Learning to be Quick to Listen

Yesterday, I received one of the nicest compliments from my friend. She said that I had a positive attitude and never seemed to get down. Of course, the reality is I do have moments of great despair but I try to reserve those for the times when I am talking with God our Father. I was happy to hear that because over the years, I have consciously focused on improving my outlook. Most of it has been accomplished by letting go and letting God which we all know is very difficult for us to do. Add to that my propensity to try to control things. Anyway, it made me think about my friend and why I often feel like she is not happy or satisfied. I know some things about her but what I discovered in this analysis is that I do not know if she has a personal relationship with Christ and that will become the task at hand on the to do list. I must find a way to introduce the grace and salvation of Jesus to her. Last night, I watched the President's State of the Union address. What s...

God is not finished with me yet. That is the idea that has been running through my head. I know I heard it in a song but it goes much deeper than that. The devil has been attacking me lately and the target has been my confidence. I know that God has bestowed his grace on me with no conditions. I know that I am His child and He made me in his image. What I don't know is what He has planned for me. However, I am excited about the possibilities and anxious to discover the outcome. There lies the dilemma. The past is over and done and the future is in His hands. I need to live the present and trust Him. But like all humans, I am nervous about the next step. My prayer continues to be that He open the next door for me and insures that I not miss it. Knowing what to do is one of the hardest tasks we have as humans. That is why I am glad that He gave us the Bible. Proverbs 3:23-26 tells us, "Then you may securely go your way; your foot will never stumble; When you lie down, you need ...

I had an interesting discussion with a fellow Catholic the other day that continues to intrigue me. We began talking about Heaven and the afterlife as we were watching the movie Joshua. If you have not read the Joshua books by Joseph Girzone , I encourage you to do so. They are simple works that are calming and informative in plain language. Anyway, back to the conversation with my colleague; we began to talk about belief in God and an afterlife. She noted that she was very fearful and did not think she was ready to experience the afterlife yet. I told her that I was reading the Book of Daniel and that I found the message that God is always in control to be very comforting. She noted that she had not read that or many parts of the Bible. She noted that as a Catholic, she had never really picked up the Bible to read it unless it was an assignment in class and that most of what she remembers about the Bible is due to scripture readings every Sunday at Mass. I challenged her to begin to h...

I have received a number of positive comments about Fr. David's responses to the seven questions survey. I knew it would be impactful. When I first read it, I found myself drawn to his answers. Especially his response to why bad things happen to good people. I am reading the Book of Daniel at the present and that is an exercise in bad things happening to good people. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon certainly exercised his free will and imposed his decisions on everyone. But the image of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego standing among the flames of the fire set to kill them is something that I cannot shake. Azariah's prayer is astounding, profound, and emboldening. He had the audacity to believe in God. He never wavered and said that God would either save him and his colleagues or use them for another purpose. That is faith! I pray that I have the stamina and fortitude to withstand the devil and his helpers as Azariah did. I hunger for the conviction of Azariah. It was not serend...

Fr. David DeJulio is the pastor of the very vibrant St. Mark the Evangelist Parish in Tampa, Florida. His message is about helping all of us to realize the gifts that God has given us and encouraging us to use these gifts for the betterment of the world. He graciously agreed to participate in my blog survey and responded to the seven question survey. His very inspiring answers are below. If you want to participate, please answer the seven questions and send them to me at fellmananthony@gmail.com. Please pray for Fr. David's ministry. 1. What is the biggest challenge to your faith that you have faced so far? The biggest challenge is the fact of the housing crisis in my parish. There are many families who are facing foreclosure, with no job prospects, who are trying to keep up hope. I seem powerless to their needs and I find it difficult to inspire hope to them when their houses and jobs are being taken away. I realize that evil is present in this world and God is not the cause of...

Who do you depend on more, your family and friends or God? I hope you said God but if you are like me, you did pause and think about it. In fact, social scientists have noted that society began to change significantly when folks started depending on each other more than God. This shift occurred because of the development of science. The emphasis turned from feelings and intuition to reason and logic. The idea of a community which did not include God or lessened His involvement created the environment we have now. To be more succinct, it was at this point that we as a society began to drift away from the Bible as our life manual and decided not to consult God as we moved forward with our lives. I am not denouncing science or presenting logic as detrimental to society. I am suggesting that we may have gone to far and need to re-balance our process. We know that we are to depend on God for everything and He reminds us of this in Genesis. In Colossians, He reminds us again in 1:16-17, ...

Today we must unite in prayer for Haiti!

When I taught religious education classes, I had one very important requirement for each student. I told them that if they are present in class, they must be fully present. That meant that I expected them to participate in the conversation. It also meant that if they did not have anything constructive to add, they should respect the opinions of their fellow students. It caused me to think if there should be the same sort of conviction and request before each Mass. I think that having folks who are fully engaged and participatory would make the Mass much more beautiful. I typed in the words "seven habits of highly effective Catholics" and an article from U.S. Catholic popped up. The article explains the seven habits of highly effective mass goers. You can view it here but I thought I would give you the list of seven items that David Philippart suggests. He recommends that we: enter into mystery, sing for your supper, listen (it's hard work), be a beggar, give it up!, sing,...

I have been a Catholic all of my life. I do not know how to be anything other than a Christian. I am comfortable with this label and I have tried to learn what it means to be a practicing Catholic Christian. I guess that is why it amazes me when politicians, who also claim to be practicing Catholics, make outrageous statements. Frequently their rants begin with tolerance. I have searched the Bible extensively for the passages about tolerance but can find none. I think that tolerance is probably a good trait to have when it comes to dealing with others but it must be tolerance that is grounded in truth and ethics. Tolerance of evil is never good and should not be accepted. The Catholic Church itself tells us that we do have free will to make our own decisions but the dichotomy is between good and evil, not about cafeteria menu decision making. Nancy Pelosi declared that she is a practicing Catholic and Elizabeth Lev wrote a column about the egregious missteps taken by Mrs. Pelosi during...

Since the Gospel readings this year are coming from Luke, I thought I would take an early peek. Luke’s writing has a number of themes but one of the more interesting is his focus on the Great Reversal. As we anticipate the return of Jesus Christ, we are assured that the Kingdom of God, in its fullness, will turn everything that we now know upside down. Some of the areas Luke specifically focuses on are wealth, power and privilege. God has promised that those at the bottom in this culture on earth will be placed at the top in the life to come. Luke discusses the Great Reversal a number of times but initially in the Magnificat (1:46-55). Mary and her family are poor and powerless in the eyes of the civil government but God selects her to be the Mother of Jesus. Mary also learns, through the Angel Gabriel, that her cousin Elizabeth is with child. Upon visiting Elizabeth, Mary proclaims in 1:46-48, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior. For he ...

I was inspired today by a song that Tenth Avenue North sings called By Your Side . It is written from God's perspective. The singer is the voice of God and asks, "Why are you still searching as if I'm not enough?" It reminded me of the constant struggle I have to look for the next best thing when God is still here and has not changed. The commercialism that we complain has taken over so many of our beloved Christian celebrations (Christmas, Easter) has also infiltrated our spiritual lives. Go to a Christian bookstore (or any bookstore, virtual or bricks and mortar) and you will be overwhelmed by the amount of self help books that are available. A large portion of them are residing on the Christian aisle or section. It causes me to pause. Why are we still searching when God has given us the grace we seek? How many different ways can we hear the message? I know that people learn through different methods but it seems that we as Christians are forgetting the central mess...

The celebration of the epiphany of our Lord is a joyous occasion. Each year when I listen to the scripture readings at Mass, I try to learn something new. God always makes sure that I hear something new and that it applies to my current situation. That happened with certainty this morning. The new item for me this year was the visit of the magi. They followed the star that led them to Mary, Joseph and the new born King. The interesting thing to me was that they visited Jesus in a house, not a manger ("They were overjoyed at seeing the star, and on entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother."). How then did He get from the manger to the house? A quick search explains that often inns at that time rented the upper room (much like the one Jesus used to meet with his disciples for the last supper) and provided bare essentials. Realizing that Mary was very near childbirth, the innkeeper probably provided a manger or animal trough for the newborn. So does it make a d...