"If this Jesus is anything like you, I want to meet Him!"

I have been listening to a homily by Fr. Larry Richards of the Diocese of Erie, PA.

He was talking in this particular homily about a Christian in the concentration camps of WWII. This christian was caring for another cell mate that wasn't Christian. One day, the non-christian was beaten and thrown back into the cell and it was obvious that he wasn't going to make it through the night. The Christian noticed this and talked to the other prisoner about Heaven. The non-christian prisoner said to the christian, "If this Jesus is anything like you, I want to meet Him!"

I have decided to ask myself, "If Jesus Christ were anything like me, would people want to meet Him?"

I need to live my life more for Christ. People may be looking for Him in me.

May He increase and I decrease. Amen, so be it.

Feast of Christ the King

This weekend, the Holy Mother Church celebrates the Feast of Christ the King. I do find it very ironic, that in this weekend's readings (2 Sam 5:1-3, Coll 1:12-30 and Luke 23:35-43) that we still do not focus on Jesus as the "GREAT KING," but rather as the suffering one. We look at our first reading which mentions David as King, and we know that Jesus being of the line of David through Joseph is important. The 2nd reading from Collossians talks about Jesus being the first born of the dead and being the Head of the Body, which is the church. And it ends with the line about how "he reconciled all things for him, making peace through the blood of the cross...." amazing. Jesus, although he is our victorious King, he was also our suffering king. This made evident in our Gospel, where we are taken back into a Good Friday scene, where the people are sneering and jeering at Jesus saying "He calls himself a King.... if he is from heaven, let him save himself!"

Jesus had the final joke on them- he did save himself, and the rest of us as well! Although we can't focus on Christ as victorious, we have to focus on His suffering, because it is through this suffering that He was able to unite Himself to His Father in Heaven. We too can unite our sufferings with Christ's and become closer to our Father in Heaven.

This feast of Christ the King, let us remember that Christ is Victorious, but yet that he was humble. Let us follow that example as well.

Amen, so be it.

Sins against the Holy Spirit

I recently logged on to www.catholicpages.com/start . This is a page i check out on a regular basis to see the quote from St. Josemaria Escrivez and also check which cardinals are having birthdays, etc. The page also has a little Catholic fact each day. Today, November 21st, the little fact is about Sins against the Holy Spirit. This is something I have never truly known about, but I do know that that is a sin that cannot be forgiven, as long as one commits the sin. I just found out today some examples of this sin:

Despair of salvation
presumption of God's mercy
impugning the known truths of faith
envy at another's spiritual good
obstinacy in sin
final impenitence.

I was rather surprised in particular at the presumption of God's mercy. This to me means that we need more confession and more teaching regarding it. Many don't go to confession because they say "Oh that sin wasn't that bad and God forgives me anyway." This right there is a presumption of God's mercy. WOW! means I'm going to be double-checking myself and hitting confession more often!

The page ends the little teaching by saying: "Those guilty of such sins stubbornly resist the influence of grace and, as long as they do, cannot be forgiven."

Advent begins in a week and a half. Remember the words of John the Baptist: "BEHOLD HE IS COMING! REPENT AND BELIEVE IN THE GOOD NEWS!" (also known as get thee to confession!)

Have a great Thanksgiving. I will be going to my beautiful girlfriend's parent's place for thanksgiving. I'm so very happy to be with a wonderful woman who is Catholic and in whom I can share my faith!

Praying for yah,

HOWDY!

Howdy Y'all! I am making a happy return to the Internet. I previously hosted "A Country Boy Writes..." at bknebel.blogspot.com, but someone has scooped up that domain name and has left me to fend for myself. I have chosen countryboywrites.blogspot.com I hope that isn't too confusing!

I hope to write about all sorts of things, namely, my Catholic Faith, but also about being a school teacher on the prairie and being a part-time ranch hand on our family ranch.

I'll just leave you with that for now. I'll be back again soon! Have a great November evening! Happy Thanksgiving a little early!

Ad Majorem dei Gloriam