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In my exhaustion, I choose to completely  let go and let God . In purposeful trust, I choose to finally  let go and let God . In the gift of faith, I excitedly  let go and let God . I choose to see and believe that God is for me—and if God is for me, who can be against me? I choose to understand and know that God is my friend—and if God is my friend, who can be my enemy? I choose to eagerly accept that God has a plan for my life—and if God has a plan for my life,  why would I not let go and let God? Cheryl Dickow www.BezalelBooks.com Picture: ©   Luiba Tandit   | Dreamstime.com

NOTE: To understand this posting, you have to read Fearless (Part 1) which you can read.. .HERE Sometime after my first experience as written about in Fearless (Part 1), I was again praying the Stations of the Cross.  I get to the fourth Station, the Station where Jesus meets His Mother and I the Lord reminded me of the day when the pews made all that noise and St. Michael and my Guardian Angel showed up.   Then He said to me,  "I want to show you what was coming after you that day."  To read more... CLICK HERE!

Nothing will be impossible for you... This is another experience while I was praying the Stations of the Cross.  This is what I asked for. Out of love for all the lost souls that fall into hell constantly, that souls not be lost.... I asked God that the gates of Hell be closed for one hour. To read more.... CLICK HERE .

There is great evil in the world.  One need only turn on the news and see that.  As such I have cause to pray much about what I see on the news.  When I see death, I kiss the crucifix and ask for mercy for a soul before the judgement and when I hear of great evil acted from one soul to another, I ask for conversion of that most blackest of heart that did the evil. I don't usually get a direct answer to these prayers.  I don't even know the results of my prayers, and nor do I want to.  One day, God will show me all, I am happy to wait till then. However, during one prayer I realized that I was taking the very act of being able to ask God for mercy for someone for granted.   For even the ability to pray is a gift from God.  read more HERE

John the Baptist identified Jesus as the Lamb of God , so quite a few churches display pictures of a young sheep with a halo. That's a visual metaphor , though. WiseGEEK has a fairly painless discussion of visual metaphor , and I'm drifting off-topic. I don't worship a lamb, of course. Jesus is human, which is how my Lord is often portrayed. Details vary with time and place. Jesus, All Over the World The artist's image Jesus I've seen most often looks very European, hardly surprising since my native culture is rooted in Europe. Folks in other parts of the world often show Jesus and Saints as nice, normal people from that region. We don't know what Jesus looked like, at least not before the Resurrection. My guess is that my Lord's appearance was Middle-Eastern, but that's just an educated guess. Tradition tells us that Mary is a descendant of David, and Joseph, husband of Mary and foster-father of Jesus, is "of the house of David." T

What Really Happens at the Holy Mass. This is where I am happiest, at the Holy Mass.  Now I will tell you what really happens at Holy Mass. The Lord told me some time ago, "I want you to go to Holy Mass everyday."  I thought, "O.k., I can do that."   At the time I was only going to Holy Mass once a week, an occasional day Mass but I mostly just prayed in front of the Blessed Sacrament.  I didn't understand, but I obeyed.  Going to Holy Mass everyday required some coordination, I would have to get up earlier and find a Mass along the way to work.  Also, the Mass would have to be close enough to work that when it was finished I could still get to work on time.  I found several different permanent options, and a few back up plans if for some reason I couldn't get to my regular daily Mass. It took about a year of going to Holy Mass daily, but then things started to change.   This was no longer an obligation, but a joy!    God started to open my eyes t

The words prayer and contemplation intimidate many people but the reality is that prayer is simple, so simple that it eludes many adults. Rest in God and enjoy God in the silence. Sometimes we need to simply cease our activity, live in the moment and breathe in God. This is reality. When the Spirit flows in and through us we are in sync with everything and everybody. We are part of the Trinity, part of the human community and part of the communion of saints. How do we relax into this state? In and through prayer. Have you ever noticed that every liturgy begins with a blessing of peace and simultaneously a call to prayer because they are intricately connected. L: “Peace be with you” P: “And also with you.” L: “Let us lift up our hearts to the Lord” P: “We lift them up to the Lord” L: Faithful and gracious God, we seek to draw nearer to you in this time of devotion and prayer. Open us to your word that we might be guided in your Spirit toward all truth and love,

I am at war.  Although I may not look like it, trust me I am in a great war that never ceases around me.  I fight a battle everyday for the souls in purgatory and the lost souls that fall into hell everyday.  The loss of souls is one of the greatest tragedies in the universe.  Because God's justice is perfect, lost souls are in hell of their own volition.  There is nothing more heartbreaking to realize that this sentence is for all time.  Those that are falling into hell right now will still be suffering there 1 million years from now, and 100,000 x 100,000 million years and so on.. Stepping on the battlefield for lost souls  is one of the most treacherous things you can do in relation to the status of your own salvation.  The reason for this is that you can't do anything for God.  You aren't doing God any favors by your prayers, even if 1000 souls where to be released from Purgatory with your prayer, you didn't do it, God did.   You just asked that the battle be

Do you know what you are doing when you walk into the confessional?  Such a grace is present there that it cannot be adequately put into words.  The confessional is one of the greatest gifts God gives us to reconcile us to Himself and to have the possibility to attain heaven.  Walk quickly to the confessional when you err, but only with the true intention in your heart to amend your life and never hurt God again.  You cannot use the confessional as your own 'fire' protection, and then continue your life the same way you did before you walked into the confessional.  Don't you know that the confessional is the fire of heaven?  The same fire that Elijah called down and burned the wood that was soaked in the water, for there is nothing it cannot change. I went to Holy Confession to Father Bob at St. Matha's Catholic Church..  Father Bob laid his hands on my head at the end of my confession and gave me absolution.  The next day I was at St. Michael praying the Chaplet of

Without Mary we do not really understand what it means to be a disciple, a member of his Church. Without Mary we do not really understand what it means to be a human person. Without Mary we do not really understand what it means to be a creature. And because of all that, Without Mary we do not really understand much at all about God, since God is known to us only through Christ, through the path of being His disciple in the Church, through our own humanity made in his image, and through the order of his creation I I think this is a quote from Pope Francis but please correct me of I am wrong

God's Justice.  As God is complete in all that He is, we are not able to take away or add to His measure.  Since this is so, then God is whole. If God is perfect then His attributes must also be perfect.  God is one, God is the divine Trinity, the three divine persons in one God.  God is pure, and His purity must be perfect, with nothing lacking.  God is just, and His justice must also be perfect.  So God is pure, just and perfect.  As a result, if God's justice is perfect then His justice must not allow any one who is impure, vile or sinful into his presence, for this would not be just and it would be torture for the soul stained by sin to behold the beatific vision of God.   God is also mercy, and His mercy, because He is timeless is for all time God's mercy must also be infinite.  The fact of God's infinite mercy has lead souls down the path to the conclusion that no matter what they do, God's mercy is infinite and God will not allow them to go to Hel

Peace between warring nations comes with a hard-fought truce. Peace between the oppressor and those afraid to resist comes at the price of slavery. Peace pursued constantly through pleasure and consumption is a fantasy that leads to obsession with whatever it takes to live stress-free:   comfort foods, constant distraction of entertainment, addictions. We strive to live so that we don’t hurt anywhere. Our relationships work to our advantage. We have everything we want on our happiness checklist. For now. Are we depending on ideal circumstances for a transient peace? Peace on our terms? We ask God for peace. We ask him to take away our pain and struggles so that we can have peace. Yet in the middle of a health crisis, a faith crisis or a relationships crisis, where is God? We find him there with us. Like the soldier in battle or the cowering slave, we stay poised to discover the peace that defies our understanding—and our control. No one can take that peace away from us. Peac

Where does Evil Come From? In the beginning God Said, "Let there be light."  And there was light.  God creates with His word, and when He gave the angels free will He also gave them this ability to create out of their words, although to a much lesser degree.  God is all good, there is no darkness in Him.  However, having infinite knowledge of His creation, He knew of evil as a concept (because God knows all things), but evil only existed in the mind of God as a concept, a potentiality.  When he gave the angels free will they two had a knowledge of what rebellion what evil was as a concept, otherwise their will would not be free because they would have no other choice but the good God.  It was a concept, and so as to truly choose God freely, they were given knowledge of "another way".  Again, this was only a concept in the mind of God and the angels, at this time evil did not yet exist.   God did not create evil, even though He knew about it.  By his

Why do  Faithful American Catholics Label  Pope Francis: A Modernist Heretic? Every time Pope Francis speaks, the papers are filled with sensational headlines; he does not emphasize many of the popular, hot issues like abortion and homosexuality, issues which often simply serve to divide voters into an  us  and  them  mentality. When did these issues become  the  only  issue that concerns the Church? Yet when the pope reminds us that our life in Christ is so much more, vocal advocates become extremely angry, denouncing the pope as the anti-pope. How ridiculous! Why such a strong reaction? Perhaps many Americans do not like this South American because Catholics in America were taught that God loves capitalism and that Greed is Good. The Pope has made some pretty negative remarks about the freebooter capitalism that has flourished since the 1990′s and that will make him very unpopular with the freebooters in the US. Some of his comments about greed, avarice, and freebooter capi

painting by J. Kirk Richards Think about the last time you broke a rule (a big one,  not just ripping the tags off your pillows).  Were you burned, or did things turn out for the best?  I did not simply break a rule here and there;  no, like every other human being, I continually break the most fundamental law of the universe without any conscious effort by refusing to accept reality. Instead of realizing my place in the universe, as one of God's creations, I put on masks and false personalities in a vain attempt to deny my very nature. In pride, I act like a queen at the centre my own little world. According to Thomas Merton ( Seeds of   Contemplation ), a frog or tree are holy simply because they are who they were created to be. On the other hand, I broke all laws of nature out of pride. Steeped in delusion, I clung to a false persona and refused to relax and accept the reality that I am not the centre of the universe. The result? I was not simply burned. Oh

One of God's greatest gifts to us is our Guardian Angel.  He is assigned to us at our conception, and is with us throughout our whole life.  But our Guardian Angel is more than just to protect us various mishaps or evil persons that seek to hinder or even do damage to us.  To know how to effectively communicate with and receive from our Guardian angel all that God wishes us to have, then we have to know more who our Guardian Angel is.  Who Is He? The Guardian Angel's back is never turned to God.  In truth, they really don't have 'backs' as such.  The Guardian Angel always has a face turned to God and always has a face turned to you.  The Angel does not turn from God to face you, nor does he turn from you to face God, it is a constant communion, the God with the Angel and the Angel with You.  As a result, there is a constant communication from God to your Guardian Angel for what is best for you in your path to the Father.  The Guardian Angel is always before t

It was Padre Pio da Pietrelcina’s feast day, yesterday, September 23. 40 years after his death, Padre Pio looks like this. Padre Pio quotes  “Don’t allow any sadness to dwell in your soul, for sadness prevents the Holy Spirit from entering freely.”​ “Joy, with peace, is the sister of charity. Serve the Lord with laughter. ”  “Pray, hope, and don’t worry. Worry is useless. read more>

What would be the absolute worst thing that could happen to a nice Protestant girl? Why Mary, the Blessed Virgin, would do a little interior house cleaning, then make a home for herself in the poor girl’s heart, that’s what! If that was not bad enough, this perplexed young woman’s belief system would stay staunchly anti-Catholic for oh, about another 10 years, even though she had converted to Catholicism. I mean what choice did she have? Nobody but the Catholic Church even wants someone who craves the Eucharist and has a relationship with the Mother of Christ. Obviously this young woman was and is me. God has a peculiar sense of humor and now I can look back and laugh at my dilemma. At the time, though I was shook up. As Pope Francis said at the Easter Vigil, God delights in shaking us up, or as I like to say, ripping the rug from underneath us. Nope, God will not stay in a nice, neat little box of our own making. Just when we think we have Him all figured out, He pulls an

The seed pod dropped on the sidewalk and split. I see the ruddy shine through a slit in the spiked orb and wonder at its depth of color, the certain slant of light spent on its creation and its becoming. I hold the sharp husk gingerly between my fingers and thumb and wonder at the satisfaction in prying apart the halves, the silken rip at the pith.  Notions of Autumn’s approach, the colored leaves, the drying bits of grass and flower are upon me.  The death and dormancy that fit beneath the harvest ground conceal a greater thing: Latent energy bursting into fullness, our God blossoming into the son of man ripening into the fullness of his mystery. I am tempted to hold fast the shells and face the blank wall, keep myself hidden within the pointed case and find my way to fullness turned inward.  Yet I strain against the covering, press into the exterior a plain and arching back.  I drop against the ground and split to see a shining depth of light in which death and birth work to

The worst possible fate for me would be to die and discover that I had lived an existence similar to the allegory described in Plato’s Cave. Plato describes man’s condition similar to living in a cave, chained, only seeing shadows on a wall cast from a candle. Yet the human race believes that this is all there is to life. When one person manages to break free and stumbles out into daylight, he realizes that what he thought was real were actually shadows of real objects. After this messenger makes his way back into the cave to explain this revelation of the real world, no one believes him. No one else has any reference point; they simply cannot grasp this alternate reality. When I speak with someone who is curious about the faith, I realize my revelations about the spiritual life in the Mystical Body of Christ are completely foreign. I might as well be a fantasy character explaining life in an alternate reality. Psychologically speaking, people need to hear a completely new concep