Cosy Christianity

Cosy Christianity.

As Roman Catholics we are really quite unlike all other brands of Christianity, all 30,000 different denominations, with the exception of the Orthodox and maybe a few others that I do not know about.
We do not just believe in Jesus, we actually have Jesus.
He gives Himself to us in the form of His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity at every Holy Mass and He is there very humbly taking up His position in the Tabernacle and in the Monstrances, in a voluntary Prison so that we can talk to Him face to face.
That is so awesome if you take time to think about it.
I do not know about you but I need constant reminders about all these marvellous aspects of our Faith.
Why?
Because I tend to take them for granted.
Human Nature is such that we soon take matters for granted and become complacent.
In many ways those early Christians had it better.
In their time, to become a Christian was extremely dangerous.
Martyrdom at the hands of the Roman World rulers was almost inevitable as they were hounded all around the Empire.
I heard that most of the first 30 Popes were martyred.
It was difficult for them to become complacent in such a dangerous environment.
It was obvious to them that they were in a Spiritual War which turned very Physical when they got into the hands of their enemies.
For us it is not so obvious but it is just as real.
The war is raging all around us.
In our country, in our towns and cities and yes even in our homes and yes even in our very selves.
It's a Battle every day and even every hour.
It's a battle to stay calm when everything seems to be going wrong.
It's a battle to Pray.
It's a battle to read the Word and
It is even a greater Battle to do as we are told by the Word Himself.
I love and greatly appreciate being in the Legion of Mary.
I have nearly completed my first 3 months and will soon be inducted in as a full time member along with my wife.
Frank Duff the founder has written a very exhaustive and well written Hand book and if you ever get the chance please try and get a hold of one and read it.
It is really good stuff and very demanding, no cosy Christianity here.
So what do I mean about the Title of this letter? Cosy Christianity?
Let me try and explain.
It is kind of like I am all right and you are all right and really everything is quite all right too.
I do not know what you have found, but I find the closer I try to walk with Jesus, the more I see how much mercy I need and how much of a sinner I am.
My favourite prayer when I catch myself not praying is “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner!”
Then I adapt it to include the members of my family and friends and even my enemies.
I became a Protestant Christian 46 years ago because a friend took the trouble to tell me about Jesus and invite me to on fire meetings where the challenge of Jesus was being preached.
What is the Great Challenge of Jesus??
Follow me and I will make you Fishers of men.
Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.
As My Father sent Me so send I you.
And you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses first in Jerusalem and then in Judea and in Samaria and then to the uttermost parts of the world.
Go therefore and make disciples of all Nations and I will never leave you nor forsake you.
These are all very well known verses but are they in the forefront of our thinking?
As I have many time pointed out we are in a very serious war and we have been asked to follow in the footsteps of Our Saviour who left Heaven and His Father's House to make a very humble invasion of our planet in the form of a little baby born of a Virgin and then die voluntarily for me and you to save us from our sins.
I have done my going into all the world bit but now I have 2 small kids in school and so I cant just take off like I did in the past.
You with your commitments are probably in the same position.
So where is My Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria and Uttermost parts of the earth??
They are all right around here where I live.
Real Christianity in many parts of Europe is fast dying out.
The Catholic Church is struggling but by no way defeated.
The Church is a mission field in itself.
Materialism has taken over from Christianity and people are dying and going to ?????????
That is worrying and if one takes the time to think about this, I believe it will help you to get into action.
The Cosy part of Christianity is a part but not the whole.!
If you are just on the Cosy side then I think we will pretty embarrassed to meet Jesus!
What do you think??
I know that I need to be continually reminded about these things. It is no good just telling me once.
It's like the Eucharist and confession.. We get told and soon the ideas behind this get dull and blunt.
We all need continual reminding in my opinion.
We all need continual challenging.
We all need continual encouraging.
We are all sinners and so easily get lulled into a false sense of I AM OK... YOU ARE OK.... WE ARE ALL OK....

I was eventually very politely asked to leave the Emmaus fellowship as a result of writing the following letter which did not get posted. I am not bitter and it is impossible to legislate righteousness and I think it is actually a very god solution. I tried but I failed. I know that Jesus understands and I have no ill feelings but would prefer to write what I feel is important and not through some guidelines.
By the way there is Daily Gospel where there is also a very good reflections chosen from Doctors of the Church and famous saints.
http://www.dailygospel.org/main.php?language=AM
If you do not get this, check it out.. It's great..


I said I would not write more but I would ask nanciejh to hold on a bit. Terry we all love and all she has to do is to allow us to say what we think is important. Discussing the Tau and Saint Francis if this is done in the spirit of trying to help and evangelise the hurting world, may be ok.. it's hard to see how but it may be ok. But restricting us to some rules and regulations which may have been made without the hurting world in vision would be a great mistake. I need evangelising and encouraging often. You do too if you are honest. It is so easy to get into what I call cosy Christianity and forget that we are in a war of the worlds.
That is why I like the Catholicism Project. Also EWTN.. They know that a war is raging and they are doing everything like Frank Pavone and so many others to promote a Spirit of lets do something about it. Talking about it is great but we need to apply these daily scriptures to the task on hand. EVANGELISING EACH OTHER AND THE HURTING WORLD AROUND US . Let me tell you story from Amy Carmichael which had a great effect on me when I was a Protestant doing very little for Jesus except going to meetings.
She had a dream. You may know this but it is worth repeating....In her dream she saw a waterfall in the distance. As she grew closer she realised that the water was not H2O but human bodies falling off a cliff into the sea like lemmings. She started to do something about it as the people were blindly walking to their death. She told them to turn around and she managed to get a few to push back against the masses. Then she asked where the Christians were???? The Lord in her dream showed her groups of people sitting in circles on the open grass a little way off from the masses and they were so busy... So very very busy... Doing What???? Making Daisy Chains.
The point of my story is obvious. We have all from time to time made Spiritual Daisy Chains. We need to stop and encourage each other to be doers and prayers of the Word especially the Rosary. We do not as Catholics just believe in Jesus as Protestants do WE HAVE JESUS AND WE HAVE HIM ALL THE TIME IN THE TABERNACLE AND IN THE MONSTRANCES AND IN EVERY MASS WE PARTAKE AND EAT HIS BODY... IT IS AWESOME!!!!!
The Prots can never win the world for the Kingdom of God. They do not even use the secret weapon of OUR MOTHER MARY. They are fighting with their hands tied behind their backs and split into 30,000 different denominations.
They have no unity and it is just a free for all.
I hope this helps to clear matters up and what is really important.. we need to catch fire... If we do this then others will come to watch us burn... Jesus said that He had come to bring Fire on Earth... Luke Ch 12 verse 49..
Enough said... I really look forward to many many more responses.. and God bless Terry for trying and getting so much accomplished. It is not EITHER OR BUT BOTH AND.     We need a heavy emphasis on evangelism..
mjk



 
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WHO NEEDS EVANGELISM?

Our Holy Mother Church, and the WORD of GOD is telling us time and time again, through our leaders the Popes about the importance of evangelism. We are to reach out to the hurting world. But How??
Saint Faustina who died on my Mum's birthday October the 5th 1938 and 48 days before I was born writes the following, but first my comments!
In today's Liturgical readings we hear that the fault lies not with the Heathen, the Unchurched but listen very carefully with ME and you.
We who should know better are not doing the job.
Not only are we not doing it but we seem so satisfied with our little sharing here and there.
This reflection from a very special Polish saint got me into thinking and writing.
Why do I write at all?
Is it to show off my spirituality?
If I am honest, Yes that would be sadly one of my motives which I try to fight against.
Is it to get others and myself, because all we write speaks so loudly first to ourselves, to start jumping into action?
Yes hopefully that would be my very strongest motivation.
That should be the motivation behind everything I write.
At this point in time, I am firmly convinced that one of the most powerful ways to change the hurting world is through directly our Holy Mother the Virgin Mary.
We have the Rosary prayer. Many of us are faithful to say it. BUT and there is a big BUT,
Do we know and fully realise the power of this extraordinary prayer?
Do we promote this prayer to our friends and associates reminding them of its real importance at such a time like this?
Or are we more busy with other spiritual things or things which look spiritual?
When we do these spiritual things are we directly concerned for reaching out and instructing those who should no better to jump into action.
Someone wrote that the reason evil prevails is because good men sit around and do so little to stop it.
As an Ambassador for the Catholicism project of Word on Fire of Father Robert Barron, it would be impossible for me to keep quiet and settle down under some rules and regulations which are not continually drawing attention to the need for Evangelism in this Hurting World.
If you would like to know what I and my wife personally do in Evangelism every day, I will happily tell you. For many of you it would sound like a great deal BUT it is only a drop in the Ocean.
Until we all Catch the WORD ON FIRE VISION we are just paddling around having fun in the puddles at the beach edge.
For those of you in the Garden this will be my last effort at trying to get through to you.
You will not be hearing from me directly again..
So do not worry and continue with what you are doing. May the Lord Jesus bless you in it and may it become really fruitful.
One ingredient though would be to stir in the FIRE of the WORD of EVANGELISM.
This is something that I did not see once in my short stay in your garden.

NOW TO THE WORDS OF SAINT FAUSTINA... FAUSTINA PLEASE PRAY FOR US ALL.
"Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?"


I want to be completely transformed into your mercy and to be your living reflection, O Lord. May the greatest of all divine attributes, that of unfathomable mercy, pass through my heart and my neighbor.
Help me, O Lord, that my eyes may be merciful, so that I may never suspect or judge from appearances, but look for what is beautiful in my neighbors' souls and come to their rescue.
Help me, that my ears may be merciful, so that I may give heed to my neighbors' needs and not be indifferent to their pain and moaning.
Help me, O Lord, that my tongue may be merciful so that I should never speak negatively of my neighbor, but have a word of comfort and forgiveness for all.
Help me, O Lord, that my hands may be merciful and filled with good deeds, so that I may do only good to my neighbors and take upon myself the more difficult and toilsome tasks.
Help me, that my feet may be merciful, so that I may hurry to assist my neighbor, overcoming my own fatigue and weariness. My true rest is in the service of my neighbor.
Help me, O Lord, that my heart may be merciful so that I myself may feel all the sufferings of my neighbor. I will refuse my heart to no one. I will be sincere even with those who, I know, will abuse my kindness. And I will lock myself up in the most merciful Heart of Jesus. I will bear my own suffering in silence. May Your mercy, O Lord, rest upon me.
You yourself command me to exercise the three degrees of mercy. The first: the act of mercy, of whatever kind. The second: the word of mercy – if I cannot carry out a work of mercy, I will assist by my words. The third: prayer – if I cannot show mercy by deeds or words, I can always do so by prayer. My prayer reaches out even there where I cannot reach out physically.
O my Jesus, transform me into yourself, for you can do all things.
LET'S REMEMBER THAT WE ARE IN A DEADLY WAR WHERE THE ENEMY IS PLAYING FOR KEEPS.


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