Author: Jocelyn Soriano

See her books like "Questions to God", "Mend My Broken Heart", "To Love an Invisible God", "Defending My Catholic Faith", "Of Waves and Butterflies: Poems on Grief" and more - click here.

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(You may freely quote excerpts from this website as long as due credit is given to author Jocelyn Soriano and the website itakeoffthemask.com)

Categories
love

God Designed Us For Heaven

When man first fell
from the grace of god
and left the perfect happiness and love
from his presence
God knew
that He will not totally disappear from them
God knew that even in this fallen world,
He will always be in our midst
Yea, even in this valley of tears
there are streaks of love that can get through
there are traces of grace and blessing
in every God-given relationship that we shall have
God is there from the very beginning
In your mother
in your father
God is the love that embraced you
from the moment you were born

God is there when your heart
first learned to beat for your special someone
God is there when you knelt before Him
as you made your vows for the beloved you have found

God is there when you gave birth
when you first held your baby in your arms

Wasn’t it paradise?
Wasn’t it heaven?

Love is our heaven here on earth
the love that finds us all
wherever
and whoever we are

God designed all things
that we may find Him
from the moment in our mother’s womb
to the moment we ourselves give life to our own child

Love appears before us
always…
even when we think it has hidden itself away

Indeed, I say
that there is a friend there waiting
smiling
loving you.

A friend loves at all times,
a friend that’s only been waiting
to be found

Categories
original sin

Our parent’s sins

As I was pondering upon the nature of sin and of the fallen nature of man, I have read one thought that caught my attention. This thought posed a question similar to this, “Why must God punish us if He created us this way?”

Indeed, should a righteous God punish a person for being weak and susceptible to sin? And if the Church teaches that our fallen nature is due to the fault of our first parents, Adam and Eve, why should we be punished for sins we did not commit in the first place? Should children be punished for the sins of their parents?

I’m quite sure nobody would agree to being punished for the sin of another, but I guess the truth is that this situation happens.

Suppose you get married, and later on you had children. And suppose you did not become responsible parents but lived like you’re accountable to no one. You spend the night drinking, you didn’t finish your studies, you mess up your work. And then after all of these things, you fight with your husband, and sooner or later, this fight becomes a habit, and your children grow up not knowing what peace is, or what commitment and true love really means.

Surely these children have no fault of their own for the life that they have been given. But are they not affected? Don’t they suffer for sins that are not their own?

I guess the same is true with our first parents. Sure, we weren’t there yet. Sure, we can say it’s quite unfair that we suffer now for the sins they have done.

But then this is what happened, and this is what Jesus’ redemption is all about. God is so good that He went on His way to rescue us where we have been dragged by sin. God is so merciful He gave up His own life so that we can regain the fullness of life we’ve been destined for.

This world may be dark, this life may be full of suffering. Yet we need not stay in the darkness. We need not live in despair anymore. God tells us that there is hope. God tells us that we are loved, and just with that, all sins are banished, and Mercy and Grace prevails over death.

Categories
hsp

Is High Sensitivity a Curse or a Gift?

Is being a highly sensitive person (HSP) a curse or a gift?

Pearl S. Buck, (1892-1973), recipient of the Pulitzer Prize in 1932 and of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1938, said the following about Highly Sensitive People:

“The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this:

A human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive.

To him… a touch is a blow,
a sound is a noise,
a misfortune is a tragedy,
a joy is an ecstasy,
a friend is a lover,
a lover is a god,
and failure is death.

Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create – – – so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, his very breath is cut off from him. He must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency he is not really alive unless he is creating.” -Pearl S. Buck

According to author Elaine Aron, “About 15 to 20 percent of the population have this trait. It means you are aware of subtleties in your surroundings, a great advantage in many situations. It also means you are more easily overwhelmed when you have been out in a highly stimulating environment for too long, bombarded by sights and sounds until you are exhausted.” An HSP herself, Aron reassures other Highly Sensitives that they are quite normal. Their trait is not a flaw or a syndrome, nor is it a reason to brag. It is an asset they can learn to use and protect.

In my case, I experienced high sensitivity as both.

“There was a time that I cursed the curse that lay upon my veins.

Wild spirit chained
Flaming fire quenched over and over
’til it can consume no more
’til it can arise no more
with passions that blaze within my soul…

I’ve cursed my curse
and then I realized –

I’ve also cursed my gift.”

There is a high price to pay for being an HSP, but there is a great joy in it as well, for in being able to harness one’s gift, one is able to understand many things, one is able to penetrate even the deepest parts of another person’s heart. In transcending the barriers that usually imprison a suffering soul, one is able to soothe another’s pain, one is able to heal.

It has a high cost indeed, for before one can heal, one must be wounded first; before one can understand, one must accept to be misunderstood.



For more information on HSPs, see the following links:


http://hsperson.com/pages/test.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highly_sensitive_person

Categories
Grief

Comfort My People

“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.”-Isaiah 40:11


The world is full of hurting and comfortless hearts. But before you will be competent for this lofty ministry, you must be trained. And your training is extremely costly, for to make it complete, you too must endure the same afflictions that are wringing countless hearts of tears and blood.
-Streams in the Desert

Categories
success

Why God Doesn’t Give Us Our Desires

“You must rest, O soul, to receive your heart’s desire.”
-Streams in the Desert



Sometimes, God doesn’t give us the things we want
because He knows the things we truly desire,
desires that we may not even be aware of
because we do not truly know ourselves.



We cannot truly know ourselves unless we really choose to,
and we cannot discover our true desires
unless we let go of the things we think we want,
things borne not out of love,
but out of fear, anger or other things
other than what our inner heart is yearning for.



Had God immediately given us our requests,
our joy wouldn’t have had a chance to be complete
because we would have settled for the “Second best”.



But God allows us instead these momentary frustrations
so that we can discover little by little
what it is we truly desire.