Monday Morning in the Bee Yard

Want a daily adventure with sweet rewards? Become a beekeeper. My husband and I have had an apiary at Camp Kreitzer for about fifteen years. We've gone up and down from one season to the next with our current seven hives the most ever. At least four are queen right. The others are hopefully raising queens following our splits a month ago.We plan to give away one hive this season, perhaps two, to a family that wants to become beekeepers.

If I Want to Love God, I Need to Know Him!

And how can we know him? Look to the pillars of the Church: Scripture, Tradition, and Doctrine as taught by the Magisterium. Prayer isn't mentioned specifically in that trio, but it is certainly implied. Reading scripture in prayer involves stopping to reflect and meditate. If we read scripture with the intent of meeting God through His Word, how can we not stop along the way to chat with Him? 

Sunday's Meditation: the Passion

If there is no sin and everybody goes to heaven including those who reject God, why did Jesus become man, suffer, and die on a cross, the instrument of execution for criminals? Isn't it because he took the criminals' place, i.e., ours? Who really deserves to be on that cross?

Is there no cost to us for this great grace? Can we blithely go along on our merry way pounding in the nails with every sin thinking that God will welcome us with open arms even if we refuse and resist his graces? Or are we called to a radical conversion of life that requires us to die to our old sinful self and embrace the will of God even when it seems to mean sacrificing our happiness, i.e., our sinful pleasures?

Every Lent the Church calls us to conversion. Will we insist that "God is good and He'll understand" about our deeply sinful choices or will we choose the "narrow way" of sacrifice and dying to our old sinful self? Does God require anything at all from us or is He like the Easter Bunny just waiting to dish out the nerds and lemon heads and jelly beans on Judgment Day?

Jesus articulates the two great commands:

Do You Ever Wonder Where Expressions Come From?

You've heard the expression, "The writing's on the wall" meaning that you can see something bad is coming. Where did it come from? If you went to Mass this morning and heard the readings, you know the answer. And Rembrandt did a wonderful painting depicting the event. What other expressions can you think of that come from the Bible?