Articles For Heart Mind Soul

We Choose Christ When We: Encounter and embrace the repulsive or repugnant. Listen to those who are suffering mentally or physically. Inform our government officials and local authorities to take positive action because we are involved and impassioned about doing what is morally right. Take action according to our roles and responsibilities in life to enlighten and empower forward movement. Listen to others. Accept everyone. Acknowledge and say “Hello” with a smile. Visit the sick and imprisoned. Talk to and play with children. Resume relationships long avoided and averted. Take those who need help to the store to shop and to Sunday Mass. Treat others with dignity and respect. Do not gossip and spread rumors. Avoid divisive and destructive polemics. Uncover and uproot fatality festering resentments. Overcome and conquer immoral temptations. Defuse and deactivate verbal aggressions and acts of vengeance. Respect others in all that we say and do becau...

Companionship and camaraderie is a recurrent theme throughout the Scriptures. " Then Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out, two by two.” (Mark 6:8) Eli and Samuel characterize a mentorship of clarification in 1 Samuel 3. Eli assisted Samuel in discerning his call to serve God. We need someone to help us to listen to the unique ways that God invites us to live out our mission and fulfill our purpose in life. “So he said to Samuel, “Go to sleep, and if you are called, reply, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” When Samuel went to sleep in his place, the Lord came and revealed his presence, calling out as before, “Samuel, Samuel!” Samuel answered, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” Naomi and Ruth symbolize a mentorship of support in Ruth 1:6-22. In times of struggle, we need someone to walk with us, and to share the wisdom of their experience. “Ruth said, “Do not ask me to abandon or forsake you! For wherever you go I will go, wherever...

Success in any endeavor depends on some measure of inspiration but in large measure requires much personal perspiration. Our relationship with the Lord draws on the same tried and true combination of inspiration and perspiration. The Lord will start the process with a little inspiration, perhaps wonderful insights or challenging thoughts that suddenly spring to mind. But we know that the Lord also expects us to take His message out of storage in our memory. We need to move inspiration effectively into the context of our work and our daily lives. And that will always demand perspiration that human effort usually defined as work. Active and attentive listening is one of those great gifts that bless our lives with spiritual as well as personal enrichment. With God, active and attentive listening as a regular practice can lead to a deeper experience in our relationship with the Lord. Just wanting that deeper relationship with God is the inspiration. The work of it, the p...

In the story of creation God rested on the seventh day, and He gave us the commandment to keep holy the Lord’s Day. The purpose of keeping holy the Lord’s Day is to take time out to enhance our relationship with God by participating in adoring, blessing, glorifying, loving, petitioning, praising, thanking, and worshipping God in Mass. This time is important, truly life affirming and life giving. Time spent in contemplation, meditation, prayer, and reflection at Mass is important in our relationship with God in order to develop a deep, personal, intimate relationship with God. Nurturing our relationship with God means to better hear God’s voice and recognize God’s presence in our world. It is a regular opportunity to be awake and aware of God’s action in us, others and the world. It is in having time with God and those we love that our relationships are rejuvenated and refreshed. It is when we rest in God that we can truly hear God in the deepest recesses of our hear...

It seems as if everywhere we look these days someone has something pierced or tattooed on their body. Tattoos and body piercing, also known as body modifications, are showing up not only on celebrities and sports stars, but also on people all around us. The reasons why people pierce some part of their body or get tattoos are endless, from self-expression to shock value. We must recognize that defiance and rebellion are not in the spirit of God. We should also ask ourselves why we would want to achieve a different look. Is it something inside us that we’re trying to change by altering our outward appearance? Maybe we should work on the inside before we start marking up our body. Changing our outward appearance may have the opposite effect that we want it to have. Taking care of our body is a basic responsibility. Putting ourselves in an unnecessarily unhealthy or dangerous situation is not respecting ourselves. Achieving a certain look is not worth a risk to our heal...