Blessed are the merciful...

(a reflection on Mt 5:7)

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
God has created each and every person all over the world: in His image.
Because we know this to be true, then how can we keep from entering into an accepting relationship with each and every person around the world
since we are one family in God (our Creator)?

We may not come to personally know every person around the world,
in this life. But when we connect with each person that God sends to us
in our daily living, and feel their joy, their sadness,
their pain, their forgiveness.
Then we learn to be joined in sorrow to the suffering of others...
We can only learn to be merciful when we cling to God's mercy for us
in our constant weakness.

Remember this: What we are to others, God will be to us.

Prayer: God of goodness and mercy, enlarge my heart
as You fill it with your merciful love.
Let the miracle of Your mercy shine through me
for Your honor and glory. Amen.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for holiness...

...for they will have their fill (a reflection on Mt 5:6)
Those who hunger and thirst for holiness are aware of their own lowliness.
They know how much they need Christ in their lives
to draw abundantly from this fountain of divine grace.
On the other hand, those who enjoy too much of the present things
and think of themselves as comfortably pious
will not grow in holiness.

It is better and necessary to be always in want of more of God
for God is love.
This love is forever drawing us closer and closer
to the depths of the living God.
When we thirst for holiness it is not because we wish to feel more holy
(this is vanity of vanities - per the great saints)...
We wish to grow in holiness because we want Christ
to be able to fulfill God's designs fully, in us.
Our hunger and thirst will then be satisfied
when we let God be God in our lives.
After all, Christ Himself said to us: "I am the bread of life;
he who comes to me shall not hunger
and he who believes in me shall not thirst." (John 6:35)

Sorrow is Worth the Price

In times of sorrow, I can be thankful for the fact that I have loved and been loved, thankful, in fact, for the ability to grieve because grief witnesses to love.

— from St. Anthony Messenger magazine

Endless Love

God is love.

The depth of His love
never ends...
The gift of love
never dies...
Know for certain
that death
does not end our relationships
with all those we love.
We will go on loving each other
beyond time and telling.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land

(a reflection on Mt 5:5 and Philippians 2:5-7)

Who are the meek? How do we become meek?
The meek are those who yield before outbursts of wickedness and overcome evil with good just as Christ shows us. Though a meek and humble person is humiliated; their peace of heart is not disturbed, because they do not live by the world - their life depends solely on God and God's Divine Providence.

Are we meek and humble of heart, then?
Do we wish to be like Christ?
"For though Christ Jesus was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men..." Can we follow in the likeness of our model, Christ? Do we dare?
When the world we live in says to the contrary?
Though the meek may be deprived or disenfranshised
by selfish men of this world;
because they know God is always with them through... Christ, they can enjoy and even 'possess' the earth which belongs to Christ. And, this is the only land that is worth inheriting for all eternity.
We are called to follow Christ in the depths of our being. The choice to follow Christ is ours to make...But we need to ask for the graces needed to accept this calling.