Ok, so here's the deal for the morning
1. You pray the Sign of the Cross
2. You offer God your day
This just means that you tell Him everything thats coming up that you know
of, then you say take all that I think, do, and say and I unite it all with
the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass" So this way your small sacrifices are being
united to His all-powerful and saving sacrifice on Calvary.
3. You read the Bible Passage. Then pause for like a minute or two.
4. Ask yourself 2 Questions:
a. What is the keyword or theme of this passage?
b. What does this have to do with me?
Isaiah 43:1-4
But now, thus says the LORD, your Creator, O Jacob,
And He who formed you, O Israel,
"Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name; you are Mine!
"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
And through the rivers, they will not overflow you
When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched,
Nor will the flame burn you.
"For I am the LORD your God,
The Holy One of Israel, your Savior;
I have given Egypt as your ransom,
Cush and Seba in your place.
"Since you are precious in My sight,
Since you are honored and I love you,
I will give other men in your place and other peoples in exchange
for your life.
At the end of the day, before you go to bed.
Ask yourself 2 Questions:
1. How did God love me today?
2. How did I love God today?
What are you thinking
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8 comments:
Brian .. between last night and today .. your killin me with these scriptures!
btw .... "have called you, and you are mine" ..then all the &#%&$#&%# and #%^#%^#..... and my buddy Laz .... Sometimes God calls you forth and claims you even though you are dead and stink ... He calls you out into the light and then strips you of all the burial clothes -- w/ the help of friends .... and calls you to come forth once more and live --- and promises ... I am Here and will be here ... everything will be OK. GO where I lead --- and my Love will keep you. I kind of feel like Laz ... why did he let me die and decompose and shrink ... why did He allow me to die? ... Why all the pain???..... and does he think I'm freaking nuts -- he must... cuz he's calling me out and it could happen all over again! He must be smoken somethin'!!! But Here he tells me ... "You are Mine" I have called you ... and I will be here for you." It will be OK. Stuff happens -- but with me you can make it and live. Don't stay dead but arise and come ... there are many things to see.... and many things I want you to experience... and most of all I want you to experience my love for you. and I say .. but I'm dead .. I am so smelly and ugly .. how could you or anyone love me??? and he says: "you are precious in My sight,... you are honored and I love you".... Now I know he's smokin' crack ... but he knew I would think that .. so prefaced it so I couldn't denie it all -- he prefaced with ... " For I am the LORD your God,The Holy One of Israel, your Savior;" ... now how can I argue though I feel it raging up ... I can't. I have to surrender and RESPOND. He didn't go into the cave and raise Laz like he did the little girl who had died in another story ..went to her room and all...... no, Laz had to Respond and get up (how? if he was so mummyfied??? I quess I may get to ask one day ...But man it must have been hard!)...
anyway ... God is calling me out ... from this death that I have been living in and I am terrified to come out --- but it's the only thing I have ever dreamed of tooo. But I have been dead so long... so many deep wounds from so many and from so many years .... I am scared to live and allow myself to be loved, to feel love ... to be His Beloved. I am such a lowly wretch and have hurt and have been hurt ... I just don't know how ... Love... what is it .. what is it to live in love and not fear? and why the hell am I blogging since I am not an open blogging person? Cuz I think there is one or two others out there somewhere that may feel the way I do. Your not alone... I'm dead next to you. Lets respond to HIM ... lets arise together... I'm dead and smelly too ... I'm not looking forward to the stripping naked part -- having all my bandaids and burial clothes removed .... My body sucks! & ... It's gonna hurt! But He is loving me enough to shed a tear for me in my death ... He loves me enough to cry for me ... He loves me enough NOT to want me to remain dead allowing myself to be eaten my the magots and worms ... But He wants me to come in my deadliness, and smelliness to Him ... to be with Him .. in the son and breathing again ... seeing more of those amazing shooting stars ... how I long to go.... don't you? He's calling you tooo. Let's arise and go.
Dear God please give me the strength to respond to your call of love in my life, let me embrace the grace that you give me so I can come forth to you and be alive and live again. PLEASE HELP ME, my Lord and My God! I am so scared! Help me, tech me of this Love. I embrace my other fellow smelly dead peeps ... always have. I don't judge them or reject them for I am one. But, those peole outside ... they don't know what it's like to be dead and I am so scared of them - to be naked in frint of them - to be alive and let love in. I'm scared to come out - the son id so bright and my darkeness though lonely and cold, it is familiar - I know it -- it's all I've known almost. But you have placed this longing in my heart and you set before me Life & Death... Please help me choose Life - to surrender and allow my smelly brokeness to be healed. and not to keep punishing myself and hurting myself more everyday. Lord let me see you! Amen!
sorry so long .. and sorry about the spelling and stuff...
peace
kath
Oh shoot Kathleeen. Have i ever told you how much i LOVE YOU!?!
Man, you shoulda BEEN at youth group last night! Brian KILLED w/ his talk (in a good way). But seriously, you just like covered it all!
I totally know what you're feeling girl! Especially about the part where you think Jesus is on Crack, for calling someone as worthless as yourself out of the death you've been living. That's EXACTLY what i was thinking 2 years ago, EXACTLY. I told Him that it couldn't possibly be for me, not with the places i've been, and the things that i know. That love just wasn't possible. And just like you said, He was already a step ahead! He told me He was there for me, that He was watchin out for me. And at the place, and at that time, That was EXACTLY what I needed to know. And about that fear you're feeling, shoot, you're not alone. It's SO scary, but SO amazing. When you've been dead, and hurting for so long, and it's all you know, it seems like it's the best. And you don't want to be alive. It's like you almost just want to stay there, it's who you ARE. But also, just like you said, you're just so done w/ it all. And you dream of being happy, of being alive. But it's just so far out there, and everything you've already tried, has failed... has failed so bad. Everything just brings you farther down, so it's like it's just a dream, and it is impossible. You get content being a zombie in the miry clay.
But i promise you! That LOVE is WORTH IT! That LOVE is REAL! I tried everything else, and it's not the same! It's the only thing that's held onto me! That pain you feel, from all those wounds, is going to make that LOVE THAT much more precious! It was THROUGH the pain and the worthlessness I was feeling, that I found love! How much more precious is the end of the journey, when the road has been hard, than easy? And on retreat, you talked about my excitement... THIS is where all my excitement comes from! To have FOUND LOVE. To have found everything that i had been so desperately searching for! And i mean DESPERATELY. Just give God a chance, you'll see! It's like taking a breath after drowning!
Also, what you said about being scared of those who don't know what it's like to be dead. We're all scared too! Cause we're all dead, without Him! Why else would we all hide behind all of our masks and facades, if we weren't afraid of what everyone else would think? We're all dead, and what i love about all of this, is that we're rising together! None of us can do it alone! In some way or another, all people experience death, in some shape. And for the people who haven't yet, they're sure as heck going to need the support when they get there. And to see the people who have already, they'll know they're not alone, and that they can come out, and that they'll be loved.
To me, love is a mystery. We try the best we can, but we can't even imagine what Love, what He, really is, or at least to the extent which He is. We try so hard to love, but He does it so perfectly, THAT is a mystery to me! It's such a wonderous mystery...
i love all of you... we're in this together <3
thanks Emma! love you too ...
Thinking about this more ... see sometimes we get to know God, love him the best we can .. and strive to do His will -- but remain dead -- becuase of our wounds -- and His Love is so ... that He wants us to live --- not just spiritually -- but we are body, mind, and spirit people --- so He just doesn't want to heal you in one aspect --- but ALL aspects. I've let Him into my heart spiritually --- and all --- and only allowed Him in that one areas--- but I am still dead in the sense I have not allowed him to heal the rest of me. I've have stayed in my tomb ... and now ... He is calling me forth ... and I am so scared ...
And feel slammed with the past scriptures -- thank God today's one is chill and not so complicated for me!
For others who I said in my last one ... you maybe doubting spiritually thinking God's a joke - Ive been there --- or you maybe wounded and dead in other ways like me and not believing in Love - of anyone but Him. --- But he still says -- come forth & you are mine. I love you.
Wow! Great discussion. Thanks so much for sharing, Kathy and Emma!
And I agree that Brian's talk on Sunday was incredible!! For me... I related more to Martha and Mary... the people who have experienced a loss, but now Jesus is coming and telling us to roll away the stone!! To open that old wound up again... To not be afraid to hope!! But we are afraid... afraid that it'll just end in sorrow again... afraid that our hopes will be crushed yet again.
But Jesus is telling us that it's okay to trust him. It's okay to allow yourself to hope! It's okay to open ourselves up and prepare for a miracle.
As I've been pondering all this the last few days, the words of JPII keep coming to me... "Be not afraid!" God IS Love and Mercy, and He WILL see us through the tough times and bring us into the joy that awaits us. We CAN Trust in him!! He will never let us fall!
Praise God!!!
so i definitely thought kathleen was kathleen leblanc and not kathy hall. so you did hear brian's talk. haha. ok. my bad. no wonder it was so close on. I was curious. hahahahahaha... so how are we ever gonna know who is who?
Kathy i really like what you said, it made me think about this in a whole different way.
....we should just all have names that clearly state who we are.
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