For those of you who have been reading my blog this last year, you may have noticed that I often reference love of God and of one another. It was not just from hearing and reading St. Mark’s Gospel today, but more so from me trying to understand the promise I made as an adult about my childhood Baptism and how to live up to it as a committed disciple.
Earlier this year I became the recipient of retinal migraine headaches. Unlike migraine headaches which bring great pain and can last for hours, the retinal migraine headaches I contracted happened sporadically and primarily affected my right eye which is far sighted. There is no pain associated with it and lasts anywhere from a few seconds to about five minutes usually resulting in temporary blindness. They have a potential to lead toward strokes and death in serious cases. According to my doctor, I currently have a mild case to be watched but unless the frequency picks up I should be okay.
Most of my early life I spent looking for where I belonged. Attending multiple elementary schools due to personal problems between my mom and dad made it difficult to focus on where I was headed in life. I had to adjust to each scenario, not because the classes were so different, but the schools and people in them had specific goals that often conflicted with what I became familiar in prior situations.
What do you give someone who seems to have everything one would want in life? It is a periodic dilemma we often face when dealing with the wealthy. In Solomon’s case from our first reading in the Book of Wisdom, he inherited a wealthy empire at peace after his father, King David, died. There was nothing one could buy that he probably didn’t own. And yet, when God asks him after the completion of building the Temple in Jerusalem what did he want, his response: Prudence along with the spirit of wisdom.
Dear
Friends –
Before presenting my weekend blog for October 2nd and 3rd, I want to thank you for your patience in these last two weeks, especially if you had difficulty in receiving the blog. Due to changes made to the web feed management service, we had to move the blog to a different service, follow.it, or we might have lost you as subscribers. We believe this has been corrected and you should not receive any delays in A Catholic Deacon’s Perspective.
God Bless,
Deacon Jim Merle
Please note that I am not an expert in marriage or divorce counseling as it relates to our Gospel and readings in which both are referenced. My blog this weekend is based on three perspectives: My own marriage of 53 years; Witnessing relative and friends’ marriages; and Meeting and talking with couples as a deacon either prior to a marriage in the Catholic Church or after a divorce of couples married either in or out of the Church.
