How do you see God the Father?

How do you know Jesus?  Do you ever imagine what it was like, walking around with Jesus, listening to His Stories, receiving you with His warm Eyes, gentle words and loving smile?

I have often tried to imagine what a talk with Jesus would be like, face to Face.  I have compiled all of my favorite traits in the people I love and extrapolated them, in their most perfect form to build my profile of Jesus. I have had a few superheroes in my life to draw from.

 

How do you see God the Father? I heard once how our relationship and impression of God is influenced by our human fathers and our other human relationships.  I think as I have matured in my Faith, I have recognized that my default image of God was that of a Judge, keeping a list and checking it twice.  I have even expected a little rolling of the Eyes as I confessed the same sins and issues at each confession.

One time, I asked my spiritual director about this very same thing.  I said "What is Jesus doing, each time I confess the same sin or struggle...over and over.?" I think I suspected that the Lord must be getting as tired of this as I was, maybe shaking His Head a little bit, smirking or mouthing the words 'again!?'

My priest friend just gently responded "smiling".

 

YES!  That's what we do, for the most part, with our kids, right?  Hopefully?

When our toddler climbs into the fridge to grab the pickle jar..for the gazillionth time?

(OK, after we save the pickle jar from crashing to the floor and pull the child out of the fridge and close the fridge door, hoping the suction in the door will just be a little too strong for him next time?)

 

When a toddler decides to draw with a marker on any available surfaces including walls, furniture and skin?

When a toddler decides to explore what his snack will look like if he tries to play it in the DVD player or computer?

When a toddler finds the chocolate cake that was reserved for tonight's birthday celebration and decides to taste a handful?

When a toddler, drawn by the bright blinking light decides to turn off the computer, change the settings of the dishwasher or stereo?

Yes, each of these scenarios mysteriously sound like our 5^th child Adam…

When a child must be extracted from some shiny thing in the Walmart aisle...

When you find the stack of dirty laundry under a child's bed or his un-emptied lunchbox from Friday...

When a teenager forgets to call or neglects a chore...

When a teenager insists that she absolutely needs the latest release of her current favorite band...

OK, there may be a slightly less virtuous Prodigal Father response immediately, out of surprise, and looking at the fixing and cleaning attempts ahead ...or rehearsing the familiar script of responsibility or materialism... but we don't love them any less, despite our human response.

How much more loving, (thank God!) is our loving Father as he yearns to draw us closer to Himself, smiling at our efforts to overcome our struggles?

 

A beloved pastor once described how children would run to him after Mass and when he hugged them, they would be enveloped by his priestly vestments. 

I can still see my daughter scramble up into the arms of our beloved Fr. Dan, eagerly awaiting a word or a smile.

I see my two youngest kids, as they run to their Dad's arms: a grand homecoming regardless if it followed a long day of work....or a 30-second trip to the garage.

 

I recall the words written to me on the inside of a favorite book:  "remember....you are unconditionally loved by God and sustained at every moment by His Grace." 

Someday I hope to run into the Arms of God, to be received and completely enveloped by His Dazzling white robe-clad arms, with child-like Faith and confidence that I am His Beloved Daughter with whom He is well pleased.

 





Monica is a wife, Mom of 5+ kids, a designer, an architecture school survivor, an author and a crafter who thinks that it’s cool to be Catholic! Check out the Arma Dei Shoppe for solid Catholic, fun teaching tools and gifts to celebrate and teach the Catholic Faith and subscribe to Equipping Catholic Families for family-building and Faith-centred crafts! 

 

 

 

 

Pro-life Corner: SUNDAY, March 25, 2012

BULLETIN INSERT:

Wisdom of the Ages…

Tertullian, a Christian writer who died in the third century, wrote the following: ‘Thus, you read the word of God, spoken to Jeremias: "Before I formed thee in the womb, I knew thee." If God forms us in the womb, He also breathes on us as He did in the beginning: "And God formed man and breathed into him the breath of life." Nor could God have known man in the womb unless he were a whole man. "And before thou camest forth from the womb, I sanctified thee." Was it, then, a dead body at that stage? Surely it was not, for "God is the God of the living and not the dead."’- De Anima 26.5 


For General Intercessions and Scripture reflections go to DesignsByBirgit.com

Pro-life Corner: SUNDAY, February 12, 2012

 Priests for Life has been the source of Pro-life materials  for years. They coincide with the Church calendar and 'contain three elements: a one-paragraph bulletin insert, General Intercessions, and suggestions for drawing pro-life themes out of the Sunday reading for the homily'. I will share all three elements every Sunday in an effort help us all think with a pro-life heart. 


The Priests for Life pro-life materials for Sunday, February, 12, 2012 go to Designs by Birgit

Welcome...part II

Welcome to the Contibutor Pages!

 If you would like to be a regular contributor to these pages, please respond with comments on this post mentioning your Catholic blog address and your email address.

For the time being, we have decided not to create a schedule for posting. 
To give everyone a chance to post, here are a few guidelines:

1. Be brief!  We are happy to help you increase traffic on your site!  Please post only 1-2 photos and a brief summary of your post,  with a link to your complete blog post. 

You can include the following: "Read the entire story at {hyperlinked blogname}" 

(The hyperlink should be the address of the full post on your blog, not the general blog address that links to your home page.)

With shorter entries, readers can skim through many more posts on the one Contributor page and will refer to individual blogs for more information...increasing traffic to your site!

2. Please post only ONCE a week in your category* to give others a chance! We plan to have special link-ups on specific Feastdays, so that everyone can share their Feastday posts, particularly on the  Homeschooling, Crafts, Traditions and the Liturgical Calendar contributor page. 

*If your category is Catechism/Apologetics or Scripture, Sunday Readings and Homilies, you can probably link more often, as there are fewer contributors in these categories.

3.  Please have at least one clearly visible Catholic Bloggers Network button on the home page of your blog.  If you'd like to include a link at the end of the post on your blog, we'd appreciate that too!

4. Try to include a signature biography with a photo (or blog button). 

Until we figure out how to make a template for these, this is mine. 

I'm Monica and I am a wife, a Mom of 5+ kids, a designer, an architecture school survivor, an author and a crafter and I think it’s cool to be Catholic!  My husband and I founded a Catholic apostolate called Arma Dei (Armor of God; Ephesians 6:13-17) creating solid Catholic, fun teaching tools and gifts to celebrate and teach the Catholic Faith. I like to post about these family-building and Faith-centred crafts on EquippingCatholicFamilies.com ! 

Welcome!

Welcome!

This is where we post reflections on Sacred Scripture, current Mass Readings...and insights from homilies from our favorite priests.

If you would like to be a contributor to this page,

please leave your email address and Catholic blog address in the comments below!

We're sure that we don't really need to write this, but...
Please kindly remember...This blog attempts to post only material and ideas that are in conformity with the teachings of the Holy Roman Catholic Church, Sacred Scripture, the Apostolic See, and Catholic Tradition. Anything that is contrary to the aforementioned is accidental and unintentional and will likely be removed.
If you happen to find a contrary post linked to the Catholic Bloggers Network
...please contact us so that we can address it appropriately.
Monica {at} ArmaDei {dot} com  OR  RaisingLittleSaints {at}gmail {dot} com


If you would like a steady stream of posts about Scripture, Sunday Readings and Homilies,
please subscribe to these posts by RSS

or follow by email!