Tools ‹ Mind of a Mendicant Marine — WordPress

Tools ‹ Mind of a Mendicant Marine — WordPress.

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Falling Short

Even during the wonderful season of Easter; even as we enjoy living in the Light of the Resurrected Lord – we may find ourselves facing that we are still sinners. Yeah during Lent, we spent 40 long days of anguishing over our sinfulness, asking for forgiveness, making amends with those we’ve hurt, doing penance to discipline ourselves … BUT … NOW we are supposed to be “above” all that – Christ rose from the dead and conquered sin. We are supposed to be living in the power of the Risen Christ, and BAM we fall short – a venial sin here, a couple missed prayer times there, and we allow ourselves to be disillusioned – the evil one plays his twisted little games and gets us all depressed and down on ourselves.

I know Lent is over but we are still human – we make mistakes. Never forget that God still loves us and forgives our sins – it wasn’t a “one-time” forgiveness. Confess your sins, Say you’re sorry, Do your penance, and … move on. Falling short is just God’s reminder to us that we are human, we need to constantly be humble, be vigiliant, and ask God for His help each day. Just as forgiveness is not a “one shot” deal, following Christ is not a “one shot” decision – we need to work on it everyday; we need to build our relationship with Christ, we need to rely on His help and accept it with all humility. So we fall short – who cares? Get back up again and keep following the Way, “one day at a time” … sometimes even “one moment at a time.” Even Christ fell as he was carrying the Cross; we too, must keep going even when we falter!

May the Peace of Christ be yours! -jdp

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What is Contemplation?

Greetings all, may the Peace of Christ be yours! I’ve been re-reading Thomas Merton’s New Seeds of Contemplation, probably for the fourth or fifth time since the mid-1980’s. It always seems to reveal something new with each reading…maybe it’s where I am in my journey at the time of each reading? Maybe it’s words are alive, as is Scripture, since it constantly reveals something about “The Word” – Jesus? Maybe the book reveals nothing, but it is the actual practice of Contemplation that reveals God in a way beyond reason, beyond intellect, beyond knowing, beyond unknowing, where we discover deep inside ourselves – our ‘true self,’ which is where God touches each of us and dwells there with us. Ultimately, we can not get there by our own doing or our own practice…this so-called practice or being with God, is actually a gift from God, where He calls out to each of us without voice; He is revealed to us without our sensing; He is known without our knowing; His Spirit touches our spirit where time stands still, yet our real self is found, life is real and our yearning is quenched.

Merton calls Contemplation “the highest expression of man’s intellectual and spiritual life. It is life itself, fully awake, fully active, fully aware that it is alive. It is spiritual wonder. It is spontaneous awe at the sacredness of life, of being. It is gratitude for life, for awareness and for being. It is a vivid realization of the fact that life and being in us proceed from an invisible, transcendent and infinitely abundant Source. And is awareness of the reality of that Source.”

Oh that we could put aside the busyness of ‘everyday’ life and spend more time in the quiet, more quality time, if you will, with God – our Creator, our Father, our Source, our Center of real life and our true selves, not the false life be spend busying ourselves each day with inconsequential concerns! Spending more time with our God – making that relationship better, will ultimately make all our relationships better, since God is Love. Our lives should be spent loving God, and loving our neighbor. Life is about relationships not about making money, storing up ‘toys,’ and becoming ‘successful’ in our jobs. At the end, our Lord won’t ask us how successful we were at work or how much money we earned…he will simply ask how we loved our neighbor! Let’s renew our hearts and minds. Let’s give our whole selves to God today…only then, will we find our true selves and be able to live genuine lives! -jdp

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