Devotion and Prayer to St. Michael
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Introduction
The purpose of seizing the moment is to grow closer to God and improve your life.
Growing closer to God and improving your life can result in benefits to your health, relationships, and work.
Being a better person is accomplished by seizing the moment.
Knowledge is a crucial part of seizing the moment. Knowledge involves awareness of nature and acceptance of reality.
However, knowledge by itself, cannot lead you to seizing the moment and success with God.
In order to seize the moment and have success with God, you will need to understand, meet, and then seize the moment.
Making decisions and becoming holy are the means to growing closer to God and improving your life.
Understanding, Meeting, and Seizing the Moment
Understanding the Moment
The key to understanding the moment is to understand the magnitude of the moment.
It is helpful to understand the persons and places involved in the moment. Using the effects on the persons and places involved in the moment is a helpful frame.
Understanding precedes action.
Helpful questions to ask:
· What is at stake?
· What is the risk and reward?
· What are the costs and benefits?
Meeting the Moment
The key to meeting the moment is to know what is occurring in the moment.
The process of meeting the moment has already begun in the intellect with understanding. Once understanding is established, the person can enter into the moment and discover the moment.
Entering into the moment is akin to searching for wisdom. Wisdom is the personal quality of possessing knowledge and good judgement (based on Oxford Languages dictionary definition).
For a follower of Christ, wisdom is perfect knowledge that allows the person to obey God (Fr. John Hardon via Catholic Culture).
Discovering the moment is akin to discernment. “The verb to discern comes from the Latin verb discernere, which means to separate, to distinguish accurately one object from another.” (Pierre Wolff, pg. 3.)
Discernment “refers to the process of evaluating available options and then making a decision.” (John T. Ford, pg. 62.)
Seizing the Moment
Having life in God is accomplished through seizing the moment.
The person must conform their will to the truth of Jesus Christ to have life with God.
The demands for success will have already been established. There is a moment of truth in which the person embraces or misses the moment.
Embracing the moment leads to success and victory. Missing the moment leads to failure and defeat.
Life in God is a reality that is not open to negotiation. As Saint James tells us, faith without works is dead (Jas 2: 14-17).
Our faith must lead to life. As Jesus tells us in the Good Shepherd discourse: “I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10.)
Conclusion
God always provides the grace to do his will. It is up to us to pay attention.
We either accept his will or reject it. It really is as simple as that.
We are all on a journey to heaven, to our paradise.
What we decide on earth will matter at our judgment and in heaven.
We should take our lives seriously by making a real effort to live in the moment with God.
It is through understanding, meeting, and seizing the moment that we can make a real effort to live in the moment with God.
God is our only way to peace and happiness.
References
Fr. John Hardon. Modern Catholic Dictionary. Made available via Catholic Culture. Copyright: Eternal Life. Last accessed 07/20/2025. Available at https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/dictionary/index.cfm?id=37197#:~:text=Wisdom%20means%20knowledge%20that%20is,the%20revelation%20of%20the%20Trinity .
John T. Ford. Glossary of Theological Terms. 2006. St. Mary’s Press. Christian Brothers Publications, Minnesota.
New American Bible. Revised edition. Copyright 2010, Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. Last accessed 07/20/2025 from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops website: http://www.usccb.org/bible/index.cfm . See permissions for full citation.
Pierre Wolff. Discernment: The Art of Choosing Well. Revised Edition, 2003. Liguori/Triumph. Liguori, Missouri.
Wisdom. Definition. Oxford Languages. Dictionary generated by Microsoft Bing search engine. Last accessed 07/20/2025. Available here.
Stephen Steiniger is a Catholic who is alive in the love of Christ. He desires all who read his writings to benefit in their relationship with Christ. He enjoys religion, politics, and comedy. Stephen possesses an undergraduate and graduate degree from Bowling Green State University. He lives on planet earth with the rest of the human race. Stephen believes this is a good About the Author profile.
