Association Of Catholic Bloggers

You know that person – the one who is “tough as nails.” That person never gives up. He or she seems to have an ability to endure anything, whether it be a serious illness, a divorce, a job loss, a financial crisis, a death in the family – anything. Therefore, through all the trials and tribulations, this person continues to persevere. How so? Well, in addition to Perseverance, he or she starts off with a few other virtues under his/her belt. Fortitude enables a person to be strong; to endure without fear; to act with courage in addressing the problem. Patience allows the person to wait long periods of time for the desired result. Faith gives the person the strength and peace to believe and trust that God has everything under control. Confidence in God’s omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence, along with confidence in Jesus’ promise of salvation should place everything else into perspective. With these virtues in hand, perseverance comes much more easily. Read more...

In today’s Gospel reading from Matt 5:1-12, we hear Jesus teach about the Beatitudes. I am quite partial to the Beatitudes, as they embody virtue. As you all know, virtue is my “thing.” When we look at each one of the Beatitudes, we see that they are actually God’s gift of grace. That is because, to master the Beatitudes, we must embrace virtue. To embrace virtue, we need God’s grace. The Beatitudes – Jesus’ Way! To be poor in spirit, one must embrace and exemplify   humility If you are one who mourns, you are   compassionate Meekness is obvious. Yet to be   meek , one requires great strength ( fortitude ). If you hunger and thirst for righteousness, you embody   justice Merciful is obvious, like meekness. However, to be   merciful,   to the extent necessary, one must be ready to also   forgive ... Read more... 

Do you struggle with pain? I do! I live with congenital clubbed feet. This means that I was born with all of my bones, from my toes to my pelvis, twisted out of alignment. In essence, my feet curve inward, where your feet stand straight. At birth, the doctors thought that I would never walk; that I would be in a wheelchair my entire life. Yet, I defied the odds, and at age two, stood up and started walking, albeit clumsily. This meant that I would need special shoes. Throughout my almost 60 years, I have... Read more...

Out with the old, in with the new! As we welcome the promise of the New Year, let us not forget all that God provides. Everything God gives us is a gift, right down to every breath we take. Many times when we experience struggle and illness, we want to push the pain away as soon as we can, and forget the incident. Out of sight – out of mind! We certainly do not consider struggle and illness as gifts coming from God! However, that is not necessarily true. Even times of difficulty can be a gift from God. It is at these times that He graces us with opportunity to grow closer to Him. No – He does not give you hardships and illnesses. Let’s make that perfectly clear. But, He is with you always through the struggle and the pain. He graces you with... Read more...

Have you ever been accused of something for which you were innocent? Perhaps your spouse blamed you for leaving the dirty dishes in the sink. Or perhaps your neighbor accused you of calling the police on them because of their rowdy party this past weekend. Whatever the reason, we all bear wrongs of others. Yet, do we do it patiently? Do we look at these incidents and become defensive? Do we feel the need to defend our honor and the truth? Or, do we weigh the situation and come to realize that the grace of peace and harmony far outweighs the need to be right? If the answer to this last question is yes, then... Read more...

We continue with the fourth installment of our seven-part series on the seven deadly sins. Today we discuss Gluttony. Gluttony, the overindulgence of eating/drinking to excess, will physically and spiritually harm you if left unchecked and unaddressed. Overeating/drinking can result in physical illnesses such as diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and liver disease, just to name a few. Gluttony robs you of the life you were meant to live, because you become the slave to the object of your temporal desire. You become fixated on the food and/or the drink. Gluttony causes you to use food and/or drink to ... Read more...

We continue with the third installment of our seven part series on the seven deadly sins. Today we discuss Lust. Lust causes you to objectify the “object” of your desires, rather than to see the individual as a human being deserving dignity. When you remove human dignity from the equation, it becomes very easy to lose respect for others and for yourself. Lust is disordered desire for, or inordinate enjoyment of, sexual pleasure. Sexual pleasure is morally disordered when sought for itself, isolated from its procreative and unitive purposes . 1   Lustful behavior is addictive.  Repeated over and over again, it deludes... Read more... 

Thanks to the help of Mother Angelica,  I’ve been finding myself calling upon all angels of heaven for assistance!   It was during the weeks leading up to Easter (Lent 2016) that I began to pray on a regular basis the Chaplet of St. Michael the Archangel, guided by Mother Angelica herself (via EWTN CD ), and what a blessing it’s been!   …Thus something I wanted to share with you here, as we journey on, in pursuit of progress, still... body, mind, and soul. >> Click Here to Read More at: The Way To Nourish For Life >>  

Life gives us opportunities, blessings, trials and tribulations. Life is a journey; both physical and spiritual. It’s what we do with this life that matters most. How does one persevere in life when there are so many challenges, obstacles and hurdles to overcome? And why must they even exist? Why can’t life be just peachy? There is a simple answer to these questions: Without the challenges, obstacles and hurdles, you wouldn’t grow spiritually. Also, without difficulties in this life, you would take the opportunities and blessings for granted. You would take God for granted! Perseverance is such a necessary virtue. Anything worthwhile usually does not come instantly. It comes after we have put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into the situation. If we give up too soon, we... Read more...

Prayer is essential. How many times have you heard that, but wondered just how essential is it really? Or, what’s in it for me to pray? How many times have you prayed and heard silence? How many times have you given up on prayer, because your prayers weren’t answered the way you wanted? In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, we look to quotations from Saint John Damascene and Psalm 130:1 to define prayer: Prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God. But when we pray, do we speak… Read more...

Persevere in Faith To persevere in Faith, “we must nourish it with the Word of God.” 1 That means that we need to read Scripture. The more we become acquainted with the Word of God, the more we come to know God, trust God and love God. Through the nourishment of the Word, we are able to believe in Him and all that He promises. This helps us to grow in trusting the Lord. Yet there are times when He is silent, and during these times we quickly feel abandoned. It is at these times that we must persevere in Faith. We must trust in God’s timing, and never give up. Read more...

Hold on… “Re-calculating” … We have actually reached our first official 66-day mark on The Route 66 Challenge ™ this week!! Wow— Where did these 66 days go?   [ or, more importantly]  Where did they bring us? Did we “arrive” yet??   [or]  Are we still out on a rather bumpy roadway? …maybe even back where we began!   No worry, though, on this Route ... Click Here to Read More on The Way to Nourish for Life

Christians often like to say that God will not give you more than you can handle. They are well meaning people who usually like to say this to someone who is going through a tough time. Personally, I do not find these words encouraging. I think this idea comes from the scripture about God not testing us beyond our strength (1Cor.10:13). However, I see these as two different things. In my own life, I know that God has often given me more than I could handle. The reason however is so that I will learn to lean back in him and rely on his grace. I think if we limit ourselves to the things we think we can handle, we could really be missing out in life and limiting God.   Read more here .

2014 Version of Me Every year I make New Year resolutions. I believe that it's good to improve myself for the honor and glory of God. I know I need God's grace to improve. When God is gracious enough to bless me with a particular grace, I should cooperate with Him. That's where personal effort comes in. So many get discouraged if or when they break their resolutions that they give up. I understand the feeling. One of my Facebook friends has a good suggestion for that problem of perseverance. This is a slightly edited version of what Elizabeth wrote: Lots of us set goals - resolutions - for each New Year. Many of us do not achieve those goals over the course of that 365 days. We lose sight of the goal or we "cheat," and decide there is no point in continuing. But what if you made that your goal for just January? And then, make it a new goal for February, and so on through the year? Do you think you would be more successful? My answer is yes.  I think I ...