Let’s Dare to be Saints.
The last few days I have been reading over the confessions of St. Augustine and the book Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. They have made me reflect a bit on spiritual warfare.
I think many times the spiritual battles we face are hard to recognize. They disguise themselves as modernly accepted traits: indifference, busyness, exhaustion. Often even extolled, these force us into the belief that we must “find the balance” between our spiritual life and the reality of the day to day world.
This, really, is a lie that many believe in the Church.
Pope Benedict XVI (Papa B16) has something to say about this: “Dare to be glowing saints, in whose eyes and hearts the love of Christ beams and who thus brings light to the world”
Think of your favorite saints. St. Francis, St. Augustine, St. Joan of Arc, St. Padre Pio, whoever comes to mind.
Do you think their eyes and hearts could radiate the love of Christ and bring light to the world if they were just like 50% committed? Like what if they just felt like being holy and pure and sanctified by the Lord half the time?
No. They wouldn’t be the people they are today.
With Christ truly as our core, there simply lies no need to balance. There’s nothing to balance. It’s all or nothing. Total joy and surrender and obedience, or…not. There’s really not a gray area once we really come to realize our calling. His Grace guides us and He so graciously invites us to be set free. We need not worry or dwell on balancing our “crazy lives”. We can simply give them up to His will.
If we worry or dwell on the balancing act it leads to spiritual exhaustion: that which relies simply on the self to work for the Lord. That’s not working for the Lord. That’s idolizing the self and calling it service to the Lord, a lack of humility. Humility is the recognition of truth, and the surrender to the Lord, the source of Truth. It is by Him, with Him, and through Him that all things come to be. And if we can simply recognize that, our so called “crazy busy lives” have incredible direction and purpose.
Many times, at least for me, a challenge in faith is complacency. I stop with just the “okay, my faith is pretty good.” ‘It is easy to fall to the common spiritual battles of indifference, busyness, and exhaustion. But let me sort of explain here.
Indifference- To me, this is just not caring. We hear about something, we learn about something, and we close our hearts to embracing it with the love that Christ shares with us. Indifference is a result of our selfishness. We know that there are people who don’t know Christ, we know that there are starving children in Africa, we know that someone dear to us is suffering….and we just leave it at that. We think about it.
Many times people speculate, analyze, and research, and then they just stop. There’s plenty of statistics about world religion and poverty and hunger and suffering. But the stats are staggering. We like to speculate and analyze and research but we cannot stop there. We must not become indifferent and say, “oh, someone else will take care of it.” or “oh, that’s such a big problem. What can I do?”
Did our glowing saints, did our brothers and sisters in Christ do this? No.
Busyness- This is when we fill our lives up with too much. We join every club and organization and AP course and sport and youth group and facebook page we can. And then we complain that our lives are so stressful and we suddenly lose the crucial time for prayer.
To overcome this spiritual obstacle, one must step back and examine the prayer life they have. Even though sometimes we say, “everything’s good! what should I give up if everything is good?” we must step back and ask what is pleasing to the Lord. It is good to have a full life with activity and service and community. It is when this distracts us from drawing closer to the Lord that it is a problem.
Feel like you don’t have time to pray? Stop watching TV for just a week. Suddenly, instead of wasting away 30 minutes of your life with mindless programs, you can spend a solid amount of time in the presence of your Lord. And I promise you, not only will your live be purpose driven, but the peace and relaxation that comes from being with Christ far exceeds the relaxation of time on the couch.
Exhaustion- This kind of goes with what I was saying above in busyness. Saying “yes” to everything doesn’t make you Holy. It leads you into planning everything and relying on yourself and your smartphone agenda than the Lord. Your focus should be on becoming and showing Christ’s love to others. And if anything—even the “good” stuff— gets in the way of that, it may require discernment.
This isn’t saying “don’t do anything” and just sit around. It’s simply saying to be available. If a friend needs to talk, if something comes up, don’t blame your lack of Love on being tired or hungry or just having a bad day. The eternal Love of the Lord doesn’t come from food or sleep or circumstances—it comes from Christ. And it is our call to holiness to accept and share that love even when it isn’t most convenient.
Anyways, just some thoughts for today. I started writing about this in my journal this morning after chapel, and it really struck me as something I need to evaluate in my life.
Jesus loves you. He loves you so, so much.
Don’t be afraid to question.
Never be afraid to learn more about Christ. Live WTL Ministries is a safe, non judging environment where you can do just that. Send in your questions today, let’s all grow together!
Matt: About Me
Hi, I’m Matthew. I would like to say I’m just a normal guy trying to survive high school, but I would be lying. Truth is I love my family, friends, school, and church. I always thank God for how truly blessed I am, because I truly am. My little brother is the funniest, most awesome kid alive and I love him to death. My parents are here for me 24/7 and have helped me in more ways than they know. My friends never cease to bring a smile to my face when I need it, and they have been here for me through the ups and downs. These are the people I surround myself with, and they are the reason I am who I am, so I guess I should tell you a little bit about myself!
I am 15 years old and I live in the good ole state of Tennessee. I was born in Nashville and shortly after we moved to Michigan, where my brother was then born. After a few years my parents realized how much they loved Tennessee, and ever since I have lived here. My life consists of a delicate, yet crazy, balance of school, sports, music, church, friends, and family. I wake up, go to school, exercise, do my homework, and sleep. Wednesdays and Sundays are church, sports are mixed in depending on the time of year, and family and friends seem to weave in to the whole mix of things. I play guitar and drums when I have time, and sometimes try to pull off a song on the piano. The one time of my day that I look forward to most though, other than church, is the exercise part. I dedicate my free time to working out, training, dieting, and I constantly try to learn new things about health and fitness. I could go on for hours and hours about new studies or the latest in nutrition, but I won’t talk about that on here. The reason I am on here is simple, I’m passionate about my faith.
Like fitness I could go on for hours and hours about my faith, except this time I will. For me 7th and 8th grade were the years I was farthest from God, and I didn’t really know/ care much about my faith. I went to Religious Ed. on Wednesday nights, but that didn’t really help much. When I really turned around was when I joined my church’s Life Teen program. From that point on I have been growing stronger in my faith every day, and I love everything about it. I talk to God during my runs, during my school day, and yes, even during church. I love it when I find God in day to day occurrences, big or small. I don’t want to talk about my faith too much right now, since I will be talking much more about my faith on here. Like I said in the beginning, I am truly blessed to be where I am, and I am blessed to have such a great opportunity to share my faith. I can’t wait to start writing!
Talk to you soon,
Matt
Love Come Alive
Nashville, TN: On Saturday September 24, 2011, LOVE COME ALIVE: A Festival of Music for the
Culture of Life, will be taking place at Rocketown in Nashville at 7:00pm. Partnering with the 40 Days
for Life and produced by Mysterium, LOVE COME ALIVE is a call to the Nashville community to
join together in a united front to support the culture of life. With the help of dedicated, local volunteers
who are using grass-roots marketing to promote the show, event producers intend to pack out the 1,500
person venue for what is promising to be a high-energy, community-centric event.
Performances include the internationally touring, family Cajun band, L’Angelus; sweet piano-pop singer,
Colleen McCarron Nixon; acoustic crooner, Kevin Heider; as well as the best-selling Ignatius Press artist,
Marian Grace. Other special guests include Marie Bellet, Burke Ingraffa, Haylee Mitchell, and cancersurvivor
Marshall Billingsley.
Tickets are $10 in advance from all sponsoring churches and schools (see website for details), $12 online
and $15 at the door. Family packages are also available by contacting mysteriumonline@gmail.com.
Doors open at 6:00pm. Show begins at 7:00pm.
www.LoveComeAlive.com
Did Adam and Eve Have Belly Buttons?
Check out the video review of this great book by Matthew Pinto!
Today, we’re reviewing the book Did Adam and Eve Have Belly Buttons by Matthew J. Pinto. It’s a great book written in Q&A style, and I definitely recommend it!
Here’s the link to purchase the book:
Aquinas and More ($13.99) :http://www.aquinasandmore.com/catholic-books/Did-Adam-Eve-Have-Belly-Buttons/sku/510
Amazon ($11.19): http://www.amazon.com/Did-Adam-Have-Belly-Buttons/dp/096592288X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1313973750&sr=8-1