Note to God

Even if we fail. We fail forward 

1. Protector  2. Living our manliness -giving of yourself - Jesus is a male. As a male, he needed a father to teach him what it is to be a man. Jesus needed the fatherhood of St. Joseph as a model of masculinity for him to imitate. Only a father can do this for a son. How did Jesus learn to sacrifice as a man? He witnessed the daily example of his father. Where did Jesus learn to work as a man? He learned it in his father’s carpentry shop. How did Jesus learn to pray and acquire the manners of a gentleman? Jesus learned all these things from his father, St. Joseph. According to the divine plan, an earthly, human father was absolutely necessary in the life of Jesus. You’ve no doubt heard the adage, “Like father, like son.” 3. Make the most out of it. - in your job, in circumstances of life 4. God the Father doesn’t have a human nature. Every time Jesus saw St. Joseph, heard him speak, watched him work, or witnessed his chaste love for Mary, the humanity of Jesus witnessed a perfect ...

Certainly, Jesus is far from being insensitive to the frailty of the feelings that distort the meaning of love, particularly the fact of adultery, of infidelity, of jealousy and lying. But he never approves sin or consents to it. When he gets to a person’s heart, Jesus descends with him into the depths of the truth, he renews the person and reorients him along the lines of the evangelical demands of love, and he saves the person. Spouses, therefore, need to understand and to receive this Divine Mercy, which renews their bonds of fidelity in the sacrament of marriage.

To see ourselves and the world with simplicity, we first need to find rest in God’s gaze. Knowing that He is looking upon us gives us great security: we understand that God loves us in our  truth  and that everything else is of very relative importance. Outside of this gaze, however, we feel the need to protect our fragility, and we close in on ourselves or become paralyzed by fear. Those who take refuge in God’s loving look enjoy the serenity of simplicity, because they do not depend on circumstances outside of their control.  We belong to the truth , says St. John,  and reassure our hearts before him  ( 1 Jn  3:19).

1. After receiving the sacraments, we obtain that tranquility. Do I safeguard or do I squander it? E.g. social media, stock market.  There's never a good reason to lose peace.  4 bad reasons we lose our peace . 1. The troubles of life  - unnecessary worry of what we are to eat and what we are to wear - not be overly greedy, which will worry us  - concern becomes a worry  Find it difficult to trust God - Learn the virtue of poverty, learn how to do with the necessary.  - don't need to worry about others getting bigger paycheck  2. Shortcoming of others - the incompetence of others or difficult colleague affects us. - God put me there to sanctify me  - your peace is not dependent on the external environment  Eph 5: 15-21 we are living in evil times. The remedy: Give thanks always  - we have internal freedom to choose to be affected  3. Our own faults - be patient with me. - patience with me. Now. - we will have defects - to be mercifu...

There is no peace among men unless there's peace in the human heart.