To the broken-hearted,
I heard this song on my pandora today, and I cannot get over how perfect it is for that time in a break-up when you just need to "feel it". My roommates from college could easily place this in my junior year playlist. I wish I'd heard it then! It sums up exactly how I believe someone must healthily deal with a break-up: near to Him. I can remember when I felt just like this, falling into the arms of My Lord, allowing him to slowly heal a broken heart. Clinging to him, trusting that He alone can piece my heart back together. And you know what? He did so much more than just put my heart back together! He healed relationships, changed hearts, and did miracles I never imagined.
It is through prayer and facing the pain that you must move on from heart-break. As a wise professor once told me, in the mess of emotions, you must take each one, recognize it, feel it, and then place it neatly on the shelf. If it is sadness, be sad; happiness? Be happy. If it is anger, be angry. Whatever the emotion, name it, take the time to truly feel it, and when it is time to move on, file it away. Turning to God in my grief and following that professor's advice got me through it all. In the end, there will be "beauty from pain".
"Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you." - James 4:8
Near to You
by A Fine Frenzy
He and I had something beautiful
But so dysfunctional, it couldn't last
I loved him so but I let him go
'Cause I knew he'd never love me back
Such pain as this
Shouldn't have to be experienced
I'm still reeling from the loss,
Still a little bit delirious
Near to you, I am healing
But it's taking so long
'Cause though he's gone
And you are wonderful
It's hard to move on
Yet, I'm better near to you.
You and I have something different
And I'm enjoying it cautiously
I'm battle scarred, I am working oh so hard
To get back to who I used to be
He's disappearing
Fading suddenly
I'm so close to being yours
Won't you stay with me
Please
Near to you, I am healing
But it's taking so long
'Cause though he's gone
And you are wonderful
It's hard to move on
Yet, I'm better near to you.
I only know that I am
Better where you are
I only know that I am
Better where you are
I only know that I belong
Where you are
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
A song for the broken-hearted . . .
Monday, January 24, 2011
A person's a person, no matter how small!
I dream of a day when it is common knowledge, not just common sense, that a baby is a person at the moment of conception. Today is the March for Life in Washington D.C. It marks the 36th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, the devastating decision that legalized the killing of unborn children.
May we all join in prayer with those in Washington today, that our nation will rise and defend it's most defenseless members. Lord, have mercy on our nation!
"Simple morality dictates that unless and until someone can prove the unborn human is not alive, we must give it the benefit of the doubt and assume it is (alive). And, thus, it should be entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." - Ronald Reagan 1982
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Might be searching for a new blog host
It's come to my attention that google/blogspot have shut The Theologian's Corner! After researching a little, it seems that it isn't uncommon for them to shut down conservative blogs. The site has been moved to www.markzia.wordpress.com.
Thoughts? Any blog hosts you'd recommend?
Thursday, January 6, 2011
A "holy Church" not a church of "holy people"
This is a passage I found from the final chapter of Joseph Ratzinger's (Pope Benedict) "Introduction to Christianity". So often, I find people that have lost faith in The Church because they see all if its sinful people. How can a church be thought to be holy, when so many of those inside it are sinners? Pope Benedict addresses this question with truth and beauty. The Church is not holy because it is filled with holy people (work inside the Church and you'll quickly find that it is filled with sinners. Of course, first look at yourself). The Church is "holy" because it is sanctified by Christ.
Though Ratzinger's words are rather heady, he speaks some important truths to keep in mind when one starts to lose faith and hope in Christ's Church because of its members.
"I BELIEVE THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH"
by Joseph Ratzinger
The holiness of the Church consists in that power of sanctification which God exerts in it in spite of human sinfulness. We come up here against the real mark of the "New Covenant": in Christ God has bound himself to men, has let himself be bound by them. The New Covenant no longer rests on the reciprocal keeping of the agreement; it is granted by God as grace which abides even in the face of man's faithlessness. It is the expression of God's love, which will not let itself be defeated by man's incapacity but always remains well-disposed towards him, welcomes him again and again precisely because he is sinful, turns to him, sanctifies him and loves him.
Because of the Lord's devotion, never more to be revoked, the Church is the institution sanctified by him forever, an institution in which the holiness of the Lord becomes present among men. But it is really and truly the holiness of the Lord that becomes present in it and that chooses again and again as the vessel of its presence – with a paradoxical love – the dirty hands of men. It is holiness that radiates as the holiness of Christ from the midst of the Church's sin. So to the faithful the paradoxical figure of the Church, in which the divine so often presents itself in such unworthy hands, in which the divine is only ever present in the form of a "nevertheless", is the sign of the "nevertheless" of the ever greater love shown by God. The existing interplay of God's loyalty and man's disloyalty which characterizes the structure of the Church is grace in dramatic form. [. . .] One could actually say that precisely in its paradoxical combination of holiness and unholiness the Church is in fact the shape taken by grace in this world.
Let us go a step further. In the human dream of a perfect world, holiness is always visualized as untouchability by sin and evil, as something unmixed with the latter. [. . .] In contemporary criticism of society and in the actions in which it vents itself, this merciless side always present in human ideals is once again only too evident. That is why the aspect of Christ's holiness that upset his contemporaries was the complete absence of this condemnatory note – fire did not fall on the unworthy nor were the zealous allowed to pull up the weeds which they saw growing luxuriantly on all sides. On the contrary, this holiness expressed itself precisely as mingling with the sinners whom Jesus drew into his vicinity; as mingling to the point where he himself was made "to be sin" and bore the curse of the law in execution as a criminal – complete community of fate with the lost (cf. 2 Cor. 5.21; Gal. 3.13). He has drawn sin to himself, made it his lot and so revealed what true "holiness" is: not separation but union, not judgment but redeeming love.
Is the Church not simply the continuation of God's deliberate plunge into human wretchedness; is it not simply the continuation of Jesus' habit of sitting at table with sinners, of his mingling with the misery of sin to the point where he actually seems to sink under its weight? Is there not revealed in the unholy holiness of the Church, as opposed to man's expectation of purity, God's true holiness, which is love, love which does not keep its distance in a sort of aristocratic, untouchable purity but mixes with the dirt of the world, in order thus to overcome it? Can therefore the holiness of the Church be anything else but the mutual support which comes, of course, from the fact that all of us are supported by Christ? [. . .]
At bottom there is always hidden pride at work when criticism of the Church adopts that tone of rancorous bitterness which today is already beginning to become a fashionable habit. Unfortunately it is accompanied only too often by a spiritual emptiness in which the specific nature of the Church as a whole is no longer seen, in which it is only regarded as a political instrument whose organization is felt to be pitiable or brutal, as the case may be, as if the real function of the Church did not lie beyond organization, in the comfort of the Word and of the sacraments which she provides in good and bad days alike. Those who really believe do not attribute too much importance to the struggle for the reform of ecclesiastical ritual. They live on what the Church always is; and if one wants to know what the Church really is one must go to them. For the Church is most present not where organizing, reforming and governing are going on but in those who simply believe and receive from her the gift of faith that is life to them.
This does not mean that everything must be left undisturbed and endured as it is. Endurance can also be a highly active process, a struggle to make the Church herself more and more that which supports and endures. After all, the Church does not live otherwise than in us; she lives from the struggle of the unholy to attain holiness, just as of course this struggle lives from the gift of God, without which it could not exist. But this effort only becomes fruitful and constructive if it is inspired by the spirit of forbearance, by real love.
And here we have arrived at the criterion by which that critical struggle for better holiness must always be judged, a criterion that is not only not in contradiction with forbearance but is demanded by it. This criterion is constructiveness. A bitterness that only destroys stands self-condemned. A slammed door can, it is true, become a sign that shakes up those inside. But the idea that one can do more constructive work in isolation than in fellowship with others is just as much of an illusion as the notion of a Church of "holy people" instead of a "holy Church" that is holy because the Lord bestows holiness on her as a quite unmerited gift.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Check out the "Theologian's Corner"
Hey all you crazy Catholics (or anyone interested)!
Mark Zia is a professor of mine from college who just started a wonderful blog about the beliefs and practices of Catholicism. He's a rock-solid theologian, an insanely difficult professor, and a great guy! I guarantee you'll learn A LOT about the faith!
I highly recommend "following" his blog!
http://www.markzia.blogspot.com/
Thursday, October 28, 2010
A Beatiful Voice - Caitlin Natalia
I love my alma mater, and I'm always so proud of the beautiful musicians that come together there to make beautiful music for Our Lord. Recently, I've been listening to the music that Caitlin Natalia has recorded this far. I remember her as a little freshman when her boyfriend intoduced us. A beautiful soul and sweet woman, I had no idea until after I graduated that year that she had the voice of an angel!
I thought I'd share her gorgeous voice with the blog world, because I just can't keep this beautiful music to myself!
Check out Caitlin's iLike page!
John Rumpza is another talented musician and friend! He works with Caitlin on "Underneath the Sky".
Check out John's Facebook or Myspace page!
Friday, October 22, 2010
A little peak into the most wonderful day of my life! :D
I thought I'd share a few pictures from our big day with the blog world! All of these were taken by my lovely sisters. Enjoy!
