MOMENTS WITH MICHAEL ii

During the day, I sometimes get flashes from the edge of time (my way of saying that the Holy Spirit drops an idea before me to see what I will do with it). Here are some unrelated thoughts I had recently.

The spiritual way of life is realizing that Christ does not fit into you, but you fit into the complexity of the Mystery of Faith.

I don’t know what Christ or the Holy Spirit looks like, but I am okay with that. Christ has something the Father, Son and Holy Spirit do not have, the imperfection of human nature. It is that same Jesus that is the way to relate to the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. It is that same Jesus that says, “blessed are you who have not seen but yet believed.”

Thomas. 24 Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”^o 26 Now a week later his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.”^p 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” 28 ^*q Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!” 29^* Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me?^r Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”

Conclusion.^* 30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of [his] disciples that are not written in this book.^s3 1 But these are written that you may [come to] believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name.^t

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/20

I have never seen Jesus with my eyes, but know Him, Love Him, and serve Him with my mind and heart. Scriptures give me stories and signs so that I might grow in Christ and become less in my false self.

God give me the purpose of life, but I must choose the Christ Principle, of my free will and knowledge, as my center and my purpose in life.

Because of Original Sin, my faith (God’s energy) corrupts and rusts if not used and maintained. Christ does not maintain it for me but gives me the tools to make all things new. Contemplation as a Lay Cistercian means that I choose to place myself in the presence of Christ through Lectio Divina, Liturgy of the Hours, Rosary, Meditation, and reading Scripture.

Receiving Christ in the Real Presence in Eucharist means I become what I eat, to use a popular saying. If all it is receiving a piece of bread, the bread turns into me. But, if I receive Christ in the Eucharist, and that Eucharist is indeed the same Jesus that appeared to Thomas in the upper room and invited him to put his hand into the wound into his side, then I am assumed into the divine nature in a way appropriate for my nature. This is how I grow in Christ and have my false self decrease.

Using the Divine Equation means I don’t understand all that contained in this mystery, but I do know that Christ gave it to me, along with how to interpret it, so that I could inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.

I am born into this world without my knowledge or consent. I am baptized and confirmed with my knowledge and consent but without the experience to become what I have just promised. It takes a lifetime of trial and repentance to walk the rocky road of human existence on which I find myself during my short life span on earth. I make choices along the way. Some of them are good works because they come from God. Some of them are bad works due to sin and self-serving choices of what is easy rather than what is right. If I do not believe in either good works or do bad works, then the third option is no works. When I die, and die I must, I will do so as an adopted son who looks forward to being with the ones I love…Forever. I must die alone, but I have the compendium of the Faithful as witnesses to the way, the truth, and the life to welcome me into the Kingdom of Heaven prepared for me before there was time itself.

When I pray to Mary as the Mother of God, my assumptions are these:

• Mary is not God’s mother as in birth mother.
• Mary is not God, nor does she or the Saints have a divine nature. Mary is not divine but the first of Saints.
• We honor Mary and do not adore her as the crown jewel of our race and her acceptance of God’s will for her.
• We do not pray to Mary, but honor her as the reflection of that act of Faith, “be it done to me according to Your Word.”
• The language the Church Universal uses with Mary and the Saints is to ask for their intercession as we pray to God, through, with, and in Jesus alone, with the advocacy of the Holy Spirit.
• Mary has no authority, power, or glory in and of herself. She reflects the glory of her Son and is always pointing to Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life. Her timeless response to us about Jesus is, “do what he tells you.”
• I ask Mary to be my intercessor with Christ, her Son, so that when I die, she will be with me “now and at the hour of my death.”
• People I want to take to lunch when I get to Heaven:
  • Jesus
  • Mary and St. Joseph
  • Sts. Peter and Paul
  • St. Monica and St. Augustine
  • St. John and St. Luke
  • Steven Hawking
  • Einstein
  • Enrico Fermi
  • Carl Sagan
  • Dr. Charles Krauthamer
  • Thomas Merton (Father Mary Louis, O.C.S.O)
  • St. Benedict and St. Scholastica
  • St. Bernard of Clairvaux
  • Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas
  • Sts. Dominic, Francis, and Ignatius
• I have all eternity to discover the truth, to seek the way, and live the life.