Isaiah 6: Cross of the Believer

I woke very early today doing what I do many times on such occasions asking God to help me see more clearly what I’m missing or perhaps what I should have done a better job with. Then Immediately I saw your work here and these excerpts jumped off the screen at me saying please repeat me; these are so very important and cannot be stressed enough as they pertain to right now in this present time every moment going forward! This Article with its most poignant and timely words of truth and fact could not have come at a better moment as I see great significance in all of these words and photo graphics!

“Until cities lie waste
without inhabitant,
and houses without people,
and the land is utterly desolate;
until the Lord sends everyone far away,
and vast is the emptiness in the midst of the land.”

“People hardened towards the Lord and the spoken word of God.”

“It would be the collapse of a nation, ignoring all the warnings of what was coming and why. Only a time of complete devastation would wake up the nation to the reality of God, and the necessity to repent and turn to the Lord.”

Self-interested. This is what I see going on rampantly all around us!

“To Be One Eyed, Meaning To Be Highly Intoxicated Where A Person Has To Shut One Eye To Get A Proper Visual Of His Or Her Surroundings”

One Eyed Jack
“A person who shows the good side of themselves, while hiding the other side of themselves as being incredibly repulsive, insincere, malicious, and untrustworthy.” definitions.net

“Following Jesus means full obedience and the giving up of all other plans that a person might prefer to make for themselves.”

“Then [Jesus] said to them all, “If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it.” Luke 9:23-24

“Those who do not shoulder their own cross and follow behind Jesus cannot be considered as His disciple. The cross is necessary, not optional, for every believer.”

“The cross is personal; no one can pick it up and carry it for you or me.
Isaiah was the only person in the room when God asked, “Who will go?”

“A person must take up their cross willingly, because of a love for Jesus and a desire to share in His life. Jesus said “If you would come after me.” And God asked Isaiah, “Who will go?”

“The cross is meant to kill all self centered desires or ambition. You and I can make that decision once and for all, but the process is painful and can take a long time. Still, Jesus says you and I must die to self here on earth if we want to bear eternal fruit.”

“The Lord brings us into situations where displaying God’s character is going to come at great personal cost.”
“Suffering is part of earth’s experience; nobody gets away from the curses sin brought into the world.”

“But the cross is a particular kind of suffering. The cross comes from choosing God’s will even when it will mean suffering.
• Showing love to a person who is being difficult for you.
• Being gracious and kind.
• Repaying angry words with Spirit filled words.”

“Every time you and I are good to someone who was not good to us, that cost is our cross.”

“Each time you and I shoulder our cross and obey in love, God will increase our love and deepen our character. This is what pleases the Lord and blesses God.”

“Jesus came into His glory on the cross, and after His resurrection was exalted. The cross promises resurrection and glory. All those who are willing to lose their lives for Jesus’s sake will find their lives have been saved. One day we will come after Christ and be with Him in His exaltation.”

Here Dismas who died on his cross next to Jesus but while truly loving and accepting Him as the Savior came to mind and the saints along with the martyrs; one in particular which I wrote about and even mentioned yesterday to others who I so admire as a young beautiful woman who thought of herself as physically marred or unappealing giving up any idea or suggestion of marriage and a normal conventional life, and thus she saw readily the ultimate truth which was and is most important which is to love Jesus Christ and follow him. This woman who thought herself so unappealing but is instead to me the opposite and if I had been there in her time would see her as she truly is, so beautiful inside and the outside because the true beauty is on the inside emanating from the soul; making that person radiantly beautiful in my heart. The woman in question is, of course, St. Kateri Tekakwitha. “Briefly, she was a Native American who lived in modern-day New York in the 1600s. Her mother, a Catholic Algonquin, had been kidnapped by, and subsequently adopted into, the local Mohawk tribe. There she married the chief, and the two combined to bring Kateri into the world.” catholicexchange.com

etsy.com

“St. Kateri Tekakwitha is the patron saint of the environment, the loss of parents, people in exile, people ridiculed for their piety, and World Youth Day. Religious Medal of St. Kateri Tekakwitha St. Kateri Tekakwitha in Art. Images of St. Kateri Tekakwitha depict her as a young Native American woman, dressed in traditional costume of her tribe.” catholicsaintmedals.com

The Following location and persons mentioned have great personal significance to me they being those that North American Martyrs Day is named for and it was the day which I was attacked by powers or principalities altering my life both physically and career wise on all levels and the demarcation point when my life took its biggest turn; one of battle and learning much more about what it means “to serve God and being humbled!” I learned how grandmother telling me as a boy was so wise and loving knowing that her true love was Jesus and therefore our Father in heaven above all of this life even family, stating to me that “this life is nothing!”

She would explain; “to take care, because it is the heavenly kingdom we must seek.”

“This is an old Mohawk blessing. Pronounced She:kon (Say go) Skennon ko:wa (Skennin go wah), it means Hello, Great Peace be with you!”

The River where Kateri was Baptized and spent much of her life and the exact location where Jogues, Jean de Brébeuf, “St. Isaac Jogues,” along with six other missionaries were martyred is what is now called the St. Lawrence River in New York into which their bludgeoned bodies were tossed. For me an interesting connection is how Kateri was canonized in 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI and 2012 was the beginning of my personal journey or struggle with the aftermath of the attack/injury of October 19, 2011on North American Martyr Day, and how a great American doctor a truly blessed instrument of God was there to help me during my fall through many years of having to fight the ensuing illness and the system for my own survival; I’m absolutely positive to serve God’s purpose and plan. And how she with her husband after my recovery moved to Canada within a short distance of this region where much of Saint Kateri’s life unfolded so long ago. The doctor was only there within my area like an angel at the right time, an instrument of God’s, when I most needed her to be; which meant the world to my recover and successful perseverance!

“Kateri was an Algonquin-Mohawk maiden born around 1656 in Ossernenon (Auriesville, New York) – the site on which three of the eight North American Martyrs (Isaac Jogues, Rene Goupil and John LaLande) lost their lives. She was the daughter of a Mohawk chief and Tagaskouita, a Catholic Algonquin woman, who had been captured and adopted into the tribe. Kateri’s mother had been baptized and educated by near what is now Montreal, Canada. Kateri has one sibling, a younger brother.

When she was around 4 years old, her family succumbed to the smallpox epidemic. Kateri suffered smallpox, which left her face scarred and her eyesight impaired. Both of her parents and her baby brother died from the scourge. Alone in the world, Kateri was adopted by her father’s sister and her husband, another Mohawk chief. Soon after, the smallpox survivors of Ossernenon left the decimated village and built a new one a mile or two west along the southern bank of the Mohawk River. They called it Caughnwaga, or At the Wild Water in Mohawk.

Conflict over the fur trade led to an attack by the French, who drove the Mohawk from their homes and burned down all three villages in the region. Left with nothing, the Mohawks were forced into a peace treaty with the French, a condition of which as to accept Jesuit missionaries into their villages. In time, many of the Mohawks were converted and came to love the Catholic faith. They rebuilt Caughnwaga on the north bank of the river.

At age 19, she converted to Catholicism, was baptized and renamed Kateri (Mohawk for Catherine) in honor of St. Catherine of Sienna. Tekakwitha is the name given to her by her tribe and it means, “she who bumps into things.” Kateri took a vow of virginity and kept it faithfully. The persecution continued and after six months and under the advice of the Jesuits, Kateri went to live in the Christian Mohawk village of Kahnawake, located south of Montreal on the St. Lawrence River. She stayed there the remaining two years of her life, all the while practicing harsh penance and self-mortification for love of Jesus. This caused her health to fail, and she died at the age of 23 or 24.

Witness’s say that minutes after her death, Kateri’s scars disappeared and she became radiant and beautiful. There are reports of her appearing to three different individuals in the weeks following her death. In one instance, Kateri appeared kneeling and holding a wooden cross that shone like the sun. In another, a knock on the wall awakened a sleeping woman. She heard Kateri’s voice asking if she was awake and then Kateri said, “I’ve come to say goodbye; I’m on my way to heaven.”

Accounts of the Jesuits show Kateri to have been a modest girl who avoided social gatherings. She covered her head with a blanket to hide the smallpox scars. She became skilled at traditional women’s arts such as making clothing and belts from animal skins, weaving mats and baskets from reeds and grasses, cooking dishes made from game, crops and gathered produce. She participated in the seasonal planting of the women and the weeding of the gardens as they grew. Although frequently prodded by relatives, she refused even to consider marriage. Her gravestone reads, “The fairest flower that ever bloomed among red men.”

The place where Kateri lived most of her life – Caughnawaga – was marked in 1938. The village itself was discovered in 1950 by Father Thomas Grassman, a Conventual Franciscan and founder of the shrine. Between then and 1957, the Conventual Franciscans and numerous volunteers excavated the site. Today it’s the only completely excavated Iroquois village in the United States.

Visitors can view the outlines of the village’s 12 longhouses and stockade. Nearby is “Kateri’s Spring” from where the water for her baptism was drawn. Many have claimed cures through the waters of that spring, which still flows. The museum and chapel are housed in a 200-year old barn renovated by Father Grassman in 1938. The upper floor holds a replica of the chapel of St. Peter in which Kateri was baptized. The lower floor contains an impressive museum with a display of Native American artifacts and particularly ones of the Iroquois nation. The property became a shrine in 1980 after Kateri was called Blessed by Pope John Paul II and allowed to be officially venerated. She was canonized in 2012.” ncregister.com

This link will bring you to a site where a very good accounting can be found that will I’m sure allow you a glimpse into the actual life and times of Saint Kateri.

https://www.catholicregister.org/features/item/15266-st-kateri-tekakwitha-a-life-of-faith

To me these many connections are all ordained and absolutely parts to the big plan as our Father in heaven divinely intervenes and allows many events or circumstances to unfold in order that His will can be done or carried out by His faithful! I can see how Saint Kateri suffered with a continuous physical affliction from the aftermath of having contracted and surviving the smallpox epidemic of her time; and how I after this attack/injury had struggled with a very difficult aftermath and now even a physical manifestation I deal with all shows me clearly that perseverance is the key to our time on earth and to never quit or allow the harsh realities of this sad, sinful fallen world to get in the way of our mission, which is to Love and Serve our Father in Heaven! If we do that to the best of our abilities then there is nothing to fear or be sad about at all.

People argue and fight each other claiming superiority or some special privileges over one another since the dawn of the human race, but, in actuality we are all part of the Greatest Story Ever Told and the Master Potter’s Plan. We should be humbled and ask, “What can I do for you Lord today; how can I better serve You and not the folly or foolishness of this conflicted confused world of sin which is fallen from on high?”

I must add here that yesterday just before sunset I was outside with my dog and immediately saw that a Jack Rabbit was lying in the road.  I ran to it and saw that it was crushed and sadly it was a very special one that I’ve known for at least a few years that had one eye missing and now I saw its only eye pushed out of its socket from the crushing injury it received by a vehicle that I’m sure the driver was as in most cases driving far too fast for the conditions and even if the rabbit was seen the driver didn’t care or wouldn’t be able to stop quickly enough to avoid killing it. I was extremely upset and crushed inside thinking how I had watched out for this rabbit over the years being sure to leave it various seeds in the predawn hours during the difficult months when the pickings are slim and I would sometimes go out to do that and while I began to leave the seeds I would suddenly see the rabbit by my side calmly watching and happy that I was there!  I was very upset and couldn’t sleep well all the early night hours and I did pray as well ponder all of this even thinking about One Eyed Jacks in a deck of cards and how there was a good heart wrenching old movie I had just watched recently which I have in my collection of older Classics named “One Eyed Jacks.”

Another significant point here to mention is after that terrible upset last evening I was stirred up of course and wanted to watch some film to allow myself some time and space to decompress in a sense but nothing that crossed my mind as great films to watch seemed worth it and I was rejecting all of them as not worth bothering to watch but then looking at my DVD collection I realized I had to watch an old News-Reel type documentary, “War in the Pacific,” a compilation of  black and white actual war recordings with narration. I watched and as I did I thought so poignantly thinking like never before what a crazy messed up human race with all of this history over the millennia of wars and killing each other and it will never end as long as people are on this earth living in this fallen state and its all falling away more obviously than ever before!

But then as I saw time had passed and my mind was more relaxed and seeking a clear perspective the documentary was reaching the End and it got into the fact of how Nuclear Bombs had been developed during WWII and for the first time the human race could destroy the planet in years to come and then it became so clear that this is what is coming like a freight train running out of control down a mountain with all of its inertia and no brakes powerful enough to stop the inevitable destruction that will ensue and result from all of this madness and sinful “Ways of The World” greed, lust for power and a world riddled with corruption; while human beings are becoming more sinister and inhuman by the day; both figuratively and literally! We are on the actual precipice and a hair trigger away from total annihilation yet people like in Noah’s time of the Great Flood are acting like they have all the time in the world and are so wrapped up in triviality or even stupidity and many don’t give a rats ass what happens, being so pagan or totally lost; which will damn so many to hell when their judgment before God Almighty comes.

Multitudes lie in a false sense of security by a massive global delusion of modernism and secular High Tech nonsense of Trust the Science or in other words; men! They think things will continue on this way indefinitely and don’t see the forest for the trees of how all world history has been building up to a crescendo and we are now in that cusp of the Great Crescendo! There really isn’t much time left yet people even play their games or live like heathens making sure they do their drinking and doing their drugs which are not always the chemical kind; there are many escapes from Reality available, a Pandora’s Box of them nowadays in these Final Days; because just like the Jack Rabbit many are going to be taken by surprise and crushed like little scared rabbits by the Father of all lies, as he is possessing many persons now in high and low positions or stations in this earthly realm, and has all of his demons running loose upon the earth causing utter havoc which will get worse!

There are still so many that hear a man like me speak so clearly with conviction about these things and still with all there is to see that corroborates what I say; they look at me and say, whatever or you don’t know anything, while of course there are those that actually do see it and say so what, who cares!  So many people are in denial and are too intoxicated by the Ways of The World to face reality head-on if at all.  That old documentary I watched I realized “just now” when looking at the DVD case was put together back in 2011, when all of my massive trials and turmoil began in earnest.  And the stand alone powerful point in that whole couple of hours was that now since back in the 1940’s at the close of WWII when Hiroshima and Nagasaki were obliterated by nuclear bombs, that the next World War would and will be the End of this world as we now know it; so this says clearly to me that Jesus is on the way now; as in make sure you are “washing your robes” daily!  Amen.

God bless you.

Shalom

Lawrence Morra  III