Tuesday, October 31, 2006

power from the desert

"In Luke 4:17-18 we read, “Jesus returned from the desert, in the power of the Spirit.” What happens in the desert? Power comes in the desert! It comes from the desert. Scripture tells us that Jesus returned from the desert in the power of the Spirit. The power behind anointed intercession is the power of the Holy Spirit."
--Mother Nadine

Friday, October 20, 2006

A Lesson for Today

(I must preceed this post with a note on how timely this particular message was for me as I'm posting this from Children's Hospital where we are with my three year old possibly facing surgery...God is good and I'm not alone.)

"And this is a lesson for today: how to avoid hardness, how to avoid the devil's poison, how to avoid darkness, which are all the same. For whenever we transgress, we invite hardness in. We can also do this through hatred, bitterness, or jealousy.

Such emotions rise in a special manner when we are ill or otherwise hurt. A deep wound is both an opportunity and a danger. Satan stands at the door of our wounds, and tries to pour his cement through them. It is like the gall he offered to Jesus on the Cross. When St. Teresa of Avila was given a vision of hell, she saw mud that trapped those who wallowed in it.

When we become bitter, we too are trapped and when we sin we have a blotch in our spirits that may then transmit to the physical (making us sicker still or ill if we are well). Blotches add up until they blind us -- until they calcify. Slowly but surely, we build a wall between ourselves and God.

This "hardness" may come not just through illnesses or accidents but also when we are having financial or emotional distress. During an upset in a marriage, the devil is only too quick to tell us how bad things are, how they will not improve, how it is over for us. If we succumb to a negative expectation, and bitterness, we curse ourselves. When we are angry, despairing, resentful, or jealous, we also curse others. We spread the poison.

When we are hurt, when we get a new suffering, when we are in pain, it opens up a wound in our hearts, like a hole: a void within us. If Christ is not allowed to fill that void, the devil does.

He knows that wounds are an opportunity to enter our souls and he speaks to us so that we can hear him (louder than all else). The first sign of Satan's presence: confusion, anxiety, and frustration -- especially frustration with God.

When we use the wounds as an offering to the Lord, on the other hand -- as an opportunity for growth, and maintain our faith -- they become a ticket to deliverance here and Heaven after."

read full story here

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Here's to the scooping process..

A woman was asked by a coworker, "What is it like to be a Christian?"
The coworker replied, "It is like being a pumpkin.
God picks you from the patch, brings you in, and washes all the dirt off of you.
Then He cuts off the top and scoops out all the yucky stuff. "He removes the seeds of doubt, hate, and greed.
Then He carves you a new smiling face and puts His light inside of you to shine for all the world to see."
(got this in a E-Mail from my niece today...please keep her in your prayers).

Inner Healing

"Inner healing is simply asking Jesus to walk back to the time when we were hurt and to free us from the effects of that wound in the very present moment. We might not remember these incidents. Often times we do not, but God does. We can ask Him to walk back into that time and to set us free from anything that is still darkness within us, anything that is still noisy within us, anything that is still taking up room within us, that should be reserved entirely for God. This involves bringing to light the things that have hurt us and not trying to repress them. It may involve talking them out with another person. Healing is a process. We take a lot of this to our journals so that we can get it into the light. It is the work of the Holy Spirit. Hurtful memories of the past cannot be ignored if we are to really become filled, full of grace, full of love with God. It is a journey, a process. We must remember, however, that we travel this journey throughout our entire Christian life with the Lord. Inner healing is not something that happens instantly. It may happen day to day to day. Even when hurts get healed from our past, there are still daily hurts that have to be brought into God’s healing light."
--Mother Nadine

read entire article here

Sunday, October 15, 2006

What was THAT about?

read full story

"“It is a teaching of the church, not an option,” said Father William of the existence of the devil, citing a document produced by the Congregation for Divine Worship in 1975 reiterating this teaching. “It is a presumed dimension of our faith because the redemptive work of Jesus does not make sense without the reality of the devil,” he said. This is why, Father William explained, throughout his ministry Jesus was always casting out demons."

This was on one Fr. Ron's teachings that really captured me...during one of his homilies he points to the Cross at the altar and says 'if the devil isn't real...then what was THAT about?' POWERFUL!

Friday, October 13, 2006

Cheerfulness


"The scene of the parable is being repeated: it is the same as with those people who were invited to the wedding feast. Some are afraid, others have their own concerns, many... make up stories or give silly excuses.

They put up resistance. That is why they feel the way they do: fed up, all in a muddle, listless, bored, bitter. And yet how easy it is to accept the divine invitation at every moment, and live a happy life, full of joy!"
– St. Josemaria Escriva, Furrow, #67

humility

A HERMIT had a gift from God to cast out evil spirits. One time he asked to learn what they feared most and what compelled them to flee.

“Perhaps it is fasting?” he asked one of them.

“We,” the evil spirit replied, “neither ever eat nor ever drink.”

“Sleepless vigils, then?”

“We do not sleep at all.”

“Flight from the world?”

“Supposedly an important thing. But we spend the greater part of our time wandering around the deserts.”

“I implore you to confess what it is that can subdue you,” insisted the elder.

The evil spirit, compelled by a supernatural force, was pressed to answer: “Humility—which we can never overcome.”

— The Ancient Fathers of the Desert: Section 1

Today's Gospel Reflection

Reflection:
"Repent! Let Jesus clean your soul. Then fight the good fight of faith by growing "in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Pt 3:18; 2 Tm 4:7). Instead of being content with empty, let Jesus give you life to the full (Jn 10:10). Fill your mind with God's Word; fill your mouth with the Eucharist, the Bread of Life (Jn 6:35). Then fill the world with your godly teaching (Acts 5:28) and your praise of God."

The above reflection reminds me of the reason why we are being healed and set free...to be brought back into 'community' and live His life to the fullest. I'm totally amazed at how many people are completly content living under opression. Yes there are times that the Lord allows us to stay there because it is ultimately for our best (who can argue with God's will)...like St. Paul and the thorn he had to live with...the Lord said that His grace was sufficient and it is. But the majority of the time the Lords wants total healing for us. Over and over again in scripture He is driving out demons and curing people. He still wants that for us today...He yearns for it!

Thursday, October 12, 2006

You are my God

interview with Rome exorcist


"Is the exorcism the highest degree of action against Satan? Are their other means that can come before this last degree?

Conversion! The first thing that we ask from people who come to us is to live in the grace of God, to be faithful to an intense sacramental life and to the life of prayer. After this, if it is necessary, we encourage them to receive prayers of healing and of deliverance, as they are practiced in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. After a number of such prayers, the person is either already set free, or the need is evident to do the exorcism itself. Then we do the exorcism, keeping in mind that exorcism is a prayer where the result does not always come immediately. Sometimes, years of exorcism are needed for a person to be delivered."
read full story here

good news...

"But most priests are tremendous and we are highly interested on how to generate more of them.

We mentioned the Intercessors of the Lamb two weeks ago -- a new order of hermits and nuns in Omaha who have expanded from eight a decade ago to nearly seventy -- along sending nearly a dozen men to the seminary.

Their key is bringing God alive, making Him here and now -- not some kind of abstract piece of historical knowledge, and not the subject of a dry theological dissertation.

In most cases, an active Marian or charismatic style of prayer, and very traditional ways of devotion, seem the key to generating vocations, along with Adoration. Success stories have come from places like Peoria, Illinois, and even Alabama and Georgia."

read full story here

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

liberation of the heart

"In our exuberance however, we continually ask of God's creation more than it can be. We regularly pour our heart's desires into some part of God's creation and ask it to be the fulfilment we seek. We ask some part of God's creation to be uncreated. We take a good and ask it to be a god.

The heart, weary from its continual pilgrimage, seeks to settle down and make camp, refusing to go on. It settles down with lesser gods, finding some joy, peace, identity, security or other alleviations of its desires. This short term relief masks a spiritual problem and also a problem in human development. John of the Cross was convinced that when the individual centres on something or someone other than God, the personality eventually becomes dysfunctional.

Such "attachments" create a situation of death. Whatever or whomever I am asking to be my god, my desires' deepest fulfilment, cannot bear the expectation. The idol will begin to crumble under such pressure as I ask it to be my "all". And because we cannot grow past our gods, a lesser god means a lesser human being. Consequently, that to which I am "attached" is dying under my need, and I am dying because my deepest desires can find nothing and no one to match their intensity.

The self-transcending dynamism within our humanity will not allow us to declare that we have "arrived" at journey's end. By declaring a premature victory as we cling to idols, we are engaging in inauthentic self-transcendence. In other words, the heart is no longer free to hear and follow the invitation of the Beloved. This slavery of the heart is the result of disordered desire. The solution, the liberation of the heart, is not accomplished by annihilation of desire but by its reorientation."

Seasons of the Heart

turning from idols

They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God
1 Thessalonians 1:9



"A remarkable thing can happen when we turn from our idols, from our false little gods, to serve the living and true God. It doesn't happen all at once. But gradually we unclench our tight fists. We open our closed hearts. We take in light. We take in love. It is like coming outside after being in a small, dark room. We walk outside and feel overwhelmed by the richness of the sky and land around us. We thought God was small and dreary. And we discover instead vastness and warmth."

NACR Daily Meditation for Tuesday, 10/10/2006

by Dale and Juanita Ryan

read entire meditation

sacrament of penance for healing


"Meeting with bishops of Western Canada, in Rome for their “Ad Limina” visits, Pope Benedict insisted, this morning, on the need for a renewed understanding of sin and appreciation for the Sacrament of Penance in order to foster reconciliation and healing among people."

read full story here

Monday, October 09, 2006

dangers of the occult

Tthings to stay away from:
1)Fortunetelling - of any kind such as palm reading, crystal ball gazing, numerology, or seeing psychics.
2)Tarot Cards
3)Ouija Boards
4)Seances and any involvement with mediums or spiritists.
5)Astrology and any form of horoscopes.
6)I Ching
7)Hypnotism
8)Transcendental Meditation or any type of Far Eastern Meditation.
9)Crystals
10)Witchcraft
11)Satanism
12)Voodoo
13)Channeling
14)Reincarnation
15)Astral projection
16)ESP
17)Dungeons and Dragons - role-playing games.
18)New Age Movement techniques and activities.
19)Necromancy


Read entire article here

"Once you confess this occult activity before God as a sin, renounce it by telling God you will never do it again, and then burn or throw away any items associated with this activity - the demons will no longer have any legal right to stay attached to you - and they will now have to go if you take your God-given authority as a believer and child of God and command the demons to now leave you in the name of Jesus Christ!"

Friday, October 06, 2006

Fruitfulness

When you really trample on your own self and live for others you will become a good instrument in God's hands.

He called – and is calling – his disciples, commanding them ut eatis! – "Go and seek all men."

– St. Josemaria Escriva, The Forge, #915

journey to wholeness

"Prayer is a journey from our brokenness to wholeness, from our sinfulness to holiness, from our separateness to unity, from being just one in isolation to being with God. When we are one with God, we become so much more one with each other. We go from our darkness into light. We go from one kingdom into God’s kingdom. There are only the two kingdoms and at times we try to straddle both. God says, “You are either with Me - totally in My kingdom - or you are not.” Ponder this. It will help us make the crossover to the threshold of God’s presence and of His way."
--Mother Nadine


Read Full Story Here

spirit of antagonism

"Spirits afflict us in many ways and one is by attaching to us. They may affect our impressions of others and their impressions of us. Often, we react to what is around a person, instead of the person himself.

This is especially true by way of antagonism. Few are those who have not had the experience of people who for no reason rankle them. In fact, the person towards whom there is animosity often is a nice person who ostensibly has done nothing wrong. There may be a spirit of antagonism around that person."

Read Full Story Here

Thursday, October 05, 2006

talking to children

"And as we tell the children about the good angels, we shall also have to mention the bad ones who turned into devils. If the highest of them, Satan himself, dared to tempt Our Lord, who are we to think that it “can’t happen to us” or that such stories belong to the Middle Ages and do not apply to modern times? What St. Peter says to all of us we must tell to the little ones as well “Watch and pray, for the devil goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.”"

Maria VonTrapp
http://vontrapp.wordpress.com/2006/10/02/the-angels/

Breaking Free



I'm going to be ordering this one...it sounds amazing!

Monday, October 02, 2006

Keep Quiet


Truthfulness
"Why do so many people spread slander?", you ask in distress. Some do so through error, fanaticism or malice. But most of them pass on the story through inertia, superficiality and ignorance.

That is why, I insist again: when you cannot praise, and there is no need to speak, keep quiet!

– St. Josemaria Escriva, Furrow, #592