RENEWING OF OUR MINDS REVEALS PURPOSE AND MEANING IN OUR LIVES

Having a neurological disease like multiple sclerosis, one becomes acutely aware of the brain and its power over the mind. We all know about the brain's direct relationship to the body but I have also become aware of the colossal power of the mind and its profound influence over the body. Most of all, I have become very, very aware of the influence of God over the human mind and body. He may or may not choose to influence the body apart from the mind but more than often than not, His influence is in conjunction with the mind.

Violent MS attacks took away my physical functions such as vision, speech, or caused paralysis, spasticity, loss of balance, incontinence, and other frightening symptoms. It was important for me to clearly separate functions of the mind from functions of the brain and body. This was important because the human mind is intricately connected with the heart and soul. That's distinctly different from functions of the brain. (Happily, my experience with multiple sclerosis did not effect cognition so the separation was easier to make.)

I came across a website that gave an excellent distinction between the brain and the mind. I don't know where I saw it so my apologies to whoever wrote it. I can't give proper credits. The writer observed that the brain sends electrical signals to the body, the mind receives messages from the heart and soul. The brain is capable of understanding the science of art, the mind can understand the art of science. The brain learns about the universe while the mind can know the Creator of the universe. The  brain calculates and understands, the mind perceives and can 'know.' It is the mind that conceives darkness and desires evil, the brain invents weapons. The brain learns from the physical senses while the mind learns the emotional and spiritual senses. The brain understands what makes a human being live but it is the mind that is able to understand what gives life purpose, and meaning of being.

During my darkest times of neurological terror that could not be stopped, it was very important that I valued my mind over my body. My mind was all I could rely upon: It could reason and discern. But there came a time in the midst of catastrophic circumstances when I faced the possibility of quadriplegia and a desperate and risky medical therapy was taken to try and prevent it. I could not reason about what was unreasonable. Defeat and a sense of hopelessness threatened to overtake me.

I was my mind—with its connection to my heart and soul—to

which God appealed. Intellect alone would have given up: Suicide. I spent hours, days and months on my sick-bed:[1] praying, seeking, listening with my heart not my ears for that still small voice of God.[2]




"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, the thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart." — Jeremiah 29.11-13.

I had to surrender to my spiritual being, still underdeveloped, and wait upon God to bring me into clearer focus with my human being. That interior being is rooted inextricably with the Image of God that was endowed upon me from my beginning when I was conceived within my mother. I had to look beyond my electric wheelchair, my creeping paralysis, and calm my sense of panic and terror to listen for that still small voice whispering to my  soul, like a gentle breeze: "Be not afraid, I AM with you."[3] 

"Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and my burden is light." -- Jesus (Matthew 11.28-29.)

It is at such moments when an individual lives centuries and descends into the sweet spiritual abyss of the soul to see with our hearts rather than through the blur of tear-filled eyes. It is then that a human being can truly begin to comprehend and understand the meaning of being human. 

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by renewing your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is —his good, pleasing and perfect will. For by grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you." Saint Paul, (Romans 12.1-3.)

While Christians are to offer their bodies as a living sacrifice to God, some of us have little more to offer than a living carcass. The body degenerates with time (some faster than others). The mind continues to grow with time. It has been my mind that renews according to God's will, gradually revealing inklings of liberty that awaits me (and you). For those Christians afflicted with dementia or Alzheimers, they and their loved-ones can rest assured their memories and faith are safe in Christ's keeping. Nothing is lost.

The renewing of our minds involves prayerfully seeking God and His plan for us.  Each of us was created for a purpose. When we discover that purpose, everything else becomes a diversion and an irrelevance. Offer yourself as a living sacrifice to God and His glory. 

MDP

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[1] Psalm 4.4.
[2] Cf. 1Kings 19.12-13.
[3] See Matthew 14.27,

SEX AND MARRIAGE

LaRee speaks to America

Ten years ago, my wife, LaRee, and I delivered a keynote address to a U.S. National Right to Life Prayer Breakfast. I’ve written about this before. At one point in LaRee's speech, she quoted Victor Hugo:

“To love or to have loved, that is enough. Ask nothing further.  There is no other pearl to be found in the dark folds of life.  To love is a consummation.“

I have often used this quote since.  But what did Victor Hugo say leading up to these immortal words? He wrote about the sacredness and beauty of the marriage bed. 

“Upon the threshold of wedding nights stands an angel smiling, his finger on his lip.”

“The soul enters into contemplation before this sanctuary, in which is held the celebration of love.”

“There must be gleams of light above those houses. The joy which they contain must escape in light through the stones of the walls, and shines dimly into the darkness. It is impossible that this sacred festival of destiny should not send a celestial radiation to the infinite. Love is the sublime crucible in which is consummated the fusion of man and woman; the one being, the triple being, the final being, the human trinity, springs from it. The birth of two souls into one must be an emotion for space. The lover is priest; the rapt maiden is affrighted. Something of this joy goes to God. Where there is really marriage, that is where there is love, the ideal is mingled with it. The nuptial bed makes a halo in the darkness. Were it given to the eye of flesh to perceive the fearful and enchanting sights of the superior life, it is probable that we should see the forms of night, the winged strangers, the blue travelers of the invisible, bending, a throng of the shadowy heads, over the luminous house, pleased, blessing, showing to one another the sweetly startled maiden bride, and wearing the reflection of human felicity upon their divine countenances. If, at that supreme hour, the wedded pair, bewildered with pleasure, and believing themselves alone, were to listen, they would hear in their chamber a rustling of confused wings. Perhaps happiness implies the solidarity with the angels. That little obscure alcove has for its ceiling the whole heavens. When two mouths, made sacred by love, draw near each other to create, it is impossible that above the ineffable kiss there should not be a thrill in the immense mystery of the stars.”

“These are the true felicities. No joy beyond these joys. Love is the only ecstasy, everything else weeps.” (Les Misérables)

And then we read those immortal words that my wife quoted.

Victor Hugo’s passage held up the sacredness of the wedding night, the marriage bed, and a marriage blessed by God.   “Authentic love is caught up into divine love.”[1]

Sex is to be reserved for marriage. I know it sounds hopelessly old fashioned of me, but there it is.  Sex taken casually is destructive to the individuals involved and ultimately to society. In a hook-up culture, people give away their most intimate gift to strangers, someone they met at a bar or party, or acquaintances they may not even be sure about their last name.  When something so beautiful as our sexual self is given away so casually, what is left for the exclusivity of true love expressed in marriage?  (I won’t get into the prospect of unwanted children that may result from a fling, affair or one-night stands. They [the children] often pay the highest price with their lives.)

Marriage was created and instituted by God. Catholic marriage is a sacrament. Many Protestant denominations consider marriage a covenant between a man and a woman before God.  Marriage was instituted by God. Man can not meddle, alter or redefine it. We have tried and all we are left with is mockery or counterfeit marriage. Marriage must not be taken lightly. It is an indivisible, intimate, indissoluble union between a man and a woman. 

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[1]CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1639.

LOVE IS THE ONLY THING WORTH HAVING

Ken and Betty Epp

^{I have known now-retired Canadian Member of Parliament, Ken Epp, for over a quarter of a century.  He is my friend.  Ken’s beloved wife of more than fifty-eight years passed away on November 10th, 2019.  Ken’s grief is palpable, just as it would be if I were put in his position and lost my wife of forty-seven years.  He recently posted the following note on his Facebook page.}

^{“I was just going through some of Betty's things and found this: A 3"x5" card on which she had written, "Love seems the swiftest, but it is the slowest of all growths. No man or woman really knows what perfect love is until they have been married a quarter of a century." (Mark Twain)}

^{It brought tears to my eyes. God gave us 58+ years together. We knew this truth well!”} 

^{Responding to someone’s comment Ken wrote:} 

“I actually disagree on one small point with Mark Twain. He says it takes over 25 years to discover perfect love. In my view, it actually takes a lifetime. The idea is to love your spouse more today than you did yesterday. You never reach perfection. But I loved the journey with my dear Betty.”

I responded to Ken: “In the end, love is the only thing worth having. It is the only thing we take with us when we die. You are my friend.”

I constantly marvel at how I love my wife more each day. Yesterday I thought it was impossible to love her any more than at that moment and yet today my love for LaRee grows larger  and more intense. 

It’s impossible for human beings to know the depths of love’s possibilities. Our hearts can’t take in love’s potential all at once. We must be fed it, with growing capacity to receive it, in small increments, or our hearts could not bear it. Quite simply, our human hearts must be expanded to take insights and quantities of ever expanding love (both human and divine). Jesus alluded to this when he told his disciples, “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.”[1]  Human hearts that are open to love must expand to receive love’s new revelations. It happens over time.

When writing about how the Christian’s heart longs for God, Saint Augustine (354-430 AD) spoke of the need to increase the human capacity to receive God’s love:

“Suppose you were given some holder or container, and you know you will be given a large amount. Then you set about stretching your sack or wineskin or whatever it is.  Why? Because you know the quantity you will have to put in it, and your eyes tell you there is not enough room. By stretching it, therefore, you increase the capacity of the sack, and this is how God deals with us. Simply by making us wait he increases our desire, which in turn enlarges the capacity of our soul, making it able to receive what is to be given to us.” 

What is it that God wants to give to us? His gift of love. God is love.[2] And He wants us to love him. Relationship. To deny God is to deny love. The love of a man and woman united in marriage should be just as Ken said. It grows more each day in a Christ-centered marriage. We are in a journey toward God’s perfect love and each day our hearts are being prepared for new dimensions of romantic love. When I think of my love for LaRee today versus the love I had for her fifty years ago, our love is so much larger and more mature now. I could not have handled the immensity of today’s love back then. Perfection is only reached when we meet the Creator and essence of perfect love. God. 

There are different kinds of love and each has something to teach us about God’s character: romantic love, parental love, love of neighbour, love of friends, love of community and country.  Ken Epp knows each kind of love and his life attests to this fact. 

Throughout history there have been examples of people who were willing to die for each kind of love. Jesus said: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than to lay one life down for his friends.”[3] Millions of people have even died for an idea worth dying for (freedom or human equality).

For people like Ken and me and the romantic love of a spouse, our love for our wives grows each day. And this does

not stop with death. Love continues.  Our joy of romantic love here in this world grows, but the joy of God’s perfect love is too great for us to bear now. The love we experience here is preparing us for the completeness of love there.  The heartbreak now will make sense then. I believe that with all my heart, Ken. My heart weeps with yours. You are my friend. -- Mark

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[1] John 16.12

[2] 1 John 4.16

[3] John 15.12-13. Cf. 1 John 3.11, Romans 12.9

VICTORY DISGUISED AS DEFEAT, HOPE RISING ABOVE FEAR

In Christ's resurrection we find hope for our resurrection. Our lowly bodies will be raised too. My scarred, mutilated and corrupted body will rise incorruptible.[2]  I will be like him.  I can only imagine: What it means I do not yet know. What I do know is Christ conquered death, the final enemy. Now I can only see dimly but then I will see him is, I will know just as I am known.[3] 

In the midst of disease—first with multiple sclerosis then cancer—my eyes turned toward Him. Hope grew.  Anticipation.

“In affliction they shall look for me. Come, let us return to the Lord, for it is he who has torn, but he will heal us; he has struck down, but he will heal our wounds”[4]

He is not a God of cruelty. I needed to trust him. As Job

said, Though he slay me, yet I will trust in him.[5] In my sorrows I drew nearer to Him because He was a man of sorrows.[6] Understanding. I needed to embrace Him on the cross before embracing him in his glorious resurrection.  I needed to see him in his death before I could marvel at the empty tomb. We can only appreciate the mountain peak after we have been in the valley. God needed to bring me low to strip my colossal blindness of pride and arrogance in order to see him indistinctly through tears. I had to realize that God is more interested in my holiness than my happiness.  And I have good reason to believe that holiness is where true and lasting happiness is to be found. 

When I began to understand this, the neurological ropes that bound my limbs were loosened and I stood and walked away from my wheelchair.  God has power over life and limb. Whatever happens is for our eternal good. Christ is the first-born of the resurrection of the dead. [7] We will follow him.  I do not know how any more than I know how my withered legs walked again. 

Easter morning declares death is defeated.  Hope rises above fear. For those who believe in Christ, we know we will rise just as He did and we will be with Him forever. God will be with us and we will be his people and he himself will wipe every tear we have every shed.

“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying: “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man, and He will dwell with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their

God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and there will been more death or mourning or crying or pain. for the former things have passed away.” And the One seated on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” Then He said, “Write this down, for these words are faithful and true.”[8]

Mark

See Andrea Bocelli's Easter Performance,

April 12th, from Milan's empty

Duomo Cathedral, livestreamed.

Check local listenings 

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[1] 1Corinthians 15.25-28.

[2] 1Corinthians 15.42.

[3] 1Corinthians 13.10-12, cf. 2 Corinthians 3.18,

[4] Hosea 5.15b-6.1. 

[5] Job 13.15.

[6] Isaiah 53.3.

[7] 1Corinthians 15.20-23, cf. Acts 2.24, 1Peter1.3-5, Revelation 1.5.

[8] Revelation 21.3-5. Cf. Isaiah 25.8.

STAY HOME: ISOLATION VERSUS SOLITUDE

waiting for the crisis to pass

COVID19 has put me into forced self-isolation. Unless you are employed in an essential service, so are you.  As this extraordinary period of time of physical distancing and staying in our houses stretches out, I am hearing people beginning to complain about the isolation they feel. Many are becoming depressed.  

Having suffered with degenerative multiple sclerosis with its accompanying disability for over thirty-six years, I think I know quite a bit about being sequestered within my home for long periods of time. After all, I live on the western Canadian prairies

where frigid winters descend for five months of the year and mountains of snow pile against the windows of my house. Wheelchairs and snow banks are not compatible.  I have spent weeks at a time not leaving my home. Rather than dreading each winter, I have come to cherish those months of seclusion. They are holy times when my little house on the prairie becomes a type of cloister where I can draw nearer to God through prayer and my rosary, reading my Bible and the works of the early Church Fathers, and more contemporary Christian authors.  What others may think is lonely isolation is actually sweet quiet solitude.

There is a world of difference between isolation and solitude.  The first is destructive while the second is constructive. Isolation can break the heart of a man but solitude nourishes his soul. Isolation depletes spiritual energy, solitude replenishes it.

Solitude and quietude can begin to open our hearts to the love of God.[1] His love is immeasurable, unfathomable and inexpressible. Its beauty will surely break your hearts, as it has mine.  In his letter to the Corinthians Pope Saint Clement 1 asked: 

“Who can express the binding power of divine love? Who can find
words for the splendor of its beauty? Beyond all description are the heights to which it lifts us. Love unites us to God.”[2]

He went on to say that it was out of divine love that Jesus gave his life on the cross for us and our salvation. That is the beauty of love that sweetly breaks the human heart.  

In his Sermon on 1 John, Saint Augustine reminds us that the Apostle promised we shall be like Christ, for we will see Him as he is. There’s that inexpressible beauty of love again that sweetly breaks the human heart. Augustine said, “By these words, the tongue has done its best; now we must apply meditation of the heart.” He tells those who know Christ:

“[W]e have received as John told us, an anointing by the Holy One which teaches us inwardly more than our tongues can speak. Let us turn to this source of knowledge and because at present you cannot see, make it your business to desire the divine vision.” 

Saint Augustine continues:

Painting of Saint
Augustine

“The entire life of a good Christian is in fact an exercise of holy desire.  You do not see what you long for, but the very fact act of desiring prepares you, so that when He comes you may be utterly satisfied.”[3]

It is this desire that is sublimely heart breaking. Quietude of prayerful solitude sharpens that desire for Christ. It is in stillness that we can begin to comprehend that God is with us and that becomes more important when we are threatened by a pandemic such as the one we find ourselves now. 

This difference between loneliness and solitude is attitude and perspective. Use this time as a gift to grow and expand your interior life. Seek Jesus Christ to enlighten you.  The threat of COVID19 is nothing compared to the immeasurable unfathomable, inexpressible

love of God.  There’s no need for wide-eyed fear.  Rest in Christ. Regardless of what happens, we are under His care. Nothing can separate us from His divine love.  

 Mark

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[1] Cf. Psalm 46.11 in the Catholic Bible, 46.10 in the Protestant Bible.

[2] Clement I, “Who can express the binding power of divine love?” in CHRISTIAN PRAYER: The Liturgy of the Hours, Clement I, (New York: Catholic Book Publishing Corp., 1976), p. 2021. 

According to the online publication Saints and Angels, Catholic online, “Little is known of this apostolic father beyond a few facts. He was a disciple of S. Peter, and perhaps of S. Paul. It is thought that the Clement whom S. Paul praises as a faithful fellow- worker, whose name is written in the Book of Life [Philippians 4:3], was afterwards bishop of Rome.  https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=37

[3] CHRISTIAN PRAYER, p. 2025.

EVERYONE CAN PITCH IN TO FIGHT COVID-19

I've been severely disabled with aggressive multiple sclerosis (MS) for over 36 years. For over 16 of those years I used an electric wheelchair and only had use of one arm and hand. For many years, people had to do the most ordinary daily things for me. There were times I needed help getting dressed. I could not hold anything in my right hand. Other people had to cut my food for me. By any definition my disease was (and may be again) end stage MS. It's impossible for me to express my deep gratitude for all the assistance people have given to me over the decades. 

Just over a year ago something extraordinary and unexpected

happened. I started regaining lost function! Today I can walk with a cane(s) and the function of my right arm and hand returned. Not only can I cut my own meat at dinner and I can write again after 25 years unable to.  My neurologist and family doctor are dumbfounded. This is not supposed to happen with end-stage multiple sclerosis. Things degenerate not regenerate. And with a brain as riddled with plague as mine, this is not supposed to happen. I may lose this regained function, and my new lease on life.

But for now, it's my turn to give back. With the COVID-19 pandemic an international call went out to people who sew to

make masks. My wife stepped up to plate and began to sew. She showed me how to sew (I've never sewn a stitch). Now I have an opportunity to give back to the community.  It is very meaningful to me. In my small way I can say thank you—not so much to individuals, many of whom are nowhere near—but to a community of those who cared. Through small gestures like this perhaps I can express through actions the gratitude that words fail to express. We are all a part of that great family of humanity who are afforded the privilege of caring for one another. In this case, trying in a small way to care for the community that cared for me. 

Let's all pitch in in whatever way we can to fight this unprecedented pandemic.  We are all citizens with responsibilities to the common good and members of our communities with responsibilities each other. Perhaps it's grocery shopping for seniors, tutoring students online, reaching out to people for whom self-isolation has caused depression, or even just staying home to help break transmission of COVID-19.

SMILE: BETTER DAYS WILL COME

Dear Young people of Italy and Spain: Yes, I have seen the sorrow that permeates your nations as COVID19 ravages all you know and love. Yes, I saw the make-shift morgues and the images of military trucks filled with bodies of your loved-ones driving down streets. Yes, I saw the images and I wish there was something I could do to assuage your overwhelming grief. My heart aches for you. I want to throw my arms around you and try to console what is inconsolable. 

I have known a crushing heartache with the death of a loved-

one—although from different circumstances—I know that your pain may feel it will break you in half. I will not, if you don't let it. Hold on, better days will come.

There will be a reason to smile again. Although you may not believe it now, life is still worthwhile and better days are coming.

Smile* though your heart is aching
Smile even though it's breaking
When there are clouds in the sky, you'll get by
If you smile through your fear and sorrow
Smile and maybe tomorrow
You'll see the sun come shining through for you.

The sun is just behind the dark clouds of this pandemic. Its warmth will again shine upon your shoulders. And when it does, let its rays light up your face with gladness. Believe that the joy of life will be yours again. The sun sets but it also rises. Better days will come and life is so worthwhile. There will be tomorrows for you to live. Opportunities for love still wait for you.

Light up your face with gladness
Hide every trace of sadness
Although a tear may be ever so near

I know the despair of wondering what the future holds when the present seems to be stripped of too many losses. That was the very time when I had to keep trying and believe that life was still worthwhile even though everything around me told me otherwise. I want you to know better days are coming.  

That's the time you must keep on trying
Smile, what's the use of crying?
You'll find that life is still worthwhile
If you just smile.  

The dark shadows of this pandemic will fade away in the light of a hopeful new day and this crisis will pass.  Do not lose heart even though your world seems to be falling apart. 

That's the time you must keep on trying
Smile, what's the use of crying?
You'll find that life is still worthwhile
If you just smile.

Young people of Italy, Spain and elsewhere, look to the future with hope and smile.

*The word smile means a spirit of optimism.