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God Must be First in Our Lives

O happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam, Which gained for us so great a Redeemer! The power
of this holy night dispels all evil, washes guilt away, restores lost innocence, brings mourners joy.
Night truly blessed when heaven is wedded to earth And man is reconciled with God
. –liturgy of Holy Saturday

As a Child I was taught the importance of placing family first, as a Christian I have been taught the importance of placing God over and above all things.

The Christian faith at times has been charged with worshiping Statues, Mary and even an Alter. But a Christian's sole worship has always been God; we see our God and hear His Word through Christ our Lord, creator of all things. At times we all get lost in this worlds pursuit, in the desert of pride, self gain and glory, but God never gets lost in His pursuit for us. For Christians the ultimate goal is to be with God for eternity, everything else desired will naturally fall into God’s place. At times we worship other things, such as self, our successes, others, and yes even our families. But we must put God first in our lives and come to the revelation of Him, His immensity, His love for His creation. If we can learn to love God above all things, even our families than we can come to love our families better, with true love from God. God is love, we on the other hand can come to know this love and pass it on to others. This becomes service for God, the opposite of service for self gain. With Gods love we can come to understand our failings better and face them, we can learn not to be too harsh on those who fail us.

"Somehow our broken father, our limited mother, our neurotic brother, our confused sister and our own inner struggle push us and create in us a hunger to go beyond the pain. "My soul is restless," as [St.] Augustine says, "until it rests in you, O Lord."

"When we begin to know intimacy with God and to accept others and ourselves as we are, we then begin to speak about "happy guilt" or "happy brokenness." Our inner struggle is no longer such a burden, but a way to the truth, to the light, to the life. How could we ever become children of God, embraced by the love of the Father, the Son and the Spirit, and be let into the intimacy of the triune life if God hadn't shown compassion with us, as we are? Through Jesus' incarnation we come to know about the inner life of God. It is in our fragile and mortal flesh that God's original blessing is revealed to us". –Fr. Henri J.M. Nouwen,

When we do good we can give it up to God who untimely is the only thing that is good about us. This keeps us humble. If we can come to love God above all things I can pretty much guarantee that we would never fail those we love, our friends and family, for that matter even our enemies.

Why are we here? To find God in our lives and place Him above all things. Where do we go after we die? We go into the arms of our Creator, given what Christ has always had, because His love cannot be contained. We as Christians love our families very much, but we are taught by Jesus to Love God more. In passing I believe our families will be found centered in Him. And our love will no longer be measured as humans measure love, as His ways our not our ways.

Family

"The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother" - Mother Teresa

In August 1999 an article was published in the Readers Digest by Felice Prayer commenting on the difficulties of parents. In the course of the article the author commented that she still remembers a piece of advice she heard some years earlier which continues to inspire her to give her best to her children. It was given by Mother Teresa. Mother Teresa had given a speech about her work with the sick and dying and orphans in India. Afterwards, a member of the audience, who seemingly wanted to assist her in her great work, asked, "You have done so much to make the world a better place. What can I do?" Mother Teresa smiled and said, "Love your children." Not pleased with her answer, the questioner was about to speak again when Mother Teresa raised her hand and said, "There are other things you can do, but that is the best, love your children. Love your children as much as you can. This is the best."

That is indeed beautiful and inspiring advice, Not only is it beautiful and inspiring advice for parents but for everyone because we are all called to love. You might ask, "How do we love?" There are many possible answers but one answer is given to us in our second reading to day where Paul writes, "I...implore you to lead a life worthy of your vocation. Bear with one another charitably, in complete selflessness, gentleness and patience. Do all you can to preserve the unity of the Spirit by the peace that binds you together" Paul implores us to lead a life worthy of our vocation. Our vocation is to love. That is the vocation of a Christian.

When God decided to send Jesus to us to reveal God's love and to show us the way to the Father, Jesus did not fall out of heaven as a fully-grown adult. Jesus came as a member of a family, the holy family of Nazareth as we call them. God chose a family to show how all families are to find their way to Him. May our families fulfill God's plan for us. I would like to conclude with beautiful words from an address by Pope John Paul two years ago. "Family, believe in what you are; believe in your vocation to be luminous sign of God's love"....Family, be for the people of our time a "sanctuary of life" Christian family, be a "domestic church", faithful to your evangelical vocation
....Omar- Saint Thomas Aquinas Parish
in Logan, Utah

Our Lords Interest

Our Lord did not come for the sake of those who are well, but for those who are in need. The soul that is lost interest Him far more than the ninety-nine that are just; the venturesome lamb that has fallen into the pit, far more that the flock that has returned dutifully home; the coin that has rolled behind the furniture, far more than the fortune of the cash-box.

His interest is in the prodigals: Mary Magdalene, the women taken in adultery, Zacchaeus the publican, Simon the Pharisee, Barabbas, and His companions on the cross. The preferences of all Christians should be of the same kind. But what integrity this demands, what moral beauty, what sanctity! Some, perhaps, may be tempted to escape the corrosive or weakening effect of such surroundings by avoiding to much contact with the masses, by seeking only the company of their friends, of those who think like them and to whom they feel more readily attracted. It is so much more pleasant to consort with those who are like you, and with whom you have ideals and interest in common.

Such a method is disastrous. If the leaven is to act upon the mass, it must be mingled with it. If it is separate from the mass, it forgets its proper task. It is a leading axiom in Catholic action not to remove good elements from the surroundings in which they exists, but rather to sanctify them so that they may serve to elevate and improve their fellows. In order to act effectively upon one's surroundings, one must live in those surroundings; and, given the necessary virtue and power of action, the closer the contact, the greater the influence will be.

It is not literally true that is has been said of us: "You are gods," and that we are to become "sons of God"? Let us give to these expressions their full Christian meaning. First and foremost, the baptized must learn to appreciate the incomparable privileges they have received by the sacrament which, in making them Christians, has brought the Blessed Trinity to dwell in their souls, and given them power to live the divine life, if only they will, and so long as they will. Let us lift up our heads and bear proudly the proud dignity of our Baptism.

How few of the baptized appreciate the essence of all revelations: that God dwells in the man who is in the state of grace? This is the campaign that is most urgently needed: to help each and every one to Realize fully, perhaps for the first time, the divine dignity that Baptism confers by engrafting us upon Christ Himself making us a living member of the Mystical Body of Christ, which is the Church, communicating to us the very life of the Blessed Trinity, making us partners in the royal priesthood of Christ and His Church, uniting us in a common kinship with all our baptized brethren by this spiritual solidarity, which is the Communion of Saints, consecrating us as living chalices, as living temples to the personal and social worship of the true God.

….Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (1882-1958)

Some Quotes from Mother Teresa:

“Perpetual adoration with exposition needs a great push.”

“Jesus has made Himself the Bread of Life to give us life. Night and day, He is there. If you really want to grow in love, come back to the Eucharist, come back to that Adoration.”

“Our lives must be woven around the Eucharist...fix your eyes on Him Who is the light; bring your hearts close to His Divine Heart; ask Him to grant you the grace of knowing Him, the love of loving Him, the courage to serve Him. Seek Him fervently.”

“Through Mary the cause of our joy you discover that no where on earth are you more welcomed, no where on earth are you more loved, than by Jesus, living and truly present in the Most Blessed Sacrament... He is really there in Person waiting just for you.”

“We cannot separate our lives from the Eucharist; the moment we do, something breaks. People ask, ‘Where do the sisters get the joy and energy to do what they are doing?’ The Eucharist involves more than just receiving; it also involves satisfying the hunger of Christ. He says, ‘ Come to Me.’ He is hungry for souls.”

“It was not until 1973, when we began our daily Holy Hour that our community started to grow and blossom... In our congregation, we used to have adoration once a week for one hour, and then in 1973, we decided to have adoration one hour every day. We have much work to do. Our homes for the sick and dying destitute are full everywhere. And from the time we started having adoration every day, our love for Jesus became more intimate, our love for each other more understanding, our love for the poor more compassionate, and we have double the number of vocations. God has blessed us with many wonderful vocations. The time we spend in having our daily audience with God is the most precious part of the whole day.”

“Our hours of adoration will be special hours of reparation for sins, and intercession for the needs of the whole world, exposing the sin-sick and suffering humanity to the healing, sustaining and transforming rays of Jesus, radiating from the Eucharist.”

“Our holy hour is our daily family prayer where we get together and pray the Rosary before the exposed Blessed Sacrament, the first half hour, and the second half hour we pray in sile