“Back In The Saddle”

Here we go again… the BLOG is back. After a very full and somewhat crazy couple of weeks, we’re ready to roll again. I’ve been to four funerals, we just had the 20^th year anniversary of 9-11, our granddaughter Rachel was married to a great guy, and I experienced a nightmare that left me on the floor with severely bruised ribs…. Yikes. So, let’s start slow….. maybe not a new BLOG every day, but who knows?

I was reading a brief note on St. Robert Bellarmine, a doctor of the Church who was designated “Prince of Apologists”… wow, very impressive. It said that “he patiently laid out his opponents’ arguments; in his prayer he begged for their conversion.” What a great model for us as we seek to speak about the Lord and present his greatness to others… a combination of study and prayer.

Despite his great accomplishments and wonderful holiness, St. Robert wasn’t canonized until 1930, almost 400 years from his death. I find that interesting. I’m sure he wasn’t sitting in heaven wondering if and when he was going to receive this honor…. “gee,is Don Mattingly ever going to make the Hall of Fame… will Eli Manning make it to the Hall,… will Robert Bellarmine ever be canonized ???”

I don’t really know much about Robert Bellarmine except that Judy’s brother went to school at Bellarmine College in Louisville. I was struck by one phrase that he spoke in describing heaven, saying it’s “ the perfect bliss which delivers man from the servitude and anxiety of temporal matters, and subjects him to God alone …” That really hit a nerve with me. The servitude and anxiety of temporal matters can really weigh me down and can get me discouraged. It’s a constant fight to have victory over these temporal matters…matters of the world flesh and the devil… So, as we fight the good fight of faith, we can be assured that a day is coming when we will be delivered from this servitude and anxiety. I’m really looking forward to that day. 

And in the meantime, let’s be diligent in our “prayer and study” as we seek to present the Good News of Christ to those around us… asking God for wisdom in how to talk about our beautiful savior and remembering to earnestly pray for those who don’t know Christ.

So anyway, “ were back in the saddle”. Let’s hope we don’t get bounced off again in the near future.