Association Of Catholic Bloggers

There was a fashion for a while to scoff at the very idea of the Immaculate Conception of Mary--a fashion, I think, from those who thought they were too smart to believe such stuff of poetry. One such scoffer, a bestselling author who has a background similar to my own (we attended the same all girls Catholic Academy) told me she is annoyed with the teaching of the Immaculate Conception because it implies that Mary is better than us. Imagine that, the Mother of Our Lord, better than us!! Frankly, I was dumbfounded by that bit of reasoning from someone I thought had a big enough brain to overcome postmodern Catholic university intellectual fashion. Remember when Moses was harangued by his group of grumbling nomads (who, having escaped from Pharaoh, built a golden calf to worship while Moses was communing with YAHWEH and receiving ten very sensible commandments to help this disparate group become a people) demanded to see YAHWEH themselves? Who did Moses think he was anyway to...

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 him...

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 no...

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 ne...