Come Away By Yourselves

The goodness of God should find an appropriate response in our desire for him.  Our yearning for God can get covered up at times by other desires.  Only by contemplating God regularly does our thirst for him grow.  Loving God blissfully in heaven is the fruit of loving him more and more in this life.  

Contemplating the great multitude of saints in heaven, we realize the power of God to change and purify us.  From heaven the saints speak to us of the primacy God should have in our lives.  The purification necessary to be in heaven comes from our acceptance of the cross.  

Contemplative prayer is a great gift from God.  The saints teach us that it brings many blessings with it and even holiness itself.  This gift must be asked for and desired, however, and we must do what we can to foster a truly contemplative lifestyle.  

God's omnipotence is a key aspect of our Faith in Him.  God's infinite power helps explain the other mysteries of our Faith and is revealed especially in the Incarnation by the Archangel Gabriel.  The name "Gabriel" signifies "the strength of God."  Faith truly unlocks God's power on our behalf.   God''s power, however, is not at the mercy of our capric...

"This is the will of God for you, your sanctification."  With these words, St. Paul reveals to us the great potential of our Christian life.  St. Josemaria was inspired by God to remind us of this universal vocation.  We should always be confident about taking the next step in our spiritual life.  It is something that God always wants for us.  Holiness is  growth in faith, hope, and char...

After the Rich Young Man goes away sad, Jesus tells his disciples twice that it will be difficult for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God.  The possession of riches comes with the danger of relying on them too much, seeking our happiness in them, falling into a kind of practical idolatry.  The solution to this is detachment or poverty of spirit.   Detachment frees our hearts to love God and other...

Jesus tells us about two sons.  One does his father's will after saying he wouldn't.  The other says yes to his father but promptly disobeys him.  Jesus, our model, does both: he says yes to the Father's plan and then carries it out.  Loving God's will is essential to our Christian life.  It is Jesus's sole motive and he is our sole model.  St. Josemaria also greatly empha...

This Sunday's Gospel portrays God as a generous employer of many workers.  What would it mean to work for God?  Are we grateful for the work and people God has entrusted us with in our Christian life?

Like the apostles themselves, the life of the Christian is a call to be close to Jesus and to go out and spread the Good News.  Holiness and apostolate are two sides to the same divine vocation.   To be an apostle, however, we have to confront various obstacles which would keep us from sharing Christ with others. 

On September 8th we celebrate the Feast of The Nativity of Our Lady.  THis is an opportunity to contemplate her humility and her radical response to God. 

St. Josemaria described the potential of lay holiness in an interesting way.  He said all Christians can and should be "contemplatives in the middle of the world."  Holy Scripture and Church teaching reaffirm this high ideal.  The Christian is intimately united, indeed identified, with Christ himself.  

Sacred Scripture teaches us some clear lessons about Christ's suffering.  His passion was redemptive and meaningful.  It was freely chosen and accepted.  It was all an act of divine and human love for us and for the Father.  As Christians, Christ invites us to give the same meaning to our sufferings.  This invitation is a tremendous act of confidence in us and in our capacity to love as he di...

The Assumption of Mary is a very special Feast in the Church.  To gaze on Our Lady in Heaven is to contemplate something very beautiful and important.  The marvel of her glorification speaks to us of the surpassing beauty of goodness and holiness as such.  Our Mother's destiny in heaven and her eternal glorification is a revelation of our own future as Christians called to holiness and everla...

Gratitude is a very important Christian disposition.  God appreciates gratitude, as we all do.  One of the four basic acts of prayer, gratitude should be a constant state of mind and heart.  In addition to pleasing God, it also brings the soul joy and peace.  

This Sunday's readings show as God as a generous provider.  In the book of Isaiah, God invites the people to come to him for their food and drink.  In the Gospel, Jesus feeds the crowds with the miraculous multiplication of loaves and fish.  God's providence is something we are called to place great trust in, especially when times are hard. 

"He who loves his life will lose it, he who loses his life for my sake will find it."  Finding our true life, and our true selves, means handing ourselves over to Christ.  Losing our lives for the sake of Christ is a transformative union with him.  This takes work and an acceptance of suffering.  There is no resurrection of ourselves in Christ without the cross. https://comeawaybyyoursel...

Jesus doesn't just have compassion on others, he discovers motives for his compassion.  Understanding others is an essential ingredient in loving them.  This takes humility, patience, and the rejection of an evil, critical spirit.  

Jesus' victory over sin is a great cause of joy in heaven and on earth.  This victory only happens, however, insofar as sin is recognized and repented of.  Paradoxically, therefore, the sorrow of contrition for our sins is simultaneously a great motive for joy at our reconciliation with God.  Sorrow for sin lets Jesus' victory be won in us and thus makes of us fertile grounds for joy and...

Sin and evil are real.  They are not playing games.  To defeat them and be disciples of Christ, we need to take our Christian life very seriously.  This takes resolute, decisive choices and clear thinking about good and evil, virtue and vice, love and betrayal.  

Jesus's presence in the Blessed Sacrament affords us a wonderful opportunity.  Just as we spend time with friends and loved ones just to be with them, our mental prayer is an occasion of simply being present with Jesus.  Jesus did this during his earthly life with various groups and individuals.  They cherished these days and hours alone with their Friend, Lord, and Teacher. We can do the sam...

This Sunday's readings remind us of so many important realities.  We are God's people and precious to him.  He has loved us in our sinfulness, before we merited any goodwill on his behalf.  We are an apostolic Church chosen by name and invested with power to do good and proclaim the Gospel.  Our ordinary lives are actually quite extraordinary!

The Sacred Heart of Jesus is more than a symbol.  Jesus truly loves us with his heart.  This love is fully human: emotional, warm, tender, encouraging.  This love is fully divine: all powerful, infinite, eternal.   To appreciate this love we need to live in it and pray about it.  Let's "enter into the Sacred Heart of Jesus," as saints and Popes alike have encouraged us.  There we fi...

On the Feast of Corpus Christi the Church turns her heart to Jesus's real presence in the Blessed Sacrament.   A marvel of love, in the Eucharist the infinite enters the finite, the Creator his creation and the invisible the visible real.  Adoration, devotion, and gratitude should mark our response to this great mystery of our Faith. 

The Bible often encourages us to a silent, receptive stance before God's reality and goodness.  This kind of prayer takes recollection or composure of heart, which in turn requires some trust in God.  Our distaste for quiet prayer can be rooted in an unwillingness to cede control or a fear of the changes it might provoke in us.  Jesus's advice to the busy Martha is pertinent for all time...

The Holy Spirit is God's gift to us.  The Spirit dwells within each one of us in the state of grace.   We should ask him for help and rely on his presence especially to live the virtue of charity.  The fruits of the Spirit are the indications of his activity in our life.