Salvation

We are saved from our suffering by uniting our entire selves to Christ.  We do this through our own suffering and by receiving His Resurrected Body (the Eucharist).  Since we have no power to resurrect ourselves we are dependent on Christ to do it for us.  In order for our bodies to resurrect, His must connect with ours.

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Follow God's Will

OFTEN WE ASK WHY GOD PERMITS EVIL WHEN IT'S WE WHO DO THAT BY STRAYING FROM HIS DESIGN

Many ask why God permits evil. The better question is why we do. Often, when there is an intractable problem in a person's life -- no matter how much he or she prays -- it does not leave because he has forgotten a biblical admonition from Jesus, Who, as Saint Francis of Assisi reminded his friars (see: The Writings of Saint Francis), when asked once why a spirit would not leave, said (Mark 9:29),

"This kind of demon cannot go forth except in fasting and prayer."

It's a trick of the devil that in modern versions of the Bible they have removed the word "fasting."

We pray and pray but we are praying against an obstacle, a roadblock, a wall, instead of removing it. Hence, frustration. "Where is God?" Waiting (while we butt our heads).

Proclaim a fast.

Dispel evil and then: seek His design in prayer. Look for His "signs in your midst" (the "sign of His Plan").

This comes yes through peace but also through ease despite difficulty.

Always remember: victory starts in your thoughts. When you meditate on the truth that God is for you and has a good plan for you, seeds of faith will spring forth, and you will rise up in boldness to a new level of victory.

"When you are following God’s plan for your life, it is certain that you will find yourself thrust out of your comfort zone," notes one evangelist. "Perhaps you have an opportunity before you right now that seems intimidating. Maybe you want to start a new career, but you are afraid that you won’t be able to succeed. Or, you want to buy a new home, but your lack of experience as a homeowner is holding you back. While it may be true that you lack experience at something, let me assure you that God does not; and when you rely on Him, He will equip you to excel at whatever you set your hand to. He will always lead you to a new level of victory!"

It is another reason for stubborn problems: straying from God's design. We decide to build a "house" without His blueprint. Yet let us ask: Do we really think we could design anything better than God does? If we believe such a thing we should think of snowflakes and then go and design all the snowflakes that have ever existed on earth and make certain each one is different than any other, yet beautifully symmetrical, for that is what God does. Look at the whorls -- again unique -- of your fingerprints. Do you think that a Creator Who did that -- Who creates every human face differently, yet wonderfully, Who has endless ways of configuring beauty, Who sets a specific path for every life, in accordance with a Grander Plan -- is not also watchful over every minute detail that transpires in our lives?

As Saint Gregory said, "In this visible world, nothing takes place without the agency of the invisible creature" and Saint Thomas: "As the inferior angels... are ruled by the superior, so are all material things ruled by angels."

When there are roadblocks, we are out of touch with them.

We have only to reflect upon Christ's own mother at His birth and then Crucifixion to know that had we been in her place, we would have complained that God was providing absolutely nothing. Yet, there was no complaint from this wisest woman in history. Was that a roadblock -- what happened at the inn -- or a step upward (for her and Him and all of humanity)?

Just as God designed your face, the way your organs function with each other, the molecules in your blood, so did He design a plan for your life, yes with hardships; you lose peace when you stray from it, when you attempt to circumvent or even re-design it, when you do not take the time (in prayer, after a fast) to expel the evil one.

Have you not noticed that when you let God handle matters they fall into place in a way you could not have foreseen but is so natural? All is a miracle. It is just so large a miracle that we do not see it. He even suspends time. This is a lesson of Lent: stripping down what we fashion in favor of what God has for us. You are who you really are when God controls your life.

"How, then, does God treat those whom He loves most?" asked Dom Bruno Webb, a Benedictine monk (in Why Does God Permit Evil?). "'Whom the Lord loveth He correcteth, and He scourgeth every son whom He accepteth." Christ Himself said that "every branch that beareth fruit He cleanseth, that it may bear more fruit."

"For You formed my inward parts," says Psalm 139. "You wove me in my mother’s womb." You are "wonderfully made." Our pruning clipper is the Crucifix.

Don't ever let anyone or anything -- nay, not a trial -- cause you to believe otherwise. Nor besmirch another's path. His design operates in other dimensions. Never resist what He has in store for you! For what He designs will bring you joy that lasts. He knows you like you could not know yourself. He knows who you really are because He created you. What we design (if not made with Him) passes into nothingness. What will last longer, a ship that man has built or an island that God has; a fluorescent light or the sun; a skyscraper or Mount Everest?

"If it be Thy Will, take this cup from Me; if not, let Your Will be done." The Plan was a great one. It was realized by looking from the Cross and then up and beyond it, into eternity, where every trial on earth will one day make perfect sense.

Learning How to Die

If we learn to suffer well then we will live well, and die well.

According to St. Benedict death is not improvised. One dies as one has lived. The Eucharistic death of Saint Benedict was the seal placed upon a long Eucharistic life. (Blessed Schuster says that Saint Benedict would have been about eighty years old at the time of his death.) One will die as one has lived. In Chapter 4 of the Holy Rule, Saint Benedict enjoins his monk to "keep death daily before his eyes"; this means, in effect, that a monk is to live each day in the very dispositions in which he wants to be found at the hour of his death.

To die loving, I must love always. To die praying, I must pray always. To die forgiving, I must forgive always. To die in a state of adoration, I must live in a state of adoration. To die gratefully, I must live in gratitude. To die peacefully, I must live in peace. I die humbly, I must live humbly. To die united to Jesus in His Passion, I must live united to Jesus in His Passion. To die facing the Eucharistic Face of Jesus, I must live facing the Eucharistic Face of Jesus.

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Thoughts

It's Lent, and different people have different means of devotion. There are those who say fifteen decades of the Rosary, others who recite the Stations of the Cross, many others who find a devotional lift from receiving Communion on the tongue and do so all year round. This is all excellent. All devotions in conformity with the Church should be respected and have power because they go to piety and discipline. Our greatest act is to attend Mass; it dates back directly to Christ; nothing on earth is more powerful.

Discipline is a sacrifice and also a safeguard. It protects us against sin, attacks from the devil (including on the battlefield of our minds), and spiritual contamination.

It is Lent, and at the beginning of Mass we confess not just actions but also thoughts.

What about thoughts? Which of them need to be confessed? Do you examine your conscience about them? Which are sins and which are an assault by the forces of darkness?

Or as an author named Jeffrey J. Steffon puts it, "Have you ever had sinful thoughts come into your mind for no apparent reason?

"It seems as if these thoughts suddenly appear out of nowhere," writes Steffon in Spiritual Warfare for Catholics. "They are out of character, bizarre, and shocking. For example, having a sudden urge to steal, to be unfaithful to your spouse, or to engage in some violent or abusive behavior.

"These are not deliberate, planned thoughts, but impulsive and startling. From where do these thoughts come? Sometimes we can wonder what is happening to us. Why am I plagued by these sinful thoughts? What is wrong with me?"

Lenten questions, those. We know from the very prayers at the beginning of Mass that we often need to seek forgiveness not just for what we say or do but what we think. Where are they originating? Do we need to confess them?

"We must remember that we live in not only a material world, but also a spiritual world," says Steffon. "There is an interaction between us and spiritual beings. We interact with Jesus Christ when we are in prayer and following His commands. We also interact with the demons of darkness when they try to draw us away from God.

"Excessive or unfounded irritation, bitterness, lustful impulses, jealousy, fear, thoughts of suicide, doubt, rage, and hatred -- all these thoughts are attacks upon us. The attack comes against our minds and emotions. Paul called these thoughts flaming arrows. Our own weaknesses can be triggered by certain tensions; Satan wishes to prey upon those areas.

"The flaming arrow by itself is not sinful. Its purpose is to lead us into sin; it becomes an agent of sin when we dwell on the thought. First we allow ourselves to think about it. Then as we dwell on it more and more, we begin to plan how to act upon it. Finally, we deliberately act upon what at first was only an inclination."

In other words, we don't sin unless we adopt the thought as our own.

"This is difficult to discern," adds Jeffrey. "For me, I know my own sinful tendencies. My own sinful desire is familiar to me and has predictable patterns. That knowledge comes through prayer and allowing the Holy Spirit to convict me of my sins.

"The flaming arrow of Satan is different. This attack comes from outside of me. It is as if it comes from out of the blue, with a very strong intensity. It can be a one-time flaming arrow, or it can come repeatedly, with greater or lesser intensity."

The key: tossing such a thought out immediately -- with no hesitation -- or it will root like a weed, but at the speed of a thought. Scripture tells us to don the "helmet of salvation" (Ephesians 6), as well as the shield of faith; we are in a time when we desperately need more piety.

Every time we have an evil thought, the author advises, we can pray, "Jesus, I take authority over this thought and I make it captive to You."

"When we make the flaming arrows of Satan captive to Jesus Christ, these sort of attacks will eventually leave," says the author.

Similarly, we should be on guard against "spiritual contamination."

This comes, he says, not only by way of thoughts, of course, but when the spirits around a place or another person latch onto us; somehow, we have left an opening.

In a bookstore, we may carry a spirit back from merely passing by all the volumes on the occult -- as happened to Jeffrey, who says sudden fatigue can be a sign of contamination, which is how he knew he was under attack. "I sat in my car for a few minutes and prayed. I put on some Christian music to help lift my spirit. As I sang the music, I began to feel a strengthening in my spirit. It was as if things were clinging to me from the store. As I prayed and sang praises to God, these things began to lift. I shared this experience with a couple of friends. as we prayed, we realized that the evil spirits in the store tried to harass and attack me. That was why I felt spiritually drained. Through the praise of God, the evil spirits were forced to flee.

"In spiritual warfare we also battle against the world and the flesh. We not only face the flaming arrows of Satan and spiritual contamination; the world and the flesh are areas that Satan can use to dissuade us from following God."

How Jesus Died

Jesus' DeathThe Death of Jesus THE (SCIENTIFIC) DEATH OF JESUS At the age of 33,
Jesus was condemned to death. At the time Crucifixion was the "worst" death. Only the worst criminals were condemned to be crucified. Yet it was
even more dreadful for Jesus, unlike other criminals condemned to death by
Crucifixion Jesus was to be nailed to the Cross by His hands and feet.
Each nail was 6 to 8 inches long. The nails were driven into His wrist. Not
Into His palms as is commonly portrayed. There's a tendon in the wrist that
extends to the shoulder. The Roman guards knew that when the nails were being hammered into the wrist that tendon would tear and break, forcing Jesus to use His back muscles to support himself so that He could breath.

Both of His feet were nailed together. Thus He was forced to support Himself on the single nail that impaled His feet to the cross. Jesus could not support himself with His legs because of the pain, so He was forced to alternate between arching His back then using his legs just to continue to breath. Imagine the struggle, the pain, the suffering, the courage.

Jesus endured this reality for over 3 hours. Yes, over 3 hours! Can you imagine this kind of suffering? A few minutes before He died, Jesus stopped bleeding. He was simply pouring water from his wounds. From common images we see wounds to His hands and feet and even the spear wound to His side... But do we realize His wounds were actually made in his body. A hammer driving large nails through the wrist, the feet overlapped and an even large nail hammered through the arches, then a Roman guard piercing His side with a spear. But before the nails and the spear Jesus was whipped and beaten. The whipping was so severe that it tore the flesh from His body. The beating so horrific that His Face was torn and his beard ripped from His face. The Crown of thorns cut deeply into His scalp. Most men would not have survived this torture. " He had no more blood to bleed out, only water poured from His wounds. The human adult body contains about 3.5 liters (just less than a gallon) of blood. Jesus poured all 3.5 Liters of his blood; He had three nails hammered into His members; a crown of thorns on His head and, beyond that, a Roman soldier who stabbed a spear into His Chest..
All these without mentioning the humiliation He suffered after carrying His own cross for almost 2 kilometers, while the crowd spat in his face and threw stones (the cross was almost 30 kg of weight, Only for its higher part, where His hands were nailed). Jesus had to endure this experience, to open the Gates of Heaven, So that you can have free access to God. So that your sins could be "washed" away. All of them, with no exception! Don't ignore this situation.

JESUS CHRIST DIED FOR YOU!

He died for you! It Is easy to pass jokes or foolish photos by e-mail, but
when it comes to God, sometimes you feel ashamed to forward to others because you are worried of what they may think about you.
God has plans for you, show all your friends what He experienced to save you. Now think about this! May God bless your Life!

If you are not
Ashamed to do this, please, follow Jesus' instructions. He said (Matthew 10:32 & 33): "Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before My Father in heaven; but whosoever denies Me
before others, I also will deny before My Father in heaven".

Yes, I love God. He is my source of life and my Savior. He keeps me alive day and night.

Without Him, I am nothing, but with Him "I can do all things through Him
who strengthens me". Philippians 4:13.

This is the simple proof. If you love God and you are a believer and trust
in salvation through Christ Jesus.

How the Apostles Died 2

Continued....

8Bartholomew

Bartholomew : Also known as Nathaniel Was a missionary to Asia . He witnessed for our Lord in present day Turkey . Bartholomew was martyred for his preaching in Armenia where he was flayed to death by a whip.

9Andrew

Andrew : Was crucified on an x-shaped cross in Patras , Greece . After being whipped severely by seven soldiers they tied his body to the cross with cords to prolong his agony. His followers reported that, when he was led toward the cross, Andrew saluted it in these words: 'I have long desired and expected this happy hour.

The cross has been consecrated by the body of Christ hanging on it.' He continued to preach to his tormentors For two days until he expired.

10Thomas


Thomas : Was stabbed with a spear in India during one of his missionary trips to establish the church in the Sub-continent.

11 Jude

Jude : Was killed with arrows when he refused to deny his faith in Christ.

12 Matthias

Matthias : The apostle chosen to replace the traitor Judas Iscariot, was stoned and then beheaded.

Paul

Paul : Was tortured and then beheaded by the evil Emperor Nero at Rome in

A.D. 67. Paul endured a lengthy imprisonment, which allowed him to write his many epistles to the churches he had formed throughout the Roman Empire . These letters, which taught many of the foundational Doctrines of Christianity, form a large portion of the New Testament.

Perhaps this is a reminder to us that our sufferings here Are indeed minor compared To the intense persecution And cold cruelty faced by the apostles And disciples during their times For the sake of the Faith. And ye shall be hated Of all men for my name's sake: But he that endures to the end shall be saved.

How the Apostles Died

Considering Christian suffering it does good to remember that the apostles willingly suffered for our Savior.

1 Matthew

Matthew : Suffered martyrdom in Ethiopia , Killed by a sword wound.
2 Mark


Mark : Died in Alexandria , Egypt , after being dragged by Horses through the streets until he was dead.

3 Luke

Luke : Was hanged in Greece as a result of his tremendous Preaching to the lost.

4 John : Faced martyrdom when he was boiled in huge basin of boiling oil during a wave of persecution In Rome . However, he was miraculously delivered from death.

John was then sentenced to the mines on the prison Island of Patmos ..
He wrote his prophetic Book of Revelation on Patmos . The apostle John was later freed and returned to serve As Bishop of Edessa in modern Turkey . He died as an old man, the only apostle to die peacefully.

 5 Peter

Peter : He was crucified upside down on an x-shaped cross.
According to church tradition it was because he told his tormentors that he felt unworthy to die In the same way that Jesus Christ had died.

6 James : The leader of the church in Jerusalem , was thrown over a hundred feet down from the southeast pinnacle of the Temple when he refused to deny his faith in Christ.
When they discovered that he survived the fall, his enemies beat James to death with a fuller's club.
* This was the same pinnacle where Satan had taken Jesus during the Temptation.

7 James the Great

James the Great : Son of Zebedee, was a fisherman by trade when Jesus Called him to a lifetime of ministry. As a strong leader of the church, James was ultimately beheaded at Jerusalem .

The Roman officer who guarded James watched amazed as James defended his faith at his trial. Later, the officer Walked beside James to the place of execution. Overcome by conviction, he declared his new faith to the judge and Knelt beside James to accept beheading as a Christian.

Faith is not believing that God can, It is knowing that God WILL!”

In Everything God Works for Good with Those Who Love Him

Consider this in times of struggle:

(Romans 8:28) “In everything God works for good with those who love him.” This is surely the most astonishing verse in the Bible, for it certainly doesn’t look as if all things work for good. What awful things our lives contain! But if God, the all-powerful Creator and Designer and Provider of our lives, is 100 percent love, then it necessarily follows, as the night the day, that everything in his world, from birth to death, from kisses to slaps, from candy to cancer, comes to us out of God’s active or permissive love.

It is incredibly simple and perfectly reasonable. It is only our adult complexity that makes it look murky. As G.K. Chesterton says, life is always complicated for someone without principles. Here is the shining simplicity: if God is total love, then everything he wills for me must come from his love and be for my good. For that what love is, the willing of the beloved’s good. And if this God of sheer love is also omnipotent and can do anything he wills, then it follows that all things must work together for my ultimate good.

Not necessarily for my immediate good, for short-range harm may be the necessary road to long-range good. And not necessarily for my apparent good, for appearances may be deceiving. Thus suffering does not seem good. But it can always work for my real and ultimate good. Even the bad things I and others do, though they do not come from God, are allowed by God because they are included in his plan. You can’t checkmate, corner, surprise, or beat him. “He’s got the whole world in his hands,” as the old gospel chorus tells us. And he’s got my whole life in his hands, too. He could take away any evil — natural, human, or demonic — like swatting a fly. He allows it only because it works out for our greater good in the end, just as it did with Job.

In fact, every atom in the universe moves exactly as it does only because omnipotent Love designed it so. Dante was right: it is “the love that moves the sun and all the stars.” This is not poetic fancy but sober, logical fact. Therefore, the most profound thing you can say really is this simple children’s grace for meals: “God is great and God is good; let us thank him for our food. Amen!” I had always believed in God’s love and God’s omnipotence. But once I put the two ideas together, saw the unavoidable logical conclusion (Rom 8:28), and applied this truth to my life, I could never again see the world the same way. If God is great (omnipotent) and God is good (loving), then everything that happens is our spiritual food; and we can and should thank him for it. Yet how often we fail to recognize and appreciate this simple but profound truth.

These are, I think, the three most profound ideas I have ever had. However, there is one idea that I have heard that I think is even more profound. It is Karl Barth’s answer to the questioner who asked him, “Professor Barth, you have written dozens of great books, and many of us think you are the greatest theologian in the world. Of all your many ideas, what is the most profound thought you have ever had?” Without a second’s hesitation, the great theologian replied, “Jesus loves me.”

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Slavery to Sin

When we contemplate our own problems and sufferings at times (in our self-centeredness) we forget other people are enduring far worse.  When put into context our own problems seem much less important.

Take for instance the modern slave trade.  Amazingly, many are suffering tremendously. 

“There are more people trafficked now in the 21st century than in the transatlantic slave trade in the 17th, the 18th, or the 19th century,” Denver priest Fr. David Nix said at a local Theology on Tap address on Feb. 18.

Read here

Jesus referred to slavery to sin.  Sin traps us into a life of misery and suffering (like a slave).  In order to break free the Church gives us Christ in the Sacraments.

The Power of Fasting

Ease your suffering through fasting.

Fasting is powerful because when we fast we are detaching ourselves from the world. This allows us to transcend the enemy, who is the prince of the kingdoms of the world. He once offered those kingdoms to Jesus and of course Jesus in His might and girded by fasting refused. We see that even Christ saw the need to fast before He set forth to conquer His foe. In detaching from the flesh we rise above earthly spirits. That's why Scripture tells us there are certain spirits that are cast off only through fasting (Matthew 17:21). There is tremendous power in fasting. There is spiritual protection. There is healing. There is discernment. We are less deceived when we fast; the spiritual landscape clarifies. This is why the Blessed Virgin, through history, and especially now, has constantly urged fasting. In our time there is danger without it -- for those who can, bread and water, or just juice, or absent something very major, for those who are infirm or elderly: a fast on something we particularly like whether a certain food or television, something that is significant, something we are very attached to and like. Lent is an opportunity to break over-attachment. We see in our time the many ways evil has cause sickness because it has not been challenged through fasting, which also purifies our bodies (and even causes our bodies to consume sickly cells). "Renounce all passions and all inordinate desires," the Virgin once said. "Avoid television, particularly evil programs, excessive sports, the unreasonable enjoyment of food and drink, alcohol, tobacco." With fasting, we find it easier to see the essential things of life, a well-known and very holy priest named Father Slavko Barbaric once said. "Therefore, fasting is so important. In making us interiorly free, fasting makes it easier for us to move towards God." Many have fear because they are not fasting. Fasting removes fear. When we find ourselves in a difficult situation it is often because we have not fasted even though fasting is nearly as important as prayer. With fasting and faith anything and everything is possible (Matthew 17:20). "The best fast is on bread and water," the Virgin said in one of her most remarkable messages. "Through fasting and prayer one can stop wars, one can suspend the laws of nature."