The Joys of Solitude 

   “Solitude can be very rewarding and full of blessing because in the silence of the inner being, one finds God.” (Fulton J. Sheen, “The Wisdom of Fulton Sheen”) 

   Since my wife is now at home with God my life at home is pretty much a life of silence and solitude.  For a while the silence was painful to me.  In order to combat the loneliness I would keep the television on just to have some noise in the house.

   As time passed, however, I came to love the solitude and the silence.  I began to see it as a time to come to know my Lord better; to seek Him and His will in all that I do.  The solitude is beneficial to communing with God, to spending quiet time with the One who loves me unceasingly and completely and to offer my love to Him even though I can never love Him as He loves me.  One of the things I look forward to in heaven is being able to love Him with the purity and completeness with which He loves me.

   I am not a hermit, I’ve not closeted myself in my own personal monastery.  I very much enjoy and look forward to seeing my family and friends and spending time with them.  As humans we need the support from others whom we love and who love us.  Still, I am drawn more and more to the quiet times with God. 

   One of my favorite prayers is, “Dear Lord, when shall I be completely one with You and entirely forgetful of self?  You in me and I in You; grant that we may be always so and remain as one forever.”  I don’t know if I can ever be completely one with Him in this lifetime, but I can surely come nearer to Him in the silence and solitude.

 The Emptiness Within 

   “When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything.” (G. K. Chesterton) 

   There is a void within us, an emptiness that must be filled.  If we refuse to allow God to fill that void it doesn’t go away.  We will spend our life searching for something else, anything else to fill it.

   That void is very specific, it cannot be filled by whatever happens to catch our fancy.  Oh, we will try to shoehorn our favorite belief into it but the fit will always be imperfect, leaving us to continue to seek other things to believe in and to place our trust in.  Our life will become a revolving door for beliefs that can never suffice.

   The world offers numerous false beliefs, false hopes, and false gods to believe in, but none will complete us; the hole within will remain.  Nothing this world has to offer will suffice because nothing of this world is permanent.  What we have placed our faith in will always disappoint in the long run.

   No matter what we have trusted and believed in, it will no longer exist once we take our last breath.  We will find that the emptiness we thought we had filled, the happiness we thought we had found is gone leaving us alone with the emptiness within.  Only God can fill that emptiness.  Only God is eternal.

   Trust in what you will, believe what you will, but understand that if it is not God in whom you trust and believe you are only fooling yourself.  Emptiness is a terrible way to spend eternity.

 Pray and Trust in God 

   Conversations, even among the faithful, far too often turn into gripe sessions.  People complain about the Church, the Pope, the clergy, the politicians, today’s society, and pretty much everything that doesn’t fit exactly what they think it should be.

   I understand the frustration, I get frustrated as well.  But I’ve never been able to figure out what is accomplished by all the complaining.  It doesn’t change anything and causes a lack of peace in those complaining and all those who take part in the complaining.  Except for increasing people’s blood pressure and causing even more frustration these gripe sessions accomplish nothing.

   Rather than complaining to no avail we need to turn to prayer.  Even though our prayers sometimes seem to go answered, or at least not answered in the way we would desire, let’s remember that God always hears the prayers of the faithful.  We may not understand God’s ways, nor do we need to.  We need only to have trust in His ways. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55: 9).  He is God, we are not!

   Let’s stop all the complaining and remember that God is in charge.  Let’s give it to the Lord in prayer and then let it go.  Let us say and live by the words, “But I trust in you, Lord; I say, ‘You are my God’”. (Psalm 31: 15). 

 A State of Emergency 

   There are many who believe that the Church and all of Christianity is in a state of emergency.  Fewer and fewer people are attending church, and more and more are turning to the evil and wickedness so prevalent in the world today.

   Many ask how we got where we are?  How did the lack of faith in God and the rejection of His truths happen?  I think the problems Christians are facing today are, in large part, our own fault.

   Faith in this country has known great peace and acceptance for many years.  Like anything else that is easy and unchallenged we tend to ignore the signs that indicate problems for the future.  Then, suddenly, we recognize that all has changed, and we can’t understand why.

   Signs like “free love” and all that came with it.  Signs like the increased violence in movies, on television and in video games.  The coarseness and vulgarity in the language, which was unacceptable only a few years ago but is commonplace today.  These things clearly indicated that there were troubles ahead but were essentially ignored.

   Now we are reaping the seeds we have sown.  It’s estimated that no more than 20% of Americans attend church with any regularity.  Our government promotes sinfulness and punishes faith.  Marriage rates have fallen drastically as people choose to simply live together.  Abortion is an abomination before God; it is the sacrifice of the innocent to the god of sexual promiscuity.

   If we are to have any hope of reviving belief in God Christians must begin to stand up for their faith, reject and confront the evil rather than ignore it.  As St. Pope Pius X said, “The greatest obstacle in the apostolate of the Church is the timidity or rather the cowardice of the faithful.”

 My Rock and My Salvation 

   “In God alone there is rest my soul, from him comes my safety; with him alone for my rock, my safety, my fortress, I can never fail.” (Psalm 62: 1 – 2) 

   No matter what happens in life there is one to whom we can always go for strength and comfort.  One who will ease our pain and help us in our despair.  We can trust in God, in His will and His love to see us through our suffering.  If we seek God, he will carry us through any trial or ordeal we may be facing.

   I’ve often thought of those who do not know God and have no relationship with Him.  I wonder where they go for strength and comfort when needed.  Family and friends can be a source of help and strength, but they can’t provide the mercy and love God is waiting to give if we will only accept Him.  Some turn to the bottle, some to drugs.  Perhaps some simply can’t find peace and comfort and live in despair or worse.  I pray for them that they might find God and open their hearts to Him.

   For me, God is where I go.  I go to Him in thanksgiving for the good times and for help in times of trouble.  He is always there. He is always waiting to provide the strength and help I need to see me through this day.

   I live one day at a time depending on God’s help.  From morning until night I rely on Him and He provides.  Once this day is done I praise Him for His mercy and love and ask that He be there to help me through tomorrow.

   Sometimes it’s not day by day but hour by hour.  Still my Lord is there.  His constancy and His love aren’t bound by time, it is eternal.  Each second, minute, hour and day He is there for me.

   Without God in my life I fear what would become of me.  His is my strength, He is my comfort.  He is the assurance that all will be well even though I may not understand.  I will serve Him and give Him all praise and glory.

 His Will, Not Mine 

   “He advanced a little and fell prostrate in prayer, saying, ‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet, not as I will, but as you will.’” (Matt 26: 39) 

   Jesus knew what pain and suffering He was to endure.  In His humanity He wanted to avoid that bitter cup.  But in His divinity He placed those desires beneath that of the Father’s will.

   I see this event in His life as an example we are all to follow.  There are many things in life that I would prefer to avoid; pains, sorrows, and the loss of family and friends can be devastating at times.  As a human I would wish to eliminate them all, but I know that is not possible.

  To spend my life complaining or becoming despondent about the crosses I may have to bear is useless and does tremendous harm.  As difficult as it may be, it is far better to follow my Lord’s example and defer to the will of the Father in all things.  To refuse to accept His will is to refuse to accept Him.

   I believe that the hardships of this world help me grow in trust and faith in Him.  Yes, it can be extremely difficult at times, but I know that there is some good to be found even in the evil I sometimes must endure.  I look at Jesus on the cross and I see the greatest act of evil ever perpetrated, the murder of God.  And yet, from that evil came the greatest good of all, the redemption and salvation of all who would believe.

   So, yes Lord, if it is possible for me to avoid some of the hardships of life I would choose to do so.  But more importantly, always and in every way may your will, not mine, be done.

 Misguided Desires 

   “The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all who cause others to sin and all evildoers.  They will throw them into the fiery furnace where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.  Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.  Whoever has ears ought to hear.” (Matt 13: 41 – 43) 

   The wants and desires of this world are the weapons Satan uses to steal us away from God.  He begins with just a small temptation, maybe even just a suggestion.  We allow ourselves to consider that suggestion and, with further urging from the evil one, become convinced that we need what he has told us we need.  Before we know it we have traded eternal joy for the temporary pleasures of a sinful world.

   He tempts us to ignore God by telling us that we don’t need to go to church to worship Him.  We can worship Him anywhere and anytime, in the forests and the seas, in the sunrise and sunset, so why bother going to church?  Soon we will have replaced the worship that is due the Creator with the worship of His creations.

   God, on the other hand, desires to give us what we need, not just what we want.  He wants to give us humility, to recognize that He is God, not us.  He wants to give us obedience to His will so that we may fulfill the plans for glory that He has for us.  He wants to give us forgiveness for our sins so that we may spend eternity with Him in His heavenly kingdom.

   We are both blessed and cursed with free will.  We can accept God and His truths and look forward to eternal life in His kingdom, or we can say no and follow the ways of the world into eternal loss.