Creator Credit

~~~ Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, Virgin ~~~

~~~ Wisdom 13:1-9 ~~~ Psalm 19 ~~~ Luke 17:26-37 ~~~

All men were by nature foolish who were in ignorance of God,
and who from the good things seen did not 
succeed in knowing him who is...

How does one marvel at the beauty of all creation
or the power and energy of storms and yet not see God.

All things originate in God...
all beauty, all strength, all energy, all power...
All that is comes from God, but we still
have those who do not believe in him.

If you rely on science to explain all that surrounds you,
eventually you will come to a dead end.

It is right to give the creator credit for all
that exists in the universe.

If you see beauty...you see God.

If you feel the wind upon your face...you feel God.

If you witness s sunrise or a sunset...you experience
the grandeur of God.

The evidence that God does exist is all around you.

What purpose would it serve to deny
 the existence of God?

Look around...open your eyes...
where do you witness God manifesting himself today?

Become more present with the world in which you live;
this is where God makes himself visible...real.

Any work of art is the result of the artist
being inspired by God to create.

Inspiration comes from the spirit of God.

Nothing can compare to the creativity
 of what God has made for us.

Many times an artist is inspired by the patterns
 or the beauty of nature in making their own creation.

Find God in a place where you least
expect him to be present.

There is a piece of God in all of creation.

~~~Peace~~~

To Serve with Love

~~~ 1 Peter 1:18-25 ~~~ Psalm 14 ~~~ Mark 10: 32-45 ~~~

"...the word of the Lord remains forever."

"...love one another intensely from a pure heart."

Through the death and Resurrection of Jesus,

 we have come to place our faith and hope in God.

The tenth chapter of Mark continues to reveal to us just how naive and human the apostles were. They mirror who we are in many ways.

You tend to have unreasonable expectations when you do not have all of the facts or you simply do not understand.

James and John were so eager to be close to the Lord. They mistakenly believed that they were capable of more than they could have imagined.

Jesus wisely response to them, "You do not know what you are asking."

Jesus was reflecting at a much deeper level than James and John could understand.

They did not grasp that Jesus was acting on behalf of the Father.

Jesus offers them an analogy they could understand; that of the authority of a ruler who is controlling over all.

Instead Jesus flips this pyramid of power upside down.

"For the Son of Man did not come to be served

but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many."

Jesus came to serve. He made this very clear at the Last Supper when he knelt at the feet of each of his apostles and washed their feet.

Can you imagine Jesus kneeling at your feet today?

It is difficult to even let your imagination place you in such a scene.

We are surrounded with those who have a servant's heart every day. They are in our families, our churches, our hospitals, our homeless shelters, our crisis call centers, our military, our schools, in our restaurants. And I am sure you could continue the list with many more examples. In order to serve you need to put the needs of others above your own needs.

While we may never be able to simulate the great service of our Lord we can serve with a pure heart. We can serve out of love and not expect recognition for our service.

We are all called to serve in one way or another.

Today I invite you to take a look at how you serve.

I invite you to examine how your service is aligned

with the call to serve from Jesus.

Only you can answer the question of 'why' you serve.

"...the word of the Lord remains forever."

Service from the heart is love.

~The Dark Side of Power~

2 Samuel 11:1-4a, 5-10a, 13-17

Lust, Kidnapping, Rape, Deceit, Lies, Murder....

POWER....

Who are we talking about? No, it cannot be. We cannot be talking about the one anointed by God through Samuel. The one who repeatedly spared Saul's life. The one who killed the giant with a single stone. The composer of psalms of love. How can it be that today we are reading about the same person?

I think it can be summed up in one word and that is POWER. David, a brilliant leader, has been consumed by his position. No one person is more powerful than God; this is a fact.

When people come into positions of power all too often they lose sight of who they are. We see this all the time in various walks of life from politics and the cooperate to even among some who claim to be ministers.

When in a position of power you have been given a certain amount of control. In David's case he has control over entire armies of men who have pledged their loyalty to him. Men willing to lose their lives on his behalf.

If power corrupted David how can we expect to be exempt from the pitfalls of power?

If you are in a position of power you have a daunting task to stay focused and exercise wisdom in all your decisions. There used to be a little bracelet inscribed with the phrase "What would Jesus do?" I used to think it was a little corny in a way. If we would, however, all take those words more serious we might be blessed to live in a very different world.

David certainly had a relationship with God. He composed beautiful psalms of praise on his harp. But somewhere along the way he crossed to the 'dark side'. I do not think this reading was just about the lust he felt for Bathsheba in her beauty. It was his mind set of I can have anything I want including orchestrating the death of Uriah.

We can find hope in this story because if someone like David can fall to such depths and still be loved by God then we can turn to God too. We have a merciful and all powerful God.

Psalm 51:3

"Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;

in your abundant compassion blot out my offense."

This is the beginning of David's repentance. His Miserere. With help David is led to understand how serious his actions were. He could not hide behind the mask of his human power when faced with the boundless power of a merciful and forgiving God.

In the gospel excerpt from Matthew today we can also see an example of power...in this case the magnificent power of God. God uses his power to make evident his kingdom to us even through something as tiny as the mustard seed.

All too often we fool ourselves into thinking that power makes us more important than God. We pretend that we are invincible that nothing can touch us or that we have all of the answers. We assume that power gives us the 'right' to act in ways that are not at all of God.

Perhaps this is why we have the scripture from Isaiah 55: 8    

"My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts," says the LORD. "And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine." New Living Translation

Truly God's ways are far beyond anything we could imagine, but we can aspire to be a better person. Remembering when we are in a position of power we can act with God's ways in mind.

Power positions do not give us 'carte blanche' over others...

it is not 'anything goes' as long as it is my way.

David was intoxicated with his position of power...drunk on himself...his own desires.

What would Jesus do? is not such a corny phrase after all.

Original picture is of a wooden figure of a person slumped next to an hourglass. I chose this picture because power can take the natural life out of a person.

This kaleidoscope image if you look closely appears that the image is reflecting itself. When corrupted by power you see only the image of yourself..no one else matters...

it is all about the I.