Category: Marty’s Writings

We have been called to cherish our faith for by faith is the way we obtain blessings. By believing, we obtain the answers we need. Faith links earth to heaven as if by some mysterious computer God speaks in return so fast that he answers while we are still speaking. What happens if faith is damaged in some way? How do we receive his promises?

Do we pray only when we are in trouble? By faith we acquire help. However, take away faith and ask again how we can gain help in our present needs. Where are God’s promises when we most need them? There is only this road between earth and heaven. At times, the road is blockaded, and we must detour. Where are we, we ask? How can we communicate with the Lord?

We must ask ourselves if we are in trouble. Faith will clothe us with God’s power. It will connect us with the greatest King. We can march triumphant, even over our Enemy. With faith all things are possible. Without faith how can we do anything? We may neglect looking for answers to what we ask. In essence, we are not in earnest for what we ask. For we can be assured that prayers with faith will be answered. Jesus never rejected anyone who came to him for mercy.

The answer to prayer approaches though we don’t always discern its coming. It could very well be a seed underground through winter taking root for spring and for a long period of growth in the summer. By fall, it is ready for harvest.

When was the last time you let yourself be totally honest with the Lord? How do you hear his voice? Like the birds, stand still and let down your wings.

Has this summer been a trip to the ocean? Did it satisfy you? Maybe you said the mountains would rest you. Did they? Perhaps not as you hoped, the ocean and the mountains fell short of your dreams. It was wisdom that you searched for in love and truth, and that knowledge caused the restlessness you felt. God Himself is the sea and the mountains within. We can rest in his mighty arms and walk with him where only his feet leave prints where he has trod. This is a holy place where he dwells with us. We can call it home, divine and fair, and it is there we abide as his little ones.

This road goes on and on, day and night, where he dwells the only way, we can know for he told us so. God is our home. He shelters us here even in all the storms and strife, and I can say it is a wondrous place. We are hidden here as we dwell in him, and he dwells in us.

I believe there are songs to be learned in this valley. They are music in our hearts. They bring out memories of personal experiences, even our troubles from the past. We are receiving music lessons from God the Father. We are being educated for all the children of the cross; he is training us for the parts the angels cannot sing. Does the Lord send sorrow to prove us?

The Lord wants us to sing a unique part in the universal song. I can see night closing about me. Shadows are dark and long. Come close, Lord, and bless us with new songs. Sing and dance with us. We are the sons and daughters of the light learned at night. This must be more than a fake rehearsal.

We live in the desert. We try to grow gardens in this very difficult climate. Some sections of our gardens fail to catch sunlight, yet we have learned to plant flowers that thrive in dark corners. Some truly flourish in spite of desert conditions.

The same thing happens in the world of the spirit. The circumstances can be problematic. The world seems gloomy and severe, but what becomes to us a miracle are these beautiful flowers blooming in dim light. When St. Paul was in prison in Rome, his mission seemed to be shattered, hopelessly broken in his dingy cell. However, Paul knew that his faith was growing into an incomparable strength, like a beautiful flower surviving the dark, uncomfortable conditions of diminished light.

This was a wonderful world. Christ’s grace and love and peace were flooding him and drawing out inner glory. Even in subdued light, the dinginess was changed to revelation. Paul would come to realize his spiritual inheritance. The same seasons of seemingly insurmountable circumstances may threaten us in a blanket of doom, but imprisonment of one sort or another cannot shut out our treasure. 0 how beautiful, Lord, that you grant the flowers life-giving dew for their thirsty souls. Seemingly you are their object of desire. Only love had meaning to Paul.

Even in a hostile environment, the flowers most assuredly shall rejoice and blossom, yet they will have their shadows beneath as they sway in the wind.·

I fix my eyes on you, Spirit of Jesus Christ
As I seek perfection summarized in the Word
Neve to be exhausted in my intentions.
O God, I hope to be alive in a thousand years
Of scrutiny. Truth strengthened me;
It will not die. The wounded heart regains
God’s peace.

My intentions are not recognized;
Too much, I am surprised in-Christ
Through adversities flooding my soul
Asking for light. Renew my vows, Lord.
I carry a wounded heart in my great joy,
I would not leave my throne of ecstasy, heavenly
Love restores my equilibrium. Plunge me in
Thy great love. Take me under where I am lost
In you. Rays of mercy rest in my heart, here
I pray a lot, happy in Spirit fulfilling God’s will Reflecting, even in my sleep.
Should I ask who you are?

Who are you tapping,
And rapping on close-by? Yet, I resist by preparing
For this last hour standing before him.
Old age cannot exempt me from all the change
Feeling like a war. Old souls ask me to open the gate To pray to rid the earth of Satan who will fall
Into the horrible abyss.

I have seen my great joy Plunging into an ocean of love where I will be lost in thee As I swoon, as I become someone seeing you.

So vain and haughty, I have confessed by doing penance Even in the smallest things of my soul.

THE JESUS PRAYER
“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner (Luke 18/9-14).”

The substance of this prayer is twofold as a petition and as an adoration. The petition and adoration need to be considered in the realm of trinitarian theology in that it is inspired by the Holy Spirit, directed to glorify God the Father, through Jesus Christ who redeems us.

This is the Lord expounding on reconciliation through grace. We, the sinners, are to be forgiven in this divine parable. The second passage in Luke 18 deals with a blind man begging by the roadside. Here we learn of his persistence and repetition which reveal his determination and seriousness. In the blind man it seems that we can hear the beginning of the eucharistic rites:

The Desert Fathers and Mothers said these words as well as today we know that there is interest and practice of the Jesus Prayer in many parts of the world. Through its use, there have been good consequences in which there is greater freedom and depth in prayer than known before. It is not necessary to expand the prayer with non-scriptural, empty phrases. The Lord warns us to avoid the practice of the Pharisees with a multiplication of religious words repeated in the sight of others.

“Then they believed His words; they sang His praise (Ps. 106/12).”

I have read of how Moses endured even though he did not see God. But the Israelites endure only when it seemed easy and worldly instead of residing in the eternal, invisible God. Today we know modern-day Israelites who live in the world with the world’s treasures instead of seeking after God. We have been fooled into thinking we can have both, worldly things and God. Where are we centered? In the present day, we want him more and more, yet we hang on to our things. God wants us to see him; we cannot call him small or his message.

Are we the Israelites who believed after they saw him work? They were filled with doubt when they came to the Red Sea, but lo and behold, they believed after God made a way, leading them across to safety while seeing Pharaoh and his host drown. The Israelites were leading a push-pull, up and down faith life, a life that depended on circumstances rather than the kind of faith God wants for all of us.

The world lives in the philosophy that seeing is believing. On the other hand, God asks that we believe in order to see. It is tempting to believe only when the wind is favorable. “Faith is to believe what we do not see, and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe {Saint Augustine).”

“For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him (2 Chr. 16/9).”

Where does God look for help? He looks for men and women whose hearts are set on him and trust him for all he says he can do. God is exceptionally eager to work mightily for in his world the time is short.
We are waiting to see what God will do through the consecrated souls. He is excited for those who are deeply devoted to him. These are the ones who grasp God’s purposes while exercising faith and humility. These dear souls will continue to let God work his works without hindering him. There is no limit to what God can do with someone who is devoutly surrendered.

It seems that conversion and surrender do not usually occur at the same time. One can convert one day but true surrender comes later, even years later. This is when we find our all in Christ; he becomes our portion. We want nothing else. By God’s grace, we want only the things of God. Have we surrendered our hearts or are we holding out for that one thing we want irrespective of God? By reading the scriptures, we become unspeakably blessed. The Lord is an infinitely lovely Being.

” … where your treasure Is, there will your heart be also (Luke 12/34).”

Heaven is where God makes his presence manifest- on Sinai or Hermon, Tabor or Calvary. Then we will know the treasure and our hearts. It can be, also, places of glory or emptiness or death, a place where we can see the shekinah glory descending or even the place where devils gather. These are the places of trembling. I have a sense of awe and wonder as he reveals himself in blinding glory or in the darkness, even the darkness of my heart which is being revealed gradually. It is a call away from my writing and communicating to a more primitive condition as a stranger and wanderer after whatever it is that I need to learn. I have not learned what I need to learn. In my case, it seems that I need some illumination. From there I expect more communion with God. The call of the desert has drawn me into solitude that has brought me closer to people in the silence of God. This I recognize is a place I believe is my own. If my basic human experience helps you to seek a desert scrutiny of your own, then I have achieved my purpose.

The life of a Christian is a story of a pioneer … even to the desert which all people must eventually go. Every Christian needs to come to his flowering in the wind of the Spirit. We must do it to affirm ourselves and to realize that our lives are good and worthwhile.

“And they sang as it were a new song before the throne, before the four living creatures, and the
elders; and no one could learn that song except the hundred and forty-four thousand who were
redeemed from the earth (Revelation 14/3).”

I sing a song of this valley. I believe it is from God, and it will be sung perfectly. This music is in my heart; they are songs of who I am, and all the personal experiences I have had with God. Do you hear the strain of joy? It is a song sung by all who seek redemption -sons of the earth -gathered together in this hymn of victory to the Lord who is making us free. Who else might sing it?

None can learn it except the sons we have born. They sing it as their song of redemption and triumph that can only make us free. Doubtlessly it comes from Christ who makes us free. We can try, but only Christ can sing it in such a way that I gain freedom. We are children of the cross who receive this music lesson from heaven. He is training us to sing in the school of exile, a sorrow of the soul plainly heard but invisible to thee!

We will sing with the angels, chords too minor to be touched by anyone else. God is tuning me and you for the parts only the angels cannot sing. In the night, we are tuned to the sweetest melody, molding our expression, and becoming so unique.

I feel midnight closing around me and all the shadows lengthening. I ask you, Lord, to come close and teach me another song. Sweet and gentle, the music picks up the broken cadence when the brokenness seems to blend into the minstrels as the song of light. Is this our rehearsal anthem? Let us join our voices in praise of our Lord and God.

As we assess our day, this scripture is the greatest thing we say and do than to quiet the sea or
raise up the dead. As we know, the apostles and the prophets worked mighty miracles but often failed
the will of God. To suffer His will requires faith. We need this sublime Christian achievement, i. e. a young
life afflicted by pain or sorrow and to see no relief; to be pinched by poverty in one’s attempt to help
family; to be chained to a life of disability; now, stripped bare of those we love. We know this is faith at
its best.

ln essence, we have a God who is a sympathizing God. Our feelings are challenged by our ability
to care and become a helper based on our own ability to suffer. Have we suffered somewhere and somehow on a cross? Can we have happiness as we succor others without tasting the cup that Jesus drank or submitting to baptism?

David’s psalms were quite comforting. when he had been pressed out by suffering. Paul had a
thorn in the flesh that accounted for his tenderness in many of his letters. My own circumstances are the
means by which I surrender to God’s hand. I can be chiseled for eternity. This involves trust. Do I push
away the tool that is shaping me?

We will face trials. We have an assurance that He falls like sunshine where we are. rle brings
peace and comfort daily; however, his judgments are a great deep. yet, God means it to be good. Even
through weary days of prison bondage, Paul was working through his waiting. God permitted afflictions
bitter and so strange, and the Lord saw the end from the beginning purpose. paul placed his hand in the
Lord’s and followed Him fearlessly through his endless days.

Marty J. Larcom