Archive for Author David Leis

The Healer

The human heart was created only for love, love of God, love for one another, and love for all of God’s creation.

And yet, as we know from our own experience of life, there is all too frequently so much pain and suffering that the human heart is trampled, torn and left broken, shattered, and deeply wounded. Oh, so much pain that at times, it is a wonder that we go on living.

It matters little whether the pain is self inflicted from our own sinful behavior, from others, or from nature itself such as death, the human heart was not originally created for pain. Only love.

What is our recourse when we experience such pain? The normal answer from our humanity is to seek a cure, and the options are as many as there are individuals. Typically, those include medications, psychological treatment, addictions, anger or revenge, and so on.

But there is only One Healer, Jesus Christ.

When we approach Him in complete poverty, knowing that we cannot care for or heal our own hearts, He is sure to have compassion on a beggar. It is in presenting Him with the fragments of a wounded and broken heart with complete abandonment and total faith in His love and mercy that draws His compassionate and loving gaze. We reach out to merely touch the hem of His garment to feel the healing grace begin to flow into us.

The Healer is sure to have mercy on every poor beggar who approaches Him.

If the beggar is detached, then in His time and in His way, the Healer will surely have mercy on the one he so lovingly created.

Introduction. THE POINT. 1st Point.

THE POINT: Jesus loves you beyond anything you have ever experienced or can imagine. (p.14)

How often have we given into the temptation to doubt that Jesus truly loves us? Momentarily or for longer periods of time?

If we really understood the heart of Jesus, we would sense His pain that we have yielded to that temptation, like one who feels their love is rejected.

It is possible, however, to stop, pause and reflect on where we are at the moment, and then to open ourselves to being loved by Jesus, in totally new ways, unlike anything we have experienced in the past. It is a ‘heart pause’ and then a yielding to love as we sense His presence and the power of His love.

What is needed is to clear the air between ourselves and Him, to get it out in the open, to admit to Him that we have doubted, for however long it has been, one hour, one day, one year, one decade or one lifetime to this point. Freedom comes from the honest admission and a desire to move forward trusting in His love.

The problem we encounter within ourselves is that we too often focus on ourselves and what we want, as opposed to His Will for us. For that we need to ask His forgiveness, knowing that he will forgive and forget. And then we need to do the same. The danger here is our self condemnation and continuing to hold on to our past failures, which will stunt our spiritual growth.

We have the opportunity to be excited each day about being loved by Him in new ways. We need only look for the continuing unfolding of those new ways of being loved by Him. We can see it happening in small ways each day as we anticipate the newness of His love each day.

And the sure knowledge of His love for us brings us serenity and joy no matter how our days unfold.

Learning Spiritual Resilience through Perseverance

How is it that you see some people who go through tremendous personal trials and suffering, but continue to live a faithful life, when others turn their shoulder to God? Where did their strength come from? Often, you even see a progression of greater faith as they continue to live repeated trials and suffering. What separates them from those who succumb to their circumstances?

The answer is spiritual resilience. The ability with the heart, mind, spirit and soul to focus not on themselves in those circumstances, but on their complete trust, even abandonment, to the Providence of God. An interior yielding that leaves no room for bitterness or resentment or self pity.

How is that virtue developed? The answer is a little at a time over a long period of time.

You learned to walk or ride a bicycle by falling down.  Olympic athletes fail too many times to count on their way to the gold medal. So it is with anything you want to achieve.  Spiritual resiliency is fundamental to a growth in holiness to which every Christian is called.  But along the way, we will encounter much failure.  That is not a reason to quit, at all, but the very reason to keep going! We learn one more way in which not to do it and as complex as our natures are, there are certainly a lot of ways we need to learn how not to do it.

But the real focus on developing spiritual resiliency as a trait, and enduring part of our being, is the celebration of our little successes along the way. Focus on those times when you overcame the temptation to give up and trusted God, remaining joyful and optimistic in the midst of a trial. One can even begin with small annoyances, such as delays in traffic.  Begin with the small matters, pay attention to them and reinforce the successes. No jet pilot, astronaut, professional athlete or saint achieved what they did without both learning from the mistakes and working hard on reinforcing the successes.

‘They will know we are Christians by our love’, by our love, joy, peace and serenity in every circumstance.  Our spiritual resilience, the ability to remain loving, joyful, peaceful and serene no matter what is going on around us,  is developed through perseverance over a long period of time. Starting with the smallest of things, the smallest annoyances in our lives.

The fruit of your efforts will be a life of greater happiness as God provides the grace to grow in spiritual resilience through greater and greater perseverance.

The Late Francis Cardinal George’s Prophetic Column

In a column from April 17, 2015 I was rereading by the late Francis Cardinal George of Chicago, I was struck again that it was no ordinary essay, but one that had a prophetic element to it worth taking notice by all Christians, no matter their profession. Here is part of the article. 

It takes no moral courage to conform to government and social pressure. It takes a deep faith to “swim against the tide,” as Pope Francis recently encouraged young people to do at last summer’s World Youth Day.

Swimming against the tide means limiting one’s access to positions of prestige and power in society. It means that those who choose to live by the Catholic faith will not be welcomed as political candidates to national office, will not sit on editorial boards of major newspapers, will not be at home on most university faculties, will not have successful careers as actors and entertainers. Nor will their children, who will also be suspect. Since all public institutions, no matter who owns or operates them, will be agents of the government and conform their activities to the demands of the official religion, the practice of medicine and law will become more difficult for faithful Catholics. It already means in some States that those who run businesses must conform their activities to the official religion or be fined, as Christians and Jews are fined for their religion in countries governed by Sharia law.

A reader of the tale of two churches, an outside observer, might note that American civil law has done much to weaken and destroy what is the basic unit of every human society, the family. With the weakening of the internal restraints that healthy family life teaches, the State will need to impose more and more external restraints on everyone’s activities. An outside observer might also note that the official religion’s imposing whatever its proponents currently desire on all citizens and even on the world at large inevitably generates resentment. An outside observer might point out that class plays a large role in determining the tenets of the official State religion. “Same-sex marriage,” as a case in point, is not an issue for the poor or those on the margins of society.

How does the tale end? We don’t know. The actual situation is, of course, far more complex than a story plot, and there are many actors and characters, even among the ruling class, who do not want their beloved country to transform itself into a fake church. It would be wrong to lose hope, since there are so many good and faithful people.

Catholics do know, with the certainty of faith, that, when Christ returns in glory to judge the living and the dead, the church, in some recognizable shape or form that is both Catholic and Apostolic, will be there to meet him. There is no such divine guarantee for any country, culture or society of this or any age.

I believe this is not a political statement. It is prophetic, and frankly, along the same lines as St. John Paul II’s speech just before he was elected Pope. I HIGHLY recommend this short article: http://www.catholicity.com/mccloskey/final-confrontation.html

Up to now, what he (the future John Paul II) predicted was nascent. But we have now fully entered what is more widely known in Catholic circles today as the Final Confrontation as he coined the term. It has begun.

That is what my book, “That Flame in Your Heart? Turn it into a Blowtorch!”  is essentially laying the foundation for. So that people can find peace, serenity and joy no matter what is going on in their lives and around them. Now. In their present circumstances of life.

They are going to need it.

Now is the time of preparation. It is time to find that peace, serenity and joy in everyday life, in every circumstance of their life, no matter what is going on. And then spread that to every person they come in contact, in ways appropriate to their calling.

Waiting until they cry out in the turmoil is too late. Practice now what you need when the time comes as surely it will. No human is immune from suffering.

But there is only one Source of peace. Human attempts to achieve it by force or division or allurements or any human institutions will fail.

As usual, I may be running a little ahead of things, but in my strategic planning consulting, my business is future-casting. (I have never had a CEO tell me we got his company ready too soon.)

We have reached the proverbial ‘tipping point’.

From here forward, it will accelerate non-linearly, at a geometric rate.  Those who prepare now, “and bring the extra oil (of peace) they need for their lamps, will not want when the groom appears”. (if I might paraphrase Mt. 25: 1-13) And those who do not will be locked out in the night.

The end result will be a victorious Church in splendor…….. But between where we are today and that victory is a great gulf of darkness which we are plunging into. Out of it will emerge a cleansed remnant Church, radiant in splendor as it reflects its King.  And all those who have bought into the “anti-Church” and “anti-Gospel” will be swept away.

The good news is that each soul will have sufficient light given it to make a decision, as God always does, so eternity will not be a surprise, but rather, what was chosen and pursued by that soul with the free will He has given it.

I pray that everyone can come to know peace, serenity, and joy in their lives no matter what is going on. And that the flame of love for God in their hearts might be turned into a blowtorch!

Now.

May peace, serenity and joy be yours as Jesus turns that flame in your heart into a Blowtorch!

Welcome to “Turn it into a Blowtorch!”

Peace be with you!

It is awesome that you are here! We are excited that you found us!

We hope and pray that this website can help you on your spiritual journey in some small way and contribute to the building up of the Body of Christ.

We are in the process of building a community of believers in Jesus Christ the King who want more peace, serenity and joy in their own lives and those of those who are dear to them.

You already have faith, perhaps even a strong faith, but sometimes, when things are difficult, you wish it were stronger.  And truth be told, as you look to the future, it sometimes causes anxiety. The rate of change and turmoil in the world is only increasing. There is nothing on the horizon that indicates it will get better in the affairs of man any time soon. The future certainly does portend great upheavals from what we have known in the past.

But where suffering or chaos is present, grace abounds if we avail ourselves of it.  The other reality is that in our time of need, we cannot exercise a muscle we have never developed sufficient for the need at the time. It takes long hard work to build strong spiritual muscle and staying power – resilience.

The book and this web site have a single focus: to help you develop a deeper relationship and dialogue with the Person of Jesus Christ that has as its fruit greater peace, serenity and joy in your life. And by possessing that gift, attract others to that same relationship.

The book and web site are simply tools to show you a path you may choose where someone else has already gone.

My prayer is that through a deeper dialogue with Jesus Christ, you may come to know a peace, serenity and joy greater than you have ever known. And the flame of love for Him in your heart turns into a blowtorch so bright that everyone who sees you sees Him!

May peace, serenity and joy be yours as Jesus turns that flame in your heart into a Blowtorch!

 

The Calling

Sinner or saint, He calls each soul into intimate dialogue with Him because His love cannot be contained nor constrained any longer as He looks upon the condition of the world and the souls being lost to eternal damnation.  Torrents of graces from Heaven are being poured out onto the world in ways never seen before as He urges His children to turn to Him!  Do not fall into Satan’s trap of judging where you are at the moment. It is irrelevant to a dialogue of the heart with your Creator who wants so badly to dialogue with you! Whatever our natures are, our dispositions are, He will adapt His dialogue to us in order to most effectively communicate with us, just as we adapt ourselves depending on circumstances and who we are talking to.

A Deeper Calling

Jesus, You want us to know Your Presence especially in the tabernacle, but also in the world as never before. We see Your fulfillment of that as we look around us and see Your hand at work in Your people.

You say You are doing something completely new. Are we open to it? Or do we prejudge this work and Your words to us? Are we so proud and so wise that we trust our judgment over Your new way of intervention in the world? Was that not the sin of those who persecuted the prophets, Jesus and his Apostles and disciples throughout the Bible?

Lord, open our minds and hearts to Your Spirit!  Open our minds and fill our hearts each day, and each moment in each day to the new ways You mean to intervene in our lives and in the lives of others through us as we open our hearts to You and to them in love!

You want to teach us things that until now, in this time were the secrets of heaven?!  But how can we – or our humanity receive such a gift?  Only with Your grace, my Jesus!  Otherwise the knowledge of heaven’s secrets would be wasted.

Prepare our souls for such a precious gift, Lord, for we cannot hope to contain what You desire to teach us – those things that before now You waited until a soul reached heaven to reveal.  There must have been a reason for You to not reveal heaven’s secrets to mortals until now, therefore, our souls could not possibly have been ready for it without special grace from You!  Open our hearts, Lord!  Fill them with Your grace!

The Second Coming of Jesus

Everyone who is Christian and even those who are not know the prophecy that Jesus will return in glory.  Actually, I believe He is in the process of returning even now, at this moment in time.  You heard that right.  The Second Coming will not be just a onetime event, which of course it will be the greatest of events since the Crucifixion and Resurrection.

Jesus is in the process of returning now.  He is coming now, ever so lovingly, but ever so urgently! You need not wait, wondering when He will come again.  I believe that He is in the process of returning now! In some extraordinary ways!

Consider for a moment the movement of a great general who is intent on recapturing lost territory.  He sends in the advance troops to prepare the way ahead of him and his army.  Jesus has not neglected the world until his eventual return in triumph.  He has sent many a prophet ahead of him, from the saints to Billy Graham to Martin Luther King to Mother Teresa to the Pope and on and on.  He has even allowed apparitions by His Mother to warn us like those of Fatima and Lourdes.

And now He is sending his lay apostles into the world ahead of his final appearance in an unprecedented manner. But, in these times, He is in the process of coming in a much more profound and personal way as He is coming through His very Presence.

Asceticism and Spiritual Resilience

An element of spiritual resilience is the practice of asceticism.  A quick definition: the abstinence from worldly pleasures or natural inclinations of the nature for the pursuit of spiritual growth. Those asceticisms most often involve some sort of restraint with respect to the mind, emotions, senses or body.  Asceticism has a very long history in the Church and in Jewish practices, the practice of self-disciplines or denials to gain mastery over the weaknesses of the flesh. Fasting has always been the most prominent form of ascetic practice, and in broad terms, one can fast with respect to any of the previously listed areas of restraint.

With regard to resilience, the practice of asceticism involves learning to deny ourselves the natural reactions that accompany adversity. A much larger discussion of the practice of asceticism in the development of the spiritual life of a Christian is needed but suffice it to say that any Christian serious about developing an active spiritual life should be practicing some form of asceticism on an ongoing basis in their daily life.  It is critical to the development of spiritual muscle so that saying no to yourself and your desires, as normal and natural as they are, becomes ingrained and can be exercised in times of temptation.

One more aspect of asceticism: when you deny yourself a normal and natural response or pleasure, it opens a place, or better, a space for God if you make the choice to replace the space with Him. When practiced in an ongoing form, like some small fast of some type, we make a continuous place for Him in our very nature, our flesh as it were.

Spiritual Resilience

For the Christian, spiritual resilience, which goes well beyond just being positive, is a core essential to living a life of faith.  One need only look at the early Christians undergoing persecution starting with St. Stephen to see shining examples of spiritual resilience. Living spiritual resilience, a life of faith, means living in love, with hope and trusting God is in complete control of every detail of our life, no matter what is happening.  It is our witness of resiliency in every circumstance of our life, particularly when it involves trial and suffering, that bears witness to our faith and attracts others to the faith in Jesus Christ.  It was the resilience of the Apostles and early Christians, especially under extreme persecution, which stood in sharp contrast against the prevailing culture which attracted multitudes to the faith. No ‘eye for an eye’ was evident in their resilience, rather hearts full of love and hope trusting Jesus was present and in control.  The martyrs of the church through the centuries have demonstrated extreme resilience as they went to their death joyfully, affirming their trust in God’s Providence.

Resilience requires a degree of dispassionate detachment from the current circumstances of our lives as we see it from the larger perspective.  In secular terms, we might say that we are looking at our life from the 40,000 foot level.  But in our relationship with Jesus, it is so much more than that, because in that relationship, as we hope to love as He loves, we can see as He sees.  And the way He sees our lives is with love and compassion. As we see with His perspective, it is much broader than just the current circumstance; He is seeing our situation as part of our journey toward Him and eternity.

But how do we as ordinary Christians develop spiritual resiliency that will carry us through any adversity?  After all, it is not just a choice and then we have the ability, rather, it is something that must be developed in our lives.

Neuroplasticity and Spiritual Resilience

Setting our hearts and minds on the goal of developing spiritual resiliency has to start from the place of poverty of spirit before God as His servants, because every good thing comes from the hand of God. (James 1:17) If we come to Him begging for a resilient spirit so as to serve Him and glorify Him in every moment and every circumstance of our lives, we are sure to please Him with that request.  How and when He chooses to grace us is His decision, but surely He will do it as He holds nothing back for those who pursue Him with singular focus.

The beautiful thing is we have very powerful principles of human development, particularly within the science of neuroplasticity, that give us insight into how in our humanity, we can cooperate more effectively with God’s grace.  We can reprogram our brains in very determined ways using sound principles we have outlined to develop greater resilience. If you want to explore neuroplasticity further, I would recommend “Rewire Your Brain” by John B. Arden, PhD.  It is a secular treatment of the science, but is well documented and certainly applicable to the spiritual life.

May your spiritual resilience grow within you so that the fire of God’s Love burns within you so brightly that it becomes a Blowtorch, apparent to everyone in every circumstance of your life, no matter how challenging it is!

The Importance of Social Connections for Spiritual Resilience

One of the core principles of Christianity is social connection.  For Christians, it is the community of believers we come together with to worship, praise, pray, serve and fellowship. “For where two or three are gathered in my name…” (Matthew 18:20) The science of neuroplasticity tells us that positive social connection is positive medicine for the brain and has profound effects mentally, psychologically, and physically. Positive social connection rewires the brain for joy and optimism.

Spiritual resiliency is perfected in a positive social connection of a community of believers. Note the focus on the essential element of ‘positive’ as there are unfortunately many examples of negative.  When the community of believers comes together in affirming ways to provide encouragement each of the elements of spiritual resilience are encouraged and reinforced. We do not proceed to the goal without the team, the community of believers who not only provide every type of human support, and role models, but also intercede to God for us to grow in our resilience.  What more could we want in our development of spiritual resilience than the community of believers in Jesus Christ to support us?

How to develop Spiritual Resilience

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The development of spiritual resilience begins and ends with a study, a contemplation, of the Passion of Jesus, beginning at the Last Supper and culminating in His crucifixion.   As a starting point, when we examine His example of resilience, we see His focus on doing the Will of the Father first and foremost and demonstrating His Love for us in doing that. Though suffering unspeakable brutality and falling under the weight of the Cross, His joy exemplified by His peace and serenity in the midst of suffering, remained.  “Weep not for me, but for yourselves and for your children….,” He said to the women (Luke 23:28).  He is firmly established in the Father’s Will for Him, even in the midst of human failure as His humanity crashes to the dirt under the weight of the Cross and He is unable to get up under His own power, but must be lifted up by bystanders and helped to carry His Cross by Simon.

Throughout His Passion not once did he give in to the temptations of despair, anger, resentment, bitterness, revenge, hate, contempt or self-pity.  He remained steadfast in His love, mercy, and compassion, even for those torturing and killing Him.

So we study the example of Christ during His Passion as One we can admire and hope to emulate as our role model.  It is His example of resiliency which stands as the ultimate example resilience.

Mini Meditation on The Will

“The greatness of man lies in his will whereby he is able to give himself in love and attaining the pinnacles of heroism. It is on these resources that the irrepressible aspiration of man is founded: the aspiration toward truth – this is the life of intelligence – and the aspiration to freedom – this is the breath of the will. Here man acquires his great incomparable stature which no one can crush underfoot, which no one can mock, which no one can deprive him of.”

St. John Paul II

Mini Meditation on Joy

“To pass from sadness to joy requires a birth, a moment of travail and labor, for no one ever mounts to a higher life without death to the lower. Before such an ascent, conscience, for a moment, has a hard, stern work to do. Pearls come from the bottom of the water, gold from the depths of the earth, and the great joys in life are to be found in the recesses of a contrite, broken heart.”

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

“I dream of a “missionary option” capable of transforming everything

“I dream of a “missionary option”, that is, a missionary impulse capable of transforming everything, so that the Church’s customs, ways of doing things, times and schedules, language and structures can be suitably channeled for the evangelization of today’s world rather than for her self preservation.”

Pope Francis

Pope Francis

The Devastation of Secularization

“The process of secularization tends to reduce faith and the Church to the sphere of the private and the personal. Furthermore, by completely rejecting the transcendent, it has produced a growing deterioration of ethics, a weakening of the sense of personal and collective sin and a steady increase in relativism. These have led to a general sense of disorientation, especially among our young who are so vulnerable to change.”

Pope Francis

Introduction. THE POINT. 2nd Point

THE POINT: Jesus loves you beyond anything you have ever experienced or can imagine. (p.14)

Jesus:

2. Are you open to loving Me, Jesus, in totally new ways beyond the ways you have before now? Are you willing to let Me show you those new ways?

My response to Him:

Jesus, of course You know all things and You know that I am open to loving You in totally new ways!

But as soon as I say that, I am brought up short, because You also know I have hesitated before, fearful that You would ask too much of me. That You would ask more than I could give. Or more than I wanted to give is closer to it. I have been the one holding back in this relationship, not You. You have and continue to give Your all, and I give so little.

The ways I have loved You in the past have been so meager and poor, I am ashamed to even confront the reality of it.

What an absurd fear I harbored! How could I have been so fearful of the only Person who I can trust completely with my very life?

Show me how to love You in new ways each day! To consider it brings joy to my heart and serenity to my soul as I know You will not deny my request!

Show me yet today how to love You anew, Jesus, and again tomorrow! In my family, at work, particularly with those I do not easily get along with, with others I meet in my life on a daily basis. And then there are those I am repulsed by in the media whose lives are in direct opposition to mine, and those who are persecuting the Church, as well as those with whom we are at war.

Now the loving is getting much tougher, the demands of love more piercing as I try to have compassion for them. Help me to love as You love, Jesus and not so selfishly as is my tendency. Help me to love generously and mercifully as You do.

May the flame of love I have for You in my heart be turned into a Blowtorch, that others may see it and come to know You!

 

Leading the way to the 33 Days

Frequently I have been asked when writing or leading groups to give some additional insights into the questions I pose to help the reader or participant in formulating their own response.

I have an inkling that the same is true with the 30 Days to Reignite your Spiritual Life program that is the implementation of my book, “That Flame in your Heart? Turn it into a Blowtorch!

With that in mind, the Spirit seems to be prompting me to do exactly that within the context of this guide, on the blog, at least in the near term. This is not something I would choose to do, as you might imagine, as the self exposure invites critical responses. How long it continues I will leave to His guidance to me, but I think as far as it goes, it will help the person who is engaged in the 30 Days retreat to get a sense of how a personal dialogue might unfold in their own life.

Thus I will endeavor every week to write a response to each of the questions posed in THE POINT exercises at the end of each Day (chapter) in the book. Remember, THE POINT questions are my questions, written in the first person as though they are coming from Jesus to help the reader / retreatant.

If you recall, while it is labeled as 30 Days to Reignite Your Spiritual Life, in reality, there is an Orientation Day, an Introduction Day and an Assessment Day, which gives you 33 Days for the retreat. As I mentioned in my book, the 30 Days took me years of prayer and contemplation to write.

The 33 Days is structured to be able to do it in 33 Days, but how long it takes you is between you and the Spirit of Jesus. I could also imagine it taking 33 weeks for a person who really wanted to take the dialogue with Jesus as structured in THE POINT exercises into deep prayer if they did a question a day.

The new “33 Days with Jesus Christ for Greater Peace, Serenity & Joy” Retreat Guides for individuals and groups will be available shortly elsewhere on this site along with other materials to supplement it.

As with any spiritual retreat, the secret is to be consistent throughout and let the Spirit guide you as He will. Oh, and if you have been on retreats before, you know to be ready for unexpected surprises, as the Spirit is wont to do! I am SURE it will happen for you on this retreat as well, because the Spirit is always consistent!

May peace, serenity and joy be yours as Jesus turns that flame in your heart into a Blowtorch!

 

The 33 Days as a Spiritual Retreat

For those who have purchased the book, “That Flame in your Heart? Turn it into a Blowtorch!“, you are aware that it is written as a 30 Day program, one chapter for each Day of the readings found in “Volume Two” by Anne a lay apostle. There are actually two additional Days, an Introduction at the beginning and an Assessment Day at the end of the 30 Days.

There is also one additional Orientation Day of reading the preparatory material found at the front of the Prayer Journal and Guide, and/or the free download on the web site along with the Appendix in the book on prayer. These should be read before starting the 33 Days program.

Interestingly, that brings the number of Days in the program to 33, similar to the highly recommended Marian consecration book, “33 Days to Morning Glory” by Michael Gaitley.

The book was written for the singular purpose of helping the reader enter into a deeper, more intimate dialogue with the Person of Jesus Christ than they have previously known, no matter where they are in their spiritual life. The guarantee, if I may be so bold to call it that, is that if you open yourself to Jesus in new ways, you cannot help but be changed from what you were formerly!! He will not withhold his grace from anyone who does that and that IS guaranteed!

These 33 Days are structured in such a way that they become a spiritual retreat and the reader becomes more than a participant, they become a retreatant – a person on a religious retreat!

First there is a reading from Volume Two, the words of Jesus, spoken to Anne firstly, but to all of us who read them. One can read that and reflect on it for some time, from minutes to hours to days or even weeks!

Then to help the retreatant plumb the depths of their own hearts and initiate a deeper, more intimate dialogue with Jesus, I have opened up my own interior spiritual journey sharing a short reflection on those same words from Volume Two. One can use my reflections as kindling for stoking their own flame of love for Jesus into a Blowtorch.

Lastly, there are a set of questions encapsulated in THE POINT exercise for each Day. It is there that the opportunity for the most intimate dialogue with the Person of Jesus Christ can be initiated and developed. It is there that His Graces can become manifest to the retreatant.

You can find a 33 Days with Jesus Christ Retreat Guide for either a personal spiritual retreat, or a leader’s guide for a group elsewhere on this web site.

The 33 Days transformed my life radically. I trust that it will do so for you if you put the time and effort into it and trust Jesus with the outcome just as you would with any spiritual retreat.

May peace, serenity and joy be yours as Jesus turns that flame in your heart into a Blowtorch!

 

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