PRAYER IN DISCOURAGEMENT

Ignatius Press

PRAYER IN DISCOURAGEMENT

My Jesus, relieve me of my discouragement. My devotion has vanished; spiritual thoughts no longer soothe my troubled soul. Even the remembrances of Your passion and of Your Blessed Mother grow dim before my vision. 

O Jesus, do not forsake me. Help me, help me! I am resolved not to omit a single one of my devotions.

 Hear me, O my God, strengthen and increase my faith. Keep me from yielding to temptation. You said, “My yoke is sweet; my burden is light.” Have mercy on me, for wheresoever I turn I see only obstacles and difficulties. Were my faith strong I would accept my trials; but alas, I feel only impatience, doubt and discouragement. My soul, hold fast to Jesus. How faint-hearted and childish I am! All my comfort, all my joy must come from You. Bring me closer to You when temptations assail me. Help me not to fail. 

O Lord, my God, I cast myself entirely into Your Hands. Worn out by the struggle, I will rest beneath Your cross; pray for me in my desolation of soul. Jesus, be merciful to me. 

Amen.

Saint John Neumann (1811-1860)

Rise Christians Rise

The problem with Christianity is not Christianity in of itself. The problem with Christianity is a proportionally small, but overly vocal segment of its members who have misinterpreted, and misappropriated the scripture, and twist it and turn it to their own socio-political agendas. This has been the problem for 1500 years, and if we don't police ourselves, all we will ever get is bad press, and the public opinion of us as a whole will be negative. I don't know exactly how this should be done, except that if you are a Christian who wants to share true message of Christ with the world, we need to step up rise up and be more visible, more vocal, and more Christian than the hacks who are giving the rest of us a bad name.

Four Compass Points for the Spiritual Life

"Just like our earthly fallings-in-love, falling in love with God is both indescribably sweet and potentially quite disorienting. Here are four orienting points for your journey."

Four Compass Points for the Spiritual Life

ICON: Jesus the Pancreator, c. 11th Century

Christ the Pantocrator, c. 11th Century.  I have lost the reference as to what image this was based on. Coloured pencil and metallic gold paint on Bristol board It is my first attempt at creating an Icon. It is also the first piece of artwork that I have produced in nigh on 20 years. Kind of wish the colours were more true on the screen.

Unorthodox Christianity by Dennis Wheeler

An excerpt from the blog of one Dennis Wheeler. I could not have summed up my feelings on this better myself. Thank you Dennis for your insight.

After years of thought and pondering, I have come to view my faith as one of what I have deemed to call "Unorthodox Christianity". To understand, I need to define the word "Christianity", for I find this moniker to be one much misaligned and misused in the common culture of my present world.

  "Take care not to be deceived, for many will come in my name saying "I am he..."

The prevalence of the name/word "CHRIST" as the religious banner of so many institutions, from the Catholic Church to the Mormon Zionist culture, and the adaption as revelation of the teachings of Jesus as developed into Mohammedism and Neo-Judaism (Talmud), the term Christian is often cloudy in definition.

For the purposes of definition for my own personal belief: Christianity refers to a belief system based on the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, son of Mary and Joseph, a carpenter's son, purported to be the Christ, the saving spiritual son of God, manifest in the flesh to extend to us the wisdom and  teaching of God, represented by him in his teaching as "father". 

Jesus was the spiritual son of God, manifest in the physical son of Joseph and Mary, utilizing that vessel as the medium through which to teach us the mysteries of our existence that our religions had attempted to define.

From that broad definition, my own definition of Christian: One who believes in, and strives to adhere to the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ.

Notice I say: "strives to adhere to" the teachings of Jesus, all of us fall short of the spiritual maturity that Jesus attained. One must always be striving to attain to be a Christian in Jesus' image by this definition.

The basis for any "judgement" of authenticity: striving in adherence to Jesus' most fundamental teaching:

Love One Another.