The Deacon Dave & Layperson Lisa Show

Today I hear Cardinal Sarah say love consumes without burning and yet says nothing is the greatest Love. He goes on to say that that same love without words consents. Consent means to give permission or to agree to allowing something to happen or to do something. When we give God permission to enter into our daily lives of struggles and challenges we consent to his will. We don’t have to say anyth...

JP II refers to the Gospel of Suffering. What this means is the Good News of Suffering. As we look at the meaning of suffering in the light of Christ, we understand that it was through the cross that Jesus redeemed the world. From this, we can see the value of suffering. Those who are sick and dying are powerful, like Jesus on the cross powerful. A privileged vocation. An election to something spe...

On Day 75 we talked about noise, on day 77 we talked about sound, yesterday we talked about melody and today is song, and yet the title of the book is “The Power of Silence”. The first time I read the book I thought, okay Cardinal Sarah help me connect the dots? It was only after reading the book for the third time did, I connect the dots. I came to the understanding that the most beautiful song i...

Today Cardinal Sarah relates the melody with incense ascending in silence. Incense makes no noise, but it is obviously present. I am one of those people who loves incense and the smell, to me is all about being at church. When you see the smoke of incense rising, I imagine my prayers being lifted to heaven into the hears and heart of God. As Cardinal Sarah says, “melody for the heart of God.” This...

I feel that this is a continuation for yesterday, yesterday we talked about letting God in. Today I hear Cardinal Sarah say that once we let God in, we then must collaborate with him. Last week we talked about monologue and the one-way conversations we tend to want to have with God and others. I see collaboration as the opposite of monologue. Unless you work completely alone on a desert island, I...

You come one with God when you strive to live your life for the love of God, without expectations. God does not disappoint as humans do. We always have expectations from one another and are disappointed when those expectations are not met. However, when entering in a union with someone else there should be no expectations because it should be out of love that you enter into that union willing the...

I am hearing Cardinal Sarah talk about the fact that if we do not let God penetrate our innermost regions of the soul for me this means my heart, then we can not her him and if we cannot hear him then he cannot get in to transform us. Webster defines penetrate as “successful in forcing something in”. God does not force himself into our hearts. He was there from the day he created us and lives in o...

Today Cardinal Sarah asks the question “How can we express in concrete words a “silent music?” I immediately thought about Angels in heaven but not as a harp like Cardinal Sarah talks about but like church bells. A call to worship or during the Eucharist. The bells telling us it is time to wake up, still our hearts and quiet our minds because something important is happening or going to happen. So...

Jesus experienced immense pressure and despair in the Garden of Gethsemane. He knew everything that was going to happen. His apostles - his friends - were not even able to stay awake with him. He must have felt so alone. Just like us, he prayed to God “if it is possible, let this cup pass from me”, but He was able to surrender it to God, “yet, not as I will, but as you will”.

Today, Cardinal Sarah talks about how we as humans will avoid the battle what will ensue in the face-to-fact encounter with God. Why? Because we think that we will lose our self, our identity if we become silent and sit in silence with God. From my many years on Active Duty in the Marine Corps, the strongest and successful leaders prided themselves in keeping the unit operating in harmony. Confron...

While Jesus was fully divine, he was also fully human. Jesus was like us in ALL things except sin. He came into the world in the most humble way and was totally dependent on his human parents. His experience of human physical needs, human emotions and human suffering allows Him to fully understand our suffering.

Today Cardinal Sarah says that there is no silence in schools and wonders how you can read or even concentrate in all that noise. This reflection made me immediately to think about my daughter. My daughter is an avid reader, wonder where she got that from . From the time she was young she carried multiple books with her everywhere we went, because “you never know when you may have an opportunity t...

God wants to draw us into a deeper and more intimate relationship with Him. While we search for purpose in our lives, our suffering and our service, remembering God’s ultimate purpose for us can help us find meaning in our suffering and all that we do.

Today I hear Cardinal Sarah say that our world if full of noise, night and day is a constant stream of noise and there is no getting away from it. This constant noise can lead to false sense of tranquility. It is like having a one-way conversation with the world, It is talking to you and you have no way of getting a word in edge wise. I have had a one-way conversation with Jesus several occasions,...

The story of Job - a righteous man who lost his family and possessions and then endured extreme physical ailments – can be troubling. However, Job is an example of faithfulness. He never turned away from God. While Job questioned God, his “humility returned”, and he came to realize that God’s ways were beyond his understanding.

What I hear Cardinal Sarah tell me on this day is that if I want to pray, I must withdraw to a remote place wo that I can be alone with the ALONE. Of course he is talking about God..in the silence of my heart. He talks about this will bring us peace and joy however our self-centeredness prevents us from this. Asceticism means severe self-indulgence and avoidance of all forms of self-indulgence, wh...

Often the purpose of our suffering remains a mystery to us. Jesus showed us the power of divine love and how powerful suffering can be. As Richard Rohr said, let our wounds become sacred wounds. It was said of St John Paul II that “he found the strength to transform his righteous rage into a fiery, divine love. The pain he encountered opened an immense spiritual depth in him.” His strength was Jes...

Cardinal Sarah says that “This is the silence of eternity, the union of the soul with God.” First thing that came to mind was the mansion mentioned in John chapter 14 and how that mansion could me my heart. The room that can, should be filled with God but isn’t always. Being in union with God means being one with God and aligning my will with his, regardless of my expectations. We become one with...

As humans we have a need to understand the meaning of suffering. Knowing there is a purpose makes it a bit easier to deal with suffering. Mary may not have known the exact purpose for her son’s suffering, but she was able to trust God and knew He had a purpose for it. While most answers to the meaning of suffering are inadequate, St John Paul II encourages us to look to Jesus. “Divine love is the...