Yesterday, my friend and I were talking about sin.  The conversation went along the lines of human nature seems to view our status as sinners in an overly negative way.  Sin is bad. We do bad things, but we are good people. God loves us, so no matter how many bad acts we do, he still loves us.  However, he wants more out of life for us. He wants to move us away from our sinful nature. He wants to save us from our sin.  

We can have heaven on earth, albeit, imperfectly. To do this, we must begin the process of understandings our sinful selves. We must learn to see ourselves through the eyes of God. The process, while triggering guilt, should more importantly trigger gratitude and awe of a God, who can forgive us our sins. This awe results in a greater love of God, which in turn makes us more excited about working with the Holy Spirit to be free from bondage to sin; to attachments; to anything that keeps us from living a more God-like life.

The truth is, we are called to be one with God. We are called to be a part of the Divine, to be divinized by grace.  In other words, not gods ourselves, but one in God.  That means that the person standing next to you is also called to be one in God, which makes him or her a part of you. We are one Body in Christ.  

Sinner cannot be united to God. Our desire for earthly things must be purged.  Repentant sinners who collaborate with the Holy Spirit to avoid sin, they are the ones who are becoming one with God. These people are open to grace, and thus make more holy choices; more and more often make holy choices.  

This is the Good News that was proclaimed in the Gospels. We are free from our attachments. We are free to be joined with God. We are free to be a part of the divine.  We are free to be one with Love.  While we are free, we still freely choose the wrong things, but through the grace given by the Holy Spirit, we can be healed from our attachments. 

Spend some time with the Holy Spirit asking him to help you be open to the ugliness of sin in your life. Ask him to help you understand where you have turned a blind eye to sin or have not been made aware that behaviors are sinful.  Ask him to help you more fully enter the process of purification and unification.  Ask him to open your eyes to grace working in your life, and for the will to more often choose the good things in life.  In this way, may we all experience a little more heaven on earth. 

In Him,

Ms. Debra D. Weldon, OP

The words of an old song flow through my mind this morning.  They bring to mind the ideal world that we all anticipate in Heaven.  At the same time, God’s kingdom is here. He reigns where and when we let him.  When we do so, we live more in peace and in love.  

How do  I know this? The Bible tells me so.  Jesus preached of a kingdom here and now and of one in the future.  The truth is – God’s kingdom is imperfectly here, now. Why imperfect? Because we are sinners, and we bring stress, fear, anxiety, and the like into our lives.  It isn’t God’s fault that the world is not more peaceful. It is our fault. All of us are at fault.  God gave us free will, and free will can be abused or perfected as we see fit.  If perfected, then only with the help of the Holy Spirit, who guides us to greener pastures.  

The truth is, peace begins with each of us.  When we learn to more and more fully trust in God, we are at peace with our circumstances, regardless of whether they are cross carrying events or not.  Yes, Jesus was in such emotional agony over the cross he was going to carry, and yet, based on biblical teaching, didn’t he also have to be at peace with following the Father’s will?  I think so.  The litany of saints who were put to death during the early ages of the Church are also a testament to this.  They went to their death joyful, and grateful to God.  They accepted. In fact, legend tells us of St. Lawrence, who, while being burned over the coals, said, “turn me over. I’m done on this side.”  One of the church fathers, I believe it was St. Ignatius of Antioch, wrote letters to his local church asking them not to intervene on his behalf; to let him die a martyrs death for the glory of Jesus.  

These are the witnesses of those who knew Jesus through first to third hand information.  They had peace. They trusted in God, and knew that whatever happened was for God’s glory. Now that is faith. That is trust.  

Spend some time today asking the Holy Spirit to show you how to better bring peace and love into your day.  Ask him to let peace in the world begin with you.  Ask him for wisdom on how to grow in trust, like a child who trusts his or her parents.  Spend some time thanking God for the witnesses who have reminded us that being a disciple means taking the narrow road.  Spend some time spreading peace through loving those who try to disrupt your peace today. 

In Him,

Ms. Debra D. Weldon, OP

I’d be lying if I said I could articulate a complete answer to this question.  I mean, God is beyond our understanding, so we will never fully understand the why of God.  Still, it bears pondering.  

I believe God created us for his glory and for his purposes. This is the firsts conundrum.  If he created us for him and his glory, why did he give us freewill?  From the human perspective, one who is all-powerful can force things to happen. In the human way, power means dominance. God is not dominate. So, somehow in the tangled webs we weave, he has to be glorified. His purposes have to be fulfilled. Hmm. 

In addition, God created us for our bliss.  This is the second conundrum.  If he created us for joy and peace, why do so few attain this purpose?  The answer, there is too much evil in the world. 

Let’s step back and talk about evil.  Some would point to the devil and blame him for evil. While true, it isn’t the full truth.  The creation story tells us that evil is our own attempts to be God-like. Yes, Satan tempted them, but they freely chose to eat.  They ate because they wanted to know what God knew.  This interrupted their dependence on God, their dependence on him to provide what they needed when they needed it. The result is, humans throughout history, including today, still seek our own will, our own way, our own perceived path to happiness. 

As I ponder these contradictions and truths, I see that God really is beyond our understanding. His purpose has to be fulfilled. Otherwise, he would not have created us. He knew each and every decision we would make along the way, and still, he gave us life. He knew what challenges we would face, and he knew how those would lead to our ultimate fulfillment, and to his ultimate glory.   

Spend some time today pondering the conundrums of the meaning of life.  Invite the Holy Spirit into your musings, and ask him to give you insight.  Pray that he shine light in your darkness, in the places where you are living in human ways instead of in the fullness of love and truth. Spend some time thanking him and praising him for his wisdom and grace. Spend some time holding onto your faith, a faith that promises that ultimately, all things will be for the good for those of us who believe. 

In Him,

Ms. Debra D. Weldon, OP

Why do we pray? The answer is multifaceted.  We pray prayers of petition to ask God for things. This form of prayer allows us to grow in humility.  It provides a valid framework for God as creator and us as created. 

We pray prayers of thanksgiving, gratitude, and praise for the things he provides; for answered prayers.  Hopefully, we pray these prayers even when we don’t get what we asked for because we know that God knows best. 

We pray when we go to mass or similar church services, for where two or three are gathered … Mt. 18:20. 

The question is – do we pray to grow in holiness?  Jesus told us that the Christian way is about living in unity with God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jn 17:21. After generations of Trinitarian theology focusing on creedal formulas to combat heresy, more modern theologians have focused on the Trinity as love, and how this loving God in three persons invites us to share in his holiness.  

All that we long for, all that we want to be is found in praying for holiness.  It is by praying in silence, in being open to what God wants to accomplish in our lives, that we grow in holiness. Only God is holy, so this means that we become united to him and his holiness. 

It is in silence that God reaches into the depth of our being to pull out all that doesn’t belong.  It can be a confusing process, but it is one that bring the ultimate meaning of life – true union with God.  

Spend some time today asking the Holy Spirit to help you on this path to silent prayer. If you need further conviction, just ask him to show you truth.  Be open to his answer.  There are many paths to silent prayer.  Read scripture and focus on the words where you hear God speak, then uttering that word or phrase in silence while you slowly drift into quiet.  (Lectio Divina). You can meditate by placing yourself in Biblical stories, and again, drift into quiet.  You can pray a rosary, and allow the mysteries to help facilitate quiet.  Don’t worry if your thoughts prevent you from finding the quiet stillness within.  God is faithful. All we have to do is our best. 

In Him,

Ms. Debra D. Weldon, O.P.

If you need assistance in getting started, I recommend Open Mind, Open Heart by Thomas Keating.  

The deeper I go in my relationship with God, the more sad I become. Don’t worry. It is a good kind of sad; a mourning of earthly things that I love, and which must now be surrendered.  I am slow to surrender things, and I am blessed that he is teaching me self-patience and trust that he is taking me at the best pace for me and my brokenness. By brokenness, I mean the impact of sin in and around my life.  

There have been many times over the last few years where I have had the occasion to say – God, this seems so hard, dying to self.  Will I continue on the path?  My answer always comes from Peter, “to whom shall [I] go? You have the words of everlasting life.” Jn 6:68.  This statement from Peter comes at a time when his faith is really challenged.  Many of Jesus’ followers left him.  

In fact, in Mt 7:14, Jesus tells us that the way to Heaven is a narrow road, and few will follow.    This statement is a hard one, and sometimes brings up fear of hell. However, I have come to differentiate between going to heaven or hell and living a Christian life.  Jesus’ words seem pretty clear, but I find that the former focus leads one to make decisions out of fear of an eternity of horror.  Thus, I choose to look at this narrow road as meaning  there are few who will choose to live in the Kingdom more fully in this life for the narrow road is about dying to self, cross carrying, and service to others. There is no room for self love in this equation.  Self love must die. We cannot die to self unless we substitute it with love of God.  We must become less so that he can become more. 

Spend some time today inviting the Holy Spirit into your prayer.  Ask him to enlighten you as to how to better travel the narrow road. Ask him to fill you with love of God, and to help you surrender what he is calling you to surrender today.  You may find that you take it back down the road, but just surrender it again and again until you fully relinquish your hold on it. God is merciful and loving. He asks these things of you so that you might live life more fully.  It is counterintuitive, but God works outside of our frame of reference. Luckily, he knows what is best for us, and will guide us along the narrow road, but only if we let him.

In Him,

Ms. Debra D. Weldon, OP

The Old Testament has many statements that can be misunderstood. For instance, I was just reading, “God will gather you; even from there while he bring you back. The Lord, your God, will then bring you into the land which your fathers once occupied, that you too may occupy it, and he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers.” This statement implies that God will take care of us the way our sinful human hearts long to be treated.  

The truth is, God allows things to happen to heal us, and bring us ever nearer to him. The problem is that we tend to get confused when he circumcises our hearts.  We feel pain and/or mental confusion, and we run to the world to fill the void that he cleared out for our mental, physical, and spiritual health. We undo what he has done for our benefit. 

The truth is, only God can fill the void within us, but he can only fill us if we allow him to clear the clutter within that keeps him from fully setting up his residence within.

Spend some time today pondering where God is working in your life.  Are you cooperating or resisting. Invite the Holy Spirit into your day to give you the wisdom and courage to stop resisting, and to allow him to continue his work of fulfilling you the way you were intended to be fulfilled.

In Him,

Ms. Debra D. Weldon, O.P.

As professed believers in Jesus the Christ, we are a people who walk in covenant with God.  The New Testament does not do a lot to spell out what this means because the Old Testament has all the information we need.  

What can we learn from the Old Testament?  Living in covenant means that we have made promises to God, and he has made promises to us.  In short, God has promised to deliver us from slavery and to provide for us all that we need, and we have promised God that we will reject all other gods, and live under the law. The law under Jesus was simplified to – love the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself.  

In addition to the promises, there were curses for failure to uphold the promises.  If you recall the covenant scene between God and Abraham, God passed through animal carcases that were split in half. This meant that the same thing that happened to the animals would happen to God.  For the people, the curse was that a lot of bad stuff would happen, including exile.  

In fact, during the time leading up to the Babylonian exile, the prophets told the people that they would be exiled.  The people laughed at them.  God resided in the temple of Jerusalem. There was no way that God would allow his temple to fall.  They continued to sin. Actually, they thought that what they were doing was enough. They couldn’t see the evil that they were perpetrating in their every day lives.  I’ll cut short the list of sins, but here is a sampling: they were taking advantage of the poor who needed a loan, and charged interest, and they were neglecting the widows and orphans, the oppressed and the like.   

So, what does God do? He let his holy city, his dwelling on earth, be destroyed by the Babylonians.  In fact, there is a great account in Ezekiel where God abandons the temple in the most amazing chariot ever described by mankind.  The people were exiled, and the world wonder built by King Solomon, the temple, was destroyed. Thus were the curses of the covenant enacted. 

The beauty of the story is that God’s chariot headed in the direction of Babylon. He did not abandon them. The people served their penance, and were returned home 70 years later. The temple was rebuilt, and God took up residence again in Jerusalem.  Unfortunately, they continued to sin, and finally, God sent his only son to bring about the new covenant. 

Spend some time today reflecting on where you could do a better job of living in the covenant.  Who are some of your neighbors that could use a smile, a few dollars, a helping hand.  Remember, the idea of Christian living is not to go out and do good works.  No. The idea is to take God, who lives within the temple of each Christian person,  to those in need. As you plan your charitable acts, make sure you invite the Holy Spirit into the mix, both in discerning a plan and in executing your plan.  Acts of charity without charity are just acts.  

In Him,

Ms. Debra D. Weldon, O.P.

Sometimes, the meaning of life seems like it is about fitting in, which means trying to be who “they” think we should be. The reality is, the meaning of life is learning who God created us to be.  In our authentic selves, we find true value and purpose in life.  

The problem is – many of us have lost touch with who we really are (assuming we ever knew).  The spiritual journey is a proven pathway for discovering our true selves.  

How does it work? According to the Carmelite tradition (and others), it involves silent prayer.  By sitting in the mystery of an all-mighty God and dwelling on his love for us, we grow in truth; we grow in the truth of who we are before God.  We enter into his loving hands, and allow him to heal us of all the woundedness that has causes us to cover up our true selves.  

Through the process, we learn that we are loved and lovable, despite any bad acts we might have committed along the way. He helps us to unwind from destructive behaviors, and to learn better ways of living in this flawed world.  He uncovers our joy when we learn it is ok to be imperfect, and to accept ourselves where we are.  He unveils himself a little at a time, and shows us just how vast and mysterious and wonderful he is.  He shows us that the purpose of life is to live in his kingdom where peace and love abound. He shows us that despite the bad in the world, he is our be-all and end-all. 

Spend some time today pondering God’s greatness, and the gifts he has given to you. Spend some time pondering what it would be like to know yourself, the good, the bad and the ugly; to know yourself in balance of flaws and special graces that combine to make a truly remarkable and amazing person.  Spend 15-20 minutes just reflecting on his love for you. Thoughts may enter in and distract you. That’s ok. Just push them gently aside, and drift back into that place of peace; that place within where you are one-on-one with him who loves you without any strings attached. 

In Him,

Ms. Debra Weldon, O.P.

This morning, as I start to plan some life changing goals, I was thinking about becoming a new person. This new person would be healthier and more joyful.  As I planned, I started feeling anxiety creeping into my core.   Why? Because I always fail when moving in a new direction. This is not true, but this was the voice in my head.  

I have had occasion to witness the power of words like never and always in my life and in the life of others. These words can be intensely damaging to our psyche.  The truth is – each day is a new day. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we can avoid the weaknesses and failures of yesterday in our today and tomorrow.  We are not bound by anything because we are free in Christ. 

Living in the freedom of Christ is not something that happens over night or with a one time election. The truth is, God works differently than we expect him to work.  Sometimes, there is a learning curve on getting out of bad habits, but a learning curve is not the same as being bound to always fail; to never getting it right.  Each day is a day filled with hope of growing in grace and supernatural wisdom on how to live our lives more in the image of Christ. 

Spend some time today talking to God about how you can become free from all that holds you down. Invite the Holy Spirit into your day to guide you in wisdom on breaking bad habits and how to move without the bonds of yesterday holding you down.  Feel the freedom that comes into your day when you ask God to free you from all that holds you back.  Make sure you are patient with yourself if you fall down. Just re-invite the Spirit back in, dust yourself off, and keep trusting that God is in charge.  

In Him,

Ms. Debra Weldon, O.P.  

The Psalms teach us that God longs for sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving.   Historically, I took a lot of my life for granted, and thus, was not very thankful.  I believed God had a purpose for my life, and hmm, maybe he should have been thanking me for my willingness to do the hard work.  

Over time, my spiritual pride died down, and while I never stopped believing that he had a purpose for me, I did settle into a new belief structure.  Eventually, the Holy Spirit started prompting me to be grateful. I’d be driving down the street thanking God.  I’d wake up in the middle of the night praising God.  I do believe that gratitude was a gift from God; it was a righting of my relationship with God.  For this, I am grateful.  

Now, I try to wake each morning by thanking God for the gift of another day; for the ability to give it another go.  The spiritual journey is that, a journey, and each day teaches me more about the Lord, my God.  Thus, I should be eternally grateful for the gift of being able to start fresh each day; fresh in the sense of leaving yesterday’s self behind, but taking all that I had learned before into a new day.  

Expressing gratitude to God is a way of bringing joy into your day. It brings joy because it is the right relationship with the one who gave you this day to enjoy.  Spend time today thanking God, and praising him for all he has done. Spend some time in silence as you ponder the joy of being loved by God. 

In Him,

Ms. Debra Weldon, O.P.