Author: Lana Kaczmarek

“Have in you the same attitude that is also in Christ Jesus.” The Apostles remind us that we are the Body of Christ. We carry in our own bodies and in our own lives the death of Jesus. In our daily living, we cling to the memory of the suffering of Christ that is most real to us. For He Himself said that they persecuted Him therefore as His Body, we too are persecuted. We are at times ridiculed for believing in God, mocked because we pray, hated because we hold out for a life that is eternal and made fun of because we hope and trust in God. But if we share in the rejection, we must also share in the rejoicing for Jesus has conquered death and has brought us life eternal. We are truly one Body in Christ but likewise we need to be of one heart, mind, and spirit. Scripture encourages us to put on the mind of Christ. That is, to think His thoughts, to speak His words and to pray as He did in loving relationship with God our Father. We also pray that our hearts would be like the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Not just similar but actually the same heart, the same love, and the same attitude in discerning the Father’s will and the same spirit in fulfilling it. Jesus lovingly invites us to remain in His love which is the same love He and the Father share and certainly the same love He shares with our Blessed Mother. A love so sacrificial that it only wills the absolute truth, love and good of the other. We are also encouraged to love this way and to faithfully remain in the Sacred Heart of Jesus. To love with Jesus’ heart and to love with His love as well. Our spirit and soul likewise are united to the One who fashioned us for Himself and created us in His own divine image and beautiful likeness. Creation itself is about oneness with the One who created it and remains united to His creation. God solely desires oneness with creation. Everything about salvation history is about a redemptive rescue formed out of an eternal, undying love that longs for and desires unity and peace and being wholly united in love, life, and truth forever. Salvation is about being together once again. A returning home to the way it used to be. It speaks to us about a returning to an eternal relationship and remaining wholly united to the Body of Christ.

“Let me now sing of my friend.” As years pass, we seem to continue to lose sight of the true meaning of friendship as a trustworthy, reliable individual who is much more than a confidant but also someone committed to stand by us in the greatest joys and celebrations and under the worst circumstances and situations. Friendship is rapidly losing its meaning and perhaps has already lost its truest intention. We allow our friends to be those who favor us online. Those who like our postings, criticisms, opinions, comments, concerns. The notion of friendship is reduced to a membership we hold and value dearly and maintain only through technological settings or social media platforms. However, we remain thankful that what was true about real friendship in the Old Testament, continues to be true in our New Testament experiences. Scripture invites us to consider that it’s not enough to say my close, dear, or best friend. The bible describes true friendship as being founded on faithfulness and cemented in trustworthiness. Scripture notes “Faithful friends are a sturdy shelter; whoever finds one finds a treasure. Beyond price, no amount can balance their worth. Faithful friends are life-saving medicine.” True friendship then is one built on a solid relationship able to withstand even the most terrifying and frightful situations. A true friend cannot be purchased or bought or paid for but rather is more valuable than the most priceless gem and considered a true and lasting treasure. True friends are lifegiving and lifesaving. Praise God. Jesus shows us the depth and the heart of true friendship and the model for being a faithful friend to us and others. He says, “no one has greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Jesus calls us friends because He only wills what is good, just, and right for us. Under the loving gaze and assistance of God our heavenly Father, Jesus offers what is truly helpful in maintaining a true and honest relationship and friendship with Him and with others. Jesus goes on to say, “I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.” This is the heart of true friendship. To come to know, believe and understand the depth of God’s love, the mercy He bestows on us in His beloved Son, and the eternal breath of life He pours into our hearts through the outpouring of His gentle Spirit. Beloved, we are God’s children now. He has befriended us for life. This is the song we sing.

“Wrath and anger are hateful things, yet the sinner hugs them tight.” Scripture reminds us that we are created and made in the image and likeness of God. Meaning, not to simply look like God or simply resemble Him but to be like Him in attribute, character, and identity. Have you embraced this reality? Have you considered the thought of being formed and conformed to the image and likeness of Christ as beloved Son, servant of God, and slave for the salvation of souls? Have you considered what it means to be created and made in the image and likeness of God as parent, sibling and true friend, confidant, treasure, and gift? Do you resemble God? How do you resemble God? Can God’s image be seen clearly in you without blurriness? Can others experience in and through your words and actions as well as in and through your works and deeds the similarity and likeness your share with God? We hear and say when people spend quality, considerable, and substantial time with each other, they begin to resemble each other and can even represent each other in person, complete the other’s thoughts, and even finish each other’s sentences. Are you spending quality time with God or are you spending substantial time with his enemy. Our words, your words give us a clue. Our actions, your actions give us away. We say, “The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion.” To be in the image and likeness of God requires us to be kind and generous and overly charitable toward each other. To be the face of God and the face of mercy and to be mercy itself requires us to be merciful as the Father is merciful for God who has so mercifully treated us, will continue to be merciful but only if we are kind and merciful with each other. We hold on very tightly to anger. God forgives and forgets very easily. We choose to remember and hold on tightly to the past. God says, do this in remembrance of me. We choose to embrace the mistakes, shortcomings, failures, and sins of others. God simply lets go. We forget to be loving, patient and kind. God cannot forget who He is. We are impatient, quick to anger and to becoming angry, short-fused, very impatient. God is slow to anger, moved to compassion and quick to heal so “Forgive your neighbor’s injustice; then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven” and you will more readily resemble God.

“Conduct yourselves in a way worthy of the gospel of Christ.” Intimate moments with God are truly life changing and even necessary. We need those quiet, intimate, sacred moments to encounter the divine in order to recall and be reminded who God is, who we are and the difference. God is divine, eternal, timeless and out of His great patient, suffering love He has placed the timelessness deep in our hearts that we may touch eternity and be healed by divine grace. These spiritual encounters and sacred moments long to find us, seek us out and wonderfully overwhelm us with God’s generosity and holy grace showering us with His great mercy, covering us in His resplendent light, filling us with His divine love, touching the depth of our very soul and being. We all need these moments in our lives. In the encounter with the mysterious and awe consuming presence of God, we find ourselves caught up in sacred mysteries so much bigger than us, so much larger than life, so far beyond our imagination that we cannot fathom the divine holding and gently caressing our hearts and taking us up into the heavenly realm with all the angels and saints even for a brief sacred moment or a holy sacred second. Truly holy, divine and life changing. We encounter these divine and truly blessed occurrences in Mass, in prayer, in darkness or in light. God touches our hearts and moves our soul closer to Him. We cannot help but be moved by His greatness all around us and the gentle touch of His divine presence breathing new life into us. Miracle moments like these transform hearts, even those that a hardened, broken, lifeless, crushed. God makes all things feel like new in these moments. We are never the same. I encountered one of these sacred moments during diaconate ordination. There’s a seriously intimate moment with the gospel and the person of Christ communicating Himself, revealing Himself, making Himself known, sharing His truth. Humbly kneeing before the bishop, the gospel of Christ is offered to those who have been called, formed, prepared for this moment. While holding, touching, sensing the Word that is Christ, we hear, “receive the gospel of Christ whose herald you have become, believe what you read, teach what you believe and practice what you teach.” Touched by the gospel that touches us so intimately we are invited to receive the Word of God with deep gratitude, believe in it with deep profound faith, and generously practice it in our daily lives.

“Come, let us bow down in worship; let us kneel before the LORD who made us.” One of the greatest gifts of prayer is that we can pray all the time and be with the Lord everywhere, often, and always. Prayer does not exhaust God nor is God exhausted by prayer however, we seem to grow weary at the thought of praying. At times, we seem to consider prayer a burden, a chore, too much work. We say we are too tired to pray which means we are too tired for God, too exhausted for divine intimacy and too burdened for relational grace. We deceive ourselves to believe that it is better not to enter the prayer nor to enter into God’s presence. We say quietly to ourselves that God does not listen to us or think he does not hear us. We say to others that we do not pray because we know that God will ask us to do something or that he will ask us to give something up, like an unlawful relationship, or to end an unhealthy one. We harden our hearts, we put our hands over our ears, we close our eyes and ignore the promptings and groaning of the Holy Spirit. We do not understand that we simply cannot live or exist without prayer. Prayer is oxygen to the soul and a lifesaving remedy. Prayer is life giving therefore to pray is to live and to live is to remain alive with God always in perpetual prayer. We pray to enter into a spiritual dialog with holy angels and saints. We pray to communicate with the Lord who desires to be and remain in communion with his poor creatures everywhere, often, and always. We pray to commune with God so that God may communicate himself to us. Prayer is how we reach out to our patrons, our guardians and protectors and remain connected to the holy women and men who have gone before us in faith and sill witness to the great gift of prayer by remaining in prayer with us and continuing to pray and intercede on our behalf. Prayer is how we assist our loved ones who have died that they may rest in prayerful peace for eternity. We pray that they may live and that we may join them one day in perpetual prayer with Mary and Joseph and all the holy angels and saints who experience the beatific vision and sing and pray Holy, Holy, Holy in the presence of the Lord who made us.

“Lord, your love is eternal; do not forsake the work of your hands.” When we consider the word eternal, other words come to mind like everlasting, undying, unending, perpetual, endless, ceaseless, timeless, always, forever, without beginning and without end. We, therefore, can only speak of God in these terms for only God is everlasting, undying, unending, perpetual, endless, ceaseless, timeless, always, forever, without beginning and without end, eternal. In referring to God in these terms and in this way, we can better understand who God is and how He forms an everlasting bond and eternal friendship with the masterpieces He creates and the gracious works he forms with the use of His hands. In these terms, we can better describe and speak of God’s attributes, which are timeless, and more accurately describe the eternal relationship He shares with all creation and how He relates personally and intimately to His beloved creatures in and through creation. Saying God is eternal is by nature the same as saying God is love. Therefore, God’s love is and must be eternal. Love is eternal and will last forever and always. God’s love is forever always and will perpetually be the same always. His love endures forever; therefore, God’s love is without end. Scripture reminds us that without love, without God, we have nothing, gain nothing, and are nothing. However, with love, with God, we can bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, and endure all things for God who is love never ever fails. God is most patient forever. His kindness is undying and His mercy eternal. At times, we choose to use eternal words to describe our friendships and even to describe the situations we experience. However, can we truly say and truly mean with absolute certainty and truth in reference to another person, I will never hurt or fail you? Will you never fail and never hurt another individual ever, promise? Never in thought, never in words, never in speech, never in intention, never ever, ever fail or hurt another individual? Can someone else really say and mean that they will never betray you, that they will love you always, or that they will be your best friend forever? Can we make those kinds of statements without adding or including God in the statement who truly is eternal? Shouldn’t we clarify forever statements by adding “with the help of God’s grace” or “only in Christ”? Then we can say with confidence and truly mean our love is eternal, our friendship forever by including God’s grace.

“I wait for the Lord; my soul waits for His word.” I acknowledge like so many of you how difficult it is to wait. How difficult and how nearly impossible it is to be patient and wait patiently. We want to wait but need everyone to hurry and move along quickly and go even faster but, in the end, we really need to learn how to wait and be more patient with ourselves, with others and especially with the Lord. We need to learn from the Lord how to be patient and patiently wait for Him to respond but impatience creeps in ever so quickly. We become impatient instantly and wonder what is happening and why is this taking so long. We cry aloud and vent our frustration. We voice our discontentment at what we perceive to be the source of incompetence, laziness, lack of judgement and poor planning. We say no one understands or cares how busy we are. We believe we could accomplish so much more if we did not have to wait all the time. Impatience steadily but rapidly rises and gives way to frustration, frustration to more impatience, more impatience to anger, anger to harsh words and harsh words to… well, you get the point. We seem to spend our days endlessly waiting to get through a line. We remain in traffic and stay stuck more often than we care to. We wait and wait and wait for someone to pick up and acknowledge the call and even wait longer for a real person to provide an answer. We are so tired of hearing, “one moment please” or “we’re busy helping another customer.” We say, “Lord, grant me patience but hurry.” Patience is a great friend especially in times of unforeseen circumstances. Especially during our sojourn in this strange land. Patience is an ally in situations that seem unsettling. Even in those times when things do not turn out as we hoped or planned. I think personally how patience is a great gift, an amazing virtue, a healing remedy. How patience has taught me to wait for the Lord to lead me and to wait and pray for the grace to wait for the Lord to lead me and to pray for the grace to follow in His footsteps. So be patient and wait. Pray then wait and pray a little while longer. Our Lord is gracious and ever so kind to His busy, hurried children. God always provides. So be still, be patient and patiently wait. God will not disappoint.

“The Lord is good to all and compassionate toward all His works.”  What is good and how would you define good to a child or to a person who has been suffering from an illness for such a long time or to a person who is grieving the loss of a spouse, a family member or a friend?  How would you show to another individual that you are good and the fruits that come from your works are good, holy, and pleasing to the Father?  Are you good and would someone else say so?  Will another individual be willing and able to describe you and your works as good and give witness to the good that is inside of you?  Are your words good?  Do you have good thoughts?  Is what you eat truly good for you, for your health, for your family?  Good is simply an extension of God as we say, God is good all the time and all the time God is good.  God is the essence of goodness.  God is the source of all that is good and all that is good comes and flows from God.  All that God does is very good and very good for us.  However, consider how Jesus replied to the would-be disciple who called Him Good Teacher.  Jesus answered, “Why do you call me good?”  Then Jesus went on to say, “No one is good but God alone.”   What does that mean to you and how does that make you feel when Jesus acknowledges that God alone is good?  Are you happy and relieved because you think that excuses you from being good and gives you the excuse to be bad or does it cause you to want to pray and ask God for the grace to be good, holy and true as God is good, holy and true?  If only God is good, does that make us bad?  Unheard of!  All that God creates is good.  Even scripture testifies, “God looked at everything he had made, and found it very good.”  Even in the Eucharistic Prayer during Mass we hear, “through Christ our Lord, through whom you bestow on the word all that is good.”  God is good and so are you.  We might say God created us very good however, sometimes the things we say or do or watch are not good for us or our family.  We are not bad.  We were created good, to be good all the time.  Unfortunately, at times, our choices, words, and behavior are not so good. 

“Do you understand all these things?” They answered, “Yes.” The word honest, is an interesting word for us to consider, take to prayer then use as a measure in our own life to determine if our relationship with God is true and truly honest. In that same measure, can we say the same about being honest in our relationships and interactions with one another and even in the manner, we see and judge ourselves? Are we honest in the purest sense of the word? Meaning, to be honest is to be true without any falsehood, deception, lie or malicious or bad intention. To be honest is to think, respond and act in a way that is true and trustworthy and provides the whole truth and nothing but the truth without any sort of deceit. Are you truly honest in your conversations, messages, postings, and interactions with others? Are you honest without being dishonest in your dialogue with God without omitting or hiding something from God? Ever wonder why we try to lie or be dishonest with God when He already knows? Do you say you pray and really don’t want to? Do you say you are going to pray but have no intention in doing so? Do you pray but really don’t pray? Be honest. Are you honest with yourself in your own conversations with yourself either in the interior silence of your mind or said aloud when you talk to yourself? Can you imagine we lie to ourselves and even lie about lying to ourselves. We make ourselves believe that our words, behavior, and actions are okay when we know they are not. We try to justify dishonesty and make excuses for it. We say “yes” we understand something when we really don’t. We say “I know” or make gestures that we know the answer when we really don’t. We say we didn’t say that or we insinuate we didn’t say anything at all when we know we really did. There is such a freedom in being honest and living life honestly. We don’t have to backtrack or add to a lie or invent new ones. The truth truly sets you free. Always being honest and genuine in all your interactions and relationships means not having to worry about recalling or remembering something you said or did not say to one person and perhaps differently to another. Acting honestly does not cause you to be concerned about what you did or did not do because the truth is, we remember or honestly, we forgot.

“The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought.” One of our greatest weaknesses is that we do not or cannot admit or say to ourselves or even aloud to another or even in a whisper that we are weak. We tend to inflate ourselves and at times even embellish our conversations to mask or hide our weaknesses, which is simply a key indicator that we are weak and prone to sin. Our pride indicates our weakness. The times we judge others harshly reflects our weakness. Our hurtful response to others reveals our own personal weakness. We are weak and need God to strengthen us. We are poor and dependent and need God to enrich us and provide for us. Sin weakens us. It hurts us and it hurts others. Scripture tells us when one of us hurts or suffers, the entire Body of Christ is impacted and feels the body weakened by sin. It is an on-going battle we wage against God, against one another and unknowingly wage against ourselves. How can we sin knowing how much it hurts us, our loved ones, and all creation? Sin reveals a wound in us caused and weakened by original sin, further caused and weakened by generational sin and continues to weaken us through personal sin. Only God’s love and affectionate care can heal, strengthen, and make like new again the places in us and in our lives wounded and weakened by sin but we do not pray, as we ought. Why don’t we want to pray as we should? Why can’t we pray knowing our lives depend on it? Why can’t we realize that prayer is the answer, the remedy, the key, the one who will strengthen us? Prayer is such a gift from God. Why would God want to communicate with us poor weak, sinful creatures knowing how selfish, self-centered, unreliable, untrusting we tend to be? That is a great mystery. That is the gift and power of a profound love that has graciously and freely created us, redeemed us, constantly forgiving us and wants to pray and be with us always and forever. So why not pray as you ought to? We know that we are prone to weakness however weakness can be a strength in and through prayer. Saint Paul confidently reminds us to be and remain meek and humble, not sinful, boastful, or prideful. He graciously says, “If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.”