Accountable

Accountable

"Iron is sharpened by iron; one person sharpens another."  ~Proverbs 27:17

 When we speak of our faith or ask others about theirs we need to remember not everyone is open about their beliefs and how they practice those beliefs. This does not mean we just keep it to ourselves and not put ourselves out there. We are to be a community and to go out and share the Good News with the world. It is in these actions that we find others out there who will help us in our own walk of faith. We need to remember that Jesus did not come down to force the message but be the message and show the love and concern for each other. 

   It is in our sharing and spreading the news that we sharpen our tools of faith and use them to carve out Jesus in the world. We may be the only christian that person may come into contact with that day or even a reminder of what they already know. We are not called to battle or condemn those around us in this life.  There is a thin line between holding someone accountable and judging them. 

     We are all accountable to the messages of Jesus but remember not everyone has heard these messages. When we speak to others remember first to share the message and if need be hold them to that message in a loving way. Never preach damnation but that of forgiveness of sins. Preach the love of the Trinity and what the trinity offers us. We can still hold people accountable but do it in a loving and caring way. Also remember your relationship to that person. How you deliver that message can make that person turn further away or bring them closer. For me I know, two people can say the same thing to me and one will have  an impact because of who they are in my life vs the other who is not the same as the other in my life. 

     Religion / Faith is a touchy subject because it can be seen as you are judging them and are acting “holier then thou”. That will turn people off to the message you are giving.  For some the tuff love approach will work and others may be just a soft tone.  We gather as a community because we can express ourselves with fellow believers and honor our God.  It is not time to cast the stones and watch people fall from grace. 

      Here in the cartoon Linus was trying to start a conversation, open that door, about prayer and Lucy goes right into debate mode. On both ends we need to watch how we act. When a person approaches us, we should give the benefit of doubt that it is not coming from a bad place or to start something but to start a dialogue of faith. 

       As it says in Proverbs, we are to sharpen each other, not tear them down. We need to build up the Kingdom of God and not set others outside of the kingdom. 

Until tomorrow, God Bless, and be strength for others and build them up. 

Foundation

Foundation

“The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock.” ~ Matthew 7:25

   I thought the idea of foundations and what we build our faith on is fitting in wake of the devastation of Hurricane Sandy.  When the storm hit, homes were destroyed, lives were destroyed and the landscape of many areas have been changed. It is the same with our faith. It can be washed away if we do not have it set on solid ground with a solid foundation. 

     In the cartoon Lucy is worried but when Linus offers God’s promise, she is comforted in God’s word. Linus says that it is because it is “ Sound Theology”.  That is what we all need in our lives, “sound theology”. It is not just to believe to just believe, You have to know why you believe. I am not saying that you have unyielding proof but know in your heart and mind why you believe it.  Our beliefs  can not be a “just cause I do” answer. 

      If we can not answer the simple question of “ Why do I believe?” to ourselves how are we to answer other questions from other people. Also when problems or “the storms” come, we need to remember why we believe so we do not waver or bend our beliefs to just get by.  It can be “ I believe because in Luke’s Gospel Jesus says......” or “ When God led Moses, He said......”.  The Bible has those promises we can rely on to help foster our beliefs and strengthen our faith. 

      When we build our beliefs and faith on scripture we will be stronger. Our foundation is built with the Word of God. What is stronger then that? It is the same with the teachings of the church. When we allow those teachings into our hearts and minds, we reinforce that structure of Faith and our Beliefs. 

       Sometimes all we need is a verse of God’s Word to calm the seas and we are able to be calm and allow ourselves to trust in God. It is time for everyone to stand strong in and for our faith. We are able to stand when we are on solid ground. It is a lot easier to stand on solid ground then that of sand. Even to walk by faith, it is easier on solid ground, solid teachings, then that of sand and misguided teachings. 

Until tomorrow, God Bless, and remember to build your faith on the word of God. 

      

Vocation

Vocation

“I, then, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received,” ~ Ephesians 4:1

 The word “Vocation” has always meant Priesthood to me, and I guess to any man growing up in the Catholic Church that is the first thought. It is more then being a priest. Yes, it is part of it but there are other areas of vocation in the church.  You can have a vocation to be single, married, consecrated, religious or a priest.  We are all called by God to know, love and serve Him.  It is in our vocations that we do this. 

     I first must say that yes, there was a time that I thought or discerned being a priest. It was years ago and of course I decided at the time that was not what my vocation was to be. As of late I wonder about that decision. I am not saying that I now think my vocation is heading in that direction but just wonder why did I feel it then and who’s voice I listened to, mine or God’s at the time. 

    There is a calling for all of us. God is asking us to do things all the time. It doesn’t mean a vocation but a call to “Action”.  Hearing the call and vocation does go hand and hand at times. Then other times it is just a call to follow Him.  I did feel that “call to action” when it came to starting this blog and not being able to do it these past two weeks made me realize that it strengthens that connection to God in my life. 

    When I get that call, it starts as a spark in my heart and soul and it grows more and more as I answer that call. It is great when I know what He is asking but I must say that I have so many sparks going and I am not sure what they are for yet. Sometimes I think some are for ideas for the blog and then I quickly write the idea down or usually text it to myself to look at later. Then other times I have that feeling, that spark, and I am not sure where it is going or if it will ever turn into that flame. 

    There is this fire in my heart and soul that I want to serve God and bring the word of Jesus to the world but I question if it is what I am to do or is it that I still need to be sitting in the pew for a while longer.  Before I left the church my passion was to bring people into the church. Get those catholics back who left and make it a welcoming experience for them. I still feel that but my seat in the pew is barely warm. 

      I think it is that time in the Church where we really have to be on fire for not only God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit but for the Church as a whole. WE are the church and WE need to be that warmth that people need in a cold world. People will gather around a fire when they are cold. So, why not be on fire for our God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, and our Faith.  When people see and feel that fire, they may just come over and try and get warm and want to keep that fire burning in themselves as well. 

     There is nothing wrong with coming to church each week and sitting in the pew, you are still being a witness to your faith. You are giving that chance of a spark in someone else. I guess I think back to the blog of Hit Hard, Hit Fast or Slow and Steady and still see that I am not that Slow and Steady person. I do not think I ever will be that. 

      It is that call to each of us to know, love, and serve God, but the actions after is what is different for each of us. I look back to the different ministries I have been involved in before the return and I wouldn’t change any of them. I grew from each one of them and learned so much from them. I do feel that pull or spark for ministry life again. 

       I talked about a program I went to that was about God’s dreams for us vs God’s will, I am at the point where I am trying to see if God’s dreams for me is the same dream I have for myself. I know no matter what He will be there for me and with me and whatever I do is not from my own doing but Him guiding me and working in me.  I want to be sure that it is not my own pride or  ego that is driving my dream and that I am doing it to glorify Him. 

        Think about what you are being called to do and work towards that call. It is not just a one time event but an on going part of being a follower of the Trinity. I hope that sparks start to fire up and we all are able to be on fire for our Faith.

Until tomorrow, God Bless, and answer the call, God is waiting to talk to you. 

Saint Anthony of Padua

Saint Anthony of Padua

  Stating with this blog and every Saturday, I will post a new  Saint and some information about them. Some will be known and others I hope will become known. I feel that we need to learn from others and about where our faith has come from to be better Christians in this life. If you have any suggestions on Saints please comment so I can blog about them.

Until tomorrow, God Bless, and allow the knowledge of the Saints help us on our journey. 

Feastday: June 13

1195 - 1231

Saint Anthony was canonized (declared a saint) less than one year after his death.

There is perhaps no more loved and admired saint in the Catholic Church than Saint Anthony of Padua, a Doctor of the Church. Though his work was in Italy, he was born in Portugal. He first joined the Augustinian Order and then left it and joined the Franciscan Order in 1221, when he was 26 years old. The reason he became a Franciscan was because of the death of the five Franciscan protomartyrs -- St. Bernard, St. Peter, St. Otho, St. Accursius, and St. Adjutus -- who shed their blood for the Catholic Faith in the year 1220, in Morocco, in North Africa, and whose headless and mutilated bodies had been brought to St. Anthony’s monastery on their way back for burial. St. Anthony became a Franciscan in the hope of shedding his own blood and becoming a martyr. He lived only ten years after joining the Franciscan Order.

So simple and resounding was his teaching of the Catholic Faith, so that the most unlettered and innocent might understand it, that he was made a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius XII in 1946. Saint Anthony was only 36 years old when he died. He is called the “hammer of the Heretics” His great protection against their lies and deceits in the matter of Christian doctrine was to utter, simply and innocently, the Holy Name of Mary. When St. Anthony of Padua found he was preaching the true Gospel of the Catholic Church to heretics who would not listen to him, he then went out and preached it to the fishes. This was not, as liberals and naturalists are trying to say, for the instruction of the fishes, but rather for the glory of God, the delight of the angels, and the easing of his own heart. St. Anthony wanted to profess the Catholic Faith with his mind and his heart, at every moment.

He is typically depicted with a book and the Infant Child Jesus, to whom He miraculously appeared, and is commonly referred to today as the "finder of lost articles." Upon exhumation, some 336 years after his death, his body was found to be corrupted, yet his tongue was totally incorrupt, so perfect were the teachings that had been formed upon it.

Patron Saint of Rediscovering the Journey

Saint Maximilian Kolbe

  With the passing two storms that hit NJ, I have decided that it was time to start Rediscovering the Journey Blog again with naming the Patron Saint of the blog. Also each week there will be either a Saint or Bible figure of the week instead of that nights blog. Below is a brief bio of Saint Maximilian Kolbe. 

  Until tomorrow, God Bless, and keep those devastated by Hurricane Sandy in your prayers. 

St. Maximilian was born Raymond Kolbe in Poland, January 8, 1894. In 1910, he entered the Conventual Franciscan Order. He was sent to study in Rome where he was ordained a priest in 1918.

Father Maximilian returned to Poland in 1919 and began spreading his Militia of the Immaculata movement of Marian consecration (whose members are also called MIs), which he founded on October 16, 1917. In 1927, he established an evangelization center near Warsaw called Niepokalanów, the "City of the Immaculate." By 1939, the City had expanded from eighteen friars to nearly 900, making it the largest Catholic religious house in the world.

To better "win the world for the Immaculata," the friars utilized the most modern printing and administrative techniques. This enabled them to publish countless catechetical and devotional tracts, a daily newspaper with a circulation of 230,000 and a monthly magazine with a circulation of over one million. Maximilian started a radio station and planned to build a motion picture studio--he was a true "apostle of the mass media." He established a City of the Immaculata in Nagasaki, Japan, in 1930, and envisioned missionary centers worldwide.

Maximilian was a ground-breaking theologian. His insights into the Immaculate Conception anticipated the Marian theology of the Second Vatican Council and further developed the Church's understanding of Mary as "Mediatrix" of all the graces of the Trinity, and as "Advocate" for God's people.

In 1941, the Nazis imprisoned Father Maximilian in the Auschwitz death camp. There he offered his life for another prisoner and was condemned to slow death in a starvation bunker. On August 14, 1941, his impatient captors ended his life with a fatal injection. Pope John Paul II canonized Maximilian as a "Martyr of Charity" and “Patron Saint of our difficult century” in 1982. St. Maximilian Kolbe is the patron of journalists, families, prisoners, the pro-life movement and the chemically addicted.

Asking for Prayers

Asking for Prayers

Tonight I am just asking for people to continue to pray for those who have lost so much in the past week and to pray that the new storm ,that is due Wednesday, does not cause more devistaion to the area. 

I will start normal blogging again on Wednesday nitght.

Until tomorrow, God Bless,  and keep the prayers going. 

Gratitude

Gratitude

“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.” — Epictetus

 This is my first blog since Hurricane Sandy’s devastation on the east coast. I am very grateful that the only thing I lost was power, tv, phone and internet. Unfortunately a lot of others were not as blessed as I was. I am very grateful for all those around me and for what I have. Sometimes it takes such devastation around you to see what you have. 

    It is easy for our hearts to go out to the images we see on tv but it is another story when you see the images first hand and they are not images but part of your own life. It is easy to cry out to God and ask for an explanation for all that has happened. Also it is easy to be angry for all the things that happened to you or those around you. 

    It is the images of people helping each other that can show us Jesus at work. Those people who risk their lives for those who they do not know shows the unyielding love in the world. People offering what they have for those who have nothing to give in return but a Thank You. For every story of what people lost, you hear stories of what people have done to help others.  Those are the things that shed some light in a dark time in peoples lives. 

    I am grateful for many things in my life and these are he times that I really focus on those things. It is not just during tuff times that we need to focus on these things but during our everyday lives. At least some part of the day think of at least one thing you are grateful for. Even when you pray add that to it. Thank God for the things you have in your life. Sometimes it may be hard with all that is going on but try your best with it. 

     To everyone who have lost this past week my thoughts and prayers go out to them. There are just no words to express what each of us feel. It is a collective sadness that is shared through each one of us. 

Until tomorrow, God Bless, and ask yourself what you are grateful for.