Month: January 2025

Being Loved

Imperfect Path

Smitten With Goodness


If we were perfect and whole, we wouldn’t need God. When we let them, our failures, imperfections, and limitations can open our hearts of stone and move our rigid mind space toward understanding and patience. 

When we enter the spiritual search for truth and for ourselves through the so-called negative and deal squarely with what is—in ourselves, in others, or in the world around us—it takes all elitism out of spirituality. We are humble and walk the imperfect path.

There is no more counterintuitive spiritual idea than the possibility that God might actually use and find necessary what we fear, avoid, deny, and deem unworthy. This is the clay the master potter uses to shape our hearts to His kind of love because we can’t love like this on our own.

There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.  
—Martin Luther King Jr.

We are called to love imperfect people imperfectly

“Truly, I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.” —Matthew 25:40 

Being Loved

Facing Any Storms?

Smitten With Goodness

In Houston, we just made it through an arctic storm last week that brought snow ❄️, ice, and shut our city down. It certainly brought back some trauma from storm Eurie when the grid failed and we lost power and water for a week right after my husband’s transplant. Despite my inclination, I kept turning my heart and mind towards God. He steered me, my thoughts and fears, through the storm. This is a good Father, caring for his child.

How is your heart today? Are you facing any storms that need to be calmed?

“We shall steer safely through every storm, so long as our heart is right, our intention fervent, our courage steadfast, and our trust fixed on God.”— St. Francis de Sales

Being Loved

Trust or Worry

Smitten With Goodness

I don’t know about you, but I needed this reminder today!

Worry is the cause of many of the world’s problems, and it can be a warning sign that God is not first in my life at this point in time.

A day of worrying can be more exhausting than a day of hard work.

Nothing wastes more energy than worrying. It’s a total waste of time and it’s useless. Worry can damage your health. It can raise your blood pres-sure, cause depression, increase your stress levels and give you sleepless nights. It can be a slow killer.

There is no pill you can take to stop you from worrying; no seminar, book or CD will stop you from worrying. The answer is to put God in control of your life. Trust him. Leave tomorrow to God. Don’t cross bridges until you reach them. Don’t open your umbrella until it starts raining.

Hand over everything to God: yourself, your problems, plans and health, everything. Surrender and abandon yourself to him. Your future is in God’s hands and in God’s hands you are in safe hands. Trust him and all will be well. Easier said than done. It may take time. But it works.

Terence Harrington OFMCap, The Sacred Heart Messenger, December 2023

Being Loved

Just Say No

Smitten With Goodness

Do you have a hard time with boundaries, keeping the right order in your life? Once something is allowed to creep past its appropriate place in your life and you are unable to say no to it, it becomes idolatry. And our hearts are idol making factories.

When God created the first couple (Adam and Eve), He instructed them, “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die” (Gen. 2:16-17).

Inherent in this command was the recognition of their ability to say “no.” God had instilled in His highest creation the strength they needed to honor what He commanded.

They could resist and choose to honor God.

They could say “no” to the serpent’s temptation.

How well do you say no to things in your life that distract you for God. Have you fallen asleep to His voice and nudging? Start saying no and live in freedom, let’s not act as slaves!

Being Loved

How’s It Going?

Smitten With Goodness

What if I told you that true freedom isn’t about doing whatever you want—but about being free to live as God calls you to live? That’s what real freedom is: the ability to do God’s will, to worship Him, and to love as He loves.

And here’s the truth: many of us are held back by the comforts and distractions of this world. Too often we have a disordered amount of screen time, unhealthy food or drink habits, and/or a lack of discipline pull us away from the freedom Christ offers. We are Christians but we live as slaves.

Last year, I read the bible in its entirety with the Ascension Bible in a Year podcast. I was in tears as I finished. It was such a gift to immerse myself in Gods word, get to know his character and hear him speak to me. It changed my heart. It was tough to remain faithful but through perseverance I was able to achieve the goal. I thank my son for his nudging a few years ago who said you’re a Christian but haven’t read the Bible?

I’m certain God is stretching me this year into a deeper understanding and relationship. My mantra is:

Make. Every. Effort.

It’s hard for me to stay focused and go deep into things. All the “good” things out there are overwhelming and always seem to catch my attention. I know I’m tired of living on the surface which is where distractions lead me. Freedom is worth fighting for, once we know what it is.

Being Loved

Paying Attention

Smitten With Goodness

How often do you think of things eternal? Do you go about your day pondering the goodness of God, the love Jesus has for you, the life of a Saint, or a passage from sacred scripture? Likely you are running around with the day to day and focused on the tasks at hand. But paying attention and inviting the Spirit into these things is what we are called to do satisfying our desires.

“Much that is true of human relationships is also true of our relationship with God. Human relationships of friendship or marriage need time, attention, and care for them to continue and to grow. The same is true of our relationship with God. We have been called to union but we need to respond. As we turn to God in conversion or in a deeper awakening, besides turning away from deliberate sin—which deforms the soul, blocks the relationship and offends the Person who has sacrificed His life for us—we need to positively build the relationship by paying attention to the One who loves us. Prayer is at root simply paying attention to God.” —Ralph Martin, The Fulfillment of All Desire

Being Loved

True Freedom

Smitten With Goodness

“And above all, be on your guard not to want to get anything done by force, because God has given free will to everyone and wants to force no one, but only proposes, invites and counsels.”— St. Angela Merici

We have difficulty understanding this, just as a blind man has difficulty understanding color, but our difficulty doesn’t alter this fact: God’s omnipotence and omniscience respects our freedom. In the core of our being we remain free to accept or reject God’s action in our lives—and to accept or reject it more or less intensely. God wants us to accept him with all our ‘heart, soul, mind, and strength’—in other words, as intensely as possible. But he also knows that we are burdened with selfishness and beset by the devil, so it will take a great effort on our part to correspond to his grace. … Every time our conscience nudges us to refrain from sharing or tolerating that little bit of gossip, every time we feel a tug in our hearts to say a prayer or give a little more effort, every time we detect an opportunity to do a hidden act of kindness to someone in need, we are faced with an opportunity to please the Lord by putting our faith in his will.” —Fr. John Bartunek, The Better Part

Being Loved

Taste and See

Smitten With Goodness

O Lord, you are the Word of life. As a new day dawns, we pray:

Jesus, light our way.

O Lord, your Word gives wisdom to the simple: 
– make us simple of heart. 

O Lord, your Word is sweet to the taste:
– grant us the discernment to prefer its taste to any empty words we may hear this evening. 

O Lord, your Word is steadfast, abiding for ever:
– keep our feet firmly on the path to everlasting life. 

May the word of Christ dwell in us richly, and bring us to life everlasting! (Col 3:16)

Amen