Thecatholicbozo - Jesus Christ, Holy Wisdom, Illumine My Blindness

Psalm 144:1-2 NLT A psalm of David.

1 Praise the Lord, who is my rock.    He trains my hands for war    and gives my fingers skill for battle. 2 He is my loving ally and my fortress,    my tower of safety, my rescuer. He is my shield, and I take refuge in him.    He makes the nations submit to me.

The Immaculate Conception of Mary

The Immaculate Conception, one of the four dogmas of the Catholic Church, maintains that from the moment the Blessed Virgin Mary was conceived in the womb, she was kept free of original sin, so that she was from the start filled with the sanctifying grace normally conferred in baptism. O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.  {website}

Been thinking a lot during Holy Week

I've done a lot of things in the past that I'm not proud of, during the time I was away from Faith. Things I knew were wrong at the time, but did them anyway for the empty pleasure they gave me, hoping that some day it wouldn't feel so empty. It sucks living with the knowledge that those things were spiritually harmful to the people I did them with, and to myself, and were an offense to God and his vision of human dignity & human cooperation. And it sucks knowing that I still sometimes choose sin & vanity over God.

There's a real sense that I owe those people a debt that I cannot pay back (even if they would accept repayment), no matter how much I was able to offer. I think that's why Jesus stresses forgiving others in his ministry - he knows that we can't make full & proper restitution for our sins against others. I can't make those people forgive me, but I want to forgive anyone who's wronged me, and I hope that they find forgiveness in their own eyes and in the eyes of God.

Christ chose to pay our debt of sin owed to the Father through his free & willing sacrifice of obedience & humility on the cross. And it's a pleasing sacrifice to the Father. It's a sacrifice so powerful that God doesn't just wipe away our debt and declare us good, he allows us to receive the grace to actually become good & grow in goodness. What an astounding gift.

Pride is something I struggle with, so I hope God gives me opportunities to make willing sacrifices of humility and (maybe more importantly) the good sense to recognize those opportunities when he presents them. To give me a cross and to help me climb upon it beside our Lord lovingly instead of begrudgingly. And I hope that through those sacrifices, God will bring healing to the people I've wronged and the people who've wronged me, and to help me to grow in love & admiration for Christ who sacrificed himself for me.

Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi, dona nobis pacem

I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you." Isaiah 44:22

No matter how low you may have sunk or fallen - God still loves you.

When the Prodigal son hit rock bottom, he came to his senses and realised that his father still loved him. The important thing in this story is, he understood his father's love for him.

There’s hope for all who’ve failed thoroughly, who’ve made a mess of their lives, and who’ve reached rock bottom. The Lord can pick you up and make something beautiful out of your life. Remember one thing today: that God still loves you, no matter where you are, or how low you have fallen. May your faith in God’s love not fail.

He doesn’t want us to continue in our sin. God loves you but He hates the sin that will eventually destroy you.

It’s a wonderful thing to be a child of God. When God lays hold of us, He puts a cord of love around us to protect us. There’s a lot of slack in that cord, and you may slip up and fall thousands of times and even drift away from the Lord. But one day, you’ll reach the end of that cord. And then God will pull you right back to Him.

Of course, you can decide at that point, to cut off the cord and run away, or choose to be broken by God’s kindness and mourn and return to Him. That’s what Peter did. He wept and turned back to the Lord. But Judas Iscariot didn’t do that. He cut away the cord - in rebellion against God’s authority over his life - and was eternally lost. But I trust you’ll do what Peter did.