Living by the Cross

This weekend I attended a Women's Cornerstone retreat at St. Monica's parish in Santa Monica.  The retreat was open to women of all ages (18 to 118) and after hearing numerous witness talks, engaging in small group discussions and going to confession and mass with 80 other "Beautiful Spirits" (the appropriate theme of the retreat), I was completely renewed.

A couple of extremely important lessons that I took from the retreat to my heart:

1. Don't give up.  Never give up living, loving, and aiming to prosper.  

2. God will demonstrate His glory through our weaknesses.  

From 2 Corinthians 12:9: "'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.'  Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me." 

The Msgr. who said the mass at our retreat implored us to grasp our weakness, and hold it up high to God.    In our weaknesses, we find the cross.  In our weaknesses we experience most painful struggle despair and confusion.

We may rejoice in that it is through the Cross that we will gain new life.  Our God and Savior Jesus took the cross, carried it in intense pain and surrendered his life on it so that we may all have Eternal life!  By the cross, Jesus opened the gates of Heaven for us.

We all have weaknesses, and we all have our crosses but let our crosses be causes of joy, and great beacons of opportunity to grow closer to Christ, strive to trust more in Our Father and God, and open ourselves to God's strength and power so that through our weakness, God may show clearly His great love and glory.

Our God is infinitely powerful and entirely and absolutely love! Yes, our God is love itself, and NOTHING is impossible with God.

Another great quote that a lady from the retreat told the group:

 "Our adversities are God's universities."  We will learn the most through our struggles.

We are not asked to throw our weaknesses by the wayside so that we don't have to deal with the hurt.  Our God is asking us to let Him heal, love, and restore us to new life--- through trusting that God will heal us, we open ourselves to allowing our weaknesses to be transformed with God's power and love.

Let us not waste time!  We have this beautiful opportunity this Lenten season to grow closer to Christ, and how better can we grow closer to Christ than through embracing our cross as He did?

While our crosses now may seem like the source of our greatest pain, we have every opportunity to allow God to help us carry them.   Through the knowledge and courage that God will offer us, we will have strength to live our lives to greater fulfillment.  Our crosses will become the sources of our greatest joy and our key to eternal life.

We will indeed fall on our journey with the cross (Jesus did 3 times).  The most important thing is that we use God' grace, which will always be sufficient, to get back up again. Don't ever give up!

The First Principle and Foundation
by St. Ignatius of Loyola


The Goal of our life is to live with God forever.
God, who loves us, gave us life.
Our own response of love allows God's life
to flow into us without limit.
 
All the things in this world are gifts from God,
Presented to us so that we can know God more easily
and make a return of love more readily.
As a result, we appreciate and use all these gifts of God
Insofar as they help us to develop as loving persons.
But if any of these gifts become the center of our lives,
They displace God
And so hinder our growth toward our goal.
 
In everyday life, then, we must hold ourselves in balance
Before all of these created gifts insofar as we have a choice
And are not bound by some obligation.
We should not fix our desires on health or sickness,
Wealth or poverty, success or failure, a long life or a short one.
For everything has the potential of calling forth in us
A deeper response to our life in God.
 
Our only desire and our one choice should be this:
I want and I choose what better leads
To God's deepening his life in me.

Super Bowl

My wonderful housemate Carolyn just set up an antenna on our TV and for the first time all JVC year we got TV cable connection.  The first thing we were able to watch: The Super Bowl!  It was fun and relaxing being able to watch on a comfortable recliner couch. I didn't watch the whole thing but I was impressed by some of the commercials I saw.
Everyone seems to be inching toward what rings as solid, true, and REAL.  Marketing professionals are getting so good at this! They must break the thresholds and they must keep trying to go deeper and get better.  When you get at the "real", people are more likely to drive hyundais and eat m&Ms, right?

I also loved the fact that the coach of the giants and all the other spokespeople for the winning team genuinely attributed their hard work and motivation to their fans.  The players of the football teams and any sports teams out there are truly more than athletic skill.  They have love for what they do and who they do it for!

Madonna's performance wasn't bad either.  World peace in lights may have taken my heart.

How do we understand God's love for us?

How do we understand God's love for us?

Pray, pray, and pray some more!

Prayer is nothing but genuine conversation with God.  Prayer, however, is everything to the human being.  God responds to our sincerity.  Let us always remember that God is love and mercy is His deed; in Him you will find an endless abyss of mercy and new hope for a new life.

Here is a beautiful reflection that I received from the Sisters of Life:

Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis commented on this first Beatitude (Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven) saying, “another way to translate this in more explicit words, ‘How fortunate those who beg for their life’s very breath!…’ to be poor in spirit is to be totally dependent on God even for our very breath.  Jesus puts at the head of His beatitudes those who do not forget that “without God you can do nothing!”  The Jewish people knew this and it is interesting to note that the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet is the soundless letter “Aleph;” that is before you can say anything you must first take in breath, take in air from outside ourselves.  The poor in spirit depend on God in the same way that our lungs depend on air.” 

Our God longs to be with us, to give us His life, peace, joy, strength, freedom, healing, forgiveness and mercy.  He constantly desires to draw us deeper into His Sacred Heart to show us His Divine Love for us.  He comes to be with the ones who need Him, who rely on Him just as they rely on their next breath. 

Youth Ministry

I recently got involved in a youth ministry program as a volunteer.  I checked out a high school youth group and got to hang out with some really great (amazing and soulful) kids. Every youth group is different, but once a month there is a sports themed night.  My first experience at youth group was indeed the sports night and I had the pleasure of engaging in ultimate frisbee, glow-in-the-dark Tron style in the park across from the St. Monica Church.  It was awesome and life-giving!

I was extremely happy when one of the other youth ministers decided to change the rules a bit and say that the frisbee must be passed from boy to girl to boy etc. This new rule dramatically changed the game! Yes, it was not as fast paced because the same 4 boys were not running down the field scoring all the goals.  But the girls were actually involved! And having a great time as soon as they realized that they could catch and throw frisbees too!  The boys started to trust them more, at first because they had no other option and then because they actually realized that girls could score goals and be into the game too.  I genuinely hope that it won't take as long to realize that we need to try harder to get everyone involved in co-ed sports.

I was deeply touched by the heartfelt participation in prayer of the youth group members after frisbee.  Everyone stood in a circle and held hands while prayer intentions were offered to our loving God.  These high school kids are truly living in God's grace and I pray that nothing will sway them away.  My prayer is that God will build their strength, endurance and love and deepen their prayer life as well. I hope that the youth group kids continue to show me God's love and truth through their genuine liveliness and gentleness.