It doesn't all depend on you.

God created everything. God is in everything. God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—is in everything. God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—is in you and me. At all times.

In our scattered lives, we often forget this, lose touch with it, block it out or even ignore it. But God doesn’t block us out. “I am with you always,” says Jesus, “until the end of the world.” (Matthew 28:20)

Oh, if we could only just simply rest in that reality, be in touch with Father, Son and Holy Spirit within us and rest there with eyes closed even just for a moment or a minute. If only we could consciously draw on the strength and courage and power that is already within us. After all, as St. Paul wrote to Timothy, “God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control.” (2 Tim 1:8)

Give everything over to that spirit. Stop trying to make things work on your own. At all time, it is God working within you that brings your projects, your wishes, your hopes and dreams to reality if they are part of His plan for you. And if they are not? Well then, wait until his plan is revealed to you in the ordinary circumstances of your life.

One of the most wonderful things about Christianity is that we never have to be concerned that everything counts on us alone. When I began writing this reflection, I had absolutely no idea what I was going to write about. But then an inspiration was given to me, and guided my fingers line by line as I made my way down the page. Thanks be to God alone.

Take time today to rest in the Presence, to listen to His promptings, to let Him tell you what to say, or do, or even think thoughts that lie buried deep underneath the usual ordinary chatter that goes on in your mind.

And then give thanks. God bless you.

Where is happiness?

Every year, on All Saints’ Day, the Gospel calls our attention to the Beatitudes.

Unfortunately, however, since we hear them so often, the Beatitudes are sometimes reduced to the level of dull clichés. We listen to them, but we don’t hear them. If you were at Mass today, did you truly hear them as they were proclaimed, or did you perhaps “zone out” as they passed by?

It is hard to focus on them. They turn what we consider the “natural order” of things right upside down. Those who are blessed, or “happy,” or “fortunate,” at not those we have been brainwashed into choosing. Just look at the list of those Christ calls “blessed:”  the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure of heart, the peacemakers and the persecuted.

Things get shaken up; false notions are shown to be empty promises; our basic drives are called into question—the drives for security, power, approval, aggrandizement, notoriety, self-esteem, control; happiness is not what it appears to be or what think it should be. We may think we are climbing the ladder of success only to discover that we have set it up against the wrong building.

I turned to the Catechism of the Catholic Church to see what it had to say about this “reversal of fortunes:”

. . . true happiness is not found in riches or well-being, in human fame or power, or in any human achievement—however beneficial it may be—such as science, technology, and art, or indeed in any creature, but in God alone, the sources of every good and of all love. (#1723)

 At first sight, I find this difficult to embrace, but when I hold it up to the picture of my own life I can see how true it is. I have sought happiness in so many things, and never truly found it. And yet, I consider myself to be a happy man. Deep down inside, I think the happiness comes from my existence as a monk which demands a radical orientation towards God and the things of God, especially at this point in my life when I am no longer doing those things which in the past brought me honor and prestige and a bit of fame.  But enough about me. What do you make of all this, and how can you apply it to your own life? That’s the important question for you to consider on this All Saints’ Day.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this, either by commenting below or by sending me an email (bcamera@anselm.edu).

God bless.