Why Suffering

   Jesus did not die on the cross, and Jesus did not suffer, so we wouldn't suffer. He suffered and died so our suffering and death would be salvific in Him.

  This post will feature some videos and make a reference to Jesus on the cross, saying, ''My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?''

  Both suffering and this line are misconceived.

  One could say, how is Jesus 'god' when He says this? Why would the One True God say such things to seemingly another? Or to Himself?

  One can also understand it as simply, Jesus never claimed to be God, or Allah, and this is proof as say the naysayers, and namely the Moslems.

  One who denies a God who is active in the world, a Living God, would say, why is there suffering to begin with. Why would anyone feel forsaken by a Living God of love if He existed, much less one who claims to be him. Why does anyone suffer?

  All legitimate propositions, but only when not seen in the right light.

  The quote of Jesus is actually found in Psalm 22.  One can say Jesus is praying. But there is more! And there is also a video: 

    So why would Jesus recite this prayer and in that way?
 First, it is how the Jews of His day referred to a passage in scripture, by the first verse.  At the time, the BOOK CHAPTER: VERSE method was not used, it did not yet exist.  So the Jews of the day would go to the scribes and ask to read them by the first verse, it was a way to identify the passage without numerical chapters and verses assigned.

  Kind of like quoting a book today, we wouldn't necessarily say the first line of a chapter, but we wouldn't use verse numbers either.  The system was different in those times.

  Second, and more pointedly, it is a Messianic prayer:

''They pierced my hands and my feet... They divide my garments among them,
And for my clothing they cast lots.''

  Interesting to say that the hands and feet were pierced when this passage is older than crucifixion itself! 

 http://carm.org/questions/about-jesus/why-did-jesus-cry-out-my-god-my-god-why-have-you-forsaken-me

  So, now you know Jesus was not claiming to be forsaken by God or the Father, so then what does this line in the passage mean? Is it even one of despair?

  Benedict explains why it is not one of despair.


   Okay! So that would be the explanations why Jesus was not actually forsaken.  

   Then, if one knows his or her Bible, one can try to circumvent this revelation by pointing out that Jesus suffered in Gethsemane (''Agony in the Garden'').

  This too shall be answered, as we are discussing both suffering and Jesus's suffering and how to make sense of our own suffering and that of a God.  Jesus is typically understood be feeling a sense of loss at the knowing of the Passion to come and of the loss during His Passion.

  When does Jesus go to the garden?  The Bible is clear, after the third cup and before the fourth.  What is this third and fourth cup? Jewish tradition at passover, and each cup represents something:

   Brant Pitre from the Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans explains all: 
http://www.brantpitre.com/documents/printable_outlines/fourth_cup.pdf 

 Once again, Ladies and Gentlemen, He is praying, and again fulfilling the prayer actively !!

FOURTH CUP

What shall I render to the LORD for all his bounty to me?

I shall lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD

... Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his holy ones.

O LORD, I am your servant I am your servant the son of your handmaid

. You have loosed my bonds; I will offer you the sacrifice of thanksgiving

, and call on the name of the LORD. (Psalm 116:12,13, 15-17)

Out of my distress I called to the LORD; the LORD answered me and set me free...

I shall not die, but I shall live and recount the deeds of the LORD. The LORD has chastened me sorely, but he has not given me over to death. Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the LORD. This is the gate of the LORD; the righteous shall enter through it.

I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation

.

The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner.

This is the LORD’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. (Psalm 118:5, 17-22)

 Jesus truly suffering in despair? Think again! Everything done was intentional.

  Okay! So of course Jesus feels human emotion, and He can be broken hearted, as the Father can just as well.  But Jesus was on a mission, knew His mission, knew what was said about the mission, so He obliged. 

  What about us?!

  What about human suffering then? How could a Loving God allow for suffering to start with?

   Well, the best answer to this is, what is God to us if we do not suffer?  How would we ever know that there is more to this world if we do not know to look for something more? That is to say, if everything was nice and wonderful, how would we ever think of thinking that we weren't already in Heaven, in a sacred place? 

   Suffering and pain is God's CRY, saying you are not alone, there is more to you.  In order for you to realize this you must feel loneliness, anguish, suffering in your soul so you know that there is one who can heal you.  One must be sick before healed, one must be lonely before comforted. 

  It's no wonder in a culture, which seeks to take away all suffering and blames religions for most of the suffering and affliction, is not hearing the cry. With no God, one will never make sense of suffering. Suffering will always hunt us, if we live in the 'feel good' society, where do we turn when we find out that this way of life is not true? We can not always feel good, we will suffer.  In religion, especially Christianity, we acknowledge suffering, we work within it, and not against it.

  There is only one way to be happy, not by a 'feel good' culture, but by one at peace with the very existence of existence itself.  And in our existence and experience of pain, we hear a cry from God, saying 'I am here, You have nothing to fear.'

  Is this not God's message? I love you! so fear not! Love me and you will find true happiness.

  God wants us to love Him, and know that this world is not the end.  This world is not Heaven, and therefore we ache, and sometimes greatly.  But remember His mercy!  His mercy and love is so great He also came down to suffer with us.  He suffered tremendous suffering in His Passion, by the wounds and blood, by the rejection of His people, and through the agony of those crying for Him. 

  Why does God let us suffer? Well, He allowed Himself to suffer.

  Who are we to curse a God who has also suffered? Who knows human suffering in the flesh?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJUJpWI4xDk&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DgJUJpWI4xDk&app=desktop



JESUS' LAST  SEVEN WORDS
http://www.mycatholiccds.com/seven-last-sayings-of-jesus.php  

Give Life Your All

I love, the gritty and the jest, the beauty and distress, and everything in between.
I love Jesus Christ, because it is He, that told me what this means.
He laid His life on the line, and caressed death.
Making it a gate, to a universal renew, to peace and love and happiness.
Removing the old view, and besides what the body becomes of.
Drawing us near to the life which awaits, and made real foreverness.
Brashly unlatching Heaven's gates!

So when I feel alone and dreary from the weary.
I remember I was called, to stand upright and tall.
Despite it all.
To wave at fate, with eternal grace.
And to live boldly! And not wait.
Set aside my fears of loss.
My long tears of knowing us.
And take up a life with feeling either way.
And feel the depths of inequity and pain to stay.
Triumph! Is the call! Whether man is large or falls!
Because He said and done it all!
He opened the gates from a perilous fall!
Behold, I am with you!
Give Life Your All!

UNITY

One's actions must be UNITED with one's mind.

One can not say they are X, but live out Y.  This is a formula for psychic problems.

If love does not climb, it falls. If, like the flame, it does not burn upward to the sun, it burns downward to destroy. If sex does not mount to heaven, it descends into hell. There is no such thing as giving the body without giving the soul. Those who think they can be faithful in soul to one another, but unfaithful in body, forget that the two are inseparable. Sex in isolation from personality does not exist! An arm living and gesticulating apart from the living organism is an impossibility. Man has no organic functions isolated from his soul. There is involvement of the whole personality. Nothing is more psychosomatic than the union of two in one flesh; nothing so much alters a mind, a will, for better or for worse. The separation of soul and body is death. Those who separate sex and spirit are rehearsing for death. The enjoyment of the other's personality through one's own personality, is love. The pleasure of animal function through another's animal function is sex separated from love.

[Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, Three to Get Married]

Great Lesson!

In the time of the Bible, they knew this, the many devils said to be in the person was usually symbolic of their inability to live United

This word United is very powerful!

Personal health: one must be united in action and mind, mind and body.

Family health: the family must be united for the family to live out its familial relationships

The City:  the city must be united to produce.benefits for all

The football team: the oline, the whole team must be united on the team's goals

Sex, the function of sex is one of unity, if one shares oneself, they biologically carry all the contact to others.... this is a fact!  Do you not think it is the same for the mind. If you give thought to another, you won't completely lose that. You will remember someway and somehow.  Can one who has uncontrollably given themself away really ever have the right mental make-up to give oneself fully to another in unity? It is not hard to see that once we give a piece of ourselves away, it is hard to repossess that piece and give our all to the one we wish to unite with. 

This is the depths of the Catholic teaching about the body.

CATHOLICISM = UNITY

CATHOLICISM = HEALTH!

Indeed, sin is disunity, sinning is not being united with the Creator, God.

In Holy Communion, we come to 'full communion'' with God as sinners, almost as Heaven.  We bring ourselves, our sins to the mass and ask for forgiveness, but in Heaven we leave our sins behind and the real power of communion with Christ is revealed.

Untying our Knots

Pope Francis’ Prayer to Our Lady, Untier of Knots

Holy Mary, full of God’s presence during the days of your life,
you accepted with full humility the Father’s will,
and the Devil was never capable to tie you around with his confusion
Once with your son you interceded for our difficulties,
and, full of kindness and patience you gave us example of how to untie the knots of our life.
And by remaining forever Our Mother,
you put in order, and make more clear the ties that link us to the Lord.
Holy Mother, Mother of God, and our Mother,
to you, who untie with motherly heart the knots of our life, we pray to you to receive in your hands (the name of person),
and to free him/her of the knots and confusion with which our enemy attacks.
Through your grace, your intercession, and your example,
deliver us from all evil, Our Lady, and untie the knots that prevent us from being united with God,
so that we, free from sin and error, may find Him in all things, may have our hearts placed in Him, and may serve Him always in our brothers and sisters. Amen.

Fatima: 5 Blasphemies against Mary

********TAKEN FROM FATIMA.ORG

“When I was in the chapel with Our Lord part of the night of May 29-30, 1930 (we know that it was her habit to make a holy hour from eleven in the evening to midnight, especially on Thursday evenings, according to the requests of the Sacred Heart at Paray-le-Monial), and I spoke to Our Lord about questions four and five, I suddenly felt myself more intimately possessed by the Divine Presence and, if I am not mistaken, this is what was revealed to me:
“My daughter, the reason is simple. There are five types of offenses and blasphemies committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary:

1. Blasphemies against the Immaculate Conception.
2. Blasphemies against Her Perpetual Virginity.
3. Blasphemies against Her Divine Maternity, in refusing at the same time to recognize Her as the Mother of men.
4. The blasphemies of those who publicly seek to sow in the hearts of children indifference or scorn, or even hatred of this Immaculate Mother.
5. The offenses of those who outrage Her directly in Her holy images. “Here, My daughter, is the reason why the Immaculate Heart of Mary inspired Me to ask for this little act of Reparation ...”

It is also true that the gravest sins against the Most Holy Virgin are first of all sins against faith. This important lesson must be kept in mind.

Terms of Agreement

  We are often, in this modern economic world, presented with words when partaking in a media product or online service of Terms & Service Agreement.

  Well, Here, I will show the Terms we use to explain our service to God.

 I will show how simple language should, in theory, take down Protestant idea of Sola Fide apart from Law.

  But Faith is important! The Catholic Church teaches that one must have Faith in Works, it is niether faith or works alone.

 For example:

“It doesn’t matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man way from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.” Wormwood (The Demon), “The Screwtape Letters”, C.S. Lewis

  Jesus knew this.  That is why He instituted Confession, Gospel of John 20:21-23.  Jesus knows to go up a slope we must walk up, take action!  Otherwise, the force of the slope overtakes us.  That is why it is important to do.  Life is more than what we believe or have faith in, we must live fully, and live fully in Christ. Yet, faith is vital as no action is a faithful act without faith, you must believe that walking up the slope helps before you can walk up the slope

SO FAITH IS VERY CRUCIAL, BUT HERE IS EVIDENCE OF OUR LEGAL LANGUAGE

1.) THE VERY BOOKS IN THE BIBLE ARE CALLED TESTAMENT IN ENGLISH:

The Greek word (pronounced) dee-ath-ay-kay means a disposition, the act or means of disposing of something, as in a will. It is variously translated as either "covenant" or "testament," which is interesting because they differ in meaning in English usage i.e. covenant means "a written agreement between two or more parties to perform some action" while testament means "a legal document declaring a person's wishes regarding the disposal of their property when they die." While the Greek word is closer in meaning to the English word "testament," the Biblical usage of it blends "covenant" and "testament" in a way that the full Scriptural meaning is only made clear by the use of both.

   I heard it said, that this word used in Greek from Aramaic, is unquestionably identified as a legal term.  That when used, no one doubts the legal claim in it.

2)  JESUS IS A JUDGE? A JUDGE OF WHAT? FAITH ALONE. A JUDGE JUDGES ACCORDANCE TO LAW

judge

 

1.

a public officer authorized to hear and decide cases in a court of law; a magistrate charged with the administration of justice.

2.

a person appointed to decide in any competition, contest, or matter at issue; authorized arbiter: the judges of a beauty contest.

3.

a person qualified to pass a critical judgment: a good judge of horses.

4.

an administrative head of Israel in the period between the death of Joshua and the accession to the throne by Saul.

5.

(especially in rural areas) a county official with supervisory duties, often employed part-time or on an honorary basis.

3) JESUS AS JUDGE IS SAID TO BE JUST, AND THERE WILL BE THOSE WHO WILL KNOW HIS JUSTICE 

In reference to Jesus' Justice: i.e. Awarding the righteous

 "Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me" (Mt 25:45b). The compelling final line says it all, "And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life" (Mt 25:46).

A Gathering of Humanity

  This message is short, but hopefully resonates.

  IF any one were to have a dinner, and invite the following for a conversation: 
   Einstein, Socrates, the pharoah Ramses, Confucius, Simon Bolivar, Martin Luther King, Jr., Napoleon, Shakespeare, and Nelson Mandella

  Which topic could you possibly talk about to all of them together without teaching them anything about the modern world? What could you speak about so they understood your positions and influences?
  
  Hydrogen? Social Justice? Communism? Genetic engineering?

  NO ! As far as I can think, we can talk about, responsibility, simple mechanics, ideas of community, ideas of the differences of men and women, cute babies, and DEATH and RELIGION.

  These things are UNIVERSAL, AGELESS 

 But it is not what we seem to talk about these days, we seem to talk about things we love which are things that come and go through the ages.

   

   

God's Love Letter

Father's Love Letter My Child ~
You may not know me, but I know everything about you ~ Psalm 139:1
I know when you sit down and when you rise up ~ Psalm 139:2
I am familiar with all your ways ~ Psalm 139:3
Even the very hairs on your head are numbered ~ Matthew 10:29-31
For you were made in my image ~ Genesis 1:27
In me you live and move and have your being ~ Acts 17:28
For you are my offspring ~ Acts 17:28
I knew you even before you were conceived ~ Jeremiah 1:4-5
I chose you when I planned creation ~ Ephesians 1:11-12
I determined the exact time of your birth and where you would live ~ Acts 17:26
You are fearfully and wonderfully made ~ Psalm 139:14
I knit you together in your mother's womb ~ Psalm 139:13
And brought you forth on the day you were born ~ Psalm 71:6
I have been misrepresented by those who don't know me ~ John 8:41-44
I am not distant and angry, but am the complete expression of love ~ 1 John 4:16
And it is my desire to lavish my love on you ~ 1 John 3:1
Simply because you are my child and I am your father ~ 1 John 3:1
I offer you more than your earthly father ever could ~ Matthew 7:11
For I am the perfect father ~ Matthew 5:48
Every good gift that you receive comes from my hand ~ James 1:17
For I am your provider and I meet all your needs ~ Matthew 6:31-33
My plan for your future has always been filled with hope ~ Jeremiah 29:11
Because I love you with an everlasting love ~ Jeremiah 31:3
My thoughts toward you are countless as the sand on the seashore ~ Psalm 139:17-18
And I rejoice over you with singing ~ Zephaniah 3:17
I will never stop doing good to you ~ Jeremiah 32:40
For you are my treasured possession ~ Exodus 19:5
I desire to establish you with all my heart and all my soul ~ Jeremiah 32:41
And I want to show you great and marvelous things ~ Jeremiah 33:3
If you seek me with all your heart, you will find me ~ Deuteronomy 4:29
Delight in me and I will give you the desires of your heart ~ Psalm 37:4
For it is I who gave you those desires ~ Philippians 2:13
I am able to do more for you than you could possibly imagine ~ Ephesians 3:20
For I am your greatest encourager ~ 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17
I am also the Father who comforts you in all your troubles ~ 2 Corinthians 1:3-4
When you are brokenhearted, I am close to you ~ Psalm 34:18
As a shepherd carries a lamb, I have carried you close to my heart ~ Isaiah 40:11
One day I will wipe away every tear from your eyes ~ Revelation 21:3-4
And I'll take away all the pain you have suffered on this earth ~ Revelation 21:3-4
I am your Father, and I love you even as I love my son, Jesus ~ John 17:23
For in Jesus, my love for you is revealed ~ John 17:26
He is the exact representation of my being ~ Hebrews 1:3
He came to demonstrate that I am for you, not against you ~ Romans 8:31
And to tell you that I am not counting your sins ~ 2 Corinthians 5:18-19
Jesus died so that you and I could be reconciled ~ 2 Corinthians 5:18-19
His death was the ultimate expression of my love for you ~ 1 John 4:10
I gave up everything I loved that I might gain your love ~ Romans 8:31-32
If you receive the gift of my son Jesus, you receive me ~ 1 John 2:23
And nothing will ever separate you from my love again ~ Romans 8:38-39
Come home and I'll throw the biggest party heaven has ever seen ~ Luke 15:7
I have always been Father, and will always be Father ~ Ephesians 3:14-15
My question is ~ Will you be my child? ~ John 1:12-13
I am waiting for you ~ Luke 15:11-32
                                                                               Love, Your Dad, Almighty God

Human Population: Just cause for Abortion?

 I once got into a conversation about overpopulation in Africa with a student.  They apparently watched a documentary which talked about the need for family planning, suggesting that religion has allowed the poor people to have 7-16 kids at a time.  And of course, as documentaries are good at doing, they introduced them to a man who had 38 kids from 6 wives. He was muslim and apparently was only allowed to have 4 wives at a time, and so divorced two of them.  The student went on to talk about how it was dumb to have kids you can not feed, and how having TOO MANY PEOPLE WAS A PROBLEM FOR AFRICA.

  My instant response was ---- It is just stupid to complain that peopel are alive.  I am actually digusted with that mindset, that someone who is only here because they themselves have been given a life, dares to say that others shouldn't be around.  There are ''too much'' of others. 

  Without too much knowledge, I proposed that there is enough food in the world.  Then the student countered with it is not the world's obligation to take care of people's children (I then said you just layed out a perfect argument against Socialism), but continued by saying that, of course not, providing for your children is a problem. But without life itself, there would not be hunger.

   Life is the first, Life is the way.  So is the problem indeed that there too many people? Or that there is life? 

   From the start, people have always have had big families, and under-fed children.  Is it a problem? Of course it is, but it is human anyway, and the response to it shouldn't be to prevent more humanity!

 Where is the sense to say, I should not have a life because it will hunger, so I will dispose of the life.  When if born, it will always have a potential to be saved or fed, but in death, it is robbed of this potential.

 So does it make any rational sense to decide the value of life based on taking away its potential to either be hungery or to be fed, when without life it has no chance for hunger or feeding? 

  The world is what it is today because of the way people procreated and lived.  So to say that Africa is wrong to have so many kids, is to say that humanity was wrong for the first hundreds of thousands of years.  And if the first man was told about 'overpopulation' and that it was a problem, then the vast majority of us wouldn't be here today.

It is ANTI-HUMAN, to think that overpopulation is WRONG!

Secondly, I came to discover: There are more reason to see that this anti-human position as just false and misguided:

 

ONE THERE IS IN FACT ENOUGH FOOD:  NOW  (STUDENT'S ANSWER TO THIS WAS THAT IT WAS THE PROBLEM IS FOR THE FUTURE)

     http://www.trust.org/alertnet/blogs/climate-conversations/is-there-enough-food-for-a-world-of-7-billion

FROM FINANCE.COM:

    The problem isn't even explained as a problem of Family Size:

Causes of poverty in Ethiopia:

Some of the causes of poverty in Ethiopia are:

• Arid conditions leading to irregular production in the agriculture sector.
• Improper marketing strategies of agricultural products.
• Degrading ecology
• Technological know how being poorly developed.
• Transportation facilities are poorly developed.
• Failure of the rural people in participating in awareness programs meant for them
• Absence of sufficient rainfall
• Shortage of food products owing to several conditions.
• Absence of proper socio economic infrastructure. This includes lack of potable water, proper education and health programs.
• Unstable political scenario.

  THIS IS THE PROBLEM: 

1)   SHOULD IT BE OKAY FOR PEOPLE TO HAVE KIDS WHEN THEY CAN NOT PROVIDE FOR THEM?

     It is dead travesty that people don't think about what they can do for their own kids (who do not choose to be born), but there could be prosecution on child abuse and then adoption.  Adoption is an option, so the first step could be said that the authororites can make sure the children are fed

  But there are more ways to do this than adoption and state involvement, the state has a responsibility to develop itself to meet the needs of hunger, as outlined here

There are several solutions to this problem -- NONE OF WHICH IS OVERPOPULATION!!!  In fact, Europe is in trouble for the opposite reasons -- de-population

The DATA IS OUTSTANDING!

Indian economist Raj Krishna estimates that India alone is capable of increasing crop yields to the point of providing the entire world’s food supply

http://www.nolanchart.com/article6112-old-myths-die-hardespecially-overpopulation.html

http://www.lifenews.com/2011/05/29/overpopulation-is-a-myth-plenty-of-food-and-space-exists/

UNITED NATIONS SAYS IT WAS WRONG ABOUT OVER-POPULATION

Overpopulation

UN admits it was wrong about overpopulation

Vatican (CWN) -- In an unprecedented admission, the United Nations Population Fund has acknowledged that its previous frightening predictions about a "population bomb" have been inaccurate. And the organization has also acknowledged that its latest estimates have also exaggerated the growth of world population.
In 1994, the Population Fund estimated that worldwide population growth would be approximately 94 million each year, until easing back to 85 million around the year 2020. But last year, world population growth amounted to only 81 million-- 20 percent below the UN estimate. In 1989, the Population Fund predicted that by the year 2000 the world's population would be 6.25 billion; the latest figures suggest that that estimate is high by at least 160 million-- a figure roughly equivalent to the population of Brazil!
The latest statistics, published this week by the UN, demonstrate that Pope John Paul II and his allies were correct when they said, in preparation for the Cairo conference on population growth, that international agencies were grossly exaggerating the trends in world population.


FINAL COMMENTARY:  THERE ARE SOULTIONS... AFRICA MUST DEVELOP ITSELF, AND THEN THE FOOD PROBLEM WILL GO AWAY, AND PEOPLE HAVE THEIR CHILDREN...

IN FACT, THE MOMENTUM IS THERE, IT WAS REPORTED BY THE UN, THAT THE AFRICAN UNION NOW STATES THAT EACH AFRICAN COULD HAVE 20 DOLLARS A DAY!

Ability to see Through Things

           ''Humor is not comic --- it is the ability to see through things '' - Archbishop Fulton Sheen



1 Corinthians 2: 14, 15
   14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. 15 But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. 16 For who has known the mind of the LORD, that he will instruct him?

   Today I read about Elijah

   I wondered, ''Is this for real?''

  Jesus is noted to be like no one else in history, as he died, then resurrected and never died again.  But 'even greater' Mary his mother and Elijah, never died at all.

  Or is it greater? Jesus died and rose and ceased to die all by His power.

  Elijah and Mary were given the glory of such distinction of life without death. But how glorious it is to never die.

  But, ''Is this for real?''

  What is lost in all this is the mysterious wonder of God.  We will never understand !  We have sciences which we can not learn more than the attributes of creation itself.

  We have philosophy which we can find reason by deductive equations, and discover rational truths, but we can not find the answer of the supernatural.

  The Middle Ages are often looked down upon these days by modern minds, in relation to their world view.  The superstitions and ignorance of the Middle Ages is critiqued adamantly.

 Truth is, it was the Middle Ages that gave us the system of universities.  To think them as ignorant, is itself an ignorant thought.

  What is splendid of the Middle Ages is that it seemed to have a great respect for mystery and power of God.  That anything is possible in creation by the Creator.

  You see beauty and splendid majesty in the culture.

  Why is knighthood even today glorified?  Because the pageantry captivates the imagination.

  It is in the imagination of the Middle Ages that is so wonderful. Just look to the churches built in the Middle Ages to the modern churches today.  I prefer the Middle Aged churches, I do not think I am alone, nor in any form of a minority with that opinion.

  See what glory there was.  Why do we plague our vision today? Where has this glory gone?

  I think, that is the greatest difference between us and the Saints.

  The Saints, no matter how studied, no matter which age they live in, had so much trust in God, that they found themselves a spirituality where they do not dare question, but submit their will to God and His powers.

  A Saint would not question God, would not question His Glory or the Glory of His Creation.

  A Saint is a painstakingly loyal servant and slave of power and mystery.

  In 1 Corinithians (1: 18-31, 2 )there is a great notion of faith and belief in the majesty. Yet, we are not to have faith without reason as in Isaiah 45: 18-19 says, invites us to seek Him in chaos.

Isaiah 45:18-19: For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it a chaos, he formed it to be inhabited!): "I am the LORD, and there is no other.  I did not speak in secret, in a land of darkness; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, `Seek me in chaos.' I the LORD speak the truth, I declare what is right.

  Further reflection on the matter:

  Jesus says we are to love as a child.

 I play a game with my son, something I just started recently.

  When he is talking I tell him to that he is quiet, when he is silent I say, 'shh' you are loud.'
  
  He cracks up.

  But why does he see the contradiction? Because I told him first that loud means boisterous, and quiet means silent.

  So he first believes me, and does not question me when I say what I say.

  Only when he believes in my first order of definition, does he see the contradiction as he still has faith in my first words.  If he is faithful, why does he not believe my words of contradiction?
  
  He simply he believes in me, because he knows me, trusts me, loves me.

  Eventhough it is still my words which speaks to him, he still must follow his faith in me to understand me.  To understand that I am speaking in contradictory terms, so he laughs at me for joking with him. The contradiction does not rattle his faith. He believes his first lesson.  That truth is in what his father teaches.

 And by his great faith in me, he does not let contradiction alter his faith, he is true to me, and he understands me.
       
 How great is the love of a child? As great of the Saints to God.

  In my role as a father, I have found, if He displeases me and I punish him or let him know I am not happy with him. 
  He gets sad.  As a three year old, he does not know self-reflection, he does not know forgiveness.  Yet, he only knows he wants me to accept him again.

  So in the pain of sadness, he comes to me and shows me he wants me even when I am displeased with him.

  It is a natural relationship my son has with his father.

  He seeks me, because he needs me.  

  What great love is that?  Not needing forgiveness, not needing explanation, just needing to seek me and have my love.

  God is our Father.  We are his children.  

 How do we understand the contradiction of mystery and worldliness? By keeping faith in His word that His words are true, and contradiction is not His Truth, but in our understanding.

 The saints understand as a child, they rely on the Father. How glorious is the Faith of the Saints of our times, they must have found that Middle Aged mysticism. 

  Pablo Pio, St. Therese of Lisieux, the children at Fatima.

 The rest of us seek understanding in our world apart from the majesty that is in the Creator, and we then miss God's Divine 'humor.'