Parable of the Mustard Seed

SOOOOOOO.... Long time and no words! Sorry about that, but the last few weeks I have been searching and thinking of a topic on which to write. This past Sunday, God gave me the inspiration that I needed. He brought me a story to inspire my word for the spreaking on the kingdom of God!
Parables, what a wonderful gift from God. We are able to learn so much from the stories that Jesus shared with us so that we can know Him more. Parables are blessings to those with willing ears though. We recognized that when Jesus pulled the disciples to the side and explained by saying,
"Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, And seeing you will see and not perceive; For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.’ But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it" (Matthew 13:10-17).
In the Parable of the Mustard Seed, we hear about the planting and cultivating of a very small seed. We learn of the stuggles that a seed can have  in growing. The parable can be a wonderful comparision to our daily lives.As the man in the parable plants the seed in the field, so God has planted the Kingdom of Heaven in our hearts.  It is up to us to find opportunities to cultivate the seed to better spread the word of God.  The growth of the seed is dependent on our efforts in nutrturing and cultivating the seed by particpating in the sacrements. We can constantly renew our efforts in becoming closer to God! It is never to late to ask for forgivness, for that is the beauty in the mercy of God!  As we cultivate this seed in our hearts, we are able to become stronger in spreading the seed for others, so that in turn they can cultivate and spread the word of God with others.
We are all responsible for the cultivation of their seed of the Kingdom of heaven.
I set out this challenge to each and every one of you to seek out ways to cultivate the Kingdom of God in your hearts. I happen to stumble upon a website that gave me a good starting point on how to begin cultivating the Kingdom of God in my heart.
http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/7-spiritual-growth-tips/
You can  visit this site for more in depth explaination, but here is an overview of some ideas!

Hope we see you at come of the Young Adults events that we want to provide so that you can begin or continue the journey of growing that seed of the Kingdom of God!

The Gifts of Easter Continue...

Reflection on the gospel reading

2^nd Sunday of Easter (4/15/12)

John 20:19-31

The gifts of Easter continue…

There were two verses from today’s gospel that stood out to me.

“Peace be with you.”

“Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”

God does want us to have a peaceful heart and mind.  Jesus greets the apostles twice in this one reading with the words, “Peace be with you.”  Think about how you feel when you do God’s work or when you’ve made a decision based on prayer – we tend to be overcome with a sense of peace or even joy.  That is what Jesus is offering to us.  That is yet another gift He wants to give us, but we have to be open to receiving it.  If we insist on seeing the wounds - the lance in His side - or ask for miracles to happen on demand, we are missing out on the amazing beauty of God’s glory that surrounds us every day.  Our hearts are shut off from the peace that can be found in a simple still moment.

If we believe without having seen, we can find the peace that Christ offers.  That line in the gospel is speaking to all of US.  We are the ones who have not seen and have believed.  I feel like this message can be applied even beyond belief in Christ.  Even though we cannot see the plan that God has laid out for our personal lives, if we believe that He will sustain us and that He knows what will bring us happiness, then God will bless us in our journeys because we have believed.  He will bring us joy.  Through our belief and trust, we can learn to hand over our worries and allow Christ to sustain us…to fill us with “life in His name.”  I’ll be the first to admit that handing over my worries is not an easy task, but it is one worth striving for.  I believe that faith and trust go hand in hand.  As I work to build my faith, my trust will also grow, allowing me to depend more fully on Christ and His plan. 

The Upper Room

On Thursday MIYA  had a wonderful opportunity to join in on the experience of the Upper Room. The Upper Room, if you are not familiar, is a group of young adults from around the area that join together for a time of praise, worship, adoration, intercessory and open prayers once a month. I encourage you to join next month for it was an experience that not only rekindled my love of Jesus, but also allowed for my heart to be open to what God wants for me and those that attended.

We began with the Blessed Sacrament being exposed for all to see. It was an amazing scene as we all knelt before Jesus to begin our journey with him. As we began to take in the wonderful experience, we joined together in beautiful song of praise and adoration and internal prayer preparing our hearts for Jesus.

As we continued our journey with Jesus, an amazing moment happened when we were allowed to be silent and be with Jesus in the moment. As we were in silence, it gave each and every one of us the time to slow down and mediate on the true awesomeness of this moment. A moment of being in the presence of Jesus and feeling his love for each and every one of us. The moment where we could lay down our struggles at the foot of the cross and truly listen to what God is saying to us.

As we were moved by the spirit, many of us opened our hearts to Jesus and allowed him to move us through open prayer. The prayers of those present were beautiful. They were prayers of thankgiving and praise for what has been put into their lives. A thankfulness for struggles and the gratefulness for the joy that has reached their heart were touching. Father Michael spoke a wonderful verse from Philipians 4 that really stuck with me as a particpant.

^"4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! ⁵ Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. ⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

I personally was moved to my knees several times and eventually brought to quiet tears. Tears streamed down because I truely felt connected with God and that He was listening to me. I was overwhelmed with the moment when my heart was on fire and in being in the moment with Jesus. The room, although filled with furniture, people, sounds of the air condition, singing, guitar and mumbles of prayers from those around me suddenly fell slient. It was Jesus, me and His love. What an amzing feeling! Nothing mattered. I laid down my sorrows  and concerns and thankfulness at the foot of the cross. In that moment of connection with Jesus, I knew that there was a plan for me. I lifted up my heart and shared with Jesus that I will trust with patience what he is doing in my life and the life of my family and also for what he has to come in my life and those around me.

As we closed the night, I felt a sense of calmness and relief as I had just spent two hours with Jesus and was able to have a dialouge in my heart with Him. I was encouraged to have faith and trust and to know that I am where I need to be right now. For many young adults, we often wonder about the paths and where they are supposed to take us. I hope that this post has given you some sort of encouragement to believe that there is a reason for everything and I pray that we continue to trust in the paths that are sent forth for us even at the most difficult of times. .
 

Shake it out!!!

As we continue our journeys during Lent, we come to closer to understanding the importance of faith in our everyday lives. In the readings on Sunday, we hear about Abraham being put to the test of faith when it comes him to making a grave sacrifice of his son. It isn't until he is at the point of sacrifice that God sends an angel down and rewards Abraham's faithfulness with descents that number the stars. We are all called to have faith in God in the darkest and lowest of times as Abraham did. We are asked to put faith in God no matter the circumstance and because of our faith in Him, we will be rewarded in heaven. The priest likened it to mountains and valleys in our lives. Even when we are in the lowest valley and our faith is faltering, we must continue to have faith that this the path that God has set for us and through that faith we can begin to climb out of the valley and onto the mountain tops, restoring our faith to fullest.

Last week I was listening to the radio and stumbled upon a song that, in my opinion, is a great reminder of the ultimate outcome of Lent. I preface this song analogy by saying that we are all open to different interpretations of songs and I respect your opinions if you don't agree.

The song relays the feeling of regrets piling up and seeing no way to get away from them. The writer then begins to understand that "I am done with my graceless heart,  So tonight I'm gonna cut it out and then restart." We use this time of Lent to be done with our own graceless hearts and start anew and wait for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter. The writer points that it's always darkest before the dawn. We have to thank God for the fact that we are given a dawn to look forward to and to open our eyes to change and allow ourselves to "Shake it out" and to "shake him (the devil) off!" so that we can again dance in the light of God! 

I hope you enjoy the song and comment on your own interpretations of the song!

Click here to listen to the Music and lyrics together!