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The Purpose Of The Pits

Monday, May 11th, 2009

Over the last month or so, some friends and I had the privilege of bringing a missionary image of Our Lady of Guadalupe around the Archdiocese of Boston. One of the stops I had the privilege of being at was a county prison. The prisoners at Mass each had a chance to approach the image and express their devotion to the Blessed Mother.

Afterwards, I was talking with one of the prisoners. You could tell he was one of the leaders, and he thanked us for being there and for what we had done. I said, “Oh, it’s a privilege. I hope it gives you guys some hope and inspiration.” He said, “Yeah, some inspiration to get out of here and never come back.”

Prison is the pits. It’s one of those few places that God sends us to so that we’ll want to get out and never come back. It’s a place where many people cry out to God. And it’s also a place of second chances.

Jonah ran away from the Lord and ended up swallowed by a giant fish – maybe you remember the story? But God gave him a second chance after that, and by Jonah’s preaching, the whole city of Nineveh was saved, more than 120,000 people.

What did Jonah do in the belly of the fish?

I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me for ever; yet you did bring up my life from the Pit, O LORD my God. When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the LORD; and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. (Jonah 2:6-7)

If God has put you in the Pit, don’t despair, it’s not over. It’s so that you’ll want to get out and never go back again, so you can fulfill the great plan He has for you. Remember Him and cry out in prayer to Him.

He will give you the inspiration to get out and never go back.

Posted in Serving Others, Sorrowful, Work & Career | 1 Comment »

The Way Out Of The Way

Sunday, May 10th, 2009

A friend of the family, Jake, came by a few months ago to watch a movie with my father, and we all got to talking about my father’s trip back down to Virginia. Jake loves to travel, and he especially loves to drive – he used to be a truck driver. So, he offered to drive my father down to Virginia when the time came. What a gift of a friend he is!

Well, when we started talking about the trip down, we talked about route 95, and how it’s pretty much a direct trip from Boston to DC. Jake started describing the routes he takes. “I don’t take 95, even though it pretty much goes direct all the way down. I’ll take the Mass pike to 84, all the way through New York and into Pennsylvania. Then I’ll take 81 to 83 into Maryland.”

Wow, I’m thinking, that’s way out of the way. I have done lot of traveling from Boston to Pennsylvania, to New Jersey, even some to Maryland and Virgina. I’ve gone 95, 84, 684, 287, 80, Garden State Parkway, New Jersey Turnpike, and other ones. But I never would have thought of taking the route he described.

I said, “No Tappan Zee bridge?” “I don’t even take the Tappan Zee – they’re always doing construction on that.”

He said, “Even though it adds 90 more miles onto 450, it takes an hour less time. It’s because, except for Hartford, you skip all the traffic in Connecticut, and then you skip New York and Philadelphia completely.

I would never take 95 the whole way.”

Jesus has come to us, and He desires each of us to come to Him. But reaching Him is a journey that takes effort. If we look to reach Him directly, we’ll meet many obstacles in the road – traffic, construction, accidents on the side of the road, backups, delays.

But there is an indirect way we can take, and His mother knows it. She knows it because she is it. Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. (1 Cor 11:1) This way looks like it’s way out of the way. It looks like a longer way, and it may not even make sense to us at first. But we get there faster and easier.

We skip all the commotion, the back-ups, and delays.

And after taking this way, you’ll never take the direct route again.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Posted in Family & Friends, Luminous, Serving Others | No Comments »

Being On The A-Team

Thursday, April 30th, 2009

Two nights ago, I had the privilege of singing at a Mass in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe, on the feast of St. Louis de Montfort. St. Louis is the man who enlightened the rest of the Church with a special means of giving themselves to Jesus through Mary His Mother. This consecration has been an important part of my coming back to Christ, and it’s the foundation for a group at the Shrine where I am a member. And, to boot, the Missionary Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was there as well. So it’s a great privilege for me to be able to sing at the Mass.

Now, I am an OK singer, but certainly not the type you’d put leading the singing in church. I got to sing because the usual musician is out of town and the music director could not make it. I was the last-minute substitute: Choice C.

But as it turned out, I was not alone. There was a nineteen-year-old woman singing with me, Sandy. She was so very kind and humble, she had the most beautiful voice, played the guitar, and, well, she even looked a lot like Our Lady of Guadalupe. (Not to mention that Our Lady was a teenager when she was pregnant with her Son, as she is as Our Lady of Guadalupe.)

Now, my singing voice alone is boring, but not only that, I have gasps, places where I forget to breathe. My timing is off, I sing way too low most of the time, and my volume is all over the place. I sing like a choice C singer. Hack.

I told her, “You have a great voice. You should be doing all the singing, you can do the solos.” She said, “No, we are a team. We’ll sing together.” So, we sang together for the Mass.

And the most amazing thing happened. She sang and played the guitar with me, and by doing that, everything changed. She smoothed out all the rough edges, adapted for the volume, and her higher voice balanced my drone. And even more, she could harmonize at the drop of a hat. Her harmonizing turned every ordinary song into an extraordinary song.

With her guitar playing and singing, we sounded like Choice A. People were even weeping! She got all the accolades of course, and what did I get? I got to sing with her. I would have been a disaster alone, but instead, with her, I got to be a part of the A team.

In his writings revealing the special means of consecration to Jesus through Mary, St. Louis de Montfort wrote that we need this means because, from God’s standard, everything we do is like Choice C: it’s hack. He wrote that we should live life always with Mary so that “she may purify it, sanctify it, embellish it, and thus render it worthy of God.” (The Secret of Mary, No. 37)

Mary gives us the Sacred Humanity of Jesus. When we live life with Jesus’ Humanity, when we live life with Mary, she smoothes out all the rough edges. She adjusts for our faults and weaknesses and fills them in. And not only that, she embellishes our life with a harmonizing that makes every ordinary thing extraordinary. It becomes worthy of God Himself. It becomes the Life of her Son.

We get to live with her, and our life goes from Choice C to Choice A.

We get to be a part of the A team.

Posted in Family & Friends, Joyful, Serving Others | 3 Comments »

Become God’s Mirror

Saturday, April 25th, 2009

Marian apparitions have occurred more frequently in the past two hundred years, and especially in the last century. Some are authentic, and some are a little bogus. But did you notice that, in her authentic visitations, the Blessed Virgin always appears privately to only a single person, or just to a few? These people are always “nobodies”, people who aren’t on the radar screen in society. They are often children. They are always the littlest and humblest. These little ones then deliver her message to the world.

There are St. Juan Diego in Mexico City; St. Catherine Labouré at Rue de Bac, France; St. Bernadette at Lourdes, France; Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta at Fatima, Portugal; Alphonsine, Nathalie , and Marie Claire at Kibeho, Rwanda; and many others.

So, why doesn’t the Blessed Mother communicate to the whole world directly?

In the Old Testament, God shows us that He always communicates directly with a “nobody”, who He then charges to pass along His message to the people. Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, to name a few. Even the Hebrews themselves were nobodies. But this is how God reveals Who He is, by choosing the nobodies to deliver His message.

Now, by doing the same, Mary shows us how she is so bound in love to God and that she does what He does. She never does anything that God is not doing. That is why she is so special to Him. Since he clings to me in love I will free him, protect him for he knows my name. (Ps 91:14)

She is a perfect mirror of Jesus her Son: “The disciple is not above his master: but every one shall be perfect, if he be as his master.” (Lk 6:40)

And He is the perfect Revelation of God: Then Jesus answered, and said to them: Amen, amen, I say unto you, the Son cannot do any thing of himself, but what he sees the Father doing: for what things soever he does, these the Son also does in like manner. (Jn 5:19)

The Lord does not want us to think we’re going to make a big impact in the world. The most important thing we do is not in the results we get, whether it’s in our relations, at our work, or in the Church. No, He just wants us to be with Him, doing what He is doing. That’s all.

He wants us to be His mirror. That’s how He reveals Himself to the world.

Posted in Luminous, Serving Others | 3 Comments »

Receiving Is The Only Way

Saturday, April 11th, 2009

On the Annunciation last month, I was on my way through a mall to get to the church for Mass, when I saw a little kiosk stand selling matryoshka dolls. These are the Russian dolls that come in sets of five, where smaller ones nest inside bigger ones, until they all fit inside the largest one. Well, I noticed a very small set, the littlest one, that had images of the Madonna and Child. The biggest one is only about an inch tall. I ended up buying it, I’m thinking, “This is a good example of how grace is mediated. This will come in handy for teaching some day.”

So, the Mass was a special celebration of the Annunciation, where about fifteen more men and women consecrated themselves to Jesus through Mary. It was a great evening, and afterwards, on the way out, I showed some friends the little matryoshka dolls. So while we’re looking at them, little Therese comes out. Now, Therese is the littlest child, the littlest one, at the whole Mass.

“Oh, she’ll love this. OK, Lord, now I know why I got these. Now I get it.”

So I sat down, and a big crowd gathered around. First, she saw the biggest doll, which is already pretty tiny. I popped that open, and out came the smaller doll. Therese was so surprised and excited. Then the next one, the next one. Finally, we got down to the next to last one. Now, this little guy is small – only a quarter of an inch at best. It has a little, tiny emblem of the Madonna and Child, and Therese thought it must be the last one. It’s impossible that there could be a smaller one. I struggled and struggled to open it (this thing is tiny). Finally, it popped open, and the smallest little matryoshka doll you could imagine popped out.

Therese leaped and screamed with joy.

And I got a little kiss from the littlest one.

The Blessed Virgin Mary is the littlest one. In the Annunciation, we celebrated the great moment when she received God and His Kingdom with her whole being. In thanks for her gift, she declared her Magnificat, her exclamation of praise for God.

There is only one way to enter the Kingdom of God. We can’t enter by studying theology and religion. Helping the poor won’t get us in either. Living a good and virtuous life won’t get us in. Doing great projects in the Church doesn’t do it. We cannot enter by fighting for political and social justice. And there is no special prayer we can say.

There is only one way:

We receive it like the littlest one.

Like Mary.

Like little Therese.

“Let the children come to me, do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” (Mk 10:14-15)

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We Will Get There Together

Sunday, April 5th, 2009

I had the gift and privilege to be at the local Eucharistic Congress last night in Boston. It’s really for young adults, and with my grays I’m past that age, but I was invited in by one of the organizers. Plus, I can’t miss an hour of adoration with the Cardinal and then a Eucharistic procession through the North End of Boston. So I went.

So what is a Eucharistic procession? It’s when the Lord Jesus in the Eucharist is carried by a priest in a monstrance down a path with a bunch of people following in prayer. Yesterday was a beautiful and powerful experience to follow the Lord with the Cardinal and about 300 others through the streets of Boston’s “Little Italy”. At a few spots, everyone would kneel and adore for a short time. We each had a little candle, and we sang as we followed along the way.

But it was a windy night. And candles can go out with the slightest gust, right? It was not a good night for keeping a candle lit.

So, we walk out of the church into the night and turn a left, right away into a steady gale. Left and right, candles were being extinguished. But as fast as they were going out, people were helping each other re-light them. Then came a calm spot. Then we went around a corner, and a sudden burst of wind shot out. Lights going out everywhere. Even my friend Mel, who I thought had his light so well guarded, poof – out it went. It went on and on like that the whole way.

Sometimes I found a light from someone else, sometimes I gave a light. Sometimes I had to search for someone who had a light. Sometimes I looked around to help someone who didn’t have a light. I can’t count how many times my own candle went out and then was re-lit. As we followed the Lord in the way together, we adored, sang – and tried to keep our lights lit. And when we finally got to the last church, our lights were lit. We got there – together.

If you say yes to following Jesus, it will be out into a dark way, where there is a strong wind. There will be distractions and temptations and fears and doubts. And you will have a little light. Now I’ll tell you, even though you guard your light as well as you can, the wind will at some point reach it and put it out. It will be impossible to keep it lit on your own.

Now I bet you’re thinking, this guy’s not a good salesman. How would anyone survive? Why would anyone take up an offer like that?

Here’s why: when you are His disciple, you are not alone.

“By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another.” (Jn 13:35)

For us Christians, it’s our love for one another that keeps our lights lit along the way. Even though the wind is strong and the way is dark, when the journey is ended, your light will be lit.

We will get there – together.

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Be Foolishly Merciful

Thursday, March 12th, 2009

When I was a boy, my brother and friends used to play a game called pickle. In the yard, we’d set up two bases, with a player at each base with a baseball glove. These are the basemen. They would throw a single ball between them. Other players would try to run back and forth from one base to the other. These are the runners. While the runners tried to go back and forth between the bases, the basemen would try to tag them out, like in baseball. The ball would sometimes fly over someone’s head, or be dropped. There was chaos a lot of times. But once in a while, a runner would get stuck between the two basemen, in a run-down. The ball would go back and forth between them, with the runner first running toward one base, then the other, trying to avoid being tagged and to make it safely to any base.

Pickle!

How do you get out of a pickle? You’ve got to be foolish.

What do I mean? …

Today I was on the phone trying to set up a new drug prescription for my father. The doctor’s office was ready to prescribe, so I called them.

“We use a mail order prescription service,” I said, “can you call in the prescription to them?” “We don’t call in prescriptions. If you give us their fax number, we can fax the prescription in.” I replied, “Well, I think they have their own fax form and procedure …” “Well, you can mail the form to us. Or drop it off. Or, just call them up and have them fax the fax form to us, then we can fax the prescription to them. Here is our fax number.

They can do that.”

So I called the mail-order pharmacy. “Hello, can you fax the fax form to my doctor, so his office can fax back the fax form and the prescription?” “Well, the doctor’s office has to contact us directly.” “Could you just fax the fax form to them? I have their fax number right here.” “Well, we have a simple number for them to call. They don’t even have to speak to a person. With only a few button pushes they’re all done. It’s very easy for them.” Silent pause. “So … you couldn’t just fax the form over to them I guess?” “No, that’s not our procedure. Have them call us.

They can do that.”

Pickle!

Now, I could have gotten mad. I could have said, “Look, I’m the one stuck in the middle here. This will be the third phone call I’ve made, going back and forth, when all that either one has to do is make one single call to the other, and everything would be done. Each one wants their way, and won’t cut a break. Fine. I’m not going to cut them a break either.” I could have just given up and gone to the local pharmacy. Or I could have gotten the fax form and mailed it coldly with a huff to the doctor’s office. All of these would be very reasonable. I was tempted to do it.

But then, I would have been tagged out.

I would be doing the same thing they were doing. I would have become the evil I hated.

What did I do?

Something very unreasonable, something that may seem like foolishness. I retrieved the fax form that the doctor’s office refused to get. I personally drove 2 miles with a warm greeting to the doctor’s office to deliver to them the fax form – by hand – that the pharmacy refused to send.

And I was safe. I made it. I was free. No bitterness and rancor, just joy and energy. I had a great, great day after that, I can’t even begin to explain…

Jesus was always in pickles in His ministry. “But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market places and calling to their playmates, `We piped to you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’” (Mt 11:16-17)

But He was always getting out of them, too: “But I say to you, Do not resist one who is evil. But if any one strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also; and if any one would sue you and take your coat, let him have your cloak as well; and if any one forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.” (Mt 5:39-41)

At some point, God puts each of us into a pickle. When you are in a pickle, don’t be afraid to follow these foolish words. Don’t be afraid to be foolishly merciful.

You will have a great, great reward.

For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. (1 Cor 1:25)

Posted in Family & Friends, Luminous, Science & Technology, Serving Others | 4 Comments »

Changing The Mission

Sunday, February 22nd, 2009

My friend Nate came over last week to help me do some work in the attic space in my father’s house. I had moved everything out and sorted it, and after we stripped everything out, there was a bare attic space.

Now, when I say bare, I mean bare. It is an unfinished attic – actually, it’s an unfinished second-floor room that acts as an attic. It had no electrical outlets and no heating pipes before. Now, it has nothing but the bare walls of the roof and the very basic wooden floor boards.

Now what?

Well, we noticed that some of the house had been re-insulated several years ago by some insulation experts. Nate and I weren’t quite sure what their insulation plan was, but we needed to know in order to know what to do about insulating the attic. The house has to fit together as a system. So, we poked around the background spaces on the second floor.

We found that there were spaces between the walls of the second-floor rooms and the outside roof of the house, spaces that someone could walk through and store things. We affectionately came up with a name for this space:

Gnome space.

The gnome space was very cold (our imaginary little friends are out of luck), but the walls of the inner rooms were insulated. This way, the warm inner rooms were separated from the cold gnome space. So, I thought that the attic would be separate from the gnome space, too, but I didn’t check. Nate made a quick closer check and thought the same thing. So, we thought, with some insulation, the attic could be prepared just to save some heat and to prep for finishing some time in the future, if someone wanted to.

It seemed simple. We decided to insulate the attic.

We went and bought the insulation, and after we came back, I finished cleaning out the old, rotten insulation near where the attic joins the gnome space. As I dug more and more, I suddenly noticed something: the separation between the attic and the gnome space seemed to be very flexible. In fact, with one last push, I realized something:

The separation was no separation at all. It just looked like a separation.

The attic was connected to the gnome space! The attic was gnome space (our imaginary little friends are in luck)!

Not only that, but once I peaked from the attic into the gnome space, I understood in an instant everything that the insulation experts had done, why they did it. I understood why there was one less air vent on one side of the house, why there was so much insulation on one wall in the attic, all the subtle things that had made me wonder. Everything now made sense.

Now we knew what had to be done.

No insulation for the attic.

Now we were going to complete the unfinished floor of the attic. Floorboards for the attic.

You know, the whole, entire mission changed on that one discovery. It changed one hundred and eighty degrees. What had started out as an insulation job became a floorboard job.

When John and Peter came to the empty tomb after the Resurrection, it wasn’t until they went into the tomb and looked closely that John got it. See, the burial clothes harden into a cocoon because of the one hundred pounds of burial goop that was used in putting them on. It’s like a hardened mummy-shell. So, in the dark on the next morning, a person peaking into the tomb would vaguely see the cocoon and very reasonably suppose that the body was still there inside it. It wasn’t until they could get up close and see that the cocoon was empty that John understood.

There was a cocoon – but no body.

How can you have the cocoon intact and no body in it? Only God can do that.

In that instant, he understood the Resurrection. And, he understood everything that God had done, the coming in human flesh, the teachings and healings, the discipleship, the crucifixion and death. Once he got the Resurrection, He got it all. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not know the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. (Jn 20:8-9)

And for John the whole mission changed one hundred and eighty degrees. It was no longer an insulation mission, locked away in fear. Now, it was going forward in confidence, finishing the base that the Lord had started.

The Lord invites us to go into the cold, neglected places in our life. Not to just peek in, but to go in and investigate, up close. He wants us to see something very important. He wants to show us a miracle. He wants to personally show us the Resurrection.

Why?

Because when you get that, all His work makes sense.

Then, life’s mission changes.

It’s no longer an insulation job. It’s a floorboard job.

Posted in Family & Friends, Science & Technology, Serving Others, Work & Career, _Glorious | No Comments »

Seeing Is Freeing

Tuesday, January 13th, 2009

After the Lord was baptized in the Jordan, the first of His disciples stayed with him for a day. When they left, they were convinced they had found the Messiah. What happened? What did they experience?

During my mother’s sickness with cancer she was at home in a hospital bed. During her miraculous recovery from the disease, she still had much less energy than before. So mostly, she stayed in bed before the large image of the Divine Mercy.

That means that I was taking care of the things she used to care for, like my father and the house, and enlisting others to help. I wanted her to rest and be alone with the Lord, Who was very close to her. It was a special time for her with God, a time when she could be freed from her labors and worries and experience His great love for her.

Now the house itself needed a lot of cleaning, reorganizing. It had a lot of clutter. As my parents got older, managing the house became more difficult for my mother. Add in two grown sons using parts of the house for storage, and you can imagine that an overhaul might in order. But even more importantly, putting the house in order would be a great weight off my mother’s mind, a great gift to her. Managing the home was a task that she’d had for 43 years and it had seemed to be conquering her in the end.

So this I began, starting from the inside out.

First, I was going to start with the room I was living in on the second floor, because I can’t put anything else in order if my own stuff isn’t in order. Then, I would move to the storage spaces, like the basement and attic and closets, to free those spaces up. Then, I would get to the living spaces on the first floor. Then, I would move to the exterior of the house, and the yard.

But this presents a big problem. A person lying in bed has a lot of time to look around and notice the condition of the living spaces – on the first floor. The spaces where I’m working are hidden from her. Uh oh.

“Jerome, we shouldn’t have to live in a pig sty.”

Ugh!

“Ma, there is a lot going on that you don’t know about. Trust me!”

So, I finally finished my room on the second floor and cleaned out the bathroom next to it. I tell you, these spaces never looked so good. I couldn’t wait. I went to my mother and said, “I want to show you something.” “What is it?” “Come and see. We’re going to go upstairs and I’ll show you my room and the bathroom.” “Oh, I don’t know if I can make it up the stairs, do you think so?” “I think you can, I’ll walk with you.”

We went up the stairs together – she made it without a problem. She was so excited. “I can’t believe I made it up the stairs!”

I showed her the room. “Wow!” And the bathroom, squeaky clean. No clutter in the cabinets. “Wow!” After some tears and a big hug, we went back downstairs together.

It struck her: something great, something beyond her imagining, was happening with the house. How relieved she was! She had trusted, she had followed, and she had seen. She was freed.

When the Lord begins to put us back in order, He works from the inside out. He doesn’t start with things we can see. No, He starts in the interior, behind the scenes. He does this in our personal lives, in families, in the life of the Church, in societies, in the world. His renovation work starts out hidden.

If you hear the Lord call you to come and see, go. If you trust Him, if you accept His invitation to follow Him, He will show you where He lives. He will show you His room. He will show you His hidden work, what He is doing.

When you see it, you will say “Wow!” You will see that He is doing something great, something beyond your imagining, in your life and in the world.

You will be free.

And beholding Jesus walking, he says: Behold the Lamb of God. And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. And Jesus turning, and seeing them following him, says to them: What seek you? Who said to him, Rabbi, (which is to say, being interpreted, Master,) where do you dwell? He says to them: Come and see. They came, and saw where he abode, and they stayed with him that day: now it was about the tenth hour. And Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two who had heard of John, and followed him. He finds first his brother Simon, and says to him: We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ. (Jn 1:36-41)

Posted in Family & Friends, Luminous, Serving Others | 1 Comment »

An Offer You Can Refuse

Saturday, January 10th, 2009

When my mother was sick with cancer, we had to find new food for her to eat. Some of the great food supplements that she liked were the nutritional drinks like Ensure and Boost, you know, the ones that are like a little meal in a bottle.

So, I went to the supermarket to buy some, and, as I always do, I looked for the store-brand equivalent. It doesn’t have all the flashy advertising and bells and whistles on the outside like the name brand. In fact, it’s plain boring on the outside. But on the inside, what really matters, it’s actually the exact same thing – and it costs less.

So, I found the store-brand pack for $6 and the Ensure pack for $7. That’s a no-brainer.

Well, at the checkout, because of the little store cards that the cashiers scan in, the Ensure people know that I bought the store-brand. So, the check-out machine printed me out a nice coupon: $4 off two Ensure packs.

Great, I thought, now the next two Ensure packs would cost $10, whereas the next two store-brand packs would cost $12. That means the Ensure is $1 better than the store-brand for each pack. I’ll get two Ensure packs the next time.

So I did.

When I passed through the check-out this time, I got another coupon: $2 off one Ensure pack.

Great, I thought, now the next Ensure pack would cost $5, whereas the next store-brand pack would cost $6. Again, that means the Ensure is $1 better than the store-brand for that pack.

But, I can’t get two this time, only one.

So I got the one.

When I passed through the check-out this time, I got another coupon: $2 off two Ensure packs. I almost didn’t notice the word “two”, and when I did I thought, “Wait a minute, that puts it at the same price as the store-brand. I would be paying the same price for what really matters, plus I’d have to be hunting down coupons. And what is next, but to end up buying it without the coupons?”

What a scandal!

So I went back to the store-brand.

And I still get the coupons for $2 off two. And I throw them out.

So, do you see?

Do you see how, by offering me a discount for what really matters, the people at Ensure want to lead me to forget what really matters and replace it with themselves? They want to get me to believe that I need them instead of what really matters. They want to scandalize me.

If anyone offers you a discount on the cost of discipleship, don’t buy it. “So likewise every one of you that does not renounce all that he possesses, cannot be my disciple.” (Lk 14:33) They want to replace what really matters with themselves. They want to scandalize you.

“But he that shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of scandals. For it must needs be that scandals come: but nevertheless woe to that man by whom the scandal comes.” (Mt 18:6-7)

It is an offer you can refuse.

Posted in Family & Friends, Luminous, Science & Technology, Serving Others, Work & Career | 3 Comments »

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