Author: Essy Dias

“Whoever knows what is right to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin” James 4:17

How do we know what is right to do? Who are we to look to? No two people out there seem to agree… even often those who claim the same religion or world view, so what now?

Well, for Catholics, a great place to start is with the catechism. Here’s an online version … Catechism of the Catholic Church . You can do a search on any topic and be educated on church teachings.

Beyond that, you need the Holy Spirit and the Sacraments to keep you on the right path, walking in Divine union with God, because that’s what we were created for. To live out our lives with Him… not just after we die… but the here and now…the highs and the lows… all of it. Mortal sin severs this union.

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I love these little walk journals put out by Fr. Mark Goring. They are so simple, but yet powerful as they help us focus and remain accountable. The first time I did a 40 day walk commitment, I did so because of my struggles with depression… and it being a ‘freedom walk’, I thought it would be a good thing. It was. I experienced such freedom in that area and it lead to other areas of my life… I’m so grateful. But as it often happens in life in general… being filled with ups and downs as it is… I’m finding that I’m needing a refresher again. So today…on the feast of St. Rita, I’m back on it. This blog will be my daily report. Who wants to join me? 😀

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(8:30 am) MMP ‘Blue Book’ #12 a … “it must be made known how much I have loved you, and what great things I have worked in you.”

It’s been a little while since I’ve posted here, not sure if anyone will even be reading it and that’s ok… I don’t think that’s even the point… just a way for me to arrive at self knowledge and to the realization of how truly and deeply I am loved by the Father. Been in a slight haze for a little bit, and this will be live commentary as I continue to struggle and not a ‘mountain top view’ by any means … I’m sure I’ll elaborate more as I go forward. However, if someone else does happen to read this and it inspires them on their own journey then what a true blessing. So please let me know, and I can keep you in my prayers. My plan is to pop in here several times throughout the day in a journal like format and update it… so I’m thinking a daily post but with several updates. We’ll see. 🙏❤️

11:30 am

“Resist the devil and He will flee from you.”

There are many ways that the devil can pursue us, often riding piggy back on our human illnesses, frailties and weaknesses. One thing to keep in mind is that he is a liar and always looking to kill and destroy our union with God… but always manipulating things to make it sound reasonable. So how do we resist him? We start by knowing the voice of our Shepherd so well that it leaves us with no doubt as to what is happening. Then pretty much doing the exact opposite. Cleave to God even more fervently… pray and obey… even tiny steps can go far with our Lord by our side.

2:30pm

“If thy joy is produced by the Holy Ghost, it must resemble that of God; for it proceeds from the same principle… Such is the joy of the righteous; it returns all to God, as all that he has and possesses bears an essential relation to God. All his comfort is to be well with Him; all his joy to satisfy Him; all his pleasure to please Him; and when he is called to serve Him and do His will, he applies himself to it gladly, he runs, he flies, he thinks nothing difficult.”

Fr. Jacques Nouet (d. 1680)

This gladness and joy is not of the same ilk as earthly happiness. It is enduring and not dependent on circumstances … including emotional upheavals. There are many saints who have struggled with depression as you’ll be able to read about in the link below. The thing we must keep in mind is how very much we are loved by our Heavenly Father.

Saints who struggled with depression

I generally don’t like to focus on how lost we are as a society, but yea…we are so lost… and it seeps in to the family and religious communities. We don’t know how to love appropriately. We’ve turned into a bunch of narcissists and enablers.

Love isn’t just a sweet feeling where everything goes and we put up with whatever is thrown our way because we ‘luv’… and we don’t want to be seen as harsh…because that’s not Christ like. Or we may keep quiet under the guise of ‘carrying our cross’ faithfully.

But what if our cross was to obey God completely in however way He’s leading us, and that could be to speak up and possibly endure the retaliation of the ‘narcissists’.

We need to step out of the enabling role. If we are parents and teachers, superiors and employers, spiritual directors and parish priests. We have a God assigned duty to correct others in our care. By shirking that God given assignment, we are turning our backs on our calling to love as God loves.

Fraternal correction I find a little trickier… I believe the relationship has to be pretty solid in order for any type of correction to be accepted. We also need to take into account where that person may be on their walk with God. He has a Divine Pedagogy for each of us, just think of your own journey of faith. So a lot more discernment needs to go into it. Could we possibly be doing more harm than good? I tend to just pray for them, and ask to be used by God in anyway that He’d like it. I also ask for the intervention of Our Blessed Mother and then I ask her to do the dirty work. 😀

When we become self focused it can cause so much anxiety and emotional dis-regulation. We weren’t designed to function that way, yes, we are to have a certain amount of self love in order to care for our bodies, which are the temple of the Holy Spirit within us… hence why certain boundaries are in place… gluttony for example, it is a sin because it not only draws our focus away from God but it can hurt our bodies as well.

But once that minimum has been attained, we are then given the grace and the strength to serve others. Not only physically, but spiritually also. Then we are to live assured of God’s Providence. Not that we’ll have everything we desire at any given moment, but that He’ll never leave us and knows our needs intimately, even better than we do, and will provide for those. Even if we temporarily must endure the cross, resurrection always follows if we persevere.

And speaking of Divine Providence we can’t forget the most perfect way that God provides for us, giving Himself to us in the Eucharist!

Today, May 13 along with being the Feast Day of Our Lady of Fatima, it is also the feast day of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament .

We sometimes may think that our lives need to be the model of perfection or be Instagram worthy in order to please the Lord. But all things but sin, are acceptable to God. It’s in the struggles of our duties in life that sanctification happens, as we take up our daily crosses and follow Him.

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It’s this Union of the Divine and lowly humanity that will finally bring the battle to a close. You can’t sit back and say “it’s all been done, I believe, so there’s nothing more for me to do”. In fact that’s exactly where Satan wants you…out of the battle. Christ IS our victory…but we have a role that we have been invited to participate in as part of His Body!

So with that said, what IS our part? What do we do when the battle is raging? Go to Mary! She is NOT separate from Christ and she’s been given a special role in all of this, one that she wants to include all of us in.

By becoming her own little cohort and gathering at her heel, we too have a role in the great head crushing that is even now taking place.

Do not abandon your post!

We are told to not live in our minds, and that’s probably a good thing overall. But if we’re going to… we should make it a good place. We sometimes may be given to think that we have no control over our thoughts, but that’s not completely true. We need to be aware that what we feed, grows.

So we need to keep checking ourselves, what are we giving our attention to? That’s how we feed our interior life. There is so much ‘junk food’ out there, trying to keep us mal nourished. I think one of the biggest culprits today is social media … and yes, I absolutely know how great it can be too… but it goes back to choosing correctly what we are going to be exposing our minds and our souls to.

So if we know that ‘junk food’ is bad for us, do we even know what true nourishment looks like?

To me it means truly living a sacramental life of Grace in the present moment. Living in awareness of the needs around us, but knowing where true strength comes from and not getting overwhelmed with the size of the job at hand… just keep persevering in the perfectly imperfect tasks at hand. Always, always, always turning to God, Our Blessed Mother and all the helpers to see us through. Being attentive to the guidance we receive, and allowing that to energize us for the jobs ahead. Being in communion with the entire Body of Christ, including those still here on the job.

Living life fully… the struggles yes, but also the joys. When we begin to live in full attentiveness, then we start noticing how much beauty and love there is still left.

“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things.” Philippians 4:8

Not everyone is called to be a Mother Teresa, but every one of us is under the obligation of caring for those closest to us. We all have someone in our lives that is in some type of need.

Our homes are to be Domestic Churches… “the smallest body of gathering believers in Christ”, where we put hospitality and true giving into practice.

When we built our home 23 years ago, I gave it over to Him, to use for His will. At the time, it was just my husband and I in a four bedroom house. We had been married for 15 years at that point, so it wasn’t like a pregnancy was even still hoped for.

But the Lord very quickly showed us how it would be filled. Shortly after, my elderly dad moved in with us. Then there was the blessing of two children through adoption, then other children were to come our way much later through day care and then kinship fostering.

If you consider the nurses, therapists, and social workers that have come through our doors in these years. It’s been a pretty constant flow of souls. I haven’t openly preached to anyone. But I pray for them. I was told once by a DCF social worker that my home felt very peaceful… let me assure you that it was God that she was feeling. Even though this house is large enough for what God wanted to do in it, it’s very humble in every way.

I’ve also worked from home in the past, where I did portrait photography and was able to welcome clients into my home.

I now like to occasionally offer my home for Family Cenacles, where I invite friends to come pray the rosary with us and then we follow it up with some type of social gathering. This doesn’t take the place of church… it is an extension of it… an opportunity to reach some who may not attend and make it personal…where ‘church friends’ can bring their spouses and children, even if they are currently not practicing the faith. They may be more willing to go a friends home then they are to a church.

The important thing is to keep listening to the Lord. We’ll all have different calls in our lives.

The process of living more and more as part of the Body of Christ, entails a lot of dying to self. Only when we can see beyond whatever our current personal situation or struggle is… whether physical, mental or spiritual… can we truly live as one because it is then that we “see and think only according to the Heart of…Jesus”.

This doesn’t mean that we’ll only achieve holiness when we are ‘healed’ as some may claim, which can result in a lot of ‘Christian façade’ .… but God wants real… and in that raw, messy, realness, as we step out in trust and faith, a kernel of our sanctification is planted.

I think this is where the enemy does his most to convince us of the opposite. That our struggles are not only meaningless but are shameful and only those that seemingly have their act together are worthy.

Today, I offer my prayers for anyone who is struggling in one way or another, may they come to know the loving mercy of God.

Son of my maternal predilection, do not let yourself be distracted by things and by human vicissitudes. Remain always close to my Heart in prayer!

I am arranging everything for you as your real Mother: the persons you are to meet, the circumstances in which you find yourself and what you are to do. And so accustom yourself to live trustfully in the present moment which the Father gives you and the Mother prepares for you.

Blue Book #103 a,b

In selecting music, ask yourselves these questions: does the music arouse in you thoughts and emotions that lead you away from God? Does it lead you into an escape from solving your problems? Into a web of forgetfulness of the cross in your daily life? Does it lead you to a dreamy life that cannot be yours? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, it is the wrong music for you. But if it arouses in you a greater understanding of the beauty of God and his creation, and brings you closer to God in any form, then it is good music.

Grace in Every Season (May 7)

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-17).

The way to pray always, is to use common, every day activities and circumstances to lead our minds and spirit into communion with God. Music can do just that… or the exact opposite. Hence why we need to choose wisely.