Clearing the path, to God

There's an old saying that tells us "the longest journey we ever undertake is between the head and the heart". The path to our hearts, is always cluttered and sometimes totally obscured. Like the seeds from the parable, weeds spring up way too easily and take over, if we do nothing to stop them. If we do not seek the truth and goodness that is God. The Apostle Paul reminds us..."what our head says we want, our actions contradict; what our hearts long for, our head refuses to attend to". We are blessed in the fact that God knows all about weeds and is a loving and tender gardener. It is His desire to clear the pathway. 

It is the very nature of man to seek love and knowledge so, therefore, it is the very nature of man to seek God. Knowledge without love cannot act and love without knowledge cannot know what is really good. Knowledge seeks the truth while God is ultimate truth. Love seeks good while God is infinite good. He is both truth and goodness.

His heart is waiting for ours to stop running, stop trying so hard, to stop focusing on externals. To just let go. When your days are filled with noise and the juggling of tasks and demands, when you face the daily decisions and stresses, when you face times of sorrow and despair remember He is in your head and in your heart.

Pretzels

 

Who knew that pretzels came into being because of the Lenten Fasting Laws in Catholic Church!

 If you take a moment to look at the typical twist pretzel, you can see that it is a model of the common prayer position from the early 600s of folding your arms over each other on your chest and putting your hands on your shoulders.
Pretzels were developed as an option to satisfy abstinence and fasting laws of the time. Eggs, fat, and milk were forbidden during Lent. So, the remaining ingredients that one could use included water, flour, and salt. A young monk baked the first pretzel — making a Lenten bread of water, flour, and salt, forming the dough into the prayer position of the day, and baking it as soft bread. These first pretzels would have been much like the soft pretzels we have today.
Greg Dues, in his book Catholic Customs and Traditions, explains more of the pretzel history:

“These little breads were shaped in the form of arms crossed in prayer and were called bracellae (Latin, ‘little arms’). Among the Germans the word became ‘bretzel’. These pretzels were a common Lenten food throughout the Middle Ages in Europe, and became an all year round snack, in its original shape only in the last (19th) century.”

The suggestion of arms crossed in the form of prayer may have led to pretzels being given as a reward to young children when they could recite their prayers. Pretiola means little reward, which could also be a derivative of the term pretzel. The three holes in a pretzel are also said to represent the Holy Trinity.

Read the rest of the story at Busted Halo

Purim

Today, at sundown, begins the Jewish festival of Purim. Watch the video to see how Purim originated:



Esther, a Jewish maiden, became queen of Persia in order to save the Jewish people from annihilation. 

When Esther's words were reported to Mordecai, he sent back this answer. "Do not think that because you are in the king's house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And  who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”  (Esther 4:12-14)

Two phrases are striking..."if you don't do this, help will come from another" (God will see it done by Esther's hand or another) and "who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?" (it is no accident that we are born when we are, we are here...for such a time as this.)

Esther is short but interesting book in the Old Testament. Take a few minutes to read it!

Feast Day of Perpetua and Felicity

No saints were more honored in the early church than Perpetua and Felicity .
They were martyred in Carthage in about the year A.D. 203, together with three others. 

The five martyrs were catechumens (young Christians being instructed prior to baptism) when they were arrested during the persecution of Emperor Septimus Severus, but they were baptized before they were led away to prison. Perpetua was a young married woman from a noble family and with an infant son, while Felicity was a slave and eight months pregnant. 

Perpetua’s mother and two brothers were Christian, but her father was pagan. When she was arrested, her father tried to get her to deny that she was a Christian in order to save her from execution, but Perpetua refused to deny her Lord. By law, a pregnant woman could not be executed, but Felicity soon gave birth in prison, and she was happy that she could suffer death for Christ with the others. 

Three days later, the women and others were led into amphitheatre (modern day picture above) and severely scourged. Then they were tossed about by an exceptionally wild cow, gored, and thrown to the ground. Perpetua encouraged the others and astounded the crowd. Finally, they were put to the sword. Perpetua guided the gladiators sword with her own hand.

An historical account in Perpetua's own hand...

Words...

I felt compelled to show this, given that my previous post was about "words".

by Asbo Jesus

Speaking the language

A recent MTV study shows that this generation, while having access to more technical tools than any other, still wants to be seen as funny and smart. And one of the ways you show these traits is by using the correct language. Although you may wonder how some of them came to mean what they do to our young people, over all they're a group of positive words. You can read the article here, but I mainly wanted to give you a sample of the lingo:

"Random":  Quirky, what no one else has imagined
"Generic":  Way too obvious to be interesting
"Drama":  Overreacting
"Just Sayin'": A way to show you disagree or disapprove
"Epic fail": a failure so bad it's funny

I'd like to note that they still use the word "cool" and it still means the same thing.  But, in addition to cool, they may also use "awesome, amazing, fantastic, epic or crazy". That's fine...just as long as they hang on to "cool"! It's one of my favorites!

A result that some may find surprising is that the words voted "most favorite" are ones like "wonderful, smile, happy and beautiful". And they mean the same thing they always have! Looks like, despite some dire predictions, we have a funny, smart, happy generation coming up...and I, for one, am way glad!

Dangerous Weather

I posted a time or two last week about the turbulent weather we were experiencing. We, in my little corner of the world, came out with little to no damage. We thank God for this...but realize that it is NOT because we are any better or holier than others. The most severe weather did not hit where we are...

Our hearts and prayers go out for those who have felt what it is like to have everything taken away in the blink of an eye.

 St. Joseph's in Belleville, IL was built in 1894. Just after 5am on February 29, 2012, a tornado tore through the area, leaving devestation in it's wake:

 

Yes, this is the same church.

While the church itself is destroyed, the Italian marble altar was spared.

It is currently being dismantled to keep it from being exposed to the elements. More information here...

UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief) is already working to help. Check their website for information or to make donations...