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Showing posts with the label Gospel of Matthew

Spirituality: Child’s Play

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A relationship to the living God is child’s play.  Children are open to the Spirit in a simple and natural way; their spirituality is not only taught, it rises from within them as they listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit in their own hearts. St. Paul assures us that all men have the basic laws of God carved into their hearts. In modern language, we all have an awareness of good and evil or a conscience.The problem is tapping into and living out from my core where God has inscribed a moral code on my heart. It is  hidden in my deepest self. Actually, first we must recognize that our own ego and selfishness are a barrier between us and God. Thank God for Christ because He offers an easy way to love and easy way to live in His Spirit as saints. Relax.  Give up striving in your own strength, self-righteousness and pride and accept that you need Jesus as your Saviour. St. Paul understood that only Christ had the power to deliver him from himself. In Romans 7: 24 …. Wretched ma

Chicken Little

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I had an odd response to the 2012 presidential election: I stopped watching the news. I also stopped reading the news on the Internet. In fact, not a single television show appealed to me and the blackened screen simply became a piece of ubiquitous furniture in the center of the room. At that point I had already abandoned social media such as Facebook and Twitter so I was left with a decent amount of time on my hands. My work as a Catholic publisher took on a new meaning. I was working on Jennifer Frank’s fiction title He Shall Be Peace and I found myself praying for it every moment of my work day. My desire to get solid, entertaining, faith-filled books into the hands of the lay faithful became an obsession. As did my own desire to read. My appetite for books was ravenous. In the month and a half following the election I read well over a dozen books. I read the entire Book of Revelation (Navarre Bible Study version) as well as the entire Gospel of Matthew (N