Are You Allergic to God?

Posted on May 15, 2019 by the Bouchers

Here comes the pollen, the blossoms, buds, dust and the molds. It is the season. But are there spiritual allergies?

Maybe insights about allergies can help you find disconnects in your relationship with God. Take the test to find out. Place the number that most closely matches your experience FOR EACH QUESTION. There are no wrong answers. At the end of this exercise, add all of your numbers together. Try sharing this activity with others too.

Score key:

6 – 11 God is eager to give you something awesome. Jesus said, “If you knew the gift of God… you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” John 4:10

12 – 18 You are invited to go deeper, so that you might know joy. “God’s Spirit reveals profound and hidden treasures.” Read Psalm 139 to discover God’ intimate care and protection.

19 –25 God is good! “Give joyful thanks to the Father, who grants us a share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.” Read Colossians 1: 3–8

26 –30 Ready to embrace the mission of Jesus! “May the God of peace, sanctify you… For the one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.” 1 Thessalonians 5:24

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The Passion and Compassion of Jesus – Revisited

Posted on April 9, 2019 by the Bouchers

Webster’s Dictionary defines passion as intense, overwhelming emotion. And compassion means being intensely conscious of another’s difficult emotional state, or to be in “distress together.” This understanding speaks of the life and death of Jesus. It can also be applied to God, our Father, who sent Jesus to redeem us from every agony and from the ultimate distress of death.
But how can you apply this understanding of the passion and compassion of Jesus to daily life? First, stand in the place of any blind, deaf, lame or leprous person in the Bible. Second, contemplate God’s passionate, intense and healing love for you in that place. Third, look to Jesus on the Cross. He took on the ultimate distress of dying on your behalf. Fourth, he conquered death, so surrender your fears, worries and emotions. Then thank him.
During Therese’s youth she often prayed with a crucifix on the inside cover of her prayer book. The prayer underneath was, “Look down upon me, good and gentle Jesus while before Your face I humbly kneel.” His sacrificial, passionate love became very real for her and has continued to this day. When she is in a place that elicits a deep fear of height, for example, she pictures Jesus as he was tempted to throw himself off a cliff in the desert. Then she reaches for his hand.
For John, the struggle with one discouraging illness after another has led him deeper into the lives of the saints, especially St. Alphonse Liguori, who was in constant pain from arthritis. This saint wrote, “There is nothing more pleasing to God, than to see a soul who patiently and serenely bears whatever crosses it is sent; this is how love is made, by putting lover (Christ) and loved one (you or I) on the same level” as companions.

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The Plank, the Speck and the Evangelizer

Posted on March 12, 2019 by the Bouchers

A Lenten Gospel reading reminds us to pay attention to any wooden plank in our own eyes, before offering to remove a speck of sawdust from another’s eye (Matthew 7:3). This is good advice for anyone who is tempted to judge another. But this comparison is even more important when bringing others to Jesus and, into his Body, the Church. Here are some insights for applying this wisdom:tool belt

1. Am I in touch with my own struggles with faith? Do I have a wooden plank in my spiritual life; a lack of prayer, resentments, faulty relationships that I have not surrendered to God. We are inspired by C.S. Lewis, who when asked what religion he was, replied, “I am a lapsed atheist.”

2. Have I asked the Holy Spirit for the gift of repentance towards a person I would like to evangelize? Have I asked this person to forgive me for any wrongs they hold against me?

3. Do I have confidence in God’s love for the person I want to approach? Remember, I am simply entering into the tremendous compassion that Jesus, the Christ, already has for this person and his desire to meet spiritual needs. The speck you see is nothing in comparison.

4. Have I faced a similar experience, that compares to what another is facing? Knowing this can be the first step to confidence and to visualizing how the Holy Spirit would intervene in this person’s life. But keep in mind that God might surprise you both.

5. Am I willing to pray for this person, then encourage her or him through listening, statements of faith, a spontaneous prayer, or a brief sharing? Have I asked the Spirit for both zeal and discernment about which approach?

If you have done all this, then it is time to act in love and to become a part of God’s presence made flesh in the carpentry shop of life. It is time to be fashioned and shaped into a tool that Jesus can use.

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