Pilgrim progress- a disciple on a journey!

Disclaimer: I know, it's not pink today. It is ROSE! Yes, it is that time again. Third week of Advent means Gaudete Sunday, a day which takes its common name from the Latin word Gaudete ("Rejoice"), the first word of the entrance antiphon of this day's Mass: Gaudete in Domino semper: iterum dico, gaudete. Modestia vestra nota sit omnibus hominibus: Dominus enim prope est. Nihil solliciti sitis: sed in omni oratione petitiones vestræ innotescant apud Deum. Benedixisti Domine terram tuam: avertisti captivitatem Jacob. I am sure that the Latin scholars will be able to translate this but just in case, here’s the text! “ Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Let your forbearance be known to all, for the Lord is near at hand; have no anxiety about anything, but in all things, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God. Lord, you have blessed your land; you have turned away the captivity of Jacob.” We should re...

As the New Year  continues, filled with new hope and new resolutions, here are 10 such commandments that might serve us well as we walk the long road: 1.Acknowledge your contingency, your helplessness. You are a creature, not the creator.You are not God, but a creature. Only God is ‘ipsum esse subsistens’, a self–sufficient being. Like all creatures, you’re dependent and interdependent. Life works when you acknowledge this, when you accept that you can’t give yourself life. All is gift. If you try to live the illusion of self–sufficiency and try to guarantee your own immortality, you mimic the sin of Adam and Eve, complete with all the futility of effort, the lording–it–over, and the alienation from nature that ensues. Proper living begins with the words: “I am not God!” 2.Pray prayers of helplessness, gratitude, and praise. Pray always! Also pray formally each day. By your baptism you’re a priest. Pray as priest: Hold the world up each day to God. Hold up both its wonders ...