I can only credit this post to the fact that I'm getting older (65 in April) and not to any type of insight of mine. I'm home here, on my own for a few days, my wife off helping my daughter and son-in-law pack and get ready to move into their first home that they own. Exciting times! So like I said I'm home alone, me and the cat and the woodstove. (I like both; me, usually not so much.) When I'm home alone it's mostly silent here. For awhile I'll put Pandora on, play some tunes that I like while supper is heating up (Helen takes good care of me before she leaves in the food dept.) but then it goes off. Silence is golden. I'll sit, have a cold beer, check social media (yes, I do...) and dang, end up not liking at least 3/4 of anything I see. I check out the sites I have on my side bar, good Catholic sites, but I'm mostly disheartened by what I see. This blogosphere is not all cracked up as they say it is. To me, it's become a wasteland off biting thoughts, men and women competing for what I really don't know. An audience? Money? Both? With Lent coming up I'm seriously thinking of giving up social media, at least for Lent. Forever, I don't know, I'm weak, but everything from religion to politics to the environment is just getting to be too much. I can see how single young men and women (and older of both) would want to leave this world behind and enter the monastic religious life although I'll admit I don't know of many who do. I'm very happily married, thank you Lord to a woman who has the same spiritual goals as I have, and our job is to get each other to heaven, and if possible our children and their families too. But for some of these young people it must be very, very hard to stay focused on Jesus Christ and the Final Goal. At 64+ I can be pulled in different directions, and thank God for my spouse who helps to keep me on the narrow path, even if she doesn't know it.
This is the time we were given by God to live in, and very difficult times they are. The most difficult? I don't know about that, but we are given a chance, here and now to work out our salvation in glorious terms. If we do well, God will reward us; if we fail, well, we know the consequences. There is no choice. The darkness and evil of this world at this time is almost overwhelming, but we must not ever give in to it. I believe the devil hates a smile, hates joy, hates to see us overcoming the obstacles that he has put ion our path. Right, now, the world is in our way, this is what we must overcome, the same as always. Those of us who are married, our paths are set, the way is true, our goal, heaven, for our spouses and our family. For the single men and women listen to your heart, consult your priests and if possible, enter the religious life. We need you. The world needs you. Let us not let Rome bring us to despair, for we know what has to be done.
