Seasons, Part of God's Plan

From Our Lay Directors

Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven… Ecclesiastes 3:1

The kids have been back in school for around (6) weeks now. College football is well under way. The leaves are starting to change, not only on the trees but on the crops as well. Soon it will be time to harvest.

This time of year, has become bittersweet for me. Fall has always been my favorite season, but when I lost John the fall of 2021 it’s brought a sadness to the season for me.

Losing a spouse (or anyone) … it’s not just the anniversary date that’s tough, but the days, weeks and sometimes months leading up to the anniversary date of their death. It brings on anxiety, anticipation,memories… that can be like a cloud over your days. It’s very painful as the sorrow is so deep! But I’m reminded that if it weren’t for these extremely tough times, the good, happy times wouldn’t be so joyful.

The apostles and Mary had to lose Jesus and grieve and suffer for (3) days before finding out Jesus had risen.Then, there was joy and celebration! They didn’t understand why Jesus had to suffer and die until the resurrection day. Just as we often don’t know and understand why we must suffer and grieve in life.

But ultimately, it’s all part of God’s plan. Whether it be God’s plan for Jesus’s life or His plan for our lives, He is walking with us and carrying us every step of the way.

Change is inevitable. Seasons come and go. We can choose to get stuck in the season’s or we can choose to learn and grow through them, one step at a time, thanking God along the way and through it all.

Praying this fall season brings you closer to your creator through its changes in the colors and the changes happening in your life.

Blessings!

Karen Fritsch - kittyrg1967@gmail.com

Troy Peebles - tpeebles1007@gmail.com

Music, as Prayer and Study

From our Lay Directors

Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

One of the ways I love to pray and study is through music. I listen to a couple of different Christian radio stations and have saved or downloaded many songs to my phone, as I love their messages and going back to them for meditation and prayer. They give me strength, peace, help me feel the love of God and remind me who I'm supposed to be in this world.

Let Them see You in Me, a song by Colton Dixon came out in 2013.

The refrain is as follows;

Let them see You in me

Let them hear You when I speak

Let the feel You when I sing

Let them see You

Let them see You, in me

I love this song! The message is simple but profound! When I listen to this song and sing along with it, I pray that God will use me where I am, as I am to be His hands and feet, heart and voice to everyone I meet every day. Through my word and example, I want people to see Christ in me!

My message is simple. Read and pray the words of this song and mean them. 

Blessings! 

Karen Fritsch - kittyrg1967@gmail.com 

Troy Peebles - tpeebles1007@gmail.com

Living an Eternal Life

From Our Spiritual Advisor:

Make a friend, be a friend, bring that friend to Christ.

I have been thinking about life a lot lately. I think about life in varied ways. There is this life that I live in this human body and the various life changes that occur over time. I think of these life variations, especially having reached my 75th birthday. There are health changes, financial changes, emotional changes to name a few. These changes are inevitable.

Then there is the important life issue. How about our spiritual life? Jesus speaks continually about life. One might think he is obsessed with life and in a way, he is obsessed with life. That obsession is focused on the eternal life that each of us are participating in daily. Jesus says, “you must lose your life to have life eternal”. St. Paul writes that this life is a burden that gets in the way of our forever life,our eternal life.

Jesus isn’t telling us that the life we live is useless to us. In fact, we are born to be useful in fulfilling the plan thatGod has presented to the world. That plan is focused on knowing God in the deepest ways and to lead others through our example, our thoughts, our actions, based on what we are taught by Jesus through the Scriptures.

The Scriptures. Here is where we see Jesus showing us the plan for this human life and how it relates to our eternal life. Let me say that again. Our human life relates to our eternal life.

I think the first thing that we need to focus on is that we, right now, are living an eternal life and that this human life is not apart from it. We are to live within eternal life just as Jesus lives in the eternal life. Is this too much to take in?

When Jesus speaks of losing this life, He is specifically saying that this human life often gets into the way of eternal happiness, peace, and a true knowledge of God. We are created in the image of God, the Church teaches and the Scriptures bare out. Jesus is God and thus is the prime example for us, thank You God, to fashion our lives around it. The problem always is the world around us.

I see it all the time on social media. Good well-meaning Christians, Cursillitas, who are caught up in the world events, political statements, taking sides. This is exactly what Jesus was warning us against. The world affects us while we are to affect the world. When we get caught up in political views, this side is right or this side is wrong we start becoming of this world.

As Cursillistas we are to be that prime example to those we encounter as that example of eternity here on earth. We are called to above the mundane everyday occurrences that attempt and yes succeed at times to influence us in an earthly manner. Jesus’ words that we must lose our life to find life is exactly that. We must be always focused on God and our relationship with God.

The mystics found their way to be one with God. It is good to read the stories of the mystics and how they found oneness in God.

We are eternal beings. How can we find our way to living an eternal life, right now?

Deacon Tom Soper #283