By Christopher Lenart, a parishioner at Ss. Peter and Paul Parish, Naperville, who is posting once a month, every month, on this blog, writing about faith-related matters, To contact Christopher, email him at clenart@comcast.net. To learn more about him, go to his website: https://www.disabilityawareness.us/
Everybody has really bad periods during their lives, and we yell at God and wonder why is this happening to us now. I am going through this now because a few weeks ago my dad fell down the basement stairs and hurt his neck and his shoulder. Actually, it’s surprising that it was not worse than it was. I am not saying that he is back to normal yet. He will have several surgeries, they said.
God allows things like this to happen for a reason, but we do not know why. I am a person who would do anything for my dad. I go to see him when I have a ride to the rehabilitation center. I am really stressed, and that is affecting my health little bit.
You might be in a similar situation right now, and I know how you must feel. It is not good, but we have to remember one thing, and that God is right by our side, carrying us and the person who is sick. Sometimes I wonder what people do if they don’t believe in God. It must be very lonely.
As a Catholic, we have all the saints who are in heaven. I find it refreshing to know that I can talk to them and ask for help. We know that they want us to ask them for help, but we are really busy that we forget to pray to the saints. We are in the month of November when the Church prays for all who have gone before us.
I find it interesting that other Christian faiths believe that they only have to pray to God. I am not saying that they are wrong, but I grew up seeing Pope John Paul II on TV and saw him in Chicago and Denver. I have a connection with him, and we know that he is in heaven now. So I can pray to him. Isn’t it awesome that there is a community in heaven singing and interceding for us?
What about our loved ones who are dead, and we don’t know where they are? Can we pray to them too? I think we can, but we have to pray for them as well, so they can get to heaven someday. It is amazing how God works. Saints can affect our lives from heaven, and we can affect our loved ones from down here.
We hear in Scripture that, if we have faith as big as a mustard seed, we will see much fruits. Since most of us live in the city, we don’t know how small a mustard seed is, but, from what I heard from priests, it is the tiniest seed on the earth. It blows my mind, if we have faith as big as a mustard seed, God will give us all of the help that we need. So we just have to believe that God will help us. So don’t lose faith if you are going through a hard time. If you need a person to talk to, just contact me on my website, and I will get back to you.