Tag: Family

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The Gift of Jesus

Forever Christmas has been my favorite holiday. From a spiritual standpoint, it’s the reality of Jesus in His divinity entering into our humanity. With who God is, we witness the humility of Jesus coming to this world in a manger. The story of the three kings. The prophecies of Jesus spoken by many, including from the Old Testament. Without Jesus, where would we be? It all begins at Christmas, with celebration of the Mass, one of the most beautiful Liturgies of the year. 

While there’s so much to reflect on and be thankful for spiritually, I’ve always loved the human elements of Christmas as well. It’s not about the presents but the joy of the season. All the smiles and well wishes. There is more laughing, hugs, and kisses. It seems people are friendlier at Christmas, more genuine, more loving. 

Houses decorated. Lights on trees. Snow on the ground. Christmas cookies in abundance. Family and friends. All the get-togethers and celebrations. It’s a great time. 

Cherished Memories

My Dad’s sister (Aunt Lou) lived right down the street from us. Ten kids in the two families, we saw each other often, us at their house or them at ours’. The annual Christmas tradition took place at theirs’, where my Uncle Pete would have assembled a life-size manger in their front yard. On Christmas Eve, our two families, with dozens and dozens of neighbors, would sing Christmas Carols in their front yard, followed by Christmas cookies and hot chocolate inside. In some years, our family watched theirs’ opening their gifts. We’d often then all go to Midnight Mass. 

My parents would then host a party on New Years Day, where the entire extended family (no small number) and friends would come over for the day, filled with food, fellowship and more fun. 

Fast forward to when I had kids…I remember purchasing a Santa suit. For several years, my cousins Greg and Mike (Aunt Lou’s sons) would alternate, dressing up and coming over Christmas morning. They’d bring for the kids the gifts Santa supposedly forgot to leave the night before. The kids would light up. All of the above are the best of memories. 

I’d invite you to reflect on the good memories from your childhood, your Christmas experiences among them. Think about this time of year as compared to others, then and now. Even the memories you’re making today. If you’re like me, you smile more and are nicer. You’re looking to surprise someone with a gift or nice note. You’re wanting to make someone a little happier, maybe help them with a burden they’re experiencing. 

I think that’s what Christmas is all about. It’s what Jesus is all about…LOVE!!! What would the world be like if every week of the year we were all as generous, compassionate, forgiving, and loving as at Christmas? The love of Christ is the answer…yesterday, today, and tomorrow. 

As we leave this Christmas season and head into a new year, please understand that Jesus loves you more than you’ll ever know, no matter what you’ve ever done. Let us share that love with as many people as humanly possible….all year long. 

I sincerely hope that you and your family had a very Merry Christmas. On behalf of my wife Cyndi and Mary Kate, who does all the creative work, Happy New Year. May God abundantly bless you and your family. 

As always, please email me at [email protected] with questions, concerns, comments, or prayer requests. 

God Bless you on your Path to Peace, Joy, and Fulfillment!!!

Remember…God made you for Greatness!!!

Mark Joseph

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Weekly Blog

What to do with Regret

We’re told we can expect two things in life, death and taxes. I often say a third we all experience is human tragedy. It doesn’t skip any of us…doesn’t matter our race or religion, gender, genetics, or socioeconomics. It could be something global like war, terrorism, or a natural disaster. Or it could be much closer to home like death of a loved one, divorce, addiction, or financial hardship. All of us are subject to it. 

One of the other things we all experience, I guess the 4th, is regret. If you’re human, you have regret. If you’re like me, you have regret. Regret is different than resentment, which is most often towards someone else….we typically resent others for offenses committed against us. 

Regret is a feeling of sorrow or remorse for a fault, act, loss, or disappointment. It’s typically what we feel when we’ve done something we wish we could take back…get a “do over”. It could be that we regret something that made a negative impact on us. More common I think is when we hurt someone else. Often times we’ve not done it intentionally. 

Bracketing my life in 10-year increments, I can remember regrets in every decade of my life. When I was single and married. Things I’ve done to my spouse, my kids, parents, siblings, and friends. Even collogues at work or mere acquaintances. Still to this day, I can’t tell you how many times I’d like to pull the words back in my mouth. Ouch!!!

So what do we do with it? You may have heard of Fr. Mike Schmitz. He’s not only a wildly popular speaker for our Steubenville Conferences, but the most popular Catholic podcaster there is, doing both the Bible in a Year and the Catechism in a Year. Not to my surprise, he has some great thoughts on regret. I’d suggest listening to his 8-minute talk here. In summary, he says, 

Have you ever heard the saying “don’t regret the past, because it’s made you into the person you are today?” While there’s truth to this saying, there’s also something that we as Christians should be aware of…we make mistakes, do things we wished we hadn’t, hurt those we love in the process.

While we don’t want to be burdened by the mistakes we’ve made, it’s safe to say that all of us have done things that didn’t make us the people God wants us to be.

Fr. Mike goes on to say…There’s a difference between regret and repentance, and it can best be seen when comparing St. Peter to Judas. Both men sinned gravely against the Lord: Peter denying Him during the time of His Passion and Judas delivered Him to crucifixion. The difference is, where Peter regretted his sins and repented, Judas let his sin consume him.

It’s okay to regret the things we’ve done in the past that took us away from the path of God, but we can’t dwell in this regret. Instead, we have to do something about it. We have to repent. Repentance is what gives us the strength to forgive ourselves and continue striving for the kingdom of Heaven. When we repent, we surrender ourselves and our mistakes to the Lord, and then He can use those mistakes to glorify our lives. God can use everything—even our worst sins—for our path towards eternity. Nothing given to God is ever wasted.

To me, repenting is authentically being remorseful (even apologizing) and trying to change….making improvements to who you are. 

At work we say the Divine Mercy Chaplet every day at 3PM.

One of the closing prayers reads as follows: Eternal God, in whom mercy is endless and the treasury of compassion inexhaustible, look kindly upon us and increase Your mercy in us, that in difficult moments we might not despair nor become despondent, but with great confidence submit ourselves to Your holy will, which is Love and Mercy itself.

God’s mercy is endless and He loves you more than you’ll ever know, no matter what you’ve ever done. He forgives you that much. We need to forgive ourselves.

As always, please feel free to contact me at [email protected] with comments, concerns, questions, or prayer requests. 

God Bless you on your Path to Peace, Joy, and Fulfillment!!!

Remember…God made you for Greatness!!!

Mark Joseph

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Weekly Blog

The Pittsburgh Steelers and America

During the 1970s, I was 7 to 17 years old. What a great age, during an incredibly exciting time to be a Pittsburgh sports fan. We were the City of Champions. The Pirates had won 2 World Series and the Steelers 4 Super Bowls. Pitt won a National Championship in ’76 as well. The oldest of 4 boys, my brothers and I would swim and play baseball during the summer, but the other 8-9 months of the year it was football, football, football…with us pretending to be our favorite Pittsburgh Steelers. 


These days I often watch TV or DVDs while working out. Most recently I took in The Complete History of the Steelers (great watch), from when Art Rooney bought the team to when they won their 6th Super Bowl. Dan Rooney makes the observation that Pittsburgh was the City of Champions during the decline of the steel industry, and that the Pirates and Steelers gave people hope, something to really be excited about.

Too young to worry about the steel industry’s impact on the local economy, I fondly remember the hope, happiness, and excitement we had in Pittsburgh in the 1970s. What great times, whether you were at a game, watching on TV, or playing outside with family and friends. Being young, not having a care in the world. Seeing the good in people, the good in things. Having role models truly worth looking up to. An amazing time to be a young Pittsburgh sports fan. 

Still today my favorite sport is football and favorite time of year the fall. The turning leaves, temps in the 50s and 60s, the smell of autumn. What are your memories? How do you relate them to your life today? Times with your friends and family. Maybe related to particular events, sports or otherwise, or a favorite food. Maybe a holiday picnic, i.e., 4th of July. 

This might seem like a stretch but this time of year, around the time of the birth of our country, I’m incredibly grateful that I live in the USA. Although there are other places of the developed world where I’m sure I would have had a great childhood, I sincerely doubt that anyplace could have delivered like America. 

Whether Pittsburgh or Portland (no Steelers there). California or Colorado. Sioux Falls or Sarasota. We’re blessed to be in the United States. I know we have challenges, some very big ones right now, but think about it. What country would you rather be in? If like me…none. Our country has so much to offer. All the freedoms. All the opportunities. The resources, the niceties. 

That hope that existed in the 70s in Pittsburgh. That’s the hope I wish for today. For our kids and grandkids. For our country. And for the world. 

You’ve seen me write about an attitude of gratitude. With this being the day after July 4th, I thank God for our country and all those who have fought for it. I thank God for my journey and all the good memories (including those Steeler Super Bowls). He has us where we are because that’s where we’re supposed to be…with all our experiences (and memories). The question now for all of us is…what’s next? What’s God calling us to do with the experiences, memories, and yes…blessings we’ve enjoyed? 

As always, please email me at [email protected] with questions, concerns, comments, or prayer requests. 

God Bless you on your Path to Peace, Joy, and Fulfillment!!!

Remember…God made you for Greatness!!!

Mark Joseph

Categories
Weekly Blog

The Journey Isn’t Easy

Have you ever been in a rut, maybe for an extended period of time? I feel like that’s me. As I’ve expressed previously, it’s been a tough couple years professionally while our conference ministry is still recovering from COVID, especially the last 12 months. Recently I’ve been reminded of some lessons, principally the importance of:

  • Humility
  • Gratitude
  • Love 

Humility

Pride is considered one of the gravest of sins. And it’s certainly the root of most evil. Pride impacts our thoughts, decisions, responses (reactions), and actions. It’s not something we necessarily express or experience intentionally but develops in us over time. Pride creates in us this feeling that we’re always right…and when not agreed with, believing we’re under attack. 

Humility is the opposite of pride. In short, it’s understanding that there’s only one God and we’re not Him. To me, it’s internalizing that it’s not us in doing the things we do, but God working through us. Our gifts and talents are given to us by Him. He calls us to live out a specific purpose on this earth. We need to rely on Him, His Will for what that is and what we do. All of this is related to humility. 

These concepts don’t easily play themselves out in the moment, during the occasional tough conversations we have. I know that’s true for me. Btw, my biggest sin of my past was pride. I’m finding I’m still pretty good at it today…something I’m not proud of (no pun intended). Prayer is so important, as is study of our faith, and interacting with others on this journey. 

Gratitude

We’ve discussed it before…it’s so important to have an attitude of gratitude. It helps us with humility and fighting against pride. Before I go to bed, I’ve reestablished the habit of thinking through my day and being grateful for all the things that occurred…taking them to prayer.   

As related to potential pride and lessons learned, what is God trying to teach me (you) through challenging times? This has been something I’ve been struggling with. Pride can lead to self-pity…not a good characteristic. In faith, we need to understand that all things contribute to who God is making us to be, who He’s calling us to be. 

There are a couple expressions my wife and I really love: 

  • “You are where you are because that’s where you’re supposed to be”
  • “No matter where you go, there you are”

It’s every single experience or occurrence in our lives that makes us who we are today. Although it would be nice to be able to do so, you can’t carve out one here or there and still be you. Be grateful…I’m trying to do so daily. 

Love

I like to say that it’s in understanding and internalizing the unconditional love of Christ, that the unimaginable is achievable, we can live heaven here on earth, and there’s a path to peace, joy, and fulfillment. I still believe this to my core, but it’s not one and done. Ongoing conversion is a real thing, a needed thing. 

Born out of God’s love for us, we need to love Him and love others. Matthew Kelly talks about the concept of “holy moments”, which are all the ways to love others. I just watched a video by Fr. Mike Schmitz where he said, “we never need permission to do good”. He followed that up with, “be a person of hope”. Love, love, love them. 

It’s a Journey

Like you, I’m engaged in our faith. I’ve made progress on this journey, all by God’s grace. Yet I’ve still been struggling. As I just said above, it’s not one and done. For us to have a joy independent of substance or circumstance, we need to cling to the Cross. For me, I’ve had to double down on the faith related things I’ve been doing, including surrounding myself by the right type of people, brothers in Christ who speak truth into my life. 

We all fall down…and Jesus is always there to pick us up. We just need to “ask”. 

As always, please email me at [email protected] with questions, concerns, comments, or prayer requests. 

God Bless you on your Path to Peace, Joy, and Fulfillment!!!

Remember…God made you for Greatness!!!

Mark Joseph