IMAGINE

Please take time to listen to these two priests  

Father Jeffrey Mickler

  

Father Francis Maple

The Sign of the Cross

 

When I was in hospital I saw something I'd not seen since I was a child.

They have a chapel in hospital. The door to the chapel is an ordinary door, like all the others in a long hospital corridor. It says on it "Chapel" as opposed to "X Ray" or "Pharmacy" or whatever else is posted on the other doors.

I noticed that several people whilst passing by this door did the Sign of the Cross. A few opened the door and looked in for 5 or 10 seconds, did the Sign of the Cross, and then continued on their way.

Now this is something I've not seen for many years when, as a child, we were taught to do the Sign of the Cross whenever we passed a Church. I certainly did not expect to see it in secular Britain.

So ... what is the Sign of the Cross?

It is first and foremost a Prayer.

When we Cross ourselves and say "In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost", we acknowledge God as our only living God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. We acknowledge a fundamental mystery of our Faith. God is three persons in one. We pray that in His name we will be loved and protected by Him.

The Sign of the Cross is also an acknowledgement that God's only Son, Jesus, suffered and died for us on the Cross.

The Sign of the Cross is our protection, our shield against all evil. When we Cross ourselves we acknowledge that no evil can pass through the Cross and harm us.

The Sign of the Cross is our sign of respect and love to Our Creator and Saviour.

The Sign of the Cross is our witness to everyone that we are Christians and we believe in God, three in one, living today here and now; as He has always been in the past and will be in future. When those people made the Sign of the Cross as they passed the hospital Chapel door they made more than a sign of respect. They witnessed to everyone watching about God.

The Sign of the Cross. 

More than just a Sign of the Cross.

Blogging for God

 

Luke 12:8-12

Jesus said to the disciples, "And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God; but whoever denies me before others will be denied before the angels of God."

... And ... that's what Christian Blogging is all about. Once we've started Blogging we should continue to witness for the Lord.

Quick Bytes #38: Choices

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"Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor 
and you will have treasure in Heaven; 
then come, follow me."

Notice how Jesus did not make that rich man
sell his belongings.

Nor did Our Savior force the man to follow Him.

He gave him the choice.

Just as God gives us a choice every day.

To do something good.  Or not.

To help the poor.  Or not.

To do something ... anything ... to promote the Word.  Or not.

To break out of the rut we all get in ... the one where we spend too much
time focusing on the insignificance of this world.  Or not.

To follow Him.  Or not.

Yes, God has laid out the plan.  But the choice is ours.

Every minute of every day.
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Lone Voice Syndrome

John the Baptist preached in the desert and ate locusts and honey.

I wonder how many people listened to what he had to say in the hot desert. Let's face it, it's not exactly the center of the universe with crowds from all over the world mingling and shopping and gathering to hear a man dressed in camel hair. Apart from the odd geko, snake or scorpion who was there to listen to John?

He would have done much better at the city mall or the town center or church than wander in a hot desert with no umbrella or ice cream to keep him cool.

But yet ... he did have his successes paving the way for the arrival of Christ, and he did baptise quite a few people too.

How about us Bloggers?

Some of us Blog every day or so, others Blog less often and perhaps eagerly we check whether any one has commented, or we look at the statistics to see how popular, or not, our posts are.

We may well feel that each of our Blogs is a lone voice in the vast expanse which is the World Wide Web.

And perhaps this is so ...

But yet ... we never know who might be visiting us on this World Wide Web and to them, perhaps, our post is the first time they have read about Christ. Despite our advanced technology in the 21st Century there are still plenty of people who have not heard or learnt about God, and His only Son. Even in the so-called civilised world there are many who view God as a myth, a human invention, or someone in whom it is fashionable not to believe.

Our individual Blogs are important as lone voices in the wilderness witnessing for Him. One light, shining in the darkness created by the evil one in order to lead us astray.

One Blog is important. Many Blogs, working together, shine brighter throughout the world.

Every Christian Blog started should continue to shine for as long as possible.

Each post can spread more light if reflected elsewhere. Either here on this Community, or linked with/to other Christian Blogs or websites.

If, in our travels, we read a good Blog we can reflect it further by linking the post on our own Blogs. That way the readers of the original Blog and our own readers will have benefitted from the message on the post.

On a day when we have nothing to say on our Blog, and are not inspired to write; why not link to someone else's Blog post instead? That way, we have kept our Blog fresh and up-dated and we have aimed a mirror on someone else's light to shine brighter in the darkness.

John the Baptist did what he did without the aid of Blogger, Facebook or other modern technologies at our disposal.

So how much easier should it be for us to spread the Word with all the fancy contraptions we have today?

And you don't have to eat locusts to do it!

What about their rights?

Our "Witness to Life" activities are multiplying at my daughter's high school.  This is the group that I ended up being a regular driver and chaperone by chance (definition 7:  Holy Spirit's orchestration).  Instead of just the one Saturday trip to the Planned Parenthood in Aurora, Illinois - which was the largest abortion facility opened in the United States, when it opened.  Since then this evil organization has opened larger facilities.

Please link over to my blog to read the rest of this post.