Today’s entry has the title of the somewhat new Christian song by Mandisa. We all bleed the same.

Fr. Joshua gave an amazing homily at Church yesterday about looking to our own lives, and our own sins, and ministering to our own families yesterday. He told a story of forgiveness and encouraged us all to truly and whole-heartedly be quick to forgive, not because we feel like it, but because it is simple Christianity.

If you can’t seem to find or see Jesus in your life and you know that there is someone you are holding a grudge against, then Jesus just might be hiding behind that person, waiting for you to forgive him.

In these days of heated politics, and separation, let us not forget that first and foremost we are called to love God above all else and love our neighbor as ourselves. We need to meet people where they are at and actually be willing to get to know them. Then gradually we can walk together with them and lead them to the truth.

Think about this. Did Jesus ever start with bible bashing the sinners and tax collectors? Not that I recall. He did often start with such an approach for those who knew better…the scribes, pharisees, etc., but he was always loving the sinners with open arms and leading them to the truth from there.

Holy Spirit, help us to truly prepare a place for Jesus this Advent in our hearts.

God bless you today!

Here is a link to the powerful story of forgiveness that Fr. Joshua shared yesterday.

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14900930

Do you ever feel like you want more from life? Do you ever feel like you want to escape the boring, day after day routine?

Well, I realized something recently that might help. Instead of always looking for more out of life, instead of constantly be wanting to be entertained, why not embrace the life that the Lord is placing in front of you right now?!

Yes, it can be very hard, and very boring. Sometimes all life consists of is going to work, coming home, playing with the babies and going to bed. Or on the mother’s side, sometimes all life consists of is taking care of screaming, fussy babies.

But, this is where the beauty of Catholicism shines through. In the middle of the hum drum, the mess, the chaos, we have the opportunity to unite ourselves to our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, and unleash power that we can’t imagine. Power to heal our brokeness. Power to heal our families, our communities, our world. Power to bring ourselves and others to Jesus.

This is how we find true joy, even in the middle of the boredom. It is by walking with the Lord in every moment of every day. He is faithful and He will lead us to the abundant life He has planned for each one of us.

God bless you today!

Have you ever heard the song “But for the Grace of God” by Keith Urban? The refrain goes like this:

“But for the grace of God go I. I must have been born a luck guy. Heaven only knows how I’ve been blessed with the gift of your love. I look around and all I see, is your happiness embracing me. Oh Lord I’d be lost, but for the grace of God.”

I think this is a good song to think about on All Saints Day, because at the heart of it, the only reason anyone ever becomes a saint is because of God’s grace, His gift of faith, His gift of salvation. Yes, the saints are those who responded to this grace, but they became saints first and foremost because of God’s grace.

Therefore we can all become saints, and in fact, we are all called to become saints. We must respond to God’s grace with fervor. Not just with emotion. You do not have to be a great charismatic personality to be a saint. You have to be fully yourself. Fully who God created you to be.

So let us really celebrate the gift of God’s grace, the gift of His salvation today with humility and thanksgiving, recognizing that without God, we are nothing, but with God, we are no less than His very sons and daughters!

God bless you today!

This post is directed toward men.

One of my biggest struggles every day is to participate in cleaning the kitchen. It’s just one of those things I really can’t stand doing, probably because it was always something my three brothers and I complained about growing up, and therefore it’s ingrained in me to not want to do it.

But let’s think about this. I, like every man who is trying to be a good man, would readily say that I would lay down my life for my family if I never needed to in order to care for, defend, or protect them.

Doesn’t that sound heroic. “I would die for my wife. I would die for my kids.” That’s great, can you sweep the floor?

Us men often want to go out and conquer the world. But we forget that our main battle is at home. Not a battle with our families, but rather for our families. The battle comes when you are exhausted from work and your kids just want to play with you as soon as you get home. It comes when all the kids are asleep and you just want to sit on the couch, but the kitchen needs cleaning. It comes when your wife has had three sick kids all week and so you don’t get to sleep because you need to help.

It is a good and noble desire that God has placed on the heart of men to want to be heroes. But let’s not forget where the main battle field is. If we lose the battle for our families, we lose the war, period!

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle!

God bless you today!

This post is simply an encouragement. If you haven’t been to confession in a while, you should go. It is such a healing experience.

I went last night for the first time in a while and just sitting before the Lord and allowing Him to wipe away my sins through the Sacrament has given me such peace.

I woke up this morning feeling refreshed.

God offers us a great gift through this Sacrament, so let’s not be afraid or too lazy.

Trust in the Lord’s mercy with everything you have and experience the peace that He wants to give you.

God bless you today!

Do you ever feel like your life is just missing something? Like you’re just not quite doing enough?

We will never be truly fulfilled, nor be truly happy until we decide to give ourselves away daily. Self-sacrificial love is the key to curing the modern madness we see in our world.

This is the daily struggle. The struggle to throw off our pride, our selfishness, our laziness and live for something greater than ourselves. Our Lord instructs us to count the cost and so we must. But once we have counted the cost, we must take up our cross DAILY and follow Jesus.

There is no other road to happiness.

The world seeks cheap happiness that fades. We seek eternal happiness, deep, true happiness, that cannot be taken away.

St. Michael the Archangel, help us in this fight to make ourselves a self-sacrificial gift for others.

God bless you today!

How many times have I tried to get out of bed on time in the morning? How many times have I given in and hit that snooze button?

Something is wrong with us men. But on a deeper level, I truly wonder if it is Satan himself or one of his demons that whispers to us when that alarm goes off? Urging us to stay in bed. To stay comfortable.

The Lord Jesus Christ calls us to be fully alive. To wake up each day with with passion, with joy, ready to serve him once again.

I’m not saying we have to leap out of bad, put on a fake happy face, and never be a little grumpy in the morning. Nor am I saying it is never ok to sleep in. What I am saying is that we should not have a daily routine of losing the first battle of the day. The battle to wake up and be ready to serve the Lord.

Maybe you have been feeling like one thing needs to change in your life. Maybe you feel like you’re in a rut. This one thing would be a great place to start. Immediately when the alarm goes off, plant your feet on the floor and thank the Lord for another day. We are called to be warriors for Christ and His Church. Well then, let us wake up like warriors, not like lazy deadbeats.

God bless you every day!

 

 

 

 

The Gospel reading for today comes from Luke Chapter 10. Jesus sends out 72 people and part of what he says is (paraphrasing) whatever town welcomes you, cure the sick in it. He says it as if it is no big deal for the disciples to work these miracles.

This makes me think that I see God as too small in my life. But what should we really think? I’m not saying that we should think that God will work a miracle at the drop of a hat, but our view of God is simply too small.

God is our loving Father. We are all called to belong to His family and He longs for us to trust in His goodness and mercy with all of our heart.

To illustrate this point for today, I will share a simple yet mind blowing fact. I learned the other day that the earth is roughly 8,000 miles in diameter. Ok cool, that seems not too big. But I also learned that one of the biggest stars that astronomers have found so far, I can’t remember its name, is 30,000,000 miles in diameter!!! Seriously! Wouldn’t we all think that something that big would take up the entire sky? Yet, if we can even see it, it doesn’t look any bigger than any of the other stars.

So my challenge for today, to myself and to you, is to think about the greatness of God throughout the day and work on trusting in Him with your whole heart. See Him as your loving Father and ask Him for the grace to trust in Him.

Thank you loving Father for this day!

Thanks for joining me! This blog is meant to be a wake up call to myself and anyone who likes to read it. I am a Catholic Christian and will be sharing my thoughts through this lens. Life is not meant for us to just float along and hope for the best. The Lord has an incredible dream for us and we are called to pursue it with everything we have.

So here we go. This first post is a call, a challenge.

I believe that for our day and age, the Lord of the Rings series is about cell phones. Our cell phones are the ring, constantly calling to us, and distracting us. We must be in charge of it, not let it be in charge of us. WE NEED TO WAKE UP!

The LORD is God, not technology. Do not let technology over run your life. Do not let you or your children be taken by the addiction.

What if we were to leave our cell phones at home when we went on a date. Think about having no phones in your meetings at work, or when you go out with a group of friends.

What are we doing? Life is way to short, important, and incredible to waste it staring at a screen, rejecting any sort of silence or “boredom” whatsoever.

If you can’t be bored, you will never be great says Simon Sinek. Let God’s creativity fill your gap time, heck, maybe even say “hi” to the person next to you in the waiting room. Maybe actually see your co-worker as a brother or sister. Maybe actually love the people who annoy you, using gap time (waiting time) to pray for the strength to be Christ-like.

Stop racing through life. Smell the flowers, sit with boredom and see how creative God is and how creative He made you. Live in the moment, not in your cell phone and find the Lord and find His gift of unshakable peace.

Lord, please fill me with your deep and unshakable peace. Amen.

 

Main ideas for this post came through Simon Sinek, Fr. Mike Schmitz, and Matthew Kelly.

 

Discipline equals freedom – Jocko Willink, US Navy Seal, retired.