I was quite agitated and even angry with some people that called themselves Born Again who viciously attacked this dear Word Press Blogging friend about her article in which she described her practice of doing the Catholic Rosary, and one of them a man even saying she will be damned to hell, to which I say those individuals are “NO” Christians but a synagogue of Satan, and they will be damned for sure as I know through all my life experience and wisdom gained through it, that they are WRONG!  No so called Christian would do such an attack upon another Christian but they remind me of what the Radical Islamist’s do within their own religion and to others; could it be these attackers, that behave as wolves in sheep’s clothing online are not so Christian as they profess to be?

This article is dedicated to that friend for her devotion to Jesus Christ and indeed perfect plan, which He, God the Father brought to humanity through the Blessed Virgin Mary the Mother of God, Jesus Christ our Savior, through “The Immaculate Conception!”  Keep the faith, and do the Rosary dear Friend; the world needs so many more people like you to save our souls through Jesus Christ, by devotional faith, prayer and advocacy supplication in humility, using all of his instruments to increase devotion and obedience in order to strengthen our faith!.  I say this, that whatever praying you offer up to God the Father through Jesus Christ from your deepest heart He will NEVER reject, no not ever, for eternity!  Amen.

The Imitation of Christ

The Imitation of Christ is a Christian devotional book by Thomas à Kempis, first composed in Latin ca. 1418–1427. It is a handbook for spiritual life arising from the Devotio Moderna movement, of which Kempis was a member.

The Imitation of Christ (De Imitatione Christi), first published in 1418 by the German-Dutch monk and scribe, Thomas Hemerken of Kempen, better known as Thomas à Kempis (1380 – 25 July 1471).

“If God were our one and only desire we would not be so easily upset when our opinions do not find outside acceptance.” ― Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ

A quotation of what a Good Reads follower had said about this magnificent book!  “This book is going to forever be in either of two places in my home; my coffee table or my bedside. Reading this book this morning was like drinking deep of Christ’s love. Thomas a Kempis wrote this devotion in such a way to fan the flame in our soul with beautiful gentle words.”

Yesterday a true believer and gentleman who had been just as dismayed by this attack upon the Blogger, wrote to me a very important comment that I’m quoting a piece of here in my response to his letter that was so poignant and an actual God Sent, that I know God is working this all out by His will through His faithful.  Amen.

I found your words to be quite strikingly profound and they immediately registered as important to ponder or meditate on which turned out to be accurate.  As the evening went on I grew much more tired and had to retire, but then sleeping only a few hours I woke with a clear sense of mission and decided I needed to see what you had written earlier again; then things started to happen and my thoughts crystallized and these specific words reminded me of something, here when you said, “the devil is defeated and on a short leash, and the only evil that can befall me is that which God has ordained to help conform me to the image of Christ and accomplish His purposes.  I thank God for His Word in which I read that Christ said things such as these would happen.”

I know now my friend that what you say here is pointing out a huge part or Truth of what is and has been going on with everything that happened over the last several years in my own life and even this tragic display by so called Christians on the attack!  These words of yours reminded me of a small pocket book version of “My Imitation of Christ,” which a man I knew from back when I had that government job I mentioned to you previously gave to me not very long before the nefarious inspired major injury calamity happened, and this man had studied in seminary to become a priest, which he ultimately found wasn’t going to be his own personal destination in serving the Lord.  If he had become an ordained priest I would never have met him, which is a fact.  An interesting footnote here is that on the first text page or Foreword at the bottom of the page it says, “Feast of Our Lady March 25 1954.”  But I hadn’t looked at this book in some years and you brought my attention to it by your words and I want to read a short passage from it that is located at the beginning.  This was clearly a message for me to share with my friend and any of you who will see and hear!  “But he who would fully and feelingly understand the words of Christ must study to make his whole life conformable to that of Christ.  What doth it avail thee to discourse profoundly of the Trinity if thou be void of humility, and consequently, displeasing to the Trinity?  In truth sublime words not make a man holy and just: but a virtuous life maketh him dear to God.” “Vanity of vanities and all is vanity.” Eccles 1. 2.  “Except to love God and serve Him alone.  This is the highest wisdom, by despising the world to tend to heavenly kingdoms.”

Often remember that proverb: “the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor is the ear filled with hearing.”  Eccles 1. 8.

“Study, therefore, to withdraw thy heart from the love of visible things and to turn thyself to things invisible.” My Imitation of Christ.

I skipped a few sentences but the focus of these words for me is that which you mentioned how our time is short here!   Think of that, we don’t live long really at all here.  And tragedy or an accident could befall anyone at any time and this is over in a flash.  When we are younger sure we tend to not think of such things because we feel brash and full of promise but even then it can be over in a heartbeat.  So, it really is so  vitally imperative that any person hopefully learn that these words I just typed here are ideas that focus on a key directive that has been given to us and again by what you said earlier and now these words clearly tell us, “that serving and loving God” is all that matters my friend.

Many dots are being connected all the time; God gives us all of the dots and we are supposed to connect them.  In so doing we demonstrate our faithful heart desire to follow Him, and that we put Him front and center, saying we are here Lord to Love and Serve You.

Here is when I realized I must share a couple of things with you that are very personal.  I know from reviewing my life from childhood to now, that I was always a good heart and wanting to give love to others, but wanting and needing it is also built in.  As I grew up I had my ups and downs with that; feeling at times really appreciated and loved and yet other times feeling alone, especially when my parents had marital difficulty; reacting as many children do in those situations with a sense of guilt and inferiority.  Life itself damages us and how we react to that is key in whether we move forward growing stronger in spite of the hardships or we decline and give into the easy way out of that pain and perhaps drink or do drugs as an attempt to escape pain and fear or guilt and sorrow, but continuing that way to slip deeper into the despair and the eventual ruin that awaits anyone who will be so lost or foolish.  We who are faithful know the only way that great wound or need can be completely filled, that great unstoppable need; is by God Himself.  This deep human need is why so many of us turn to sin or habitual activities to quell that emptiness and inner conflict, to quench the desire to be embraced and loved unceasingly, because that is what this life is all about, LOVE.  God created all of this and us in particular out of endless LOVE.  God  loved us so much that He gave His only begotten not made Son as the sacrificial “Lamb of God” to take away all sin and suffering out of His pure, eternal, absolute LOVE!  But we mere broken humans can’t bring it to absolute fruition while here on earth and so we either develop a good life the best we can while following Jesus counting on Him to bring us to the things that we need and protect us from those that will harm us along the way; to then deliver us unto everlasting PEACE!  Some people strike a pretty good balance while others are off the rails their entire lives, corrupted, broken and sinful even to the end; then there are those most blessed persons who walk with the saints and are doing God’s will as fully and selflessly as is humanly possible and even beyond by miracles!

I was talking with a relative many years ago who said we should listen to our parents and in his case he said especially his father;  to which I replied we do, then he snapped back at me, “no, no that isn’t what I mean, I mean everything!”  He went on to explain how he had not listened and was rebellious thinking he knew better than his father, saying how it’s not just about what you feel like listening to or accepting, and then not the rest,  it’s all.  I told him I get it now, that the one person you know would never screw you over or steer you wrong his father who had fought in War and been all around knowing so much about life and its meaning a very upright and as righteous a man as they ever come, straight as an arrow kind of man; you had better listen and do it so you don’t learn the hard way, and then it’s too late!  That relative had gone through a life of hell suffering I’m sure like none of us would wish on our worst enemies.  He was in poor health from it all and actually was going to pass away even though we all had no idea at that point it would be so soon, we assumed because he had pulled through so much for so many years, even riding the rails; it was a foregone conclusion he was a bull, and would not be stopped!  He was, and it came sudden; being truly a bull, but being stopped when God said no more, without much time to do much of any value other than to ask God to save His soul which is the most important thing we can ask of God for another and then go through family grief and mourning.   The flip side is he laid down his life for his friends, which Jesus told us is the best thing we can ever do to show true love for each other; sacrifice all for the blessings of others.  His devoted loving mother was the only one that was with him when he died and she had ceaselessly supported him and watched after him in so many ways as he deteriorated as a human, good faithful man and son; a Martyr for God, his life being an instrument of God!  Perhaps I will write a very long story telling all about him sometime if it is God’s will because it would be a tear jerking heart moving and faith inspiring journey to read about.  Just a few days before God took him and he passed, I had a brief conversation with him in which he said to me, “we are here to love and serve God.”

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13

For now I’m sharing with you that which never was done until now, with anyone outside of the family tree which is a big family in a sense being both a large immediate kindred, while also a brother of humanity; the eulogy I wrote in a few minutes the morning I was getting ready to head out to his funeral and Catholic Mass beforehand!  After I read it the priest got back to the podium and said; “these words Lawrence read to us were inspired by God.”  He a most wonderful human being before he passed on told me, “with God all things are possible.” Amen.

IN MEMORY OF YOU Our “Brother in Christ”

Life can sometimes seem confusing, and we all lose our way or fall short in some way, shape or form throughout the course of our lifetime.  All of us make mistakes, but have a chance to regain our balance and learn from the experience a valuable lesson of life and then move on. While other unfortunate individuals never get a second chance to get back on the path of their life, continuing to slip into a life of despair.  This ultimately leads to an ever increasing hardship and burden that those individuals must carry for the rest of their lives on earth.  But I believe that there is the Great intelligence and Wisdom beyond this temporary life as mere mortals, that has a plan and knows the reasons why these things must go the way they do.  Perhaps like the tempering of steel, some people must stay in the heat of the flame suffering longer than others, while that person’s inner character and makeup is altered and shaped into a newer and stronger form of what the original once was.  And if a person’s soul suffers the sustained pain of a hard life while others seem to have more advantage and opportunity to be content and happy while here on earth, then consider that those who suffer the most may be earning wings to be a special guardian or pilot for the rest of us.  And in this vein, I do believe our dearly departed brother in Christ earned his wings.

Brother in Christ Jesus,

Lawrence

The Imitation of Christ

The Imitation of Christ by Thomas Kempis has for five centuries been the most popular spiritual book second only to the Sacred Scriptures of the Bible. The edition that I quote from here is by the “Confraternity of the Precious Blood.”  The book illustrates clearly the basic fundamental principles of the Christian Spiritual Life which brings our attention to the additional point from the whole Truth of how the Precious Blood of Jesus that was  spilled when he was being chastised in the dungeon for our sins so that we all may live; was wiped up by the loving motherly hands from the ground where it was spilled by the mother of Jesus, Mary, thus completing full circle her Blessed connection to the Son she bore immaculately to humanity by God’s absolute power and plan, as she is a special part of His plan “The Immaculate Conception,”  without which the “New and Everlasting Covenant” or “Salvation” could not have been brought into humanity and “her being hallowed” above all the saints in order to carry God into this human life; that made her the “Mother of the Church,” Jesus’s Church by Him becoming a perfect man through her most blessed womb, the only mother who carried in her womb God Almighty, as the man Jesus Christ the Savior and Redeemer, to save our souls from eternal damnation or separation from God and all that is good; how she is in that loop, connected with Him the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in this most special way forever and ever, Amen.

I quote from the book here; “follow Christ Who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. As we study its contents we are convinced that without that Way there is no going, without that Truth there is no knowing, without that Life there is no real living.”

 

Brother in Christ Jesus,

Lawrence Morra