Category: Devotional Reflections

Devotional Reflections…Success as seen through the eyes of the world, or God’s eyes?

“The logic of worldly success rests on a fallacy: the strange error that our perfection depends on the thoughts and opinions and applause of other men! A weird life it is, indeed, to be living always in somebody else’s imagination, as if that were the only place in which one could become real!”

Thomas Merton, OCSO1

1From ‘A Daily Catholic Moment, Aquinas Press Classics, (c) 2014, Paraclete Press

Two recent thoughts from the Lord:

October 26, 2021

You do well to set aside all the plans, purposes and intentions that serve to dictate to you what you will do, at any given hour in any given day, to seek FIRST the Kingdom, and let your purposes and plans fall into line from there rather than from the Kingdoms that you are building in your own mind. Those are KINGDOMS that derive from your own self will, which is primarily self-interested, self-oriented, and selfish to the extreme.

Self-will has never been and, indeed, cannot ever be, at the service of the will of My Father. Even I, the Only Begotten Son of the Father, had to yield My WILL to conform it to HIS WILL. No one who purposes in their heart to serve their own interests or pursue what they want – or think is best – for themselves, can truly SERVE in the Kingdom of My Father. Only those who totally relinquish every form and aspect of self-will, who surrender their ALL into My keeping, can hope to serve the Father and be part of the Everlasting, Eternal, Heavenly Kingdom.

When it comes to the Last Day, every person will see, with clarity and total understanding, which KINGDOM they have served in, and they will KNOW that the eternal destiny that awaits them is one of their own making. Neither I nor My Father condemn anyone to the everlasting Lake of Fire, rather each choice a person makes in this life determines for themselves where their eternity will be spent. The choice faced by each person is exactly the same as it was for Me in the Garden, where I yielded My Whole Being into the Hands of the Father, when I said, “Not My will, but YOUR will be done, O Lord.”

With every choice you are making TODAY you are paving the way to your own eternal destination.

October 27, 2021

“In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”       ~ Is. 30:15

Many believe that their strength is founded upon confidence in themselves, and they strive to develop their self esteem, to see themselves in the most positive light, to glory in themselves, and take credit for themselves, attributing success to their natural talents and abilities. They pride themselves in their stellar performances and even declare to themselves, and others who might listen, ‘Truly, I am like God.’

But, it’s all illusory, a great deception of the enemy of their souls, for when they face a true crisis, where who they are, all they pride themselves in, and what they can do is totally insufficient to see them through, then, they come face to face with the emptiness and inadequacy of self.

‘Self’ cannot deliver them from the diagnosis of a terminal illness. ‘Self’ cannot overcome the vagaries of financial ruin. ‘Self’ is unable to hold on when the world around them is crumbling – a loved one is dying, a natural disaster has struck personally destroying their home or livelihood, a ‘pink slip’ has arrived unexpectedly in their ‘In’ box, and their house of cards has come tumbling down.

No, only as you have sunk your roots deep into the quietness and confidence that come from KNOWING Me will you have the strength to stand firm amidst the battering of the storms of life and be uncertainties being faced in the world around you today.

It is My desire to give to each one who places their trust and confidence in Me, who chooses to be a ‘sheep’ of My Flock, to surrender their whole lives into My keeping – to these I give the inheritance of the Heavenly Kingdom, the assurance of joy and abundant life in the here and now, and eternity in the life that is to come.

Death is NOT the end, it is a beginning for ALL who trust in ME.

Devotional Reflections… Being alone with the ALONE…

June 22, 2021

As I was driving into Mass this past Sunday morning, along an almost deserted highway, and contemplating the sky and the cloud formation, a question formed in my heart, “Lord, where are you? Do You hear me? Do You see me?”

The Lord seemed to give this response:

I envelop and enfold you in My Presence. I am not a physical entity, as you suppose from the many images in historic art where I am depicted seated on a heavenly throne. I am not confined to space and cannot be located at some fixed point in the Universe. I fill the whole Universe with My Presence. In the same way, as it says, in Genesis, that I ‘…hovered over the water…’ in the beginning, I continue to ‘hover’ over all of creation, including you.

As I hovered, I ‘spoke’, and instantly created, physical universes came into being, but I am not part of those physical realities. I encircle and surround them with My Presence, like an ever-present cloud – and I am contained in all of it at once, not in a single, specific location.

While I can be seen in the physical form in the Person of My Son, I am not ‘substance’ in the entirety of My Being.

As you have reflected upon your experience of the ‘sound surround’ of the robin’s song at dawn, when you have stepped out your door at first light of day, so am I. I am all around you, but you cannot pinpoint My Presence anymore than you can identify the location of a single, solitary, singing bird, as several of them call back and forth, unseen, and their song fills the air around you.

I envelop the Universe I have created, and, at the same time, I envelop and surround you. I ‘hear’ you and I ‘see’ you because you, too, are part of My created worlds. I feel the beat of your heart, and know the thoughts of your mind, instantaneously. There is no distance between you and Me. I absorb all of who and what you are into My Being – because I AM.