The last thing in the world that I wanted to do was to volunteer for another Confirmation class.

Patty

I met this beautiful young lady about two years ago. She was the assistant to the Confirmation and Youth Ministry head. When we learned that the leader of the group was moving on to a new career, Patty took on the position as head of that department. Patty is gifted in so many areas of her life, but her calling now is to lead the youth closer to Christ.  When she called me to ask if I was willing to take on another Confirmation class I told her that I would pray about it.

Answering the Call

Two weeks passed before I finally received an answer from the Lord. My “yes” brought much relief to both Patty and me. When you answer “yes” to doing God’s work, He gives you special graces to accomplish the task. Now I am joyfully teaching three classes. And since our diocese requires two years for both Holy Communion and Confirmation, I’m locked in for two more years.

We are now well into two months of the program and, finally, I am getting to know all 17 of the  students by name. There are three sets of siblings who always sit together. I have students from four different high schools so at first it was a challenge for me to get them to participate in the group discussions.

Ice Breakers

We use ice breakers as a attempt to get the students familiar with each other. Unlike others, the retreat ice breakers required physical contact. Knowing well that some students do not like to have physical contact with people they are not familiar with was a big step for them to take. This ice breaker required them to sit on the ground and lock arms while attempting to get up. Finally, a breakthrough for one of  my introverted students. He was having fun with a genuine smile on his face. And when he answered questions the entire class supported him by clapping in approval. Truly it was a beautiful sight.

The Testimonials

Eddie, who teaches Confirmation Two, gave a wonderful testimonial. He was a tagger who ran the streets of East Los Angeles with a local gang. He never joined the gang, but his parents were not pleased with the direction he was going. Thank the good Lord that his parents made the sacrifice to send Eddie to a Catholic high school.

Two other precious young ladies gave their testimonials. One, in particular, spoke of something deep and personal that she experienced as a child. The beauty of this story is that it has a happy ending; she is on the road to recovery and is learning to trust God in a deeper way.

Adoration

Catholics practice Eucharistic Adoration to draw closer to Jesus. Where Jesus is, Mary is also there. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, but our Lord received his flesh from Mary. Because He was born of Mary His outward appearance resembled hers. Mary was immaculately conceived; she could not have any stain of original sin because she was divinely chosen to be the Mother of God. She has been compared to the Ark of the Covenant, carrying Jesus in her womb because God was within her.

Eucharistic Adoration draws you closer to Jesus. The Lord is doing something through this nonverbal communication: He is reaching out to us. The fruit of Eucharistic Adoration gives you peace; you become more like Jesus.

To me  Adoration is one of the highest forms of worship. To spend time with God in this manner is experience a deeper level of holiness. Before COVID La Purisima Catholic Church, had exposition of the Holy Eucharist on a daily basis. I spent many hours in silence unable to move because I did not want to disturb the emotions I was experiencing.

Preparing For Adoration

The session before Adoration was to prepare them by guiding them with different scenarios of what to expect. For instance, they were told to be still before the Eucharist. I told them to speak to the Lord and ask Him any question they wanted.

The praise music brought us all to our knees as we worshipped before the Blessed Sacrament.

In the end some of the students definitely had a holy experience. Personally, I believe the fact that the students were there was so pleasing to the Lord.

The Rainbow

It rarely rains in Southern California, so we were all perplexed and didn’t really know what to do with ourselves. We had to leave the comfort of the gymnasium and venture to the ministry center.

As we were leaving to attend the next session, a beautiful, full rainbow appeared. Some of the students were upset because they did not have their phones to capture the rainbow, but they understood it was a good sign from God.

In this session the girls were separated from the boys. Young ladies need to know their value in the Kingdom of God, and young men need to respect themselves in order to respect girls. My motto is: “If you want to be treated like a queen, then you must treat your significant other like a king.” God made us different for a reason. When God removed the rib from Adam, He did not create from her many different sexes. No, He created a man and a woman. Although the world gets this twisted, we who serve God know the truth.

Mass

We ended with a beautiful Mass. Though the reading were a bit heavy (Luke 21:5-19), Father Eliardo gave a wonderful homily explaining that since we do not know when the Lord is going to take us home, we should always be prepared.

My Prayer

Dear Lord, I pray for all the students who attended this retreat. May they continue to ask questions about Your holy existence. Lord, guide them in the right direction and may they always seek truth. Amen.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ULLIE!

The overflowing water of life is free for the asking

The Water Of  Life

The Lord has provided this living water to wash us clean. This water is purified by His love. Specifically, God wants nothing more than for us live a life filled with hope. The prophet Ezekiel experienced this when an angel  brought him to the entrance of the Temple. The angel led Ezekiel to where the water was flowing. Everywhere the water flowed it brought blessings; it turned the salt water into fresh water, ” on each side of the banks fruit trees of every kind shall grow, their leaves shall not fade”.

The Revelation

Recently I experienced the most wonderful freedom. Undoubtedly, I have an addiction to Tik Tok and other Social Media platforms that were making me crazy. These Social Media clicks were about how bad the world is and how in particular political parties were at fault. Anything that was not legitimate was due to the failure of our current government.

As a result of  my addiction, I became deeply offended by all these accusations against the party I support. Explicitly, I wanted so badly to set these people straight but for fear of backlash, my fingers froze before I could type out a clear answer. Besides, opening the door to criticism is another avenue to become a victim of your own circumstances. My days have too much value than to be use up in controversy with strangers.

Saint Teresa Of Avila

In reality what I experienced was a beautiful life lesson. Like St. Teresa of Avila the words that she spoke were sealed into my heart. “Let nothing disturb you, let nothing frighten you, All things pass: God never changes.”

So if New York, the financial capital of the world, has elected a Muslim as mayor, there is a clear reason why God allowed this. This is what offered me so much hope. I will not celebrate this win nor will I make negative remarks because I know God is in control.

Stay With The Flow

Living water not only cleanses us: it leads us to a better place, a place of peace. Being around  people who do not share my political views is not going to make me like them any less. But before this revelation, in the past this was a big problem for me. Thinking that there was something wrong with their way of thinking was evil.

To be freed of this bigotry came only through prayer. Truly, I can now attest with all confidence that only God can be the Judge. I had failed miserably, I needed to calm down and allow God to do His work. This battle was a great distraction in my spiritual growth. Recognizing the plot of the Enemy and exposing it to free my mind has added more time for contemplative prayer.

Reasons For Division

Today, even an innocent conversation about politics can go south very quickly. Contentious opinions on Social Media have made enemies of many; this is the reason for the great divide. This divide is so deep, that each side stands at the edge of a gorge, not willing to build a bridge or cross it once it’s built. Hatred is the underlining cause of this division. The mastermind of this is none other than Satan himself! He loves what is happening to our country.

The Father Of Lies

We all know Satan is the father of lies (John 8:44).  Fear and lies are always associated with hatred because that is what causes division. Hatred is the reason our country is so divided. On both sides of the spectrum there is fear; conservatives fear that the liberals will take control of politics, and liberals fear the unknown because of the current administration’s political conservatives. How much more clear can it be?  Satan is pulling the strings of those who cannot step out of the ring of hatred. Some people are masterring leaders. Hatred and anger are brothers, and we all know where anger leads us: frustration, irritability, and inability to overlook offenses or consider opposing view points.

The Holy Water

Water is our life source; we cannot live without it. This is also true of the living waters that God has for us (Isaiah 44:3). We drink of this holy water to replenish what needs nurturing in our spirits.

Love Vs. Hate

Operating in love is the simple answer to the problems we are facing, but this love must come from Christ. With the love of Christ we can love ourselves. Once you have accomplished this you can love your enemies! Love covers all.

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank You for this revelation and for opening my eyes to Your holy truth. Take us deeper into Your living water, that we may be immersed in Your Holy presence. Amen.

On a recent shopping trip to Hobby Lobby a young man at the cash wrap noticed my bracelets . He asked “Obsidian, those stones bring calm, right?” I showed him the blessed saints medal and answered, “No, these bring blessings.” This young man, and many like him is dabbling into New Age.

1 John 4:1 New American Bible (Revised Edition) (NABRE)

Chapter 4

Testing the Spirits. ¹ Beloved, do not trust every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they belong to God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

As a teen ager I looked forward to reading my horoscope. I was born in early August, which meant I am a Leo on the astrological calendar.  I liked astrology and what it revealed; those born under the sign of Leo are outgoing, loyal, and  natural-born leaders. As I got older and wiser, I started to outgrow the desire for astrology.

I married young and was too preoccupied to seek  advice from the stars, but it was still very much with me. From time to time, out of curiosity, I would dabble back into reading my horoscope. I read my husband Mike’s as well. I remember reading in Mike’s horoscope one day that he would lose something of value. On that same day Mike lost his wedding band. Even though it was a coincidence, it opened wide the door to horoscopes.

The Open Door

This was the mid-70’s and Cosmopolitan Magazine had an entire page dedicated to astrology. Although I was intrigued by the readings, I never really took it to heart; nevertheless, the excitement of what was in store for me that month held me hostage.

In my 15-year sabbatical from the Catholic church I found a new, non,denominational fellowship. Unaware that I was serving two gods, I was told very firmly by fellow Christians that horoscopes were demonic. At first I believed that these people were overreacting, and I continued to read my horoscope. After all it was just for fun. But astrology was an open door to Satan and a personal invitation to allow Him access to my opened spirit.

Deuteronomy 18:10 New American Bible (Revised Edition) (NABRE)

¹⁰ Let there not be found among you anyone who causes their son or daughter to pass through the fire, or practices divination, or is a soothsayer, augur, or sorcerer,

Seeing The Light

I was growing by  leaps and bounds in my new-found “Born Again” religion; the closer I came to understanding  Scripture, the more evident the dangers of believing in astrology were revealed. We are all searching for God and some type of meaning for our existence, but some of us take different directions to reach our destination. The highway I traveled included this “New Age” passage.

The Company You Keep

When you stay and visit, you become familiar with the company you keep and want to stay longer or return for another visit. That’s how it was with astrology and me. I thank God that I made a clean break. This seemingly innocent practice is treacherous because it leads to other occult practices. Palm reading, fortune telling, psychic readings, mediums, and many other avenues also lead to the occult.

Fighting the Demons

During that time, I took a  short trip to New Orleans to see family. Also I wanted to visit St. Louis Cathedral, which is located in Jackson Square. There were so many obstacles in the way before I could reach the doors to the church. Tarot card readers were stationed in several different locations. I decided to fight against these demonic forces.  As I passed each card reader, I was silently  praying against their evil spirits. I felt great victory and thought myself a valiant warrior for doing God’s work against these demons. I walked into the church with great pride, and continued to pray. As a baby Christian I felt that the battle was over.

The Demonic Illness 

When I returned from the trip, I became deathly ill. I had never been so sick! I was bedridden for a week before I decided to seek  medical attention. It took an entire month for me to finally recover from this mysterious illness.

After making the connection ,I realized that this illness was caused by praying against the evil spirits of all those tarot card readers. These demonic forces had strength in numbers, and I fell into their boiling pot because I was ill-equipped to fight these minions  on my own.

New Age

New Age spirituality has been disguised as a feel-good religion. You are your own demi-god who lives in a world of confused people. This type of belief system leads to relativism. Nothing can go wrong in your world because you control your own destiny. Since many religions fall under this New Age banner,  many are being led astray, including many well-meaning Christians. New Agers engage in meditation techniques, Zen, Hinduism, Sufism, and Native American religions. These New Agers mix philosophy with their own beliefs. To reach an altered state of mind, they use crystals, hallucinogenic drugs, yoga, and breathing exercises.

The following information is from Father Mitch Pacwa’s book, Catholics and the New Age: Psychology, the Enneagram and the Age of Aquarius:

1. Monism. Everything in the universe is one. This includes all forms of life–material things and even angels. “There is no difference between us and the air, us and the rocks, and so on.”

2. Everything is God. God is in everything. God is everything. This is pantheism, the belief that everything is in the one divine nature. “We are God, the lights are God, the chair I sit in is God.”

3. We need to be enlightened through humanistic psychology. We must be made aware of our oneness and spiritual power. This is where many Catholics veer off course with things like the enneagram, a system of numerology intended to make a person perfect, better and whole by understanding personality types. “The way it is taught,” says Father Pacwa, “people try to save themselves instead of depending on the grace of Christ. People go from enneagrams to Eastern meditation to get out of their “personality types.”

4. Expect a New Age to dawn. It will rise “out of the ashes of the Western world view” (cosmic evolutionary optimism). They wish to displace Christianity with a great “collective unconsciousness,” where all “archetypes” dwell (that’s what New Agers perceive angels to be).

Social Media Influencers

Social Media is influencing an entire generation  with New Age. You are just one click away from opening doors to the occult. The Enemy is targeting the youth who do not have a clue about who God is. This is why it is so important to Baptize and raise your children by teaching them about God. This is pleasing to God and you will reap great rewards for teaching your children the way to holiness.

My Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father, clear a path for those dabbling into the occult to make their way back to You. Lord, convict all influencers to check their hearts before spreading half-truths. Pour out Your Holy Spirit on those who are seeking truth and bring them home.  Amen.