Saw "Letters To God"...

Just had to post this-- I saw "Letters to God" last night with Mike and Sonya. It was lovely. No sex, violence or romance even. Just about how powerful an example of one little boy's faith and trust in God can be. A truly nice film-- such a nice change from the usual "stuff" Hollywood puts out. I highly recommend it-- not sure it would be appropriate for small children but it was a lovely film. In a way I wish a movie like that had been out when I was about 6 or so as at that age I became terrified of death when my grandfather died. I think a movie like this would have answered that fear quite well. 


Here's a trailer.

Blessed Are Those Who Have Not Seen And Have Believed....

I am visiting our son Michael and his lovely wife Sonya in Raleigh NC this week. I went to our old parish, St. Andrew's, for the evening Mass. It was lovely- still decorated for Easter, and as always, everyone there is so nice-- friendly, and very prayerful, and reverent. Most stay for the entire song at the end of Mass, etc. It was really a nice thing to be back, if only for one day.

Anyway.  Father Thomas gave a lovely sermon about St. Thomas. He reminded us of the Gospel we had just heard, where Thomas said that unless he put his fingers into the nail marks in Jesus' hands and his hand into Jesus' side, he would not believe. Then of course, a week later, Jesus gently tells Thomas to put his finger into the nail marks, and his hand into His side. He wants Thomas to not only see, but BELIEVE. Christ says, "Blessed are those who have not seen, but believe!". Maybe we can answer our own unbelief sometimes with that Scripture passage. We haven't seen, but we can believe.

Father mentioned that Blaise Pascal, a famous scientist, mathematician and philosopher, pondered over the fact that there are doubters of Christ's Resurrection.  His answer to them in part, follows (I highly recommend that the entire piece be read as it is very interesting. I have linked the passage to the source I found it on - the passage I am quoting comes about two thirds down the page.)

Fifth and finally, the lives of the disciples were transformed such that they were willing to die for their conviction that Jesus had risen from the dead. After the crucifixion of Jesus, his followers were disheartened and depressed. The one who they had believed to be the Messiah, the promised Savior of the world, had died in the most dishonorable way possible, crucifixion. They scattered and fell away, but within weeks they were leaving their jobs, gathering together and committing themselves to proclaiming the Gospel that Jesus was the Messiah sent by God, who died on a cross to pay the penalty for sin and then was raised to life seen alive by them. From an earthly perspective, they had little to gain in return. They were often hungry, ridiculed, beaten and imprisoned. Ultimately, most of them were brutally executed in torturous ways. Why were they willing to proclaim this Gospel to their death? Because they were absolutely convinced that they had seen the resurrected Christ.

I found this explanation to be absolutely riveting. All the people who deny that the Shroud of Turin is real, who give whatever (false) reason that Christianity is not the Truth, cannot deny that countless people have died for their faith. Among those were many who saw, spoke to and ate with, touched, were healed by JESUS himself!  How can this be denied???

Blessed are they who have not SEEN but have BELIEVED!!!
(The painting at the bottom of this post is called "Stoning Of St. Stephen"  by Adam Elsheimer (1576-1610) )

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.

We are in God's Mind Even When He Isn't In Ours

At Mass this week, Father spoke about how a Monsignor friend of his had made the comment that if God ceased to think of us, we would cease to exist. He then spoke about how this at first seemed weird but after thinking about it, it made sense.

The more I thought about it, the more things that occurred to me. We are always in God's care, and He knows our every thought, our every need. Thus, whatever our need, it is OK to ask God for it. He cares about the most insignificant hair on our heads, so it follows that He cares about whatever we are concerned with at the time. If we ask Him for help on something, He will always answer our prayers. He may answer "No" but He will always answer. Further, the more we speak to God about our needs and our concerns, the closer to Him we grow. If you have a friend that you speak to daily several times a day, you grow closer to that person, not more distant.


One more thing Father said that made me think: He said that we cannot appreciate anything until we have had the lack of it. So, for us to appreciate sunny days, it follows that we must have rainy days, and so on. If this seems elementary to some, I have to say that I write this not for anyone else that may read this but for ME-- that I will not forget that in order to know the joys of life, you must have some sad times.

In order to feel close to God, you MUST have had some times in your life that you feel FAR from Him.

To appreciate being satisfied, you must have been hungry at some time.

And further, in order to keep remembering these things, you have to have them happen more than once for most of us.

God is so very, very good to us. We have only to realize that He loves us so much more than we could ever imagine, and He wants us to be happy!