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Vision: To Nurture Catholic Men's Spirituality in Chicago Southland
CMCSMen
A Blog for Chicago Catholic Men
Poverty of Spirit and God’s Will
 
Developing your relationship with God as a Catholic Man
Photo: Through Thy Poverty, Jesus, Deliver Us
One of the nice things about writing a weekly blog post, is that I can pick up from where I left on the last post. I try to keep each post about one written page, and because of this often find I have more to say.  With the last post about your values and God’s will, I shared about the distraction of social media, focusing on mission, and how this impacts dependence on God. Allow me to fill in the gray areas, as well as answer questions that some of you wrote me about. 

First of all, Social Media is not a bad thing. After all Pope Francis is on Twitter and Instagram. The thing is that, starting with Facebook, it used to be that social media was for connecting with friends and family, but today the platforms have change by collecting your user data and creating features that keep you addicted to it. Not to mention what I will call all the screaming and disrespect users have for each other (which is especially why I stay off it during presidential election season). There are some new platforms that are going back to the community aspect, but so far seem way smaller in number of users to make it constructive.

I bring this up to make more clear that I deleted my social media accounts (though I’m still ‘connected’ through the CMCS Twitter), because I found myself more dependent on what social media was telling me than what God was saying to me. The Catholic Catechism says we’re to do this in moderation, and keep things in right perspective. Yes, I have always been in daily prayer but it was becoming more cloudy.  This reminds me of what the Lord was saying about the poor in spirit mentioned in Matthew 5:3, that we can fall into a spiritual poverty if we coast spiritually just to get by.

In other words, if doing nothing is your strategy for poverty of spirit, you’re in trouble. As Catholic men, we need to keep working on our relationship with God. Faith and action = being in tune with the Holy Spirit, having persistence in service, and of doing good deeds. God’s will may seem difficult to discern at times. But Scripture provides guidance about His plans that is true for every believer, in every age, regardless of the circumstances. Although we are to be active in the process, God is the one who does the transforming and renewing through His Holy Spirit, who indwells us.

“Today I will do what others won't, so tomorrow
I can accomplish what others can't.” 
~ Jerry Rice, NFL

A common question that several of you have asked is, now that I’m off social media, how do I get my news and information?  Sort of like an RSS feed reader, I have a browser set up with no more than a couple dozen twitter account profiles where I read the feeds and updates without having a twitter account to login. I also have similar bookmarks for blogs and publications. Finally, I use the search box on these platforms to learn the latest on topics.

I’ve also simplified my devotion to jotting notes from the daily blog posts like Fr. Burke Masters, as well as the daily readings and daily video reflections  (bible.USCCB.org) who recently updated the site design which I find more user friendly. It's all about being intention with this stuff.


As men, and as CMCS-Men, to foster more dependence on God, we must make it our mission to eat, breathe, sleep, relationship with God and the Holy Spirit. We can not rationalize our way, and there are no short-cuts to our obedience to God. Temptation, and the devil, are not our friends when it comes to this. And the Catholic sacraments are our secret weapon to overcome defeat.

The chief cause of failure and unhappiness is trading what you want most for what you want now.

Thank you for reading. God bless you and your day.

Read this on the CMCSMen Blog

Frank J Casella,
CMCS-Director
fjc@cmcsvirtues.org
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