Awake

By Ronald Hoye

The ministry of Jesus was about waking people up. He knew how easy it is to fall into routines and lose sight of what is really important in life; the things that really matter. Faith. Happiness. Family. In "Awake" Fr. Hoye offers personal stories, reflections and inspiring meditations and quotes for you to think about and reflect upon to help you "wake up" to God in your life.

Designed for busy people on the go, each chapter of AWAKE takes only 5-8 minutes to read. It is a great way to begin a day-- with spiritual insights that will move you closer to God in your life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ronald Hoye
• Release date: Nov 24, 2016

Book preview

Awake

Fr. Ronald Hoye, C.M.

Copyright September 2016

All Rights Reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the permission of the author.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hoye, Ronald

Awake

Spirituality

[e-mail]

www.parishmissions.org

Catholic TeamWorks is a collaborative effort of Evangelization to inspire and empower people of faith.

[phone]

All rights reserved.

Smashwords Edition

Licensing Notes

This e-book is licensed for your personal use and enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or if it was not purchased for your use only, please visit Smashwords.com and purchase a copy for yourself. Thank you for respecting this author’s work.

E-Book by e-book-design.com.

Dedication

My family, friends and community

THANK YOU

My brother and his wife for their beautiful Tampa farm in which so much of this was written.

The forest

Contents

Intro

Crosses

Be the Mountain

Lighthouses

Can a Cow Bless the Lord?

Planted, Not Buried

Life

Loving the Wrong Things

Eyes Wide Shut

The Trap

The Museum of All That Is Living and Breathing

Follow Me

In the Clouds

My Grandma

Write Your Own Obituary

The Lottery

Muscle Confusion

What Is the Meaning of Life?

Quotables

The Pursuit of Happiness

Yes

Machu Picchu

The Pelican

Catholic Facts

The Secret Prayers at Mass

The Keynote

Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People

Sometimes You Gotta Fall Before You Fly

The Pareto Principle

About the Author

Intro

Friendship in Jesus

This book is for people who want to grow closer to Jesus. Who want to think about him more and know him more in their lives.

All of us, by our creation, have a longing toward the holy. We were lovingly created by God and are sustained by His presence. Innately we know that the more our lives are centered on God the more we flourish and find happiness. We want to know God more deeply in our lives (whether we call it that or not). Now... here’s the amazing part — do you know that God wants the same from you? God wants from you what you want from God – a relationship.

Faith, in other words, is not a set of beliefs, but a friendship. We could spend our whole lives learning about Jesus, studying the scriptures, memorizing the catechism— but without a personal relationship with him, without engaging our hearts and minds in FRIENDSHIP...we will only know about God.

So why is it that such a beautiful thing is so elusive; so difficult? Why is it that as much as we desire a deeper union with Jesus in our lives, we remain at a plateau and seem to know him no more or less than we did, say, a year ago?

I suppose there are lots of reasons, but I have found in my own life that two contributing factors are at the heart of the challenge: TIME and PRESENCE. More specifically, lack of time and lack of presence.

We are busy people. Many of us are moving from place to place, job to job, classroom to classroom, kitchen to car, ball field to McDonalds, store to home at such a frantic pace that it’s easy to lose our center and perspective. At the end of the day we plop into bed exhausted and still spinning from the intensity. It is no wonder that sleep disorders and insomnia are the fastest growing medical concerns voiced by patients in the last ten years.

We want to grow in our relationship (friendship) with Jesus but, as it turns out, we don’t have time to spend with him. Many couples tell me in counseling that they have fallen out of love with each other and don’t know how to move forward. But the more they reflect on their situation and talk about their lives the more it becomes evident in many cases that it is not LOVE they have fallen out of, but TIME! They no longer think they love each other because they know longer know each other. They have become estranged.

I remember enjoying the stories my grandma would tell of the old days. How people would sit on their front porches in the evenings whittling the time away for lack of anything else to do (no TV or Internet or phone- yikes!!). Grandma would sit on the rocker, Grandpa on the swing and they would talk about life- what their day was like, something in the news, a funny story, politics. Neighbors would stop to say hi and Grandma would invite them for a glass of tea. Before long, the porch would be filled with neighbors and friends laughing, arguing and telling stories. They got to know each other as their lives opened up and were revealed- the good, the bad, the ugly and beautiful. Nothing organized or planned, just hanging together sharing communion.

But then technology entered our lives and changed everything. The advent