The Return of "Fishmail Insights"

Friday

The following quotation is from Mother Teresa's final letter written on the day
of her death:
'Loving trust and total surrender made Our Lady say 'yes' to
the message of the angel. ANd cheerfulness made her run in haste to serve her
cousin Elizabeth. That is so much our life: saying 'yes' to Jesus and running in
haste to serve him in the poorest of the poor. Let us keep very close to our
Lady and she will make that same spirit grow in each one of us.'

~ Mama Mary, we honor you for your obedience to God's will. i pray that you help lead us to follow in your footsteps and without hesitation or hinderance thaw we may strive to Follow God's plan for us. Watch over us oh blessed Mother... keep us vigilant and keep us close to Jesus. hold us in your prayers always, in our dark times and the light times. help us grow, help us love, help us forgive

a short prayer to honor Mary...


Thursday

Penance is absolutley necessary. Nothing has greater effect in restraining the
disordered passion of the soul and in subjecting the natural appetites to right
reason. THrough penance, we shall possess the heavily joys which surpass the
pleasures of earth as much as the soul surpasses the body and heaven surpasses
the earth..

~ Extracted from Sis Bev's Blog
Confession. Reconciliation. Penance. Different words, same meaning. When you think about it, or at least when I think about it, I think "fear". It's amazing how many ppl think "fear". I think that the scary part for most people is going to the confessional and actually telling another person that you're not perfect, that you fall, and that when you fall, you have failed at something. I don't know if it's because of society that we are afraid to fail or to fall and to admit it means we really, truly did fail. Perhaps it's the "I-can't-believe-you-did-that" syndrome, where the expectations that we put on ourselves/that others put on us is shattered. And goodness gracious, we can't shatter what people think or what we think of ourselves...Whatever the reason may be, it can be a scary thing. Perhaps that's why it's called confession and reconciliation and penance. It technically is the same meaning, but the verb behind each word calls to us different actions. Confession has "confess" in it, Reconciliation has "reconcile", Penance has... well.... I think penitant, in a way. To have the courange to confess your sins in front of a priest, in front of a human, that God is working through to forgive and wash away your sins... To reconcile the differences you have with God, with others, and with yourself... To be penitant, to be sorry for what you've truly done... It's basically just forgiving and strengthening relationships. That's the beauty of it all. ...and if you can master or at least get past the hurdle of fear and anxiety, I guarantee that what you receive is worth more than the weight you carry in your heart.

i find it good to always look into other people perspectives. this way you can easily learn something or learn more. i agree with what my friend has said... but reconciliation is alsy something you should like for in ur life. with God (that's a given) but also with those who ur afraid to forgive... this is a two way street, in our Lord's prayer we say "forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us" we must forgive to be allotted forgiveness. reconcilliation is also meant for... making up... when we confess, we are making up with the Lord because of the sin that drove us apart. like i said, it is important to reconcille with God, but it is also important to reconcile with the people in ur life, whatever it is that drove you apart from them.

Wednesday

Jesus said to St. Paul: 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?' not 'Why do you
persecute the Christians?' This clarifies that we serve Christ in the poorest of
the poor. 'Whatsoever you do to the leasr of my brethen, you do to me.'
Our
vow clearly states that our service is whole-hearted, not slapdish or
halfhearted.

~ we must love our neighbor... love our neighbor like Jesus loved us, we must realize that what we do to the ones we don't like, we are doing to Jesus. Jesus took up his cross for EVERYONE of us, not just a select few... we should not deny those people their right to the inheritance of the Lord. we shall not take away from their rights as our brethren. treat them equally and love them as you would love your wife/husband, mom & dad, girlfriend/boyfriend. Love them as you would love the Lord... forgive as the Lord has forgiven you...

Tuesday

The most appealing invitation to embrace the religous life is the witness of our
own lives, the spirit in which we react to our divine calling, the completeness
of our dedication, the generosity and cheerfulness of our service to God, the
love we have for one another, the apostolic zeal with which we witness to
Christ's love for the poorest of the poor.

~if we love th Lord with all our heart and soul, and oby him with all our heart and sould, and dedicate our lives to him with all our heart and soul, then every second we live lives we should be acting in the manner befitting our status with our Lord. on a daily basis we must really strive to show love and compassion for our neighbors, for what better way to preach God's word then through our actions. it is one thing to tell someone to do good, and another to show him through your own good works. lead by example, always

Monday

The Holy Father spoke in one of his messages about peace, and one thing he said
was this: 'No to violence and yes to peace.' What is violence? In the first
place, we think of weapons, knives, killings. We never think of connecting
violence with our tounges. But the first weapon, the most cruel weapon, is the
tounge. Examine what part of your tounge has played in creating peace or
violence. We can really wound a person, we can kill a person, with our tounge.

~ "sticks and stones can break bones... but the word cause them to be used" thats a little modification of a famous childhood saying. i seriously agree taht with a lot more thought into speech one could avoid a lot of conflict with our neighbors... one could even avoid wars. we are all created by our Lord, we should begin to see everyone in this manner. try to understand before u judge... and be patient above all things. things can escalate really fast with quick assumptions and hasty decisions. learn to love as Jesus's loved, and remember a little suffering that u are put under isn't necessarily a bad thing. take it in stride and turn the other cheek my friends. peace is the product of the reaction between understanding, patience, and love. if this was a chemistry class the formula would be U2P3L5 ----> Pt

Sunday

We must obey the rule with a big, willing heart, faithful to the least detail.
We must have a soul that has learned to see and love-even in the least
prescriptions-the most holy will of God. We are faithful to the least things,
that is, for the sake of the will of God. The smallest rule contains the will of
God as much as the biggest rule. If we love Christ, we will according to his
will, according to the rules.
We must obey as Christ did, unto his death on
the cross. He saw the will of God in everything and everbody and so he could say
that he did the things that were pleaning so his father. He obeyed Caiaphas and
Pilate because their authority was given from above. He didnt look at their
human limitations but submitted to them with obedience and diginity out of love
for his Father.
If we obey like JEsus, our lives will be pleasing to God and
he will say,'This is my beloved child in whom I am well pleased.'

~ It's hard to imagine urself in Jesus place during the passion. how can u even conceive to think about how Jesus felt knowing what was soon to happen that he was going to be put to deatch. He knew with full knowledge and what did he do? he stayed and he obeyed. We know Jesus is our Lord, but he was also human. he bled human blood, he felt human pain... yet he obeyed. he was betrayed... and was sentenced to death, yet he forgave. Oh Lord, it's so hard to imagine what you went through... the amazing things that you allowed yourself to go through for our sake. Jesus obeyed for our sake a great task... in our lives we must live up to his obedience with our obedience. the tasks we share in no way compares to his, but nevertheless they are important... the smallest task, is as important as the biggest task, and we must strive to carry them out obediently

Saturday

Cardinal Newman wrote: 'Help me to spread your fragrance wherever I go...Let me
preach you without preaching, not by words but by example, by the catching
force, the sympathetic influence of what I do, the evident fullness of the love
my heart bears for you.' Our works of love are nothing ut works of peace. Let us
do them with greatre love and efficiency.

~"preach the gospel, only use words when necessary" we all have heard that maxim before, and i do believe we must realize the importance of it in our faith. to preach we must draw on more than words. we must live our faith in our lives. we must strive against being a Weekend catholic, who put their hours in church and seem to be satisfied... for in essence they are weakend catholics. we must remember at every time in our lives that we belong to God's church and should live so. what hearts will we change if we decide to only strive to be holy 1-2 days a week? it's not about the minimum we put in... we should always strive for the maximum... the closest we can get to God. it is not enough to say... "but yea i do this..." "and i do this" thats good enough right? why is it good enough when you can do more? every breathe you take and move you make is a chance to get closer to God. what happens when we decide that we are sufficient in putting in our minimal time with our Lord? We get caught unawares, and we become susceptible... susceptible to sin. its important to keep vigilant even though u may not know if nething is going to happen. in the Garden of gethasme Jesus's companions were unable to keep their wach that night when he was to be turned over as a criminal, i'm pretty sure that if they had known the significance of that night, nothing would have stopped them from staying alert... but that's how our life works friends... we don't know what is coming up next... that's the importance of staying vigilant, preach the gospel at all times... live the gospel... so at the right time you wouldnt be caught unawares