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Responsorial Psalm
Ps 63:2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9
R. (2b) My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
O God, you are my God whom I seek;
for you my flesh pines and my soul thirsts
like the earth, parched, lifeless and without water.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
Thus have I gazed toward you in the sanctuary
to see your power and your glory,
For your kindness is a greater good than life;
my lips shall glorify you.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
Thus will I bless you while I live;
lifting up my hands, I will call upon your name.
As with the riches of a banquet shall my soul be satisfied,
and with exultant lips my mouth shall praise you.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
You are my help, and in the shadow of your wings I shout for joy.
My soul clings fast to you; your right hand upholds me.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
Reading 2 Rom 12:1-2
I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God,
to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship.
Do not conform yourselves to this age
but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,
that you may discern what is the will of God,
what is good and pleasing and perfect.
Gospel Mt 16:21-27
Jesus began to show his disciples
that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly
from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed and on the third day be raised.
Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him,
"God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you."
He turned and said to Peter,
"Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me.
You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do."
Then Jesus said to his disciples,
"Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,
take up his cross, and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world
and forfeit his life"
Or what can one give in exchange for his life?
For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father's glory,
and then he will repay all according to his conduct."
+ + + +
Talk about powerful readings, found in today's liturgy! The psalm is a cry, a deep in the soul longing, to know God intimately. Fr. Michael Joncas set it so beautifully. His setting is a perfect blending of the accompaniment, the melody and the words. By the time the psalm is finished, there is no doubt in your head (or should I say heart?) what exactly the psalmist was trying to convey so that your heart can sing it, too. (You can access a version of it on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amzTaXQqFcc) Every time I played it at Mass this weekend (4 times!), I felt like weeping. Indeed, my soul is thirsting for you, O Lord, my God! What a gift it is to have such music when singing this psalm!
The passage from Romans 12 packs quite a wallop! We are told that we must be living sacrifices. We must discern the will of God and do it. We must take up our crosses and follow Jesus. These two verses can certainly be fodder for lots of contemplation and discernment!
The Gospel is very compelling for me. How many times have I thought better of God's will in my life? How many times have I been like Peter, saying certainly that isn't what you have in mind, Lord, when I didn't want to do something that I knew, deep in my heart, was God's will? Jesus' response to me was probably a lot like his to Peter. I was too arrogant to hear it then.
I was given a gift today. My friend, Sr. Susan Kennedy, the foundress of the Daughters of Divine Hope down in Tyler, Texas (website: http://www.daughtersofdivinehope.org/mainpage.html), shared with me something very beautiful. She had met with her bishop on Friday and was excited to tell me all about their meeting. (Trust me, I was just as excited to hear what she had to say!) It was about consecrated religious--actually ALL of us--being "living sacrifices". We must be transformed into living our entire lives as radically consecrated in the Truth. We must embrace our crosses and the crosses of those around us. In other words, everything we do must reflect Christ to others. For her, it means taking up the crosses of her Sisters and helping them, as Simon of Cyrene did for our Lord. For me, it is about saying yes to God's will to become formed as a consecrated religious. Ultimately, the mission, for consecrated religious, is to care for the Church. I don't know entirely what this means for my life yet, but I know God will show me, by and by.
Sister Sue told me that she had come to realize, as she's been wearing her habit, that her habit isn't something that calls attention to herself. It's an invitation for all who meet her to enter into Christ and His love for them. She has been surprised--and very blessed--to see this at work and to experience it.
I cannot even begin to tell you what a gift her words were to me! When we hung up, I cried. What she had just given to me was extremely important to my understanding of my mission in life. It felt like a great, great gift! The things she shared are all things I have been slooooowwwwwly coming to understand but could not articulate them nearly as she did for me. I long for the life about which she spoke. We were not able to talk long today and I have a feeling there is much, much more she has to tell me. I look forward to our next conversation about this. Every time we speak together, I learn so very much about the religious life and about taking up my cross and following Jesus. I thank God for our friendship. As she once told me, she believes we are companions on the journey, as so many saints were for one another. That is such a humbling thought!
Please pray for this fledgling community. It is a vital, important work!
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Sunday, August 21, 2011
a gift
I wasn't going to publish this but I don't think I should keep it to myself either. I was given a beautiful gift from the Holy Spirit this week and I want to share it with you. It is a letter I wrote to the board of directors who fired me. The inspiration for it, I believe, came directly from God because I know, without a single doubt, I would never have come to it by myself. In publishing this letter, my prayer is that all of us will understand better that, within God's realm, forgiveness and reconciliation are indeed possible.
I've written this letter hundreds of times in my head (and sometimes on paper!) over the past 8 months. Every time, especially in the first few months, it came out angry, unforgiving, self-righteous, bitter--you get the drift. Something happened along the way. I believe it has been the Holy Spirit nudging and prodding me to take the higher ground. He was teaching me many valuable things during this period, things that I had to learn, I had to experience. In essence, I had to face myself, shortcomings and all. They have been (spiritual) life lessons that will continue to impact me. The stirrings of the Holy Spirit upon my soul have greatly humbled me. I know no other way to say it.
I wrote this mostly for myself, for my relationship with God, for my soul's sake. In the end, I also wanted to give the Board the gift of knowing that I understood why they did what they did. (I still call it cruel and unjust...but I don't believe their intent was to be cruel and unjust.) I thought, by their knowing that I am okay, they might be set free, too. I speculated that their action against me might have been a burden on them, too.
Please, please do not read this, thinking I'm so great. I can assure you I am not great at all. My current attitude has very little to do with me. It has been a precious time of God working and working on me to follow Him in all aspects of my life and most especially to forgiveness. I must tell you that I haven't been the easiest for Him. It required a change of heart, a change of perspective, an owning up to responsibility. These are not easy for a person who is naturally pretty prideful.
When I pressed the send button on my computer to email this letter, I said, Lord, it is in your hands now. I felt instant peace and, surprisingly, a sense of freedom. This letter represented closure for me. I could finally put this epoch to rest and move forward in my life.
Here is the letter I sent--8 months to the day that I was fired. (I found that interesting!) I can say now that everything written here is what I truly believe. Please forgive the redundancies in some parts. I wrote about those previously in this blog.
The thing about which you and I can rejoice: this could very well be THE last blog entry I will write about my termination. Ha...I see you dancing up and down with joy in front of your computer!
+ + + +
Dear (individual names omitted for the sake of privacy),
I've been meaning to write this for a while. I want to tell you how sorry I am for the part I played in leading you to believe that you should terminate my employment at the Center. While I did not do all that you accused me of doing, I recognize that I had a responsibility for the situation of non-compliance regarding the doctor's timely review of the ultrasound charts. What still makes me sad is that, after 13 years of working together, all of you thought you had no other recourse but to fire me. I always tried to do the best I could for clients, volunteers and staff. I wasn't perfect but my heart was always in the right place.
Out of your decision, great good has come for me personally and I pray it has for the Center also. From the very onset of my unemployment, I have looked at the situation as a marvelous opportunity to grow in faith, courage, love, and trust in the Lord. I know now, even more than before this happened, that God is intimately involved in my life (and always has been) and, during this time most especially, He has been very generous to me. It has been a time for me to grow ever closer to God. For this, I am very grateful to Him.
At first, I wondered how in the world I would make it financially, given half my income had just gone away. (I was, and continue to be, very grateful for the unemployment payments.) As it all unfolded, I came to realize I need not have fretted for even one second. By the grace of God, I have stayed afloat. I have come to understand that I need very little to sustain my life.
The weekend after my employment was terminated, I prayed, asking God what He would like me to do next. All I kept hearing was I was to build up my piano studio. I thought that was rather odd, considering I only had 12 students at the time and figured I would need a lot more than that. How does one find lots of piano students in a blink of an eye?? That Sunday night, as I was talking to a cantor from St. Columba who lives here in New Brighton and telling her that I was going to expand my piano studio, she told me she'd been looking for a piano teacher for her daughter. I signed her right up and saw this as a sign from God that He really meant what He'd been telling me all weekend.
In the ensuing months, I have felt like Abraham who bargained with God over Sodom and Gomorrah, but in reverse. I started with, "Lord, if You want me to do this, I need You to send me 10 students right away." He sent 11 within two weeks. Then, I said, "Thank you, Lord...but I think I need 10 more." Soon, I had 10 more! These came, in part, from a teacher who moved to Denver and referred some of her students to me. Then, having been holding at 33 students for quite a while, I said, "Lord, to really make a go of it, I think I need at least 50 students by the start of the school year." I had hardly prayed this when I got a call from a woman named Melissa here in New Brighton who was moving to Haiti with her husband to be a missionary and she needed to refer her 43 students to teachers here. One of her students' mothers called, inquiring about my teaching, saying she wished I'd do what Melissa had done: go to St. John the Baptist School, here in New Brighton, every school day morning from 7:30 to 9:30 to teach piano lessons. When I asked Melissa how many she had taught this past year there, she told me 17. 17 plus 33 equals God's gracious generosity! I've been welcomed with open arms by the principal there and by the director of liturgy (who, by the way, knew my late sister Mary--he was her predecessor at St. John the Baptist in Excelsior; it is, indeed, a small world!). They are even giving me the choir room with a fancy Steinway grand piano to use!
It appears God has given me another opportunity and it is to minister to young people through piano teaching. One student, a teen-ager, has no fingers on his left hand...just stubs of 3. When he played for me the first time, I almost cried. His playing was so sensitive and beautiful! I told him it was going to be a privilege to teach him. He replied, "really?" I said, "Yes...just look what you have accomplished in your lacking IF I can be so bold as to call it a lacking." Since then, I've asked him if he's thinking of the priesthood. His mother thanked me for planting a seed. He had never considered it until now. A grandmother called me recently, asking if I would have room in the fall for four of her grandchildren, two of whom watched their father drown 3 years ago; they and their cousins are grieving. I have a feeling there will be more than piano lessons going on among us.
I am volunteering at Pro-life Across America, doing some editing for Mary Ann's writings. I am the on-call counselor at (a pregnancy center that is supported by my home parish). Certainly, my passion for life has not diminished and these allow me to continue to work on behalf of life.
I have been trying to schedule my day so I have more time for prayer and contemplation. The new religious community is still very much on my heart. I have been meeting with the bishop regularly about it. It is in the earliest germinating stage and I want to make sure I am present to our Lord as it grows.
I hold no animosity toward any of you. I want you all to know this. T (board president) called me a few days after firing me and, among other things, reminded me that we have been friends for a long time. To be sure, within the Body of Christ, we remain friends. The initial sadness for me was that I considered you all my friends and to have been treated the way I had been by you seemed like a betrayal. However, I have come to see that you must have felt firing me was in the best interest of the Center and you were all trying to do God's work to that end.
May God bless all of you as you continue your work to defend life. I look back on my tenure at the Center and feel very privileged to have worked there. It was an honor for me to speak up and advocate for the little ones and their mothers in so many ways at the Center all those years. And, I am grateful, and filled with great peace and joy, that God has shown me a new way to work for Him, knowing that it is only by His grace that I am able to accomplish anything in my life.
Sincerely, in Christ's love,
Joanne
I've written this letter hundreds of times in my head (and sometimes on paper!) over the past 8 months. Every time, especially in the first few months, it came out angry, unforgiving, self-righteous, bitter--you get the drift. Something happened along the way. I believe it has been the Holy Spirit nudging and prodding me to take the higher ground. He was teaching me many valuable things during this period, things that I had to learn, I had to experience. In essence, I had to face myself, shortcomings and all. They have been (spiritual) life lessons that will continue to impact me. The stirrings of the Holy Spirit upon my soul have greatly humbled me. I know no other way to say it.
I wrote this mostly for myself, for my relationship with God, for my soul's sake. In the end, I also wanted to give the Board the gift of knowing that I understood why they did what they did. (I still call it cruel and unjust...but I don't believe their intent was to be cruel and unjust.) I thought, by their knowing that I am okay, they might be set free, too. I speculated that their action against me might have been a burden on them, too.
Please, please do not read this, thinking I'm so great. I can assure you I am not great at all. My current attitude has very little to do with me. It has been a precious time of God working and working on me to follow Him in all aspects of my life and most especially to forgiveness. I must tell you that I haven't been the easiest for Him. It required a change of heart, a change of perspective, an owning up to responsibility. These are not easy for a person who is naturally pretty prideful.
When I pressed the send button on my computer to email this letter, I said, Lord, it is in your hands now. I felt instant peace and, surprisingly, a sense of freedom. This letter represented closure for me. I could finally put this epoch to rest and move forward in my life.
Here is the letter I sent--8 months to the day that I was fired. (I found that interesting!) I can say now that everything written here is what I truly believe. Please forgive the redundancies in some parts. I wrote about those previously in this blog.
The thing about which you and I can rejoice: this could very well be THE last blog entry I will write about my termination. Ha...I see you dancing up and down with joy in front of your computer!
+ + + +
Dear (individual names omitted for the sake of privacy),
I've been meaning to write this for a while. I want to tell you how sorry I am for the part I played in leading you to believe that you should terminate my employment at the Center. While I did not do all that you accused me of doing, I recognize that I had a responsibility for the situation of non-compliance regarding the doctor's timely review of the ultrasound charts. What still makes me sad is that, after 13 years of working together, all of you thought you had no other recourse but to fire me. I always tried to do the best I could for clients, volunteers and staff. I wasn't perfect but my heart was always in the right place.
Out of your decision, great good has come for me personally and I pray it has for the Center also. From the very onset of my unemployment, I have looked at the situation as a marvelous opportunity to grow in faith, courage, love, and trust in the Lord. I know now, even more than before this happened, that God is intimately involved in my life (and always has been) and, during this time most especially, He has been very generous to me. It has been a time for me to grow ever closer to God. For this, I am very grateful to Him.
At first, I wondered how in the world I would make it financially, given half my income had just gone away. (I was, and continue to be, very grateful for the unemployment payments.) As it all unfolded, I came to realize I need not have fretted for even one second. By the grace of God, I have stayed afloat. I have come to understand that I need very little to sustain my life.
The weekend after my employment was terminated, I prayed, asking God what He would like me to do next. All I kept hearing was I was to build up my piano studio. I thought that was rather odd, considering I only had 12 students at the time and figured I would need a lot more than that. How does one find lots of piano students in a blink of an eye?? That Sunday night, as I was talking to a cantor from St. Columba who lives here in New Brighton and telling her that I was going to expand my piano studio, she told me she'd been looking for a piano teacher for her daughter. I signed her right up and saw this as a sign from God that He really meant what He'd been telling me all weekend.
In the ensuing months, I have felt like Abraham who bargained with God over Sodom and Gomorrah, but in reverse. I started with, "Lord, if You want me to do this, I need You to send me 10 students right away." He sent 11 within two weeks. Then, I said, "Thank you, Lord...but I think I need 10 more." Soon, I had 10 more! These came, in part, from a teacher who moved to Denver and referred some of her students to me. Then, having been holding at 33 students for quite a while, I said, "Lord, to really make a go of it, I think I need at least 50 students by the start of the school year." I had hardly prayed this when I got a call from a woman named Melissa here in New Brighton who was moving to Haiti with her husband to be a missionary and she needed to refer her 43 students to teachers here. One of her students' mothers called, inquiring about my teaching, saying she wished I'd do what Melissa had done: go to St. John the Baptist School, here in New Brighton, every school day morning from 7:30 to 9:30 to teach piano lessons. When I asked Melissa how many she had taught this past year there, she told me 17. 17 plus 33 equals God's gracious generosity! I've been welcomed with open arms by the principal there and by the director of liturgy (who, by the way, knew my late sister Mary--he was her predecessor at St. John the Baptist in Excelsior; it is, indeed, a small world!). They are even giving me the choir room with a fancy Steinway grand piano to use!
It appears God has given me another opportunity and it is to minister to young people through piano teaching. One student, a teen-ager, has no fingers on his left hand...just stubs of 3. When he played for me the first time, I almost cried. His playing was so sensitive and beautiful! I told him it was going to be a privilege to teach him. He replied, "really?" I said, "Yes...just look what you have accomplished in your lacking IF I can be so bold as to call it a lacking." Since then, I've asked him if he's thinking of the priesthood. His mother thanked me for planting a seed. He had never considered it until now. A grandmother called me recently, asking if I would have room in the fall for four of her grandchildren, two of whom watched their father drown 3 years ago; they and their cousins are grieving. I have a feeling there will be more than piano lessons going on among us.
I am volunteering at Pro-life Across America, doing some editing for Mary Ann's writings. I am the on-call counselor at (a pregnancy center that is supported by my home parish). Certainly, my passion for life has not diminished and these allow me to continue to work on behalf of life.
I have been trying to schedule my day so I have more time for prayer and contemplation. The new religious community is still very much on my heart. I have been meeting with the bishop regularly about it. It is in the earliest germinating stage and I want to make sure I am present to our Lord as it grows.
I hold no animosity toward any of you. I want you all to know this. T (board president) called me a few days after firing me and, among other things, reminded me that we have been friends for a long time. To be sure, within the Body of Christ, we remain friends. The initial sadness for me was that I considered you all my friends and to have been treated the way I had been by you seemed like a betrayal. However, I have come to see that you must have felt firing me was in the best interest of the Center and you were all trying to do God's work to that end.
May God bless all of you as you continue your work to defend life. I look back on my tenure at the Center and feel very privileged to have worked there. It was an honor for me to speak up and advocate for the little ones and their mothers in so many ways at the Center all those years. And, I am grateful, and filled with great peace and joy, that God has shown me a new way to work for Him, knowing that it is only by His grace that I am able to accomplish anything in my life.
Sincerely, in Christ's love,
Joanne
Sunday, August 14, 2011
God answers prayers
And they turned themselves from there, and they went toward Sodom. Yet in truth, Abraham still stood in the sight of the Lord. And as they drew near, he said: “Will you destroy the just with the impious? If there were fifty of the just in the city, will they perish with the rest? And will you not spare that place for the sake of fifty of the just, if they were in it? Far be it from you to do this thing, and to kill the just with the impious, and for the just to be treated like the impious. No, this is not like you. You judge all the earth; you would never make such a judgment.” And the Lord said to him, “If I find in Sodom fifty of the just in the midst of the city, I will release the entire place because of them.” And Abraham responded by saying: “Since now I have begun, I will speak to my Lord, though I am dust and ashes. What if there were five less than fifty of the just? Would you, despite the forty-five, eliminate the entire city?” And he said, “I will not eliminate it, if I find forty-five there.” And again he said to him, “But if forty were found there, what would you do?” He said, “I will not strike, for the sake of the forty.” “I ask you,” he said, “not to be angry, Lord, if I speak. What if thirty were found there?” He responded, “I will not act, if I find thirty there.” “Since now I have begun,” he said, “I will speak to my Lord. What if twenty were found there?” He said, “I will not put to death, for the sake of the twenty.” “I beg you,” he said, “not to be angry, Lord, if I speak yet once more. What if ten were found there?” And he said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the ten.” And the Lord departed, after he had ceased speaking to Abraham, who then returned to his place. Genesis 18:22-33
+ + + + + +
Have you ever found yourself asking God for what seem like pie in the sky outcomes or bargaining with Him, as Abraham did in the above passage from Genesis? I have and here's my story:
Through the past 7 months, I have felt like Abraham who bargained with God over Sodom and Gomorrah, but in reverse. I started with, "Lord, if You want me to teach piano for a living, I need You to send me 10 students right away." He sent 11 within two weeks. Then, I said, "Thank you, Lord...but I think I need 10 more." Soon, I had 10 more! These came, in part, from a teacher who moved to Denver and referred some of her students to me. Then, having been holding at 33 students for quite a while, I said, "Lord, to really make a go of it, I really think I need at least 50 students by the start of the school year." I had hardly prayed this when I got a call from a woman named Melissa here in the city where I live who was moving to Haiti with her husband to be a missionary and she needed to refer her 40 students to teachers here. One of her students' mothers called, inquiring about my teaching, saying she wished I'd do what Melissa had done and teach at the Catholic school here. She taught piano lessons every school day morning from 7:30 to 9:30. When I asked Melissa how many she had taught this past year there, she told me 17. 17 plus 33 equals God's gracious generosity!
There is one thing that strikes me about this story. Piano teachers generally teach in their homes for years and years and years...until they reach a ripe old age and then they keel over and die, having taught one final lesson. (I may be stretching the truth a tad here but it's pretty close to the truth!) I've never heard of piano teachers relocating to far away places. How is it, then, that I inherited two teachers' students because they were moving out of town? I can only answer one way: this is an awesome manifestation of God's generosity and the unfathomable ways He answers prayers.
I've learned in a big way that God does indeed answer prayers...even the ones that seem to be out of reach to me. All I can say is we certainly are loved by a gracious and generous God!Oh, yes...one last thing. I now have almost 60 students!
+ + + + + +
Have you ever found yourself asking God for what seem like pie in the sky outcomes or bargaining with Him, as Abraham did in the above passage from Genesis? I have and here's my story:
Through the past 7 months, I have felt like Abraham who bargained with God over Sodom and Gomorrah, but in reverse. I started with, "Lord, if You want me to teach piano for a living, I need You to send me 10 students right away." He sent 11 within two weeks. Then, I said, "Thank you, Lord...but I think I need 10 more." Soon, I had 10 more! These came, in part, from a teacher who moved to Denver and referred some of her students to me. Then, having been holding at 33 students for quite a while, I said, "Lord, to really make a go of it, I really think I need at least 50 students by the start of the school year." I had hardly prayed this when I got a call from a woman named Melissa here in the city where I live who was moving to Haiti with her husband to be a missionary and she needed to refer her 40 students to teachers here. One of her students' mothers called, inquiring about my teaching, saying she wished I'd do what Melissa had done and teach at the Catholic school here. She taught piano lessons every school day morning from 7:30 to 9:30. When I asked Melissa how many she had taught this past year there, she told me 17. 17 plus 33 equals God's gracious generosity!
There is one thing that strikes me about this story. Piano teachers generally teach in their homes for years and years and years...until they reach a ripe old age and then they keel over and die, having taught one final lesson. (I may be stretching the truth a tad here but it's pretty close to the truth!) I've never heard of piano teachers relocating to far away places. How is it, then, that I inherited two teachers' students because they were moving out of town? I can only answer one way: this is an awesome manifestation of God's generosity and the unfathomable ways He answers prayers.
I've learned in a big way that God does indeed answer prayers...even the ones that seem to be out of reach to me. All I can say is we certainly are loved by a gracious and generous God!Oh, yes...one last thing. I now have almost 60 students!
Sunday, August 7, 2011
"Do not be afraid!"
Meanwhile the boat, already a few miles offshore, was being tossed about by the waves, for the wind was against it. During the fourth watch of the night, he came toward them walking on the sea. When the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were terrified. “It is a ghost,” they said, and they cried out in fear. At once Jesus spoke to them, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.” Peter said to him in reply, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus. But when he saw how strong the wind was he became frightened; and, beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught Peter, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” After they got into the boat, the wind died down. Those who were in the boat did him homage, saying, “Truly, you are the Son of God.” Matt 14:24-36
+ + + + + +
Of all the apostles of Jesus, the one to whom I can relate the best is Peter. It brings me great comfort, knowing that he became a saint, even though he denied Jesus three times during the Passion and, in the above passage, became afraid even with Jesus standing right in front of him. (I realize it was odd, given they were both standing ON water at the time but still--Jesus was right there!) And, remember, too, how, in Matthew 16, Peter told Jesus that surely He wouldn't have to suffer and Jesus' response was, "Get behind me, Satan." He tells Peter that he's thinking as human beings do, not as God does.
St. Peter persevered and Jesus entrusted the keys of the kingdom to him. He became our first Pope. Peter asked for forgiveness and Jesus forgave him and, now, they are in heaven together for all eternity. That should tell us something!
How many times have I denied my dearest Lord? How many times have I become afraid in the middle of my best intentions to have faith? How many times have I gone back to Jesus, begging forgiveness and mercy for just such things?
I realize it is human nature to be afraid. What I've learned over the past months is that we must fight against our fear. We must persevere in faith, knowing that God will take care of our every need. (Sometimes, I wonder if I'm afraid he won't take care of my every want...) Every time we experience a time of distress, it becomes an opportunity to grow in holiness.
"Do not be afraid." That means we need not be afraid under the worst possible circumstances. We need not be afraid of tomorrow or the next day. We need not dwell on any fearful thought. We need not be afraid, period. We can be completely confident that God will grant us the courage we need when we need it. We can have the wherewithal to experience each moment with peace and joy, God's peace and joy. It is a great blessing, knowing that God is right here and that He longs for us to return to Him forevermore. And, with God's grace, we will...we will!
+ + + + + +
Of all the apostles of Jesus, the one to whom I can relate the best is Peter. It brings me great comfort, knowing that he became a saint, even though he denied Jesus three times during the Passion and, in the above passage, became afraid even with Jesus standing right in front of him. (I realize it was odd, given they were both standing ON water at the time but still--Jesus was right there!) And, remember, too, how, in Matthew 16, Peter told Jesus that surely He wouldn't have to suffer and Jesus' response was, "Get behind me, Satan." He tells Peter that he's thinking as human beings do, not as God does.
St. Peter persevered and Jesus entrusted the keys of the kingdom to him. He became our first Pope. Peter asked for forgiveness and Jesus forgave him and, now, they are in heaven together for all eternity. That should tell us something!
How many times have I denied my dearest Lord? How many times have I become afraid in the middle of my best intentions to have faith? How many times have I gone back to Jesus, begging forgiveness and mercy for just such things?
I realize it is human nature to be afraid. What I've learned over the past months is that we must fight against our fear. We must persevere in faith, knowing that God will take care of our every need. (Sometimes, I wonder if I'm afraid he won't take care of my every want...) Every time we experience a time of distress, it becomes an opportunity to grow in holiness.
"Do not be afraid." That means we need not be afraid under the worst possible circumstances. We need not be afraid of tomorrow or the next day. We need not dwell on any fearful thought. We need not be afraid, period. We can be completely confident that God will grant us the courage we need when we need it. We can have the wherewithal to experience each moment with peace and joy, God's peace and joy. It is a great blessing, knowing that God is right here and that He longs for us to return to Him forevermore. And, with God's grace, we will...we will!
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