Promises Kept

Yesterday

"Go to Jesus. He loves you and is waiting for you to give you many graces. He is on the altar surrounded by angels adoring and praying. Let them make some room for you and join them in doing what they do...."

Today is actually the real anniversary of my grandpurrents, so happy anniversary to them! yay!! This is thurr wedding pic that they had taken 60 yurrs ago, crazzzy huh! Look how young they look. I wonder how thurr wedding was liike, I wonder if they even have the original invitation and who was invited, etc. etc. Such an amazing accomplishment for the bof of them, it was nice cuz fr. ray gave them bof a special blessing after mass on sun. He layed his hands over them and prayed for the spirit to continue to guide thurr marriage and that it may continue to bring good fruits.


Today

I was skurred yesterday cuz I had to go into work and extend my doctors notice, for another 3 weeks. PRaise GOd that my boss was real nice about it and he didnt get all angry at me. Whew! ha whatta reflief, but they told my mom they missed me and they want me to come back. THey want me to do office type work, agh but that gets boring after a while. I dont know we'll see wha happens, I like being able to be on disability and do whatever I want! haha Its a great feeling try it sometimes. THough I have to go in and do some cpr/first aid retraining and certification.

Abe called me yesterday and he wanted to chill cuz I guess he had some stuff on his mind. I picked him up and then we went to downtown disney first. THat guys a trip, I've never really chilled w/him outside church grounds. He's soo loud ha oh man I had to tell him to calm his horses down a couple of times. He gets so easily excited and wound up, but it's funny. I wanted to go to espn zone but it was soo packed! Scratch that idea out, so we ended up going to bj's in cerritos. For a skinny kid, that foo can eat! He bought a mini pizza, and then finished the rest of my buffalo wings. So I dont know wha was actually on his mind, cuz we juss talked bout one thing after the other. Maybe he juss wanted to get out and clurr his mind, but I wanted to go to the parish mission too! haha oh why?!

As I was waiting for him outside, I was listening to this music that was coming from his next door neighbor's house. I was really feelin it, so I told abe to go ask wha was playing. Turned out it was the soundtrack to musical/movie ms. saigon. I came home and then sturrted to dload some of the songs from the soundtrack. It's tight, especially that one song, 'the last nite of the world.' I was trying to look for the lyrics too, but havent found it yet. Thurrs another song that I was feelin too, but I dont know wha its called. Maybe I can post the song on my blog. woOO!

Speaking of songs, Ive been dloading these tagalog songs for my grandpurrents. I dont know whos tight and who isnt, so Ive been juss dloading random songs. ANyhow, I dloaded this one song called, 'can't help falling in love,' by Josh Santana and wow I love it! haha I dont even know wha the guy is singing, but its juss something bout the song thas making me bop my head! haha Its like a pop song and the melody sounds like a song I've heard before. Maybe I can post that song on hurr too. Yay for cool songs!

The burr is funny, we were on the phone yesterday and we bof couldnt stop laughing bout this inside joke we have. You know divine mercy sunday, murrked the 2 yurr anniversary of the beginning of exile. Its amazing how God works, praise God for his graces. Really, cuz I dont know how I wouldve been able to make it out of that struggle w/o him. It was a growing pain, a whole learning process and I;m glad I went through it. Now I dont think I want to be in that type of situation again, however praise God for it.

I got sent in my email, this inspiring reflection of JPII. Check it out and read it yourself...

JPII: a lion, my hero
By Mark Hart, the Bible Geek ®

The shortest verse in all of Scripture is also one of the most profound, “Jesus wept” (John 11:35)
Why did Jesus weep? Those in the crowd that day thought He was weeping because of how much He loved His friend, Lazarus, who had died and whose body had been in the tomb for four days. Yes, Jesus loved His close friend, but that’s not why the tears streamed down our Savior’s cheeks.

He wept because those assembled there, those in the crowd, didn’t see what Jesus saw and couldn’t comprehend the bigger picture that Christ, Himself, would open up for them. Death is not an end…not for those whose hearts belong to the Lord.

Jesus wept not for Lazarus, but for the people, because they viewed death as final. If this life is all you have and all you believe in, than you have good reason to weep. If you believe in God’s promise, Christ’s salvation and the Spirit’s guidance, however, than you know that this life is not where it ends. There is something amazing, something beyond words, something inexplicable waiting “for those who love Him” (1 Cor. 2:9).

I wept today for our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II; he was and is my hero.

I found myself weeping, not out of sadness, necessarily (though I am sad) but out of mourning for our world and our culture. We have lost a lion, a fearless leader who never allowed popularity or politics to dictate or manhandle God’s truth. He never wavered and He never bent. Some call that archaic – I call it gallant. He refused to play word games or deal in a world of grays when it came to life issues, like so many “powerful” politicians so willingly do. Just like Jesus at Calvary, his power came in his humility. He didn’t soften truth to make people more comfortable, he didn’t allow political pressures to mediate or misdirect his message. He rose to the occasions. He dealt in black and white, not allowing our Church to sink into a pit of uncertainty or popular conformity. He answered in authenticity and not mediocrity. He responded to his vocation not only as a priest but as a creature of God. He did what he was called to do and stood for life in the face of a culture of death.

I stared into the eyes of His Holiness John Paul II not three months ago. It was three weeks before his admittance into the hospital, his second to last General Papal audience. Many assembled there saw a fragile and meek leader. I saw a lion draped in the wool of a sheep. His body was frail but his mind sharp. The powerful gentleness in his eyes spoke volumes, his presence so humble.

Getting to meet him with my wife at my side, being able to kiss his ring and say thank you for the way he let the Holy Spirit work through him and for his words that had touched my soul, was an answered prayer. Getting to hold his hand before God called him home is a blessing I still cannot completely believe or fathom. Every Catholic, young and old, should be so blessed - staring into his eyes was a window into his soul, I saw Jesus, I truly did.

I was reminded of the words of one writer following World Youth Day in Toronto who said, "Watching John Paul II is like watching a soul drag a body behind it." How true that is.

This week we might weep because we loved all that John Paul II was and all that he stood for…I certainly do. We might also weep wondering what will happen now that the most courageous voice of truth, a voice that speaks for the unborn and defenseless is now silent. Both are understandable, but just like outside the tomb of Lazarus, unnecessary. God is as present and in control today as He has been since the dawn of time, fear not.

Today is a day to rejoice because God has called home one of His own and one of His beloved, a man truly after His own heart. Today is a day to rejoice because Karol Wojtyla’s (JPII’s) life will forever stand as a living testament that one person can still make a difference, if steeped in humility, abandoned to grace, dedicated to the Eucharistic Jesus and devoted to His Blessed Mother. A great thing happened this day: one of our brothers in the faith gets to finally experience the ecstasy of Heaven, as we should all hope to do and should live to insure.

His Holiness John Paul II will be remembered for so many things and, most likely, not appreciated for the fullness of his incredible ministry for decades (even centuries) to come. Only after people have taken the time to read, pray and live out his writings and words will he ever be viewed in the light he should, a light he spread far and wide, the light of Christ (John 8:12). The truth, though, is the JPII is yet another in a long and beautiful list of souls who have given themselves to Christ and to the service of His Church who will receive honor from those still on earth NOT because they desired it, but because they deserved it.

He will be remembered for his staunch political identity and savvy, his assistance in the dismantling of communism in Eastern Europe, his forgiveness of his would-be assassin and his love of youth. All are true and worthy of praise.

He’ll be remembered in Heaven because his was a life led by the Spirit and abandoned to the grace and direction of God. Yours can be, too, if you let it. The greatest way to honor John Paul II is to take his meekness and his determination as examples of how to live your life in the face of a culture that won’t understand it. Hold fast to the ideals he safeguarded and stand firm in the truths he espoused, for they were not his but Christ’s.

Today, this day, commit yourself to seeking out your vocation and following it in humility. Today, take a bold step forward in being the man of God or woman of God He calls you to be, in the spirit of our fallen but risen hero, Pope John Paul the Great. That is the greatest tribute you could ever pay to him, to the greater Church and to our Lord, Christ, Himself.

When I looked into his eyes a few weeks back, I recalled something I read when reading about and studying his life, several years ago. When he was a boy growing up in Wadowice, Poland, there was a shop across the street with a sundial in front of it and when he stared out of his bedroom window each day he could read the inscription. The inscription, carved in stone, read, "Time flies. Eternity waits."

That is the mantra of urgency and humble faith through which he has lived his life and lived out his pontificate, and it is a piece of wisdom that I keep tucked away deeply within my head and heart. I will never forget it. I will never forget the look in his eyes, the strength in his hands or the love that God has for us all, in giving us such a servant to guide those willing to follow. God is faithful. John Paul II is faithful. If only I can have an ounce of that faithfulness - my wife, family and world will be truly blessed. We shall see…

Time flies, eternity waits.

Pope John Paul the great pray for us...

"Song played on a solo saxaphone..."im done, im out GOd bless!