For people who live in darkness and fear of death

     Wake up! That's not all there is.

         “Faces” by W.H. Auden (excerpt)

Faces along the bar

Cling to their average day:

The lights must never go out,

The music must always play…

Lest we should see where we are,

Lost in a haunted wood,

Children afraid of the night

Who have never been happy or good.

The Holy Spirit gave me this addendum to Auden's poem:

Our life is so transient.

Gone in the blink of an eye

Lack of belief in our immortality;

causes us to sin.

Hedonism becomes attractive.

Peggy Lee  sings a huge hit song "Is that all there is?"

Lost in melancholy

Many loved her song

To those let us sing

"Come to Me My Melancholy Baby"

Oh Divine Wisdom, 

our Creator showed the way.

A painful death He suffered,

for us to "get it" this day.

By His resurrection,

death is no big deal.

Pain offsets our pleasure,

but fear of pain won't heal.

It's better than melancholy

that will end you up in Hell.

So let's ascend to heaven

as Jesus did as well.

To live happily ever after

a fairy tale no more.

With the fear of death lifted you'll receive the "Peace of Jesus". Seek His truth, get close to Him and it gets even better. This I promise you.

† Dominic of Chandler O.P.

A recovering hedonist.

Hebrews 2:14-18

Since the children share in blood and Flesh, Jesus likewise shared in them, that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the Devil, and free those who through fear of death had been subject to slavery all their life.  Surely He did not help angels but rather the descendants of Abraham; therefore, He had to become like his brothers and sisters in every way, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest before God to expiate the sins of the people.

Because He himself was tested through what He suffered, He is able to help those who are being tested.

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Pray for the Gift of Loving

God's will is to have the greatest composite result for His creation.

He optimizes every gift that He gives us based on the degree of our commitment to Him and it's effect on the composite good. This is done outside of time, as He created time. This is how He loves us. Because He is outside of time and we're not, it is a constant love.  This is the only way He can love us and it's as a Perfect Father. He created us and He intervened in our lives simultaneously to accomplish the most good and perfect justice. This why everything is God's will, not in the sense of predestination, but as defined in the first sentence of this writing:

God's will is to have the greatest composite result for His creation.

He knew the results of what we would or will do (our free will) even before we do it. He gave us our free will so that we would be able to love Him and His creatures. So perfect justice is the combination of His will and ours. To the degree that we can love Him and our neighbor, establishes the amount of joy we will be able to receive in His justice system and for our own good our choices need to be just.

The best way to do this is to exercise our free will, by using prayer, to improve our disposition. The perfect disposition is when our will is conformed to His. In this state we are able to love Him and others as He loves us.  We need to pray for that which I would call the "gift of loving".  The "gift of loving" enables us to love Him and His creations more.  Since we are inside of time and in the midst of distractions, this is best accomplished with a strong mental connection to Him who is on the other side, outside of time and then sincerely asking for the "gift of loving". The more we ask for this the more we get. We usually get a good connection with Him when we pray in front of the tabernacle or a better connection before the monstrance. The best connection however is right after receiving communion, when our body becomes the tabernacle.

Asking for the "gift of loving" will strengthen our love for God, our neighbors and even give us a greater appreciation for the material, physical and mental gifts He has given us.  But best of all it starts now. He rewards us in the present life as well as in the eternal life that follows.  We will become more joyful and it's free, a gift from Our Creator. If the amount of joy we  receive doesn't  take place in this life it shouldn't matter. Trust God.  It depends on what fits His composite result. For most people however, depending on the degree of commitment in your heart, you will receive even the smallest gifts in this life whenever He can fit it into His composite result. These include such trivial things as: increased bowling average, increased basketball success or increased luck at games of chance, depending on  God knowing how much you desire each of these.  I don't know if this works through the Angels or what. Does it really matter?  When I was in elementary school I had a friend, John Tauer, who we could never beat playing poker. Sometimes it seemed like he cheated, but we knew he wasn't the type. Recently I remembered that he lived across the street from the church and attended daily Mass, something that I didn't do.

Romans 8:28

"We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose."

Mark 10:28-31

Peter began to say to Jesus, "We have given up everything and followed you."

Jesus said, "Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come."

God's Extreme Intervention.

Have you ever wondered why God chose someone like Saul to be a major player in the success of His church. It was because it served the greatest composite good, the constant love He has for all of us.

As an example, those who are loving will only receive monetary rewards in this life if it is in their best interest and in the interest of the whole. If He has to short change us it will be in this life. When we observe someone, in retrospect, who had a difficult life through no fault of his own, (i.e. "bad things happening to good people".) it's just God working His perfect justice and if he persevered in this testing he will receive his rewards in heaven.  Let's get close to God so that we can trust Him unconditionally and live our life, daily... with the perfect disposition.

This insight is the greatest gift that God has given me, so far.  During Lent, 1999, I received, from God, the gift of loving Him. Somehow, I knew it was important.  In addition,  I began receiving  consolations and have continued to receive them in this present age. I didn't understand why, however, until receiving the above insight in 2011.  Thank you Holy Spirit!  I hope I've articulated this well enough to pass it on to you.

† Dominic of Chandler O.P.

The Portal of the True Presence

The Eucharist can be called "The Portal of the True Presence" because it is a real portal to heaven.  Receiving the Eucharist is a way we can somewhat understand the "Hypostatic Union" ie. the mystery of Jesus being God and man simultaneously.  That is to say, after receiving we have one foot in heaven and the other on the earth or to say the heavenly (Jesus' body and blood, His Spirit abiding in us) versus the earthly (bread and wine that we see).  This is why many of "the faithful" experience miracles or mystical events for several minutes after receiving Communion, like what I'm experiencing as I write this.  It's the divine side of Jesus inside of me that enables me to see this.  Also, it's the cell phone that I am writing this on, while still sitting on earth, in a pew in the church, that enables me to record this before I forget it.  I believe anyone can have similar experiences if they discover the importance of loving God and His church.  I've witnessed many people in His church who experience these things.  Beyond these simple "faith enhancers", we have the Eucharistic miracles that have occurred throughout history.  See Eucharistic Miracles of the World - International Vatican Exhibition

Ohhhh! the love of God!

†Dominic of Chandler       www.allcath.com

A Holy Aha Moment

The other day  while I was listening to Immaculate Heart Radio I received one of those wonderful aha moments, compliments of the Holy Spirit.  He spoke through Sister Moss (now Mother Miriam of the Lamb of God) and Patrick Coffin.  It was a profound gift of grace that took me to a higher level of faith.  But, just using words, how do I relay it to you?  Unfortunately, we can't always give away gifts of grace at will.  But I'm going to try.  I really want you to get this just like I did that day.  You may want to pray  a short prayer to the Holy Spirit here.

A caller to Catholic Answers was upset and lamenting about her homilist at her church Sunday talking about Jesus as if he switched back and forth between His human and divine side.  She was referring to Mt 15:21-28.  In this gospel Jesus could seem to talk to this Canaanite woman harshly,  in a way that  a mere human would.   Patrick Coffin said that the temptation is to want to domesticate  Jesus and explain away His divinity when he sounds less Christian.  But, Mother Miriam reminded the caller that He never ceased being God and that He can not make a mistake.  He could not lie. He could not sin. Now here is the grabber (Come Holy Spirit, help!) Are you ready?  Sister Moss said "In His mommy's arms He held the universe together."  Did anything just happen to you?

Here's what happened to me.  My thoughts flashed to the altar and God being present as a baby and in the appearances of bread and wine.  He's there on the altar as the zygote in Mary's womb, the baby, the teacher and on the cross, simultaneously, for he transcends time,  while holding the universe together. 

This morning before mass I looked around the church and thought of His presence in the tabernacle and in the monstrance in the chapel and in hundreds of thousands of churches and tabernacles around the world.   Then the greatest thought of all occurred.  In a few minutes He will be in my body, running through my veins and all the while holding the universe together.  With this understanding why would anyone reduce Him to just a symbol?  How could anyone leave His church? Where else could we go?  The Master has the words of eternal life and He holds the universe together.

† Dominic of Chandler                   www.allcath.com