The State of Affairs

The internet is all buzzing with the latest news of Pope Francis passing. I want to add to the conversation. I feel the only thing for us on the ground to do is pray. Pint with Aquinas had an amazing video that we would all do well to listen to His common sense of three things we can do…

I for one have always tried to be a voice of prayer where others sew division and unrest. Okay even a little click bait to get you to come on over and see what I have to offer on mental health and healing heart wounds. See Prayer here.

The silence of Good Friday is still ringing in my heart and this news only further brings to light the state of my heart on death. We had the honor of attending the TLM of the Presanctified and Good Friday Liturgies. The vestments are black the chant simple and we don’t receive communion. (Only the priest does since he is in the person of Christ.) The silence of death begins to sink in and an anticipation for the end of the story we know so well and a hunger for His Eucharistic Presence. The emptiness of death. It can feel like a void at times but to give into darkness is to refuse the joy of Easter Resurrection. The pangs of our stomach from fasting show us the reality of the longing in our life for God. If we don’t have Him, we are dead. Forever.

Perhaps I’m being a bit drastic and Debbie downer but someday we will find ourselves at this door. Life is so short. A passing breath or a flower that withers and fades. It is but a scrap compared to eternity. It fills me with a desire to spend it well. Who can I love and serve and what will my legacy be? Prayer is the only constant that slowly blooms in our heart to a full maturation. It is the most essential piece that builds into loving service. How can we know who we are unless we ask? How can we know God, unless we spend time with Him? How can we make a difference if we don’t bring these troubles or joys to God? Prayer can change lives. Prayer can move hearts. Prayer can bring victory where human efforts fail. It brings to light my complete dependency on God’s grace. Without Him upholding me there go I. How can we find our purpose and life’s calling without a place to rest? The quintessential conversation grows over time as life unfolds before us in a certain steady stream that either brings us death or life. A transcendence beyond time with the knowledge of eternity. Let me leave you with three more practical steps.

1. Don’t stop
2. Keep on
3. Love

We stay to our post and we carry the load letting Love transform us. We have the joys of the stone rolling away and a very bright light bursting upon us. Let us not shrink away but walk toward it. Let it dispel the darkness. All of it in our heart. Where are we not letting the light of love in? What wound of sin needs healing? God asks for surrender for our complete gift just like His sacrifice. We are faithful by the littlest act of love and surrender. Keeping to our daily posts and duties is what makes us holy and open to what God wants to give us. We can be a force to the joy of God and His healing hand or we can be a force of darkness that does not show the end of the story. We can accept Mercy or not. May God’s presence flood you this day and accompany you to deeper trust in this time of uncertainty and change in the Church.