In Love with the Ocean

The ocean is such an unbelievable gift, on Saturday night I was tired and stressed out from a few different things, and my wife and I went for a walk by the ocean after the kids were asleep, and as I listened to all the sounds of the rush of the waves, my heart completely calmed down. Then first thing in the morning, I dove in the ocean to wake up, and believe me Star-Bucks hasn't made a coffee yet to compete with the oceans ability to wake and stir, and bring to life. Then on the beach, my kids literally swam in the surf for 4 straight hours, we kept on begging them to build a castle, or do something on the beach, but the appeal to just ride waves endlessly was too great. That night we had to carry them in from the car, because they feel asleep so quickly, and we weren't far behind, the ocean can wake you up in the morning, and it can knock you out for the greatest sleep of your life at night.

I have said this my whole life, its almost like God placed a healing tonic in the ocean. Here's what I think it is, its so important in life to notice how big the world is, that in life we can go from mystery to mystery, the layers get bigger and bigger if we notice, the mystery gets deeper and deeper. From a blade of grass, to a Rose, to the Ocean at night, and culminating with the beauty of human life. Some of the mystery's don't grab us, but the ocean forces us to take notice, it captures us, it expands our horizons, and makes us believe that anything is possible.

I am reading JRR Tolkiens "The Lord of the Rings", and something really jumped out at me, that when Gollum becomes possessed by the Ring, it says, he stopped noticing the Mountain tops, and the flowers, and his head was always downcast! When I read it, I said wow. Because the Ring symbolizes all wrongful attachment, drugs, money, pornography, power, everything. "He stopped noticing the mountaintops,"

May we never fail to notice the mystery, and may we let the mystery draw us out of ourselves, so we don't walk around like Gollum with our heads downcast.

The Victory of Love

Today was the funeral for Mary Coppa Coffey, and it was so sad to watch our friends suffer this loss. But there was a lot of graces, Caridinal Rigili was the main celebrant, and as he said its a guarantee that she is in Heaven with God, her suffering was so disproportionate that we can almost ask God for anything through her intercession, and in some ways God can't refuse her. Its like a loving father that sees his child suffer, and then the child ask the father to help someone else, if the human father could, he would do it. God can do it, and anything that little Mary brings him, its my opinion that He will do it.

So Jim and Felicia want people to ask for big favors from God through Mary's intercession. They prayed for a miracle that she might live, and they know that their prayers will be answered in the countless miracles that will pour down because of Mary. Jim just received a note from a man, that returned to prayer for the first time in 20 years when he received an e-mail to pray for little Mary, and he hasn't stop praying since. I have already brought a major intercession to Mary, I know she's working on it for me! She could not speak on earth, she can now, can you imagine God denying her anything?

Mary Coppa Coffey

Our great friends Jim and Felicia lost their beautiful and wonderful daughter this morning. We are so sad to lose this amazing treasure, but as Jim said to me this morning, they are at peace knowing that they have a Saint in heaven watching over them forever. they have all ready fullfilled their role as parents, they raised a Saint, they brought to the world a saint, and now she will be spending her time in heaven doing good on earth for her family and for others.
I wanted to relate a story about Mary, I went and saw her yesterday, and it was really a very meaningful experience for me. Here was a little child who just underwent heart-surgery, but she was performing heart surgery on me, literally, staring at her was ripping my heart open. In the 20 minutes I was with her, I was beginning to understand something of beauty, and how much the world needs Mary. I thought to myself many times, wow, she is so beautiful, it taught me an amazing lesson, to look past the surface and look right to the heart, look right to the soul. Her grandpop said something to me that also struck me, without souls like Mary, the world would fall apart," Its good for our human hearts to burst when we see such beauty.

Prayers for Mary Coffey

Please pray for a miracle for our good friend Jim and Felicia Coffey's daughter, her story is here. http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/marycoppacoffey

Lightheartedness and the Spiritual Life

Levity and Joy are so important to the spiritual life, because they are the antithesis of Discouragement and hopelessness. The reason its so important to fight against discouragement and hopelessness is because these are the times when we are most easily tempted. When we are thankful and full of joy, we are more likely to choose virtue and love. The saints knew this well, below are some examples.
St. Thomas More- thought that Levity was such an important part of the spiritual life that he actually bought a pet Monkey to run around his house, because he always wanted his home to be a place of jokes and laughter. In fact, basically the last thing Thomas More ever said was a joke. He told the person that was about to behead him that, he'd better sharpen the blade, because he was known to be "thick-necked". What Faith, he is about to get his head removed, and he is cracking jokes.
St. Phillip Neri- Was known as the Clown, he valued Joy and Laughter so much. Whenever a person came to confession taking themselves to seriously, he would give them a penance to lighten them up, for example he asked one man to shave 1/2 of his beard for a week. He begged God for the gift of the Holy Spirit, and God gave it to him in abundance. It was discovered at his death that his heart was almost double the normal size, he was so kind to people in confession, that people reported feeling warm whenever they would leave confession with him. He was truly a Lion from the pulpit, but a lamb in the confessional.
John Paul II- It was found out after his death, that he would sneak out of the Vatican to make ski trips in the northern part of Italy. He thought exercise was so important, that he asked the Vatican when he became Pope to build a swimming pool, when they stated it would be too expensive to build one, he replied, can you imagine how expensive it would be to elect a new pope, and they built the pool. When a reporter spotted him skiing one time as Pope, he was amazed how talented he was, and asked, "isn't it a scandal that the Pope is such a good skier," to which JP II responded, "It would only be a scandal if the Pope weren't a great skier,"
St. Francis of Assisi- It was said that whenever a brother would come into the community looking downcast, he would tell them, "return to your cell for prayer, until you discover the Joy of your salvation,"
We are made for Joy, just look at children, its their natural response to life. Prayer and the Sacraments are the road to Joy, especially confession and the Eucharist. As St. Francis said, after spending time before the tabernacle its very hard not to find the Joy of our life. I love the below quote from Tolkien,
"Out of the darkness of my life, so much frustrated, I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament . . . There you will find romance, glory, honour, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves upon earth . . . which every man's heart desires

On Vacation

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