My heart is heavy at the thought of all the fractured families that are so often discovered as we share with others.... The most heart wrenching part is the young children that have to endure the pain and even damage as a result of these circumstances! Why? We ask the Lord how small innocent children seem to be here to face the horrors of what unhappy and sick adults place upon them! The adults now doing these abominations to others... were probably at one time children that were not loved or left to be harmed by the damaged adults from the generation ahead of them! Such a sad and heartbreaking cycle of misery and HELL!
I was moved to understanding and compassion when we learned about the man that had ambushed Pat's brother, Don, in Montana on Don's ranch and shot and killed him. We were presented with a picture of a man that had never been loved in his life and of the 34 years of his life... 17 years had been spent in prison! He had recently been released and drifted in Don's direction and was there one time when Pat called to talk to Don. Pat got off the phone saying that he knew nothing about farming or ranching and he had no idea what he was doing there to "help" Donny. Not too much later we got the news that Don had been found murdered, and within days they had gotten the man that did it! He had stolen Don's pickup and things including the gun, which was Don's, he had used to kill him... Not knowing that the cows needed to be fed... they were walking the fencelines and the neighbors saw them and knew within days that something was wrong!
Such a hard situation! Who would ever think that you could get to the place where you actually felt sorry for the man that killed in cold blood your brother/brother in law? But to realize that a person could be so unfeeling and messed up to think that for a few things he thought that Don owed him... that he could without thought other than for his own benefit.... take a life! How can a person get to a place like that? With never knowing love in his life, and probably horrible abuse, and witnessing so much hard things within the family that he had... The life had been taken out of him, and replaced with only darkness!
A few years back I was watching one of those news programs on later in the evening and they were talking about foster parenting... Diane Sawyer was telling about a girl, who at 12 could not be handled in a home with other children because she "acted out sexaully and other ways." She went on the describe something that has haunted me since of how when they were rescued from the home they were living in with their mother... there was a road kill deer on the table that the kids were cutting pieces off to eat. This young girl had to have bugs surgically removed from her ears! Can you imagine the conditions for bugs to have gotten into her ears?!? They also shared that their mother was a meth addict and had been prostituting to support her habit and the kids had stood around and watched! The worst! How can this ever be changed for this young girl? How can she ever experience a clean slate and a change of heart when all she has known is such horror?
I am asking myself why I feel compelled to share this dark stuff today... I guess that I am not fooling myself to think that we all haven't heard equally bad stuff and maybe within our own families are those families that make us so sad and helpless in being there to help them or make a difference especially for the small children that are caught in the middle! A good friend of ours from when we were first married... Pat shared that he had a brother, who was a horrible alcoholic..."Every Saturday Al would go and buy a bunch of groceries and take them over for his sister in law and the kids." We do what we can to help make the burden less!
It is mind boggling to me to see these shows now on TV that shows the life behind bars... these people are like what I have been describing... trying to make weapons out of anything they can get their hands on to kill each other! I think I have shared enough here about how they can get to this point of anger, hurt and pain to take lashing out towards others as their main goal of existance! That is pure hate, and total lack of knowing love! We see so much these days and hear so much... what is the answer? One thing I do is try more and more to stay away from it and letting it enter my mind and make me feel helpless and hopeless!
I am sorry if some of the things that I shared today caused you to feel that way, but I guess that I just needed to make a point... In some ways we need to be aware of the state of the world, and to for sure be doing our "job" of lifting it up in prayer! I have recently added a 9th decade of the rosary each day... the 3rd joyful - the birth of Christ and asking the Holy Family to intercede in the sad state of many families! It seems that there are few that embrace wholeheartedly the TRUTH, and there are those that are so tied up in the material and the lies of the world on what it takes to have happiness... that they are feeding their children with some emptiness also! Much to pray about!
Today in the Gospel... Luke 13:10-17... Jesus heals a woman bent over for eighteen years....so interesting that it would be 18 years - the amount of time that we feel a infant can reach independence and adulthood in many ways... as many of our children leave home to make their own decisions at 18... how we hope and pray that they are moral and right decisions! This woman was unable to stand "crippled by a spirit", and I do feel that evil forces are definitely at play, in the worst way, in these situations that I have shared today! Let us just for the sake of our prayers for the children caught in the middle of all this... think that maybe this was an 18 year old girl , who since the beginning of her life was bent over and crippled by the damage she had received and the lack of love.... Listen to the Gospel with that in your mind..."When Jesus saw her, he called to her and said, 'Woman, you are set free of your infirmity.' He laid his hands on her, and she at once stood up staight and glorified God." Praise God! Let us use this in our prayers as we visualize that young child now an adult that is bitter and damaged... that the Lord will reach out and touch them and they will stand up "staight and glorify God." We all know that the Lord's timing is different from ours, but we need to remain hopeful and prayerful!
Today in the meditation of the day - Fr Carron speaks of "Being Set Free amidst our Circumstances"
"For us, then, circumstances are not neutral. They are not things that happen without any meaning; that is, they are not just things to put up with, to suffer stoically. They are part of our vocation, of the way in which God, the good Mystery, calls us, challanges us, educates us. For us, these circumstances have all the weight of a call, and thus are part of the dialogue of each one of us with the Mystery present.... Life is a dialogue."
"Life is not a tragedy. Tragedy is what makes everything amount to nothing. Yes, life is a drama. It is dramatic because of the relationship between our I and the You of God, our I must follow the steps which God indicates." L. Giussani....It is this Presence, this You that makes circumstances change, because without this You everything would be nothing, everything would be a step toward an ever darker tragedy. But precisely because this You (God) exists, circumstances call us to Him. It is He who calls us through them. It is He who calls us to destiny through everything that happens." Fr Carron is professor of theology in the University of Milan
So let us take heart... remembering this woman that could not stand up because of her oppression! There is hope and we just need to pray and have faith and like Al... help out those that are affected by the darkness in any way that we can! It does no good for us to fill ourselves with a diet of this sadness that some people's lives have become, yet we need to remember that "there but for the grace of God go I!" We should not be haughty or proud that we have been blessed with good parenting and blessed homes... we need to say to the Lord... I have been blessed, and now how can I be of service to those that do not know love but only darkness? He will show us and He will answer us! Prayer is huge and there are results in the Lord's timing!
We certainly see that the "circumstances" of our lives do lead us to Him and are used by Him to form us and use us to assist others around us... to serve without counting the cost! Use us Lord! We are yours... body, mind and spirit!
I think that Blessed Teresa of Calcutta can help us here too:
"Who are we to accuse anybody?
It is possible that we see them do something we think is not right, but we do not know why they are doing it.
Jesus encouraged us not to judge anyone.
Maybe we are the ones responsible for others doing things we think are not right.
Let us not forget that we are dealing with our brothers and sisters. That leper, that sick person, that drunk, are all our brothers and sisters. They, too, have been created by a greater love.
There is something we should never forget.
That sick person, that alcoholic, that thief, that murderer are my brothers and sisters.
It is possible that they find themselves abandoned in the street because no one gave them love and understanding. You and I could be in their place if we had not received love and understanding from other human beings.
I will never forget the alcoholic man who told me his story. He was a man who had surrendered to alcohol to forget the fact that no one loved him.
Before we judge the poor, we have the duty to look inside ourselves."
Let's end on a positive note... thanks once again to Blessed Teresa of Calcutta!
"In Jesus, Mary and Joseph - the Holy Family of Nazareth - we have a beautiful example for us to imitate. What did they do?
Joseph was a humble carpenter in order to support Jesus and Mary, providing their food and clothes - whatever they needed.
Mary, the mother, also had a humble task - that of a housewife with a son and a husband to take care of.
AS the son was growing up, Mary would worry that he would have a normal life, that he would "feel at home" in the house with her and Joseph.
It was a home where tenderness, understanding, and mutual respect abounded.
As I have said before: a wonderful example for us to imitate."
I hear humble in there a whole lot, and how I love to imagine their home for those 30 years until Christ started his brief and amazing journey to the Cross!
Lord, after spending time with your Word, your saints, and prayer... we feel more hopeful and know that we are being called not to judge, but to pray for the release of captives and for healing to take place in those that are damaged and wounded by "circumstaces" in their lives! WE ask for protection of the innocent children that are in the middle of so many sad situations we are aware of and unaware of! Show us how to help and to serve our fellow brothers and sisters filled with the love we have been armed and blessed with... "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light." Ephesians 5:8 We long to spend time getting strong in the light... filling our hearts and minds with all that is good and pure, so that we can serve you with strength and courage! Jesus, we trust in you! Amen and Halleluia!
Bless-bless, Barb"I am the Lord, your God, who grasp your right hand: It is I who say to you, 'Fear not, I will help you.'"
Isaiah 41:13
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