Try to Avoid Suffering?

“Indeed, the truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more you try to avoid suffering, the more you suffer, because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you, in proportion to your fear of being hurt. The one who does most to avoid suffering is, in the end, the one who suffers the most: and his suffering comes to him from things so little and so trivial that one can say that it is no longer objective at all. It is his own existence, his own being, that is at once the subject and the source of his pain, and his very existence and consciousness is his greatest torture.”
― Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain

Mercy

You can never run farther than Gods Mercy. He is always there to give us what we have not come to deserve, Mercy.

"Because we believe God is infinitely merciful, we do not need to hide our sins. We don’t have to be innocent because we know God is merciful. This is the only way we can understand,for example, how the saints could also think of themselves as great sinners. They could only do that because they had experienced Divine Mercy. "

— Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna, Austria

 

Can you bear this?

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now” [John 16:12].  I wonder if I will ever be ready on this side or if I will ever be able to bear them?

Prayer for the Family

Prayer for the Family
Blessed John Paul II 

Lord God, from you every family in heaven and on earth takes its name.

Father, you are Love and Life.

Through your Son, Jesus Christ, born of woman, and through the Holy Spirit, fountain of divine charity, grant that every family on earth may become for each successive generation a true shrine of life and love.

Grant that your grace may guide the thoughts and actions of husbands and wives for the good of their families and of all the families in the world.

Grant that the young may find in the family solid support for their human dignity and for their growth in truth and love.

Grant that love, strengthened by the grace of the sacrament of
marriage, may prove mightier than all the weakness and trials through which our families sometimes pass.

Through the intercession of the Holy Family of Nazareth,
grant that the Church may fruitfully carry out her worldwide mission in the family and through the family.

Through Christ our Lord, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life
for ever and ever.
Amen.+

Religious Freedom

 I am interrupting my recent analysis of the document "Affliction of Cancer" for what I believe is a serious attack on our religious freedoms.  Below is the letter I wrote to the newspapers in this area.  You know me this would have been longer but I had to keep it to 300 words or less.

Dear Editor and Citizens of these United States:

I am writing to express my deep concern about recent discussions between the Catholic Bishops and the Obama Administration.  As many know the Obama Administration has decided to mandate that Catholic institutions provide contraceptive pills, abortion-producing drugs and sterilization through their insurance companies to their employees.  

We grow in Humility

2. We grow in humility, allowing other people to care for us when we are most sick.

We want so much to be independent in our lives, and we hold onto that independence. We do not like to be dependent on others. We like to think that we are self sufficient. This can lead to a form of pride, that we are willing to help others so many times, but we would reject the help of others. How hard it can be to allow others to help us. As we find ourselves getting sicker or weaker, we become dependent on others around us, to care for us at home, to drive us to the doctor, to do the shopping that needs to be done, to pick up our medicine, and on and on.
Being sick and becoming debilitating can be a curse for some, but a blessing for others, as we can grow in humility, acknowledging not only our need of God but our need for others in our lives. Another blessing is that we come to express our thankfulness and appreciation for what others do for us, God blessing them through us.

I think this is one of the most profound things I learned during the past three years.  I am not independent but dependent on others.

Blessings In Times of Suffering

 The next few posts are going to be my reflection of Bishop John T. Steinbock essay about The Affliction of Cancer.  He wrote this before his death in December of 2010 of cancer.  He wrote it from a Christian perspective.  I will for now concentrate on the section called "The Blessings and Lessons of Cancer.

1. We come to know how much so many care for us and love us.
In our busy lives, we get so involved in so much activity, that sometimes we do not reflect a great deal on the joy of having family and friends. We so easily take for granted those around us. As more and more people express their concern for us and pledge their prayers for us, we begin to realize just how important our family and friends are, as is the Christian community. And, we come to realize all the more how important love is in our lives.