Author: Lana Kaczmarek

“Led by the Spirit into the desert… Jesus fasted for forty days and forty nights.” I have come to learn, to believe, to rely on God, His Word, His grace, His Spirit to guide and lead me through the path of everlasting life. Honestly, left to us, without a good sense of direction or spiritual discernment, we would find ourselves in more situations and conversations that would lead us to more sadness, hurt, and disappoint. Left to our own judgement and imperfect knowledge, trying to navigate through life on our own without God’s help, leaves us vulnerable, unhappy, dissatisfied, and lost. Without God’s support, you may want to ask yourself, where are you going and plan to be if not led by the Spirit and the way God intends for you? God is the way of truth and the only way and the only life that guarantees us eternal happiness. So where are you going? Where are you heading? Is it a place of misery and mistrust or a place of genuine joy and unprecedented happiness? We tend not to want anyone to lead us but often choose to imitate and follow someone else. The Good Shepherd leads and guides us. Good leaders and good shepherds are those who unreservedly follow the Lord, imitate His deeds, are attentive to His voice and follow Him wherever He goes. The challenge of our journey is to come to intimately know and genuinely trust that God’s way is so much better than our own way. It is the only way. In His great mercy, God chose to free Israel from captivity and physical slavery then lead them into the desert to free them from their slavery and captivity to sin. God peeled back their physical attachments and invited them to detach from sinfulness and become more dependent and spiritually attached to God. Lent is a time of invitation to follow God into the desert and allow God to perform the same miracle for us. Cardinal Manning’s prayer for light is a good way to begin the journey. “O Holy Spirit of God, take me as your disciple. Guide me, illuminate me, sanctify me. Bind my hands, that they may do no evil. Cover my eyes, that they may see it no more. Sanctify my heart, that evil may not dwell within me. You are my God. You are my guide. Whatever you forbid me, I will renounce. And whatever you command me, in your strength I will do. Lead me then unto the fullness of your truth.” Amen 

“Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ Anything more is from the evil one.” I love the gift of prayer. Truly a gracious gift from God. A grace that permits us sinful unworthy sinners to enter freely and gracefully onto sacred ground, into God’s holy presence, an intimate union with the Lord. Prayer is at the heart of who we are, for we are relationship, a community, a family, a response to God’s great love, the answer to his prayer. I am thankful to God for the many ways He graciously meets us in prayer. He lifts us up and takes us onto holy ground then He brings us into Holy Communion. At times, we need the words from a saint or a poem or sacred scripture to inspire us. At times we need to remain still and silent and simply be and receive what the Lord offers us in response to our prayer. At times we need someone to guide us or lead us into divine intimacy through meditation, contemplative, or reflective prayer. Sometimes we just need the Holy Spirit to speak directly to our hearts through a song, a lyric, an upbeat melody or one that moves us to tears. What a great gift prayer is. So many ways to pray, praise, and acknowledge our needs and cry to God for help and assistance. In moments when we feel nothing is working, I am thankful that we can pray. We are often plagued with situations we cannot control, change, or correct. We experience those difficult days, ever so impatient when nothing seems to go our way. We can’t seem to get a break. These are great opportunities for prayer. God always provides the wisdom, grace, and direction we need. In prayer, we are not in control, God is. Can we truly say that we are in control of any situation or conversation? Can we control the thoughts, responses, or actions of another? Are you able to control your anger, temptation, impatience, desire, or sin? In the end, we have the grace and power of holy baptism to renounce and say no to sin and to believe and say yes to God, His will, His Spirit, His grace. In the end, we have the power and freedom to respond to every situation and conversation. Yes, let us pray for patience for it is a virtuous gift and a great aid to prayer. However, let us pray for the grace to say yes to God and no to all that opposes Him.

“You shall call, and the LORD will answer, you shall cry for help, and He will say: Here I am!” The one thing that most challenges us is the one thing, by God’s grace, that I have only recently come to appreciate and be most grateful and thankful for, that is my own sense of being so spiritually poor and spiritually weak in the presence of God. Our world teaches us, our parents instruct us, our friends inform us and our community encourages us to take a stand, be strong, independent, and to rely on our own strength and wisdom. To never be weak or vulnerable but instead be self-sufficient, self-dependable, self-reliable because no one can do it better than you. We say, they say, you say, if you want it done right the first time then do it yourself. What does that say about you? What does that say about the rest of us? Well, thanks be to God, He has helped me to embrace and be most grateful for my own poverty and spiritual weakness. In the presence of God, in the sight of our Creator, in the knowledge of my own creation and existence, with God’s help, I have come to know, experience, and appreciate the great poverty God has so graciously formed me. Seriously, how can we say we are wealthy, secure, or rich in anything but God? Without God, we have nothing. Possessing God and being possessed by Him makes us the riches people in the world or in the universe for that matter. For God said, “My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours.” What? Hold up – what did you say? I am you son, your child, your beloved! I am here, in your presence, in your divine will always! Everything that is yours is mine! What more can one ask for? What more do we need? God’s grace must be enough. God’s grace must be sufficiently sufficient for all of us. We must learn to cry out to the Lord for grace and help. We must become spiritual poor, weak, vulnerable, and needy in the presence of the Almighty and beg for His divine grace. We must become poor beggars in God’s presence that He may graciously and lavishly pour out His gifts over us, enrich our poverty, and strengthen us in our weaknesses for we are truly heirs to God’s Kingdom. So, do not be afraid to cry out and say, “God come to my assistance. Lord, make haste to help me!”

He began to teach them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Who are the poor in spirit? Are you poor in spirit? Are you among those Jesus calls blessed who will inherit the kingdom of heaven? In the Old Testament, the poor in spirit were those who simply lived in physical poverty and remained entrusted to God. Those who suffered the loss of material possessions and lived without the comfort of security or basic material needs but who remained confident that somehow God would provide what they truly needed and rejoiced in that knowledge. The poor in spirit were those who trusted in the providence of God and remained dependent on God for everything. Jesus was poor in spirit because He simply was poor. He was born poor. He entered into this world in such poverty that there was no room for His family in the inn or in any residence. With creation and with His creatures, He laid sleeping. Jesus would live out this reality throughout His adult life and throughout His public ministry for He Himself said, “The Son of Man has nowhere to rest His head.” Jesus also modeled for us the spirituality of being poor by being poor in spirit through His helplessness and total dependency on the Father for all things and in all circumstances.  Jesus showed and imitated for us blessed-ness and beloved-ness by simply submitting His will to the Father’s will, commending His spirit into the Father’s Spirit, and surrendering His life into the Father’s confidence, trust and divine love. The New Testament invites us all to be and become spiritually poor like Jesus.  Like those called blessed in the eyes of God. Like those who inherit and become heirs to the kingdom of God by becoming meek and humble of heart like Jesus by simply believing God always provides, He always does, He always has, He always will. In God alone can we truly trust for only God in His own spiritual poverty provides the love we truly need. Only God can love us so much with a tender love that truly enriches us in our poverty and even enriches us when we seem to have everything this world offers us. God makes Himself physically and spiritually poor so that we can inherit and enter His kingdom and His loving presence. Jesus humbled Himself to the point of death on a cross. Blessed in His beloved eyes and truly rich in His amazing grace are the poor in spirit for God provides what they truly need. 

“He called them, and immediately they followed Him.” At one desperate moment or another, we have encountered the great moment of question and anxiety: is this it, is this all that life has to offer? Did I miss something, am I missing the point? As we work or play, eat or drink, hope or despair we stop and gaze into the endlessness of our thoughts and ponder in our wandering mind, how did I get here, where am I going, what am I doing? We begin to consider life, the fullness of our own life in terms of meaning, value, purpose rather than simply doing, getting, accumulating. We begin to put worth on the bigger picture and wonder how we came into being and where is your own journey leading you to. How did you come to be and where are you supposed to be, and where will you be at the end of this journey? Great questions to consider and ponder. Great questions to take to heart and to prayer. By consideration, we mean to make and take some quality time to truly reflect and consider your own call, your own happiness, and the possibility of the greatness God created you in and what He created you for. By taking to heart, we mean to be seriously open and allow your own heart to speak to you and to have the courage and the patience to listen to what your heart has to say to you about hurt, healing, hope. Your heart will help you consider the past through a spiritual lens to consider what worked or did not work in your relationship with God or with others. How your own hurt and that of others influenced your decisions and got you where you are today. How the Lord wishes to heal the brokenhearted and call us to a life of hope, healing, happiness. By prayer, we mean to come honestly to the Lord without a list of demands, expectations, negotiations, or fake and empty promises. Prayer is best considered through the lens of scripture. Jesus Himself would go away to be silent, still and in communion with the Father. So, we pray by simply being silent and still and respond by saying, speak Lord your servant is listening. In considering the call and the response of the disciples, we can consider our own call and response as well. They pondered, considered their own life, reflected and prayed. Is this all there is? When Jesus called, they came to life. You can as well.

“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” I think and wonder how prayer is such a marvelous and gracious gift from God. It is truly a blessing to be in God’s most holy presence and share our hearts, our joys, frustrations, and concerns with Him. How could one ever truly live or function without the great gift of prayer? How could one exist or breathe a sigh of relief without the gift or great experience of praying intimately with the Lord? How could one not ever really appreciate how amazing prayer can truly be? In my early days, prayer was not automatic for me. It seemed to be a last-minute resort or the thing to do when everything else failed or that thing I had to do when nothing else seem to work. It was only in those desperate moments and urgent times that I found myself in a church, on my knees begging, negotiating, pleading, and promising better ways and better behavior if only I could obtain the answer to my prayer. Sad to note, that is what we usually call or consider prayer. The prayer that only seems to work when we seem to get our way. Now, praise God, I confess that prayer is oxygen to me. It is better than food and sweeter than honey or any nectar or passion fruit. Prayer is the immediacy of God. His closeness, His intimacy, His profoundly real presence, the source, and summit of all we really need, long for, or desire. Prayer is consoling, revealing, healing, and up-lifting. Prayer is a person, an ear, a heart, a shoulder to cry on and a dependable person that we can always faithfully depend on to give us the best counsel, helpful guidance and the right and only answer we need to know. Prayer is life-giving, lifesaving, life-changing only if we pray with openness of heart, a generous spirit, purity of intent, and with unwavering faith, confidence, and trust in God. Prayer requires patient silent attention, a listening spirit, and a receptive disposition. You cannot pray or say you pray if you are not truly discerning God’s call or plan for your life. You cannot discern God’s will knowing you already made up your mind and already made the decision. That appears to be closed-minded, negotiating God’s will, or simply being manipulative. Prayer assumes the only true reason we pray is to be closer to God, to listen to His voice, to hear what He has to say, and enjoy His friendship forever.

“Your light has come, the glory of the Lord shines upon you.” Our lives and even life in general is often compared to or described as a journey, a trip, a pilgrimage, an adventure. We seem to be in a constant flow of movement, moving from one place to the next. Always in a continuous state of moving towards something so much greater than us and ever beyond our reach or, better stated, we are moving towards someone so much greater than us and ever beyond our reach. We are destined one day to arrive to our true homeland, heaven and encounter Him who came and will come again in glory to be our judge and our guide. Our journey begins anew each year coming to the realization that we are loved with a love beyond all telling but we are still in such need of a lifesaving and redeeming grace. Sin has caused so much darkness, blindness, confusion. We have lost our way and all sense of direction. We need God to come again. We need God’s light, His love, and His gift of salvation. We search for mercy. We seek forgiveness. We hope for pardon and pray for peace. We need our Savior to rescue us and to be the hope, the peace, and the joy we desire, long for, look for and need. We come to realize that without Him, we do not really know where we are going. We do not really know the way to obtain His gracious gift or the grace he so graciously offers us. We are encouraged during our pilgrim journey to be still, to be silent, to pray, to be ready for the next coming of the Lord. To wait for the Lord who will come to us once again as He promised, come one day to save us, His poor children. Until then, He asks us to walk by faith, to trust His beloved Son, Jesus who is truly the way, the truth, the life we seek and need. To wait patiently for the Lord’s next arrival and to be faithful in preparing for the journey home. Until then, Jesus continues to come gloriously as the light that shines upon us in scripture, in prayer, in person, in Eucharist. We began our adventure with joyful anticipation singing, “O come, O come, Emmanuel.” We continue our pilgrim journey coming to “behold Him, born the King of Angels” adoring Him, thanking Him for coming to us as the Light of the World, shining His glory upon us.

“He who obeys his father brings comfort to his mother.” When we look into the eyes of the Holy Family, we should be able to see our own family, our true home, the place we long to belong. Piercing their sweet image, looking into their hearts, seeing their family portrait, understanding their history, and partaking in their journey, we find meaning in our own lives. We can understand perhaps a little bit more the amazing grace our heavenly Father has given unto us. We can personally experience the purpose of our own lives and the gracious gift of being born into such a sacred family. Created in God’s image and made in the holiness of God, we belong to this perfect family graciously given to all humanity as a gift and model to aspire to become. Not just a reflection or a representation of a perfect family, but God’s Holy Family, which creates, renews and forms us anew. Conceived as a new creation through the lifesaving waters of baptism, brought forth from the baptismal womb of Holy Mother Church, we are once again holy members of the household of God, heirs to God’s glorious kingdom and citizens of our true homeland in heaven. When we see beyond ourselves, our own lives, our own problems, we can see our own family, the family of God. Joseph is a man of honor, honoring God our Father and honoring Mary our Mother. Mary is a woman of faith that keeps God’s word deep in her heart and acts upon it. Jesus is the beloved child of God, forever obedient to his Father, forever obedient to his parents, forever committed to us, his family in spirit, in love and in truth. As members of this holy family, we take on their lives, we live by their virtues and learn from their faith. We pray to model their behavior in our lives and trust in God with their trust and love. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph experienced life, as we know it. It was not easy for the Holy Family, as we like to think and believe. They experienced the unfortunate circumstances and effects of a sinful, disobedient humanity. They experienced sorrow and terror, poverty and rejection, illness, and death; however, they remained obedient in faith, confident in prayer, joyful in the Lord, always surrendered, actively submitting to God’s holy and divine will. We believe God was always with them, providing for them but find it difficult to believe that God is also with us, providing for us for all eternity.

“I proclaim to you good news of great joy.” Our gracious Lord, our sovereign King, our holy Ruler, our soul’s provider, comes, He advents, He waits no longer. He makes haste to come to us and to announce to us, present to us, reveal to us, proclaim to us good news of great joy. The Good News of the greatest Joy! God gives us the holy and sacred proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the cause of our joy. The great joy we celebrate this sacred season. A time of great joy and joyful expression. A joyous celebration! The time has finally come. Its advent is finally here. No more waiting. Time for celebrating. The time has come for us to lift-up our hearts purified and prepared in the Advent Season. The time has arrived to be joyful in song, exultant in praise, jubilant in gratitude and filled with thanksgiving. This is the reason why we are so merry. Why our happy hearts and joyful voices sing out and sing “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will.” God is proclaiming his saving plan. He is sharing with us the gift of salvation. “For a child is born to us, a son is given us.” He comes bearing great gifts of great joy. He brings the joyful anticipation of a long-awaited promise; the deliverance of a hope prayed for by so many, so long ago. The hope that we are not alone, never abandoned, always cared for, and forever provided for. A hope that never disappoints. This child brings peace. Not the peace of this world but the peace that is eternal, joy-filled and everlasting. A peace that assures us and reassures us that God has come to heal our broken hearts and provide the grace and strength we need to forgive ourselves and to forgive one another. This child comes to reconcile us to the Father, to ourselves and everyone else. This child brings joy, so much joy, Christmas joy. He breathes joy. He shares happiness. He makes Christmas merry. He makes our lives happy once again. This child brings the greatest gift, the greatest joy, the greatest news. God loves us. He has always loved us. He will never stop loving us. His love has been poured into our hearts and now nothing can separate us from the love of God. Wow! That is good news of great joy! There is good cause to celebrate with great joy. God loves us! Merry Christmas!

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name Him Emmanuel.” Have you ever stopped, really stopped to consider your thought process and enter more fully into a moment of true reflection to contemplate Emmanuel, God with us? What does God with us mean to you? What is God inviting you to consider, think about, or contemplate when scripture declares, “God is with you” or the priest says, “the Lord be with you” or Jesus says, “behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age?” What does that say to you? Is there something you wish to say or something you wish to consider in the fact that nothing can separate us from the love of God? That God is with you always, desires to be with you always, longs to be with you always, hopes to be with you always. The essence of God has been poured into our hearts. His Spirit moves and breathes inside of us, dwells inside of us, lives, and ministers inside of us, cries, and moans inside of us. God sees what you are seeing. God hears what you are listening to. God is aware of ever thought that passes through your mind. Every image you meditate on, color, contemplate, dress or undress. God is actively present to every conversation that takes place. Every word, every thought and all that you imagine. God is present when you rest and sleep. He is there during work, school, or leisure. God is present to you in those long, dreary, lonely sleepless nights. There throughout the burden of anxiousness, worry, concern. There in the addictions that haunt you and call to you when darkness and fatigue creep in during those dark, cold endless night. God is present like the dawn to welcome you into a new day filled with many gracious opportunities to welcome Him throughout your day. God is always present to hear and listen to you, to love and forgive you, which is what you really need. God is someone who is always faithfully there and available to you, to care and listen to you, no matter the circumstance, situation or what you are experiencing. God is always there for you. God is always here for us. What have you asked for Christmas this year? New wheels or a gold shiny thing? Perhaps the latest electronic gizmo or something new to wear or put on? Why not ask God for the grace to make you more aware that he is always with you?