

I'm praying  for you!

:)

Thursday, March 6, 2014

This website has Lenten reflections based on The Little Way of St. Therese.

Here's today's:

Thursday after Ash Wednesday
Love attracts love.
Near the end of her story, Thérèse speaks eloquently of love. She acknowledges that she is able to love only because Jesus has first loved her. Acknowledge the love Jesus has placed in your heart as the source of your own acts of love.

I'm praying for you!

:)

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

St. Thomas Aquinas' meditations for Lent:

Ash Wednesday
DEATH
By one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death. Rom. v. 12.i. If for some wrongdoing a man is deprived of some benefit once given to him, that he should lack that benefit is the punishment of his sin. Now in man s first creation he was divinely endowed with this advantage that, so long as his mind remained subject to God, the lower powers of his soul were subjected to the reason and the
body was subjected to the soul. But because by sin man s mind moved away from its subjection to God, it followed that the lower parts of his mind ceased to be wholly subjected to the reason. From this there followed such a rebellion of the bodily inclination against the reason, that the body was no longer wholly subject to the soul. Whence followed death and all the bodily defects. For life and wholeness of body are bound up with this, that the body is wholly subject to the soul, as a thing which can be made perfect is subject to that which makes it perfect. So it comes about that, conversely, there are such things as death, sickness and every other bodily defect, for such misfortunes are bound up with an in complete subjection of body to soul.
2. The rational soul is of its nature immortal, and therefore death is not natural to man in so far as man has a soul. It is natural to his body, for the body, since it is formed of things contrary to each other in nature, is necessarily liable to corruption, and it is in this respect that death is natural to man. But God who fashioned man is all powerful. And hence, by an advantage conferred on the first man, He took away that necessity of dying which was bound up with the matter of which man was made. This advantage was however withdrawn through the sin of our first parents. Death is then natural, if we consider the matter of which man is made and it is a penalty, inasmuch as it happens through the loss of the privilege whereby man was preserved from dying. (2-2 164 i.)
3. Sin - original sin and actual sin is taken away by Christ, that is to say, by Him who is also the remover of all bodily defects. He shall quicken also your mortal bodies, because of his Spirit that
dwelleth in you (Rom. viii. n). But, according to the order appointed by a wisdom that is divine, it is at the time which best suits that Christ takes away both the one and the other, i.e., both sin and bodily defects. Now it is only right that, before we arrive at that glory of impassibility and immortality which
began in Christ, and which was acquired for us through Christ, we should be shaped after the
pattern of Christ s sufferings. It is then only right that Christ s liability to suffer should remain
in us too for a time, as a means of our coming to the impassibility of glory in the way He himself came
to it. (1-2 85 5 ad 2.)


I'm praying for you!

:)

Monday, March 3, 2014

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Saturday, March 1, 2014