Inspirational thoughts

Thy Kingdom Come!

Dear Friends, in Christ,

     “The end for which we are created invites us to walk a road that is surely sown with a lot of thorns, but it is not sad; through even the sorrow, it is illuminated by joy.” St. Pier Giorgio Frassati

    St. John Paul II suffered so much…but he was a man of such deep joy!  His mother, sister, brother and dad died before he was 21 years old, he suffered from communist oppression for so many years, and he had multiple health issues, including a bullet wound, cancer and Parkinson’s…but that joy never left his face!

God bless,

Fr. Michael Sliney, LC

Thy Kingdom Come!

Dear Friends, in Christ,

“Those who have the wind of the Holy Spirit in their souls glide ahead even while they sleep.  If the vessel of our soul is still being tossed by winds or storms, we should wake the Lord, who has been resting with us all along, and He will quickly calm the sea.” Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection God bless, Fr. Michael Sliney, LC

Thy Kingdom Come!

Dear Friends, in Christ,

     “Nothing appeases an enraged elephant so much as the sight of a little lamb.” –St. Francis de Sales

    When arrogance and pride come trampling towards you, respond with humility, and they will stop dead in their tracks.

God bless,

Fr. Michael Sliney, LC

TKC!

My latest LifeZette Article- The Immaculate Conception

http://www.lifezette.com/faithzette/immaculate-conception-mother-redeemer/

God bless,

Fr. Michael Sliney, LC

Thy Kingdom Come!

Dear Friends, in Christ,

     “Jesus is with you even when you don’t feel His presence. He is never so close to you as He is during your spiritual battles. He is always there, close to you, encouraging you to fight your battle courageously. He is there to ward off the enemy’s blows so that you may not be hurt.” St. Padre Pio

   

    Jesus is right there, he cares tremendously about YOU…allow him to help!

God bless,

Fr. Michael Sliney, LC

TKC!

Please see my latest article in Lifezette-http://www.lifezette.com/faithze…/a-humble-joyful-christmas/

God bless,

Fr. Michael Sliney, LC

Thy Kingdom Come!

Dear Friends, in Christ,

     “We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures; we are the sum of the Father’s love for us.” St. John Paul II

    You do not need to “impress”  or “win over” God.  His love is unconditional, constant and intense…allow him to love you!

God bless,

Fr. Michael Sliney, LC

Thy Kingdom Come!

Dear Friends, in Christ,

     “Don’t shine so others can see you. Shine so that, through you, others can see Him.” CS Lewis

    It is always a good thing to occasionally question your intentionality: Is it all about you or is it all about God and his glory?

God bless,

Fr. Michael Sliney, LC

Thy Kingdom Come!

Dear Friends, in Christ,

     “To maintain a joyful family requires much from both the parents and the children. Each member of the family has to become, in a special way, the servant of the others.” St. John Paul II

     Charity begins with mom and dad setting the tone.  My parents were not perfect, but they certainly taught us kindness, and my older sister, Deb, really showed my two brothers and I what it looked like…the home should be the “school of charity” for every child.

God bless,

Fr. Michael Sliney, LC

   God chose it for himself.  Jesus could have been born from an olive tree, floated down from heaven or simply appeared on the public scene at the age of 30 and skipped the formality of being raised in a family with both a mom and a dad.  God is all wise, he knows all the options and he always chooses the best one.  God chose family life with Mary as his mother and Joseph as his father.

     Personally, I learned the “law of exchange” (justice) from my dad and the “law of love” (mercy) from my mom.  My dad helped me understand the need to chip in by doing housework, fairness in dealing with my brothers, curfews and rules that needed to be followed and punishments that corresponded to infractions.(He was always there at the door at 1130 pm on week-ends to give the sobriety test and make sure I made it back in time).  My mom taught me selflessness by often putting on the vaporizer in my room at 3 am, smiling even though her head was about to crack with a bad headache, uniting my brothers after a nasty fight with her good sense of humor, and showing us the power of prayer and faith, especially in the darker moments.  This list barely touches the surface and I am sure all of you could fill many paragraphs with your own personal examples.

     “In this reputable and newly-released study, Sociologist Mark Regnerus reveals how children fare better across measurable indicators when they are raised in a stable intact home with their mother and their fathers, as opposed to same-sex families. The study has received notable acclaim from the New York Times, the Washington Times, Slate, Patheos and others. Some have called it “the gold standard” of research, while others might speculate the significance it has for the same-sex marriage debate.

Ross Douthat said: “..a growing body of research indicates that no other parental arrangement, from single motherhood to cohabitation to shared custody, affords as many social, economic and emotional advantages as being raised by two biological parents joined in a lifelong commitment.”

Dr. Patrick Fagan said the study will “raise the bar for research on gay parenting, especially since it is does not rely on “snowball samples,” in which gay parents are recruited in the same places as their gay friends and colleagues.”

To quote an excerpt from the NYTimes:

Young adults from broken homes in which a parent had had a same-sex relationship reported modestly more psychological and social problems in their current lives than peers from other families that had experienced divorce and other disruptions, a new study has found, stirring bitter debate among partisans on gay marriage.

The study counted parents as gay or lesbian by asking participants whether their parents had ever had a same-sex relationship; the parents may not have identified themselves as gay or lesbian. Gay-rights groups attacked the study, financed by conservative foundations, as biased and poorly done even before its publication on Sunday in the journal Social Science Research.

But outside experts, by and large, said the research was rigorous, providing some of the best data yet comparing outcomes for adult children with a gay parent with those with heterosexual parents….” (http://www.loveandfidelity.org/online_journal/new-study-shows-children-fare-better-in-traditional-mother-father-families/)

     Gay marriage, for the most part, has become legal and accepted in our society.  The focus has been on the rights of the gay couple who love each other…but what about the rights of the kids who may be adopted into that family structure? Pope Francis stated, “Children have the right to be raised by a mother and a father. Complementarity will take many forms as each man and woman brings his or her distinctive contributions to their marriage and to the formation of their children – his or her personal richness, personal charisma.” Jesus chose it for himself; can’t we offer the vast treasures of complementarity to all our children as well?