Journeying With The Saints

Welcome back, Catholic Pilgrims. Only six more readings to go.

One of the things that I love to do to is think about all the ways things had to work out for me to be born.

I think it's so cool to see how the "stars aligned" to use a common phrase. But, it isn't really star alignment, it's Divine Providence.

Today, on this fifth and final reflection, St. Francis is going to talk to us about God's eternal love for us. He has never not known your soul. That is an incredible thought.

Let's turn to Chapter Fourteen of the Fifth Part.

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. Including this one, we only have seven more readings to go.

Today, St. Francis asks us to reflect on Jesus' love for us. There are many different religions out there and many different gods have been proposed up and down the millennia. But, none of those religions propose a God that loves you and would die for you except Christianity.

Let's open out books to Chapter Thirteen of the Fifth Part.

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. Only eight more readings to go.

Growing up Protestant, I didn't grow up with Saint stories, unless you count strictly those people found in the Bible. Even then, they weren't called Saints. Mary wasn't called a Saint, the Apostles, Stephen, Timothy, or Paul. Nobody was called a Saint.

This is just tragically sad.

When I looked around the church that I grew up in, I saw very few people that lived out the Christian Faith well. I hate saying that, but it's true. Of course we are all sinners, but looking around, I didn't really see how the Christian Faith was helping. Part of that is that Protestantism doesn't require a whole lot of self-reflection, because "once saved always saved." Another part is that Christianity is not easy to live out well, because of the constant battle with the flesh, the world, and the devil.

Once, though, I became Catholic, it was like a whole world was opened to me in reading about the Saints. Here were men and women who did live out the Faith well and their lives were impressive.

St. Francis is going to talk to us about the examples of saints today in our reflection, so let's open to Chapter Twelve of the Fifth Part.

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims. Thanks for joining me today. I hope you all know how much I appreciate you following along with me.

Today, is another short reading and we will be reflecting on the excellence of virtue.

So, let's open our books to Chapter Eleven of the Fifth Part.

Welcome back, Catholic Pilgrims. We only have ten more readings together, if you can believe that.

Today, we start a series of short reflections which are designed to help us renew our resolutions to God.

So, let's hear what St. Francis says by turning to Chapter Ten of the Fifth Part.

Welcome back, Catholic Pilgrims, to the shortest reading in the book.

Essentially in this reading, St. Francis is saying, "Okay, you did the examinations that I just laid out. You looked at the state of your soul. Hopefully, you saw growth in devotion to God, in humility, in your relations to others, and, now, it is time to renew your devotion."

So, the reading is just a preamble to the next five readings which will be on making good resolutions.

It's very short today and there isn't really much I can add, so I'll read his words and then that will be all for today. With that, let's open to Chapter Nine of the Fifth Part.

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims. Welcome back to a very short reading.

For the past seven readings, we've been examining the state of our souls with regards to different things: To God, to ourselves, to others, etc.

Today, St. Francis is going to tell us what to do now that we've done these examinations. So, let's turn to Chapter Eight of the Fifth Part.

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims. We are narrowing down our days, for sure. There are hardly any pages left here at the back of the book. It's looking pretty skimpy.

My son and I were talking the other day about the rich, young man that comes to Jesus and asks what he needs to do to order to inherit eternal life. Jesus ends up telling him to sell his stuff, give the money to the poor, and follow Him. Sadly, the young guy can't do it and walks away sad. His affection for his worldly goods is such that it takes the place of his affection for God.

St. Francis is going to talk to us today about our soul's affections, so let's open to Chapter Seven of the Fifth Part.

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. We've got a super short reading today and we've got some more soul searching questions.

St. Francis has asked about the state of our devotion to God, he's asked about how we view ourselves, and, today, he's going to ask us about our souls with regards to our neighbors.

So, let's turn to Chapter Six of the Fifth Part.

Welcome back, Catholic Pilgrims. Only 15 more readings to go, can you believe it?

Today, we are asked more questions. This time with regards to ourselves. Last time, St. Francis asked a lot of questions that probed deeper into our relationship with God. Today, he's going to probe into our how we think about ourselves.

Just like last time, these are excellent questions to really and truly answer. Take these questions into your prayer time, take them with you to Adoration, or if you are the journaling type, write down your answers.

So, let's go ahead and open to Chapter Five of the Fifth Part.