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i saw this quote from st therese of lisieux today:

“When I die, I will send down a shower of roses from the heavens, I will spend my heaven by doing good on earth.”

which i found thought-provoking, because if you think about it, the idea of the intercession of saints does kind of implicitly say something about what it means to be in heaven and with God.

the popular view of heaven is that it's your reward for doing good in life. you fought the fight and you go to heaven and you retire from any kind of engagement with the world. essentially after a lifetime of being a good person you get released from your obligation to be good and it's party time.

whereas i guess what's so compelling about the idea of saints interceding from heaven is that death isn't a radical break from a life of good deeds, but rather the next level. Heaven isn't the reward for begrudgingly doing good; it is paradise for the righteous because it helps them to do even more good.

and that's such an interesting idea! it directly undercuts accusations that heaven bribes people into being good just for a reward; the joy of heaven is being able to intercede for the good of those on earth in a way you never could before.

now, in fairness, the popular view of heaven as outlined above is, to my knowledge, not actually officially held by any denomination (altho certainly by lots of individuals). protestants who don't pray to saints either still acknowledge they do intercede for us, it's just behind our backs, or they believe the dead are currently dead and MIA and won't be back on the scene til the Resurrection when everything is put to right anyway. so it's not like 'heaven is a place for saints to kick back and be lazy' is an actual theological position.

but i do think it's cool how the intercession of saints kind of emphasises heaven as the fulfillment of the joys of earth. the joy of doing good doesn't cease in heaven but continues; it finds a perfect fulfillment. and if you strike me down i'll become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.

obviously that doesn't make it right, scripturally, logically etc whatever. but i think you have to admit 'the dead in Christ continue to do good on earth through praying for us' is a cool idea

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Everyday, my best looks different💕

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hey friends. I know I’ve been mia, I’m trying to finish my senior year of classes at university. I’m trying to student teach, but where I go to school requires me to pass the teacher licensure exam before I student teach, and without student teaching I can’t graduate… I have four weeks. I’ll try to take the exam twice so I can pass before the 6th. Otherwise I’ll have to take a semester off to pass the class and graduate six months later, which is not ideal.

In any case God’s will be done and may my life glorify Him in everything, but. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I would prefer that I graduate this May already (it’s been 6 years) but it’s not up to me.

please. in your mercy pray for me.

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I feel like we as lgbt+ Christians can never be reminded of this enough, so:

Jesus loves you. Always has, always will. It doesn’t matter what other Christians say, that is an immutable fact. His love is perfect and unending, and he loves you no matter your sexuality or gender. That will never change. 

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buckle up losers i’m talking about my faith today. i don’t know when or how but at some point i decided i was going to trust god and i never looked back. i am not punk in any form shape or way at all. look at me. i am talking about my faith. but there are times when i feel this sweet rebellion as i stand queer and christian. my faith is not just a religion but something cultural something traditional something carved inside of me. i am the fifth or sixth generation of christians in my family and although my people have so much to learn. so much to find out and so much to still realise i take the past generations with me and i take the fact that we are a community in me. when i first cried to god about liking someone of the same gender i felt a certain love encircle my being and soul and i will still doubt whether god loves me for being queer but in that moment i felt acceptance. i will face discrimination and insults and isolation and multiple horrendous things for who i am. i carry this too with me because i am still growing. i carry this with me because i am trying and trying so hard to not succumb to despair and becoming someone or something i am not. i am a child of god. i wear that title like i wear a badge of a queer flag. when i say my gender is child of god i once again feel sweet rebellion inside my mouth because i am defying everything that is against me. i feel courage swell in my chest. i look people who dare judge me down in the eye. i say and proclaim like it is a sword and a fire burning inside of me. i am a child of god, motherfucker.

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pray for these fools

Chicago style does look pretty tasty, but that is not a pizza. That's some sort of tomato paste quiche

@anew-jackson obliterate this fool

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antidepressants worked too good, i've converted to Catholicism

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"During the 70s, some priests were becoming rather casual with the liturgy. One afternoon, a priest came into the soup kitchen that Dorothy Day was working at. He wanted to offer a liturgy for the homeless. He went into the kitchen and grabbed a mug to use for the chalice.

Dorothy, although frustrated at the irreverent use of houseware for the liturgy, prayed throughout the mass with the priest. After the liturgy ended, she quietly got up and started to cleanse the vessels. Then, she walked outside with the mug and a shovel.

A man followed her and asked her what she was doing. It is said she kissed the mug and then buried it. She told him that it was no longer a mug, but a chalice. It was no longer suited for coffee- it had held the Blood of Christ. She didn’t want anyone to mistake it for a mug again. Once something holds the Body of Christ, it is no longer what it was. When the mug held the Blood of Christ, it changed its vocation forever. It could no longer hold anything less than Christ again.

We were common mugs. Simple, functional, practical, and good people. We had a capacity to hold good things. But when Christ entered our lives, we became more. We became Chalices. We started to hold divinity Himself within our hearts. Now that we have held the Body of Christ within our bodies, we are no longer common, but rather extraordinary.

May you know the transformation God has placed in your heart. May you trust that you are truly made new and be extraordinary today."

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what’s the orthodox opinion on the devil?

we dont like him

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77, ee cummings

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Someone once said to me, “I hope the pain eases soon.” It struck me as the purest blessing that had ever been offered over my head - I hope the pain eases soon. It’s so gentle, so kind, so hopeful. So to everyone who’s hurting: I see how hard you’re trying, and I hope your pain will ease soon.

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#Repost

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Luce doodle

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there is nothing i love more than my walk to church!!! yes i do want to walk through a park in full blazing autumn and marvel as the light gets reflected in the tears in my welled up eyes from all the beauty that exists in this world!!

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I learned something at my church’s college ministry service the other night that I’m still thinking about right now. the lesson was on the story of the Prodigal Son, and the speaker prefaced it by saying he knew that we’d all heard the story a million times before, and that he’d be taking a different approach. to sum it up, he talked about how Christ’s love isn’t just for the runaway son that is in open rebellion but also for the other son, the one that grows angry when his father throws his newly returned brother a feast. but what really got me was when the speaker told us what the word “prodigal” actually means. it’s definition has been misunderstood because of its connection to describing the rebellious son who eventually returned, but it actually means “wastefully lavished”. God’s love for us weak, tiny, and sinful creatures is so illogically strong that it is described as wasteful. His perfect love is lavished on us so much that it seems wasteful in the eyes of others. but God is allowed to waste His love on us because it never runs out. He just keeps on pouring it out on us…. in reckless excess.

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All Souls' Day Novena: Day 9

"Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners every where, for sinners in the universal church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen."

St. Gertrude, Pray for us!

Today, to end on a happy note, I'd like to tell the story of my great grandmother, Teta Besma.

Teta Besma died when I was 11, and I don't have many memories of her. About ten years later, one of her granddaughters had a dream about her. My cousin was in a building filled with gray, rotting people. There was a staircase with a door at the top, and she climbed it, knocked on the door, and there was Teta Besma folding laundry, just as my cousin remembered her. She had a whole body and was not rotting like the others.

She let my cousin in and locked the door behind her. My cousin hugged her and was so happy to see her. She asked for food, but Teta said, "No, we don't eat here. We only pray." They prayed together for a short while, and my cousin said she had to leave. My grandmother wished her well, said goodbye, and locked the door behind her.

My cousin woke up and thought nothing of the dream, because who doesn't have dreams where they see loved ones? The next day her friend told her, though, that she had a dream where she saw my Teta at the top of a staircase, folding laundry. This friend described a scene so similar that my cousin couldn't deny that there was something going on. She spoke with a priest about her dream, who suggested humbly that perhaps this was a sign that my Teta was either close to leaving Purgatory or was already out.

All this to say: your prayers work. Your prayers matter. There is a way out of Purgatory, both for you and your loved ones. Keep praying for them and they will pray for you in love and gratitude once they reach Heaven. Heaven is real, and God wants all of us there together.

That's the end of another novena friends! Thank you for praying with me.