I remember well the opening minute of the program called 'Wide World of Sports" which aired in the 1970's. It showed various random video clips of athletes successes and failures. As the announcer introduced the show, he summarized it all with the phrase - 'The Thrill of Victory, and the Agony of Defeat'. For me, this one statement tells a lot about human nature. No human in their right mind desires defeat. Defeat sickens the stomach of the loser, yet, we constantly put ourselves in the position of potential defeat. Why is this? I think the answer lies in the first half on the above statement - The Thrill of Victory.
I have been a Vancouver Canucks fan since the 1970's which means I have mostly experienced agonizing defeat. Oh yes there has been the occasional thrill of Victory(the 1982 and 1994 cup runs), but not the ultimate thrill of actually winning the Stanley Cup. Why do I, like the many hundreds of thousands of Canucks fans around the province of B.C. put themselves through this agony every year. Perhaps the The Thrill of Victory can help us to answer this.
Last night, as I watched the Canucks life almost slip away, the agony was intense, but then, in the blink of an eye, when Alex Burrows ended the game and series with his amazing overtime goal, the thrill of victory washed over me and all the Canuck faithful. There is nothing like this experience. It made all the agony worth it. In fact, it was the agony that made the thrill so great.
Most things in life are like that. If something is hard, then it is probably worth doing. Living out our catholic faith the way our Lord intended us to live it out is hard. There is much agony and even many defeats, but the Thrill of Victory that awaits us when we meet him, will infinitely surpass anything we can experience here on Earth, even beating the Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Black Hawks in overtime of game seven.
Hey Canuck fans, try and imagine what awaits us. The victory last night gave me a taste but I can't even come close to imagining it. One thing that is for sure, I do know that I want it.
Our Lady of Victory, Pray for us.
Wednesday 27 April 2011
Monday 18 April 2011
I am no Pentecostal!
So why Our Lady Of Sorrows? Well let me begin by saying that it is rare for me to have an emotional reaction in Spiritual matters. My brain prefers to be in charge over my heart, and so things have to be logical and clear for me to understand and accept. Faith and reason as some might say. And of course, the Gospel is reasonable so with eyes of faith I can see and believe, no problem.
If you've ever been to a pentecostal type revival meeting or even a charismatic Catholic conference (Pentecostal want-to-be's by all appearances), it does seem like the goal is to get everyone emotional, at which point you have broken down the walls that prevent many from accepting the gospel of Jesus Christ. I myself have been to a couple such rallies, and no matter how hard I tried to get caught up in the turbulence of 'spirit slayings', I just could not get there. For me, it served the opposite purpose, I closed up even more. No way was I letting some 'wacko' preacher move my emotions. The Gospel was logical enough for me without all the emotions, so I thought.
Even as frigid as I am with my responses to the Gospel, you'd think a solid meditation on the Passion of Christ, just seeing the suffering he endured, would move me. Truth be told, even though I believe, my emotions for the most part remain unmoved.
Years ago, early in my reversion/conversion to the Catholic faith, I was introduced to Mary, the virgin Mother of the Saviour. Logic told me that if Holy Mother Church highly recommended her children to have deep devotion to the blessed Mother, I should at least try her out. I took up praying the Rosary and some remarkable things happened to me. I will tell you about a couple of them.
One evening, my wife and I were praying the Glorious mysteries and I dropped into what I might call a deep contemplation, and particularly on the Coronation Of Mary. A vision manifested itself in my mind and I could see Mary, fully robed and jeweled and crowned as glorious as a queen could be, standing next to her son Jesus, who was Christ the King, seated on his throne. Jesus was smiling with the most loving eyes, and Mary was directing me to her Son and calling to me, her words "welcome Albert." She was the most beautiful creature I could have ever imagined. I can still recall the scene to this day. Mary was welcoming me to her Son, wanting to share Him with me. I was moved to tears. Aha, an unsolicited emotional response to the Gospel.
Jump ahead several years, I was at Adoration, praying the stations of the cross and meditating on the different stations of Jesus agony, for the most part unmoved until I got to the thirteenth station where the image depicts Jesus being laid in the arms of his sorrowful mother. I paused at the thought of this saintly mother having undergone the agony of watching the passion of her innocent Son, the God Man, the one who created all things, even me, and I once again was moved to tears. Another unsolicited emotional response. Mary is the handmaid that leads me to Jesus. The Church tells us that this is what Mary does for us. I entered into her sorrow so that I could be in relationship with her Son, my Saviour. And so, in this time of Lent. I dedicate this Blog to Mary, to whom I owe so much of my spiritual growth, my coming into relationship with the one Lord Jesus Christ.
Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for us.
If you've ever been to a pentecostal type revival meeting or even a charismatic Catholic conference (Pentecostal want-to-be's by all appearances), it does seem like the goal is to get everyone emotional, at which point you have broken down the walls that prevent many from accepting the gospel of Jesus Christ. I myself have been to a couple such rallies, and no matter how hard I tried to get caught up in the turbulence of 'spirit slayings', I just could not get there. For me, it served the opposite purpose, I closed up even more. No way was I letting some 'wacko' preacher move my emotions. The Gospel was logical enough for me without all the emotions, so I thought.
Even as frigid as I am with my responses to the Gospel, you'd think a solid meditation on the Passion of Christ, just seeing the suffering he endured, would move me. Truth be told, even though I believe, my emotions for the most part remain unmoved.
Years ago, early in my reversion/conversion to the Catholic faith, I was introduced to Mary, the virgin Mother of the Saviour. Logic told me that if Holy Mother Church highly recommended her children to have deep devotion to the blessed Mother, I should at least try her out. I took up praying the Rosary and some remarkable things happened to me. I will tell you about a couple of them.
One evening, my wife and I were praying the Glorious mysteries and I dropped into what I might call a deep contemplation, and particularly on the Coronation Of Mary. A vision manifested itself in my mind and I could see Mary, fully robed and jeweled and crowned as glorious as a queen could be, standing next to her son Jesus, who was Christ the King, seated on his throne. Jesus was smiling with the most loving eyes, and Mary was directing me to her Son and calling to me, her words "welcome Albert." She was the most beautiful creature I could have ever imagined. I can still recall the scene to this day. Mary was welcoming me to her Son, wanting to share Him with me. I was moved to tears. Aha, an unsolicited emotional response to the Gospel.
Jump ahead several years, I was at Adoration, praying the stations of the cross and meditating on the different stations of Jesus agony, for the most part unmoved until I got to the thirteenth station where the image depicts Jesus being laid in the arms of his sorrowful mother. I paused at the thought of this saintly mother having undergone the agony of watching the passion of her innocent Son, the God Man, the one who created all things, even me, and I once again was moved to tears. Another unsolicited emotional response. Mary is the handmaid that leads me to Jesus. The Church tells us that this is what Mary does for us. I entered into her sorrow so that I could be in relationship with her Son, my Saviour. And so, in this time of Lent. I dedicate this Blog to Mary, to whom I owe so much of my spiritual growth, my coming into relationship with the one Lord Jesus Christ.
Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for us.
Thursday 14 April 2011
Practicing Mammal put me up to this
My wife loves blogging so much, it troubled her that I was missing out on so much fun, and so she thought I should blog and so she got me going by setting up this Blog page and well, here I am, Blogging, I think.
What would I possibly write about and where would I find the time to do it I asked myself. I am not a process oriented person and so writing does not do for me what it does for her but I must say, I am a results oriented person and so I look forward to the end of this so I can click on the 'PUBLISH POST' icon. That is soooo satisfying. I suspect the 'NEW POST' icon does the same for her.
Hey, this has been kind of fun afterall but I am getting anxious to click that PB button so I will have to cut this short but first:
You will notice the background image I have chosen is "Our Lady Of Sorrows". There is a good reason for this and you will have to wait until my next Post to find out.
Thanks for reading.
What would I possibly write about and where would I find the time to do it I asked myself. I am not a process oriented person and so writing does not do for me what it does for her but I must say, I am a results oriented person and so I look forward to the end of this so I can click on the 'PUBLISH POST' icon. That is soooo satisfying. I suspect the 'NEW POST' icon does the same for her.
Hey, this has been kind of fun afterall but I am getting anxious to click that PB button so I will have to cut this short but first:
You will notice the background image I have chosen is "Our Lady Of Sorrows". There is a good reason for this and you will have to wait until my next Post to find out.
Thanks for reading.
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