Our Father

I came across this video on another blog and I just had to put it on mine. What an incredible message this sends out. It is amazing how I can see our God so patiently hearing us ask the same questions over and over because we just don't understand and yet He never gets angry by our need to repeatedly ask Him the same questions over and over. God just answers us each time and with an unmeasurable amount of love he answers us over and over.

Amazing. What a powerful video. If it does not move you then I have no idea what would. Incredible message of patience and of love. Love is truly slow to anger, and patient and kind. Love never fails. Even with those who push me away I still care about them because love is not something you turn off or walk away from. Love is not something you shut out. Love is something you take your time with and you accept all the shortcomings a person may have. This video made me think of God as our Father and how PERFECT He is and how incredibly selfish and impatient we are with each other and with God .

This is fitting for me particularly because I have been dealing with the anger and discontentment of others here recently and although I understand the "root" of where the anger comes from, I don't understand why the loss of joy. It saddens me to see that especially in the ones I truly care about. Anger is such a negative emotion to have within. It saddens me because when we have anger or hate in our hearts, we can't let God in. I can only pray for their inner peace and the return of their joy back into their hearts. ;)



Maria :)

Peace! Be Still!

I've had quite the week, I must say. But even so, I have been able to maintain my focus on God-only because of His Grace. I have seen for myself that when I set my sights on Him that I cannot fail. I was speaking to a friend of mine today about how incredible it is that God sustains us in His Love and Mercy at all times. We were discussing how if we had to handle difficult situations on our own, completely alone that the concentration of despair in our souls would be so great that we would surely die. It may seem a bit dramatic but I believe this to be true. Think about it. If we were left to our own devices, our own incredibly small and closed minds to deal with situations that were out of our control with absolutely NO hope or faith, I truly think we would just go insane. I cannot fathom a life without God in it. I believe that hope carries us farther than anything else aside from faith of course.

We just tend to see only the things that are right in front of us and we lose sight of the fact that God sees the bigger picture. He sees ALL. Oh how foolish I have been in becoming so anxious over things when I know God takes care of me always in His Love. Once again, I have to refer back to my distrust. How easy it is to see the storm beating against my boat and wake Jesus up to only have Him tell me to "Peace! be still" followed by "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?" . Why do I worry when I know Jesus is in my heart and soul? This is why I say, if I did not have God, I would be completely lost. So lost, that I would wither away and perish.

In prayer tonight, I realized that my inner peace has been disrupted by my own insecurity and distrust. I have so much work to do within myself. I am but a true disaster area but I know that even though I am imperfect that God continually wants me to be open to Him and so to bring His love to others. Although I had a hard week, I cannot just stop being me and stop loving others. I must press on and I will do just that only because God gives me the strength to continue forward. What an amazing thing it is to have a Creator who loves us so very much. I am truly blessed in every sense of the word. To God be the Glory now and forever.

Maria :)

Restless Heart

“Let nothing disturb thee; Let nothing dismay thee; All thing pass; God never changes. Patience attains All that it strives for. He who has God Finds he lacks nothing:God alone suffices.” St. Teresa De Avila

There is a reason why I find this quote to be one of my absolute favorites. Today I kept thinking about this very quote over and over again. Especially where she says "God alone suffices". What is it about that one part of the quote that is so incredibly hard for us to truly comprehend?

Why do I NOT trust continually in the Lord? I KNOW deep within that God loves me, that ANYTHING he brings into my life whether it be difficult or easy is all part of his plan for me and it's all out of Love. I am just trying to figure out what I need to do right now. I know what my heart is telling me and I listen to what my mind is telling me and they just don't want to agree!!!! Which one is the right choice? God gave us intellect to think things through yet He fills my heart with such love that it makes it hard for me to think! Do I follow my heart? or do I follow my brain? Which one is God telling me to use right now? because they just don't match and they are equally as convincing.

Today has been a tough day, I will not lie. But,I am so blessed to have a few very good friends that I can let my guard down with and be at my most vulnerable state ever. I am thankful to God that I have these individuals in my life at this precise moment to illuminate me and pray for me. I love them so very much and God puts that love right there before me in form of friendships to help me through. I have NO doubts about that. But even with this, I am still at a crossroads as they are not able to make decisions for me and ultimately I must decide.




I pray God illuminates my heart, the the Blessed Virgin Mary carry me through the night as I think about this. I know what I have to do, I just can't figure out why I don't execute that decision....this my friends, is the dilemma as ridiculous as it may seem.

“Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.” -Pope John Paul II



Pax
Maria :)

Adoration-Your Will Be Done.

I very recently started to go to my parish to attend Adoration. I have to say, it is an amazing experience to sit there with the Blessed Sacrament, our Lord and Savior Jesus and just open my heart to Him. I found myself begging Him to just inundate my soul with love, forgiveness, mercy, compassion, clarity, and deep humility. I felt such an immense joy within my soul tonight just knowing that God was truly with me. I had such a revelation tonight as well. All of this time, I kept saying, "I just don't know what God's will is for me!" How wrong I truly was. I actually felt it deep within my heart what God is asking of me. Amazing. I am in awe of his grace, love and mercy towards us. I felt such a peace tonight that I just am still amazed by how wonderful God is. How much He loves us!!




A few years ago, a priest I absolutely respected and admired gave me some advice when I was telling him about my constant struggle to find God's will in my life. He told me to pray every day without ceasing that God would show me His will and then he added, "once you know His Will, be PREPARED to do it". And that is where I am tonight. i KNOW God's will, and have known for a long time but I kept finding distractions in people, events and situations. All of which deterred me from executing God's will in my life. I knew that doing God's will would be an enormous and personal step in my life yet out of pure cowardice, I veiled my eyes with things and people that are not permanent fixtures in my life. I tried to make them permanent but again, this was out of fear of having to face what I needed to do, what God calls me to do in this life.



I knelt there infront of our Savior tonight and I knew in my heart, like i have NEVER felt before a direct command to serve and to love in my full capacity. I have been blessed with so much goodness in my heart and yet i use it on those who do not want it. There are so many who need what I have and I realized that today. I have decided to accept and embrace my future and what God wants me to do. I truly believe that it is those things that cause the most fear in doing, that are true callings for us to depend and ask God for his strength to get through it. It's when you are looking into the mouth of a lion that you realize that it's all a mirage of sorts. You have to push through that initial fear and you will find that there was nothing to it. How much time I have wasted. My Lord, forgive me.




I look forward to going to Adoration for the rest of my life. I cannot fathom a life without God, without my faith, my religion, my family, and the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is not of this world we should focus, rather on the next. On our crowns and eternal salvation and of being able to be with God for all eternity, adoring him with all the angels and saints for his unmeasurable mercy on our souls. What love, what an amazing love we have at our disposal every single day from our Creator. Us, such measly creatures that we are, yet we are so loved beyond our imagination!! I can only hope and pray that in God's mercy and love I will find a way to do His will as perfectly as He deserves. I am at peace. Truly I am.

Maria :)

In A Spanish Kind of Mood

Esta vez quiero escribir en Español. creo que pierdo tanto tiempo en cosas que no significan nada para mi que se me olvida lo muy importante que son las cosas mas sencillas de este mundo. Habia un momento en mi vida que pense que todo lo que era importante estaba basado en lo que yo vi que tenia importancia. No pude ver a los demas. No deje entrar al Amor, a Dios. Que egoista he sido. Algunas veces reflejo en mi vida y todo lo que he pasado y me como podria haberme ahorrado tanto dolor y tristeza. Tantas cosas que ahora veo como tanto tiempo perdido. Lo bueno es que con Dios y orando puedo rectificar lo que he hecho mal. Tengo una oportunidad nueva de seguir adelante. Mi fe esta creciendo cada dia mas y mas. Y de eso estoy profundamente agradecida para toda la vida.





Veo la vida con ojos de creyente, de hija de Dios, con amor. Si aun tengo mis faltas y tengo muchisimo que aun aprender y hacer en esta vida para ayudar a los demas, pero lo mas importante es reconocer que tengo que seguir en el buen camino. No hay Amor mas grande que la de Dios. Estoy agradecida por todas la bendiciones que se han presentado en mi vida gracias a nuestro Padre y Señor.





Como he perdido mi tiempo en sueños que no eran ni buenos para mi ni para mi espiritu/alma. Me he quitado lo que me tenia ciega tantos años. Con fe todo se puede. con la gracia de Dios todo se alcanza. Tenemos que ser persistentes y siempre tener un amor tan grande en nuestros corazones. Que hipocrita soy a veces, hoy mismo tuve tanto rencor hacia una persona que me intento herir y ahora hablo de amor. Ves? Como somos los hombres. Diciendo una cosa y haciendo otra. El pecado es parte de nuestras vidas, si. Pero, no quiere decir que tenemos que pecar porque podemos. tenemos que ser fuertes hacia los ataques del enemigo. Un enemigo que nos odia.



Nos tenemos que acercar a Dios e intentar ser mejores cada dia. Rezo para que Dios me ilumine la vida. Que me enseñe la manera verdadera de ser y amar a mi projimo. Esto me tomara toda una vida de perfeccionar. Y aun asi, seria muy dificil lograrlo, PERO tenemos que intentar y nunca dejar de intentarlo. No? Yo pienso que si. Con Dios TODO se puede.

Maria :)

Giving It All Away

Sometimes it amazes me to see how people react to acts of kindness directed towards them. I am by nature a giving person. This is something God has blessed me with. I don't think twice about giving something to someone for NO reason other than just a feeling of wanting to give. I especially know it's important to give to those who cannot give back. The true gift of giving is from the heart. It saddens me to see that at times when I do this, people tend to be skeptical or feel the need to give back by obligation. It saddens me because they don't see that the act of giving is one that comes from Love, from God. It has not payback attached to it. There is nothing to return other than give to someone else the way you have been given something too. Sort of like paying it forward.





If we just paid attention to the needs of others and not just our own, how wonderful life would be. To see a person light up when you give them a sincere thank you, or a heart warming hello. To ask them bow they are and truly care. Giving is more than just giving materially, it's an act of selfless love to another person that comes in many forms. Something you say to someone today could be the ONE thing they needed to hear or needed to feel. Imagine the possibilities!! To bring joy and love to those around you. I truly love the feeling I get from giving. And it's not a "Oh look at me, I'm Miss nice person and I want others to like me!" it's more of a "Wow, God is truly working His love though me to bring a certain joy to another one of His children, another soul."




Incredible. We are all instruments of God's Love. To be used any way He feels necessary. Yet, some of us close ourselves to this opportunity of being vessels for God and His mercy. But regardless of that fact, I will continue to give to my hearts content because I know that it comes from a good place, it comes from our Lord, Our God, our Father. How can I refuse such a task?

:) Maria

These past few days have been incredible for me in a very deep and spiritual way. I have realized that although I that I had a good grip on my life I really was living a dream of sorts. I have so much work to do within myself. I had to totally surrender my whole being to God and just tell Him "You take everything that I have within me, everything that I am...just take it please". I have not felt this way in a very long time. I got so lukewarm and so used to my life that I forgot that every day should be a constant desire to do more. To give more, to pray more, to realize what God has given me and wants me to do. I got comfortable and that is a very very dangerous place to be. Right where the enemy wants you. I need to revamp my life, my focus, my mind, my soul, everything that I have I need to just hand it over to only one thing and that is giving glory to God always.




Every breath is a gift. Every thing in life is a blessing. I have to put my talents into practice. I have to take the wonderful things that God has given me as a person here on Earth and share them with as many people as I can. In my heart I know God loves me and I know he wants the best for me. I have to trust in Him and ONLY Him. I have misplaced my happiness on people, things, ideas, fantasies, you name it. I've put my sense of fulfillment in things that fade and not in God's infinite wisdom, love and mercy. We should be trying to better ourselves and others constantly. I need that freedom of the chains that hold me down. I am my worst enemy. I let the myself be told that I can't offer much and yet I have so much to offer through God's love and grace.





I love my faith, being Catholic. I love knowing that I have wonderful saints to look up to that I can follow and try to imitate to the best of my ability. I have a loving God, and loving Savior and the Holy Spirit to guide me through everything. What more could I want? I need nothing more. I so desperately need peace within. I need to feel that longing in my heart for God. That love and passion that fuels my soul. I have been putting out the flames in my own selfish and worldly needs. I need to rekindle that fire. I have to place my complete trust in God. I can only hope and pray that I will given the chance to do God's will here and that when I am face to face with my maker, my Father, that He will be pleased with what I have done with all the gifts He has given me. Right now....I haven't even scratched the surface and that thought in itself scares me to the core. The time is NOW, the moment is here...it's time to act and to love.

Maria ;)