Is the Holy Spirt in my life?

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Is the Holy Spirt in my life?

I will have to admit that I have struggled to relate to the Holy Spirit in a personal way, to grasp how to think about that last of the “three men I admire most, the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost.”  We can know Jesus in a real human and tangible way.  He left us his words in scripture.  He thought us how to know and understand the profound love of the Father for each of us.  He gave us his example and even his life.  He built a Church to leave us with guidance and his true presence.  But he sent us something more, someone I am just beginning to connect with more consciously. The Holy Spirit.

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If it were true, would you want to know?

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If it were true, would you want to know?

I can’t remember where I heard this, but someone mentioned that there was no longer the appetite for the truth as there once was.  That struck me as both sad and dangerous territory that we live in.  Atheists now say, no only, that God does not exist, but it doesn’t really matter if he did.  With our advances in science, we have outgrown the need for God.  Both of those assertions certainly make a lot of assumptions about the truth, but most people don’t seem all that interested in validating those assumptions or even having the discussion. 

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The Rose Window - a guide to real living

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The Rose Window - a guide to real living

Fifteen years ago, when my family and I visited Rome, the one thing that struck me was the incredible attention to creative beauty that was almost everywhere - the fountains, statues, and architecture, and especially the beauty of the churches built to honor and worship our creator.  You could find in most countries, and even small towns, a desire to build a space of awe and beauty where people could come together and to let their souls soar for a few moments, no matter what their struggles in life.  In Northern France, there are incredible churches, such as Notre Dame and Chartres, where the gothic style masterpieces of architecture can take your breath away as you try to take in all the magnificence and the attention to detail.  That detail, and those symbols, often teach us about our faith and guides us to what is important in life.  One of the best examples this is the incredibly intricate and profoundly beautiful rose window, with its circular and colorful design, all revolving around the center.

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The protective armor that keeps us from living

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The protective armor that keeps us from living

How many people do you know that are really comfortable in their own skin?  Can you risk the vulnerability of letting the world, or even yourself, really see you and not just the protected public self we allow to be seen?  What do we fear most – rejection by others or even self-rejection?  We spend quite a bit of our time creating that acceptable outer self to avoid what we fear most - that we may not be worthy of being loved and accepted for who we are at our authentic core.  So why is that the case for so many of us?

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Thanksgiving - "giving thanks to whom and for what?"

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Thanksgiving - "giving thanks to whom and for what?"

If you are lucky, you have family and close friends to share a Thanksgiving meal with this week.  For many, it is an abundance of food, football and catching up with family we do not see enough.  For others it could be an emotional day of old wounds, heated disagreements or just plain loneliness.  Wherever you are on Thursday, I pray it is a day of “giving thanks” for you.  Thanksgiving became an official American holiday in 1864 during the Civil War, per proclamation of the President, “Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do hereby appoint and set apart the last Thursday in November next as a day which I desire to be observed by all my fellow-citizens, wherever they may then be, as a day of thanksgiving and praise to Almighty God, the beneficent Creator and Ruler of the Universe.”  Lincoln’s intent was to bring us together and to remember that we share the same creator that provides everything we have.

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Subsidiarity (Do John Halpin and John Podesta even know what it means?)

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Subsidiarity (Do John Halpin and John Podesta even know what it means?)

You can learn some interesting things about how people really think when Wikileaks dumps their emails on the public.  I am not a proponent of this type of invasion of personal privacy, but since the media has abdicated its critical journalistic responsibilities to keep the public informed and protected, I can make an exception here when the individuals are actively working to undermine religious beliefs.  If you have not had a chance to read the emails, they were centered around mocking the “severely backward,” “ignorant,” and “medieval” thinking of conservative Catholics by the president of the Center for American Progress.  One note John Halpin wrote to Clinton campaign manager John Podesta, “They can throw around ‘Thomistic’ thought and ‘subsidiarity’ and sound sophisticated because no one knows what the hell they're talking about.”  My question is if they even understand what the term means?  Since they brought it up, it is an important concept in Catholic social teaching that is worth thinking about. 

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Does God exist?

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Does God exist?

How would you answer the most important question in life? Do I believe that God exists?

  1. I believe in a personal God  
  2. I believe in a God but not a personal God
  3. I don’t know if God exists or not
  4. I don’t care if God exists or not
  5. I don’t believe in God

How would the answer to that question impact your life, what you think is important, and how you see yourself and others?  It may be more profound than you think and worth spending serious time on, no matter which answer fits you today. 

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Joy and Happiness

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Joy and Happiness

Growing up, my family never went on a vacation. My father kept my brothers and I busy during the summers building walls or patios, painting houses and doing landscaping, butI can still remember loving the rhythm of the summer, the longer days, warm evenings and being outside.  When I got married, I was introduced to going somewhere (Maine) for a summer vacation.  My wife and my daughters loved spending two weeks in the small, unassuming fishing village of Stonington with and incredible beauty of the rugged coastline.  I still can remember our two girls racing down the pier at the harbor and the word that comes to mind is joy.  Joy for them seemed natural.  Being in the moment, in a beautiful place, with the people I loved most, and taking the time to appreciate all the blessings I had gave me a deep sense of peace and of joy as well.

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An Offer You Can Refuse

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An Offer You Can Refuse

The Godfather could be my favorite movie of all time.  Everyone is probably familiar with the famous line from Don Corleone (Marlon Brando) when explains to his Godson, Johnny Fontaine, how he is going to get a powerful studio head, Woltz, to give Johnny the part in a movie that he does not want to give him.  “I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse.”   Corleone made the choice for Woltz an unpleasant one but an easy one - “do what I say or you die.”  With God, we also get an offer, but the difference is that it is an offer we can refuse because he loves us enough to give us the gift and responsibility of “free will.”

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