How did you get here?

 How did you get to where you are and how are you going to get to where you are going? Perhaps where you are is a car in this moment, which you bought having had a job. Or where you are is on a couch in a house you arrived to through your family. How do you know you should be there where you are? I don't know but there have been times I have seen where I am is clearly where I should be and likewise I have found myself asking, "What am I doing here, or looking at this, or listening to that or thinking this?!" knowing it's not where I should be physically or spiritually.

How did I get here?

Ought I be over there?

This way seems better

Father Al Schwartz, founder of World Villages for Children, is discussed in this week's podcast with the topic being two fold: one what does a spiritual father do when his children are hurt and two what can we do as laity to fulfill our individual mission.

Father Al, like many saints, gave up his entire life to bring souls to Christ. He saw the discarded children, beaten elderly and inhumanely treated poor in Korea and did something about it. He was angry they were mistreated and felt strongly called by Our Lady of the Poor to treat them as his children and bring them to Christ. Father Al gave them love. He emulated God the Father giving us love when we are discarded, mistreated and abused by the world or our history. God the Father offers each of us love and compassion for our wounds and an opportunity to heal through His love. 

When we are given the love of God, who is love our options are two: accept the love and change into His beloved child, or decline the love and continue on the path of our life with the narrative embracing our pain as our branding iron. I am unworthy, I am a woman who sustained XYZ, my parents did this to me so this is why I am who I am. Yes those wounds are all valid but wanting to heal and wanting to accept that healing comes from our Creator is the first step in becoming who we were created to be: a child truly in the image of God inside and out. Living the life of a perpetual victim as a choice is something sure anyone is able to do, because it takes hard work to sit down with the pain and the suffering, identify it and invite God into it. Our pain can be likened to the shack that no one wants to enter.

My pain or wounds if were a shack would be more of an outhouse... with a cute window trying to show it's really not that bad though in reality my pain shack is full of crap that needs to be dealt with.

You are beloved, you are capable of healing and you are incredibly capable of healing through God. He wants to cut the bonds of pain and set you free to live in His plan for you. God the Father gets angry when His children are hurt. In fact, He knew the only way to make reparation for all of the vile, groteque, hurtful things that have happened in this world was to level the playing field by sending His spotless Son to take that pain and sin on Himself, get crucified with it, die then rise gloriously and beat death and sin. That is how much it means to God the Father to have His children have opportunity for redemption. He created each one of us for a mission in life: to know, to love and to serve him.

Eve and Mother Mary. The apple exchanged for the Fruit of her womb, Jesus. The snake of sin choking her leg for Mary stepping on it's head. Redemption through Jesus and with Mary.  

This brings me to the second point: what can we do to serve God? "I am not a fan of service!" One might say. Fine, just receiving without giving can be done. (kind of stinks at Christmas time to give gifts and have no one give back any...) Just eating without cooking. Or watching without playing. Or living without wanting to get off the couch and walk. Sure, it can be done. But living is so much more rich when we participate. Likewise, loving God is so much more enjoyable and fruitful when we offer ourselves to be part of His service through our mission. Service in prayer is the greatest service. I know hundreds of elderly who are unable to walk or do much but they pray and their prayers rain down showers of miracles. Father Dan recommends finding something we love and diving in to build up the Kingdom of God through that love. 

Planting the ugly bulbs for my dutch lasagna flower pots.

The base may be ugly. We might not be "all that" but the fruit of our labor through God can bring out some spectacular flowers.

So exciting to see these pop out!

In this podcast, Father Dan gives three tips on how we can fulfill our individual mission in life:

1. Spiritual: prayer. Father Al prayed three hours a day. St Paul says to pray without stopping. Living in a spirit of prayer is the first thing to know who are talking with, who made us and what we are about. If I didn't call my mother in years I would have no idea how she was, how she felt or what she had on her mind. Prayer is a conversation with our Creator, Father, Guide, Brother and Friend. Each part of the Trinity speaks to us in prayer. 

Praying while polishing the floors. Such a good opportunity for penance! I snagged it and offered it as penance for a priest.

Pray with a friend

Pray with souls of the graveyard or saints who are buried there.

2. Eucharist: the real presence of Jesus in each consecrated Eucharist invites us into Christ. Receive the Eucharist. Be sure to receive in a state of grace. Haven't confessed in a while? Examen your conscience and hit the confessional. A sick person goes to the doctor. A sick soul needs confession before being able to accept the purity of Jesus in the Eucharist. Pray in adoration. Spend time with Jesus in person, in the Eucharist. No other church recognizes the Eucharist as being truly Christ. He is there! How close is He to your home or where you are right now? Is there a Catholic Church down two blocks from you? He is there in the tabernacle. Make the sign of the cross as reverence as you pass by. Send Him your love. Jesus is perpetually in the Eucharist in each drop of wine, each fragment of bread turned into His body.

3. Holy Spirit: in our baptism, we are given a huge gift. That gift is the one of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit can guide you to knowing what your mission is. You have to listen. I know I frequently have spiritual earwax and know that the things I am thinking about are so loud that there is no way I can possibly hear the Holy Spirit speaking to me. Other times my soul is sick and needs to be absolved in confession. I know that the Holy Spirit is hovering over me and ministering to me but my soul can't listen in a state of sin. The chain of sin that keeps us spiritually prisoner can only go so far without absolution. The Holy Spirit is light, joyful and free and like the wind He keeps moving. He doesn't sit and simmer. 

 The love given freely and joyfully to us is a love we can pass on to others. The healing we have experienced in us is healing our family needs, our friends need from us in order that they too can heal. We can get to where we are living in the will of God and one day get to where we want to go by having walked the path of living daily as if each day we were on a special mission. 

Enjoy the podcast and homily by Fr Dan at the end: