Welcome! I'm Father Greg. This site is a forum for St. Andrew parishioners to ask ANY (appropriate) questions about the Catholic faith, related or unrelated to my posts. All comments have to meet my approval before they are posted. I'm sorry for the approval process and subsequent delays, and I thank you for your patience and understanding. This is a site for positive and inspiring comments that will benefit people. Thanks, and may you know the peace of Christ!
This quote is from Jn 3:30, and I have it on my cell phone voice mail greeting. This is now the new theme for this blog site. I am grateful for the support and encouragement from some folks, but praising Christ is the focus of this site.
posted by Fr Greg @ 11:09 PM
5 comments
If you are more comfortable asking a question privately, please e-mail me directly at gshaffe1@yahoo.com. It will be kept in confidence.
5 Comments:
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Is it better for a teacher to hand out an "A" for the class, or is it better earn that "A"? We may prefer the easy "A", but in the long run, we learn, grow, and become better at what we are striving to do as a result of our struggles to earn it.
The process of learning to read takes effort, Most would prefer being able to read themselves as opposed to being read to or pretending to understand the words because we never learned to read - even if we passed the course.
Are you sure God doesn't simply give us those things?
What would the gift of patience look like? Would it be a miraculous change of personality, like your hair changing color overnight?
Or would it usually be the presence of the Holy Spirit, in Whose peace you can, if you want, find the means to control your emotions?
Anon #1, It is so appropriate that you should ask this type of question since FG just changed the blog site purpose/theme. The scriptures tell us that when we are weakest, HE is strongest. THis is when by cooperating with His grace, we learn patience, trust in God and increased faith. It does not mean He takes away the cross/burden but He will walk you or perhaps carry you through it. It is in our suffering, our weakness that He increases and we decrease. We need to cooperate with His grace through prayer, scripture, The EUcharist, and regular confession. We can also unite our suffering with Christ's suffering on the Cross. These are just the things that I have experienced when suffering. Hope this helps.
Anon #2
I think He does give us these things, but we have to learn - to recognize them, to accept them, to use them to grow according to His will. We have to learn patience with ourselves. Sometimes we can't see the forest for all the trees in the way.
And when I do recognize them, I feel the gift of His mercy and get this wonderful feeling, knowing I am truly Blessed. I find strengthened in my desire to do His Will and not mine, to (as Fr. Greg says) decrease so that He may increase. The joy can be almost overwhelming.
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