Holy Ground

"Yahweh said to him, 'Do not come near; take off your sandals because the place where you are standing is holy ground.' And God continued, 'I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.' Moses hid his face lest his eyes look on God." - Exodus 3:5-6

Respect is something we all want people to have for us. It is said that we have to give it in order to earn it. Unfortunately, we don't see much of it anymore. People cross so many lines and hardly anything is sacred nowadays. Imagine a neighbor you hardly know just barges into your house one day. They demand to be invited for dinner but give you very little courtesy while in your presence. After dinner, they leave and show no gratitude for your attention with them. This is how many of us are with the Lord and how we act when we enter His house, the church.

Some people walk in late. They talk to the people next to them during the homily, or gaze off at something, not paying attention. Many come in chewing gum or not properly dressed. Many of these are also the first to leave before the blessing is even given. Do you not know that the house of the Lord is a sacred place? A holy place? We have lost the meaning of what is sacred and holy. Before the presence of God, the Creator of the Universe, Moses had to take off his shoes because he was in the presence of the Most High! Open your eyes and see how what we experience during the Mass is the mystery of God the Almighty! What you see going on before you is what Jesus Christ Himself taught the apostles to do before the faithful. The priest who gives the Mass has taken the place of Peter, John, James, Andrew and the rest, and is breaking bread with you, just as Jesus did! And God has invited you to the feast! Pay attention! Involve yourself in the works of God!

And besides having respect for holy and sacred ground, have you fully removed your shoes? Moses was a shepherd, his shoes must have been so dirty. There's no way he could have entered holy ground with them on. Are you bringing filth into God's presence? Are you approaching Him with things you know are separating you from Him? He is holy and pure and deserves at least our respect before Him. When God identified Himself to Moses and Moses recognized he was before God, he hid his face from the Lord because immediately Moses knew how small he was and how infinite and holy God is. In the same way, all of us, since we are all sinners, should bow down before the presence of God out of respect for His Name with the reverence He deserves, especially when we enter His sacred house.

Today's Prayer:
My God, in my ignorance I follow my own will and neglect the fact that You are God, my Creator and rob You of the reverence and respect You deserve. Please give me the humility You gave to Moses before You so that I can honor Your Name. In Jesus' Name we pray, amen.

Be Holy

"God has called us to live, not in impurity but in holiness." - 1st Thessalonians 4:7

Up until a couple of months ago, I thought that to be holy I had to be pretty much a nun. I thought holy people were those that lived in monasteries praying all day or those like Mother Theresa that dedicated their lives to helping the poor. They were the saints and the rest of us were poor sinners. I was so wrong. Holiness is a call to try to integrate God into all we do in our every day lives. It doesn't necessarily mean praying 24/7, but acknowledging God in all we do. We can be holy and chaste in a marriage if we honestly give of ourselves in complete love to our partner. We can be holy in our friendships if we serve our friends out of respect and dignity. And we can be holy with ourselves if we take care of our souls, keeping them pure and protected from the things we know can only bring us harm. The bottom line is that we can all be holy if we imitate Jesus who all through His life set an example by the service He gave to others. Holiness is in trying to follow this example. And please know that it's ok if you can't forgive today, as long as you're trying to in Jesus' Name. It's ok if you haven't given up on that addiction today, as long as you keep on asking God for help. It's all about the journey - knowing God is calling us for holiness and trying in all the big and small things to get there one day at a time.

Today's Prayer:
Lord, in Your love for me You have called me to be pure and holy like You. I'm so far from it now, but please look at the desire in my heart and bring me a few steps forward each day. In Your Name we pray, amen.

Filling Yourself with Good

"Brothers and sisters, fill your minds with whatever is truthful, holy, just, pure, lovely and noble." - Phillipians 4:8

Most of us are familiar with the phrase "you reap what you sow," and it definitely has a lot of truth to it. There are things that can poison your minds, hearts, and souls if you allow yourself to be contaminated by them. I have a friend now who let herself slip into a bad situation and now she is hurt and bitter. What she surrounded herself with has brought her down and killed her joy and her heart. God doesn't want this for us and instead, through this verse tells us to keep ourselves surrounded by good. If we want joy and peace in our lives, we need to keep ourselves free of anything that can contaminate us. We need to surround and fill ourselves with whatever is truthful, holy, just, pure, lovely, and noble. Being out in a club one night can be fun, but what truth or purity is in that? What joy can it bring about if there's emptiness the next day. Cutting class one day can be fun, but one can never find truth in that. Or hooking up with someone we're attracted to can be pleasurable a few times, but what nobility is there in that? These things bring harm to your soul when the good that God intends for us brings life. Look for this good, seek it and you will see how it brings more substance to your life.

Today's Prayer:
Lord Jesus, although I do not always see it, help me to seek the pure and good things for my life. Help me to avoid the cheap thrills and the things that are only good for the moment and later bring me harm. Help me see what You want for me and not just what I want. In Your Name we pray, amen.

For All Have Sinned

"Because all have sinned and all fall short of the glory of God." - Romans 3:23

When I think about this verse, I think about Jesus sitting on the ground, playing in the dirt, while telling the crowd, "He who is without sin may cast the first stone." Although it's not mentioned in the bible, historians say that He was actually writing down the sins of some of the people for them to see. The point is that some of us start to feel really righteous about how "holy" we are and this is the opposite of righteousness. In fact, the holier you become, the more humble you become. No one has the right to put anyone down because of their sins. As Saint Paul says here, ALL have sinned and ALL fall short of the glory of God. No one can say they are blameless and if they do, they only seek their own glory. The truth is that we are all very sinful and this is something we have to admit to ourselves. Just as Jesus wrote down the individual sins of the men that wanted to stone the adulterous woman, so God writes our sins in our hearts so that we should never feel boastful or righteous but every day seek to be humble and atone for our sins.

Today's Prayer:
Lord God, forgive me for the times I looked not upon my own sins but those of others. In doing this, I know I was not humble and instead acted like a judge. I recognize that I am a sinner and need Your light to guide me to paths of righteousness. In Your Name we pray, amen.