Freedom or Predestination

The greatest gift that God gives us is freedom.  Without true freedom, and I mean true freedom as God defines it, there is no love.  The greater the freedom the greater the opportunity for love.  God is not moving all the pieces so that it turns out a certain way.  He is entering into our lives, with our free choices and in that freedom His plan for our Salvation is unfolding.  Yes He has a plan, but we are pawns but collaborators.  Some even go so far as to say co-creators.  His plan will come about through us, with our cooperation.  He sets us free, and then uses the attraction of love to draw us to Him.  He has a plan, and we all have an irreplaceable role in that plan, but we are free to cooperate with Him or not.  Not only that but nothing is impossible for God.  That includes working through our freedom.  Predestination removes freedom, love and relationship with God from the equation.  He has adopted us as His children.

Remembering Cpl. Nathan Cirillo

Synod on the Family

For help in understanding the press surrounding the Synod on the Family that is taking place in Rome, view Fr. Robert Barron's commentary about the movement of the Holy Spirit and the process the bishops undertake to review and potentially revise Church teachings.

What Happens When You Die

Recently I was talking with a friend and she asked me, what happens when you die? What’s it like? I said, no one really knows for sure, but I think when we die a certain blindness is lifted from us and we see more clearly than we ever thought possible.

Falling Plates

God's love for us is amazing.

Butterfly Conservatory

Fun Butterfly facts.

BREATHING - Butterflies do not have a lung system like humans do, but instead take in oxygen through tiny openings along their abdomens called spiracles.

Relationships are a Treasure

One of the greatest gifts that has come me in religious life is the realization that relationships are the treasure of life.  Meeting good friends at the manor enriched my life far more than the time I thought I was giving.  For me my treasure is encountering people and finding life in the living.  Finding God in the giving.  Then no matter what I'm doing, I find Him in the eyes of others.

Catholic Photo Challenge #6

Is Reverence Relevant?

Reverence is a form of worship. 

Heb 12:28-29 says "Since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe; for indeed our God is a consuming fire."

Reverence is treating someone or something with deep respect. We show deep respect for God because there is nothing greater than God. 

When we reverence God He gives us so much in return, because it creates in us an openness for the Holy Spirit to help us.