The Priest prepares my husband and I with His homily just before we make our vows. October 7, 2000

Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory. For the wedding day of the Lamb has come, his bride has made herself ready.  She was allowed to wear a bright, clean linen garment.”(The linen represents the righteous deeds of the holy ones.)Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who have been called to the wedding feast of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These words are true; they come from God.” I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “Don’t! I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brothers who bear witness to Jesus. Worship God. Witness to Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”

Revelation 19:7-10

I had a dream the night before last night.  In it I received a package in the mail.  I opened it and inside was a wedding dress.  I tried it on and it was beautiful and I remembered thinking that the wedding was soon.  Somehow I was also at my brothers house, but it wasn’t the townhouse he actually lives in, it was a giant mansion and he had servants and nannies for his two new adopted girls.  I went to the girls room to show them my dress.  All of the people in the house were fussing over the children and I just knew how loved and important those children are.

My mom and I went outside and I was still wearing the wedding dress.  There was snow all over the ground and my mom began telling me not to get the dress dirty before the wedding.  I started to look closely at the dress and I could see that it was actually cheaply sewn.  I went to look in a mirror that was outside the barn door and the right shoulder strap broke on the dress and the bottom of the dress was dirty just like my mom said to be careful of.   I remember thinking I either have to return this to get a better one, or I have to repair this.  And thinking it was a good thing that I knew a shop where the people in it could help me get it repaired before the wedding.

It was cold, dark and snowy outside.  Then I woke up.

When I woke up I knew I was not prepared.  Personally, I am working on getting a healing and prayer ministry up and running, but I know there is so much preparation.  We are doing a whole life confession, so we will not be bound by any unforgiveness when we may eventually minister to other people.  Forgiveness is the key to everything.  Whether it be in running a ministry, or being called home to the Lord, we cannot harbor unforgiveness, after all he forgave us everything.

But it’s more than that.  My friend Caitlynnegrace adeptly pointed out to me that “until we fuss over the children, none of us will be prepared.”

God talks to me ALL THE TIME about purity, and how we are corrupting the children. We have, as a society, essentially stopped trying to protect them and keep them innocent.

It’s almost like He is telling me that Lust is THE DEADLIEST of the 7 deadly sins, and not the least deadly.  The reason being is that it seems more innocuous and people think it’s about love, but it is actually what lets Satan in the door.  It is SEEMINGLY the least deadly, but results in the destruction of everything.  I know Aquinas would disagree because he thought it brought on shame quicker… but we are living in a world that’s not ashamed of anything.

Here are a few things I have read about and observed;

Adam and Eve ”knew they were naked” – and had brought sin in the world…

Noah – Ham slept with Naamah – curses Canaan…

Abraham sleeps with concubine – has Ismael – which leads us to Islam eventually…

With Moses his people can’t stop their debauchery while Moses is on Mount Sinai… they wonder around far longer than they need to…

David sleeps with Bathsheba and has her husband killed…

Recently I had gone to hear a speaker who spoke on the Physiology of Grace.  He said that people who pray have been scientifically shown in studies to have greater brain connections, have a protective coating on their brain, and then also have a smaller amygdala (I think that’s the part he said- and I really wish I could site the study he was using, I am going to try to contact him to get that.) This is the area that controls fight or flight and is the fear region of the brain.  People who pray… theirs is smaller… this means that they can stand up in the face of great fear where most people would flee or fight.  These people can face what’s coming head on, and are not controlled by fear.  Makes me think of Maximilian Kolbe.

Conversely, pornography had the exact opposite effect.  People who are addicted to pornography have less connections, have no protective coating, and have a large amygdala which would make them respond out of fear and sometimes more animalistic.

Que, today’s world.  The statistics on pornography are astounding.  We hand devices to our children where they can have instant access to it.  It is a multi-billion dollar industry.  It leads to sex trafficking, and rape, and all kinds of sin.  We see people acting extremely violent, like animals.

The sexual revolution ushered in contraceptives, which means people think they are safe having sex in any circumstance.  And as Humanae Vitae pointed out led to all those problems we have today.  Divorce, abortion etc….

I actually look at the violence in the streets today and wonder how many of them are  addicted to pornography?  At the very least, I wonder, how many of them are praying and having silence with God?

It’s like what started out as lust… just progressively got worse… until it’s so twisted we don’t even know what gender we are….confusion.  Confusion actually comes from the Father of Lies, and it’s harming our children.

And then, even in my Catholic circles, people who DO FOLLOW the faith… they excuse sexual sin WAY more easily…. and I understand this because many have come from leading impure lives to true conversion, and so they know, and I know, that conversion is possible.  And when we are convicted to change God does not condemn us.  But the question is, are we praying for purity?  Are we teaching our children purity?  Or do we say, “oh well, that is the least deadly sin” and keep silent.  Do we say one thing, like “wait until marriage” but secretly hand our children condoms “just in case” and thereby undermine the message that purity is something attainable?  When we think purity isn’t attainable for a human being, we need only look at St. Joseph to remind us it is.  But know too, if our loved ones do fall, we must love them, help them get back up, and continue to point them to truth.

Sometimes, especially with children, if you have taught the faith, and they aren’t listening, we have to let go, and let them make mistakes, we have to love them anyway, and nagging won’t change them.  But we must never ever stop praying for their purity.  And if you struggle with impurity take it to God.  Every time you want to log on to that website, or have that impure thought, offer it to God, and ask that he save 100 other souls that are struggling too.  You will find soon enough the devil will leave you alone about that issue when you start using your suffering to save other souls.

In a previous post, I talked about a prayer my friend Jansen, a convert and former evangelical pastor, taught us to pray for loved ones who are struggling with sin.  I am going to post that exact prayer here today;

“Lord, I ask that you send angels of sufficient number, power, authority and rank to (persons name) to fight back the demon off and away from their life, so that they are able to follow you.”  The other prayer was about the Holy Spirit.   “Lord, send your Holy Spirit to convict (persons name) so strongly that they stop what they are doing and repent of their sins, with the intentions of confessing them to their priest the next time they go to Reconciliation.”

My prayer for all of us today, is for us to return to purity.  Pray for purity.  Purity of body and purity of heart would make the world a lot better place.