Endurance, Grace and Strength, Quiet and Listening to God

2 Kinds of Peace – What is True Peace? & the Role of Holy Spirit

2-kinds-of-peace-true-peace

   Peace I leave you, My peace I give you; not as the world gives, do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, nor afraid. – John 14:27

Peace is one of those words that gets tossed around a lot, especially in discernment circles. It’s so simple people think it’s obvious, which means almost nobody actually thinks about it, and then everybody falls for the counterfeit. It’s quite an effective system, if you think about it, this plan of the Enemy. Infiltrate, change definitions, make everybody think they know everything so that they never seek more.

No one can learn anything they think they already know!

We need to shake things up. We need to rediscover words and the power of contemplation, so that meaning can once again touch our souls.

So, what is true peace? Where does it come from? Why do we need it? And, while we’re at it, what is the role of the Holy Spirit? (Hint – It’s HUGE!)

•••
0 comment
Share:
Grace and Strength, Relationship with God

The Role of Religion in the Authentic Christian Life

I almost titled this post, “What’s Religion got to do with it?”, but the other title was better for SEO 🙂 Nevertheless, the question still stands. More and more and more people are dropping by the hour into believing that it it doesn’t have much to do with anything – mostly just “personal preference” on how one acknowledges belief in a higher power… not much else.  That’s why which Religion you join “doesn’t really matter”.

Or does it?

There’s a Facebook post I saw recently – “Those who say religion has all the answers hasn’t tried one of these [picture of a host] with jam and brie”.  As a Catholic, I was mortally horrified by this, of course, but, as a person, I felt some compassion for their cynicism. They’ve been fed the line that ‘Religion has all the answers’, and that, especially Catholicism – as the “Church Jesus founded” and with an “infallible Pope” – should be blindly embraced with all soul, heart, mind, and strength –  and, often, longing as they are for truth, people do.

Grace and Strength, Personal Growth, Relationship with God

5 Essential Practices for a Vibrant Spiritual Life

I was talking to a friend the other day.  “What should I do if I just feel blah about God?”, she asked, “I’m just not growing any more – not motivated, not changing – it’s tempting to just give up on God’s even being real at all. Where is the excitement, the joy, and the passion people say should be part of the spiritual life? Why does “everyone else” seem to find prayer so rewarding while I sit over here at a loss?”

She was asking me different questions but really they all boil down to the same crux of the matter. How does one bring a stagnant spiritual life back to life?

Grace and Strength, Relationship with God

5 Key Sources of Grace – GraceFilled Life Series

Sources of Grace – Christian Life of Grace Series Continued…

In my last post in this series we talked about what Grace really is (and how it has been distorted), and that while it is all around us, much like oxygen, we still need to tap into it ever more fully and more deeply in order to truly use it to its full potential. Just as an athlete learns to breathe, we need to learn how to recognize, and respond to Grace in order to run this race and at the end be able to say with St. Paul,

I have fought the good fight; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith.  – 2 Timothy 4:7-8

123…23