Friends...

For those of you to whom I have been lacking in my devotion over the past several weeks, my sincere apologies. I love you all dearly, but as you well know sometimes life brings us challenges and new thoughts and different ways of viewing the world that we were not prepared for, and which take time and absence from society to process. Though areas remain to be ironed out, I believe I am starting to come full circle on all of this. Unfortunately I cannot go into detail, but know that I am trying my best to find my way in this crazy life, and that I am learning from the trials and the victories therein contained.

To you, then I owe my greatest thanks. You who have been there at every corner and in every new place that I have gone to. You always make life more worth living and make ensure that I am still following the path that I need to follow, to ultimately find true happiness in the Lord. True freedom is sacrificing all that you have, being willing to give it all up for your friends to the greater glory of God. My problem is that I give to anyone, and that I need to be more loving towards those of you who have always been there for me, and who have asked me to serve an important role in your lives. If I could be there right next to you, and aid you more immediately, you know that I would, but my path has never been one that stays in one place. I believe that God has given me the blessing of an unsatisfied spirit in order to achieve great things in His name. I look forward to opportunities that are developing to teach in Latin America, and maybe to aid in a project seeking to re-build earthquake-ridden parts of Perú. I then may return to the seat of my most recent inspiration to life in Christ in El Salvador. These then may guide me down the right path, so that I may find what it is that God ultimately wants for my life.

Reflections then: how often do we spend time alone with God? How often do we listen to the yearnings deep within our own hearts? How often do we go to mass, confession, or seek which other sacrament may next be necessary in our lives? Better said, how much is God a part of our every waking and even sleeping moments? We should seek to draw ourselves ever closer to Him and His heart, for therein we discover the desires of our own, and make possible the achievement of our greatest happiness.

Though it can be restricting at times, the Church and all of its many doctrines, traditions, and other teachings exist to keep us close to Him. To give us inspiration through experience of the lives of others holier than ourselves, to learn of rules and regulations that we may want to impose on ourselves to be able to draw nearer to Him. Careful with guilt though, it is important to repent for our sins, but do not let it destroy you. We all fall, and guilt can lead us to the confessional, or back to those we have harmed to seek forgiveness, but after this we must let it go. We must move on with our lives however warped we are by our sins, and push toward the ideals that God sets out for us, each of us individually in our own lives. As someone wise once said, bring glory to God in whatever you are doing, whether ruling a country as king, or picking up the trash, do it all in the light of God's saving kingdom. Know that your work is not in vain, but builds up the kingdom on earth, until one day we can go home to our Maker and continue singing the joy that we have found throughout our lives!