Handing Over the Spirit - TRUST

In prayer today I was trying to focus on the prayer and not what I was praying for. I was praying a Chaplet and kept losing my focus to worrying about what it was I was offering up. As I sat there losing my place for the fifth time I finally stopped and ask God why I can't focus.

I just want to trust God with everything; I want to hand it over and trust that he will take care of it all. But instead I'm sitting there thinking of solutions, figuring it out in my head while I recite the prayers. Why?

In truth I think it is because where the rubber meets the road when it comes to trusting God is in actually handing over our troubles one by one and actually letting go. This is what God desires of us in prayer. To hand it all over to him and let it be His concern. "Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span?" Matt 6:27

I began to think about Christ on the Cross in that moment of handing over His spirit and breathing his last. He had to actually hand over his spirit; he had to lay it down. He had to trust that His Father would not fail Him.

I think about that in relation to my own struggles. I must hand each one over to God and die to it. Christ breathed his last and so too must I breathe my last breathe of concern and worry. I must give it over to Him and die to the worry - If I hand over my worry, my anxiety about one thing or another - I must like Christ say "into your hands Lord I commend my spirit." Not so I can pick it back up later. Often I think we pray, and then we go to work trying to solve this or that. Or we pray and let it go only to wake up in panic the next day continuing to worry. Rather, what we ought to do is breathe our last concern over that matter, hand it over to the Father through Christ's Divine Mercy and allow Him to do the rest. In a sense we are waiting for a "resurrection" of that concern/worry/situation.

This is a difficult task and one that must happen over and over again, as new situations rise in our lives and we hand them over one by one dying to our worry a little more each day. Each time we do this His infinite Grace and Mercy fill that place in our hearts and goes to work in our lives.

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, truly present in the Holy Eucharist, I place all my trust in you.


I offer this simple prayer to help you in handing it over to Christ.

A Prayer of Trust
Father, into your hands I commend my spirit; my human weakness, my frailty, my anxiety and fear. Into your hands Lord I commend __________________ (list a concern or burden). I die to this worry in full trust and confidence that your mercy and grace are sufficient for me and that just as your Son rose from the grave you will resurrect this situation in my life.

Another prayer from the Divine Mercy Novena:

Eternal God, in whom mercy is endless and the treasury of compassion —
inexhaustible, look kindly upon us and increase Your mercy in us, that in
difficult moments we might not despair nor become despondent, but with great
confidence submit ourselves to Your holy will, which is Love and Mercy itself.

If you haven't prayed the Divine Mercy Chaplet I encourage you to pray it regularly to help you in this dying to your worries and concerns. You can find it here.

The Work of Salvation

So Easter Sunday has come and gone. It was a beautiful day. I enjoyed my time with my wife and daughter and with some new friends. We enjoyed a wonderful meal and the beautiful surroundings of Graylin Manor, then some quality time outside. It was such a great and blessed day.

So now what? Easter is only one day for most people in this country but in the Church Easter goes on for a few more weeks. We continue to reflect and rejoice on Christ's victory over death. So what about you and I?

I am always joyful on Easter Sunday. I feel great as we celebrate the Resurrection. I feel great as I spend time with family and enjoy the beautiful day. Then as the day wears on I find myself kind of wishing the day would not end. Like a kid at the end of spring break I don't want to go back to the day to day struggles of life. I want to be lost in the Resurrection every day.

Why do I lament the day after the Resurrection? As I pondered this question yesterday I came to one conclusion: for us as Christians we must go through many deaths to self and our sinful nature before we will truly experience resurrection. Put more simply, I know that there is a lot of work to do in order for me to truly experience Resurrection.

Yes, Christ died for my sins, he went deep into the pits of sinfulness and evil and rose victorious over sin and death - giving us a pathway to heaven. This is joyful news. This is news to celebrate. But this pathway to heaven takes work. In order for me to experience true resurrection I have many things to overcome in my life. I have to go through a lot more "good Friday's" and I have to go deep within and face the sinfulness and evil within. I do this with Christ as my healer and teacher of course, and he will help me to rise victorious over the sin and evil in my own life.

But God raised him up, having loosed the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. For David says concerning him, `I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken; therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; moreover my flesh will dwell in hope. For thou wilt not abandon my soul to Hades. - Acts 2:24 - 27

I guess the hard part is not the work of healing sinfulness, because that work is not for me to do. It is taking that first step. Recognizing patterns of sin in my life is easy, admitting to them and taking them to Christ asking Him to heal them is the hardest part of all. But in today's first reading I am reminded that my "Lord [is] always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken." So as we begin this journey of Resurrection in our own life this Easter Season, let us "dwell in hop. For [God] will not abandon [our souls] to Hades."

I move forward in Hope, rejoicing in the Resurrection even as I die to my own selfishness, pride, greed, lust, envy, sloth, hatred, anger, vanity... Therefore my heart will be glad and my tongue will rejoice.

Joy of the Resurrection

Short and sweet today.

Today we celebrate with great joy the Resurrection of our Lord. He is Risen indeed.

Celebrate today, get lost in the Resurrection. Sometimes we have a hard time focusing on the good because there is so much in our lives we have to worry about. Today I pray that you get lost, get lost in celebrating the beauty of the Resurrection. Get lost in in thoughts of Heaven.

For me heaven is outside. I will be spending much of my day in the warm sunlight, with a cold drink in hand, getting lost in the blue sky and thanking Jesus for coming through for me.

Tomorrow I can get back to the everyday concerns, but today we stop, we celebrate, we get lost in the revolutionary love of the Cross and hope of the Resurrection.

With a joy-filled heart,
Chris Faddis

At the Table

Holy Thursday is my favorite of all days in the Church year. I love the whole Mass, the washing of the feet, the breaking of the bread, the beloved disciple resting his head on Jesus' chest, the betrayal - I love the whole story, the whole mystery.

Every year I reflect on some different part of the Holy Thursday traditions, some years I've tried my hardest to "stay awake" with Christ while he agonizes in the garden, some years I reflect on whether or not I would deny him three times, other years I've spent time thinking about the ways I was Judas.

This year I'm finding myself thinking about being at the table. I think that is my greatest desire, to be at the table with Christ. I want to be a part of that moment, the moment that we "re-present" each Sunday. I wonder at times if the Apostles knew this would be their last "good" moment with Jesus. Did they savor every morsel, did they hang on his every word, did they take it all in so they could never forget that day?

When Jesus took the bread and broke it, saying "take this all of you and eat this bread." Did any of them have chills realizing that this meal was different than all the meals they had enjoyed with him before? Did they know that what was being shared in that moment would last forever and would be done over and over again all through history?

The truth is I don't have to wonder what it would be like to be sitting at that table with Jesus and His Apostles. I am at the table with them every time I go to Mass, and so are you. Each time we go to Mass we participate in that last supper, we are invited to sit at the table with Jesus' closest friends and to "take the bread and eat it."

So I think to myself, well if I am at the table with them, which one of the Apostles do I most closely represent?
- Am I John - the beloved disciple - resting my head on Christ's chest?
- Or am Thomas, wanting to believe all that Jesus is saying but still holding out for proof?
- Am I Peter - the eager servant who knows he will get it right, but in truth will fail three times?
- Or worse, am I Judas, selling my Lord for 30 pieces?

Truth be told, I think I'm all of them. In many moments I am His faithful servant, waiting at His chest, allowing Him to love me. Then there are times when I'm just not sure, "is He really going to get me through this? Will He really be risen?" Oh for the times I have denied his name in simple and big ways. I think of the times when someone has brought up their disregard for a Church teaching or made a comment about our beliefs and I have simply remained silent, even when they've asked my opinion. Have I betrayed Jesus - sadly I must "confess to almighty God and to you my brothers and sisters that I have sinned through my own fault, in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do" - yes I have betrayed Him many times. I have sold my Lord for 30 pieces.

Yet, I am still sitting there by his side taking His flesh and blood and taking in His words. I am constantly amazed at how no matter what I do He still calls me by His grace to come to the table and take part in that great mystery of the Last Supper again and again.

I imagine that when Peter heard that Jesus had indeed risen he was a little nervous to see him, because he had indeed denied him. Yet, Jesus loved him just the same. Same still with Thomas who still doubted, Jesus did not rebuke him, rather he invited him to see the proof. I wonder about Judas, what if he hadn't committed suicide, would Christ have welcomed him back to the table.

Just as he welcomes you and I and all sinners to sit at the table I believe that Judas would be sitting there too if he had only turned his face back to Christ.

Today, you and I are invited to sit at the table with Jesus and his disciples and to take the bread and eat it, and to drink the cup - as they are transformed into His Body and Blood and we are transformed into His faithful disciples.

"Come, and sit at the table, and I will give you rest." (cf. Matt 11:28)

Is it a Holy Week?

Hear we are on the first day of Holy Week. Passion Sunday came and went and I imagine that this week will pass by as quickly as the rest and next Monday while standing by the water cool we will all say things like, "can you believe Easter is over."

Yes, Holy week is upon us and I find myself wondering, how am I going to ensure that this is not just another week. I have to be honest I don't feel like my "lent" was all that remarkable and that is certainly because of me and no one else. I didn't really enter in this Lent and for that I am heartily sorry. I read blogs of friends who are making real strides at prayer this Lent and I have a little bit of remorse that I did not take more time aside this Lent and allow my journey to be one marked with change.

As we enter into this Holiest of weeks, as we prepare our hearts for the Passion, death, and resurrection of our savior, I pray that I may slow down, pause, reflect, and allow the Paschal Mystery to change me from the inside out this week.

I would love to hear your thoughts? What are you doing to make this week Holy in your life? What ideas have you heard or things do you do that you would like to pass on to me and others who are wanting to make this week a special one?

Please share in the comments below. I pray that we each have a blessed and truly transforming week. May Christ's sacrificial love pierce our hearts.

In Christ,
Chris Faddis