Remind the World

Remind the World

“Remind the world Who its King Is, Who it is that they are to worship.”

https://youtu.be/uLiJqKrVR8s

Wings of Silence

Wings of Silence

My Lord,
I spread my wings in this,
My poor prayer.

I wait,
Trustingly, wait,
For You, My Lord.

You come, hovering,
And then,
Like a breeze
Beneath my pinions,
Fill and lift me.

I rest on the Wind,
Knowing,
It is Your Spirit
Holding me aloft.

At Your invitation,
I rise,
Ever higher,
Resting on the Wind.

Hugging Your hallowed Presence,
I can simply be,
Knowing,
You know me.

It is the silence of my heart That dares speak,
As soaring,
Without effort,
I hear Your Silence,
Your knowing,
Loving, Silence.

© 2018 Joann Nelander

A Life of Gratitude

A Life of Gratitude

St. Bernadette looked at her life in simple thanksgiving for everything. Her testament is an exceptional statement of gratitude. In her words:

• For the poverty in which my mother and father lived, for the failure of the mill, all the hard times, for the awful sheep, for constant tiredness, thank you, my God!
• For lips, which I was feeding too much, for the dirty noses of the children, for the guarded sheep, I thank you!
• Thank you, my God, for the prosecutor and the police commissioner, for the policemen, and for the harsh words of Father Peyramale!
• For the days in which you came, Mary, for the ones in which you did not come, I will never be able to thank you…only in Paradise.
• For the slap in the face, for the ridicule, the insults, and for those who suspected me for wanting to gain something from it, thank you, my Lady.
• For my spelling, which I never learned, for the memory that I never had, for my ignorance and for my stupidity, thank you.
• For the fact that my mother died so far away, for the pain I felt when my father instead of hugging his little Bernadette called me, “Sister Marie-Bernard”, I thank you, Jesus.
• I thank you for the heart you gave me, so delicate and sensitive, which you filled with bitterness.
• For the fact that Mother Josephine proclaimed that I was good for nothing, thank you. For the sarcasm of the Mother Superior: her harsh voice, her injustices, her irony and for the bread of humiliation, thank you.
• Thank you that I was the privileged one when it came to be reprimanded, so that my sisters said, “How lucky it is not to be Bernadette.”
• Thank you for the fact that it is me, who was the Bernadette threatened with imprisonment because she had seen you, Holy Virgin; regarded by people as a rare animal; that Bernadette so wretched, that upon seeing her, it was said, “Is that it?”
• For this miserable body which you gave me, for this burning and suffocating illness, for my decaying tissues, for my de-calcified bones, for my sweats, for my fever, for my dullness and for my acute pains, thank you, my God.
• And for this soul which you have given me, for the desert of inner dryness, for your night and the lightening, for your silences and your thunders, for everything.
• For you-when you were present and when you were not—thank you, Jesus. (Saint Bernadette, Saint Bernadette Soubirous, Abbe Francois Trochu)

From His Fullness

From His Fullness

Gabriel spoke God’s Words,
“Full of Grace”.

Was Gabriel wrong?
Was God wrong?
What does “full” mean to God?
Does it imply “except for”?

God’s fullness is for us His Children beyond comprehension?

Do not fear to take Mary for your mother, if you are His beloved disciple. She is His gift given with His Blood from the Cross. Her capacity to bless you flows from God’s fullness.

© 2018 Joann Nelander

Time and Genesis

Time and Genesis

Fr. Spitzer mentioned a Jewish thinker who thought about the days of Genesis’ creation account and applied Einstein time dilation n his calculations. This article by a Jewish astrophysicist makes for an interesting read and some amazing results to ponder.

http://www.geraldschroeder.com/AgeUniverse.aspx

Controversy over Amoris Laetisia

Controversy over Amoris Laetisia https://youtu.be/2qpArUYqXno

For the Open -minded Atheist

For the Open -minded Atheist

Recommended reading for open minded atheists and agnostics: “The Experience of God” by David Brentley Hart. According to Dr. David Anders, it gets you outside a Christian bias and helps you approach the topic of God in a rigorous philosophical way. He also recommends Edward Feser’s “Five Proofs for the Existence of God,

Anthony Phlew’s “There is a God” http://www.thedivineconspiracy.org/Z5222E.pdf

David Conway ‘s “Rediscovery of Wisdom”. Proofs for the Aristotelian concept of God. He is not a Christian and is not trying to prove the Christian concept of God