Fishmail Insights

Wednesday

Unless you become like a little child, you cannt enter into heaven. And what is being a little child? It is having a clean heart, a pure heart, a heart that holds Jesus.

~A child is blessed with a mighty gift.  That is the gift of innocence.  It is wild to imagine such a powerful gift in such a young sould but we realize that not everything benefits from age.  In this case it would be a dream to stay young with the innocence of a child.  As we grow, the message the world gives us distorts our innocence and we stray away from the Love of God.  the key to innocence at any level is faith... a virtue that a child can keep easily but get progressively harder to do so with every new year.  Being a child is like being a tv with clear reception... as we get older more static slowly envelops the picture and the the reception slowly fades away.  That is what the world does to children and their innocence.  with the distortions that present itself as we grow older it gets harder and harder to see the picture clearly.  We need to find a way to tune the worldy distortions in our lives until we can see a clearer picture of what lies beyond the world itself.  Faith allows for this... it is like the antena we need to tune into God's channel despite all the static...  faith is the counter to the world's distortion of child-like innocence

Tuesday

 Let us gi very close to God's heart and renew our commitment to chasity.
With St. Maria GOretti we must say that we would rather die than sin. Often during the day we should pray: 'Purify of the heart of Jesus, purify my heart. In union with all the Precious Blood being offered in the sacrafice of the mass throughout the world, i offer you my heart for all my brothers and sisters, especially the ones who are tempted to sin agaisnt purity.'

~Temptation comes in many degrees.  The harder the temptation is to resist the more glorious it is for those who are able to resist it.  Temtation is a choice and it is dangerous because it is usually presented as the most SELF satisfying choice present.  It feels so good to give in to temptation that everytime you are presented with an opportunity u go to the lengths of putting ur virtues on check just to fulfill your self.  Temptation will make you rationalize your values just for that small instance of pleasure.  But that is why temptation is so dangerous.  One must keep vigilant constantly to resist those thoughts that tell you that "it's okay if its only one time, or its been a while since..." so taht you feel at ease in giving in...  The key to resisting temptation is to dispel all rationalizations of the sort.  It must be realized those moments that we take to satisfy our desires are short and fleeting and will never compare to the Love of our Lord for us which is everlasting and constant.

Monday

Do not be afraid to be poor and so proclaim his poverty. The sisters in Rome built a house just like the people's. THey became first-class builders but since the house is only a barrack, it didnt take much time. This living example of poverty has been a great grace for our barrack people and for others.
We are not forced to be poor, but we choose to be poor for the love of Jesus. Christ, being rich, became poor for us.

~One thing that is constant in each of our lives are choices presented to us and the free will we have to make those choices.  It is virtuous to take a choice that fulfills the desires of others over our own.  Our choices to do so is one of the greatests gifts you can ever present to anyone.  Selflessness and charity are the fruits of being in love.  As the Lord loved us he gladly died on the cross to save us.  As we love the Lord we must gladly surrender ourselves for him.

Sunday

In our hearts, we all crave to be something to someone. Our vow of chasity is a means to this, a means to be something to Jesus. It is more than simply not getting married. Many people choose not to get married because they want to experience the fruit of chasity. SO what is chasity in our lives? It is a hunger for God.

~We want to please the ones who we love because we want to be special in their eyes... this is true for everyone we care for and it is true for our Lord.  We want to be special in his eyes and to do so we have to follow what he calls us to.  What would please the Lord the most.  It is choosing his pleasures over ours.  It is a sacrifice but if we can profess a strong enough love then the act should come freely.