Thoughts from my retreat..

Recently I went to a retreat at the Washington Retreat House. It was lovely in every way. Father Thomas Collins from Richmond, VA was the presenting priest.

A few things stand out in my mind that I want to write down so I don't forget them. One was:

Father said that there are two ways that you don't get to go to Heaven... One is, that you allow yourself to make excuses The other is that you allow yourself to carry resentment.. The first prevents you from receiving God's Grace. The other prevents you from doing what we are supposed to do, and that is spreading God's Love to others. There is so much that these two thoughts can shed light on.At the time, I was knee deep in  having a huge argument with my sister. It put it in perspective that my resentment wasn't serving God, solving the argument or helping my own state of mind. And making excuses about how it was justified wasn't helping any of the three of us either.

Another thing Father said was that many people invite God to the wedding by having the ceremony in church but forget to invite Him to the marriage. This also can lead us to think of so many ways it is true: How many people do you know that while they get married in church, somehow fail to show up the following Sunday? And how many do not think of asking God to help them in keeping their vows to each other? Or how many pray together? (You know that old sage "The family that prays together STAYS together"?  Even better to remember is that other one that goes "Wherever two or more are gathered in My name, there am I in their midst".

These are the things that all of a sudden popped into my head tonight that I don't want to forget. Thought it might interest someone too.