Teaching our Children to meet Christ personally

Today I'll direct you to Dorothy Pilarski's article in the Catholic Register.

Could not have said it better myself.

Have we taught our children to have a personal relationship with Jesus?

Beyond being told, that "Jesus, is your best friend" I don't recall any adult emphasizing this in my childhood/teen years.

Though I do make a concerted effort to teach my boys, that Jesus wants to be their friend and we very often compare how we treat our human friends to how we treat Jesus.

Dorothy does an awesome job of breaking that down in this article.
Children Need to Have a Relationship with Jesus

Love You, Daddy!

With Father’s Day coming up I find myself lamenting about my relationship with my Dad. My Dad may not have been the perfect model of a husband and father, and I won’t share the negative details here out of respect for him and my family. Being the youngest of 4 children, I know my siblings have a different experience of Dad – it shows through our current relationship with him.

Our father, daughter relationship has been through many changes, some I am sure are typical of any healthy father, daughter relationship - from idolizing him as a child, to thinking little of him during the rebellious teen years and then respecting him again as an adult.

Some of the best childhood memories I have are of my Dad, taking the time to play with me, laugh with me. I recall us watching the Saturday morning cartoons together, or the Sunday afternoon Disney movie, at times I believe he was enjoying the show more than I was. He always let me win when we played ‘Connect Four’ and he taught me how to dance. I also remember watching him dance with Mom, they looked like they’d been partners forever, their movements were so fluid and natural.

Thankfully, my Dad is still with us, so I can share these memories with him still. However, his health is deteriorating, which may be the inspiration for this lament.

Through my teen and young adult years I learned some things about my Dad that shattered the view of the man I idolized. He has made some decisions I know he isn’t proud of; choices that have caused much pain, heartache and regret. It was difficult to come back to seeing him as someone I should respect but by the grace of God, I have.

You see, whatever decisions he made as a man, decisions that are on his regret list – I know that becoming a husband and father are not on that list. I can still look at him and see the man I idolized as a child.

Even though our relationship is far from perfect, even though he wasn’t always emotionally available to me – he has given me awesome memories that I will always cherish. This consolation I take with me, as I witness my own husband with our boys. I watch them play together, laugh together and I know no matter how imperfect our marriage is, how much we struggle to ensure they learn the important things, in the end, they too will have these awesome memories to cherish.

Happy Father’s Day, Daddy! Love you.

Letter from Linda

Letter from Linda Gibbons dated May 3, 2010

Greetings in our Risen and Returning Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ!

Pray this finds you well having celebrated a most holy Easter.

Thank you so much for sending the article “Freedom of Choice or Right to Life” It was astute in dismantling the false notion that killing innocents is any kind of right.

Recently I was sent an article written by Joe Bissonnette, titled, “Abortion, Conscience, Crisis and the Church” It was published in the Human Life Review. It is a telling article that is a litmus test of where we are as well as a call to action for pro-lifers and the Church.

For there to be change their needs an impetus (catalyst of urgency if you will) to bring needed tension to the issue that cannot be ignored. It happened with the apprehension of the Jews, the slavery of the blacks and the segregation of the Afro-Americans in the States. All these social aberrations fell before social conscience and reasoned to action.

Abraham Lincoln in 1858 said in part, “In my opinion, it will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached, and passed. A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

We can no longer sing, “What will be, will be” because the death culture turned Canada on itself and the social network is coming undone at the seams. We will either rethink and turn back or slide into the abyss of euthanasia of the elderly and disabled and anyone else that would like to die. Or perhaps we’ll be spared these death throes of a society by an all out war from the hand of a just God. Maybe when the body bags pile up we’ll express our compunction with death mongerings.

There is much talk of late in the public square related to the abortion issue. Perhaps it’s indicative of a ground swell of resistance to the death dictators who would make our politicians their marionettes of evil.

Regardless we’ve seen “a few good men” soundly defeat the euthanasia bill and put to bed the play to export abortion along with Harpers Maternal health plan for 3rd world. Now we have to keep vigilant and keep the momentum growing.

All for good; all for God; Pray so.

Jesus said, “A little child shall lead them”
I am enclosing an article by a 13 year old; Elizabeth Trisler She’ll be tomorrows pro-life leader and a power to be reckoned with.

A pro-abortion leader at the U.S. March for Life lamented his “militant menopausal’s” compared to the vibrant pro-life young women. Funny, eh!

We greying post-in veterans of the cause will not take umbrage – we need someone to throw the torch to!

Thanks again for loving life!
Love in Jesus,
Linda

Recently learned about another pro-life prisoner in our midst: Mary Wagner
Please keep these women in your prayers and reach out to them to show your support by writing to them in prison!

Part 4: Twilight Untwisted:Why Are Women Attracted to Edward?

In this series, I am constantly asking myself: Why is it that most of the good/true messages come from Edward who represents the perversion of human nature, the monster? I don’t know that I can answer this, but this is the reality of Stephanie Meyer’s characters, the vampires, at least the Cullen family of vampires seem [...]
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Part 3: Twilight Untwisted: Wheat Among the Weeds

Reflecting on the parable that Jesus gave us in Matthew 13:24-30; Some of the reviews of Twilight that I have read from other Catholics, have focussed more on pointing out the weeds in this story. However, if we listen to Christ, he tells us that when we do that we uproot what is good [...]

Read more of this post: Living Water at Wordpress

Forgiveness in Marriage

I like to remind the couples we work with in the marriage preparation courses that communication is the life blood of their relationship, and forgiveness is the cement.

At times, one of the individuals in the group will question this...viewing this like a “get out of jail free card” Doesn’t this unconditional forgiveness provide an opportunity for one of the spouse’s to assume they can do whatever they want, because even if it is hurtful to their spouse they “trust” that they will eventually forgive them?

Then we review the Reconciliation model, as it applies to the Sacrament of Confession. For many of the couples this model is simply a review, for others it’s an eye opening reminder of what a treasure this Sacrament is as we’ve witnessed what we like to call a “holy spirit moment” Even non-Catholics have shared with us that this model helped them to understand the sacrament, but what is most important is understanding what it truly means to forgive, especially in a marriage.

This is what we share with them.

There are four essential ingredients to attaining forgiveness. These are important in a marriage, but can also be applied to any relationship, including your relationship with God.

CONFESSION – Admitting you did something wrong and taking responsibility for your own actions.

CONTRITION – Accepting and understanding how your actions hurt/affected others.

PENANCE – Action that demonstrates how sorry you are and how you want to make up for the wrong you’ve done.

ABSOLUTION – Involves a release from the offended party, freedom and trust that this incident will not come up in future discussions or disagreements. True absolution can only be obtained through the actual sacrament of reconciliation.

No one is owed forgiveness. Forgiveness is a gift, but it is absolutely necessary in a marriage.

For further resource review a previous post titled: The Healing Power of Forgiveness.

Does there really need to be an apology in order for forgiveness to occur in marriage? What would Jesus say? Did his murderers apologize?

There is a couple who are preparing to celebrate 50 years of marriage. Over the years Chris and Sophia, have dealt with many challenges that came with migrating to a different country, physical separation early in their marriage; infidelity; financial struggles; addiction; the abuse of one of their children by another adult; supporting the children through various medical issues.

Most recently their challenges are of a different kind. Approximately 10 years ago, Chris was diagnosed with dementia. The symptoms include paranoia, hallucinations, agitation and inability to reason; he directs all this towards Sophia. Needless to say the time period leading up to a proper diagnosis was difficult on Sophia, as he accused her of awful acts that she is not capable of committing.

Lately, the dementia seems to be under control with the medication, his physical ability is deteriorating. Sophia provides constant care for Chris; he requires her assistance with his regular daily activities. Yet, he continually accuses her of the same awful acts, truly portraying his own guilt on to her.

However, she continually cares for him, even though he is verbally abusive to her. Some days she breaks down and cries, always she turns to Christ in prayer for strength to embrace her cross. Every day that she looks upon the man that she married, she sees the shell of the man she once knew and she chooses to constantly forgive him. Every day she repeats the words of Christ, “forgive him Father, for he does not know what he is doing.”

Her hope is that Christ will provide a few moments of sanity, when Chris will apologize for all that he has put them through. Not for her own desire to hear his apology, but because she can’t imagine the pain it must cause Chris to believe his wife is capable of doing these things to him.

In today’s world, this type of constant forgiving is rarely heard of. Yet this couple does live among us, providing a constant example of what it means to forgive within a marriage. It is the forgiveness that is the cement in this marriage, a house built not on sand, but on solid rock.

Twilight Untwisted: A Catholic Mom's Perspective

Finally ready to share my musings on this series. If you are interested in reading it. Find it here: Living Water at Wordpress.com