Not ours to Seek

I have been thinking a lot about Confession this past week.  Not because I never go and feel guilty as a result.  I do go.  I have thought about it a lot because something my priest said to me has stuck in my head. Justice is not ours to seek. 

I had a situation that I was dealing with.  And so I did what most of us do - in my head I plotted and played out one scenario after the other.  Whilst driving, whilst watching TV, it mulled around in my head with great regularity.  What I could do to make the situation even.  Cause the same problems for others that had been caused for us.  Play acting.  Knowing that these were simply mental images, played to make me feel better. Revenge. Vengeance. Avenging the wrongs. 

And then I was reminded.  Justice is not ours to seek.  Romans 12:19 "Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord.

As a mom I remind my children that not everyone they encounter in life will be a friend.  Not everyone will always be loyal and sometimes those that wrong us are not enemies, they are those we give the most time and effort to.  When we decide to allow this anger and hurt to consume us, we simply add fuel to an already fast burning fire.  

Matthew Henry says "those that revenge are conquered, and those that forgive are conquerors". 

However it is often hard to remind ourselves of this, hard not to follow human nature and create mental scenarios of an eye for an eye.  But in Confession, in the presence of God and guided by our Catholic priest, I was reminded again ..... it is not ours to seek. 

Till next time
Take a Leap of Faith 

So we are a Catholic family

So I am Catholic.  Born & bred.  And we are your normal garden variety Catholic family.  

My hubby and I, two teenagers, 4 dogs and a cat.  We have all the challenges of an average family ... budgets that balance but money that seems to fall just short of the 26th of every month, a 15 year old son with the wisdom of a 20 year old (an old soul in every respect) and a 20 year old daughter, training full-time at a Chefs Academy and getting used to 12 hour days and a life away from a school she was in from Gr 0 to Gr 12.  My son has been in the same Catholic school as her since Gr 0 as well.  

We go to Mass on the weekends, sometimes in the week as well.  We observe the Holy Days of Obligation.  We pray the Angelus and the Rosary.  We make our sacrifices during Lent and we spend our lives in Church from Holy Thursday to Easter Sunday.  All the regular things.  

I work for a Priest full-time as his PA.  So church is everywhere around me.  It does not mean I am perfectly behaved or a model of religious life.  I am simply me - wife, mom, daughter, sister, friend and PA.

We also have days on which we question God.  And challenge His ways.  We have days on which our language is perhaps not as should be.  We go to Confession and then find ourselves transgressing .... no-one can say they don't.  We have days that we drag kids to Church.  We have days that we drag ourselves to Church. We sometimes forget to pray.  

And I find a shortage of a forum or writing that tells the tales and daily tolls of being a simple Catholic family. 

Family outing to the zoo - July 2014

I intend to rectify this. 

Till next time
Take a Leap of Faith in Life 
xxxx