M18, p&f, love

We are creation made out of LOVE &
called to carry that love to ALL we meet.
If we are bringing the LOVE then GOD will also be present.

We were created with Gifts&Talents through which we experience and bring God to :::others:::. If, however, they become the ->center<- of our lives, we hinder our growth in GOD and in LOVE.

With God at the ->center<- of our Lives
EVERY MOMENT becomes and opportunity to grow Closer to Christ.
Let's find where our Christ centered life is leading.

Once discerned, don't let any
selfishness...pride...
other person...reservations...
or any type of FEAR

:::STOP YOU::: from following the CALL.

Because w.a.l.k.i.n.g. that p.a.t.h. is where you find happiness,
as you give more&more
of yourself
to GOD.

M18 ::: Surrender to LOVE ::: TAP the BACK

When does the sun stop shining?

When does the sun stop shining? When the fiery light of this world sinks below the horizon and the blanket of midnight blue comes in from the east, does the sun stop? Little ones tucked in their bed may ask the question, “Mama, Daddy, what happened to the sun?” Tired parents who are too far away from their 3rd grade class room will respond, “It went to sleep, like you should be doing,” confident that in time the young minds will be set straight by a science book. But the sun doesn’t stop shining. The fire still burns, the light is still present. The world has just turned its back and is unable to see.


When does God stop loving? When there is a void in our soul the size of a planet? When our hearts are broken down and crumpled with sin? When we sit in our churches, our grottoes, in the silence, in the music, and with hands clasped say “What happened to God’s love?” Do not doubt. He is there, loving you.


God’s love never changes. But our acceptance of it can. Like the world that turns its back on the sun, we too turn away from our God. We trade the light of his wisdom, for the darkness of the relative world. The spark of passion God invites us to follow becomes weak and we lose the pathway to righteousness. The roaring presence of the trinity becomes a faint whisper, a memory of what we used to do. God’s love never changes, we turn away, we close the door.


Like the sun is ever shining upon us, God is ever loving us. Ever dying for us. He forever is pouring graces on us, despite our inability to understand, our tendency to disobey, and the stubbornness of pride. When we feel overwhelmed, when we feel alone, He is there. We need to turn back and accept the graces. By confessing our wrongs, and seeking forgiveness, we turn back to God, and face the warmth of his love.


When the morning comes the sun rises, a new day has begun. It is fresh and it is new, with so much potential, and filled with so much love.

overlooking the greatest beauty

I wrote this when I was studying abroad in Rome during the Fall of 2008. The pictures were taken while I was hiking with the group in the northern-ish area of Italy.

A traveler goes and sees a mountain for the first time. Coming upon it he is brought to silence and awe. His mind ponders, “How did this piece of earth become so tall? How did God create something so beautiful?” For certain he will sit and watch, taking in every detail and line, beauty and color of the mountain. And once the traveler is sure that he has seen all aspects of the mountain and its beauty, the mountain will reveal more. It will say to its forests and its faces “Let us show the weary traveler our beauty” and all of the nature will work together and the mountain’s splendor will ring out like a song.



The patient man will surely see more.

There is a man who lives in the town at the foot of the mountain. He passes the mountain every day, but it is nothing but a mountain. In his younger days he played in its forests and climbed its faces, touching its beauty and discovering its secrets. But as it always happens, the boy grew up and the mountain became simply a part of everyday life. Its beauty was still there, its secrets are waiting, but now the man is busy; his mind is filled up. It is only a mountain and there is no time for things like that.

Time and familiarity make us forget what we know.

It is amazing how a person can live amidst greatness and overlook it. To be in the presence of something bold, something radical, something scandalous, and not look twice.

If a person only encounters miracles then are they still miraculous? If the extraordinary becomes the ordinary, then how will we live when we witness them? It is when we become “familiar” with the divine that we become forgetful of its divinity.

For it is that way with our faith. A God whose love for us is that of a scandal, a radical love that does not, will not, and could not ever make sense to us – a divine love. It is with this love that he sent his son – a perfect sacrifice – to die for us. It is with this bold love that he claims us as his own and constantly pines for us. And it is with this same radical love that he gives us the choice to turn away from his beauty and love living our lives rejecting him.

How often do we sit at mass and forget what we are partaking in. Like the man and the mountain we once could hear the secrets of Christ’s love, we were discovering and exploring Love’s endlessness. But then we became content with what we knew. We stopped going deeper, we became “familiar.” We were satisfied with our place and stayed where we were. We forgot how radical God’s Love was, the scandal of his sacrifice, the boldness of his hand, and the deepness of his heart. In our familiarity we became blind. Our faith – once a radical love story was now familiar. What a tragedy that something so great is reduced to that of habit.

The man who lives on the mountain saw the traveler gazing up. He did not understand the visitors wonder, and so he takes a second look. He remembers the mountain’s friendship and his beauty – realizing what he has overlooked so many years of his life. Silently he thanks the traveler for gazing because it took the awe of a visitor for the man to remember the reality.



Let us not wait for a visitor to push us to forget our familiarity and rediscover the radical.