Don’t give up on people or the world - Fast and Pray

Today at Holy Mass the Universal Church commemorates the Feast day of St Augustine, who was a Bishop and is a Doctor of the Church…All saints are special and unique, they show us that human beings can overcome their very self, allowing God to transform them into his very hands and feet to serve mankind…St Augustine was a brilliant man….and like many who have been given gifts that the world values, Augustine went astray…He lived a very worldly life - Made money and even fathered a child out of wedlock…..But as time went on, his restless heart continued to remain unsatisfied….Augustine had everything a person could want, but felt empty…Through the prayers of his mother (St Monica) and the brilliance of another saint (St Ambrose)….Augustine “figured out” what was missing in his life…Pope Francis wrote this about Augustine….”It was restlessness in his heart, which brought him to understand that the remote God he was seeking was the God who is close to every human being, the God close to our heart who is more inward than even our innermost self”……While most people today (this includes me) are not as intellectually gifted as St Augustine was….We are all looking for rest for our restless heart….This desire cuts across all of mankind…Mankind is search for “that something” in all the wrong places….All of these searches are de-facto searches for God….Nothing can truly satisfy the human heart until it rests in its maker…We were all made by God and until we rest in him, we will have no peace….What gets in the way of that peace?…Many times it’s our pride……How do we overcome our pride?….That is for each of us to answer…..But if the brilliant Augustine, who was also a great sinner and achieved great accomplishments in the world could overcome his pride - So can we

“Night and day we pray beyond measure to see you in person and to remedy the deficiencies of your faith”

Yesterday I spoke to a friend who is struggling with depression….This gentleman had a tough life, he came from a broken home and as a result he was always angry, lashing out on the world…Like St Augustine, my friend was given a strong mind but because of his “issues” he has always had trouble with people and at work….Fast forward into his fifties and nothing has changed…I spoke with him yesterday on the phone and as he told me his troubles and his struggles with depression, I thought to myself…If only he would reach a hand to God…If only!…I even suggested going to Eucharistic Adoration…I told him its a great source of peace….And its not an overtly confrontational encounter with the Catholic Church….He listened to me respectfully but I could tell he had no interest….To watch a friend suffer is difficult….When the answers to our problems can be addressed in many cases so easily….What can make people “see” through “the fog” of their own pain, bad decisions and depression?…..When words fail, all we can do is pray and fast for our friends, family and the world…This is what St Augustine's mother St Monica did for him for almost 20 years before her son “came around”…..And this is what Catholics must do more of - Do we fast for the world and the Church each week?…..Currently my eldest son is having some difficulty with his behavior in the house…I have told him over and over to stop acting out…The bad behavior has not stopped…So now I am trying something new…I told him every Thursday we are going to fast together, you pick one thing to fast from and I will fast for you…..Last Thursday, my son Frank told me he forgot to fast…But I did not forget…I will continue to fast for my son because I love him….And in time God’s grace will help him because God loves Frank more then I do!……Love is patient…Love is kind…It does not envy….. It does not boast….It is not proud…It does not dishonor others…It is not self-seeking…It is not easily angered…It keeps no record of wrongs…..Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the Truth…It always protects - Always trusts - Always hopes - And always perseveres.

“Now may God himself, our Father, and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we have for you, so as to strengthen your hearts, to be blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his holy ones. Amen”

Saints were all sinners who “figured it out”….St Augustine was no exception….And it took him almost twenty years of bad behavior before he “figured it out”….And it was through the prayers and example of his Mother (St Monica) that Augustine finally “saw” the very thing he was running away from, was the only thing that could help him - God himself……..We can not make people “see” or do anything…But we can fast and pray for them….Fasting is a POWERFUL resource we as Catholics need to utilize more of…We also must persevere in our prayers and fasting - Change takes time and God’s ways are not our ways nor is our timetable always God’s timetable….Like St Monica did…It took a long time for Augustine her son to come around - almost twenty years…But when he “came around” - Look at what God accomplished through him!….So it is today…Some of the greatest saints were the greatest of sinners - Don’t give up on people or the world - Fast and Pray……………JMJ