Gollum and scientists....not really connected though.

I was reading The Hobbit a couple weeks age and had an intresting thought about Gollum durning the riddle game. I have no evidence for this being true or intentional on the part of Tolkien. But I noticed the spelling of Gollum and what it actually was. In mythology a gollum was a creature that was made of mud, slime, or some other lower creature (frogs for example) that do not have a will of thier own. The realization that I came to was that Gollum was one of these creatures. When he took posetion of the ring he ceased to have a will of his own. He in fact ceased to be Smeagel, but became totally subject to the will of the ring. He no longer was one of the river people, but became a creation of the ring and subject to his will. In the taming of Smeagel we see the battle between two distinct creatures, one meak and innocent being Smeagel who longed for his freedom. The other creature is viscious and treatorous, Gollum. Gollum had become as the ring is, a cricle closed upon itself and empty in the middle.

But the short note concerning scientists is simply this: science must be guided by the true, the good and beautiful. The guide posts for all morality. There are limits to scientfic research, which it seems many present day scientists have forgotten or were never taught. The first is stay within the bounds of the truth of what things are and respect the dignity of the human person. The second is work for the good of all man kind. The best example of science getting away from moral teachings is cloning and embrionic stem cell research. The two are closly linked together. Both cease to respect the truth and dignity of the human person, by making them into tools to be used for the so called betterment of man. The one problem with claiming that the betterment of man is the reason is that embrionic stem cell research has shown no progress. There have been no medical cures from this research. Where adult stem cell reserach that does not involve the distruction of millions of babies per experiment has shown progress and has saved many lives by healing organs. The issue between the two is not cures it is money. There are billions of dollars in corporate grants given each year for embrionic research. Often this is by people who support Planned ParentHood and are funding the culture of death in our society. Perhaps my two topics are not seperate and scientists have become gollums to money, rather than scientists.

Something that stuck with me.

Over this past weekend I was reading The Lion, the Witch and the Woredrobe for the I really don't know how manyth time. But something jumped out at me. When Lucy and Suzan are hidding in the bushs just before the Witch kills Aslan. As he laid tied to the Stone Table shaved and seemingly in disgrace. Lewis writes this of that moment, "...the first shock was over the shorn face Aslan looked to her braver, and more beautiful,and more patient than ever." Christians know the meaning to suffering, we get it from Christ. Suffering is to heal the heart of the world and bring all back to the One who made the world. Aslan was the one who brought the world of Narnia into existence and promised that the greatest wickness of the Withc would fall upon Himself (see The Magician's Nephew). In that moment when the triump of the Witch seems most certian, the Great Lion looks more beautiful than ever. There is a beauty in the Cross of Christ as well. God is bringing down the worst of the punishment of all sin upon Himself, because no man could bare it. Why did Christ do this for us? Why did Aslan do this for us? Aslan and Christ did it for one reason alone....out of love. Pure, unconditional love for creation. Look into the eyes of any image of the crucfixtion or the Etche Homo (sp?) and you will see there the love that came to save the world. After you have seen that love nothing can be the same. Everything changes......

Lack of anything to say....

As the title of this entry says, I really don't have anything to say. However, I did come across a new video from Rebecca St James that I thought I would share. It is very similar to the skit Rag Man, if any of you are fimliar with it. It is very well done.

So passes the Crock Hunter Steve Irwin......

In this video Steve Irwin morns for a crocadile, now the animals will morn for him. Rest in peace.

Yes, It is true Steve Irwin has died this weekend.

Why are there no more examples like this?

We need more people with values like John Wayne had....

Of Beauty....

This is some more thoughts on somethings that I have about beauty from a conversation of tonight. I don't think I will get much sleep until I write something.

First of is beauty subjective or objective? The answer to this is simple to me, beauty can only be objective. The first question that must be answered is: "what do you mean by beuaty?" If you mean what is appealing to you or what you like, than beauty is subjective. But that is not beauty. This is merely likes and dislikes plan and simple. To say something is beautiful is to say something about it in itself. Beauty is in the nature of a thing not put in it from outside by the seer. Isn't that clear enough?

The second is the commonality of beauty in people. All people see things as beautiful, though not everything that is called beautiful is in fact beautiful. Even the darkest people refer to somethings as beautiful, but due to the twisting of the world they do not understand what is beautiful and only know it to be what they like. Even the most worldly people can see the beauty in a sunrise or sunset, these are a calling deep down inside of them to see the beauty that is comming out of these events.

The third thing may seem odd to many, but is something that I have come to understand as very important, it is in the names of things. In the sounds of words and names there is beauty that is denoted in the thing that is called so. This is possibly the hardest to express, but I will try. Words are not something we put on things as deconstructionists may claim, but are in the things. A table is not called a table because of some use or frame, but it is a table because that is the word from which it sprung from. It was after all in speaking that all of creation came into being. In the words that God spoke at the beginning brought all things into existance. Adam was to name all things, but being unfallen Adam was able to see what all things as they are. Adam did not impose on them a name, but spoke what they were and in these words is a beauty. Even in the sound of these words are beauty.

These are such few thoughts that I have on this matter. I have thought very much about objectivity vs. subjectivity of beauty. Beauty must be objective and in the nature of it. But if this is unclear ask me for more and I will try to answer it.

The Value of Doubt and Action

This summer has taught me few lessons and none more than this: there is an extereme value in doubt and action. The lesson has been in my heart and in the reading that I have done this summer. Don't worry I will try to clarify this as much as I can.

Doubt is a healthy thing when it does not lead to despair, but leads instead to seeking. When a person has honest doubts about beliefs and looks to the evidence for answers will look finding answers. Take belief in God, or for that matter disbelief in the idea of god, as a prime example. Many people do not believe in God because they do not know Him or have not met Him through the only path possible to learn about Him. The only one who knows the Father is the Son and any one who the Son choses to reveal Him to (cf. Mt. 11:27). How than are we to come to know Jesus? There is only one place where we can find about who Christ is, that is in the New Testament of the Bible. Jesus said "I and the Father are one" (Jn. 10:30). Than is it not true that the only way that we can know the Father is through the Son who came into the world. So in the pages of the New Testament we find Christ and through Him we meet the Father. It is through doubt that we will seek and we are told all who seek will find (see Mt. 7:7). Out of doubt we will be led to seeking the truth. These are what lead us to truth. Much of this summer I have felt like Aragon at the breaking of the Fellowship, being a poor chooser and all of the choices have gone wrong. This is where the need of action comes into this. This is taught in the Lord of the Rings best I think. Even when there is doubt and uncertianity in their actions. As Aragon knew, so we must learn, that when we make a choice we must follow it to the end and in faith. All of the fellowship is pulled into different directions and they do not know what will come of their journey, but they are being guided by a power greater than all of the powers in the world to the end that is for the greatest good, the distruction of the one ring. All of the fellowship are helping to do this task, so must we realize that all who act in faith of Christ bring salvation to the world. Yes, we are the messengers who carry hope into the world. Just as Frodo carried the fools hope for all and others help him with the task, so to do we carry in each action a participation of the salvation of the world that Christ alone achieved on Calavery. I could keep going about this, but I do not think that it would get any clearer. If you really want it to be totally clear read The Lord of the Rings trilogy paying close attention to the details, but also read George MacDonald's The Curate of Glaston trilogy. An irony in finding these older authors I have found lessons deeper than anything I ever thought to find.

A light in the darkness

Warning: If you have not read through the section of The Return of the King about dark land, do not read this post, but save it for later. Yes, Emily this warning is for you, even though this is not a story ruiner.

In the heart of the of the darkness of Mordor we find this passage:
"Far above the Ephel Duath in the West the night-sky was still dim and pale. There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for awhile. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach. His song in the Tower had been defiance rather than hope; for then he was thinking of himself. Now, for a moment, his own fate, and even his master's, ceased to trouble him. He crawled back into the brambles and laid himself by Frodo's side, and putting away all fear he cast himself into a deep untroubled sleep."

This is possibly one of the most moving parts of The Lord of the Rings. Even in the darkness of the heart of the evil land hope is found. The heart of Sam is peirced to the very center of his being with the fact that "the Shadow was only a small and passing thing." A small and passing thing? It is a shadow that comes from the devil, the one that that succeded in killing God for three days. But as Sam realized that there is a beauty that is beyond the darkness of the Shadow. There is something beyond it all. A beauty that no shadow can cover or touch to sully it. A beuaty that is pure as light. In realizing that beauty is beyond the Shadow, Sam was able to forget about his plight and rest without trouble. Corrie ten Bloom says something even more stricking because she was speaking of Hitler's Mordor. She says,"This darkness is very deep, but our God has gone far deeper. When you have been to Calvary, even Ravensbrook looks trivial.” When we know Christ in the dark places than all the darkness becomes trivial. That is all for the short comments I have for now.

The unknown and jumping without a net. Also the front lines...

It is summer and the heat has come, but along with that comes the summer tradition in my life of having to leap into the unknown. The past few years I really have not had to do this, because I knew I would be in school next year. I guess it is back to where I was before comming to Ave and having to leap without knowing where I will land. I can never see where I will land when I am at a major turning point of my life. The unknown, honestly scares the life out of me, but has to be left to One who knows all possiblities. I have a hard head and learning to trust is very difficult for me. I have trouble trusting my own instincts, even though they have very rarely been shown to be wrong. They tell me that God is in control and will look out for me as He always has. They also tell me that He loves me, wanting me to know, love and serve Him. He is my King and I will always serve Him. Fully serving Christ, now that scares me. To do that would be sainthood and there is no telling what He wants.

I came to Ave as a way of learning and not being on the frontlines of the Church for a time. I've had my time of sybatical from the fight and even that has not been without its conflicts, but none as serious or important as the ones I have been in pior to Ave. But I think the time has come for me to get back into the fight and serve Christ always. I must come to love my Master as Sam Gamgee loves Frodo. I have had a time without the strive that comes with being fully for Christ in the world. The time of total peace has gone, the battle for souls will go on. I always list my politics as 'other' because it does not matter about taxes, social security checks or whatever you think of in politics. What truly matters are souls. It is not for anything of this world that we should be fighting for but for souls. I do recognize that poltics can be used for this, but do any of us have the courage to do this? Do not forget, we are at war, and victory cannot be gained by strength of arms. I agree with Gandalf saying, "I still hope for victory, but not by arms."How than do still hope? We hope through Jesus Christ, who took the fight to the enemy but that was by bruising His own heel. He embraced His heel and became small. So to must we embrace our heel and become small. The only way we can win is through humility and simplisty in Christ. Christ is the only one who can achieve victory. We must walk up to the lines of the battle and do always service of Christ. Dropping to our knees and asking our King to lead us. We must become small, humbling ouresleves before Christ. But I think I have bantered on long enough, this is what comes out of me when we get stream of conciousness.

A God to Call Father

My thoughts as of recently turn towards life and the unknown, because so much of life is an unknown for me. There is only one conclusion that I reached that we are blessed with a God, who desires us to call Him Father, daily He proves Himself worthy of being called Father. He provides for the needs of each of us. He tells us shortly after teaching us to pray, I will address this shortly, Christ tells us that we cannot serve to masters God and money (cf. Mt. 6:24). Then He tells us a strange thing, "And for raiment why are you solicitous? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they labour not, neither do they spin" (Doyue-Remes, Mt. 6:28). What is our Lord getting at? It is something that is hard for most in this age of money and materialism, do not rely on money for your daily bread. You must work to earn it, but do not be ruled by money or worry about it. Look to the flowers and the birds they have all that they need, not toiling for more, they are provided for by God. Christ is telling us to rely on God as the birds, flowers and as a small child would look to their father. God gives those who rely on Him all that they need for their daily needs, yet He still wants us to tell Him our needs in prayer. Our needs not just our wants. We are told to pray for our daily bread (cf. Mt. 6:11).

In the beginning of that prayer we are told to call God, not the creator or Christ's Father, but Our Father. Not only is God the loving Father who guides the life of Christ through the world to the end of His divine plan, He is also inviting us into His family. Christ is the first of many bretheren, since it is through Christ that we are adopted into His family. We are to come to know God as Father and trust in Him for our needs. He is in control of the lives of all who will let go of themselves and pick up the cross daily following Christ always. There will be trials and difficulties, because the evil one wants us to turn away from our Father and become as the prodical son when he leaves his Father's house to live in a strange land. These are not new ideas. There is a question of why are there so few priests, religious and young believers who are faithful without end when in the early Church there were many teen martyrs. A large part of it is in the early Church, the saints looked them straight in the eyes and proclaimed Christ. We need to get back to that and the frist step must be with ourselves. We must come to call God Father and truly proclaim that Jesus is Lord over the entirity of our lives! As a good Father God allows us to suffer some, not because he does not care, but rather because He loves us. Fatherly love is hard love, a love that is willing to let their children learn some lessons for themselves......I hope this rambling makes sense. I'll stop for now.

Without a map

This post will mainly be something that has been on my mind of late. I'm pretty sure that it has been on other people's mind as well. The question of: "What to do with my life and where to go?" I would like to share some of my thoughts on this matter with everyone, because I have a feeling that I have been at this junction more than others I know. It is part of life to travel down a path not knowing where it leads. We do not have a plain and simple map that we can look at as we would look at a road map to plan a road trip. We cannot see how the different events are connect as long as we are in time. When we are in eternity we will be able to look at the path we walked in life and see the beautiful plan God laid out for us. But for now we do not have a map, but we have something much more important, we have a compass to guide us. This may seem odd but none the less true. I don't know how many people who read this have ever had to navigate by compass, so I will share alittle of what it is like. A compass gives a bearing to guide you through a dark wood or across a plain without regards to what obsticles are in the way. The bearing is a guide to an end and will not give us the middle path of the journey. Sometimes we will have to diverage from the path we were on due to a river or a cliff that we need to get around, but still we have the bearing to follow. The questions that remain are: what is the compass and what is the end which we are being guided to.

The later of these questions is quite simple we are being guided to Heaven and life with the Triune God. That is the intended end of every single human life. We are to be there with Him, but how do we get there. Now that is the annoying part for us. On our own it is impossible, but God in His infinite wisdom has given us a guide, a bearing to follow. The compass for each person has a name, the name above all other names, Jesus Christ. The only way to know where we need to go in life is to know the one guide we have through life. Know Jesus and you will come to know where you need to go. It will not be obvious at all. But walk the path that has been set before you in faith and in communion with Christ. Do this and you will always find that you are exactly where you need to be each day of your life. This may seem good in theory or else just make no sense at all. But it is very practical in reality. When you take your eyes off of Jesus is when you will get lost. I know that more than I would care to admit, but none the less it is true. In my life it is when I have lost sight of Christ that I have been lost. We will have times that we feel lost when we are following Christ, but if we are still following the path He has put before us and have not stopped looking to Him than we are not really lost. The only One who really should be in control of your life is in control of your life. It is a time to learn to trust and have faith in Him. Remeber that Jesus is Lord over our lives. Live that simple phrase and you will always have a bearing in your life and a compass to lead you.

I hope this makes sense and is helpful to someone out there. I felt that I need to write it. Any questions?

For Mother's Day: His Mother, Our Mother.

As Mother's Day is drawing to a close I have been thinking that I need to write something for it. Please do not take this to be a dis on our natural mothers, they are great. But there is something we all must remeber that every Christian is an adoptive Son or Daughter of God through Baptism. This means we have life through Christ because we are His brothers and sisters in the spiritual order. We also recieve a great grace that is over looked by many people in the world, her name is Mary. Since, we are Sons and Daughters of God through adoption than we are also Sons and Daughters of Mary through the same adoption because she is the Mother of God. What a great blessing to us all...

Mary herself says, "Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid: for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. Because he that is mighty hath done great things to me: and holy is his name. And his mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear him" (Lk. 1:48-50). God in his great wisdom took His humble handmaid and raised her above all other mothers by choosing her to give flesh to His Son. His mercy comes through her flesh in Jesus Christ. In being brought to this glory the humble maid reflects the glory back to God in praising Him. She walked with Christ through His life on Earth and listened to Him teach. She silently watched Him heal the sick, comfort the down cast and bring hope to the hopless; all the while knowing that her heart would be peirced with Him. For she remebered the words of Simeon, "Behold this child is set for the fall and for the resurrection of many in Israel and for a sign which shall be contradicted. And thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that, out of many hearts thoughts may be revealed" (Lk. 2:34-35). When Christ would have to undergo His suffering, Mary would also go through suffering along side Him but from a distance. She knew He must carry the entire weight of sin, but longed to take the weight from His shoulders. Jesus was a sign and wonder that would be hung on a tree for all to see. He would die and rise, so that we may have life and have it more abundantly.

While still on the cross Christ gave His mother to John to care for and John to His mother to look after. Not as a caretaker, but as a mother and son. Modern society for the most part has lost sight of just what this means. Mary would care for John as if he was of her very own flesh and John would do the same for her. John is a type for all Christians who would come after, he is called the disciple who Jesus loved after all. Jesus loves us all and would do it all again if there was one single person who was in sin. We all recieve Mary with John as our mother as adoptive brothers and sisters of Christ. Mary will care for us and bring our needs to her Divine Son. Being the good Jewish boy that He is, Christ will listen to His mother and honor her. Granting the prayers the she brings to Him by bringing those she advocates for into a deeper union with Himself and revealing His plan for them. Ave Maria! She is our spiritual mother and all generations will indeed call her blessed. This is in no way aduquite for Mary.....

He has Risen!!

Glory to God in the Highest, Jesus Christ has risen! The glory of God is truly shown in His Son. In denying the resurrection an Christian pulls out from under his feet the spiritual legs that he stands on. If there is no resurrection than what is a Christian's faith in? It is in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that atonement for our sins is made. If Christ merely died than there is no difference to what he did because everyone dies, there must be something different that had never happened before or since. Something that would give the Apostales the courage to face the very Centurians and leaders who had crucified Christ. Something was very different in these Fishermen who ran away when they came to take Christ away. They were able to stand up and proclaim the risen Lord. This is not Easter, but Pentacost. When the Church is clothed in fire and the Holy Spirt. But there is a very dark time before Pentacost can ever happen. Christ must die and so must we.....before we can experience Pentacost we must go with Christ to Calvary. So let us journey through Calvery to Pentacost.

My God, My God...

With Passion week we start to hear at Mass the words of Christ qouting the 22 Psalm, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Psalm 22:1a). Some say that he cried this out because he was for that time made to feel the full weight of sin and became cut off from the beatific vision. To me this theory makes no sense, unless you deny the full union of God and man in Christ, because to be cut off from the Beatific vision Christ would have been cut off from Himself. This does not work at all. God cannot be cut off from Himself. No, Christ knew Himself, rather He spoke these words to for the world to hear for the benifit of the world in remebering the 22 Psalm. The Psalm goes on to ask where God is to the faithful servant but in the end is turned into triumph. The triumph of God over all the world and the hope that is in Him. This leads into Psalm 23 which has the famous lines, "The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever" (23:1-6). From abandondment to confindent hope and courage in God's gracious love for us. The fluidity of these verses shows the truth of what Christ is doing and saying, "Trust in me even in the darkest times." Christ is the one who gives us hope when all else fails. Toliken puts this role in Arogon, "I give hope to others and keep none for myself." This does not mean He despairs but rather He empties Himself of everything He has to give, even His life. And in giving His life, gains life for all.

The Mystery of Suffering

There are many great mysteries of faith for us. There is only one mystery that is used to disprove the existance of God. This mystery is suffering. The only argument against God's existance is that human beings have pain. For modern philosphers this is a blaring argument against the existance of a benevolant God. This argument is dependent upon the how the terms happiness, good and power. The argument goes as follows: If there is an all-powerful and all-good God, then He would want his creatures to be happy. And if He is all-powerful, He can do whatever He wants. But the creatures are not happy. Therefore God lacks either goodness, power, both or does not exist.

To most all Christians the problems with this arguments are blairing. But to most everyone else who lacks trainning in theology and philosphy they are must more subtle because this argument is logically true. Logically true cannot be confused for being true. This argument has a few hidden assumptions, which create problems for the truth of this argument. One of the major assumptions is that the terms good, power and happy are the equal for God and man. For man these terms depend largely on feelings and states of life. Happiness more often then not depends on nothing bad happening to a person at a given time. Human perception of happiness is very relativistic, but real happiness is not a feeling. Happiness is a state of being. The argument against God's goodness based on happiness being a feeling. Feelings changing from happiness to misery seemingly shows that God is not able to make His creatures happy or does not want them to be happy. This is only a superficial glance at what happiness is really. Happiness is not a feeling that changes but a state of being in which we exist.

God could simply make us exist in a state of happiness by a sheer act of power, but this would negate our freedom and eleminate our ablity to love Him. The true meaning of life is to know, love and serve God after all. This is what we created for. God could by a miracle remeedy all sin, in fact did this, but by an act of power the meaning of love is lost. Rather God chose to empty Himself and become like us in all things but sin to show us what the true meaning of love. A love that does all things in the law and becomes humble to God's will. A love that dies to self in praying that the cup pass from them but your will Lord be done not ours. God answers suffering by submitting to all humiliations, hunger, thirst and the death of a criminal so we may live. In Christ we find the answers to why we suffer. The Law is only a burden when we sin and take ourselves out of comformity with the mind of the One who wrote the Law. The Law itself is a great gift to show us the love of God and how God intended us to live. Happiness comes when we coninutally live in total unity with the Law; heart, mind and soul. Each of us must choose to be humble enough to conform to the Law and through the Law find a Joy that is unspeakable. In the Spirit of Joy we find that humanity are much more then monkeys but we are the children of God. When it comes to suffering we must remember always that the Cross is the rule not the exception, because Christ is the rule not the exception.

I hope these ramblings make some sense. I just have one more not about God's power. God is all powerful, meaning He can do all things. All things that are not nonsense and contradictions. As CS Lewis puts it, "Nonsense does not cease to be nonsense by putting 'God can' infront of it." This was in answer to the question, "Can God make a rock so big that He cannot lift it." This statement says nothing at all about God, but is used to trap Christians in a contradiction. It has no meaning whatsoever.

A True Rant....

Now this is going to be a true rant. I am sitting here watching an evangilical Christian tv show called one3. There are interveiwing one of the prowoman snowboarders, Kelly Clark. But I am going to talk aobut something she said, "That Christianity is not about rules or being religious. It's about God's love." On a very supervical level that is very true. But a question will eventually come up, what is love and what does it mean to love. This is going to be the reason for the law. God gave Isreal the Law because He loves them. To Americans, without really understanding freedom, a law or rule is a hinderance to each person. Real freedom comes when we cease to have a need for the laws. God's love is the law. Since Biblically God's love is the love of a Father for His children. A father, who alllows children to do whatever they want, does not love them. This seems brash at frist but let me say something more. Parents are given the responsiblity to teach their children how to live and interact with other people. Even more so is God to teach us to interact with one another as well as with Himself. God gives us the law not as a restriction but as freedom from sin. In knowing the law we come to know what sin is and our guilt for which Jesus died. But it was also under the law that Jesus died for us and rose so we may have life. The new life Christ leads us to will also lead us to more fully become like him, in that conformaty we will come to see a new life sprout within us. By conforming ourselves to Christ, we come to conform ourselves to the law. In conforming ourselfs to the law then the law ceases to be needed because we chose to live it. In living it as Christ did, we are freed fully from everything. But that is only part of my rant. I may clarify it more later, but more likily not.

Finding our Way.....

Robert Frost wrote, "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-/ I took the one less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference." We take many roads in life, some by choice, others we are forced to travel down by sin or other beasts. Eventually we lose our way. We forget how we came to be where we are or how we came to be sleeping with the pigs longing for their slop. But yet we find ourselves there. Have we taken the road less traveled or have we found that many paths lead to the same place. They lead us away from the Father's house. We leave the warmth and comfort of His house to seek our own way, this is a choice made long ago when man fell from grace. There is a realization that we must make though, when we wake up in the muck with the pigs, the journey has not ended. A more important journey has begun, the journey home. But can we make the journey on our own? Do we know the way? Looking back over history we will see that we do not know the way. The wars and the different religions who do not always know who they worship, are two examples that we do not know the way because we do not know ourselves. We do not know our own faces. When we are shown a reflection of our soul then we are covered with fear and not an awefilled fear, but a fear for ourselves. The fear comes in us because we see us as God sees us. The whole of our being with all of the wounds we have given ourselves through sin and wandering away from God. The healing cannot be brought on by us, either, no matter how hard we try. We do not have the strength to heal the wounds. The healing comes when we see that we cannot do it on our own, that is the first step. But then what is the next step? The hardest step possible is comes next, we must choose to turn away from the world and face God. In this choice we will see our sins and the effects they have had on us. In comming to see our sin we see our faces and then we look upon the loving gaze of the One who can heal us. In His loving eyes we find forgivness and peace. In His forgivness we will fall to our knees, finding a Father who loves us. The Father's arms are the arms of healing and He welcomes us home. We were once lost but now we are found in the loving arms of the Father. Home is only in the arms of the Father, that is our true home for which we were made.

Ghosts

There is a strange experience that I suspect that every person on Earth goes through in life, the experience of dealing with the past. The past in of itself is what forms us into the people we are, but there are always times that will haunt us.
Times when we know things could have been different or that leave wouds on the soul. Most often these are relational items. Either with parents, siblings, friends or most often with love intrests that will always be with us. These times hover in the back of the mind. They come up to the forefront more often then we would like for them too. They come to remind us of the mistakes we have made and the good times that we have had in our life. If we keep getting reminding of the lessons of the past then we will have to realize that we have not intergrated those lessons into our life. The more we integrate those lessons into our life then they will be on our mind less. Unfortunatly, it will always be a battle to bring any intergration into our life. The battle is one worth fighting because we will come to know ourselves better. The reason that the world is haunted by so many of these memories is that we have forgotten the key. We have forgotten what was known in the past by people like St Theresa Avila and St John of the Cross, who Fr Benedict Groeschel calls the greatest psychologists ever. They teach that in order to know who we are and become more fully actualized as people then we must first know God. The Ghosts in our mind lead us to the meaning of life: to know, love and serve God. This is not a denial of any true psychoses, but it is about us forgetting that man is a spiritual as well as corporal being. We can heal the body, on our own we cannot heal the soul. The Ghosts that are in the mind is created by both a rupture of the spiritual and the bodily. Human medicine can heal the body, but it takes a Divine physician to heal the soul. The most active form of this healing comes in the Sacrament of Confession. Spiritual consolations cannot be the basis of our faith otherwise it will crumble at the first dry moment. Faith becomes an act of choice, just as love becomes an act of choice in the hard times. The Ghosts we have are gifts to bring us closer to God. Just as He will show us Himself if need be for our souls benefit. Even more important though is God will allow the Enemy to show himself to us in the dark times, so that we know there is a spiritual world and that God is with us. The Enemy can only harm us when we turn our back on God. This is the danger of free will and of comming to know God. Pray that you will never be tested or sifted as wheat. May God give you strength.