A Little Blessing

Last night I was putting by brothers to bed and had them bless themselves with holy water. Benjamin drew three crosses on himself: one on his forehead, one on his nose, and one on his mouth. Benjamin had just watched a movie that he said was too scary so it made sense to me that he would bless his forehead, and blessing your lips is common so that God's Word will always be on your lips, but his nose? He told me then that he put a cross on his nose so he wouldn't smell anything, and continued to explain that he put a cross on his mouth so that he wouldn't drool on the pillow.

Let the children come to me!!!

I will strike you down and cut off your head

David answered him:

“You come against me with sword and spear and scimitar,

but I come against you in the name of the LORD of hosts,

the God of the armies of Israel that you have insulted.

Today the LORD shall deliver you into my hand;

I will strike you down and cut off your head.

This very day I will leave your corpse

and the corpses of the Philistine army for the birds of the air

and the beasts of the field;

thus the whole land shall learn that Israel has a God.

All this multitude, too,

shall learn that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves.

For the battle is the LORD’s and he shall deliver you into our hands.”

(1 Samuel 17)

So, the Devil is really stupid.  But often times for stupid reasons we listen to his lies and throw ourselves into a tizzy.  The reading about how David whooped Goliath today was so great for me to read since lately the Devil has been really bothering me with all sorts of crap.  But that's just what it is- crap!  He comes against me with physical temptations and intellectual lies and so often I come up against him with nothing- and all by myself.  

The Philistine said to David,

“Am I a dog that you come against me with a staff?”

Then the Philistine cursed David by his gods

and said to him, “Come here to me,

and I will leave your flesh for the birds of the air

and the beasts of the field.”

But God is so HUGE!  And God is ALWAYS THERE and with one tiny thought he is able to 'strike him down and cut off his head'.  Why don't I come against the Devil in the Name of the Lord Jesus?!  God uses anything to crush the head of the serpent when we come to him.  There are so many times where nothing can break through the walls of despair I imprison myself in- no kind words, no reason or argument, no chastisement- but then someone will spell the word "stake" as "steak" and I'll accidentally smile.  After that God has his in and I cannot be controlled by despair any longer.  God knows us!  If David slew the Philistine with an rock we can stomp on the head of the serpent with a pair of fun high heels!  Of course behind those 'fun high heels' is an immense amount of strength and love.  We are nothing without God- but God always comes as these little things that are seemingly insignificant.  Babies!  Bread!  Wine that can be spilled!  We always think that we need some thing huge like a big fireball to fight but God gives us something ridiculous to drive away the Devil like misspelled words or a little pebble in a slingshot "this multitude, too, shall learn that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves"!  I'm reminded many times of a post from Quantitative Metathesis called "A Face Off" and this is definitely one of those days.  God is all powerful!  Worship Him!  He is great and glorious!!

Why are my brothers so cool?

The rock monsters do well on the lego half-pipe.

Frivolity!

"I remember when I was a postulant I sometimes used to seek my own satisfaction and enjoy a little pleasure. This longing was so strong that I was forced to hurry past your cell and clutch the balustrade to prevent myself from turning back. A thousand excuses for seeing you came into my head so that I could justify my natural impulses- excuses like asking your permission for various things. How glad I am now that I crushed such impulses fright from the start of my Religious life! I am already enjoying the reward promised to those who fight bravely. No longer so I feel that I must refuse to let my heart have any comfort, for my heart is centered on God... Because it has loved only Him, it has gradually developed until it can manifest to those dear to Him a tenderness incomparably deeper than if it had spent itself in selfish, barren love."

St. Therese, Story of a Soul

I love that even though God's grace makes us so amazingly better than we are, we are still human and our bodies develop at similar rates for everyone. Therese was 15 when she entered Carmel- most of us are in 9th grade at 15. Saving the few that are spared, most of us had those certain crushes at school that we would see when we walked to certain classes- when you saw that person coming toward you, you would start planning in your head how you were going to look at them and when you did pass them their look meant the rest of your day to you. "That was an odd smile... is he mad at me? I bet he doesn't like me anymore- maybe he had a bad morning- what's wrong?" then you would find out nothing was wrong and you obsessed over the odd way he smiles when he has gum in his mouth. God doesn't spare us from normal life, he just gives us the ability to rise above it. Therese loved her sister as her mother since their own mother died when she was very young. I love the vision of her clutching the banister to make herself not go back when she knew she was just being frivolous. Only by grace, only by the sacraments, only by God living in us can we stop doing, not just evil things, but stupid things as well! And when God lives in us and when our hearts are undivided in Him- we won't have to take dramatic measures to protect ourselves from stupidity anymore. We'll see all things as they are- we'll see that God is infinitely more valuable than that moment of satisfaction. We'll live our whole lives using all the passing things in the world instead of having them use us!

Praised be Jesus our strength!