prismaticbleed | tumblr faithposting: april 2021

tomicscomics: Even the most disgusting creatures can find life in Jesus.

It’s oddly reassuring to think that, even if Jesus were to swat me like the disgusting & annoying bug I often feel like, that seemingly fatal blow would only bring me back to an even fuller life. I should really ponder that; it’s a succinct summary of my sinful struggles and His unexpected victories despite them all.

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A notable point people tend to miss, myself included: even the “scary” parts of the Bible can and will calm you if you read them with faith. The awestruck fear of the Lord that rightfully accompanies our recognition of His Power & Righteousness is actually a foundation of true peace. When you know and trust that God is all-Holy & all-Good, then even His most staggering judgments become reassurances that He is in total, unstoppable, glorious control… of everything. That’s the most calming fact in the universe, even if it does make your knees shake! Remembering that I serve God, Who will and does destroy & punish evil, does frighten me as a sinner. But it also gives me infinite joy in the equal remembrance that I also serve that same God in Christ, Who came to save sinners like me from that righteous destruction. God wants to eliminate evil, not those who foolishly commit it! Ezekiel 18:20-32 illustrates this powerfully. Go read that; it will both convict and comfort you! Yes, everything of God is soothing to the soul that loves and trusts Him, for that soul knows beyond a doubt that God is Always Good.

“How beautiful to find a heart that loves you, without asking you for anything but to be okay.”
— Khalil Gibran

“Okay” here being held to its perfect wholeness, which is health & happiness in their fullest, which is holiness.

God loves you unconditionally. But because He loves you, He wants you to be holy– He wants you to be able to live the true Life, in and through and with Him! That’s all. God demands only Love and its effects: only righteousness, only humility, only kindness and mercy and joy and peace. God demands holiness. But he only demands it because the alternative is suffering and death. How, therefore, could He not demand holiness? To be lukewarm or neutral in the face of such a fatal crisis would not be love at all!

Yet, paradoxically, this demand is not selfish, or cruel, or impossible to fulfill, as human demands are. God’s demands are perfectly in line with His Nature: they uphold the very core of Creation, which is pure Love.

God loves us, yes. God wants us to be okay, yes. But His love and desire is so much richer than just a ‘want’; I would go as far as to say, God needs us to be “okay.” He loves us so much that He needs to see us holy and thriving and in love with Him, too. And when love is so gorgeously mutual, then nothing is a “demand”… everything is devoted service and ardent compassion. Nothing is asked or given without the utmost tenderness and gratitude.

That’s what God wants for us. You don’t have to imagine it– it’s true! How beautiful that is!

The Fifth and last Sunday of Great Lent is dedicated to our Venerable Mother Mary of Egypt. It is the start of the last week of Great Lent.
This Sunday has three key themes:
* First, no amount of past sin and wickedness can keep a truly repentant person from God.
* Second, Christ himself has come to call sinners to repentance and to save them from their sins (Luke 5:32).
* Third, in Saint Mary we see that it is never too late in life, or in Lent, to repent.
Christ will gladly receive all who come to him with sincere repentance, even at the eleventh hour. May she intercede for us always +

I love her. She’s one of my most beloved patron Saints, right up there with Saint Dismas.

The three lessons of this Sunday have me weeping for awful gratitude. I, like this repentant Mother, have a miserably sinful past, one I can scarcely bear to look upon. But God knows. God knows, but He sees both those horrors and my contrite heart. Today He shows me my sister Saint as a sign of utmost hope. It is not too late for me, either. It is never too late for God.

Dear Saint Mary of Egypt, pray for us sinners! 🙏💔

"Let the crucifix be not only in my eyes and on my breast, but in my heart.O Jesus! Release all my affections and draw them upwards. Let my crucified heart sink forever into yours and bury itself in the mysterious wound made by the entry of the lance."
—Prayer of St Bernadette

This is such a gorgeous prayer.

I know very little of Saint Bernadette’s life, other than the generalized details of her meeting Our Lady Of the Miraculous Medal. This prayer is deeply moving & inspiring in that regard. Dear sister saint, pray for us, that our hearts may pray these fervent words in union with yours!

"It may be at the hour when we are least expecting it, that God will come to take us and, it will be on our spiritual state at this hour, that our eternity will depend... It is essential, therefore, to be always prepared, fortified by faith, charity and good works. If we are really prepared, it will not matter when, where, or how death comes, for it will be to us, like the good Sister death of St Francis of Assisi. It will release us from this corrupt mortal flesh and open to us the gates of everlasting happiness. Then, we shall fly joyfully into the arms of our Creator and Redeemer, Whom we have tried hard to love and serve.
But, if we are not prepared, what then? How bitter it will be to have to leave the world to which we have become so attached. What remorse we shall feel at the remembrance of our innumerable sins, badly confessed and never atoned for and, at the realisation, that we have failed to do so much good we could have done, whereas now, we shall have to appear before the Eternal Judge, with nothing to offer!”
-Antonio Cardinal Bacci

When we die, we will meet God. Does your heart know and love Him enough to be with Him for eternity? Or shall you meet as strangers?

Memento Mori!! 🙏

Set your sight on Christ at every moment; over and over, retune your heart to hear His Voice, and redirect your thoughts to think upon His Life and Death. When your hands falter in serving Him, pray for the grace to immediately return to His work. When you slip and fall in your walk of faith, confess this to Him immediately and resolve to bring it to Him formally in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Inundate your being with such ardent love of Christ and longing for Him that you quickly and instinctively return to His Arms whenever you stray, like a lamb, like a child, like a beloved one.

One day, one moment, sooner than we think, our time on this earth will be complete, and we will stand before Him, however prepared or unprepared we are. Remember this!! Live according to this always, and pray for that grace and awareness every time you think of it. Sister Death will come to take us all, but blessed are you if she comes as a friend in Christ!

"If you travel to a historically Catholic country during the Holy Week, you may see many towns crucify people. Don’t worry about them, there’s no need to call the cops. It’s a tradition to re-create the last days of Christ. And the people who get crucified are volunteers."

Dead serious, I think about this every year and would be profoundly moved to be part of such a re-creation. It is good to always remember and reflect upon Our Lord’s Passion, but sadly our minds can often be too detached, too abstracted, from our bodies and the sharp reality of tangible daily life. But Christ Incarnated for that very reason– He IS part of our sharp and tangible reality, part of our suffering and closer than our own hearts. So to share in His memory and reality, just as sharply and tangibly as it was when He walked the earth… what an amazing, humbling blessing! Thanks be to God!

May God bless all the souls involved in such a holy and reverent work!

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The global Easter Alleluia on the Universalis app is making me so deeply happy I am in tears. It’s so simple yet amazing. So many voices, so many souls– so much love for God. It’s a beautiful glimmer of the communion of Saints here on earth. My heart is full of joy. Alleluia!

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