Association Of Catholic Bloggers

See k   the LORD while he may be found, call him while he is near. Let the scoundrel forsake his way, and the wicked man his thoughts; let him turn to the LORD for mercy; to our God, who is generous in forgiving. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts.   Isaiah 55   The women’s hand was not even completely in the air before the question came bursting forth, and the tears welled in her eyes.  “How can we let go of wanting to hear we are forgiven, when we’ve begged for it, but the other person is not willing to extend it. As a human person, I want to hear those words not from God but from the other person.” My heart truly ached as I heard in her voice the depth of her pain and her desperation for an answer.

Week 4 (Part B) - Honesty and Counsel This week forced me to take a very long hard look at my mindset towards what I admit and will share about my personal finances and what is really happening.  Although my name Allison means "truthful one" and I do feel sometimes I am honest to fault; this week's teachings and ponderings on the topic of honesty made clear, there was some areas I saw okay to paint  gray .  There really is no legal or honest gray areas with regards to money, especially if those finances are shared.   This week also challenged my filing system (or lack there of) and how pride had (and probably still does) hinder my seeking and accepting counsel.  Let's evaluate these struggles & triumphs more closely ...     FILING, HONESTY AND COUNSEL  All Rights Reserved, Allison Gingras 2016

Learning to listen to a child’s unspoken communication is much like connecting to God. You must forget everything you think you know, let go of arrogance and humbly and silently listen. Just like in contemplation, our hearts  must open to God and to a little one’s heart and soul. It is God who will teach us how to connect spirit to spirit with His little child because babies are part of the Communion of Saints, one with us in the Body of Christ. Children — especially babies — are  little and vulnerable, vulnerable to the large, often clueless adults who care for them. Put yourself in a baby’s situation. Preverbal for years, it must be frustrating to be tired or in pain, only to have a bottle thrust into your mouth or have a tense, upset mother try to nurse you when your stomach is bloated with burps. continue

How do we perceive the Divine and communicate with God as beings who possess both physical and spiritual senses? Some ascetics might try to starve their physical senses to sharpen their inner senses, but such a notion seems to me to be contrary to Catholic wisdom and practice. The Catholic Church  repudiates Gnosticism, realizing that believers come to a fuller sense of Christ through the totality of their human person. The first time I walked into a Catholic Church as a child, I was hit by a sense of a Holy Presence.  Overwhelmed by awe, I tip-toed  around this foreign Church. The whole atmosphere seemed exotic, with dim, soft lighting coming through gorgeous stained glass windows and a few votive candles. Incense assaulted my nostrils, countless paintings and statues begged for my visual attention and the holy water   in the font  felt  holy. This encounter was an experience of both sensory and spiritual overload, a profound experience of the Holy.  God touched that little