Author: Lana Kaczmarek

“Thus says the LORD: I know their works and their thoughts.” What do you know, really know without a doubt, can truly save you, can never change, will remain eternal, and will never cease to be true even if you do not think so or say so? What do you really know is eternal and can never change? The knowledge we hold can be useful, but also it can be hurtful depending on how it is used. True knowledge can assist us in making life-changing and life-saving decisions that are helpful to us, our coworkers, family, friends, and all humanity. The kind of knowledge we honestly gain and confidently impart to others, our youth, young people and everyone in general to help others improve their state in life, assist in medical advancement, can provide useful tools and resources to care for the unborn, the brokenhearted, the poor, the elderly- safeguard our children and provide basic goods and healthcare to those who are unable or unwilling to provide it for themselves. This type of knowledge is helpful to everyone. At times, unfortunately, we seek knowledge to hurt or wound others, or we obtain private, confidential information to tarnish another’s reputation to advance our own image or status in life. When we seek out information that can be self-incriminating or to substantially damage the credibility of another simply for pleasure or to prove a point or for selfish gain or upper hand benefits, we use knowledge not to assist or help another but rather to destroy, cheat and lie to another in order to give the impression that we are good, okay or better. That kind of knowledge is not helpful to anyone. True knowledge that is most helpful to us and to everyone else is to know God with all our heart, mind, strength and being. To know our Lord, God, and Savior, who has loved us for an eternity with all His heart, mind, strength, poverty, Spirit and being.  This knowledge is both helpful and eternal and can never change even if you don’t believe it or ever had the grace to experience it. Know that God has forgiven you, truly forgiven you, even if you do not think so. Know God will never leave or abandon you even if you say He has. Know without a doubt, the Lord is always with you and will provide for you, even if you act independently, don’t think you need Him and are rich beyond God’s blessing. God knows He loves you.

“He is in your power”.  The fear of being powerless, of being without power or control, unable to influence others in matters or situations of most importance to us, unfortunately, already renders us powerless, helpless, without a means or a cause to effect any change or influence others. We dread being powerless, at the mercy of another. Perhaps we might not have been as merciful as our Heavenly Father asks us to be, or others have taken advantage of our good works, or we simply dislike not being in the driver’s seat. Either way, the thought of not being in control or having to rely on another’s charity or worse being indebted to another’s mercy for whatever reason is simply a most frightening thought. For the most part, we like to believe we are always in control of most of daily situations, the people we encounter, our sphere of influence. We like to boast how we handled a certain situation, told another what to do or were able to get someone to change their mind – give way to your command or do what you demanded after you yelled or screamed, raised your voice, pointed your finger, or slammed the door. Sound familiar? Beginning to sound like a person that is powerless and has lost control? The fear of being powerless, helpless, or losing control causes us to want to take immediate action, to dominate the scene, act with a sense of urgency, take control of the moment in a spirit of self-reliance, relying on no one else. Our mindset is to never become needy for who can do it better? Who could know better? Who will treat you better than yourself? I simply love the helplessness and powerlessness of God. Who better than the Lord knows our self-seeking nature, our selfish ambition, the fear caused by sin and the nasty effects of powerlessness and yet in His incarnation, throughout His hidden years, in His presentation, baptism, ministry, agony, passion, death and resurrection, our Lord graciously made Himself powerless; entrusting Himself to our poor, impoverished, weak humanity. Jesus graciously, freely, without fear or trepidation, handed Himself over to all humanity, to betrayers, to sinners and saints as well. Our poor Jesus freely handed Himself over to the controlling power of man – helpless, powerless, needy, trustingly and in love.     

“By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called; not knowing where he was to go.” In Ignatian Spirituality, we are invited to prayerfully consider our life as a great adventure and an amazing spiritual journey. We are invited not to remain stuck in our past, in our sin, in our vice, shortcomings or failures. Rather, we are encouraged to advance in the spiritual realm and leave behind that which is fleshy, fading and fleeting. We progress in and through a spiritual life grounded in faith, hope and in prayer- that moves ever so slowly, quickly or gently from one state to another – that is from bad to good or from good to better. It is a progress that progresses from the understanding that we seek the Lord our God in all things and when we find Him. We encounter a personal God who wishes to free us, heal us, make our lives fruitful, better, easier by placing all our hope and trust in Him – confident that the Good Shepherd never wavers, tires, rests or stops pursuing and seeking the lost sheep, the aching members, the most poor and needy of his glorious flock. When a person encounters the Divine Physician, He removes the blocks and barriers, the obstacles and hurdles, the speed bumps and fences, the significant childhood pains and major life stresses that only faith, hope, love and trust can provide. Our gracious Lord invites us on this great adventure to join Him on the journey of life and the spiritual movements of heart that help us go from what seems not that great to allowing God’s grace and spirit to bring us to a place that is better on this spiritual pilgrimage our Lord has won and gained for us- giving us all the confidence to know and believe with unwavering faith that we must persevere in and through prayer. At times, unfortunately, we lose heart and lack faith to believe our Lord is journeying with us and will never abandon us. We go from believing to seriously doubting in a second flat- from confidence to doubt, from good to bad, from better to worst, from the present to the past, from doing good to promoting evil. Our spiritual journey is meant to move us forward, closer to God through scripture, in communion and deeper intimacy with God. We are not meant to return to evil or return to sin again. Contrition of heart, amendment of life, changing our ways, faithfully drawing closer to God is a confident step in the right direction.  

“Stop lying to one another.” At the heart of our human condition, is a most profound and an increasing and unfortunate sadness that plagues our children, our families, our society and even ourselves. We simply keep lying to one another to the point that we prefer a lie to the truth. We say the truth hurts when Jesus teaches us the truth always sets us free. Unfortunately, we have grown old and so accustomed to lying that at times we even encourage our children and one another to forgo telling the truth. We unfortunately believe it is more advantageous to tell a lie. It is more profitable and more likely to keep us from harm or from trouble with the law or in-laws, with our relatives, our spouses and our employers. What a lie that is, is becoming and has plagued our way of relating to one another in this world. We minimize and eliminate the truth. We omit certain parts and embellish others. We mask the truth with a lie and then we lie about it. We twist and stretch the truth. We manipulate it, transform and enhance it. We believe “a little white lie,” “a small exaggeration,” “a stretching of the truth,” is okay. It doesn’t hurt anyone. No one will know the difference and yet you do, and we still choose to do it. Lying is not from God. It is a vice not a virtue.  It is wrong and could never be perceived as something that is good and that anything good can flow and come from a lie. The truth is Jesus is the Way, the only Way to the Father, to heaven, to eternity, to our family and friends who have gone before us in faith and now rest in eternal peace. Jesus is the Truth that sets us free – the Truth that no one can love us better – the Truth that God so loves us that He sent His only Son to die freely and lovingly for you and me. Jesus is the Life that the Father gave us who lived only in truth and truly suffered and died because of one lie and the many lies of others. If you lie to another, you are only deceiving and lying to yourself. It is not real; it didn’t really happen that way. A lie does not change or alter the truth – just your perspective on it and what you want others to believe is true. A lie is harmful. No good decision can come from it.  

“Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me.” The fear of being helpless terrifies us. For some, it consumes our mental state – thinking about it, worrying about it. It really can petrify us. We drown in fear, worry, helplessness – in the concern of being left alone with no support and no one around to assist us in our time of trouble and greatest need. It terrifies our state of being. It challenges our mental state and spiritual senses.  It overwhelms and overtakes our peace. We consider those daunting thoughts: What if I am left alone? What if no one shows? What if I call out and no one hears me? What if I ask for assistance and they ignore me, forget me, leave me alone, never respond? The fear of helplessness is a terrible thing and a great pain to experience- facing our finiteness and knowing we cannot do it on our own. We can experience that terrible and dreadful feeling of helplessness when we cannot control the outcome, change a person’s mind, protect our children from harm or danger or must work a dead-end job. We can feel helpless when a friend or family member loses a loved one or we experience the loss of a job, the loss of that long time, childhood friend or a pet. We can feel helpless when the weather does not cooperate with our plans, when we encounter corrupted people or experience selfish minds… when impatience devours our mind and anger eats up precious time, when the traffic light won’t change quickly enough, when other drivers do not get out of the way, when it seems the slowest people on earth will make you late again. We can even feel helpless when we just don’t want to or cannot seem to pray for assistance and ask God for strength and encouragement. It is a terrible thing to encounter and a dreadful thing to consider, needing help, asking for it and there is not a soul or helpful person to be found. You know that dreadful, helpless feeling but God will never let you down. God is always around helplessly listening for the cries of those who need His help.

“If I may ask you this favor, please do not go on past your servant.” One of the many things that truly astounds me as I grow in a greater understanding of our faith, mature in spiritual confidence, come to a greater awareness of myself and become more truly informed and enlightened in this spiritual age is the lack of awareness, knowledge and understanding I possess in knowing and remembering that God is truly with me always, every day. To remember and never forget that God is truly by me, standing always by my side. He is always listening to me, to all I say, pouring His life in me always, always sharing the mutual grace that leads me and sustains me, providing all the love that bonds us and binds us always, united in a bond of holy covenant, binding us to each other in a sacred union that can never be broken, separated, undone or ever forgotten. God is always standing by me, with me, by my side, from the inside always. That is such a profound reality that should never be dismissed or forgotten. Then why is it at times that I fail to always remember that the Lord is always with me, never leaving or forsaking me but always uniting me more deeply through the gift of His Word and the bond of charity flowing through Holy Communion. Why is it so easy to forget and not always to remember His saving grace, to rely on His sacred presence, or to ask and beg Him to make His presence known, cherished, felt. To beg like Abraham and ask for the gracious favor that the Lord would not pass us by or to silently remain perpetually united to Him like Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus who quietly remained by His side from the inside as He actively remained united to her in her heart and through her prayer. Each so amazingly aware of God’s immanent presence, understanding their need for sacred union and knowing that only God could provide for what they truly needed. Like the glorious prophets and patriarchs, like all the holy angels and saints, we need to pray for a greater awareness of God’s holy presence, His nearness, his closeness to us that we may turn to Him always, making a full return to Him and not ignore or forget Him but rather remain in the knowledge of His love and His loving presence. To pray, recall, remember God is by your side always, from the inside.

Moses said to the people: “If only you would heed the voice of the LORD, your God.” Our listening skills and abilities, like our lives, are full, flooded, active and busy, so overwhelmed and overconcentrated with so much noise. So many people, groups and individuals are vying for our undivided attention. So many voices are speaking at one time, saying so many different things. There are so many different video ads, virtual people to contend with, marketing scammers, seductive websites, porn and phishing messaging, additive gaming, fraudulent apps, email texting, explicit music and horrible lyrics – all shouting, screaming, yelling, “Look at me! Listen to me!” Making empty promises, worthless points, providing unnecessary opinions, poor judgements, little lies, false claims, useless information. Yelling, “Look at me! Pay attention only to me! Listen to us! Trust me! You can count on me! Only listen to me!” With so many voices speaking at one time, at such a fast and steady pace, who can determine what they’re saying, what they mean, who is really speaking and can we trust what is being said – so much information thrown at us, so much noise distracts us. How can we truly hear truth spoken and truly hear and listen to God say what we really need to hear? How can we know the path to follow? Where is the life chosen and given to you by God who only wills the truth and the greatest good for you? It is difficult to think a lie can make us feel good or better. It is unfortunate that there is so much deception in the world and people choose and want to deceive us. They lure us to them and away from the glorious freedom of being in a great, eternal, amazing and intimate relationship and friendship with God. The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola emphasize two main and distinctive voices that either inspire us to beauty, goodness and truth or tempt and lure us with evil desires prone to lies and things that are not good for us nor our family, coworkers or friends. Our voice and the voice of others is either inspired by the One or misled by the other. Either we hear and listen to truth like Jesus, Mary and Joseph, or we listen to lies, intentional deceptions, false advertisements and empty promises from the enemies of our human nature. Listen to God. What He has to say will save you.  

“Hear now, all you who fear God, while I declare what He has done for me.” What has God done for you? Perhaps you revise the question by adding what He has done for you or done for you lately. Consider the original question as is and its need and possible healing it might bring you. Healing provided immediately or perhaps right now. At this moment if you truly considered the question, ponder it like Mary and seriously take it to question, meditation and prayer. What has God done for you? In answering, please do so plainly and honestly after giving it thoughtful, careful observation, examination and prayer. Not by questioning what God has done for you lately as we sometimes and often do to one another. We even sometimes believe that God must provide continual and additional miracles and signs so we can thank Him or say and believe that God has done something for us.

Certainly, not what seems to be something you took notice of recently or something you mention happened some time ago or something you read in some ancient text or something that was handed down to you by prophetic utterances or ancient bible stories you listen to or heard from family members, religious friends or spiritual foes. Please tell me. I really wish to know. What has God done for you? Declare it, give witness to it like Mary, the handmaid of the Lord who graciously exults that her immaculate heart and soul ever magnifies and proclaims the greatness of the Lord and that her glorious spirit rejoices in God our Savior. Mary sings and speaks of God’s generous penetrating gaze and the delightful favor God has found in her and all humanity. She gladly proclaims and declares that the Almighty God has done great things for her and Holy is His Name. She speaks of His blessing, His mercy, His assistance, His help, His aid towards all generations past, present and to come. Mary boldly speaks of God’s blessing of beatitude. God’s favor toward the poor and hungry and the wise who trust, believe and fear Him. Mary cannot help but continually sing about what God has done for her, for us and the whole world.  So, seriously, what has God done for you lately or ever? We have much to be thankful for.  

“I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall be ever in my mouth.” There is a huge but such an amazing tremendous word that Jesus uses in scripture, and we celebrate in the rite and holy celebration of the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, “Ephphatha!” It means, “Be opened!” It refers to the incident and encounter of a man who was unable to hear and had a speech impediment. His family and friends brought him to Jesus and literally begged Jesus to lay his hand on him to free and cure him. We hear and experience the personal intimacy of Jesus taking the man off to the side to be away from the noisy crowd and be intimately present to the One who could heal him and set him free. We experience the personal touch of God.  It is personal, intimate. A touch that not only moves one’s heart but also moves impediments and those things that keep us from hearing and speaking with God. The gentle touch and yolk of God that removes all obstacles and frees us from the chains that bind and shackle us from the personal, direct and intimate contact with our Creator.

Note the personal touch Jesus has with the Father as He looked up into heaven, into the Father’s eyes, directly into His heart and Jesus groans, and says “Ephphatha!” And immediately the man’s ears were opened, his hearing restored, his speech impediment was removed, his mouth opened, and he spoke plainly giving glory and praise to God. That is the gift of God and of such a powerful word that really cannot describe the compassion that touched and moved the Sacred Heart of Jesus to look so tenderly in the eyes and heart of the Father and beg that this poor child of God be released from the yolk that prevented him from an intimate union and holy communion with God. Imagine, not being able to hear God or being able to speak directly to him. At baptism, our ears were touched by Jesus to listen to God’s voice and our mouths to proclaim his praise. How often we misuse the gift entrusted to us. Rather than blessing God, at times we use his name in vain. Rather than thanking and praising God, we curse him and blaspheme his Holy Name. Rather than magnify and rejoice in the Lord like our Mother Mary, we speak ill of God and even blame him for our misconduct and misdeeds. Rather than speaking bad of others, bless God instead. 

“Do this in remembrance of me.” What are the things you remember the most, that occupy your senses and consume most or all your day? Do they tend to be heartaches and headaches or grace filled moments that bring a smile to your heart and everlasting light to your day? Do you mostly recall joys and celebrations with your family and friends or recall only the hurts and sorrows and disappointments caused by broken relationships and so-called friendships that devour our precious time and eat up our mental capacity and peaceful space.  Do you tend to focus and spend more time in gratitude, in thanksgiving, in giving thanks to God and to others for the amazing lifelong blessings you can count, the incredible unexplainable successes and accomplishments, those momentous birthdays, anniversaries and joyous moments and milestone celebrations celebrated in the span of a year, two years, ten years, ever since you were born. Or do you tend to dwell in the past, drag it forward in every conversation, remain stuck in the yesteryears, cannot seem to forget or let go the ancient past with all the bad memories, insignificant failures, overly overwhelming concerns, exaggerated exaggerations and overreacting situations that did or did not quite go that way. Our memories can make a smile or a frown appear and disappear in the blink of an eye. We focus too much on negative memories and bad situations that draw us further into darkness, discouragement and despair. However, a happy thought, a wonderful memory can erase and dissipate all that.  We can enjoy a precious moment, a retreat like experience, a joy filled moment, a grace filled effect and in the blink of an eye, the enemy can rob us of the joy and smile, tranquility and peace by distracting and causing us to forget the consoling thought and focusing rather on painful memories and devasting experiences and hurts.  Jesus says, “Do this in remembrance of me.” We might ask do what?  Certainly, faithfully and reverently, celebrate and pray Mass often to recall how God our Heavenly Father sent his beloved Son Jesus into our world and lives to die for the sake of our sins to redeem us, bless us, forgive us, and heal us. To remember that unless you faithfully eat this bread and drink this cup, you cannot have life within you. To remember and know no one loves you more than this, than Jesus. That remembering how much God loves you, will help you forgive and forget those menacing bad memories and unforgiving mistakes.