This was a particularly trying weekend for me. I responded poorly to several unwelcome intrusions with anger, anxiety, impatience and doubt. I forgot an essential truth: that whatever was, or would be happening in my life today or anytime in the future, is intended by God for the salvation of my soul. 

I had to trust Him. I had to surrender to God the concerns that were causing me so much angst and which I was unable to resolve on my own. I had to trust God to take care of them. I rushed to an online Adoration site I frequently visit where I could  gaze upon my waiting and loving Lord and seek His assistance. 

On my way there, I rediscovered Sanctify the Moment – The Now Moment written by Ven. Fulton J. Sheen.  It had been some time since I had first read this article. It immediately helped me to put my current challenges into proper perspective.
Hopefully, the good Archbishop's words will help you to do likewise:  

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"[One] remedy for the ills that come to us from thinking about time is what might be called the sanctification of the moment—or the Now. Our Lord laid down the rule for us in these words: “Do not fret, then, over tomorrow; leave tomorrow to fret over its own needs; for today, today’s troubles are enough.”

(Matt. 6:34)

This means that each day has its own trials; we are not to borrow troubles from tomorrow, because that day, too, will have its cross. We are to leave the past to Divine Mercy and to trust the future, whatever its trials, to His Loving Providence.

Each minute of life has its peculiar duty—regardless of the appearance that minute may take. The Now-moment is the moment of salvation. Each complaint against it is a defeat; each act of resignation to it is a victory. The moment is always an indication to us of God’s will. The ways of pleasing Him are made clear to us in several ways: through His Commandments, by the events of His Incarnate Life in Jesus Christ Our Lord, in the Voice of His Mystical Body, the Church, in the duties of our state of life. And, in a more particular way, God’s will is manifested for us in the Now with all of its attendant circumstances, duties, and trials.

The present moment includes some things over which we have control, but it also carries with it difficulties we cannot avoid—such things as a business failure, a bad cold, rain on picnic days, an unwelcome visitor, a fallen cake, a buzzer that doesn’t work, a fly in the milk, and a boil on the nose the night of the dance. We do not always know why such things as sickness and setbacks happen to us, for our minds are far too puny to grasp God’s plan. Man is a little like a mouse in a piano, which cannot understand why it must be disturbed by someone playing Chopin and forcing it to move off the piano wires.

Those who love God do not protest, whatever He may ask of them, nor doubt His kindness when He sends them difficult hours. A sick man takes medicine without asking the physician to justify its bitter taste, because he trusts the doctor’s knowledge; so the soul which has sufficient faith accepts all the events of life as gifts from God, in the serene assurance that He knows best.

Nothing is more individually tailored to our spiritual needs than the Now-moment; for that reason it is an occasion of knowledge which can come to no one else. This moment is my school, my textbook, my lesson. Not even Our Lord disdained to learn from His specific Now; being God, He knew all, but there was still one kind of knowledge He could experience as a man. St. Paul describes it: “Son of God though He was, He learned obedience in the school of suffering.”

(Heb. 5:8)

… to accept the crosses of our state of life because they come from an all-loving God is to have taken the most important step in the reformation of the world, namely, the reformation of the self. Sanctity can be built out of patient endurance of the incessant grumbling of a husband—the almost intolerable nagging of a wife—the boss’s habit of smoking a pipe while he dictates—the noise the children make with their soup—the unexpected illness—the failure to find a husband—the inability to get rich. All these can become occasions of merit and be made into prayers if they are borne patiently for love of One Who bears so patiently with us, despite our shortcomings, our failures, and our sins.

…To accept the duty of this moment for God is to touch Eternity, to escape from time. This habit of embracing the Now and glorifying God through its demands is an act of the loving will. 

… We would all like to make our own crosses; but since Our Lord did not make His Own, neither do we make ours. We can take whatever He gives us, and we can make the supernatural best of it. The typist at her desk working on routine letters, the street cleaner with his broom, the farmer tilling the field with his horses, the doctor bending over a patient, the lawyer trying his case, the student with his books, the sick in their isolation and pain, the teacher drilling her pupils, the mother dressing the children—every such task, every such duty can be ennobled and spiritualized if it is done in God's name."

​I am blessed to be a Lay Dominican. However, the ideas expressed on this blog are my own and do not represent the endorsement of or position of the Order of Preachers as a whole. I am neither responsible for, nor endorse content (e.g. banner ads, pop-up ads, etc.) that may be linked to this blog.

This post may have no positive impact on anyone's life or it may be exactly what some soul needs to hear. It will likely cause some to attack me personally. I will leave the outcome of this effort where it belongs - in God's hands. 

It is an invitation to take a look into our own souls. Where have we been and where are we headed? 

Just when I thought this world had exhausted the ways it can devise to offend the God who made us in His image and likeness,  I glance at social media or school curriculum and shudder in utter shock and dismay.

Too many have abandoned common sense and reason. They have no idea why God created them. Some are unable (or unwilling) to define the difference between a male or female. Others argue that there are more than two sexes. Still more believe that they can transition from one sex to another as they choose. Black has become white. Truth has been replaced with lies. The common good abandoned for personal gratification and self-pleasure. Good is defined as evil, and evil good. You have freedom of speech but only to the extent that your listener agrees with the substance of what you say. 

I could go on and on but you understand the point I am trying to make.

It is an act of love to remind our fellow human beings that there is a God and that someday we will all stand before His throne of Justice. Human deception and sinfulness will come to an end. Eternity will begin - one of unending bliss in the Presence of God Almighty; the other in unceasing torment. 

God has implanted in the hearts of every soul He has created, an innate awareness of natural law - what is right or wrong. So it is not judging a person whose conduct is objectively contrary to God's commandments if you point that out  - lovingly. Such fraternal correction is indeed an act of love - an obligation each of us has - no matter how difficult  it may be to share that truth and no matter how angry someone may become with us.

There was a time when no sane person would advocate killing someone simply because they rejected his or her sharing God's immutable Truth. Tragically, we are no longer at that place. God have mercy on us!

The reasons we have reached this troubled state in our society are varied and numerous. 

I want to focus on one: the deafening silence of Christians and Christian Churches - their failure to teach the Truth, live It, and defend It - their failure to fraternally correct family and loved ones who objectively live in ways contrary to God's law. 

Wake up! We who have been silent in the face of sin will be treated at the time of our particular  judgment in the same manner as the unrepentant sinner - an eternity of torture and separation from the God.  

To paraphrase, St. Jerome: Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of God. The following is one portion of Scripture that we better read and take to heart:

"Son of man, he said to me, take into your heart all my words that I speak to you; hear them well. Now go to the exiles, to your countrymen, and say to them: Thus says the Lord God! — whether they heed or resist…

Thus ,the word of the Lord came to me: Son of man, I have appointed you a watchman for the house of Israel. When you hear a word from my mouth, you shall warn them for me.

If I say to the wicked man, You shall surely die; and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his wicked conduct so that he may live: that wicked man shall die for his sin, but I will hold you responsible for his death. If, on the other hand, you have warned the wicked man, yet he has not turned away from his evil nor from his wicked conduct, then he shall die for his sin, but you shall save your life.

If a virtuous man turns away from virtue and does wrong when I place a stumbling block before him, he shall die. He shall die for his sin, and his virtuous deeds shall not be remembered; but I will hold you responsible for his death if you did not warn him. When, on the other hand, you have warned a virtuous man not to sin, and he has in fact not sinned, he shall surely live because of the warning, and you shall save your own life.” 

(Ezekiel 3:10-11, 3: 17- 21)

There is still time to turn the tide, to save our souls and of those we know and love. Regain your voice. Break your silence. Enter this spiritual battle. Share, live and defend God's Truth! 

​​I am blessed to be a Lay Dominican. However, the ideas expressed on this blog are my own and do not represent the endorsement of or position of the Order of Preachers as a whole. I am neither responsible for, nor endorse content (e.g. banner ads, pop-up ads, etc.) that may be linked to this blog.