Accepting Help With The Cross

 

Hi beautiful people. This, is the not so beautiful part of me I choose not to share often. But today, I am. The reason I choose to share, is to let you know you’re not alone. That it’s ok to ask for and accept help. It’s ok to be frustrated and even mad at God when things don’t go like you had hoped. As long as you can reach a point eventually where you say I’m still mad, but I’m going to surrender anyway, and try to ask for the faith to trust you, every day.

When my immune system is “cascading out of control” as one doctor put it years ago, I get back to back staph infections on my face. It’s relentless. I also become hypersensitive and very allergic, to literally everything. But a typical allergy test would not show it. The reactions are so bad and frequent sometimes keeping me up at night, they sometimes just do me in for the day. I have spent the last 11 years going to different doctors and health specialists, and doing a ton of research on my own. To summarize, I will say that I am certain that skin issues and allergies at least are all connected to your gut health. I have read that many other issues are also connected such as mental health, heart, hormonal. But I cannot speak from experience for most of those. If you have a healthy gut you will have a healthy immune system. If you don’t however, anything can destroy your immune system and take up residence. That shouldn’t be there. I have unfortunately learned from multiple experiences that antibiotics, steroids, and many traditional medicines, are great for quick fixes but will destroy your gut health and therefore your immune system in the long run, especially if your immune system is already weak.

But honestly, this post is not about all of that. This post is about being OK with needing help and being weak. You see, I am a pretty independent person. My husband’s biggest bone to pick with me is probably that I don’t ask for help enough. For the third time in this health journey, God has placed me in a position where I need help to get better. Because the only doctor or person that has been able to truly help me in the past 10 yrs. is so “unconventional” that none of the treatments are covered by insurance. And it takes a long time to make a difference. My conversation with God goes something like this.

Me: You could heal me. If you wanted to. I know you can. Then you would be glorified. Yes? Why do you make me dependent on others? Do we really have to do this again?
God: (shows me an image of Simon helping Jesus carry His cross)
“You must let others help you carry this cross. If you don’t, you could be depriving them of a chance to do good. To grow in holiness. It also takes humility to accept help. Follow my example. I was God, and I accepted it.”
Me:
God:
Me: Ok. But I still like my plan better. Miraculous healings have that wow factor. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I talk a lot about sharing the gospel, shining your light, being who God has called you to be. And those things will all help you on the path to holiness in Christ. But maybe a less talked about path, is admitting you can’t do something on your own, asking for help, and accepting it. Maybe it’s with God. Maybe it’s also people God has placed in your life.

And after someone has helped you, it will eventually be your turn to be a “Simon” and you will remember how it feels to receive a helping hand and embrace the role eagerly.

Good Fruits

Is what you are reading, watching, listening to and as an overflow, thinking about, producing good fruit in your life? If it’s not, cut it out. Anxiety, fear, hatred, un-forgiveness, sadness, toxicity, addictions, criticism and negativity are not from God. If something is clearly bringing these things into your life, AND you can do something about it, remove it. Look for the things that produce in you or emanate Love, Joy (that is lasting), Peace (that remains in the storm), Patience, Gentleness, Kindness, Goodness, and Self-Control. 

Corpus Christi

Today is the feast of Corpus Christi! The Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ. As our pastor gave the homily at mass he said “This teaching, is why I became catholic. I was raised Baptist and we didn’t focus on John chapter 6. Because once you really read John 6. You can never go back.” And I am reminded of a girl who’s faith in the Eucharist was challenged by a certain Baptist young man in my young adulthood. After he repeatedly asked me “How do you know it’s true?!” I, with very little apologetic training, answered in exasperation “I’ve never doubted it. I’ve just always known it was Jesus.” But that wasn’t entirely true. I had a mother who took me to “visit Jesus” in the tabernacle at church often where the Eucharist was kept. She gave me a true devotion and reverence for the Holy Eucharist, and by her example, my faith, gifted to me at Baptism, was nurtured. The same Jesus I learned to speak to in my heart, and read about in Holy Scripture, made me aware of His presence keenly many times, when He came to me in Holy Communion. So that young Baptist man, went and read and meditated on, John 6. And he too, couldn’t turn back. There is no suggestion anywhere in Jesus’ Bread of Life discourse that He meant it to be a symbol. As a matter of fact, when His listeners were disturbed at the idea of eating His flesh, and some of them left, He didn’t change His position but turned to His disciples and said “Will you leave me too?” After looking at the scriptures in a new light, and much prayer, that young Baptist man came into the Catholic Church and received Our Lord in Holy Communion for the first time. He is now such a guardian of the sacredness of Our Lord, that both I and my children have seen him after having witnessed the host or Precious Blood accidentally being spilled at mass which sometimes happens, in haste going to make certain Our Lord is reverenced in the manner He should be and not stepped on. There are many stories of holy men and women who defended the Blessed Sacrament. In the early church, the 3rd Century, St. Tarcisius was a young boy entrusted with the duty of carrying holy communion secretly to the Christian prisoners soon to be martyred, during the reign of Valerian. On his way he was stopped by a group of non-Christian boys wanting to see what he was carrying. When he refused to expose our Lord, he was trampled and died soon after. A young Chinese girl during the Nazi rule, crawled on her hands and knees every night past guards to adore and consume as many hosts as possible which they had intentionally strewn all over the floor in desecration, at the local parish.
One has to wonder, why would anyone risk their life for a piece of bread?

Unless it is more than that.

“Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity”

That is what we believe.

Is it impossible to imagine that God would love us that much? To humble Himself and become literal food for us? So as to “be with us even to the end of time” and give us life?

“Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.” John 6:53-54