Relax

Sometimes the Lord calls us to rest.  Even when it seems inconvenient in our busy lives.  There's never a time when he stops inviting us to this. "Come to me all you who are burdened and weary, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest in your souls." (Mt. 11:28)  Because I'm a little slow when it comes to hearing His voice, the past few days He's been calling me to rest by allowing me to come down with a cold.  I finally caught on today.  Thankfully He's patient.

"Why is it easy to work but hard to rest sometimes?" Audrey Assad says in her new song, Lament.  How true this is!  It's so easy to keep busy, but not always as easy to just relax, reflect and rest.

We need to be rested inside and out.  We need to take some time for physical rest every day, as well as a time to just quiet our souls and rest in Him.  My boy, St. Augustine, said that our hearts are restless until they rest in God.  

Ask the Lord to hold you in His arms while you take a break today, I know I'm going to.

What God and a cinnamon bun have in common

Yesterday at breakfast, a friend challenged me to somehow relate God to a cinnamon bun.  Needless to say I accepted the challenge, so let's not waste anymore time.  I am about to enlighten you about the wonders of sticky sweet goodness! Get psyched!

We'll start with the best part...the frosting of course!

The frosting is the sweetest part, nobody wants a cinnamon bun without the warm melted frosting that gets stuck to your fingers! There's just no denying that. 

Well, the word of God is actually pretty sticky too. In fact if our daily life is rooted in Scripture, then God's word should "stick" in our heads throughout the day.  Everything that comes out of our mouths should reflect what we've been putting in our heads from Sacred Scripture.  The book of psalms says, "How sweet are Your words to my taste.  Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" (Psalm 119:103)...and I would add, sweeter than the best cinnamon bun you've EVER eaten!  The sweetness of our faith is found in the word spoken from the mouth of God.  His word is truth, it is beauty, and it is our life.

Next comes the fluffy dough!

If it weren't for the fluffy dough, where would we put the frosting?!  The dough is the foundation on which the frosting rests.  I think you might know where I'm going with this - but in case you don't, I would like to propose that the dough represents the Eucharist, the source and summit of our faith.  The Eucharist is the foundation upon which everything else rests.  The dough from the cinnamon bun is what fills us up (especially if you're like me and can't just eat one!).  The Eucharist is the same way...but on a supernatural level...it's what nourishes us! In John 6:35, Jesus says, "I am the bread of life, he who comes to me will not hunger." The Eucharist is what gives us strength, keeps us going, and brings us closer to the Creator (the chef, if you will). 

The Cinnamon

The cinnamon is an essential part of a cinnamon bun...without it, well...it's just a bun.  Boring!  Although we don't always see each and every particle of cinnamon while we're eating, we can taste the effects of it.  Likewise we can't see the Holy Spirit in our lives, but we can definitely see the effects of His movements in our daily lives!  Every good and Holy act that we do or think is the work of the Holy Spirit.  Even if a person is not aware of the Holy Spirit acting in their lives, they can still be guided by His light of truth by choosing to love in every moment.  

Luke 4:18 says, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed" What a mission!! It's the movement of the Holy Spirit is what makes life exciting!  Living every step of our lives for the Lord is the greatest adventure of our lives!  St. Augustine once said, "To fall in love with God is the greatest of all romances, to seek Him the greatest adventure, and to find Him, the greatest human achievement."  If you wanna spice up your life, get some more cinnamon in your life!

Finally, the burnt bottom, because I always forget to take it out of the oven on time...

Nobody's perfect, often times we lose track of time and burn the pastries :/  We've all done it, just like we've all sinned.  Yep, you guessed it: The burnt part on the bottom represents all of the sin in our lives.  Nobody wants a burnt bottom...although sometimes we might think that we can live with it...the cinnamon bun is always going to taste better without it.  Sometimes we burn it so badly that you can't even taste the rest of the cinnamon bun, it just tastes like charcoal.  Um...nasty!!  Nobody wants that.

Matthew 5:29 says "If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell."  In a similar way, (Yes, that was a New Roman Missal Reference) nobody wants to eat that burnt stuff on the bottom, so cut it off and enjoy the sweetness of the cinnamon bun!

Well, that's about all I got on this tasty topic. My hope is that you never look at a cinnamon bun the same way ever again and that you're hungry for more ;)

Being loved

A lot of times we're told that we need to love other people more.  This is true.  But how often do we recognize that we all have a need to BE loved?

Knowing that you are loved has the capacity to change the way that you live your entire life if you let it.  It makes you a more confident, joyful, bold, and driven person. Knowing that you're loved gives your life meaning and purpose.  I just want all of you to know that you are incredibly loved by love Himself, Jesus Christ.  He loves you so much that He was crucified for you so that He could spend eternity with you.  Don't ever think that nobody loves you, because that is not the truth.

 Let the Lord love you today. 

Are you ready?

This morning, as I was walking into the Church, I ran into the priest who was celebrating.  He looked at me, gave me a high five and simply said, "Are you ready?"

That's it. That's all he said..."Are you ready?" At first I just thought, "Ready for what?"  But wow, what a loaded question.  This could have meant anything...

Are you ready for Mass?  Did you prepare for God to come in your midst through the Eucharist?
Are you ready to be open to how God is going to use you for His glory today?
Are you ready for Heaven if today is your last day?
Are you ready to battle the temptations of the day?
Are you ready to encounter Christ in that annoying person that drives you nuts?
Are you ready to use every opportunity of the day to get yourself and those around you to Heaven?

We don't know what God's got in store for us for the day, so we need to be ready for anything that comes at us.  This is why constant prayer and conversation with the Lord is so important!  We need to be on our guard for any temptations that lead us away from the Lord.

"Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour." - 1 Peter 58

Are your ready?

No? Me neither.

That's why it's a journey.

What are we doing to get ready?

Make a commitment today to take a step towards Heaven.

I'm beginning to understand the introverts.

Have you ever felt like you are so incredibly surrounded by noise that you can't even think straight? Well, I have.  Many times.  And all these years I've been talking to the Lord and trying to figure out how I can quiet down my life.  Little did I know that the answer was hanging up on my wall for the past two years.  I found it while I was in Austria...

"You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet, still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet." - Franz Kafta

I'm finally realizing the importance of taking silence out of every single day, and how beautiful it is to hear the voice of God during these times.  Sometimes, though, that means quieting our thoughts as well.  How can we listen during prayer when our minds are racing a mile a minute?  If we want to be His servants, then we have to learn the art of quieting our minds and hearts in order to hear what the Master is saying.  And this is not only for the designated times that we have taken out of our days for prayer, but even throughout the entire day.  


Holiness Challenge: 
Practice having conversations with God as if He is walking next to you through every situation of your day.  He's always having the conversation, but are we listening? Maybe we're texting or maybe, if you're an extrovert like me, you're even talking right over Him?  Give Him a chance to speak, He's got a lotta wisdom to share...I mean, He's been around for well...at least all of eternity ;)


Seek peace.