Sunday Meditation: God is not "Mr. Policeman"; He's the Sacred Heart, "Mr. Loving".

When I was a young girl, I had a sadly incorrect image of God. Perhaps it stemmed from reading so much mythology. I think I read every book on Greek, Roman, and Norse gods in the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Doylestown, PA. At any rate, I created for myself a view of God with the lightening bolt, ready to strike if I did something wrong. I guess He was an amalgamation of Zeus, Jupiter and Odin.

I also tended to be a people pleaser and later my view altered to ask myself whether or not I was "doing enough" to please God and make it to heaven. If I had raised these issues with my parents, I'm sure they would have corrected me, but I never did. And so, it wasn't until I moved on into early adulthood, that my false images began to disappear, replaced by the reality that God is love, the Sacred Heart, bleeding, wounded, and on fire for love of me. I'm His daughter, the apple of His eye, whom He loved so much He stretched out His arms on the cross and died.

Sunday Meditation: A Mini Retreat on Prayer and Contemplation

 Fr. David Torkington is a cancelled priest, driven out for exposing sex abuse in his religious order decades ago. He tells us we must return to the early Christian prayer practices which encompassed four principles.