Tag: Catholic Journey

State Of Flow

by rejoiceandpraise, posted in Art Therapy, Catholic Faith, Catholic Journey, Christian Blogger, Christianity, creative expression, Faith, Forgiveness, illness, inspiration, joy, Reflection, sketching, Spirituality, Testimony, watercolours

There is anxiety and stress. There is also depression. Coming from a Christian and Chinese cultural milieu, I use to feel guilt that I would have these conditions.

As part of my own psychological and spiritual journey, I now acknowledge that it’s ok to go through anxiety, stress, fear and even depression. Going through life changes and growth is never easy. It can disable me, or it can create so much fear and panic that I don’t want to leave the confines of my home.

I have been working with a St. Ignatius Spiritual Director for the past few years as part of my own spiritual journey to love, know and do God’s will. Part of this is shedding away all the layers of “things” piled upon me in my 60 plus years of life.

The awareness of how much psychological and emotional baggage I carry on my shoulders is daunting. Spiritual awareness is letting go of all the “stuff” that keeps me from God.

Hand in hand in my spiritual journey the past few months is seeing my art therapist. Through visualization, I can explore those areas in my psyche which chains me. Art therapy and my spiritual direction helps in healing me to be the person I was meant to be in God’s image.

I am going through a personal transformation and letting go of emotional and psychological chains to becoming my authentic self. Free from the sins of the “father” and all those “ism” that has unconsciously molded and shaped the neurotic, anxious and stressed out me. It is and has been a healing journey.

Christian work ethic was my moral compass. Topped with the drive, angst and expectations of my immigrant parents – where my Chinese cultural repertoire often conflicted with my Christian one. I was a CBC – Canadian born Chinese.

The pace of life since university and then career set the pace for the next 30 years. It shaped my friendships and social environment. Fast forward into my 60s is the realization that I existed in a pressure cooker. The past many months have seen me breaking free to find my authentic self in the mundanity of my life. The career that once gave me much joy, is now but a shallow prison. Friendships were based on a thin thread of association and easily sever (for the first time C.S. Lewis’ The Four Loves made sense). I let the “stuff” of the world come between me and God.

Aside:

Luke 24 is pivotal in my state of flow. Mediating on Mary Magdalene’s grief over the death of her beloved friend and the disciples focus on the current news until they recognize Jesus when he broke bread, all help me understand that peace and joy comes only from fixing our focus on Jesus.

With my eyes on Jesus, I can move towards healing my mind, body and soul. All those angst and inner pain starts to slowly flow out of me. Yes, it is taking proactive action on my part to get better. Now, I can move towards the next phase of my life because my gaze is on Jesus. Only then can I let go of my baggage. I can now grieve and walk towards the light – because I am safe in Jesus’ embrace.

Resource: The Catholic Guide To Depression, by Aaron Kheriaty

The Four Loves, by C. S. Lewis https://ia800104.us.archive.org/27/items/fourloves01lewi/fourloves01lewi.pdf

Thank you for letting me share my journey with you. Jesus loves each of us at whatever point in life we are at. I pray that each of you walk with him into the light. All the things we once deemed important, hurtful, or heavy falls to the wayside.

God Bless 🙏💕

Hope Awareness

by rejoiceandpraise, posted in Bible, Catholic Faith, Catholic Journey, Christian Blogger, Christianity, Faith, God, grace, Jesus, Reflection

When I first became a Catholic, I delve right into my new faith with gusto and excitement. I remember my first Lent going a bit overboard with fasting, giving up coffee, no gaming, and no shopping without really understanding the “why” I was doing it. I was miserable! Yes, I followed through it with the mindset that it was what Catholics do during Lent.

As one matures in their spiritual journey with God, one goes through a surface and more importantly an inner transformation of a deeper understanding of faith. Who I am as a child of God and what does He want for me? Where one was once a child and did as we were told, walking with Jesus leads to a blossoming spirituality. Reflecting within and without ourselves as we head into Easter, there are heart felt insights into the child within who loves God, and who journeys in hope and love. For the realization that through the death of Jesus on the cross, one can cross the bridge to the Father. Jesus died for you and me so that we may have a place next to God.

My Lenten this year is not a list of sacrifices as in previous years, but an inward awareness of me as the child of God whose brokenness is healed through the death of Christ.

Two verses moves my heart today:

I have been crucified with Christ; 20 and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Galatians 2:19-20


New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— 9 not the result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

Ephesians 2:8-10

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

This Lenten moves me to rejoice within and it’s in the heart and not my headspace. It is a sincere look within, and in doing this, I see the authentic me as Jesus sees me reflected back at me.

I raise my heart in prayer for each of us to be filled with joy and hope in Jesus.

God Bless 💕🙏

Finding Awareness

by rejoiceandpraise, posted in awareness, Catholic Faith, Catholic Journey, Catholicism, Christian Blogger, Christianity, grace, inspiration, Personal Reflection

Finding myself is a theme that shows up in my Daily Examen this Lenten. This is part of stripping away the many layers of me as I draw nearer to God. All the distractions that I have placed upon myself believing they will bring me closer to God, are being peeled off.

A part of my journey in life is seeking happiness, love and saintliness (holiness). These are graces I have prayed for the past few months – graced awareness.

What is graced awareness?

Happiness is not an achievement; love is not an achievement; holiness is not an achievement. They are each a grace—a grace called awareness, a grace called looking, observing, and understanding.

https://www.demellospirituality.com/a-grace-called-awareness/:

In our daily walk as a Christian/Catholic, it’s so easy to get blogged down by life. Taking the time to be mindful, watchful, alert and awake takes practice and time. In asking God for the grace of awareness, one can see everything in our daily lives reflected back. With the help of His divine grace one can see the authentic self without the distortions of layers upon layers of our world piled upon us.

“Set free from human judgment, we should count as true only what God sees in us, what he knows, and what he judges. God does not judge as man does. Man sees only the countenance, only the exterior. God penetrates to the depths of our hearts. God does not change as man does. His judgment is in no way inconstant. He is the only one upon whom we should rely. How happy we are then, and how peaceful! We are no longer dazzled by appearances, or stirred up by opinions; we are united to the truth and depend upon it alone. I am praised, blamed, treated with indifference, disdained, ignored, or forgotten; none of this can touch me. I will be no less than I am. Men and women want to play at being a creator. They want to give me existence in their opinion, but this existence that they want to give me is nothingness. It is an illusion, a shadow, an appearance, that is, at bottom, nothingness. What is this shadow, always following me, behind me, at my side? Is it me, or something that belongs to me? No. Yet does not this shadow seem to move with me? No matter: it is not me. So it is with the judgements of men: they would follow me everywhere, paint me, sketch me, make me move according to their whim, and, in the end, give me some sort of existence … but I am disabused of this error. I am content with a hidden life. How peaceful it is! Whether I truly live this Christian life of which St. Paul speaks, I do not know, nor can I know with certainty. But I hope that I do, and I trust in God’s goodness to help me.”

—Bishop Jacques-Benigne Bossuet, Meditation For Lent, p. 99-101

May God Bless each of us as we journey towards the cross with humbleness and love🙏💕

How Do I Live In A World Gone Astray

by rejoiceandpraise, posted in Bible, Catholic Faith, Catholic Journey, Catholicism, Christian Blogger, Christianity, Faith, Jesus, Personal Reflection, secularism

This is one of the realities of living as a Catholic or Christian. “How do I live as a someone walking with Jesus, in a world that glorifies sin?”

SIN is rampant in my world. I need only look around me to see it in my everyday – from subjective truth based on one’s own lived experience to a disregard for rational discourse and the natural law. It is in my work place, in the political climate I live in, in my social milieu, in the media and the mores.


for we walk by faith, not by sight.
2 Corinthians 5:7
New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

As I am also learning how to manoeuvre within and without my world, I share with all the following book and article on this topic.

I hope they will help us walk in the path of Jesus towards God in a world gone dark💕🙏

The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation.

https://www.amazon.com/Benedict-Option-Strategy-Christians-Post-Christian/dp/0735213291

The following article also explores this topic.

How Do You Live as a Catholic in a Godless World?

God Bless 💕🙏

Remember You Are Dust, And Dust You Will Return

by rejoiceandpraise, posted in Catholic Faith, Catholic Journey, Catholicism, Christian Blogger, Christianity, Faith, Jesus, Lent, Personal Reflection

It is Ash Wednesday, and here we have the opportunity to return to God’s family. He waits for us to walk the 40 days with His son Jesus.

A Prayer for Ash Wednesday

“Remember you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.”

Gracious God, today begins a period of inner reflection and examination. The days stretch before me and invite me inward to that silent, holy space that holds your Spirit. This special time beckons me to see my life through Christ’s eyes and the truth and reality of your love incarnate. Give me the grace to enter the space of these days with anticipation of our meeting. And, when I open my soul to your presence, let your loving kindness flow over me and seep into the pockets of my heart. I ask this for the sake of your love. Amen.

How will I practice my journey this Lent? The list of my own sins is long – from gluttony to sinful thoughts, to not loving the unlovable with a deeper heart, and to all those faults I have completed in ignorance. Oh there is my shopping habit! I can only ask for God’s forgiveness and His every giving mercy in acts of penitence.

The list to choose of what to give up with the long term goal to be a better “me” is embarrassingly long. Perhaps, I will cut down to two cups of coffee instead of my daily 5. Or, I can say something positive and thoughtful in the midst of all the rumblings and complaining that’s usually around me – including my own loose tongue – unfiltered.

The point of Lent is to be a better me in my existence and in the process walk more closely in with Jesus. The goal is to be more like him, as he modelled for us while on earth.

Thank you, most merciful God for loving us in completeness in the gift of Your son, Jesus. May the Holy Spirit grace me with a deeper walk with Jesus in his Passion, and in the journey to draw nearer to him, know him more intimately and follow his will more closely.

God Bless all of you during your Lenten journey 🙏💕

The Catechism In A Year

by rejoiceandpraise, posted in Bible, catechism in a year, Catholic Faith, Catholic Teaching, Catholicism, Christian Blogger, Christianity, Father Mike Schmitz

If you haven’t started following the online readings of the Catechism In A Year with Father Mike Schmitz, it’s not too late to start. As of January 4th, 2023, it is Day 4.

I follow on Youtube. Start on Day 1 and subscribe to the channel. This way the next day shows up in your stream:

https://youtu.be/tI-pOSv7tvg

You can also subscribe via the Ascension Press website. You do not have to buy their version of The Catechism of the Catholic Church. Use the copy you already have.

https://ascensionpress.com/pages/catechisminayear

I am following this online, and it is available on many platforms, and recommend it for a deeper understanding of the Catholic Faith.

Pray with a sincere heart for the grace to know God more deeply, love him more intimately and to follow his will more closely. God Bless 💕🙏

The Best Part Of My Day

by rejoiceandpraise, posted in Catholic Faith, Catholic Journey, Christian Blogger, Christianity, Personal Reflection, Praise, Rejoice

I returned to work today after a long sojourn, and the best part of my day was going to Mary Queen of the World Cathedral to pray and attend the 7:30 am mass.

A wonderful way to start my day as I return to the hectic world of teaching young children. A lot has changed within me the last few years, but the world and the job all remains the same. The staff changes and children changes throughout the years, but the same hectic reality remains the same.

I have changed. My faith has deepened and for those of us who walk in Jesus:

“Three things are necessary to everyone: truth of faith which brings understanding, love of Christ which brings compassion, and endurance of hope which brings perseverance.”

–St. Bonaventure

A comforting thought as I start my day.

God Bless 🙏💕

Shia LaBeouf’s Conversion Story

by rejoiceandpraise, posted in Catholic Journey, Catholicism, Christianity, Conversion Stories, Testimony

Powerful conversion stories – testimonies – is one of the most beautiful graces from God. It lets us know that in our imperfections, our moments of deep sin, and when we have lost all hope – God is there to open our eyes to his divine mercy, forgiveness and love.

SHIA LABEOUF – HIS CONVERSION TO CATHOLICISM PLAYING PADRE PIO

I was touched by Shia LaBeouf’s conversion for many reasons, the first is when my kids were young we were a fan of his Transformer films. The second reason is his life mirrors much of the decadences – self affliction and pain of not only those in the entertainment business, but those who are creative, young, and broken. So many of us were lost in secular culture and Shia LaBeouf’s conversion story reminds us that Jesus is every present knocking at our door, waiting for us to open it for him.

Praise God!

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/shia-labeouf-stuns-bishop-barron-with-love-of-latin-mass-theyre-not-selling-me-a-car/

His interview with Bishop Barron.

It is a good idea to look at the other videos and commentary by other interviewers. They provide a more deeper perspective on Shia LaBeouf’s faith journey. It also opens up for many the traditional vs the modernist (Vatican II and post) movement in the Catholic Church.

God Bless💕🙏