Posted on

Far From Him

Click here for daily readings

Today we have the classic verse that people sometimes use to say that Jesus doesn’t care about the law as long as you are a good person. Of course, this couldn’t be further from the truth, but it does warrant some explanation and critical thinking. 

Last year when my wife and I took a class on the Old Testament it became very clear how important laws were to the people in the ancient near east. If you don’t believe me just read through the book of Leviticus and you will see what I mean. These laws were put in place to bring people back into holiness. 

Now you may be thinking to yourself, why would they need laws? If they only had love, those laws would be obsolete right? In a perfect world the answer is yes, but they were freed from slavery in Egypt and then pretty quickly started worshipping the golden calf. Human beings, you and I included, need a lot of help in order to be holy. 

In the time of the Old Testament this help was given through physical action that God asked them to do (laws) like various cleansing rituals. Today, this help is given to us through grace from the sacraments, still physical actions that communicate spiritual realities. So what does all of this background have to do with today’s reading? Jesus warns the Pharisees that they honor God with their lips, but their hearts are far from him. In other words, they look religious on the outside, but they don’t have a personal relationship. 

We should take note and apply this to our scenario today of the sacraments. When we go to Mass do we just say the words or do we worship God? When we ask to get married in the Church are we trying to make our parents happy or do we want God to be a focal point of our relationship? Let’s be sure that our worship is not empty platitudes, but that we desire an intimate relationship with God in all moments. Then the “laws and rules” become less about what we are doing and more about what God is doing in us. From all of us here at Diocesan, God bless!

Contact the author

Tommy Shultz is a Business Development Representative for Diocesan. In this role he is committed to bringing the best software to dioceses and parishes while helping them evangelize on the digital continent. Tommy has worked in various diocese and parish roles since his graduation from Franciscan University with a Theology degree. He hopes to use his skills in evangelization, marketing, and communications, to serve the Church and bring the Good News to all. His favorite quote comes from St. John Paul II, who said, “A person is an entity of a sort to which the only proper and adequate way to relate is love.”

Feature Image Credit: Sean Foster, https://unsplash.com/photos/jrazH5W7niA

Posted on

God is Love

Click here for daily readings

What is love? This question seems to echo through the halls of human history as strongly as the question asked of Jesus by Pilate, “What is truth?” Of course, the answer to both questions is found not in a book, experiment, or set of theories, but rather in a person, namely the person of Jesus Christ.

Ok, that’s cute and all to tell to students in a youth group to help them feel loved, but what does it really mean? We hear in the First Reading today that we can only love because God first loved us. I often try to bring my readers back to the beginning, not because Genesis gives us a purely scientific description of the start of all things, but because it shows us deep theological truths about who we are and who God is.

When reading through the first few chapters of Genesis it is immediately striking that out of all the creation narratives that have been written, and there have been many, Genesis stands apart because it is finally talking about a God who creates out of nothing in an act of pure love. All of the other major creation narratives talk about gods at war or sexual promiscuity as the source of all things, but here God stands apart from all the other pagan beliefs. We hear it in the Gospel of John, “God is love”. John also draws the connection between this God who is love and the Creator in the beginning, they are one and the same. “In the beginning was the word and the word was with God, and the word was God.”

Ok, where am I going with all of this? Let’s think back to that First Reading. We cannot even begin to love unless God first loves us. The Catechism makes the bold claim that, “God is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange.” From the very beginning God is love itself and we were made in the very image and likeness of that same God. We have love in our DNA so to speak, as deep as our bones, and deeper in fact because it resides in our soul.

I think we can often try to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps and white knuckle religious rules and regulations. By that I mean, I think we often think we can do this religion thing on our own. We may have the false belief that we only need God for the really big things. But in today’s readings we are reminded that without God we can’t even love, because we would be rejecting love itself. Rather than living by this pelagian mindset, the heresy that we can do it by our own strength and don’t need God, let’s instead ask for the grace to live according to how we were created in the beginning. Adam and Eve may have lost the grace of God in the fall, but we can get it back through the God who is love who hangs on the cross for us.

During this new year, let’s try to make an effort throughout the day to notice when God is working with his grace. The great tragedy of our time, it seems, is that we can go weeks without ever contemplating how God is working in our lives. Let’s ask for grace to take hold so that we may be loved and in turn may go and love others. From all of us here at Diocesan, God bless!

Contact the author

Tommy Shultz is a Business Development Representative for Diocesan. In this role he is committed to bringing the best software to dioceses and parishes while helping them evangelize on the digital continent. Tommy has worked in various diocese and parish roles since his graduation from Franciscan University with a Theology degree. He hopes to use his skills in evangelization, marketing, and communications, to serve the Church and bring the Good News to all. His favorite quote comes from St. John Paul II, who said, “A person is an entity of a sort to which the only proper and adequate way to relate is love.”

Feature Image Credit: Jez Timms, https://unsplash.com/photos/bwtgal6MJLM

Posted on

The Clock of Salvation

Click here for daily readings

Welcome to 2022!!! Likely you are exhausted from staying up late to celebrate a new year with your friends and family. This day always brings to mind resolutions, diet programs, calendars, time, and beginnings. Though the secular world sees this as a day for starting anew, the Church sees it as the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God. I think all of these themes tie together in a beautiful way through the Second Reading, where we first hear that Jesus became man at the fullness of time.

Have you ever wondered why calendars count time according to roughly the year that Jesus was born? It’s as if even the secular world can’t help but commemorate the importance of that historical event so many years ago. When we read further in Galatians we hear that Jesus is born of a woman. So he comes in the fullness of time and he is born of a woman. There are probably many different ways to interpret that, but the way I see it, the clock of human salvation started ticking the second that Eve took a bite of the apple. The first woman doomed human nature to a life without grace while the “second Eve” said yes to God’s plan for salvation.

All those years in between we wondered and waited at the plan that God had promised throughout the centuries. Time ticked on and many new years came and went, but God’s salvation clock brought us to the simple yes of a woman and the birth of the Savior. He always had the plan, but he waited for the precise moment when, instead of rejecting him, a woman would cooperate with him. Notice that grace, though it is freely given, requires cooperation for it to bear fruit. If we reject grace, God is not going to force us to take it. In the beginning Eve made the choice to fall and in the fullness of time Mary made the choice to say yes to God’s plan for her life.

So I guess the question for today and for the rest of 2022 should be, how are you allowing the grace of God to work in your life? You might have a new diet or exercise plan you are starting or a list of rules you are going to follow this year for your mental health, but what are you going to do in this new year to more fully imitate Mary who gave her yes and accepted the grace that God had to offer? Do you believe, as St. Paul did, that when God became man we became adopted sons and daughters of God? We are not slaves, but sons, and not just sons, but heirs. What are you going to do in this new year to cry out, “Abba, Father!” From all of us here at Diocesan, God bless and Happy New Year!

Contact the author

Tommy Shultz is a Business Development Representative for Diocesan. In this role he is committed to bringing the best software to dioceses and parishes while helping them evangelize on the digital continent. Tommy has worked in various diocese and parish roles since his graduation from Franciscan University with a Theology degree. He hopes to use his skills in evangelization, marketing, and communications, to serve the Church and bring the Good News to all. His favorite quote comes from St. John Paul II, who said, “A person is an entity of a sort to which the only proper and adequate way to relate is love.”

Feature Image Credit: Thomas Bormans, https://unsplash.com/photos/JsTmUnHdVYQ

Posted on

Divine Teacher

Click here for daily readings

What do you think of when you hear the word teacher? Do memories rush forward of some great role models in your life who propelled you on the path to success? Maybe you had a negative experience with a teacher at some point. For me, with my wife being a teacher, the word evokes emotions of joy, love, and thankfulness. No matter where you fall on the spectrum, the reality is that no teacher can possibly compare to the Divine Teacher, Jesus Christ.

Whenever I am giving a talk on faith I try to remind those listening that whatever I say is all well and good, but the real work happens after they leave, and I have no control over that. This is to say, Jesus is the one who does the work of walking with us day in and day out, guiding us, loving us, and not just being there for a quick 45-minute discussion.

This is precisely why we can call Jesus the Divine Teacher, because he is teaching us at all times, not just during a specific moment of pontification. The First Reading for today sums it up well by saying, “I, the LORD, your God, teach you what is for your good, and lead you on the way you should go.” With this model of teaching it’s not just about conveying ideas, but it’s journeying with the student to make sure the ideas stick.

In the ancient world there were people known as pedagogues, who would be tasked with tutoring the children of a household, but beyond that they would make sure the teachings that were presented, were lived out in the family. Jesus is the divine pedagogue for us in that he is journeying with us to make sure his teachings are applied to his family.

How is your relationship with the Teacher? Sometimes it can be hard to apply human terms to God because we can have negative experiences with human beings, but how is your relationship with the Divine Teacher? Have you talked lately? Not just about your grades or how much you are able to memorize but have you recently sat down and just enjoyed the presence of Jesus, allowing him into your very heart? If it’s been a while, Advent is the perfect time and if it has been recent, Advent is the perfect time to be present more. More than presents on Christmas we should be asking to be in the presence of Christ. From all of us here at Diocesan, God bless!

Contact the author

Tommy Shultz is a Business Development Representative for Diocesan. In this role he is committed to bringing the best software to dioceses and parishes while helping them evangelize on the digital continent. Tommy has worked in various diocese and parish roles since his graduation from Franciscan University with a Theology degree. He hopes to use his skills in evangelization, marketing, and communications, to serve the Church and bring the Good News to all. His favorite quote comes from St. John Paul II, who said, “A person is an entity of a sort to which the only proper and adequate way to relate is love.”

Feature Image Credit: Robin Worrall, https://unsplash.com/photos/Q8HfuO9udts

Posted on

Acting Human

Click here for daily readings

Before we know how to act we must first know who we are. This is a basic philosophical tenet that shaped the thought of great minds such as St. John Paul II. If we look at the world today I think we can pin a majority of the problems, if not all of them, on the fact that we have forgotten who we are and therefore have failed in the ways we act.

Today’s First Reading should have hit you in the face a little with the reality of who we really are. “For God will show all the earth your splendor: you will be named by God forever.” This doesn’t sound like empty words from a distant God, but personal words by a God who loves us and knows us. So the question becomes, what do we do with this type of information?

When we are hit with the reality that we are made by a God who loves us and has created us with unmatched dignity, that must affect the way we act. The bird who is made to fly does not sit and dream about the clouds. Often, faith can become a laundry list of rules and regulations, but more than just avoiding sin, God is calling us to live in virtue.

What’s the difference? Well, virtue is seeking the good. It is to look at every moment in our lives and strive to not only recognize the good, but to do it. This is what is proper to the human person because we are made by God as good. Genesis tells us as much when we hear that we are very good. 

Sin, on the other hand, is a lack of good. This is why it bothers me when people make excuses for sin and say things like, “Well, I’m only human.” It is precisely because you are human that you are called to seek that good and avoid the lack thereof. It is the very fact that we are made in the image and likeness of God that should inspire us to live virtuous lives as opposed to just avoiding evil. This is why St. Augustine could be so bold in saying, “Love and do what you will.” This is not a blanket acceptance of sin or an affirmation to not try, on the contrary, it is a higher calling to love rightly. When we love in the way that God loves, we no longer desire sin as much and we start to seek the good.

During this Advent season, let’s all try to focus on growing in virtue and arriving at Christmas as the types of human beings who when we act like a saint we say, “Well of course, that’s exactly the type of behavior a human being would have, we are made in the image of God after all, and that means something.” From all of us here at Diocesan, God bless!

Contact the author

Tommy Shultz is a Business Development Representative for Diocesan. In this role he is committed to bringing the best software to dioceses and parishes while helping them evangelize on the digital continent. Tommy has worked in various diocese and parish roles since his graduation from Franciscan University with a Theology degree. He hopes to use his skills in evangelization, marketing, and communications, to serve the Church and bring the Good News to all. His favorite quote comes from St. John Paul II, who said, “A person is an entity of a sort to which the only proper and adequate way to relate is love.”

Feature Image Credit: Clark Tibbs, https://unsplash.com/photos/oqStl2L5oxI

Posted on

Asking for Faith

Click here for daily readings

What even is faith? More than just a blind leap to things we can’t know, faith is an acknowledgement that God is above us and we should trust him in the things he reveals. If the truths of the world are reasonable and we can believe them using logic, philosophy, and science, then faith is supra-reasonable. That is, it is beyond the physical world and allows us to enter into the very life of God. 

 Why so much talk about faith? Well, the Apostles knew how hard it was to believe some of the things Jesus said. In today’s Gospel they are encountered with teachings they may not quite understand. Their response was to pray for more faith. They call out to Jesus and ask him to make their faith stronger. 

 This shows us a couple of things. Sometimes we think that faith relies solely on us. Like we have to work really hard to gain faith and if we work even harder then our faith will grow. But here, it is made clear that having faith at all starts with God. He starts the process of faith. He is the one who makes faith possible for us. On top of that, the Gospel shows that if we ask for faith God is not only faithful but he is super faithful. If we even ask for faith the size of a mustard seed we will be able to do the seemingly impossible. 

So this all leads to a very important question. When was the last time you prayed for and expected faith from God? He is telling us to ask. He wants us to grow in faith every day and wants to bless us with these truths that are beyond the reason we can come to on our own. Do we believe that what Jesus said in this Gospel is true even today? Do we believe that with faith as small as a mustard seed we can do anything? If not, ask for the grace of faith. From all of us here at Rodzinka Ministry, God bless!

Contact the author

Tommy Shultz is the Founder/Director of Rodzinka Ministry and a content specialist for Ruah Woods, a Theology of the Body Ministry. In these roles, he is committed to bringing all those he meets into a deeper relationship with Christ. Tommy has a heart and flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. With a degree in Theology from Franciscan University, Tommy hopes to use his knowledge to help all people understand the beauty of The Faith.

Feature Image Credit: Tony Eight Media, https://unsplash.com/photos/iy34kwDyJ4E

Posted on

Love and Law

Click here for daily readings

Imagine with me for a second the scenario of a group of friends playing soccer on the top of a cliff. The cliff rises high above the treacherous waters below and one slip would cause a fall and certain death. Now, they are free to play the game, but they have the constant fear of falling over the edge. Take this same scenario and add a net around the edges of the cliff. They still have the freedom to play, but one could make the claim that they are even more free because now they do not have the fear of death. 

This is an analogy for why we have laws, either natural or divine. God gives us laws to protect us and to help us to live how we ought. Government should make laws to protect all of those in society. So in today’s First Reading it seems as if Paul is making the claim that laws are not necessary as long as you love. How could this be possible? 

The answer is that Paul is in one sense saying the laws are not needed if you love, because you know how you are to live. But in another sense he sees the necessity of the law because more often than not, we forget to love. This is in line with the tradition of the Church and even St. Augustine who is famous for saying, “love and do what you want.”

Notice the importance of explanation here. Paul and Augustine are clearly not saying we can just be good people and the moral law doesn’t matter. When we are truly loving and living rightly we are already in accord with the law, but instead of being edicts that are pushed on us from without, they well up from within. If we are truly loving we know instinctively not to murder, not to lie, not to gossip etc. These are things that a human being who lives in love would not do. 

This is essentially what it means when we are told to form our conscience. Our conscience should be formed in such a way that what we believe conforms with the truth of how we were made. God’s laws make sense if we accept that he is in control and knows what is best for us. So let’s take a few moments today to focus on how loving it is for God to give us laws to help guide us, but also how the closer we get to God the more we live rightly. From all of us here at Rodzinka Ministry, God bless!

Contact the author

Tommy Shultz is the Founder/Director of Rodzinka Ministry and a content specialist for Ruah Woods, a Theology of the Body Ministry. In these roles, he is committed to bringing all those he meets into a deeper relationship with Christ. Tommy has a heart and flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. With a degree in Theology from Franciscan University, Tommy hopes to use his knowledge to help all people understand the beauty of The Faith.

Feature Image Credit: Tingey Injury Law Firm, https://unsplash.com/photos/DZpc4UY8ZtY

Posted on

Words Can Destroy

Click here for daily readings

Having worked in and out of the Church for most of my life, I can confidently say that parish and diocese offices are a strange mixing pot of some of the holiest and dangerous conversations. What do I mean by that? I think it tends to happen in any job that we have, but people seem to have a tendency to put others down in a way that is not consistent with what they have done. 

Justice, of course, is that hope that all people will be given what they are rightly due. There is a time and a place in the workspace for people to be justly angry that something did not go well or that someone dropped the ball. But justice does not excuse gossip, talking behind someone’s back, or wanting to hurt someone’s reputation. If you are feeling uncomfortable right now because you know you have done those things at different times, join the club. Part of our fallen humanity is that we don’t so much seek justice, but straight up vengeance. 

This kind of mentality can tear an office space apart and it’s exactly what God warns Jonah about in the reading today. Jonah has this anger that God has not yet destroyed Nineveh. I am sure he even convinced himself that he was justified to ask for wrath and blood. But God very simply and gently reminds Jonah that he has no reason to be angry. God has all the reason to be angry but he perfectly balances justice and mercy. 

I think we can learn from this, especially today where our world seems so divided, and always seek to balance justice with mercy. The Catechism defines justice as “the moral virtue that consists in the constant and firm will to give their due to God and neighbor” (CCC 1807). What is every person due no matter what they have done or what sin they have committed? We are all due love, respect, mercy, and the benefit of the doubt. It can be easy to foster anger in our hearts, but God shows us another way. 

Something I have found helpful in this regard is to look at my own faults before I try to tear another person down. That makes it much easier to see the necessity of mercy. The Catechism states “God created us without us: but he did not will to save us without us. To receive his mercy, we must admit our faults. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (CCC 1847). 

Let’s all try to make the active choice this week to pray for those we have spoken badly of, to ask for forgiveness for ourselves, and to pray for those who have wronged us. We don’t want to end up like Jonah after all, face first down the belly of a beast. From all of us here at Rodzinka Ministry, God bless!

Contact the author

Tommy Shultz is the Founder/Director of Rodzinka Ministry and a content specialist for Ruah Woods, a Theology of the Body Ministry. In these roles, he is committed to bringing all those he meets into a deeper relationship with Christ. Tommy has a heart and flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. With a degree in Theology from Franciscan University, Tommy hopes to use his knowledge to help all people understand the beauty of The Faith.

Feature Image Credit: Kiera Burton, https://www.pexels.com/photo/multiracial-students-gossiping-about-black-man-with-notepad-6147394/

Posted on

Angel of God

Click here for daily readings

It would be easy to go the humility route with the Gospel today, as it is the classic verse about childlike faith. But I want to take a slightly different direction by honing in on the last sentence from today’s readings, “their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.” There are many Scriptures that speak about angelic reality, in fact, we even speak to belief in the heavens and earth in the Creed, but there are not very many verses that explicitly point to the belief that every person has a guardian angel.

Many don’t know that this teaching is actually a truth of the faith. “From its beginning until death, human life is surrounded by their watchful care and intercession. Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life. Already here on earth the Christian life shares by faith in the blessed company of angels and men united in God.” -CCC 336

An angel is a purely spiritual being who is a messenger of God. All throughout the Scriptures we hear about angels being active in helping to accomplish God’s will. The beauty that the Gospel reveals today is that they see God face to face and at the same time help us in this life. Think about how we pray to saints. Of course we do not believe that saints by their own power are helping us, but God by his power allows them to participate in his will. So when we pray to a saint or angel, those prayers become even more efficacious since the prayers of the righteous man are efficacious, as we hear in Scripture. 

I grew up praying the guardian angel prayer, but never fully realized the depth of what was happening. Imagine for a second a spiritual battle between the good and fallen angels. Your soul is the object of this fight and your guardian angel, thankfully, has the power of God on their side. Take just a moment today to reflect on the depth of that. God loves us so much that he not only walks with us through everything, but he also has angels and the saints walk with us as well to help us in our spiritual growth. If you haven’t prayed the guardian angel prayer in a while, take just a few moments and ask your guardian angel for their intercession. 

Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God’s love commits me here, ever this day, be at my side, to light and guard, rule and guide. Amen.

Contact the author

Tommy Shultz is the Founder/Director of Rodzinka Ministry and a content specialist for Ruah Woods, a Theology of the Body Ministry. In these roles, he is committed to bringing all those he meets into a deeper relationship with Christ. Tommy has a heart and flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. With a degree in Theology from Franciscan University, Tommy hopes to use his knowledge to help all people understand the beauty of The Faith.

Feature Image Credit:Annalisa Bellini, https://unsplash.com/photos/sn-Qmo6CCIM

Posted on

Suffering for Christ

Click here for daily readings

The First Reading today seems to make the bold claim that somehow the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus was not enough for the sins of mankind. Of course, this is not what St. Paul is claiming, but it is very important to unpack this verse and see what he is trying to proclaim. 

Is Jesus’ suffering somehow lacking for the sins of mankind? The answer is a bold no. What Christ did on the cross redeems us fully and completely. Nothing is lacking in the sacrifice of the cross when it comes to redeeming us and forgiving us of sin. 

So what are we to make of the First Reading? The most common interpretation of this passage is that Paul is saying God uses us and our own suffering, to bring others into the saving power of his love. Think about it, if someone has rejected God, then it may be our witness, our prayers, our own suffering, that is the nudge that may bring them back into communion with God. 

This is what St. Paul is proclaiming here, not that Jesus’ sacrifice is incomplete, but that the external and practical way that salvation works sometimes takes an extra push. We can be that extra nudge or push for those who are near and dear to us. Now the question is, do we do this or are we afraid? 

When I was working at a parish collaborative in Michigan I once gave a talk on Catholicism and afterwards one of the parents came up to me. They said they had raised their kids Catholic but that their son no longer practiced the faith and most of their kids had fallen away over the years. They wanted to know the secret sauce to get their kids back into the Catholic faith. I simply asked when the last time was that they prayed together. The parents could not remember a time that they had ever prayed together. Now, this isn’t to shame the parents, but I think it is pretty common. Do we believe in the transformative power of prayer and fasting and are we doing these things for and with our loved ones who need the love of God. St. Paul makes it clear that if we can add anything to the already perfect suffering of Christ, it’s that we can help people to know that there is a God who loves them and wants to be in communion with them. Let’s pray for the grace to be bold, to pray, to fast, and to help others see the love of Christ. From all of us here at Rodzinka Ministry, God bless!

Contact the author

Tommy Shultz is the Founder/Director of Rodzinka Ministry and a content specialist for Ruah Woods, a Theology of the Body Ministry. In these roles, he is committed to bringing all those he meets into a deeper relationship with Christ. Tommy has a heart and flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. With a degree in Theology from Franciscan University, Tommy hopes to use his knowledge to help all people understand the beauty of The Faith.

Feature Image Credit: Frantisek Duris, https://unsplash.com/photos/sQ4aJOphZb4

Posted on

Being Present

Click here for daily readings

Sometimes when I am reading through Scripture, a passage tends to fly off the page as if God printed it on a spiritual two by four and whacked me with it. That was certainly the case with the readings for today. I typically like to read through all the readings and pray through them and then decide on a part to focus on. Today, it was clear that God wanted me to reflect on these simple words, “From the day we heard about you, we do not cease praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will.” 

Read through that a few times and ask yourself if you have ever had the care for your fellow man in this same way. I know I need to work on this. It’s such a beautiful greeting because it immediately shows care for the person and a hope for prosperity, joy, and knowledge of the Lord. 

I think in our world today we struggle with being present. We have all these things flying at us throughout the day and they are going so fast that it is hard to focus on the people God has put into our lives. Think about it for just a second, how many advertisements have you seen or heard today from the moment you woke up until now? We receive things through the radio, news on the tv, billboards on the way to work, ads on our web browsers, and the list goes on. 

The world moves so fast that we never take the time to go slow. I am going to try to reflect on this all week. When I ask people how they are, am I waiting for a sincere answer? Do I take the time to pray for those who I say I will? Has “I’ll pray for you” just become a way to neglect the real work of sitting with the person and being with them, while also praying in the moment? 

These are hard questions I think we should all ask in order to get to the point where we can say, “From the day I heard about you, I did not cease praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will.” Let’s say it and mean it. From all of us here at Rodzinka Ministry, God bless!

Contact the author

Tommy Shultz is the Founder/Director of Rodzinka Ministry and a content specialist for Ruah Woods, a Theology of the Body Ministry. In these roles, he is committed to bringing all those he meets into a deeper relationship with Christ. Tommy has a heart and flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. With a degree in Theology from Franciscan University, Tommy hopes to use his knowledge to help all people understand the beauty of The Faith.

Feature Image Credit: Firmbee.com, https://unsplash.com/photos/TMOeGZw9NY4

Posted on

From Despair to Hope

Click here for daily readings

**Due to server issues, this post was not published on 8/8/21, so we are posting it now.**

Have you ever had a moment where you just wanted to give up on something? Whether work or a situation or something with a friend or family member. I think we all have been in a situation where we don’t feel like we have the strength to endure. I think it’s safe to say that this is where Elijah found himself in the First Reading for today. He was at what he believed was the end of his journey and he just wanted to be done, so he proclaimed, “This is enough, O LORD! Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”

I may not have had a moment this tragic, but I can certainly remember a time when I felt I couldn’t possibly do it. When I was in High School we went on a backpacking trip to South Manitou Island. The very first day we were supposed to walk around the entire island to get our required miles in. For those who don’t know me, I am a redhead and pale as can be. The mixture of sun beating down on me all day and the absolute exhaustion from hiking on sand was enough to make me want to quit. It took everything I had to just finish that hike for the day and the sad part was that this was just a third of the miles we were supposed to go, or so we thought. After we got to our destination we realized that the map was wrong and that in just one day we ended up hiking half of our miles. We were ecstatic. A seemingly hopeless situation ended in pure joy.

This again, is what Elijah experiences. After thinking his life was over, God promptly fed him and gave him the energy and life to finish the 40 day trip. God brought joy and life out of a situation that seemed to be coated in despair. I am reminded of the movie, The Mist. I won’t give away the ending for those who haven’t seen it, but it is a good reminder that life is precious and we should always hold out hope that God is going to take care of us no matter what. “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” -Matthew 7:11

I know I need this reminder constantly. So maybe today, instead of just reading this blog and letting it fade into oblivion, take a moment and tell God what is really going on in your life. Give him permission to enter into your sorrows, joys, failing, and accomplishments. Let him help you along this crazy journey we call life and don’t be afraid to pray for and expect miracles to happen. It’s like St. Teresa of Avila said, “We pay God a compliment by asking great things of him.” Take a few minutes now before going on to your next task to tell God what you need from him today, and wait in silence for an answer. From all of us here at Rodzinka Ministry, God bless!

Contact the author

Tommy Shultz is the Founder/Director of Rodzinka Ministry and a content specialist for Ruah Woods, a Theology of the Body Ministry. In these roles, he is committed to bringing all those he meets into a deeper relationship with Christ. Tommy has a heart and flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. With a degree in Theology from Franciscan University, Tommy hopes to use his knowledge to help all people understand the beauty of The Faith.

Feature Image Credit:Carl Hunley, https://unsplash.com/photos/kZ_GzLAy4WM