Do you ever wonder if the person at the desk next to you believes in a higher power? Does your neighbor think there is life after death? Do other members of your family pray? Almost everyone has some view of spirituality. More often than not it is unspoken and held silently. Many have questions. Some don’t believe at all.
The majority of people do believe in the supernatural in some form. Many claim to have “faith” yet never enter a church. Many pray, often in times of desperation. Yet others feel prayer is a false hope.
Powerful stories of answered prayer have come down through the ages and the generations. The question of faith is an intensely personal one. Each one of us decides in our own heart if we will believe in God or if we will reach to other forms of spirituality. You alone make the final choice as to where to place your faith.
To leave these matters unattended in our hearts is similar to leaving a ship unanchored on the ocean and hope the wind never comes up. Trying to put an anchor down in the midst of a fierce gale is a difficult task. We do well to examine our faith and set our spiritual anchor while the wind is calm. We all know how it can blow at times! Allow me to share with you the anchor I have found for my soul as I journey through life.
The most powerful evidence of the existence of God is seen in the person and life of Jesus Christ. His story is recorded history. His power still changes lives in remarkable ways today! His teachings still apply to our daily living and His Spirit works in our spirit to direct us and empower us beyond anything we could visualize ourselves.
The Bible tells us of a personal God who gives us hope as we believe in His son, Jesus Christ.
This believing becomes a point of power in our lives. This believing …
• goes beyond rituals and rules.
• it connects us to His Spirit.
• it stirs in us a realization that even our own best thinking will be surpassed with God’s wisdom when we seek it.
• it moves us toward a dependency on God as our source of strength.
• it helps us admit our weaknesses and faults and find God’s help to change
• it anchors the soul.
As we believe in the crucified and risen Jesus and declare our faith in Him we receive authority, as an adopted child of God, to bring our requests to God in prayer.
Prayer is the natural cry of the soul to God. We were created to live a life of prayer…to communicate with God. He actually waits for us to call out to Him. That longing for spirituality that you feel within your soul was put there by God so you would seek Him and find Him. It is a simple choice to believe. It is a simple thing to acknowledge the void within and ask Him to fill it. Many have found that the things they seek to fill the emptiness can end up leaving them bankrupt spiritually and sometimes even emotionally and physically.
Anchoring your soul by faith in Jesus is the foundation for a spiritual journey that will bring you fulfillment. It will bring power in praying as you begin to apply the teaching of the Bible to your daily life.
But don’t take my word for it. It is a discovery to be made for yourself. Are you tired of feeling the void within your spirit? Have you found that the things you tried in hopes of finding that lasting satisfaction have failed?
Then call out to God. Tell Him you believe His son Jesus died and rose from the grave. Tell Him you are tired of going your own way and need His Spirit to direct you. Invite Him to share the journey of life with you. You have nothing to lose and oh so much to gain. Why not anchor your soul today?
I have been thinking a great deal about my experience at Reconciliation this past Saturday. I felt an intense and unexplainable urge to go and confess my sins when I woke up that morning. I try to go every six weeks or so, but this was no routine visit to the priest for me. I needed to unburden myself of the numerous venial sins I had committed since I last participated in this Sacrament.
Purest Gold: God's Refining Fire in our Lives »
After salvation, many young Christians wonder if there's anything more to their newfound faith than just the security blanket of "being a Christian." Time and time again, God shows himself as a "refiner," and our lives are as gold. God started leading me in this study to understand what He was doing in my life, as well as in the lives of others.
Picking up my pen to write this column, I couldn’t imagine how time flies. Since the last publication of this column I have gone through a lot, especially the loss of my dear mother to whom I dedicate this article. Not only her, but seems I lost a whole generation of my close family.
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“Do you see a man who excels in his work? He will stand before Kings; He will not stand before unknown men.” Proverbs 22:29
Spiritual Development for our Youth »
Most of us youth in today's fast moving world are easily thrown off by difficulties and worries.
The theme of conversion is a thread that runs all through Lent, but conversion takes on different aspects throughout the phases of Lent. The first two and a half weeks focused on the interior turning of hearts; the liturgy urges the faithful to reflect and examine consciences thoroughly.
Saint Josephine Bakhita »
Feast Day: February 8
Patron Saint Of: Sudan
Saint Josephine Margaret Bakhita was born around 1869 in the village of Olgossa in the Darfur region of Sudan. She was a member of the Daju people and her uncle was a tribal chief. Due to her family lineage, she grew up happy and relatively prosperous, saying that as a child, she did not know suffering.
Catholics Must Fast More Intensely This Lent»
The Norbertine Canons of St. Michael's Abbey have created this digital Lenten retreat so that you can journey through this holy season alongside them. If you want to have one of your best Lenten seasons yet, join us in our Lenten Program "The Great Fast" - https://theabbotscircle.com/the-great-fast-join
When Your Faith Is Put to the Test - Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon»
Friends, we come now to the Second Sunday of Lent, and we’re on both dangerous and very holy ground with the first reading from the twenty-second chapter of Genesis. The ancient Israelites referred to it as the “Akedah,” which means the “binding”: Abraham binds and is ready to sacrifice Isaac at God’s command.
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