“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal"

 

"No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, 

or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. 

You cannot serve both God and money."

(Matthew 6:24)

 

Whatever dominates our spirit, our heart,  we manifest it in our lives, 

it becomes our lives.

 

If the spirit and mind is focused on either accumulating wealth, or always 

looking for monetary gain, because it gets satisfaction from it, 

the heart will not be able to fully, truly love another person, because that

space is already occupied. Love of money is an evil spirit, a mortal sin.

   

The Church has very many devoted practicing Catholics who would not dream 

of giving up their comfortable life styles, living securely in accumulated 

wealth that they have always kept foremost in their minds throughout their lives.

They might be very active in the Church, doing a lot of things, even taking on a 

lot of responsibilities, but their spirit is worldly and not Christian.

 

 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or 

about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more 

than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away 

in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable 

than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

(Matthew 6:25-27)

 

We need money to live, but as long as we have enough, why would we occupy 

the mind with thinking about having more?

 

We are called to love each other to the point of actually giving our lives.

Jesus did it for all humanity, for the remission of our sins, He took our sins 

upon Himself, He suffered an atrocious death in order to redeem those who 

believe in Him, Jesus who is true God and true Man. A real Man,

but totally without sin; God.

 

But what is Man? 

"What is mankind that you are mindful of them,

 human beings that you care for them?

You have made them, a little lower than the angels
 and crowned them with glory and honor. 

You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
 you put everything under their feet: 

all flocks and herds, 

and the animals of the wild, 

 the birds in the sky,
 and the fish in the sea,
 all that swim the paths of the seas.

Lord, our Lord, 

how majestic is your name in all the earth!"

Psalm 8, 4-9

"Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, 

so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, 

over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures 

that move along the ground.

So God created mankind in his own image, 

in the image of God he created them; 

male and female he created them".

 Genesis 26-27

 

For us humans serving and loving God means serving and loving each 

other. 

All my life I searched for God, I was in search of love, which I sought in the 

institution that God established on earth; the Sacrament of Marriage.

My heart could not have been more devoted.

When we had children, the idea of handing them over to a stranger to look 

after them so I could go out and earn money, when we had enough to live,

never occurred to me.  Nothing was more important to me than looking after 

them. 

But when the money became more plentiful things changed, and with the 

added curse and killer of souls; alcohol addiction, it became difficult.

I wanted his love, I begged for it, but between his need for alcohol and his 

focus on money, he knew he was unable to give it, so his solution was to tell

me "to go and live my own life, do whatever I wanted, but we stay together

in the same house".

No man who has any love for his wife would say such a thing. 

 

He eventually acquired the whole house, in addition to properties

in 2 other countries. I did not get my fair share, but I got

what is important to me; the love between myself and my adult children. 

"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who 

loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not 

know God, because God is love.  

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son 

into the world that we might live through him.  This is love: not that we loved God, 

but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.  

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  

No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is 

made complete in us." 

(1 John 7-12)

 

"Catholic guilt" is an expression that many people think is something

unnatural and exaggerated in a Catholic who lives according to the 

commandments and dogma of the Church.

In reality it is that the person has a truly informed conscience, and can 

actually see and feel the true horror of his or her sins, the real consequences 

and damages they cause. The guilt we feel is well founded and justified. 

And that is why we cannot live without the graces received in the 

Sacrament of Confession, 

because there our sins are forgiven and the stains of them removed.

 

So if we were able to remove all sin in us, who would we be like?

 

Christmas Day – God became man so that men might become gods

By Robert Verrill O.P.

25 December 2011

1.22k

Isaiah 52:7-10, Psalm 97:1-6, Hebrews 1:1-6, John 1:1-18

God became man so that men might become gods. These words of St Athanasius sum up the mystery of the Incarnation. This is what we celebrate at Christmas and it is the source of our great joy.

The Incarnation changes everything. It brings together what the world tries to keep separate – God who is pure spirit, and the material world. Because of this, the true meaning of Christmas is a great challenge to our world. Because of sin, there is a great tendency for us to live fractured dualistic lives where the material reality is separated off from the spiritual reality. From the material perspective, human beings are seen as nothing special, just mere collections of fundamental particles of nature. This is the world of cold facts. This perspective is contrasted with the spiritual perspective where human beings are essentially centers of consciousness, and it is from this spiritual perspective that people try to search for meaning and love. This disunity between materiality and spirituality results in all kinds of evils. When people do not base the spiritual perspective on anything objective, there is no firm foundation to morality – things are only valuable or have meaning because an individual say so. If we believe that from the material perspective we are nothing special, there is no need to treat our bodies with any respect – we just treat our bodies in a way that is consistent with our own artificial set of values.

The sin of Adam in the Garden of Eden, was that he wanted to live beyond his material-spiritual existence, so as to exist in the same way God exists. But in trying to overreach himself, his material and spiritual unity was undermined – he became an enemy of God. God reminds Adam he is dust and to dust he shall return. Ever since the Fall, there has been a war between the material and spiritual realities. Man is uncomfortable in his own skin. He tries to strive for a spiritual existence and to escape from his mundane materiality, but his materiality drags him down and makes him do things he hates doing.

In the Incarnation, all this changes. God, who is pure spirit entered into our material world. The source of all our values, all our meaning and all our loving became a historical fact, Jesus Christ, a child born in Bethlehem 2000 years ago. Through Jesus Christ, not only is our integrity restored, but by taking on human flesh and dying on the cross, God freely gives to man, what man tried to take by force at Eden. God becomes man so that men might become gods. The powers of darkness still try to undermine our material and spiritual unity, but we now know that this darkness is impotent in the light of Christ. In the words of St Leo the Great, we hear the true meaning of Christmas:

O Christian, remember your dignity, and now that you share in God’s own nature, do not return by sin to your former base condition. Bear in mind who is your head and of whose body you are a member. Do not forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the light of God’s kingdom.

Robert Verrill OP

Categories:

Christmas

https://www.english.op.org/godzdogz/christmas-day-god-became-man-so-that-men-might-become-gods/

From the Dominican Friars   England, Wales and Scotland website

 

  

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

External reality : objective facts

 

Not admitting the truth to oneself, but modifying or changing it to fit 

our ideas and our view of ourselves and the world can be at the root of 

mental illness. 

It might be convenient at the given time, that is why we do it, but in the 

long term it is damaging.  

On the other hand, being manipulated or bullied into admitting something that is 

not based on facts, but somebody else's opinion and which serves them and not you,

is equally sick. 

This is why we as Catholics are called to avoid interpretations (judgements), 

to always only stick to facts and never to add our own subjective impressions.

But of course it might be that the objective facts that we present might in themselves 

be interpreted as judgements by others, but that is their problem, not ours, 

we must only adhere to facts.

 

It is also important to take control of our thoughts, our imagination, our memories.

 

For example, if we have confessed a sin to a Catholic priest and  have

received absolution, we should never again dwell on it. God has forgiven it, 

He has also forgotten it, and we must do the same.

If we do not, we might be engaging in destructive self indulgence.

 

In a therapeutic setting; talking about our feelings as they are really felt, describes 

facts inside a person, it is real, it is true, but only to them, it is subjective.  

As for our imagination; it is an amazing tool, but it ought to be used effectively and 

correctly, with discipline.  

 

To live in a permanent state of surrender totally dependent on God

 

My great-grandmother was abandoned by her husband in 1902. 

He left the house one morning, and boarded a ship that was going to Australia.

He had said nothing, he just left, and his wife was left with 3 small children, 

of which my grandfather was the youngest; he was 1 year of age. 

She never heard a word from him, she did not know where he was.

This took place in Norway, and like in most other countries at the time, state

assisted social financial support did not exist. 

She literally had to go and beg for money, she went to her brother-in-laws, who 

were running a successful timber business, then she got work in a herring factory,

while her 2 eldest; both girls, helped out in a house where they found lodging.

While I know that life was tough for many people at the time, it must have been

very hard for her, also because of the social stigma of having children but no husband

while not being a widow either.

 

Anyway, after 35 years absence, he came back, in much the same manner as he 

had disappeared; he just turned up some day at her doorstep.

And she was overjoyed to see him! She wanted him to move right back in with her!

Not an ounce of anger or bitterness, nothing, just happiness.

This might sound strange to many people, almost unnatural, but it wasn't.

She was a deeply religious woman, I do not know if she had been religious before

her husband had left her, but her faith in the Almighty was solid by the time 

he came back.

The level of fear and difficulties of the situation she had found herself in, had caused an 

internal surrender to God for everything, for the very survival of her children and herself.

In this internal state, there can be no anger, bitterness, revenge, etc, only the light of love 

that comes from God remains. That is why she reacted as she did when he came back.

But this was not the case with her daughters, they, on the contrary, were angry and 

refused to allow him access to their mother, so they actually prevented her from possibly 

having a second chance of some happiness with the man that she still loved, at this later 

stage in her life.

 

I only met her once that I can remember, but in spite of being at that time 

very old and in a nursing home, I remember that she was jolly, happy, 

smiling. I'm proud to have her as an ancestor.

 

 

 

The reality of death

 

Lent is a time to retreat as much as is possible, it is a time for a heightened focus 

and concentration on Christ. To improve our life with Him.

The spiritual practice of renouncing things for the benefit of our soul heightens 

our awareness about ourselves, it reduces the illusions we have about ourselves.

Because it is when we are less comfortable, less satisfied in regard to hunger

or entertainment and distractions, when we practice dying to ourselves, that we are in a better place to see what we are

really like, to see our faults and failings. This is however not a depressing time,

on the contrary; it is a time of immense hope and deep joy, because we know that

in confessing our sins, and with the firm resolution to change and to do penance, 

we are forgiven, we are on the way to complete healing.

Because on Easter Sunday we take part in Our Lord's Resurrection from the grave,

and our hope is that our souls will also resurrect from the grave of sin, confusion 

and darkness, and we can start living the life that God intended for us.

An efficient way to live a good life, is to have the reality of our physical death

always in our awareness. To remember it every day. This is not morbid nor depressing,

on the contrary,  it is necessary. We should try to have a constant inner alertness to the 

reality that this very moment and this very day, might be the last one we have. 

Because nobody knows the day nor the hour.

Am I ready? 

What is waiting me when I draw my last breath and my soul leaves 

my body? 

We need to prepare for this big encounter, at least that is what I want to do.

I want to be prepared, I want to die without fear, ready to meet my maker.

I want to go to heaven.

Evil is real, and so is hell

 

I knew an old woman, recently deceased, who as a small child had seen 

immense evil. It was during the German occupation of France, German 

soldiers had broken into the house of her little friend, they

raped her several times,  in front of everybody, then 

they killed her in front of the parents, afterwards they took the few months 

old baby, stabbed her to death on the table, and then cut her up into

several pieces. 

This happened 79 years ago, but every time she related this, she cried. 

It took place in a village not far from mine.

She was deeply religious, a kind, caring, patient and good humored woman 

who spent her life teaching and loving children.

Some people say that they don't believe in God, because if an all powerful 

loving God existed he would never allow such evil. But it is paradoxically their 

refusal to believe in the existence of evil, that blinds them to see that both God 

and evil exists.

Many people, and many Catholics too, say that they don't believe in hell.

Even looking at it from their point of view; as hell already exist on earth for 

many people, there is no obvious logical reason that it would not exist afterwards.

When people say that they want to end their life, because they can't cope with it,

they sometimes reason that ending it will put an end to the pain and suffering, 

the question arises: how do you know?

It is an assumption, that's all. Wishful thinking. 

The truth is that it is people who are most in touch with the realities of the world,

who don't have blinkers, who do not live in denial about the absolute horrors that 

man is capable of carrying out, and even justifying it, who understands what it 

means to have free will, and that this free will is absolute and it comes from God, 

who created us and everything in the world. 

This awareness makes a person naturally slow to trust any man, he becomes vigilant. 

Man is corrupt, and capable of falling to an unlimited 

level of sickness and depravity. 

Man is also capable of becoming holy, united with God, on earth. 

The Church's catechesis  today is often lacking in clarity, it can be varied from 

parish to parish, depending on the priest.

But God is absolute. He is not someone we can negotiate or make compromises 

with, there are no concessions.  It is a case of "take it or leave it".

 

Because everybody knows the sayings: 

"give the little finger and they take the whole hand"

and  "there is no gain if there is no pain".

 

 

Why self awareness of our own sins?

 

The seven deadly sins: otherwise known as the capital vices;

pride, greed, lust, jealousy (envy), gluttony, anger and laziness, 

are named deadly because they are serious obstacles to divine life, 

and can lead to spiritual death; separation from God.

They are also the origin of many mental health issues, where 

the problem has been ignored or denied, gone underground, but still 

continues to create problems for the person.  The disturbance, the lack 

of inner balance,  will manifest itself in different ways, the person might 

seek help in the medical profession and be assigned a psychologist, 

counselor, or/and be put on medication to reduce the symptoms. 

So we can see how unawareness of how 

they affect our spiritual and mental health is a serious issue.

 

Anger often has it's origin in hurt; this is a feeling, regardless of it's 

justification, and from this feeling anger is often created. 

Anger is a strong energy. It can be utilized in a creative and life giving way, 

but if anger is out of control it is deadly. It can literally lead to death.

If it is expressed in words, it can kill love instantly, relationships, trust, but 

also as we know, uncontrolled anger often causes people to physically kill 

other persons.

 

The regular random attacks on the population; in schools, shopping malls, or 

anywhere, are manifestations of uncontrolled rage. 

Anders Breivik, for example, who shot and killed 77 innocent people in 

Norway, was as a child hurt by his mother, (who was herself a victim of abuse), 

and to put it simply; this turned into uncontrolled rage. 

He needed to take revenge for the damage done to him; the target can be almost 

coincidental; even though he had chosen a political and ideological target; 

what was the most important was the release of the energy, because it became 

to much to contain. 

It is the same process as people who practice self harm; cutting and hurting 

oneself, which reduces the internal intensity; as it is channeled outwards and 

gets a chance to manifest itself on the outside, it makes them "feel better", 

restores balance. 

 

I knew somebody who all her life carried unresolved anger stemming from 

feelings of having been rejected as a child, feelings of hurt. 

This energy surfaced regularly, almost anything or anybody could trigger it.

Anyone who became a target could forget about the friendship; she would cut 

you off and you would never see her again. 

She was also very impatient, she was often unwilling to listen, in addition; 

and quite unnecessarily, she had been put on medication, and the end result 

was that she took her own life. 

Bitterness can come out of anger, and also

desperation; the loss of hope, which can lead many to suicide.

 

All these sequences are created inside the person; it is their own creations,

maintained by the repetitions of their own thoughts which sustains and 

nourishes it. 

Thoughts are words, unspoken words. 

Words have the power to create and to kill. 

Prayers are words too.

The prayers of the Church are codified phrases and expressions which 

should be repeated every day, and must not be changed.

They are not a coincidentally randomly put together collection of seemingly 

incomprehensible mumbling. 

With repetition and patience the power of their words and the accompanying 

gradual awakening to their meaning will eventually penetrate to our brains

and enlighten us.     

We begin to see that everything the Church teaches in regard to our fall from 

grace is true, and due to our obstinate continuation in leading sinful lives, 

by refusing to convert = change, we perpetuate it and pass it on to the next 

generation. 

The most powerful weapon we have is our tongue; our words.

Our words are incredibly powerful.

 

Yes, anger is a deadly sin, no matter what the causes or the origin of it. 

It destroys and kills. As it is literally in us, like a heavy blanket wrapped 

around our heart: our soul, it separates us from our true selves and from God.

This HAS TO BE acknowledged by us, we must be aware of it, admit it, and 

manifest this awareness outside ourselves, in order that it can COME OUT.  

Recognizing the harm it is causing in our lives, in our families, our communities. 

Confessing it to the priest. 

If everybody did this psychologists and psychiatrists would be out of work.

 

Our willpower, bodies, minds, feelings, reactions, opinions, our situations; 

forms the material we are using when we practice the Faith, they are our tools. 

It is not just by putting in an appearance at Mass, or going on pilgrimages; 

that alone does not make anybody a Catholic. 

This is why we say that the Catholic Faith is an embodied 

faith; it is a lived experience, including our crosses. Jesus showed us, 

and He told us that if we want to be His disciples we have to pick up our own 

crosses and follow Him.  Our human nature does not want this, it will let us 

know it's opposition, resistance and even revolt to it, but the Catholic Faith is 

not a natural (pagan)  religion, it is supernatural.  

 

 

   

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." John 10:10

 

To steal does not only mean to physically take something that does 

not belong to us. 

It is much wider and often more subtle, than that. 

It can be to have an attitude and an outlook in life of something like:

"What is in it for me?", or "Is there anything in it for me?"

in almost any decision making big or small. If the person cannot 

perceive any personal gain, they decide against it, because they are out to 

take, obtain something freely and easily, without going through the correct 

normal channels; work, and being honest and transparent. 

That person might be found anywhere, also in the Church. 

The person would not hesitate to break your friendships, by "stealing" 

them too, by inserting themselves between you and them. 

They would not be interested in making their own 

friends, they want to take yours and destroy your friendships. 

Same goes for spiritual possessions, they understand that it has value, and 

so they sneak in, pretending to be interested,  hoping they can grasp it 

and use it for their own gain. 

They do not understand that that is impossible, but if they can rob you of it, 

there will be some passing  satisfaction for them.

They are impostors, they only go to Mass where people know them,

not where nobody knows them, because they are seeking the approval 

of men, not of God.

 

“Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide 

and the tassels on their garments long;"  (Scribes and Pharisees)

Matthew 23:5 

 

They will not contribute even when it is expected of them, as a natural and 

appropriate donation to the Church, because they are there to take, not to give. 

They might even feel that the Church is privileged to have someone like them 

amongst them.   As we know that the wolf is frequently dressed as a sheep, 

we need to be awake.

 

This approach to life is related to   

"For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their 

life for me will find it"

(Matthew 16:25)

 

It means to take risks to one's personal life because the fear of the Lord has 

dominance in our lives. God comes first; all decisions must be taken with 

needing to be right with Him before anything else, regardless of the 

consequences to our selves, because our salvation depends on it. 

It is obedience and also manifests our great confidence in God. 

They are often acts of Faith. 

And God never returns such obedience and love with anything but generosity.

 

The person who is in a permanent state of self preservation, however, 

even as far as to the detriment to those he/she proclaims to love, 

that person might sacrifice or accuse whoever it takes, 

in words and deeds, in order to "save" himself. 

It is a fearful person, without knowledge nor confidence in God.  

It is a self serving love, and in the end the person will be lost.

 

Now that the evidence of the harm the covid 19 injection is being recognized

also in the main stream media, I think of all the Catholics who agreed to be 

injected with an acknowledged  experimental injection made from stem cells 

of aborted babies.  Some were definitely under sever pressure to take it, under 

the threat of losing their job and in order to provide for their families, they took 

it.

Many did pay with their lives, but many did it for the right reasons. 

But many others did not take it for the right reasons; their motivation was fear 

and confidence in their corrupt governments. Immoderate and unreasonable 

fear paralyzes the intelligence and logic. The official statistics told us all the time 

that the virus presented a minimal risk, but in spite of this many people who were 

not under any obligation or financial pressure to take it, went ahead and took it, 

no matter what their family said, and even with partners and spouses pleading 

with them not to do it.  They were trying to save themselves to, and how many 

ended up killing and maiming themselves instead.

 

I am neither a doctor nor a scientist, but giving all the information that was 

available to everybody from the very start, I was ready to die, rather than 

inject a very questionable concoction,  made from abortions, into my body. 

 

 

Born into Eternal Life

 

This star marks the spot where Our Lord Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, 

was born in Bethlehem.

As it happens it is also the first Catholic Church I was ever in. 

The starting point of my journey was there.

I had been baptized as a baby in the Lutheran church, but I had never really engaged with it.

Not long afterwards the visit to the Church of The Nativity in Bethlehem I was 

received into the Catholic Church; the most important decision I have taken in my life.

It is a journey; learning, implementing and deepening the precepts of the Church. 

How much did I really understand of the Sacraments and the teaching in the beginning?

I don't know, but I know that I understood enough to know that it was correct, not always 

easy, for sure, but the only Way.