Sizzling Holy Water

And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,
“Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained.”


I rarely, if ever, begin a post with a passage from Holy Scripture.
But it is a good beginning for today.
After all, it is the initial 'sending' of the Apostles.  It is their beginning.  It is our beginning.  It is the moment of receiving the Holy Spirit--the love of between the Father and Son, the Creator and Redeemer.  It is  God mystically manifested to His Son's disciples.  


The only way the Church continued on,  from that moment in the Upper Room, is because they did what He told them to do.


"...whose sins you forgive will be forgiven them..."
The first task Jesus gives his crew is to be about the business of forgiveness.
After that it's easy.


But we spin our wheels re-inventing the wheel.  We want another way.
It's easy not to listen when you are filling your ears with all the other crap.
It's easy not to feel the breath of God when you are running.


On another note (and, in my mind related)---
During the celebration of Holy Mass yesterday I turned to give the sign of peace to some ladies who were standing in the pew behind us.  They had sour faces.
At home my lovely wife shared; "Did you hear the one lady's comment during the sprinkling rite?"
"No, I didn't.  What'd she say?"
"Right when Father......... walked past sprinkling, she said with disgust--'He doesn't have to do that!"
Had my hearing been better I would have turned and asked them if the water burned.

Spiritual Stalls

It happens to us all.

Spiritual stalls squelch the heart of hope.
Soon questions fill your head and un-certitudes creep in. Bad things happen around you or to you.  You no longer want to be where you are at.  You try to live a good life and you try to maintain your discipline--but all you witness are injustices and greed and more greed and pride and whatever sin you want to name--and they affect you.  You get angry.  All you want is one break..one stinking little thing to 'go your way.'  You are ready and willing to serve God and go anywhere to do it--but there is no answer, no direction, you've waited for years--a true spiritual stall.

It is so easy to rationalize and maybe even fall into despair.
You begin to live in questions that cannot be answered.  You begin to think of returning back to your Egypt where at least your appetites were satiated and your stomach was full.

Spiritual stalls are part of the spiritual journey--if you didn't have them you wouldn't know that you were on the right track.  But heed the moment because satan will use a stall quicker than you can say a Hail Mary.
Spiritual stalls can become spiritual infections that wear you down.  And it is certain death to be have an infection in the desert.

Bad Dad

This past Tursday my son said to me; "Dad isn't today a holy day?"
"No.  It's just June second."

So yesterday at Mass I felt awful.
While we were leaving he said; "It's not a sin for me, it's on you...Ha!"

Though I'm sure he lost any innocence by relishing my fault, he is right.
I failed.
And here is the kicker-- This time missing Mass really bothered me.
Years back I wouldn't have thought much about it (let alone write on the matter).
But he is right--it is my responsibility--for his soul.
And his soul wasn't first on my list.
This reminds me of the time my son kept asking for new shoes.   I said to my lovely wife; "Didn't we just get him shoes?"
Turns out he was wearing shoes two sizes too small.

If anything my fault may have encouraged my son to write on the Laws of the Church.

So I pray to St. Joseph