What You Can Do About Temptation

By the late Father Kilian McGowan, C.P. Used with permission, from the Passionist Priests, to help spiritually guide the layman.

It's not unusual for a confessor to be asked this question: "I want to love God so much, yet I have such strong temptations to certain sins. What is worse these temptations seem so attractive at times. Why is this?"

The Apostle Paul could easily answer that question. He wrote of how he experienced the same conflict-the law of his members fighting against the law of his mind. This constant conflict between our built-in inclinations to evil and our frequent desire to love God is the lot of everyone.

The first thing to say about temptation is-don't be surprised at it! Scripture warns that we are inclined to evil from the days of our youth-and what is temptation but an invitation to evil. No matter how prolonged or intense the invitation-no one has to accept it. It's what you do with temptation that really matters!

Is everyone tempted in the same way and in the same degree? Of course not! For one thing, your type of character and temperament makes a difference. Some saints are tempted against purity most of their lives, while others are freed after a brief encounter with temptation. Some are more inclined by nature to pride, while others have to be on guard against sensuality or avarice.

Difference of upbringing also leaves its mark here. A person trained to virtue from his youth will have an easier time of it than one who is not. Each soul usually has one special weakness, as well as past history of certain sins. These also influence his present behavior in time of temptation. Finally, there is the Providential design of God on each soul.

Why does God invite you to union with Himself and then permit you to be tempted so strongly? That's easy, too. Temptation enables you to merit Heaven by your loyal struggle for "only the violent carry away." Through it, God permits a means of purification as well as atonement for past sins. It even offers the opportunity to grow in the very virtue against which you are tempted.

Fully-confident that "to those who love God all things work unto good" the saints used their temptations as stepping stones to greater love of God. Each new temptation made them less reliant on self and more reliant on the grace of our Savior. They even found in their temptations an indication of the virtues God wished them to cultivate to a higher degree. Thus, their temptations prodded them on to a greater spiritual progress.

What's the best way to fight temptation? First be humble-for humility wins God's grace and grace is made perfect in infirmity. Don't be over-anxious about temptations because this may increase them; and don't be over-careless, or temptation may catch you off guard. With alertness, firmness and calmness combat it when it strikes. Certain temptations are better handled by diversionary tactics such as those against chastity, rather than by trying to "push" them out of your mind.

Above all, pray frequently and fight perseveringly. Our Blessed Lord promised help to those who ask and a crown to those who persevere until the end. Some of His greatest saints were molded in a crucible of temptation. The same could be true of you!

How To Stop Sinning

By the late Father Kilian McGowan, C.P. Used with permission, from the Passionist Priests, to help spiritually guide the layman.

Our quest for God in this life may be summed up into two basic movements of the human spirit: First-to live unto God, and secondly-to die unto sin. Our perfection as Christians consists in a wholehearted and practical love of God; and sin is the only real obstacle to this perfection.

The Catechism tells us that sin is a thought, desire, word, deed or omission against the law of God. This cold language unfortunately fails to dramatize the betrayal of God's love that is found in mortal sin. For mortal sin is far more than a transgression of God's law; it is a rejection of God Himself. It does much more than gravely damage the soul cast in God's likeness; it actually evicts the Adorable Trinity from its residence in the human heart. It is wholesale disaster for the follower of Christ.

I believe that every sincere Christian instinctively realizes this, even though he may not be able to spell out the theological effects of mortal sin. It's not surprising, therefore, that we priests are often asked this question: "Father, why is it that no matter how much I resolve not to commit serious sin, I keep falling back into the same old sin?'

First, let's take a look at the very key world "resolve". What is a sincere resolution? It's not a half-hearted hope to do better. It's not a wishy-washy intention to do God's will. It's a firm determination!! Note those two words: FIRM and DETERMINATION. A firm determination is a demanding leader that is resolved to use every possible means to achieve victory. Here the victory is to be won by total warfare against that enemy we call "sin."

The first weapon is PRAYER. Not just morning and night prayers, or rosaries and novenas. But prayer with or without words-at ALL times and in ALL our needs. Our Lord warned us to pray without ceasing and to pray least we fall into temptation.

Under this leading may we include the thought of the Presence of God-one of the greatest bulwarks against temptation; and meditation on the life and suffering of our Blessed Lord. Many saints have said that it is impossible to meditate daily on the Passion of Jesus and still hold onto a habit of serious sin. One or the other must go!

A second means is the SACRAMENTS. Each sacrament produces a certain spiritual effect in your soul. The sacrament of Penance not only destroys sin in the soul of a well-disposed penitent; it actually and really weakens the tendencies that lead one into sin. Because it attacks the disease of sin at its source, we can quickly see how this spiritual therapy must be used to maintain or regain spiritual health.

To explain how the Eucharist helps in this warfare against sin would take volumes. Suffice to say that it heals the scars of sin, infuses new spiritual energy into the campaign, and recalls the wandering inclinations of our heart and soul to God. It does all this in a very direct way-by bringing the Savior Himself into our hearts. Of all remedies, this obviously will ever be the greatest, because It gives you ALL that God has to offer.

Now, you may pray often-you may receive the sacraments frequently-even daily, but still that is not enough. You must also avoid the OCCASIONS OF SIN. This is the third means. Without this you have no firm determination to avoid sin. Occasions are, of course, those persons, places and things which you know from past experience have been the cause of your spiritual downfall. Don't kid yourself into believing that you can still love God and hang onto these occasions of sin!

We have seen briefly what sin does to us. To see what it did to God, take up your crucifix. That's the price our Lord was willing to pay to deliver you from the slavery of sin. What are you willing to do to avoid that slavery and to show a grateful love? We should start with a firm determination to avoid mortal sin. But before you do-if you haven't already-ask our Blessed Savior for the firmness and determination!

Love's Greatest Stumbling-Block

By the late Father Kilian McGowan, C.P. Used with permission, from the Passionist Priests, to help spiritually guide the layman.

The greatest roadblock to the love of God is pride. For pride is excessive desire for our own excellence; whereas, charity seeks out God as the Supreme Object of our strivings. Pride is wrapped up in self; whereas, charity fixes the mind, heart and will on God. Being directly opposed to the First Commandment, pride is therefore the greatest sin of all.

Pride is the root-cause of the tendency to make our ego, rather than Christ, the center of our lives. That's why our Blessed Lord demanded self-denial as the first characteristic of His followers. In a certain sense, the only mortification we need is the denial of that self that is contrary to the law and love of God. Nothing sabotages the Christlife in us as much as does pride.

Pride is actually a kind of false religion, for it places the false idol of self where the image of God belongs. It is an exaggerated worship of self, for it makes self one's beginning and last end. It causes us to make headlines of the good we do, and it buries our defeats and failures. It can cause us to cut down and debunk others lest they detract from our imagined excellence.

It closes its ears to objective criticism and suggestion, but has them open for the applause it ever seeks. It closes its eyes to virtues that are very obviously-to everyone else-lacking, yet pride calls attention to every least accomplishment. Most tragic of all, it can make us lead our lives for our sake and not for God's. It is truly a false worship of self.

Pride also makes ingrates of us. Why is this? Because fearful that we lose the credit for our successful efforts and the applause for our achievements, we are reluctant to trace them to their source in God. And yet, the only thing in our lives in which God has no hand is our sins. What else is there that has not been received from Him? Pride seems blind to this basic truth.

Pride makes a cancer of a cell in the Mystical Body of Christ. A cancerous cell is a self-willed runaway, living for itself, refusing to work with the healthy cells of the body. The cancer of pride in anyone damages the life of the Mystical Body impeding the circulation of life and love from Christ the Head to His members.

Finally, pride can turn us into thieves because it steals the glory that belongs to God alone. IN the providential ordering of our lives everything is ultimately directed to the glory of God. But the proud man spares no effort to construct a cathedral wherein he enshrines his own excellence. He is therefore, a thief of the Power, Wisdom and Love of God.

Undoubtedly, the saddest effect of pride is that presumption that makes the proud man think he is so important that God couldn't possibly exclude Him from the Vision of God in Heaven. He thinks he can save his soul without true self-denial, and storm heaven without true hope. He has forgotten that God must be in his heart before his heart can be in Heaven!

Is it any wonder that God resists the proud man. God cannot help the proud man, for he is beyond helping-that is, until he sees and experiences his need for God. His conversion will begin when he sincerely prays: "Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner." And so will ours!

Only Obstacle To Perfect Love Of God

By the late Father Kilian McGowan, C.P. Used with permission, from the Passionist Priests, to help spiritually guide the layman.

All obstacles to Christian perfection are reducible to one-exaggerated love of self. From the thoughtless tantrum to an act of deliberate cruelty, self-love shows its face in a thousand and one ways. The most harmful way is sin-for this damages or destroys your love of God.

Sin is much more than a cold, impersonal offense against the law of God. It is a venture in selfishness which involves the use or enjoyment of some created good forbidden to us by God. In making this choice the sinner seeks what is more congenial to himself than what is willed by God.

Selfishness, like sin, can be in the hidden realm of thought and desire, or it can break out into the external world of word and action. This exaggerated love of self implies a greater or lesser rejection of God and His Love.

One of the first steps, therefore, of a soul intent upon the perfect following of Christ is to gain a working knowledge of what makes him tick. Careful examinations of conscience will reveal how selfishness shows its face in his life. This self-love must be seen and recognized for what it truly is. It must be disciplined.

Life is indeed a warfare. And every time we enter into combat for God, we meet our perennial enemy on the field of battle. That enemy is self-love, -one upon whom we can never turn our back. One that we cannot shake loose. One we have with us our whole life long.

The Capital Sins are but the more obvious forms of self-love. The various types of selfishness that we call Pride, Anger, Lust, Avarice, Gluttony, and Sloth are just so many indulgences in self-will contrary to the will of God. From these Capital or "head" sins are spawned a hundred other expressions of self-love.

In telling us what is sinful and what is not, Mother Church does us no small favor. She makes us confront these ugly faces of sin, not to cause a morbid sense of guilt, but rather to face up to this disordered self-love. A healthy sense of sin is more of a balm than a burden to a mature soul.

This sense of sin makes you more aware of two great realities-the obvious one of your sinfulness, and the splendid one of God's merciful love. Far from cutting you off from God in desperate loneliness, it's a humble hinge keeping you close to god. It fosters humility, truth, and a wise dependence on the merits of our Blessed Savior.

Each should foster a resolution of soul that wills-and prays-never to commit deliberate sin. This hardly means, of course, that all is lot should one fall into sin. We are never abandoned by a God that forgives "seventy times seven." Scripture does say that the "just" man falls seven times a day.

Health of conscience grows when we look upon sin as so many indulgence in a disordered self-love. Maturity begins when we resolve to conquer selfishness in all its form in our life. Holiness grows when we use our freedom of choice to consistently choose God and His Will rather than self. Such consistency would ultimately destroy selfishness-the only obstacle to the perfect love of God.

Don't Miss The Meaning Of Life

By the late Father Kilian McGowan, C.P. Used with permission, from the Passionist Priests, to help spiritually guide the layman.

Never to have established an intimate human bond-as well as a supernatural union-with Christ is to fail to realize the meaning of the word "Christian". Not to have felt the full impact of His Personality is the only tragedy in the life of a Christian. Not to have loved and leaned upon Him, not to have truly known and sought our Blessed Lord is to have missed the meaning of life.

Perhaps the unending parade to the priest and psychiatrist would slacken off did more people turn to Christ as the perfect fulfillment of all their needs. When the Church sings of Christ as being "totally desirable" she means that there isn't a single legitimate desire of the human heart that cannot find rest and satisfaction in Him.

Take the sadness and discontent that seems to increase almost in proportion to the standard of living. Our Lord offered the remedy: "Abide in my love...that my joy may be in you and your joy may be full". (John 15:10-11) This is God's way of saying that true joy is possessed only by those living in God's love.

What about those unsure and uncertain about the basic truths of human existence? Saint Peter gave the answer to these when he said to Christ: "To whom shall we go-thou has the words of eternal life." All the answers the human heart demands may be found in the words of Christ, "the Light of the World".

What is the balm needed to curb and calm a restless human spirit? Saint Paul answered this one with his statement that "He Himself is our peace." (Ephesians 2:14) Our Lord promised us the peace that surpasses all understanding when He said: "My peace I leave with youl my peace I give unto you." (John 14:27)

Where can we find relief when we are fatigued from the constant tensions and trials of daily life? Many complain that they just can't take any more, but how many accept the invitation of our Lord to receive the rest and refreshment they need? Yet, He offered a very special invitation to the overburdened: "Come to me all you who labor and are burdened and I will refresh you." (Matthew 11:28)

What do you do when your heart seems empty and life appears to be quite meaningless? Are you tempted to believe that no one really cares about you or what happens to you? Isn't this forgetting that Christ promised: "Behold, I am with you all days-even to the consummation of the world." He also said that He is our life-here and hereafter!

For those who have a deep-seated need for friendship, here is One who walks at your side as a faithful friend who knows no infidelity, as a constant companion who knows no desertion. For those who hunger for beauty, here is an ideal who was called the most beautiful of men and whose beauty will thrill the elect for all eternity.

Whether in the power of His miracles, or in the seeming weakness of His sufferings; whether in the humiliation of His Passion, or in the triumph of His resurrection; whether in the bitterness of His tears, or in the joy of His glory, our Blessed Lord is in every way desirable. He stands by us at every stage of our human lives and caters to every need of our human heart. He is, indeed, "totally desirable".

There's Only One Way to Heaven

By the late Father Kilian McGowan, C.P. Used with permission, from the Passionist Priests, to help spiritually guide the layman.

Of al the possible questions, the one that begs for a most definite answer is this: "What is the surest way to eternal life?" The answer was given by our Blessed Lord to Saint Thomas at the Last Supper.

During His Last Supper, Christ had been predicting His departure when He suddenly added: "And where I go you know, and the way you know." Thomas quickly interrupted: "Lord, we do not know where you are going, and how can we know the way?" Jesus answered: "I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father but through me." (John 14:4-6)

One of the most basic truths of the spiritual life is that Jesus is the Way of God. He is not one of many ways-He is the ONLY way! It is simply impossible to overstress this truth! Yet, some of us are like Thomas. Despite our Christian background, we say: "Lord, how can we know the way?" The spiritual life is a very personal business between the soul and God. It is more Someone than something. It is more Someone to become than some things to be done. For Christianity is Christ! All progress in the Christian life must be measured by our increasing knowledge, love, and imitation of Jesus Christ. "This is eternal life to know Thee, the one true God, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou has sent."

The Christian life is more a "putting-on" of Christ than a putting off of sin-even though the two-fold effort is inseparable. The task of becoming more Christlike is chief asceticism of each Christian. It is better to look at Christ rather than ourselves, and to see ourselves only in contrast to Him.

There are three stages in the formation of a Christ-like character. The first is the STUDY of Christ. There can be no progress unless Our Lord becomes the chief study of our lives. You should have a good working knowledge of the historical Christ, and be well acquainted with all the events of His Life.

The second stage is closely related to the preceding-it is PRAYERFUL MEDITATION on Christ. Through this prayer, strive to penetrate more deeply into mysteries of His life. There ponder His words, study His actions, witness His miracles, and strive for a greater insight into the motives and sentiments of His Sacred Heart.

Third there is the IMITATION of Christ. You will make much greater progress by the positive effort of imitating His virtue than by trying to root out your faults and failings. You will discover that the more faithful you are to the will of God, the greater the revelation God makes of Himself in the depths of your heart.

And don't be discouraged if at first you seem so unlike your divine Model. Be encouraged rather, by the words of the Apostle Paul who tells us to glory in our infirmities that the power of Christ might dwell in us.

Your weakness is an invitation to His strength, your littleness calls out to His greatness. Your nothingness is irresistible to His "allness." Your very need of Him is the perfect complement to His infinite desire to give Himself. He is more than the Way-He is the Savior!

Our Blessed Lord is the Only Way that leads to eternal life. And Study-Prayer-and Imitation are indispensable means for putting us on the way and making progress along the way. This is the plan produced by the wisdom of God. Let us follow no other!

How To Be A Christ-Bearer

By the late Father Kilian McGowan, C.P. Used with permission, from the Passionist Priests, to help spiritually guide the layman.

On the day of your Baptism, you were given a lighted candle along with a command to keep your Baptism without blame and to observe the commandments of God. Through the regenerating power of this sacrament, you were made a Christ-image and urged to carry that image faithfully through life until you looked upon the face of Christ at death.

That was the practical beginning of your vocation as a child of God. At the heart of this vocation was an urgent invitation to manifest Christ in the world through your Christian living. Given the mission of being a Christ-bearer, you have the obligation of manifesting Christ at every stage and in every circumstance of your life. For this reason you are called "the light of the world".

To bring salvation to mankind, Christ had to be seen, understood, and acknowledged as its Savior. Each succeeding generation must still see and accept our Blessed Savior. However, now it is you who make visible His saving power and His transforming grace. The need for this witnessing of Christ was probably never greater than at the present time.

Of course, the essential workmanship of our Lord is found in the hidden realm of souls. This work of our Savior must become apparent in the visible lives of Christians who live and work in the market place. The world will never know of the transforming power and work of Christ in souls unless His action becomes manifest in the holy lives of His followers.

How does this happen? His workmanship in your soul becomes obvious when it breaks out into the open through acts of virtue and a life of holiness. Whether in the unspectacular drudgery of daily duty, or in a wholehearted heroism like some of the martyrs behind the Iron Curtain, we must present to the world another vision of the Crucified Christ.

It's true that this kind of living will make you conspicuously different from the modern pagan. But it should be obvious that your standards of thought and action cannot be the same as his. That's why Cardinal Suhard of Paris once wrote of "our mission of dissimilarity" with the age in which we live.

The saints had a holy eagerness to manifest Christ. Men like Ignatius of Loyola, Francis of Assisi, and Paul of the Cross were constantly preoccupied with Christ. He was like a spiritual dynamo that supplied the energy for everything they said and did. He was more than this-He was their very life! That's why they could truly say with Saint Paul: "For me to live is Christ."

How can Christ become your life? When all your actions are set in motion by the thought of Him alone. When He becomes the life-giving source of your spiritual life and activity. We are willing enough to admit that without Him we can do nothing; but we must go much further-we should constantly be preoccupied with the thought of Him and His work.

A true Christian is conspicuously different also at the end of his life. For even on his deathbed he should manifest Christ to the world. Thus, he manifests his Savior even unto the end. Just as he manifested Christ the Savior by a holy life, now he can manifest Christ the Conqueror by a calm and hope-filled death. Our late universally loved Holy Father, Pope John XXIII, was outstanding in this-in life and in death.

Thus he tells the world that death is but the doorway to a fuller and more victorious life with Christ. That's what Saint Paul meant when he wrote: "For me to die is gain." Every Christian preaches the same message by a holy death.

You Must Have The Mind of Christ

By the late Father Kilian McGowan, C.P. Used with permission, from the Passionist Priests, to help spiritually guide the layman.

The greatest waste of a human mind is to have lived without the knowledge of Christ. The greatest failure of the human heart is never to have truly loved Christ. The greatest tragedy in any life is to fail to make Christ the center of our lives.

This knowledge is no theoretical thing. It is knowledge born of a deep union through love. Our Blessed Lord should be more real to us than what we can see, or touch, or hear. He should be a real experience in our lives, that is just as striking as a sense experience which we cannot possibly ignore because of its vividness and intensity.

All too many look upon the Gospel of Christ as they do a fascinating story with inspiring and uplifting events and words. Yet, this is no mere storybook whose memories we kindly remember. The love and wisdom, the piety and power of Christ are far more than pleasant memories-they are vital realities that give meaning to our Christian lives.

In fact, there is only one thing that can give real meaning to our Christian lives and that is: union with Christ in humble and self-sacrificing love. To fail to achieve this is to let hitory pass us by. It is much more-it is to miss an experience of the greatest force in this life or the next-the infinite love of God!

Saint Paul tells us that we must "Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus...Who emptied Himself." (Philippians 2:5) Christ achieved the redemption of the world by a complete emptying of Himself. The truly Christ-minded realize that they can love God whole-heartedly only through a complete self-emptying.

The first emptying, of necessity will be of all voluntary sin. Sin is a serious reality that makes a loving experience of Christ impossible. We must empty ourselves also of our natural yearnings for a comfortable and predictable life, of our prejudices and attachments, of our insistence on having things our own way. We must be willing to lay down our lives in small things for our brethren, just as Christ laid down His life for us.

With us, as with Christ, the final emptying will always come on a cross. It will be a cross fashioned by love and coming from the hands of God. It will be a cross that not only sanctifies us, but also redeems the age in which we live. It will be a cross most adapted by the wisdom of God to the individual needs of each soul.

Christ delighted in the plan of His Father, even though it demanded a complete emptying of Himself-not that His human heart did not shrink from it. In fact, He actually sweat blood when He witnessed a preview of His final sufferings and death. He gave up what was hardest, even for Him, to give up-His honor and His life.

The same will be true of those who unite themselves to Christ in humble and self-sacrificing love. God will gradually empty them of all that is not God, or of all that is an obstacle to the growth of His love in their hearts and lives. Our sacrificial love of God will always reach its summit with the loving acceptance of God's loving designs in our lives.

Our minds must be taken up with the thought processes of Christ. Our hearts must be activated with the loves and desires of Christ. Our days should be absorbed with the memories and the works of Christ. Only then, can we say with the Apostle: "I live, now it is no longer I, but it is Christ that lives in me."

This is more than our goal-it is the only thing that gives meaning to our Christian lives!

Life - A Partnership With Christ

By the late Father Kilian McGowan, C.P. Used with permission, from the Passionist Priests, to help spiritually guide the layman.

Our Lord has invited each of us to "come and see" what our God is like. You have received an urgent invitation to strive for the perfection of His Heavenly Father. Unfortunately, this invitation seems to brighten most of us because we are afraid we have to go it alone. Nothing could be further from the truth-for God intends that your life should be a partnership with Christ.

There is no greater drama in life than the quest of a soul for its God. This quest is not a lonely, one-sided affair. Our Blessed Lord expects to play a very intimate part in your life drama. Life is worth living because it is a PARTNERSHIP with our Savior. Life doesn't have to be lonely because you don't have to walk alone.

Let's take a close look at this PARTNERSHIP. A partnership is defined as "an association of persons joined together for a certain purpose." The purpose is to achieve the perfect love of God; and the associates in this spiritual project are you and the Eternal Son of God. This is not merely a pious thought, but is rather an inspiring theological truth.

The partnership began on the day of your Baptism. By this sacrament, our Lord expressed His desire to be your life associate. When He established His dwelling in your soul, He was not content to be simply the guest of your soul. He was anxious to become, as it were, your otherself guiding and inspiring your every action. There is nothing in your life that He doesn't wish to share-sin alone excepted.

Once this partnership was initiated, our Lord shared with you His divine Sonship-His divine life-the grace and merits purchased by His Passion and Death-and His virtues that He infused into your soul. He also gave you the necessary supernatural equipment to become an efficient partner.

Of course, the fact that you received so much on the day of your Baptism, didn't mean that the partnership was an immediate and complete success. Baptism was simply the beginning of the work of "putting on" Christ. The complete transformation into Him is the project of a lifetime. That's why Mother Church gives you a yearly reminder of our life's goal at the beginning of Advent: "Put you on the Lord Jesus Christ." (Romans 13:14)

This business of "putting on Christ" is not an easy job, for each of us has a kind of spiritual "split personality". On the one hand we enjoy this vital partnership with our Blessed Lord, while on the other, we suffer the constant temptations arising from our self-centeredness. We are blessed with many spiritual gifts resulting from this partnership; yet we are afflicted with the downward pull of the world, the flesh, and the devil. This inner conflict causes a "cold war" that lasts a lifetime.

It's encouraging to know that you are not expected to wage this warfare alone. In his encyclical on the Mystical Body, the saintly Pius XII developed the following thought..."Our Blessed Lord had each of us present to Him from the first moment of His existence in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. There wasn't a single moment of His life when He didn't carry you in His Mind and Heart."

You were present to Him in the manger-during His hidden life in Nazareth-throughout His public life-during His bitter Passion and Death-and even now as He is enthroned in Heaven. "Not only does He see you there," the late Holy Father continued, "but He embraces you to His Heart far more lovingly than does a mother grasp her child to her bosom." Each can repeat with all truth the words of that zealous preacher of this partnership, Saint Paul: "He loved me and delivered Himself FOR ME!"

The greatest proof that your life is truly a partnership with Christ is found in the Eucharist. In this Sacrament, He makes a complete presentation of Himself to you. In it He also invites you to make a wholehearted offering of yourself and your life. Here, more than anywhere else, your two lives re fused and united in a sacred action that is the high tide of this partnership.

You should mediate frequently on these truths. Your life is indeed a PARTNERSHIP with Christ. He does wish to share in each of its joys and sorrows, its triumphs and its defeats, its work and its play. Truly, you never walk alone!

The amazing truth is that the Son of God, who first lived His life FOR YOU, now wishes to relive His life IN YOU. You are born to this Christ-life at Baptism. You are encouraged gradually to grow up in Christ. And you are expected to share His suffering life to some degree and thus to merit a share of His glorified life.

You should be convinced of the absolute readiness of our Lord to share everything He has with you. And you should invite Him to enter into every phase of your everday life!

The Kind of Conversion You Must Have

By the late Father Kilian McGowan, C.P. Used with permission, from the Passionist Priests, to help spiritually guide the layman.

If you sincerely intend to strive for the wholehearted imitation of our Blessed Lord, you should start off with three basic dispositions:

1) Be ready to change-be willing to let God make you over

2) Direct your conversion to an innermost change of heart.

3) Cultivate a true sorrow for your past betrayals of God's love.

Here we are concerned with that contrition by which the soul first moves toward God. When a humble soul breaks with sin and stands in God's All-Holy Presence, it experiences the need to do something about its sinfulness. By sin, we mean any deliberate rejection of-or turning from-God.

First, your contrition should condemn any sins you have committed in the past. Obviously this means you must also accept full responsibility for them. No excuse, no smokescreens, and no passing-the-buck. You humbly acknowledge your guilt just as it is in God's sight. This alone will unburden your soul.

It must be stressed that this repudiation of one's sinful past is an essential element of true conversion. The reason is that just as sin was a rejection of God and His love, so now repentance repudiates the sins that caused the break with God. It also sets the stage for the return to God's life and love.

The contrite heart then begs God for full forgiveness of its sins. It does this with the confidence of the Psalmist who said: "A humble and contrite heart Thou wilt not despise." (Psalm 50:19)

It knows that Christ can restore to perfect health a soul whose sins had scarred and disfigured it. And He will!

Genuine sorrow does more than long for a reconciliation with God-it desires to walk once more in His paths. Breaking with the past, it is already planning for a better future. Motivated by the sincere desire never again to be separated from God, it renounces all serious sin for the future. This attitude must underlie any true conversion of heart.

Also included in contrition is a willingness to atone for the past. It makes you acknowledge your sinfulness and surrender to the mercy of God. It gives you unwavering confidence in our Lord's guarantee of forgiveness. It prepares you to accept whatever atonement for sin Divine Providence will send.

From what has been said, you can see that true contrition is a remarkable disposition of soul causing many supernatural effects. It makes us face the facts that matter. It leads to abandonment of pride and self-complacency. It causes us to admit our sinfulness.

It makes us repudiate any sin in our past history as we search for our true selves in Christ.

It invites us to carefully and gratefully respond to God's infinite care of our lives. Obviously, contrition causes an inward change of heart.

It is the start of the process of becoming a new person in Christ. It sets the stage for a new life given less to self and centered more on Christ.

You Need A Change of Heart

By the late Father Kilian McGowan, C.P. Used with permission, from the Passionist Priests, to help spiritually guide the layman.

"Be converted to me with all your heart...Rend your hearts and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God." (Joel 2:12-13)

Joel's heart-stirring challenge strikes the Lenten keynote on Ash Wednesday-but it's a keynote that's never out of season for the true Christian. The accent is obviously on "Conversion"' but just what kind of conversion is expected of us?

Conversion always demands a wholehearted turning towards God and a resolute turning from sin. And note the emphasis on the heart! Be converted with ALL your heart...and "rend your heart." The heart is considered as the source of all desires-and desires are the spiritual drives leading to or from God.

In short, this an urgent call to a total conversion-a complete change of heart. It is the call sounded by John the Baptist as he started His preaching career: "Repent-for the Kingdom of God is at hand." (Matthew 3:2)

This is no mere invitation to sackcloth and ashes-it's the glad tidings of a new way of life. We sinners can now turn in our misery and sinfulness for the joy and goodness of God. This is the "good news of salvation!"

The only way to follow Christ is through a conversion that arises from the very depths of a man's heart. The Son of God sounds the call and brings the glad tidings. His very Presence is our guarantee that perfect conversion is possible for all. All are welcomed to the joys of His Father's home.

Notice how our Lord insists on the necessity of conversion for those who consider themselves good people. It's His way of saying that many of us who consider ourselves "spiritual" have never really had a complete change of heart. We've never really given God the opportunity to remold our hearts and desires in the likeness of Christ's.

God is more concerned with the interior turning of your heart toward Him than with external acts of penance. This is a revolutionary business that causes a change at the very core of your being. All of us need such a conversion. Our Lord is most insistent in reminding us of the fact.

Only humble of heart-those who realize their emptiness without God-those who know their weakness witthout the Savior feel deeply this need for a profound change of heart. They are ready to receive the fullness of the Kingdom of God. And Christ is ready to grant it to them.

The proud, the spiritually-satisfied, the self-complacent are not disposed for this kind of total conversion. They seem to be unaware of how frequently they fail God or how unlike their hearts are to His. These are the unfortunate spiritual "untouchables." They, especially, are invited to "repent."

Our time is running out. Our Lord's invitation to conversion is as insistent as ever. If we have failed to heed it thus far, let us scorn the goodness of God no longer!

You Can Become A New Person

By the late Father Kilian McGowan, C.P. Used with permission, from the Passionist Priests, to help spiritually guide the layman.

How many times have you heard someone say: "I wish that I could be a different person." You may have thought, or even said, the same thing to yourself. Life could be much easier if you could change certain of your characteristics. A change wouldn't hurt at all.

The encouraging fact is that you CAN become a totally different person. You can become a new man or woman form your very roots by being transformed from above. A supernatural transformation of yourself from within is possible-if you let God remake your personality .

In fact, your conversion begins with a determined desire to become a new person in Christ. It takes a wholehearted readiness for a complete change.

This desire for a change is your conscious response to the challenge of your Baptism. Baptism began a lifetime process of dying to self and living unto God. You put this process into high gear by such a desire.

Maybe you would like to be made-over, but you're not willing to pay the price. You must be disposed for total conversion-a complete change of heart. That's what our Lord wants from you-the sincere readiness to let Him make you over according to His pattern.

The response of all too many to this invitation of our Blessed Lord is cautious, conditional and calculating. Don't hedge and procrastinate like them! They're willing to go so far and no further-to give so much and no more. They measure all too carefully their surrender to the ways of God. They want to follow Christ, but only on their terms. You must be different!

The sincere readiness for a change places no conditions on God. It means you surrender completely to Christ's action on your soul. You must place yourself in God's hand for remolding. His Hands are tied unless you give Him the material with which to work. This is the first step of one's transformation into Christ-to give Him "a free Hand."

We find this readiness to change in the lives of the Saints. They kept placing themselves and their lives in the hands of God asking Him to take over. If anything, this disposition increased with their progress in holiness. Their lives were more of a surrender to God than a conquest of self. Of course, the two really are inseparable.

This readiness to change should be a lifelong thing. Unless we are pliable and moldable in the hands of God, there can be no continued spiritual progress. It's our way of telling our Lord that He can change us any way He wishes, and how He wishes.

To say with so many of the saints, "Lord, what would you have me do" is no small thing. But far better to say with the Blessed Virgin Mary: "Be it done to me according to they word." (Luke 1:38)

A LITTLE BIT ABOUT WHO WE ARE:

We are Walt and Wendy Cukierski, a Roman Catholic family with eight children-Walter, Weston, William, Wellsley, Wyatt, Wade, Waylan and Woodman John. We home educate and live a very simple life. Our family and this apostolate are totally consecrated to The Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart Of Mary, in full obedience to the magisterium of The Church, and loyal to Pope John Paul II. Our mission is to help save the innocent unborn and to draw folks closer to the Catholic faith. The Holy Spirit has inspired us to keep this family ministry as "personal" as possible so that we can best reach folks. We want to thank you for your donations and/or ordering of resources because it enables our family to run many different free programs. Feel free to ask us for more information. We really do care about all the folks that the Lord sends our way. To pray for you, your family and special intentions is a great honor for us. So, don't forget to send us your requests! We truly consider you part of our

In closing, we beg you to remember our special intentions in your prayers and rosaries! You are in our ours! May God Bless You All Abundantly!