Why another blog? Well, read it and find out...

Hello all,

I am starting this blog, basically, to keep from 'cluttering up' my other blog....
Wait, that doesn't sound right. Well, a few times, I have tried to write posts for the daily Mass readings a few days in a row and eventually, I stop. I stop not (only) out of laziness and a deep-seated lack of sticktoit-iveness, but also because I don't like a bunch of short posts on the P.D.O. blog clouding the more in-depth, more brilliantly profound posts I write on topics that may not be the focus of the readings that day. (Boy, it was hard to say 'brilliantly profound' with my tongue placed that firmly in my cheek)

So, to work on my discipline and feed myself on the bread of life more regularly, I will be ending my day with the next day's Mass readings and typing down a few thoughts on them. You could read them, or you could not read them. I will share them anyways in case they might pique your interest.

So without further adieu, here I go!

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/081614.cfm

"Turn and be converted from all your crimes,
that they may be no cause of guilt for you.
Cast away from you all the crimes you have committed,
and make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.
Why should you die, O house of Israel?
For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies,
says the Lord GOD. Return and live!" -EZ 18:31-32

Even in the Old Testament, the prophet Ezekiel is telling us of God's mercy. He lets us know that if we turn from our crimes that they no longer will be a cause of guilt. In essence, our yolk will become lighter (to paraphrase Jesus in the new testament).
Also important in this passage is that God does not want us to die. People often say God will 'send so-and-so to Hell' but in truth, it is our actions and our attachments to them that send us there. God does not desire for any of us to go to Hell, to die in the spiritual sense by choosing our ways over His ways or disregarding His teachings for us. If that's what He wanted He certainly never would have come to us so that we could have the chance for redemption. God pursued us so that we could be saved from our own failings. And all we need to do is to turn away from selfishness and pride and turn back to Him. Our crimes "may be no cause of guilt" for us and we will "make for ourselves a new heart and a new spirit".
It is definitely not easy, but if we can turn from our own desires and instead seek God's plan for our lives, He will run out to us like the father of the prodigal son, opening his arms and saying, "Return and live!"

God bless,
P.D.O.