In the midst of deep interior prayer as my son in law is at this moment at his second interview at a law firm in town! How we hope and pray.... Also in the midst of a very bad cold that is draining me of energy and thought... I have alot more sympathy for Pat, who was so sick with this cold about a week and a half ago... Hopefully John's pennicillin will keep him protected...
Two powerful messages today in the readings of the Church - The conversion of St Paul on the way to Damascus to persecute the Christians. St Paul is so powerful to me because just like you and I... he never walked the earth with Our Lord... Yet he was one of his most passionate followers and converted the world to know and love the Lord! He went to the Gentiles - those that worshiped gods other than the one true God. So many amazing words we have from him in all his powerful letters to all the new churches that he started all over the place!
I would love to put the entire Gospel in my blog today! I might not be up to it... It is the true meat of John 6:52-59. I would highly encourage you to grab your Bibles and read it thoroughly today! It would be amazing to "mendicate" it the way the community of the Lamb does it...with speaking each line numerous times followed by chanting it to song more times. There is no misinterpreting His command to us: "Amen, amen I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood, you will not have life within you. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood has eternal life... For my Flesh is true food, and my Blood is true drink. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood remains in me and I in him."
As I was writing this I was recalling all the conversion stories I have encoutered lately in the last few years. Of course there is my dad and then my entire family... but also I am thinking about Scott Hahn... who was out to discount everything about the CAtholic Church as he believed that our beliefs were of Satan. The more he read the Church Fathers and tried to refute the Truths that the Church upholds... the more he became convinced that he could be misled... finally he started entering a Catholic Church and sitting in the back row to observe the mass. He was totally amazed to see that it was totally scriptural and that the book of Revelation now made sence where the heavens come down to the earth at consecration! He was a goner and in a short time he converted to the Catholic Church and has been instrumental in many conversions among other Protestant clergy! A wonderful show on ESPN... my dad was on there and told his conversion story a few years ago... I have copies if anyone is interested in seeing the show... It is called Journey Home and it is an hour show where Marcus Grodi - a Protestant minister that also converted to the Church - has guests that share their own conversion stories! Most amazing to hear the stories of Mormons, Jews, Protestants that have come to the true Church! I am passionate about this topic and there is no holding back for me!
Jesus, may the divisions that exist under your name come to an end that all Christians may embrace you and all the amazing sacraments that you have given to us to be more perfect and more yours! WE want to be "raised on the last day" Jesus we trust in You! Bless-bless, Barb
In closing the person quoted in the meditation of the day today was Blessed Charles De Foucauld - he died in 1916 and was a comtemplative mystic... I would highly suggest that you google him and read about his life... He was a modern day man which makes him good for us to know about... he also had a huge conversion in his life. He had always been raised Catholic, but fell away into a life of excess and total worldly pleasures... He came totally around and embraced humility and the Word of God as well as Christ's Eucharistic self in the Body and Blood of Christ... He writes: "He who offers himself to us in the Holy Eucharist offers himself in it every day, at all moments of our life, to be possessed by us, to be our life throughout our entire existence and in eternity. God gave himself, offered himself once to us: he will continue to offer himself always, always, at all times of our life so as to be always, eternally within us... Let us hope! It is always up to us to receive him and to keep him in this life and in the next."
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