Matthew, Chapter 10, verse 28
28 And do not be afraid of those who kill the
body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can
destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.
We
must be resilient in our faith to resist the devil and the suffering he inflicts
by his influence on weak and sinful men. John McCain in his book Character is
Destiny[1]
points to the 16th President of the United States as a man who
demonstrates for us the characteristic of RESILIENCE. Resilience is the ability
to become strong, healthy, or successful again after something bad happens.
Abraham
Lincoln had known loss and grief all his life yet rather that than succumb to
defeat; he somehow, always found a way to rise back up. He was inarguable a man
of action. Although he was known to have chronic depression he never yielded
and in some way resurrected from his melancholic states thinking, “To remain as
I am is impossible; I must die or be better.”
Lincoln
rose to the highest office in the land after surviving a hard and poor
childhood in the Indiana wilderness, a harsh father, little education, and deep
loneliness. He survived the death of his brother, a sister, his mother, his
first sweetheart, and his own children and his marriage to Mary Todd was
troubled. As president he was considered dismal by most.
How
did Lincoln persist? He willed it. He was neither swift nor brilliant at work
but he was exhaustive; he continued. His resilience sprang from his deep
conviction that America was, “the last, best hope of earth.”
In
the end he paid for his devotion with his life; so that the government of the
people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth.
Ember Wednesday
Ember Wednesday
According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the purpose of Ember Days, “besides the general one intended
by all prayer and fasting, was to thank God for the gifts of nature, to teach
men to make use of them in moderation, and to assist the needy.”
The Four Occurrences
of Ember Days are as Follows:
·
Spring: the Wednesday,
Friday, and Saturday after Ash Wednesday.
·
Summer: the Wednesday,
Friday, and Saturday after Pentecost.
·
Fall: the Wednesday,
Friday, and Saturday after the Feast of the Holy Cross.
What is an Ember Week?
Today take a walk and thank God for the gifts of nature.
Comments
Post a Comment