PathToHoliness

I have been learning more about Saint Padre Pio. What has especially attracted me is one of his quotes, “Pray, hope, and don’t worry. Worry is useless. God is merciful and will hear your prayer.” (St. Padre Pio)

I have struggled with anxiety for a variety of reasons in the last couple years. Last year I resolved on my annual retreat to focus on this worry and anxiety and find peace. Sounds pretty easy, eh? But I have added prayers to Saint Pio in my morning prayers. So much of what I’ve read and what he has written strikse a cord in my mind and soul. For this reason, I recommend looking into his life more and the Padre Pio Foundation is a great resource for that. You can also purchase very good prayer booklets.

In addition to this I want to add another great resource to help in your search for peace if you are struggling with it. I mentioned it in my last post. That is a short book, “Searching for and Maintaining Peace: A Small Treatise on Peace of Heart,” by Father Jacques Philippe. In part two, chapter 5, he talks about total abandonment to God in order to find peace. “In order that abandonment might be authentic and engender peace, it must be total. We must put everything, without exception, into the hands of God, not seeking any longer to manage or “to save” ourselves by our own means: not in the material domain, nor the emotional, nor the spiritual.” I have said this to God many times, “I abandon myself to you Lord and in you I find peace.” Meditating on this has brought me more peace along the journey. Perhaps it could to you?

I hope you are having a wonderful Easter. Cindy and I were Lectors for the 9am Mass on Easter day. We got someone to take a photo of us.

It has been quite a while since I have posted here. The months from the end of last year to the end of March this year have been very busy. I have been working on letting some things go and working on a plan for the future as Cindy and I have a desire to change the amount of work we do and especially work that requires significant travel. We’ve put this into God’s hand and will work on a plan with goals and He will let us know what He wants us to do.

Easy to say but with prayer and communication it will happen. I’ve struggled with anxiety over a number of things that include work and just plain getting older and starting to feel it. So, I’m very glad for my spiritual director and am looking forward to my annual retreat. This year it will be at the Rosaire Conference Center and put on by the Tekesta Study Center in Miami. I have been there before and have my travel plans made.

I still have a desire to do more with this website and will see if that is something God wants me to do. That includes my X account for @PathToHoliness.

My latest spiritual reading is a short one, “Searching for and Maintaining Peace: A Small Treatise on Peace of Heart, by Fr. Jacques Philippe.” It has described me to a tee and has great advice.

I’ve always been competitive and in many ways like sports, jobs and businesses I have started. Currently my wife and I are nearing 20 years with our current business. We started it and created work for client companies that no one else was doing. Our work involves photography, audio interviews, some video and all to assist in marketing efforts for these companies and most of that involved significant travel. We’ve worked for many of the largest names in agriculture. A big part of what we “pioneered” was the use of blogs, podcasts and social media. But that has all changed in the last 10 years as we started getting competition and now everyone is an influencer, content creator, digital marketing expert . . . This has had a big impact on us, not counting the cost of COVID, although that was a rough time financially.

So, I point this out because for the first time in my life I’ve felt down, depressed and have lost my enthusiasm. I’ve prayed about this and asked God for what He wants of me, of my company, of my “retirement.” I’ve been receiving answers. Most recently being the realization that a lot of my mental attitude is the result of comparing myself to others. Things like new jobs they have, growth in their companies, the fun they’re having in their retirement, their ability to do more exercise. A majority of this comes from seeing and reading this via social media. What was once a core of our work has, in my opinion, become not only a sewer pit of trash, but something that you not only can’t trust is reality or is the constant barrage of people posting about how wonderful they are and how successful (they think) they are. It’s easy to get caught up in that.

So, after about 3 days earlier this week I just felt deflated, no interest in anything, struggling to do things that have to be done, tired and finding myself just staring at the wall in my office. But then it really hit me out of no where it seemed that I’m doing this to myself and it is on one else’s fault. I’m not perfect. I’m not the best photographer. I’m not the best business man. I’m 65 and feeling older and yet trying to do everything I have done for over 40 years in my career. That’s crazy and I thank Jesus for opening my eyes to this. It has not been easy and I doubt I’m out of the woods yet. Although I hope to be in the woods next month for deer season!

I will also add the value of being able to talk to my wife and partner about this. She is pretty no nonsense and comes right to the point. She probably doesn’t know how important that is to me. But it is and since we are married, that includes Jesus as part of that union. It hasn’t been easy to talk about how I have been feeling. I’ve always struggled with some level of anxiety but it was never as bad as the last year.

If you or anyone you know has this kind of feelings or situation I hope you can find a way out of it. I only share this because I hope it might help someone. I have no idea what the next year will bring, much less the rest of this year. But as Saint Padre Pio would say, “Pray, Hope and Don’t Worry.”

BTW. The picture is from a weekday Mass I attended in Springfield, IL at Sacred Heart Church which is run by the St. Katharine Drexel Catholic Parish.

This week my Knights of Columbus council held its monthly meeting. I am currently the Lecturer for the council. So, I provide information for the good of the order on a variety of topics. This week my conscience required me to say the following as my report. This is an edited version, and we had a good discussion following it. So, here it goes.

I must point out the obvious first, which is that the devil is alive and well in the world and he is causing some of the worst atrocities we’ve ever seen.

So firstly, let’s start with abortion. It is a major issue we as Knights work on. That is to save the unborn. Don’t dwell on it and how many have been murdered because it will just drive you crazy.

That leads us to the main thing I want to bring up which is the vaccines for this Covid virus. I have been traveling quite a bit lately and have had many people asking me lots of questions about this topic. Many of those conversations were uncomfortable because people are so emotional about the issue.

My wife, Cindy and I are trained journalists by college and career. We’ve done lots of research since March, 2020 on this topic. We’ve never seen such a convoluted mess of misinformation and lies. And what really rankles us as Catholics is how the vaccines have been created, tested, and produced. All of them have used fetal tissue from what was originally tissue from an aborted baby. A long time ago at this point. They basically clone it to make it simple to explain how they continue that “line” of tissue. Only one uses fetal tissue in the actual production process and that is the J&J one regardless of what you may have heard. That’s why the bishops have had a real problem with that one. However, all the vaccines we have come about because of an aborted baby’s tissue. The fact that it was ever used encourages other researchers to use that kind of tissue and that should be illegal everywhere in the world.

We know what the Pope and bishops have said. Many bishops will not endorse any of their use. But the majority have told us we can feel okay to get the shots. If you’re familiar with the term remote cooperation, then you might understand how they can allow this. Look it up if you don’t know.

Read the rest of this post…

I remember telling my daughters that once you lose trust it takes a long, long time to get it back. I still believe that today. These are some rambling thoughts I’ve had this morning. Actually, I’ve thought about it a lot over the last year plus.

Today, losing trust is prevalent everywhere. I’m mainly focused on what used to be media outlets that tried to be fair and impartial. Not any more. The same goes for most of our various forms of government. The social media companies are also top of the list. I don’t trust any of them. And let’s not forget the “scientific” companies that have developed medicines they’re calling vaccines even though they don’t prevent anyone from getting sick with COVID.

I don’t believe the complete lies being told by all these entities. Our government has given a few medical companies billions of dollars and plans to keep on doing so. The statistics that are quoted just don’t match up and the media/government will only report what they want you to know. They want to instill fear, significant fear. And they’ve done so.

I have friends who are scientists and doctors. It’s a mixed bag on what they believe and say. I don’t have any major problem with vaccinations. It worked well over decades for Smallpox for example. But you can’t compare this virus with that one. And, regardless of what scientists say about the current vaccines for COVID, many have been on record saying they really don’t know for sure what the long range effects of the drugs will be.

I’ve read way too much on the subject of COVID. I’ve also had it. I really don’t wish anyone to get this disease, regardless of their condition or beliefs. If the vaccines being pushed everywhere you look and are being forced on people were really safe like the government, media and many companies want us to believe, they would have taken a very different approach. Instead, they’ve pushed an agenda of fear and that has led to decisions that have forced companies out of business and millions out of jobs.

I predict that looking back on this we’ll realize that the impact of what has happened to our society is more devastating than all the actual deaths caused by the disease itself.

I’m sure there are people who really don’t like my thoughts on this. I don’t care. I have many friends, family and people I have worked with who have been made sick by this disease or have died.

This situation we’re in has been really depressing to me. But I’ve been able to find hope, trust and even joy because of my faith. I pray constantly for everyone struggling right now and wish I could tell them face to face to turn to God and not be afraid. Fear is a tactic of the devil and it doesn’t accomplish anything useful.

Just when you think things can’t get more crazy in this world we have lots of new things to create anxiety and fear. What are they you might ask? Here’s a list from a good friend who just posted about this on her FB page.

Kids. Marriage. Jobs. Health. Family.

It’s heavy. It’s hard. It’s exhausting.

It seems like things are so bad there is no way out of it. But there is. It is a firm belief and love of Jesus, our Lord and Savior. No matter what, He is always at our side and will deliver us from evil. IDK if you are having these kind of fears and anxieties but just know that you are not alone in it if you are. I’m hoping more people will turn to daily prayer and focus on their family and tune out the junk that is pervasive on social media and all other forms of “news.” We may not think we can affect change on a world wide scale but we can locally with our own school boards, city and county governments and our family and friends.