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Friday, July 11, 2011

entrusting your five daughters to the Five Wounds of Christ is a deeply symbolic and spiritually rich gesture. In Catholic tradition, the Fi...

Nineveh 90 Consecration-

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Matthew, Chapter 8, Verse 26
He (Christ) said to them, “Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?” Then he got up, rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was great calm.

In many respects I can identify with the apostles in this verse. I have been in the sea of tribulation for the last four years. I am terrified.

In the first reading of today; I feel much like Lot.  My livelihood has been taken from me and my wife’s love toward me has died; she has become a pillar of salt toward me just as Lots wife did when she looked back. My working years are behind me and I struggle for my daily bread.
Image result for alone in antarctica 
Yet I know the Lord although sleeping, is in the boat with me. I wait for the LORD, my soul waits and I hope for his word. (Psalm 130:5)

Monday, June 29, 2015


Psalm 34, Verse 12

Come, children, listen to me; I will teach you fear of the LORD.

Today is the Feast of Peter and Paul; let us listen to church they helped establish for Christ. Be at peace and in stillness listen to what the Lord is asking you to do for Him through His church.

Sunday, June 28, 2015

Image result for the unclean womanMark, Chapter 5, Verse 33
The woman, realizing what had happened to her, approached in fear and trembling. She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth.

The woman in the chapter had suffered from a hemorrhage for twelve years and was ritually unclean by Jewish laws.

An unclean person in general had to avoid that which was holy and take steps to return to a state of cleanness. Uncleanness placed a person in a "dangerous" condition under threat of divine retribution, even death, if the person approached the sanctuary. Uncleanness could lead to expulsion of the land's inhabitants and its peril lingered upon those who did not undergo purification. Bodily discharges (blood for women, semen for men) represented a temporary loss of strength and life and movement toward death. Because decaying corpses discharged, so natural bodily discharges were reminders of sin and death. Physical imperfections representing a movement from "life" toward "death" moved a person ritually away from God who was associated with life. Purification rituals symbolized movement from death toward life and accordingly involved blood, the color red, and spring (lit. "living") water, all symbols of life.[1]

For you know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that though he was rich, for your sake he became poor,
so that by his poverty you might become rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9). Christ also being clean took this woman uncleanliness and gave her his Holiness. Indeed she was filled with wonder and awe.

This day emulate our Lord by reflecting and living the prayer of St. Francis.

The Prayer of Saint Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in dying to self that we are born to eternal life.



[1] http://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionaries/bakers-evangelical-dictionary/clean-unclean.html.

Saturday, June 27, 2015

Hebrews, Chapter 12, Verse 21

Indeed, so fearful was the spectacle that Moses said, “I am terrified and trembling.”

Friday, June 26, 2015

Hebrews, Chapter 11, Verse 27

By faith he (Moses) left Egypt, not fearing the king’s fury, for he persevered as if seeing the one who is invisible.

Thursday, June 25, 2015


Hebrews, Chapter 11, Verse 23
By faith Moses was hidden by his parents for three months after his birth, because they saw that he was a beautiful child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.

Moses parents must have had a great enjoyment of life for how else could they have refused to kill a beautiful child of God and be not afraid of the king’s edict. Their fear was set aside by their love and by the faith they had in the love of their God.

Christ advices us in today’s gospel that “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord, ‘will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” (Mathew 7:21) The will of the Father is that we be filled with love. God is love therefore if we are to have a covenant with God the highest and holiest point of this relationship and the very condition for eternal life is the union of the soul to God by love. Christ was reiterating that life cannot exist where the love of God is not, and the love of God cannot exist where there is rebellion against Him. The Ten Commandments that Moses gave began with “thou shall not” were summed up by Christ into two great commandments which is “Thou shalt love God” and “Thou shalt love thy neighbor”. Therefore the yielding of the mind and heart to selfish sins or thoughts of lust, murder or any dozen of evil actions is as sinful as the act. The core of sin is the soul of man twisting itself out of the right relationship with God.[1]





[1] F. J. Sheed, Map of Life, 1954.

Wednesday, June 24, 2015 Feast of Saint John the Baptist

Luke, Chapter 1,Verse 65
Then fear came upon all their neighbors, and all these matters were discussed throughout the hill country of Judea.


Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Psalm 15, Verse 1-5
1 LORD, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy mountain? 2 Whoever walks without blame, doing what is right, speaking truth from the heart; 3 Who does not slander with his tongue, does no harm to a friend, never defames a neighbor; 4 Who disdains the wicked, but honors those who fear the LORD; Who keeps an oath despite the cost, 5 lends no money at interest, accepts no bribe against the innocent.

In life we are always moving toward the future. Our destination is life eternal with our creator. In our little sailboat of life we tend to be either moving toward God by taking advantage of His graces which provide the wind for our sails or we do nothing but drift.

Image result for drifting tool of the devilNapoleon Hill noted in his manuscript on a book he never published entitled “Outwitting the devil” stated drifting was one of the tools the devil uses to keep us off tack and not sailing towards God’s mountain.

A Protection against drifting lies within easy reach of every human being who has a normal body and a sound mind. The self-defense can be applied through these simple methods:  


1)      Do your own thinking on all occasions. The fact that human beings are given complete control over nothing save the power to think their own thoughts is laden with significance.
2)      Decide definitely what you want from life; then create a plan for attaining it and be willing to sacrifice everything rather than accept permanent defeat.
3)      Analyze temporary defeat, no matter of what nature or cause, and extract from it the seed of an equivalent advantage.
4)      Be willing to render useful service equivalent to the value of all material things you demand of life, and render the service first.
5)      Recognize that your brain is a receiving set that can be attuned to receive communications from the universal storehouse of Infinite Intelligence, to help you transmute your desires into their physical equivalent.
6)      Recognize that your greatest asset is time, the only thing except the power of thought which you own outright, and the one thing which can be shaped into whatever material things you want. Budget your time so none of it is wasted.
7)      Recognize the truth that fear generally is a filler with which the Devil occupies the unused portion of your mind. It is only a state of mind which you can control by filling the space it occupies with faith in your ability to make life provide you with whatever you demand of it.
8)      When you pray, do not beg! Demand what you want and insist upon getting exactly that, with no substitutes.
9)      Recognize that life is a cruel taskmaster and that either you master it or it masters you. There is no half-way or compromising point. Never accept from life anything you do not want. lf that which you do not want is temporarily forced upon you, you can refuse, in your own mind, to accept it and it will make way for the thing you do want.
10)  Lastly, remember that your dominating thoughts attract, through a definite law of nature, by the shortest and most convenient route, their physical counterpart. Be careful what your thoughts dwell upon.

A simple formula combining all the ten points:

Be definite in everything you do and never leave unfinished thoughts in the mind. Form the habit of reaching definite decisions on all subjects.

Can the habit of drifting be broken, or does it become permanent once it has been fanned?

The habit can be broken if the victim has enough willpower, providing it is done in time. There is a point beyond which the habit can never be broken. Beyond that point the victim is mine. He resembles a fly that has been caught in a spider’s web. He may struggle, but he cannot get out. Each move he makes entangles him more securely. The web in which I entangle my victims permanently is a law of nature not yet isolated by, or understood by, men of science.



Monday, June 22, 2015

Hebrews, Chapter 10, Verse 31
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Image result for It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God antarctica

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Psalm 34, Verse 10
Come, children, listen to me; I will teach you fear of the LORD.

Saturday, June 20, 2015

Image result for nothing is lackingPsalm 34, Verse 10
Fear the LORD, you his holy ones; nothing is lacking to those who fear him.

Friday, June 19, 2015

Psalm 34, Verse 8
The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and he saves them.

Thursday, June 18, 2015

Hebrews, Chapter 10, Verse 26-27

Image result for fearful prospect of judgment26 If we sin deliberately after receiving knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains sacrifice for sins 27 but a fearful prospect of judgment and a flaming fire that is going to consume the adversaries.

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Psalm 112, Verse 7-8
Image result for family feud7 He shall not fear an ill report; his heart is steadfast, trusting the LORD. 8 His heart is tranquil, without fear, till at last he looks down on his foes.

Today this verse was balm to my heart. I have a blended family and after the death of my former wife our children and my current spouse are at war with each other and I am trapped in the middle.

I am in a situation where I am being picked apart by both parties and I am left feeling helpless, frustrated and without hope. Yet, I must continue the Lord is asking me not to fear and have a steadfast heart. I must put the matter before Him, trust Him and have a tranquil heart. The Lord asks me to realize that my foes are neither my daughters nor my wife but my foes are fear and frustration.  I need to trust him and not give into the emotional meltdowns of those around me and pray for them.

Turn to the Lord in all things.

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Hebrews, Chapter 2, Verse 14-15
14 Now since the children share in blood and flesh, he likewise shared in them, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and free those who through fear of death had been subject to slavery all their life.

The devil is the author of fear. The opposite of fear is not bravery but love. Christ showed his love for us by breaking the power of the devil by overcoming death.  He showed us His love by sharing our human nature. He asks us in today’s gospel to love as He loved. ”I give you a new commandment: love one another as I have loved you.” (John 13:34) Christ therefore restores Gods original intend to give man life eternal and voiding the death that the devil had brought into the world.

The fear of death is a fear based on the false conception that death marks the end of a person’s kindred with God. Jesus deliberately allied himself with us in order to be a merciful and faithful high priest in our behalf; expiating our sins as one who experienced the same tests as we.

We usually give in to our sinfulness when we are Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired (HALT). To halt sinful behaviors we must practice acts of love so that when we are hungry let us give food to the hungry; when we are angry let us remember to secure justice for the oppressed; when we are lonely let us remember to keep faith with our brethren; and when we are tired let us take up the yoke of Christ; for his yoke is easy and his burden is light.

Ponder this day if the Lord is calling you to the Priesthood or the religious life.


Monday, June 15, 2015

1 Timothy, Chapter 5, Verse 20
Reprimand publicly those who do sin, so that the rest also will be afraid.

It is better to scorn a child than to let them walk into real danger. If we follow the advice of Timothy we may wound someone’s pride in order to save their soul. The priest sandal that has so wounded our church is because we failed to follow this advice. Nothing ever gets better if it is ignored and left to fester. If we see someone who we know is trapped in sin out of love we must help them.
Image result for christ smiling 
From a personal standpoint I remember I used to have a young soldier who worked for me who’s breath smelled bad and I ignored it for months. Finally my boss came to me and told me that he smelled it and told me to advise the soldier to see the dentist as it could indicate a serious dental problem. I did and the young soldier lost 4 teeth from infection that I failed to correct out of a lack of courage.

If you correct someone they may hate you but they will still have their teeth or soul as the case may be.

Sunday, June 14, 2015

Colossians, Chapter 3, Verse 22
Slaves, obey your human masters in everything, not only when being watched, as currying favor, but in simplicity of heart, fearing the Lord.

Paul reminds the Colossians as he did the Ephesians that we serve Christ not the rulers of this world but because the rulers are also sons of God we should obey them.

Today is Flag Day; it is the day we honor the flag of our country. In the military of which I was a member for 22 years all flags fly below the US flag except the church flag on Sundays which was raised as a basic reminder to us that we owe our highest loyalty to God. I served my country with simplicity of heart and put all my efforts up to Christ as an offering using the frame of mind that ultimately I worked for Him.
Image result for south pole station
One of my greatest challenges mentally and physically was when I was a member of a crew of engineers that finished the construction of the South Pole Station.  I recorded my service there in a book entitled, “The Ice is Nice and Chee Chee is Peachy.”

Here is an reflection I recorded earlier but it bears repeating today on Flag Day.

Father John Parks  states that the flag we choose to live under determines everything.


He asks, “Whose flag are you under? Do we consciously choose to serve or do we just let it happen? We have a choice here and indecision is a decision itself. Who’s flag will you follow Christ’s or Satan’s. True freedom comes not from doing what you want but doing the things you were created to do.

Father John recommends we follow the flag of Christ (poverty, chastity, obedience) and not that of Satan (greed, lust, pride) by having a battle plan.

  • 1. Be in the state of grace at all times-Go to Mass if you fall get up go to confession.

  • 2. Pray-we know who we are by knowing who’s we are. Remember Saint Joseph is known as the terror of demons.

  • 3. Do your daily duty; there is great heroism in finishing the daily tasks.

  • 4. Be Humble and obey.  When you break a commandment you do not break it as much as it breaks you.

  • 5. Seek a community there is strength in numbers “Iron sharpens iron”.  Remember the Holy Spirit is what sets us free.

Saturday, June 13, 2015

Image result for keep his covenant, and remember to carry out his precepts.Psalm 103, Verse 15-18

15 As for man, his days are like the grass; he blossoms like a flower in the field. 16 A wind sweeps over it and it is gone; its place knows it no more. 17 But the LORD’s mercy is from age to age, toward those who fear him. His salvation is for the children’s children 18 of those who keep his covenant, and remember to carry out his precepts.