Never Hurry

I had a friend who would always push me to "Hurry up, hurry up!" even when it came to prayer. Once I was praying in a chapel and he came to get me to go with him somewhere. He snapped his fingers and said, "Hurry up." I was never so infuriated.

A prayer time should never be hurried. Time with God should be open-ended. One would never think of limiting time spent with a friend or family member. Why would one hurry God? And the deepest form of prayer, contemplative prayer, is meant to be a time of sitting and waiting for God to speak. How can one wait if one is hurrying and rushing? It is impossible.

A good and healthy relationship with God needs to be nourished by allowing God the time to speak at His rate; not to quickly rush Him. That is a rude relationship. And who should be our greatest love if not God Himself? I prefer to wait on God. He is the One most worth waiting for.

God Answers a Prayer

In my lifetime I have given myself over to God many, many times in complete surrender to His holy will. Mostly, the past fifteen years have been the times of total surrender of myself into God where I receive the consolation of feeling myself diminishing and God surrounding me as I disappear into contemplative prayer and lose myself into Him. It is a feeling like no other and one that I never cease to desire never to end. My being lost in God is the greatest consolation I could ever hope for on this side of heaven. Of course times of consolation are interspersed among times of desolation, when God decides to move away for awhile and test my faithfulness and willingness to love Him just the same without the consolations. I must remain faithful and love Him just the same during those "dry" times.

Last summer I asked my friend, the Holy Spirit, for a certain grace to be used in a particular way in the kingdom, for the sole purpose of lifting up the Church. I continued to ask Him and little by little, I came to understand that indeed, God had answered this prayer in my life. It was confirmed in various ways, and I spoke of it with my spiritual director and my pastor, Fr. Tom, both very holy and trustworthy men. Both gave me very similar spiritual direction as to how to use this gift and how to discern when God was calling me for this purpose and how to "learn" how to use this gift for God's glory.

God is a gentle and patient God. He is kind and loving. The Holy Spirit sends people to me and I am learning that it is clear that I do not need to seek people, but, that God indeed will bring them to me, as evidenced by those who have come to me, in particular, those who came who did not know me previously.

My reason for this post is not to draw attention to myself. I humbly wish to be always unnoticed and in the background for I am merely a conduit of God's graces. But, I do wish to speak the truth that the Holy Spirit is alive and well in the world today. All we need do is call upon Him. When Jesus was foretelling His friends about His passion and death, He told them that He needed to leave so that the Advocate could come; the Paraclete. And He said that even greater things would happen through them by the power of the Holy Spirit. He was talking about from that time foreward until the end of time. He meant for us now in this time, as well. We need just to believe and to ask. The Holy Spirit is here to accompany us on this journey and to help us in spreading the gospel message. Blessed are those who have not seen and who believe. But, some need to see to believe.

God bless all who see this blog. May you call upon your friend, the Holy Spirit, to be with you each moment of every day, to accompany you on your daily journey in faith.

My Savior, My Jesus

Each day I place my hand in Yours,
I strive to walk with You.
The road is long and so often tough,
The resting spots are few.

Yet, when I stop and think about
The road that was Yours to take,
I realize how simple mine is these days,
Since You've lightened the load for my sake.

Persecution

The father of lies, Satan, hates Christians, in particular, Catholics, whose faith was started by Jesus Christ Himself. Why does he hate us so? I ask myself this question. From the time of creation, Satan tried to make himself equal with God. He tempted man from the the earliest days in the garden, promising that if he were to eat of the fruit of the tree of life, that he would be as God. And this was the beginning of the downfall of man. Here Adam committed the original sin. Here man chose to turn from everything beautiful that God had given him freely, to what he thought would be something "better" on his own. He tried to make himself into a god.

But, God promised a Savior who would earn back man's salvation - one who would free the world from the bondage caused by this first sin of man's free will. And over and over again, even to this day, man chooses to turn away from God and to make himself god over his life. This is what sin is; turning away from God; listening to man's ways, not God's ways. Satan delights in this. It brings him great comfort to see others fall into the trap of choosing other than God. He wants to see many join him in his eternal separation from the face of God. This is the height of torment.

Jesus, the promised Savior, did in fact come as promised. God's word was fulfilled, and the God-man saved mankind from the bondage of sin and reopened the gates of heaven by His death and resurrection. Since then, the followers of Jesus, Christians, have been persecuted, as He Himself foretold, and punished by the evil one, for believing in and living the Truth. And Satan himself, leads many to believe that it is righteous to persecute and even murder those who follow Christ.

I truly believe that it is Satan who is behind all the misguided false religions, in particular the radical Islamists, that attack the Catholic Christians worldwide. I believe Satan rejoices at the blood that is shed by those who are martyred for the sake of Jesus Christ. They feel when they blow themselves up in the act of killing Christians at worship, that they are martyrs for some heartless god who wants to see the death of Christians.

What they don't realize is that, since the beginning of Christianity, the true martyrs, are those whose lives are given for the sake of the name of Christ. They are the ones who refuse to give in to the false gods, the false religions that blaspheme and desecrate the holy name of Jesus. They are the ones who would stand in the way to protect Jesus' true body and blood in the Eucharist. They would suffer immeasurable pain and even death, to stand fast to their belief and love of Jesus Christ. They know that when they breathe their final breath, there is a place already prepared for them in heaven with the other saints and with God Himself. These are the brave ones. They are the martyrs. They are the ones whose actions should be remembered and shared with generations to come; not the actions of the misguided ones who follow the father of lies who can offer nothing but eternal damnation to his followers.

So when the persecution continues in this world, lift up the persecuted in your hearts. Pray for them to be brave and unwavering in their faith. Ask God to be at their sides when they suffer this wrongful torture. And pray for the strength to emulate them in your daily lives of discipleship.

Attacks on Christians in the Middle East

In late November, radical Muslims exploded a bomb inside of a Catholic church in Iraq, killing the priest and 57 parishioners during the celebratin of a Mass. Over the Christmas holidays, a similar group exploded a bomb in a Catholic Church in Egypt, killing twenty-some people and wounding countless others praying the Mass. A few days later a bomb exploded in a house of a Catholic family celebrating Christmas together in Iraq.

My dearest friend lives in Doha, Qatar, another country in the Middle East. Upon his return from visiting his family in Lebanon over the Christmas holidays, he received news that his parish church had been threatened to be destroyed by Al Qaida. Now the police are protecting the church at all hours because the prince of Qatar is favorable toward the Lebanese, most of which make up the Christian population in Qatar. My friend wept when he told me of this. He wept not for himself, but, for the children, and the innocent people killed by these senseless bombings by people who claim to be killing for their god.

No god would desire killing of innocent people. Only the father of lies would convince people to do this. It is Satan himself who is behind all these attacks on innocent victims who are merely praying to Jesus. It is the Catholic Christians who are always the victims of these bloody attacks.

Please pray often and sincerely for an end to these vicious attacks. Pray that God will make those people accountable for their taking of human life. And remember to pray to the martyrs who are now saints in heaven, who have given their lives for the sake of the name of Jesus Christ, Saviour and King.

The Babe in the Manger

So tiny, so fragile, sleeping peacefully on a bed of hay;
Mary rests nearby, tired from giving birth.
Her husband keeps watch, far into the night;
Overwhelmed with the task ahead - to protect this child;
The Son of God, entrusted into his care.
Joseph sighs, and gazes lovingly at the babe in the manger;
He whispers a quiet prayer, not wishing to wake mother or son.
"Father above, you have given to me such a great responsibility.
How will I ever be able to love, teach and protect your son?
I am only a simple man, not worthy to be given this tremendous duty."

He looks out at the night sky, a tear rolling down his cheek;
An odd sensation of anxiousness overcomes him.
He desires to do God's will, in all things of his life;
No matter the difficulty or the cost to himself;
This situation is no different.
He lifts the babe into his arms, kisses His cheek;
And inhales the beautiful freshness of the newborn child.
"Lord God of Israel, of Abraham, Moses and all the Prophets before me,
Be with me always I pray, and bless this common, god-fearing servant
So that I may glorify you with my earthly care of your son."

A New Friend

After visiting Lebanon this last time in the summer of 2010, I put a short video on Youtube, telling the life of Blessed Abouna Yaqouub Haddad, a Franciscan Capucian monk who was recently beatified by Pope Benedict XVI. My purpose was to educate Americans on one of the holy men of Lebanon, soon to be canonized. I myself was not aware of the great saints of Lebanon until I visited there in the year 2007. Now I am happily familiar with the lives of Saints Charbel, Hardini, Rafqa and Maroun.

Anyway, a Maroite man posted a comment on my video and complimented my voice. He said that he liked the sound of my American English on the video. He informed me that he has a Youtube channel devoted to the Maronite Church where he has posted many movies about the Maronite Church, and that he intends to post several more in the near future. He asked if I would lend my voice to these videos, and if so, to contact him. Since I love the Maronite Church and Lebanon, I quickly agreed. Thus far we have worked together on two videos.

More importantly, however, is the friendship that has resulted from this endeavor. God has once again arranged for me to have another spiritual friend; one I did not pursue, but one who has become a close, yet geographically distant friend. He and I have shared many evening phone conversations that have lasted an hour or more. Our personalities just seem to have clicked.

What started as mere informational conversations about the early centuries of Maronite history have developed into deep conversations about religion, Lebanon, family, friendships broken, and even the teachings of the Church. I have listened to him speak, and learned what a great faith he has. Each time we talk I know that I needed his words because I needed a dose of humility. Certainly he teaches me, by his “blind and unyielding faith,” that I must imitate his way of saying, “yes” to God on a daily basis. He is a fine example of what it means to follow God without turning to look back. I thank you, God, for putting this new friend into my life. I may never meet him in person. But, having his voice on the other end of the telephone may be just what I needed. He is a blessing in my life.