I Take off the MASK!

Grief and Healing - Download the eBook

Faith needs a new kind of eye to see, an eye that sees in the light of love. – Jocelyn Soriano

Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen me,you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen, and have believed.” -John 20:29 (WEB)

There are times when we experience a lack of faith. We start to have questions. Doubt creeps in and we begin to want solid proofs to what we profess to believe.

Why do we believe Him in the first place? Why do we believe even if we do not see?

But when we come to think about it, we can turn this question the other way. Why should we not believe? Can we have more solid proofs that our faith isn’t true? That He doesn’t really exist? That He isn’t the most beautiful thing we could ever desire and have?

Believing in God is much like falling in love. You can’t have all the evidences and assurance you want. But somehow, what you have is enough to know that it’s worth taking the risk, and if you let go of your chance, you will forever forfeit the most beautiful thing you can ever have. You would gladly sacrifice everything because nothing can ever make sense again without it. You would gladly risk it all because without doing so, you know you have already lost everything.

“You never met him. You never heard him speak. You never even saw him from afar. Yet you… have more faith than most people. How is that possible?”
“Mary took me in as her own… When I look into her eyes, when I watch how she lives. That’s how I know that it’s all true. I see him in her. I hear him because of her.” -Full of Grace (Film 2015)

“This is my commandment, that you love one another, even as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” – John 15, WEB

Sacrifice and Love. Two words that will always go together. Two things God Himself has taught us with His life.

By this we know what true love is. By this we see what’s worth finding and what’s worth dying for.

Many times, we fail to understand the depths of its meaning because we see it from afar. We see saints and heroes who willingly offered their lives in martyrdom, things we supposed we’d never need to do in our own lives.

And yet, were we not all called upon to carry our own cross? It’s in this very cross that we can render the offering of the self for love.

The opportunity is there for us each and every day. It is when we choose to help someone even if there is nothing we’d get back in return. It is when we forgive those who cannot even ask for forgiveness. It is when we let go of our own comforts for the sake of those we love. It is when we forego the little mistakes, the small offenses, the minor irritations we encounter in or daily lives.

Without sacrifice, we end up letting each other go and giving up on one another. Without sacrifice, we sacrifice love itself, and we end up losing that which matters most in life.

“If you really want to love Jesus, first learn to suffer, because suffering teaches you to love.” -St. Gemma Galgani

Consider the shortness of time, the length of eternity, and reflect how everything here below comes to an end and passes by. – Gerard Majella

Our destiny is the possession of God and eternal life- to live in that abode from which all evil is absent and Where we enjoy a multitude and abundance of every good, a place which is commonly called Heaven. – Fr. Charles Arminjon

…only with the Infinite could my desires be satisfied, because the world and all that’s in it is limited; whereas, by belonging to God, my soul would never tire of loving and contemplating Him, because in Him the horizons are infinite. – St. Teresa of Jesus of the Andes

“One life is all we have and we live it as we believe in living it. But to sacrifice what you are and to live without belief, that is a fate more terrible than dying.”
-St. Joan of Arc

Time Is Always Short

Time here below
is always short
it will never
be long enough.

Long enough to laugh,
long enough to dance,
long enough to touch,
long enough to love.

No matter how long
no matter how well lived,
a lifetime will always
be not enough.

It isn’t enough,
it never will be,
for the human soul,
for the human heart.

For there is something
in our spirit
that longs for more,
infinitely more.

We long
for something
that knows no limits,
that knows no end.

And maybe even that
is a clue
in knowing who
we really are.

We were not meant
to be bound by the limits of time
We were not meant
to die.

For everything here below
will fall short
of the glory and bliss
that only heaven can provide.

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in their hearts… – Ecclesiastes 3, WEB

Let your hope keep you joyful, be patient in your troubles, and pray at all times. – Romans 12, GNT

A little positivity helps. While it is true that it is good to be careful, sometimes being too careful leads to worry and lost of hope. No matter how we plan things, there is no assurance that they will turn out as we envisioned them to be. There will always be things that will surprise us, things that will be beyond our control.

And that is where a little positivity helps. The ability to look at things in a better light gives us strength to deal with the problems we face along the way. It gives us courage. It is like a lubricant that lessens much friction along the way.

I must trust that the little bit of love that I sow now will bear many fruits, here in this world and the life to come. – Henri Nouwen

He heals the broken in heart,
and binds up their wounds.
He counts the number of the stars.
He calls them all by their names.
– Psalm 147, WEBBE

How do you move on? You move on slowly, awkwardly, unwillingly. You move on not with your whole heart, but with all the broken pieces of you.

You try to be brave. You listen to what other people say. But no matter how courageous you are, and no matter what words of wisdom you’ve learned, none could ever take away the pain from your heart.

So you live each day not knowing how you’re going to live through the next. Sometimes all you have are hours of survival. Sometimes mere moments of hope.

Gradually, you heal. Not entirely, but in part. Each broken piece being mended. Each painful memory being healed.

Eventually you make it through more and more days. But though you’re able to stand again, it doesn’t mean that you stand without tears in your eyes.

You really don’t know how you even got to where you are. It’s as though you have just let the waves carry your helpless soul.

But you are grateful for each grace. And you pray. And you continue to hope. Ever so awkwardly, you move on.

“When pain is to be borne, a little courage helps more than much knowledge, a little human sympathy more than much courage, and the least tincture of the love of God more than all.” -C.S. Lewis