Courage in the face of fear

Posted on April 14, 2012 by ScottB

The fear of change got me for a long time. It was not until I moved to Phoenix and started following God’s call on my heart that I found true joy.

I am now realizing how our hearts are constantly being broken, repaired, emptied, and restored. St. Paul says, ”For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil 1:6). God is always challenging us, forming us deeper in our heart. It is only when we listen that we can receive this grace; this transformation. Without this change, nothing would be accomplished for the kingdom.

The longer we hold on to our past pains and egos, the longer we resist the metamorphosis God wants to give us. We are just cocoons sitting under a leaf until we die to ourselves to rise with him.

This is a poem I wrote about allowing God to transform us.
It is called How Angels get their Wings.

Some people build cocoons, but they never die
Without dying, they will not rise
Rise forth as a butterfly with angel wings
I don’t want to die, but I don’t want to live
Trapped in a cocoon with no happiness or love
I want to experience all God has to offer.
Christ said we must die to ourselves in order to live
I never fully understood what he meant.
Now I see it in the metamorphosis of the butterfly.
I must die in my cocoon in order to rise.
And so I wrap myself in this cocoon of past pains
I must face them now so I can later peal them away
These memories of the past haunt me
But I pray for comfort and healing.
Slowly he starts to form me and reveals himself
Through the pain, I am no longer a victim,
I can choose to be someone else.
Someone who can see beyond the pain and into the truth
I want to always feel this with You.
God is my justice and He fights for me
He is my strength and He delivers me
It is right to say pain is better than happiness;
It is when we experience pain that we grow.
So let me grow.
Take me and form me in your image Lord.
Kill my old self so I can rise again
This time with angel wings so I can feel you in the wind.
I want to be with you until the end.

Read More Grace Poetry

Written by CORE member Vanessa Hartz

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It takes Three to Tango

Posted on February 18, 2012 by ScottB

I learned how to tango on my 25th birthday. My dance partner, Ken, walked me through the steps of the Argentinean Tango. Soon we were dancing across the floor and having a ball– ignoring the fact that we were the only couple dancing the tango during a country song.

As the night progressed, we danced the waltz and soon I was flying through the air; doing lifts we’d never practiced before.  I felt like I was on dancing with the stars! Once I came back from cloud 9, I realized how we accomplished graceful dancing.  It is because Ken led and I followed.

Perhaps dancing has an important message to say about the relationship between a man and a women.  Continue reading →

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The Beatitudes– Simplified

Posted on January 31, 2012 by ScottB

Each saying speaks of a blessing or “divine favor” bestowed upon a person resulting from the possession of a certain character quality.  The word “beatitude” comes from the Latin beatitudo, meaning “blessedness.” The phrase “blessed are” in each of the beatitudes implies a current state of happiness or well-being. The expression held powerful meaning of “divine joy and perfect happiness” to the people of the day. In other words, Jesus was saying “divinely happy and fortunate are” those who possess these inward qualities. While speaking of a current “blessedness,” each pronouncement also promises a future reward.

Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

With this phrase, “poor in spirit,” most likely Jesus was speaking of our spiritual condition of poverty—the recognition of our need for God. “The kingdom of heaven” refers to people who acknowledge God as their King.

Simplified: “Blessed are those who humbly recognize their need for God, for they will enter into his kingdom.”

Continue reading →

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Biblical Foreshadowing: Where the Old meets the New

Posted on January 25, 2012 by ScottB

Mary, Jesus and the lambThe Bible can be a bit intimidating. Most people I’ve talked to don’t read it, complaining that its too boring or too complicated. Although I knew the entire Word of God was important, I agreed with them on some level.  Naturally, I knew the gospels pretty well, and when I did read the Bible I went straight to those, paying little attention to the Old Testament. For some reason I considered the New Testament to be more important. Probably because the Old Testament is everything that happened before Jesus and now that Jesus has come I assumed it contained some interesting history, but in the bigger picture it had become somewhat irrelevant. These were my thoughts until I spent five hours listening to Mark Hart tell the story of Salvation, starting with Adam and Eve, and ending with the conversion of St. Paul.

Wow! By the time the session came to a close I didn’t want Mark to stop talking about all the connections between the Old and the New Testaments. I experienced a newfound joy in the all the bits of the Old Testament as it became clear how they foreshadowed the coming of Jesus.  Understanding the Continue reading →

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Bible Timeline: Teen testimony

Posted on December 16, 2011 by ScottB

St. Patrick’s hosted Mark Hart’s Bible Timeline, a five hour class about salvation history from Genesis to Revelations. Here is a teen’s testimony about her experience.

I’ll admit it- when I signed up to attend the Bible Timeline, I was more excited to spend five hours learning from Mark Hart than I was to spend five hours learning history. But, as usual, God and Mark surprised me.

I had expected to be familiar with the basics of Scripture, since my theology class sophomore year was all about the Bible, but this event was more than a lesson, it was a glory story and a prayer. God’s love really is unconditional, and I have a role in salvation history, just like Esther, Ruth, David, and Jeremiah. If you keep those two things in mind while you read the Bible, you’ll discover oceans of meaning that you didn’t see before.

I was also overwhelmed by the realization that thousands of men and women have died to make sure that the 73 books of the Bible still exist for us today. Different authors wrote in different centuries with different styles- there are poems, letters, family trees, narratives- but every word of Scripture is meaningful.

-Written by Leadership Teen Becca Self

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Spiritual Sisterhood starts in the heart

Posted on November 19, 2011 by ScottB

Women CORE at SP fall retreat 2011

My sister and I are extremely close. So close that we often don’t need words; we only need laughter. We are not only sisters in blood; we are sisters in our hearts.

I have been contemplating the brokenness with my sisters in Christ compared to my relationship with my sister. Today I realized that I don’t offer the same standard of love to my sisters in Christ as I do with my “real” family.

Perhaps it is because no one compares to my sister, or maybe it is because I don’t offer the same compassion and mercy I give to my family Continue reading →

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Jesus Take the Wheel: Surrendering to God

Posted on November 2, 2011 by ScottB

Over the summer, I went with our church’s LifeTeen to visit Disneyland. On the bus ride, our LifeTeen coordinator requested that we join in praying an “Our Father” for a safe trip. While I was praying, I accidentally spoke the words “our kingdom come” rather than “thy kingdom come.”  No one around me heard, but I was terrified that God was going to be irritated by my mistake and crash the bus.

Obviously I was worrying way too much, but it did get me thinking. Some people actually do believe that it is our kingdom rather than the Lord’s. They want to control their lives by letting their will be done instead of His. For many, it is unsettling to have faith and totally trust God.

So, why aren’t we willing to put our life in God’s hands? Continue reading →

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The Bride of Christ: The Communion of Saints

Posted on October 18, 2011 by ScottB

Vanessa's first communion in 2002 with her Dad, Manuel.

When we prepare for Holy Communion, we prepare ourselves like a bride to her bridegroom.  This sacrament is the source and summit of our faith. It is the source of grace that provides strength so we can reach the summit of our faith- perfection in Christ.

The CCC, explains, “The mode of Christ’s presence under the Eucharistic species is unique. It raises the Eucharist above all the sacraments as “the perfection of the spiritual life and the end to which all the sacraments tend” (1374).

If this is our source of grace that allows us to be perfect like our heavenly father is perfect (Matt 5:48) Continue reading →

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Holy silence on Holy ground: 4 ways to make adoration more meaningful

Posted on July 6, 2011 by ScottB

The lights were dimmed, the music inspiring. I could hear a few teens laughing hysterically while others were being carried out of the room. Never had I seen adoration get this extreme.

It was the first night I felt the spirit move me when the gold monstrance passed down the middle aisle to the altar. I knew He was there.

Sometimes it takes an extreme experience to see what is right in front of our eyes. Continue reading →

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Mystery 101: The Trinity

Posted on June 6, 2011 by ScottB

I sat in science class while the teacher was preaching on how H2O comes in three forms: water, ice and gas. That’s when it hit me… God’s creation is a reflection of his own being; the Trinity.

The teaching of the Trinity is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all one God in substance, but three divine Persons in individuality.  In a similar way, water is all H2O but found in three forms with different purposes.

Through osmosis, I can see the stamp of the Creator. One difference is water can transition to gas and change back just as easily; whereas, the Trinity is connected by something much stronger without changing the Persons. Continue reading →

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