#eucharist – Women Who Walk By Faith

Crazy in love…with Jesus!

“Crazy in love with Jesus!”

“Crazy in love with Jesus,” a message one of my awesome sister’s in Christ sent me. I think that’s the best crazy comment I have ever received. If I’m going to be called crazy, YEP, I want to be CRAZY in LOVE with JESUS.

What about you? Are you CRAZY IN LOVE WITH JESUS?

I can’t think of any better Valentine than Jesus. I can’t think of anyone who has ever loved me more.

When I think about His love, I know I am precious in His eyes. He desires my heart completely and pours out His love, compassion, mercy and protection daily just for me. He thinks I’m perfect just the way I am, with all my flaws and blemishes. I am valued more than gold and jewels. I am beautiful to Him, a perfect flower, created just for Him. How could I not give my heart completely to Him?

red heart on a old opened book ii — Photo by Kaboompics .com on Pexels.com

Ironically Valentine’s day is the feast day of St. Valentine who was brutally beaten to death for defying the Roman Emperor by marrying couples. Interesting that the day we celebrate love around the world is a feast day of a saint who was martyred in the name of love. Similar to the story of my Valentine, Jesus, who was brutally beaten and crucified out of love for me and for you. It’s His love I want to receive this Valentine’s day. Because God is present in all things in my life, I receive this love in scripture, in my children, my friends and family, in nature – breathing in the fresh air and observing the birds of the air.

God has promised me a greater love story in my life. The only thing He asks of me is to allow Him to fill every crevice of my heart, for me to “be satisfied” in Him. This Valentine’s day, I am giving Him my heart, the ultimate Valentine card and my time will be spent adoring Him, soaking in His very presence.

As you peer into the eyes of your loved one on Valentine’s Day, remember that each of us reflect the love of Christ. Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you and may you each be filled with the love of your HEAVENLY FATHER and be embraced in the arms of JESUS.

The next time you think of CRAZY, ask yourself am I CRAZY IN LOVE WITH JESUS? If your answer is YES, then you are right on target with the best kind of crazy.

Broken and glued…

Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak and as many as touched it were healed. Mark 6:55-56

Have you ever felt broken? Or perhaps even damaged goods? Something or someone hurt you in a way that you feel has impacted you in some way? It can be something that happened 20 or 30 years ago, that is still affecting a small part of who you are today.

There’s hope!

I was reading the Gospel reading this morning from Mark 6:53-56. Wherever Jesus was, people were desperate for healing and wanted so bad to just touch the tassel of His cloak because they knew that they would be healed. When Jesus walked the earth in human flesh, people saw the miracles of healing. Today, many lose hope because sometimes these miracles aren’t as apparent.

Is it their faith that is being tested or is it that they completely lack faith?

We are each in different places in our spiritual journey and I firmly believe that God meets each of us wherever we are. I also believe He brings people in our lives and that Jesus is alive in each of us. Through us, through our actions and our prayers, He delivers healing power. Many times, it’s subtle and takes time. In some cases, we may not see the healing we are expecting, especially when the underlying healing is within the person’s soul. When it comes to spiritual brokenness, matters of the heart and the mind, it is our brothers and sisters and our relationship with Christ, our prayer, our openness to see and feel His healing power sweep through us that repairs that brokenness, preparing us for something much greater.

There have been many moments where I have felt I was too broken from things in my past, that I was damaged goods and could not move on when it comes to matters of the heart. Over the last several years, I have surrounded myself with wise, spiritual sisters and brothers. They have helped me to grow in my spiritual life and to see beyond my pain. They have showed me how much life God brings amid the suffering. Most of all they have helped me to see God’s promise of love, His love letter to me. The weeds in my garden were there for a reason. Although they needed to be pruned, they served a purpose. Their purpose was not to keep me in the brokenness of my life but to move me beyond it. They were there to show me how to embrace life, a life full of beauty, full of life giving flowers. Although there are moments I still go back to my past and begin to weep for that woman that endured the heartache, I draw back to the present and rejoice with the woman that is thankful for God for all the brokenness throughout her life. It is in my pain and suffering throughout my life that I have flourished into the beautiful flower that God has created me to be. It is in His promises that I look forward to life from this present moment. My heart has found a new purpose and it has been repaired through the healing power of my savior. Although I have not touched the tassel from His cloak, I have received Him – body, blood, soul and divinity.

My dear friends, we need to “be sober and vigilant. Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. (1 Peter 5:8)”. The enemy is looking for opportunities to knock us down and keep us down. This is what happens when we feel broken and damaged. I love the image of a piece of pottery that has been broken in pieces and then glued back together and repurposed for something even greater. This is how we defeat the enemy. We allow ourselves to be glued back together through the gifts of our faith and the gifts of each other.

If you are that person who feels broken or damaged, I invite you to find a sister or brother grounded in their faith to talk to, to bring the healing power of Christ to you. If you are not that person feeling broken or damaged, I invite you to look around you, there is someone who needs you to bring Christ’s healing power to them. Let them touch the tassel of your heart with their story so that you can be Christ like to them.

Life’s greatest sustenance

What sustains you in life, through your struggles, illness, pain? How do you find peace in knowing this life is not permanent?

Today, as I sat in the infusion room waiting for my IV of ferritin, I peered around the room. Surrounded by patients receiving treatment for cancer or other disorders, my heart poured out to these men and women. I visit this room twice every two years and the sadness I feel is always the same, yet part of me finds thanksgiving for the many blessings in my own life, especially my own hardships and struggles. Perhaps a bit of guilt sweeps over me knowing I’m only here to treat one of the two forms of anemia I battle that mainly results in exhaustion and tiredness with occasional feelings of faintness.

My disorder is mild and manageable in my daily life. As I think about these patients and how many or all are fighting for their life, I ponder my own peace and life sustainability. Often I’ve thought about facing the last moments of my life when that time comes – will I be afraid or at peace. Over the past few years when I contemplate this, I feel at peace knowing where I am in my faith journey and that because of it when that day comes I am on my way to a place that is beyond my own imagination. I love this simple quote by Pope Pius X. It’s simple yet it speaks volumes.

“Holy Communion is the shortest and safest way to Heaven”.

We can look at this quote from two perspectives.

Receiving the Eucharist is like Heaven on earth. One may ask WHY? After receiving the Eucharist, we truly walk with Jesus within us. He can only take that place if we are in the state of Grace, meaning our souls are clean and welcome to receiving Him. Isn’t that what Heaven will be like? A state of grace walking with Jesus….
The second perspective is that if we are receiving Jesus then hopefully we are also following Him and striving for holiness as God desires us to. In this case, it also is the shortest path to Heaven because it leads us straight there.

The Eucharist is the center of my faith and my journey and it is in the Body and the Blood of Christ that I am strengthened and sustained in all life throws at me. Some may not truly understand what is contained in this bread and wine present in a Catholic Mass. If not, I challenge you to watch the link below on the miracle of the Eucharist at Buenos Aires. May your eyes and your heart be open to Jesus’ true presence in the Eucharist. Blessings to each of you!

A small box and a big God

“If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all, how will he not also give us everything else along with him?” Romans 8:31

Have you ever prayed for something and felt God was ignoring you and so you begin to take control and force the outcome to fit your prayer request? If so, how did it turn out in the end?

I think sometimes just as in Natalie Grant’s song “King of the World,” we “try to take life back right out of the hands of the king of the world.” We forget how big God really is and how small we are. As a result we put God in a box that we design.

adult birthday birthday gift box — Photo by Porapak Apichodilok on Pexels.com

Many years ago, I remember putting in for a position that would have been a promotion. I really thought I was the best candidate for the job. Hands down, I was going to get the job. To my amazement and a kick in my pride, I was turned down for the position. I remember being upset, knocked down, even a little embarrassed that I didn’t get the job. A year or so later, another position became available that would lead me to a higher promotion as well as provide the perfect work/life balance I needed. Reflecting back, I realized that the job I wanted would not fit in with work/life balance I would need later in life. As I look back on this very example, I realize how big God really is and how small I made Him when I was turned down for the first position.

Circumstances don’t happen by chance. God allows them or God wills them. When they are allowed, He will pick us up and carry us through it. When He wills it, it will be better than we would have ever imagined, definitely better than our own plans.

I humor myself sometimes when I start to think how many years I’ve been single. This is definitely a part of my life I have learned to put in God’s hands and every time I start to think about it, God reminds me of all the things He has been placing in my path that I could not do if I were not single. He also reminds me that His love sustains me and is enough every time I go to receive Jesus in the Eucharist and my eyes begin to weep because of the love He pours in me.

Just as in Romans 8:31, God gives me and you everything we need at each given moment, even His Son. It’s a great reminder for each of us that He is the “king of the world.” How can we put Him in a box based on our criteria? How can we draw lines and tell Him that He has to stay between those lines? Why do we think we can take control from the God who knows all, the God who is “for us,” the God “who did not spare His own Son but handed Him over for us?”

I think the answer is found in our human trust experiences. Over the years, through our human relationships, we learn to not trust because of circumstances that hurt us in relationships. I think this affects our trust in God as well. When we lack trust in God, we want to take control because we can only trust ourselves to deliver the outcome we expect.

Trusting God seems to be one of the hardest things to do, yet it’s in this trust that makes life simpler, easier, more joyful and peaceful. Look at your life circumstances in your past, when the thing that you thought was best for you fell apart and something better came up – was that God’s hands? When you went through suffering and came out of it more alive and joyful – was that God’s hands?

Think about how life would be if we allowed God to be the “KING OF THE WORLD” in all our life circumstances.

How much do I love thee?

“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love. In this way the love of God was revealed to us; God sent his only-begotten Son into the world so that we might have life through him. In this is love; not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.” 1 John 4:7-10

Have you told yourself you love you lately? If not, take a moment and do so. And then take a moment and ask God how much He loves you? How did He respond? Did you find the answer unexpected? What about when you told yourself you loved you? Did you find that difficult?

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that “the desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for: The dignity of man rests above all on the fact that he is called to communion with God. This invitation to converse with God is addressed to man as soon as he comes into being. For if man exists it is because God has created him through love, and through love continues to hold him in existence. He cannot live fully according to truth unless he freely acknowledges that love and entrusts himself to his creator.”

Love seems so natural and so simple yet we struggle with it. We probably struggle with loving ourselves more than anything.

WHY?

I think we are the hardest critics of ourselves. We see every fault, every failure. We know every hurt, every negative word said to us. I think these things aid us in the inability to truly love ourselves, to truly love the person God created in us. We fail to see the person God sees in us because of the awesome critics we are. So if you truly listened to God once you asked Him how much He loved you, I’m sure you received a very different answer than you expected. Sometimes, we just don’t have the capacity and the ability to see how unconditional God’s love is. It is a hard thing to grasp because of our sin and what we see within us.

I want to share a personal story of a young woman who knew God, yet didn’t have a friendship with Him. She had not allowed Him to companion with her for many years throughout her life. Her vision of God was as a disciplinary, one who saw her faults and was displeased with her. One day, she found herself lost. She looked up to the Heavens and began to pray. As the days went by, she began to notice this growing desire for something. She began to read books about God and her faith. As she read and as she went to Mass, her heart began to desire more. As the “bread of life” was raised before her eyes, she felt this ache in her heart. When she approached the Eucharist, she felt this grave anticipation and hunger as her heart began to beat faster. She had received Holy Communion for years and had not felt this deep desire to consume the Host of her Lord. As she consumed it and drink the blood of Christ, she felt this warmth consume her and immediately a tear fell from her cheek. In that instant she realized the love that her Heavenly Father had for her. Every Mass thereafter, she longed to receive Jesus, to feel herself being transformed through the love He has for her in the sacrifice He made for her and does each time she goes to Mass. This desire continued to grow throughout the days, the weeks and months. She found herself almost daily at the foot of the Host, soaking in the very presence of Jesus in Adoration. His comforting embrace in her sorrows of her days were her “refuge and fortress.” She couldn’t wait to rush off to go have lunch with Him, to soak in His love that radiated in the silence of her heart when she was before Him in the chapel. This love grew beyond what she could ever have imagined. He was present when she was weak, when she needed comfort from her tears. He gave her strength to endure the days ahead and courage to follow Him. He protected her and calmed her fears and lifted her up on eagles wings to fly over the sea of despair into the heights of the mountains. As she saw all that He was doing in her heart and in her life, she began to place her trust in Him. Her life, through suffering, flourished in love as she had found her first true love and entrusted her life into His hands. She had discovered a loving friendship that had been pulling her from the day she was born that would fulfill her greatest desire of communion with Him into an unimaginable happiness – through her joy and pain. She knew this flame of love would never burn out. It may be a little dim at times but will always be refueled through the thirst and hunger that is always fulfilled in the love of her Heavenly Father and the sacrifice of her Lord as she receives the grace from the “bread of life” and “the fruit of the vine.”

God meets us where we are and when we are open and ready to receiving Him. Sometimes that time is in the midst of a trial in our lives. When that time comes, a true love story is sprouted. It is an unimaginable love that grows beyond anything you have experienced. If you haven’t opened your arms to receive the love God is waiting to share with you, today may not be a bad day to start. Blessings always.

Find yourself in the minefields often?

“Draw your strength from the Lord and from his mighty power. Put on the armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm against the tactics of the devil. For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens. Therefore, put on the armor of God, that you may be able to resist on the evil day and, having done everything, to hold your ground. So stand fast with your loins girded in truth, clothed with righteousness as a breastplate, and your feet shod in readiness for the gospel of peace. In all circumstances, hold faith as a shield, to quench all [the] flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Ephesians 6:10-17

Ever feel like you are at war? Fighting a battle you feel you can’t win? Do your battles tend to be with people?

I work in an environment that is primarily men. In fact, I spend about 95% of my time around men at work. Often times they humor me with their comments. One day, we were sitting talking and they began to laugh and started describing images of me putting war paint on under my eyes. I often do go to battle for these men as they are my direct reports and as their leader, I do my best to be their voice. Although I thought it a funny image, I later began to reflect on that image of putting on war paint to go to battle and what do I put on to fight my personal battles in my life. I’m not sure war paint is the answer. Seriously, what purpose would that solve if you weren’t using it to camouflage yourself as you try to sneak up on the enemy?

Almost every day, we are faced with battles in our lives. Sometimes those battles start the minute we open our eyes until the time we go to bed. So how do we best fight these battles? In Ephesians 6:10-17, I think we are given the perfect recipe for fighting the war – putting on the armor of God. We may not see that armor as being effective if we don’t realize that our battle is not with the person beside us, but our fight is “with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens.” Until we realize that key point, we talk until we are blue in the face, shout as loud as we can, resist doing kind things, and in some cases retreat in silence and solitude. The flesh and blood placed in front of you, the one you are struggling with is not your enemy. In fact, God placed that person in your life or allowed that person in your life for some reason. I guarantee that.

When I begin to unpack Ephesians 6:10-17, the first thing I notice in verse 10 – “Draw your strength from the Lord.” That first verse tells me that the key to putting on the armor is to first trust God in your weakness and let Him be your strength. In verse 14, St Paul tells us to gird our loins in truth, to prepare and strengthen ourselves in God. He also tell us to be clothed with righteousness as a breastplate. In the book of Wisdom 5:16 it says that God will “shelter [the righteous] with His right hand and protect them with His arm.” So put your armor on, prepare yourself with God’s strength, His truth and allow Him to protect you by wrapping His arms around you. In verse 16, St Paul tells us to hold our faith as a shield, protecting us from the arrows. When it feels like your struggles are piercing you and the arrows are coming from every direction, hold on to your faith – trust in your Heavenly Father that all things work for His good. Finally in verse 17, he tells us to protect our heads with the salvation delivered by our Lord and use the Word of God as our weapon. Being Catholic, I look upon that last verse twofold. My sword, is both the Word found in the Bible and the Word made flesh found in the Eucharist, the body and blood of Jesus through His death, our salvation.

black steel helmet near black and gray handle sword — Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

What I find in Ephesians 6 is that when I place my trust in God, allowing His strength to prevail in my weakness and Him to cover me in His arms, my faith burns like a fiery shield as I walk through the battle with the body and blood of my Lord and the love letter of my Heavenly Father lighting the darkness as I trod the battlefield of my life. Our battles will be numerous and the field will be treacherous, but if we fight with the right armor and the right weapon, we will always be victorious. Our God is a good God and His purpose in our lives is far beyond the battlefield. The battlefield is where He strengthens us because it is His strength that we draw on to win the wars in our lives. Next time you find yourself in the minefields, put on the “armor of God” and pick of the “sword of the Spirit.”

Is your deepest desire a communal relationship with God?

“…our belonging to God, our deep bond with him, a relationship that gives meaning to our whole life and keeps us resolute, in communion with him, even during the most difficult and troubled moments” Pope Francis

What is your deepest desire? Is it a communal relationship with God? These are both good questions to ponder and reflect on today as you read the Gospel of John, chapter 6.

Todays Gospel reading is one of my favorites. In fact the series of the Gospel of John, chapter 6, has always been my favorite series at Mass. I think the reason is that over the years, I have realized the true meaning of the Eucharist in my life. It is the “communion with Him”. Before receiving the Eucharist, my heart desires so greatly to be consumed by Jesus as I consume His body and blood and when I receive the Eucharist at Mass, I receive this gift of Jesus’ presence within me that is like no other.

Today at Mass, something happened that brought a deeper meaning to me in the blessings and healing of the Eucharist and the communion with God. Just before Mass, I was reading The Better Part which is reflections on the Gospel. In The Better Part, Christ as friend, I had read

“You want more out of your life; I do too. I am what you’re looking for. Know me better; listen to me; trust me more.”

Today, before the consecration of the bread and wine, I heard this small voice whisper to me to offer up this Mass for my ex-husband. A little resistant at first, I remember thinking that is a lot to ask and not so easy today. After recalling what I had read before Mass, I knew that when the body and blood were raised up, I was to offer the Mass up for my ex-husband. I was to listen to that inner voice and trust that Jesus knew me better and knew what I needed today. So, I offered the Mass up for my ex. After receiving communion, when I went back to my pew to pray, I felt a release as tears cleansed me while I prayed.

I wanted to share this because I think this is an example of desiring and embracing a communal relationship with God. It’s through the Eucharist that the communal bond – as Father mentioned today – with Jesus as the wedding ring, a union between man and God takes place.

Jesus says in the Gospel today,

“I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.” John 6:35

If you do not believe or have trouble believing that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist, read the Gospel of John, chapter 6 carefully and let the words soak in – ask the Holy Spirit to guide you as you read this beautiful reading. He came to earth to not only die for us but to give us life and fulfill us by being present with us in this beautiful Sacrament.