Isaiah,
Chapter 41, verse 13-14
13 For I am the LORD, your God, who grasp
your right hand; it is I who say to you, do not fear, I will help you. 14 Do not fear, you worm Jacob,
you maggot Israel; I will help you—oracle of the LORD; the Holy One of Israel is your
redeemer.
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| Sunset at sea - Pierre-Auguste Renoir |
I
picture Christ, the Holy One of Israel, saying this to Peter at the Sea of
Galilee as He pulls Peter up after he had walked on the water and feared the waves and began to drown “I
am the LORD, your God, who grasp your right hand”. We must not waiver when we
feel covered over by the waters of fear
for He will help us. When in fear if we cry out for his help He will
grab us by the hand and bring us back in to the boat; which is His church.
Let
us not be children of fear but
children of faith. In fact the opposite of Faith is fear. Napoleon Hill author of the bestselling book THINK AND
GROW RICH stated in his unpublished manuscript entitled “Outwitting the
Devil” that the devil uses fear to
manipulate and control us. Hill uses an imaginary conversation with the devil
where the devil states: Once I
capture the mind of a child, through fear,
I weaken that child’s ability to reason and to think for himself, and that weakness
goes with the child all through life.
According
to Hill the secret to freedom and success is to break the chains of fear and realize that failure and
defeat are only a temporary experience.
Franklin
D. Roosevelt in his first in inaugural address as President of the United
States realized this when he stated, “So, first of all, let me assert my firm
belief that the only thing we have to
fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which
paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” As a new President
he realized the power of fear and he
also realized the power of courage.
Mindful of this let us go
forth manfully to face our fears and
change ourselves, our families and our nation realizing YES He IS and He grasps
our hand—He will help us! This is true wisdom!
Blessed
is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose hope is the LORD. He is like a tree
planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream: It fears not the heat when it comes, its
leaves stay green; In the year of drought it shows no distress, but still bears
fruit.(Jer. 17:7-8)
THE TREE OF HAPPINESS (Cont.)
King Richard was glad to
see all the Grand knights and their sons preparing for the Quest. Why even Sir
Michael sent for his God-son Gabriel to be part of the great quest. Gabriel was
the son of Henry, Sir Michael’s brother. Henry was not a member of the royal
court and lived deep in the forests of Utopia. Henry had renounced his
birthright, by his marriage to a simple peasantry woman, named Diane, who was
known not only for her beauty but also for her intelligent mind and loving
ways. Diane and Henry had raised Gabriel quite different from the other young men
of Utopia. He was taught all the great sciences of the time and his father
trained him in the Knightly arts. He was a young man of strength in both mind
and body. That was why Sir Michael chose him to be his Sergeant at Arms on the
great crusade to find the Tree of Happiness.
When Gabriel got the word
that he was to go with his uncle he was in his most favorite places to be. He
was in the upper most branches of the oldest oak tree in the forest. It was
said of the tree that it was used as a meeting place for Mass when St. Dennis
first brought Utopia to the church over 500 years ago and if this was true it
would make the tree at least 600 years old. Gabriel always loved it here. This
was his special place. This was the place where he spoke with his creator. It was
here he developed his strength of mind and by climbing the great tree he also
developed his physical strength.
After Gabriel joined Sir Michael,
King Richard and the rest of the Crusaders visited many faraway lands in search
of the Tree of Happiness. They fought many battles (which are stories
themselves) they learned the value of friendship, duty and the worth of
selfless service. The king and his Knights found themselves returning to the
beliefs of the church and strangely found themselves happy although suffering
in hardships together. After five years of searching, they found their selves approaching
Utopia having never found the Tree of Happiness and having a sense of failure.
Gabriel now a Knight himself, found they were approaching the tree of St.
Dennis, his special place, in the middle of a terrible storm. As they
approached the tree, Gabriel was mentioning to King Richard how this tree was a
special place to him and they camped there for the night to wait out the storm.
Gabriel had just finished mentioning this to King Richard when a great bolt of lightning
struck the great tree splitting it. Sadly Gabriel went to bed.
In the morning Gabriel,
Sir Michael, King Richard and the company of Knights approached the split tree.
As they approached they discovered buried within the tree a crucifix that had
been attached to the tree and the tree had grown around it. The crucifix was the
cross of St. Dennis which had the following words inscribed upon it, “Upon this
tree (cross) God hung in payment for our sins and love for us. THIS is the true
Tree of Happiness.”
Retreat[1]
A retreat is an extended
time we take—usually in relative quiet and solitude—to pray and ponder God’s
will for us. So we can say this with certainty: if we want to advance in the
spiritual life, we should first retreat. This
is a time that we like Moses, Christ and the patriarchs go to a deserted place
to be open toward God. We fast and withdraw from the noise of a workaday life.
Forget the IPOD and all your electronic devises. We should listen for that “still
small voice”. We should say “Speak, Lord. Your servant is listening”.
A retreat must be done
when you are about to do something big or when we suffer a great loss. We at
times must withdraw to the wilderness and pray as did Christ.
We should schedule a
retreat at least once a year and we should be generous with the time. Christ
did 40 can you do four or more? http://www.catholicretreats.net/
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