I Take off the MASK!

Grief and Healing - Download the eBook

If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself. -Saint Augustine

To love Jesus is to know Him and to accept Him as He is, not as we wanted Him to be.

For surely there will be times when we will find it hard to understand everything about Him. We may not always agree with what He says. We may not always understand His ways.

But let such things never discourage us. Let it challenge us instead to know Him more!

Is this not love? To grow in our knowledge of the other from day to day? To let challenges draw us closer instead of drawing us apart? To discover more beautiful things once we overcome what seems to be difficult at the start?

Love Jesus, the real Jesus. Only by knowing Him fully can we Love Him without being afraid!

At this, many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Jesus said therefore to the twelve, “You don’t also want to go away, do you?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life.” – John 6:66-68, WEB

Consider all the past as nothing, and say, like David: Now I begin to love my God. – St Francis de Sales

Do not be weighed down by the past. Let the past teach you. Let it inspire you. Let it make you a wiser and stronger person. But never let the past define who you are and what you can still do.

Unlock the chains that bind you. Set yourself free from all the burdens that keep you from being the person you were meant to be.

Storms come, but so does a season for rebuilding. Problems happen, but so does a chance to let them go. Wounds touch our hearts, but so does a time for healing and moving on.

Arise then and claim the life now given you! You can still dream. You can still love. And you have a God who can help you through and through.

“Do not cling to events of the past
or dwell on what happened long ago.
Watch for the new thing I am going to do.
It is happening already—you can see it now!
I will make a road through the wilderness
and give you streams of water there.
-Isaiah 43:18-19, GNT

Sanctify yourself and you will sanctify society.- St. Francis of Assisi

There are times when we become disheartened as we look at what is happening around us. We hear how the world is losing its faith. We encounter people who make it more and more difficult to believe how the future could still be brighter and happier.

Let us keep our courage however. Though we think we are alone, we are not at all on our own. Though we think we can do so little, God can still do so much as He makes us instruments of His love.

Change can begin from within ourselves. It begins when we refuse to lose hope no matter how dark things seem to be. It begins when we forgive and when we become channels of mercy to those around us.

We may not see now how our little deeds can change the world. But let us trust God. He is the One who multiplies five loaves of bread so it can feed thousands. He is the One who receives every little sacrifice we make so He can bless so many others along the way.

“Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of their enemies, and by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.” -Genesis 22:16-18, NRSVCE

Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from beginning to end. – Hebrews 12:2, GNT

Set not your eyes on your righteousness, it will lead you to pride, and soon you will fall. Set not your eyes on your weaknesses, it will lead you to despair, and you will lose hope. For it is not upon ourselves that we should set our gaze upon. It is not upon our works or our many sins.

Consider the Justice of God. All our righteousness shall fall short when we think of His Holiness. What then can we boast about?

On the other hand, consider God’s Mercy. Shall not our sins be washed away as we repent of them sincerely and seek for God’s Compassion?

Set your eyes upon Him alone for in Him is all purity and mercy and truth. He will lift you up from your weakness. He will guard your heart so you won’t fall.

“It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.” -Saint Augustine

The soul’s true greatness is in loving God and in humbling oneself in His presence, completely forgetting oneself and believing oneself to be nothing; because the Lord is great, but He is well-pleased only with the humble. – St Faustina, Divine Mercy in my Soul

“Blessed are you when people reproach you, persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven.” – Matthew 5:11-12, WEB

Why should I care about what others say? You make me happy, I’m satisfied. Let them tease, let them shout. It doesn’t matter. Such words don’t count. What matters is Your presence now.

You are, O, Lord, my all. For You I surrender all. Let the crowds mock me. Let them judge me. I don’t care. All I care about is who I am before Your Eyes.

You know me through and through, what I can and cannot do. Still You have called me Yours. You pursued me and found me. Without my mask, You loved me. And now my only joy is to love you back!

“Evil draws its power from indecision and concern for what other people think.” – Pope Benedict XVI