nature of life

In God's Image and Likeness...

We are fundamentally social creatures.  We are not meant to be alone.  The Father decided that Adam should have a "helper" and that they should bear children.  All sins are considered by the Church to be sins against the community, that is one reason we confess.  We are not even meant to keep our deepest and darkest secrets to ourselves.  This is how much we are woven into the fabric of humanity.  Many of our challenges in this testing ground which determines our eternal fate, called earth, involve how we relate to others, how much we love them....how much we are willing to put our own desires aside.  So why did God make us social creatures?  Because HE is fundamentally "social" in His own nature, three in one, Father, Son and Holy Ghost....because we are made in His Image and Likeness.  Its not a perfect comparison, but it is significant.

Happy Valentine's Day.  Saint Valentine, pray for us.  Lord have mercy on us for our sins against chastity.  May we, in our own small way, console Your Heart on this day by remaining pure in mind and body.  May we continue to be a witness to the virtue of chastity, especially to our young people.  Amen.

What is Life?

An immersion in chaos.

When I look around my house and consider how hard I try and how "wrong' everything still is, I wonder.....how does anything work in the world?  I have been meditating lately on the immersive quality of life.  Life is an immersion.  We are placed into an environment full of the good, the bad and the ugly.  Babies have an innate ability to navigate this environment.  They just seem to know how to do it.  It's only as adults, after developing stodgy habits and ideas, that we can begin to forget.  We develop behaviors that are incompatible with life.  We want to control an environment that cannot be entirely controlled.  Life has its own agenda.

We'll never discover the Authentic Life if we don't understand the nature of life.  We'll never survive the coming days if we are not able to accept....to embrace....chaos.  We will navigate through much chaos.  And as the Body of Christ, the Remnant, we can do no less than accept this task with complete joy.  It is what we are given.  Just as Noah navigated the tumultuous deluge...it is all for a purpose.  And it is all good.