Does your soul thirst for the Lord?  Does your soul thirst for the Lord?

“…like the earth parched, lifeless & without water?”   

St. Paul reassures us about those who have died.  Each November we remember in a particular way those who have gone before us to “the land of the living.” 

Our union with Christ cannot be broken by death.  If the world were going to end tomorrow, what would you do?  Today? Tomorrow?  If you are wise - - you will be living prepared.  How do you prepare, if you are wise?  By living, the way the Prophet Micah recommended.  “This is What God asks of you: only this, to act justly, to love tenderly and to walk humbly with our God.”

In the Baltimore Catechism there was a question, why did God

make me?   The answer was [and still is] “God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, so I can be with Him in the next.”

Our current Catechism puts it this way, we were created "... to know

& love…Him.”  The Gospel reminds us that our personal time on earth will end someday and we should be prepared.

Hourglass Story

Once a little girl lived near the beach.  She loved her grandfather and always looked forward to visiting him.  Her grandfather had a collection of hourglasses and always had fun turning them upside down and watching the sand sift through.  She asked her grandfather why he had all of those hourglasses.  He said because they reminded him that time was the most precious thing in the world.

It was getting close to Christmas and the little girl had not seen her grandpa for weeks.  Eventually her mother explained to her that grandpa was in the hospital because he was very sick, and he might die.

The little girl wasn’t sure what death was, and her mother said that life was like one of grandpa’s hourglasses and that grandpa had very little time left.

One morning her mother told the little girl that they would be going to visit grandpa that afternoon and asked her to make a Christmas present for him. 

The girl excitedly went to work on her gift.  When they got to the hospital, the little girl gave her grandfather a beautifully wrapped box. 

Her grandfather slowly unwrapped his present and looked inside and smiled. He understood immediately.  She had filled the box with sand.

Oh, were it that easy, some additional sand for our hourglass for more time?  Our time here on earth is a gift from God; how we use our time is our gift to God.  Jesus calls us to conversion, to a way of seeing and acting,

Jesus calls us to His attitudes, His way of living.  That conversion of mind and heart will transform our lives and the lives of those around us.

May God Be Praised!