If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith? Matthew 6:30
In my journey of this life, I had sought a Spiritual Director. It wasn’t seeming to work. I decided to be patient. I didn’t want to force something that God didn’t want. Finally, through a series of what some would call coincidence, and what I know is God, I have found a Priest who offers Spiritual Direction.
I had my first meeting with him on Friday. He gave me an assignment. He asked me to journal. He wanted to me to keep a record of my dialogue with God. I accepted the assignment. After I left I had every intent of going and purchasing a book to journal in.
But Friday became busy. And Saturday too. So Sunday, I went to the bookstore at my parish to purchase a journal. Alas, they were out. I would need to wait even longer. I felt sad as I knew the assignment I had been given would be put on hold even longer. I went to my Adult Faith Formation Class and my friend Allison said, “I have something for you.” She pulled a journal out of her purse that she had hand made. She had created with fabric a beautiful journal. She told me she had made it awhile ago and kept forgetting to bring it to me, but this morning for some reason she remembered and put it in her purse. I almost cried. My Lord, you are so involved intimately in every aspect of my life that you brought me this little item that I needed. I hugged Allison. She was the conduit who God used to hear my need. He is an awesome God who knows our every need. Nothing is too small for the love of God.
Veil of Veronica 
How wonderful ….. So specific a detail.
Why does this not surprise me? Without hesitation, God just tousled the hair of his newest little girl. Allison’s unknowing obedience to this silent gesture reveals how we all can become part of His mystical Body. She was His gentle hand this time. Lord, please let my smile from a distance be Yours for Susan today.
We each need to see these how real God’s presence is…especially now, as other things of the world struggle to take our focus away from Him. Oh, if others only knew!
Thank you so much. May God smile on you today.
amen! thank you for this beautiful reminder….
Reasons to Believe in Jesus
Reasons to believe Jesus is alive in a new life with God can be found in quotes from two prominent atheists and a biology textbook.
Thus the passion of man is the reverse of that of Christ, for man loses himself as man in order that God may be born. But the idea of God is contradictory and we lose ourselves in vain. Man is a useless passion. (Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: A Phenomenological Essay on Ontology, New York: Washington Square Press, p. 784)
Among the traditional candidates for comprehensive understanding of the relation of mind to the physical world, I believe the weight of evidence favors some from of neutral monism over the traditional alternatives of materialism, idealism, and dualism. (Thomas Nagel, Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False, location 69 of 1831)
And certain properties of the human brain distinguish our species from all other animals. The human brain is, after all, the only known collection of matter that tries to understand itself. To most biologists, the brain and the mind are one and the same; understand how the brain is organized and how it works, and we’ll understand such mindful functions as abstract thought and feelings. Some philosophers are less comfortable with this mechanistic view of mind, finding Descartes’ concept of a mind-body duality more attractive. (Neil Campbell, Biology, 4th edition, p. 776 )
Sartre speaks of the “passion of man,” not the passion of Christians. He is acknowledging that all religions east and west believe there is a transcendental reality and that perfect fulfillment comes from being united with this reality after we die. He then defines this passion with a reference to Christian doctrine which means he is acknowledging the historical reasons for believing in Jesus. He does not deny God exists. He is only saying the concept of God is contradictory. He then admits that since life ends in the grave, it has no meaning.
From the title of the book, you can see that Nagel understands that humans are embodied sprits and that the humans soul is spiritual. He says, however, that dualism and idealism are “traditional” alternatives to materialism. Dualism and idealism are just bright ideas from Descartes and Berkeley. The traditional alternative to materialism is monism. According to Thomas Aquinas unity is the transcendental property of being. Campbell does not even grasp the concept of monism. The only theories he grasps are dualism and materialism.
If all atheists were like Sartre, it would be an obstacle to faith. An important reason to believe in Jesus is that practically all atheists are like Nagel and Campbell, not like Sartre.
by David Roemer
347-417-4703
http://www.newevangelization.info