Jesus will give you rest

The devil is very happy to let you think that even your minimal financial success, or your fame, or career, or your stature in society, are a result of your faith in God. The devil knows your simple thinking will result in bitter disappointment or a shallow faith; either way, you are not growing closer to Jesus.

There's only one way to peace and Jesus said come to Me and I will give you rest. Jesus did not say come to me and I will give you money which will give you rest. Jesus did not say come to me and I will give you a good job and it will give you rest. No, Jesus said that He will give you rest. Nothing else will give you rest. It will only give you rest for a while but it will let you down.

ONLY Jesus will give you rest.

Subsidiarity: True, but Not the Whole Story |Blogs | NCRegister.com

http://www.ncregister.com/blog/mark-shea/subsidiarity-true-but-not-the-whole-story

Study: Birth-Control Pill and Abortion Spike Breast-Cancer Risk | Daily News | NCRegister.com

http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/study-birth-control-pill-and-abortion-spike-breast-cancer-risk?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NCRegisterDailyBlog+National+Catholic+Register#When:2014-01-8%2008:35:01

So Obama wants us to pay for women to get contraceptives for "health reasons. How is this healthy? Why should I have to pay for couples to have sex without consequences!? Next, Obama will want us to pay for his cigarettes and claim it is for his mental health and therefore good.

Ignoring miracles--Is it a sign of pride or a sign of humble faith?

"The fact that the world even exists is a miracle."

"The flowers are miracles.  All of creation is a miracle."

"Why do I need to hear someone's claim that a miracle happened to them?"

"What does it matter?"

"God will do whatever He wills."

"I believed before I heard about so-and-so's miracle.  I don't need to hear about this or that miracle."

"I don't care.  I already have the faith."

"We don't need them anyway."

"The metaphorical understanding of Jesus' miracles are more important than the miracles themselves."

When I hear these things from good Christians, I cringe.  These beliefs are rooted in pride.  They can't understand them and they want to have it all figured out.  They convince themselves that they don't matter and they put them off, pretending they are not there to be dealt with.  The devil has already created enough confusion with tempting liars to convince others of miracles as a means to get them to believe in the faith, with the well-crafted plan of actually leading people away from the faith when the lie is discovered.  So, good Christians will just ignore all miracles and not fall victim.  It is a means of self-preservation.  They don't want to look stupid if something they believed turns out to be false.  That is a sure sign of their fear and lack of trust in judgement.  They are playing right into the devil's hands with that attitude.

Why does God perform miracles?  What should we do about miracles?

1.  To allow us to know where our allegiances are--with God, against God, or indifferent to God.

Exodus 7:9

“When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Prove yourselves by working a miracle,’ then you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your rod and cast it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent.’”

Here, God uses a miracle as a means to allow Pharaoh to discern his position--it forces him to acknowledge or deny God's existence and power, but God will not be ignored altogether.  A decision must be made.

2.  We are to remember miracles, talk about them, meditate upon them.  They strengthen our faith commitment.

Psalm 78:11

They forgot what he had done, and the miracles that he had shown them.

3.  God is our father and He wants to interact with us.  He can do so however He chooses.  He is God and who are we to judge how he behaves?  God does not just want to teach us and have us mature in our thinking.  He wants to have a real relationship with us.  How can a real relationship exist without God doing something amazing?  He is amazing and He wants to interact with each one of us personally.

Acts 8:13

Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized he continued with Philip. And seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed.

4.  God can do whatever He wants.  His will, not mine.

Hebrews 2:4

while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his own will.

Pope Frances on what to look for in choosing a bishop

Pope Frances told his representatives who are looking for potential bishops "that the candidates are Pastors who are close to the people, fathers and brothers; that they are gentle, patient, and merciful; that they love poverty, interior poverty as freedom for the Lord and exterior poverty as simplicity and austerity of life; that they don't have a 'principles' psychology. Be attentive that they aren't ambitious, that they don't seek the episcopate—'volentes nolumus'—and that they are spouses of a Church without constantly seeking another. That they are capable of 'keeping an eye on' the flock that will be entrusted to them, that is, of caring for everything that keeps it united; of being 'vigilant' over it; of being attentive to dangers that threaten it; but above all that they are capable of 'keeping an eye over' the flock; of keeping watch; of tending hope, that there is sun and light in their hearts; of sustaining with love and patience the plans that God has for his people."

Obama: 'If Catholics Have Their Schools and Buildings and Protestants Have Theirs ... That Encourages Division' | CNS News Mobile

http://m.cnsnews.com/news/article/obama-if-catholics-have-their-schools-and-buildings-and-protestants-have-theirs

Obama has no real understanding of how much good religion does to protect peace and freedom, especially when it comes to Christian schools.

Oldest Complete Torah Scroll Found in Bologna

http://m.ibtimes.co.uk/oldest-complete-torah-scroll-found-bologna-472015.html

Abortion banned in North Dakota if a heartbeat can be detected

http://americaneedsfatima.blogspot.com/2013/03/north-dakota-governor-signs-heartbeat.html

Prayer, Fasting, and Mercy by St. Peter Chrysologus

From a sermon by Saint Peter Chrysologus, bishop

Prayer knocks, fasting obtains, mercy receives

There are three things, my brethren, by which faith stands firm, devotion remains constant, and virtue endures. They are prayer, fasting and mercy. Prayer knocks at the door, fasting obtains, mercy receives. Prayer, mercy and fasting: these three are one, and they give life to each other.

Fasting is the soul of prayer, mercy is the lifeblood of fasting. Let no one try to separate them; they cannot be separated. If you have only one of them or not all together, you have nothing. So if you pray, fast; if you fast, show mercy; if you want your petition to be heard, hear the petition of others. If you do not close your ear to others you open God's ear to yourself.

When you fast, see the fasting of others. If you want God to know that you are hungry, know that another is hungry. If you hope for mercy, show mercy. If you look for kindness, show kindness. If you want to receive, give. If you ask for yourself what you deny to others, your asking is a mockery.

Let this be the pattern for all men when they practice mercy: show mercy to others in the same way, with the same generosity, with the same promptness, as you want others to show mercy to you.

Therefore, let prayer, mercy and fasting be one single plea to God on our behalf, one speech in our defense, a threefold united prayer in our favor.

Let us use fasting to make up for what we have lost by despising others. Let us offer our souls in sacrifice by means of fasting. There is nothing more pleasing that we can offer to God, as the psalmist said in prophecy: A sacrifice to God is a broken spirit; God does not despise a bruised and humbled heart.

Offer your soul to God, make him an oblation of your fasting, so that your soul may be a pure offering, a holy sacrifice, a living victim, remaining your own and at the same time made over to God. Whoever fails to give this to God will not be excused, for if you are to give him yourself you are never without the means of giving.

To make these acceptable, mercy must be added. Fasting bears no fruit unless it is watered by mercy. Fasting dries up when mercy dries up. Mercy is to fasting as rain is to the earth. However much you may cultivate your heart, clear the soil of your nature, root out vices, sow virtues, if you do not release the springs of mercy, your fasting will bear no fruit.

When you fast, if your mercy is thin your harvest will be thin; when you fast, what you pour out in mercy overflows into your barn. Therefore, do not lose by saving, but gather in by scattering. Give to the poor, and you give to yourself. You will not be allowed to keep what you have refused to give to others.

Christian Quotes/Thoughts on Procrastination

"Do not be afraid to be saints. Follow Jesus Christ who is the source of freedom and light. Be open to the Lord so that He may lighten all your ways."
- Pope John Paul II

'See, my children, if we really wish to be saved we must determine, once for all, to labor in earnest for our salvation; our soul is like a garden in which the weeds are ever ready to choke the good plants and flowers that have been sown in it. If the gardener who has charge of this garden neglects it, if he is not continually using the spade and the hoe, the flowers and plants will soon disappear. Thus, my children, do the virtues with which God has been pleased to adorn our soul disappear under our vices if we neglect to cultivate them. As a vigilant gardener labours from morning till night to destroy the weeds in his garden, and to ornament it with flowers, so let us labor every day to uproot the vices of our soul and to adorn it with virtues. See, my children, a gardener never lets the weeds take root, because he knows that then he would never be able to destroy them. Neither let us allow our vices to take root, or we shall not be able to conquer them.

One day, an anchorite being in a forest with a companion, showed him four cypresses to be pulled up one after the other; the young man, who did not very well know why he told him to do this, took hold of the first tree, which was quite small, and pulled it up with one hand without trouble; the second, which was a little bigger and had some roots, made him pull harder, but yet he pulled it up with one hand; the third, being still bigger, offered so much resistance, that he was obliged to take both hands and to use all his strength; the fourth, which was grown into a tree, had such deep roots, that he exhausted himself in vain efforts. The saint then said to him, "With a little vigilance and mortification, we succeed in repressing our passions, and we triumph over them when they are only springing up; but when they have taken deep root, nothing is more difficult; the thing is even impossible without a miracle."

Let us not reckon on a miracle of Providence, my children; let us not put off till the end of our life the care that we ought daily to take of our soul; let us labor while there is yet time. . .'

St. Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney, the Cure of Ars