copingcatholic

[copingcatholic]

[copingcatholic]

[copingcatholic]

Similar to how we can no longer scoff at Judas betraying Jesus for thirty pieces of silver once we realize how often we do it for free, I think it gets harder to laugh at Cain trying to lie to God about Abel's murder once we realize how often we try to lie to God and ourselves about our own sins too.

"He had it coming."

"It wasn't that bad."

"What else could I have done?"

"I had every right to act that way."

"It wasn't my fault."

"Am I my brother's keeper?"

[copingcatholic]

I asked my mum how she has managed to get our family, of 8 children, to church every single week since I have been alive, and this is what she said, very paraphrased.

“You have to go. You don’t decide to go. You take the decision out of it and know that you’re going to go every time. It’s hard but you do it. You fight the zippers and bows and laces and spit on the shoes to get the scuffs and scratches out. You brush messy hair and ignore whining and you throw bread in their hands and tell them that’s what they can eat on the way. If it’s hot you bring water, if it’s wet you bring an umbrella, if it’s windy you bring scarves and if it’s snowing bring heavy coats. You go by car, by train, by bus, on foot, you just have to go.

You need it and they need it. They need to experience the mysteries of God, and so do you. You need to do it together as a family. But if you only go sometimes, if every weekend it’s a question if you will go or not go, then they’re going to see church and religion optional. It’s not. We don’t go to church to see people and have a nice time, we go to church to live.” 

[copingcatholic]

[copingcatholic]

If you take a wrong turn or oversleep, sometimes it's for your future benefit.

Sometimes you'll never know how good it was for you all your life to miss that thing you really wanted to do. Other times, you'll find out how what you thought was a mistake or a bad situation was really a godsend-only in the future, years later.

Trust in God's timing and will even when it's hard to see how it can be best for you.

[copingcatholic]

[copingcatholic]

virgin mary please please please appear to me i promise i won’t tell anyone or make a big deal out of it (lying)

[copingcatholic]

I refuse to believe it is April 11th. Or any date in the month of April. It is certainly February.

who is ole hickory ham mike and why is he texting me

#it cant be april #what year did you say it was #i dont believe you. #did I blink

[copingcatholic]

#God of Loveliness #the singing nuns

[copingcatholic]

A partial eclipse is like a cool sunset. A total eclipse is like someone broke the sky.

Exclipse Coolness [Explained]

Transcript

How cool a solar eclipse looks by position along the path

[Y-axis label:] Coolness

[X-axis left and right labels:] Partial eclipse zone [X-axis center label, below a tall peak:] Path of totality

[Two small dots representing people on the partial eclipse zone on the right:] "We should have a good view here - we're pretty close to the middle of the path." "Yeah, this map says the sun will be 91% eclipsed!"

[copingcatholic]

Can you and other's here please pray form me? my doctor has made hints today about getting my EOL directives & legal affects in order. I've been very resistant to this idea for some time and can't bring myself to pull the legal paperwork together for my family's needs because I'm not ready to leave them. Will y'all pray for me and my family? Its been a hard journey. I would like to last a bit longer ... actually a long bit. Thanks

Of course 🖤

[copingcatholic]

Imagine being one of the Roman soldiers though. Imagine having to do what you thought would be a normal execution one day.

Three convicts, two of which are thieves. As for the third… I mean, yeah some people say this guy is the “messiah” (whatever that means, you’re no Jew) and there is talk of miracles and the religious nuts really seem to hate him, but you have him nailed to a cross all the same, so what? If he is a god then he can join the club; Caesar knows that the Romans have enough gods to fill their pantheon and then some. Most likely he’s just a man with some hefty delusions that cost him his life.

But then earthquakes happen. Weird but can be written off as chance, right? Then the sky goes dark midday. A blood moon rises.

That ain’t normal.

Feelings unlike anything you’ve ever felt arise in your gut. The man cries out with a loud voice “It is finished!” and dies immediately after. You shiver. Uncanny, that is.

“Surely this Man is the Son of God,” a fellow Soldier exclaims beside you. At this point you might agree, but the spear still pierces through his skin all the same and you think (hope) that whoever this God-Man was that he isn’t your problem anymore, seeing as he’s dead. Hopefully you can forget the whole thing. (Somehow you feel that this scene will haunt you for a long time)

But the debacle is not over with the burial, as you had assumed. The religious nuts get real anxious and noisy, so to shut them up Pilot has a watch set to guard the body of a dead man. A dead man.

You personally have seen many dead men in your time, but never have you seen one move. Never have you seem or heard of people particularly wanting to touch dead bodies, either. You almost say as such when you are one of the men assigned the last watch, but decide you’d rather like to keep your tongue than chance losing it. You expect it to be rather a boring job, all told.

And it is. Until these, these beings of light and lightening descend on top of you from the Heavens and the last thing you can think before you know no more is whatever god whose body I’ve been guarding please spare me

You wake up, despite all your expectations to the contrary. You almost wonder if it would have been better if you died.

Those religious nuts come to you and your fellow guards and give you some coin along with a fake story to tell. They offer to save the skin off your back so you are not put to death like others who’ve been killed for less. You go along with the story because to be honest there is still a part of you that hopes this was all a dream. But the borrowed words taste like ash in your mouth and the coins jingle in your pockets with all the weight of a chain.

You go through the rest of the day (and night, and the day and night) after the event in a haze. Your feet walk where you know not and you don’t care to correct them.

But then you see Him.

The same Man you saw die.

The same Man whose body you guarded.

This Son of God, in the flesh, you see stand in front of a crowd with your own two eyes and you can scarce believe it but all the same you know more than you’ve ever known anything before that this is real, that this Jesus is truly not just a god, but The God.

And so you decide to follow Him.

Just imagine that for a minute.

[copingcatholic]

“Make good use of your time. Don’t forget the fig tree cursed by our Lord. And it was doing something: sprouting leaves. Like you…

Don’t tell me you have excuses. It availed the fig tree little, relates the evangelist, that it was not the season for figs when our Lord came to it to look for them.

And barren it remained forever.”

- St. Josemaria Escriva, “Study” from The Way, #354

[copingcatholic]

being alive is great because there are so many different vegetables you can sauté. but then there are also the horrors

[copingcatholic]

It always gets me how during Palm Sunday we, the congregation, say the words of Judas, Peter, the Pharisees…hits hard every time. Best week in the whole year.

[copingcatholic]