I Take off the MASK!

Grief and Healing - Download the eBook

“Each of us has a soul, but we forget to value it. We don’t remember that we are creatures made in the image of God. We don’t understand the great secrets hidden inside of us.” – St. Teresa of Avila

We are loved… so much and so deeply. Our problem is that we don’t know and we seek this love constantly from those who could never give it to us.

If we only knew, our lives would never be the same again. If we only understood, we’d be so happy we’d think this place called earth is already heaven itself. For how could it not be heaven?

Heaven is knowing that you are valued and cared for. That someone knows you just as you are and loves you even more because it is so.

It is knowing that you are ever present in someone else’s thought. Day and night you are thought of, thought of with so much sweetness and affection.

You are beautiful in someone else’s eyes. You may not know it, but it doesn’t change the truth about how much you are loved.

“For your Maker is your husband; the Lord of Hosts is his name.” – Isaiah 54:5, WEBME

I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse: therefore choose life, that you may live, you and your seed… – Deuteronomy 30:19, WEB

You can only blame others to a certain extent. There comes a point in time when whatever happens next no longer depends upon the hands of other people. What happens next is up to you.

There comes a time when you must take charge of your own life. Do what you think is right. Do all that you can to be happy and to be a channel of happiness around you.

God has given you so much. God gave you the dignity to be just like Him!

Use everything in your power to make a difference, to be the change you wish to see. Your life is your decision. You decide daily what your life becomes.

“If we do not risk anything for God we will never do anything great for Him.” – St. Louis de Montfort

Holiness is not merely refraining from doing evil; holiness is seeking, dreaming, acting, taking every chance we see to do what is good.

We cannot always seek safety, for in fearing too much, the things we fear the most can knock at our doors and find us unprepared.

We must learn to take wise risks so we may accomplish great things, so that light may have a chance to seek those in darkness, and that love may have an opportunity to be heard where it is needed most.

Let us not be afraid. If the Lord is with us, who can be against us? For it is not by our own power that we will succeed, it is by God’s grace that victory is already ours to claim.

Therefore he says, “Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” Therefore watch carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. – Ephesians 5:14-16, WEB

“Never does the human soul appear so strong as when it foregoes revenge and dares to forgive an injury” – Edwin Hubbel Chapin

Whenever we see someone being hurt and oppressed, there is a desire we feel within us to see that justice is done and that the oppressor gets what he or she deserves. We have an innate sense of fairness and we don’t want evil to have the final say.

However, when the one oppressed is able to arise and seek vengeance, there is a certain discomfort at seeing the victim become the oppressor. We are happy to see justice, yet is this really the justice we seek? Is this what the victim ought to become?

While it is true that our hearts want to seek justice, it is also quite true that we often fail to get it in its full substance if we take it upon our own hands. We are weak and vulnerable, and it is only God who can judge and execute His wrath without causing further evil.

It is very difficicult, but we must learn to let go to God what we cannot do on our own. We must trust Him to be just or else we may only fall into our own pain and ruin.

Revenge is mine, and I will repay them in due time… the day of destruction is at hand, and the time makes haste to come. – Deuteronomy 32:35, DRB

We can be happy and sad at the same time. But as Christians, our joy should always be greater than our grief. – Jocelyn Soriano

We can find a lot of reasons to be sorrowful. As we see the plight of our suffering neighbors and as we witness evil and sin committed each day, it is but natural to grieve and to feel pain. Even our Lord suffered on the cross, the darkest and most terrible suffering!

Yet even then, He did not lose hope. Even then, His joy was not lost. For it is a joy that comes from faith, a joy that comes from love.

May no one take away the joy we have in our risen Savior, in the God who gave everything to save us.

Our joy is greater! It is far greater than any sadness or brokenness we may have in this life.

For we may have pain, but we shall be healed. We may hunger, but we shall be filled with heaven’s bread. Darkness is no match for God’s light. Death is nothing compared to eternal life!

Let no wound therefore bring you more sorrow than it should. Offer every tear to Him who knows your pain, to Him who has been pierced and cruficifed. It is in His wounds that we discover the greatness of His love.

“I see Him as the King of Joy… for on His Head are many crowns, and the nailprints in His hands and feet are the scars of a great victory. Before Him all my sorrow is melting away into deathless love and gladness, I give myself to Him forever.” – Streams in the Desert

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an incorruptible and undefiled inheritance that doesn’t fade away, reserved in Heaven for you… Wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved in various trials… – 1 Peter 1:3-4,6, WEB