REWARD
What I Do Today is everything.
WELCOME!
Whatever brought you here we're glad it did. Let us introduce ourselves. First the word croisé is a French fencing term. (Pronounced kwaa-zay.) In this fencing move the opponent's foil is aimed straight at the defender. The defender catches the foil either from above or below and applies quick intense pressure driving the foil straight up or down. The two blades are then in the form of a cross.
There are many harmful things aimed at us in life. The key to being able to resist them is to be prepared beforehand. If we have gone through our lives distracted by our own plans and desires we may not even see the evil before us. This evil can be false religions that attempt to deny that God is offering each of us help. It can be political and educational influences which try to place equal value on all ideas about God including that there is none.
Sometimes our own addictions which destroy health, finances and relationships are the worst. Or perhaps a personal relationship which either manipulates us or drains us such that we cannot accomplish things for God's Kingdom is our bane. Our own laziness can be fatal to us as well.
All told the foil that we must raise is the Life, Death, Resurrection and Name of Jesus Christ. Then we will be protected from all things that are ill. This is Croisé.
What I Did Yesterday Is Done.
Welcome.
We are here to have a conversation.
You may think it is one sided.
It's not, because in the end the conversation is between you and God.
God always listens to everything you have to say.
To learn how to do this we rely on many people who have had conversations with God in the past. Some were eminent scholars. Others were the simplest of souls. They are all saints.
We also, of course, learn to rely on God.
You probably have many questions. We are proposing answers to many things here at Croisé.
In the end we hope you will find new goals for your life and will form many objectives in order to accomplish them.
Here are some of the questions and where the answers are on the website.
Does God exist? This explains why we ask the rest of the questions on the website. Go to the articles page please.
More questions and answers
Here's where they're at! . . . .
Living Outside Yourself....Conquer the Rut, Master the Strut
............. See Bottom of
Lost & Found: Reclaiming the Life You Think You Lost
........................... Go to
The Greatest Addiction of All and How to Overcome It.
............................. Go to
2000 Years Ago God Revealed His Face to Man. Can It Still Be Seen Today?
..................... Find it on
Society of Catholic Scientists Votes to Rename Hubbel Law.
.......................... Go to
Why Do Guys End Their Lives?
.......................... Go to
Is There Still Time To Defeat
The Demons From Our Past?
.......................... Go to
Where Did the Bible Come From?
........................ Go to
GO FOR IT!
PORN IN THE USA
Why Do Guys Get Addicted?
Trust us you've never heard this before. But watch out. No More Excuses! Find out if you are serious about gaining control over the uncontrollable!
Go to bottom of the Articles Page.
Each year we promise ourselves to do more and do better than we did last year: Croisé goes a step further to say "forget about the past except to learn from it, and jump into the new and the challenging RIGHT NOW.": Don't be a clinger. Let go and fall into the now....When? Now!
This means you have to overcome the fear of the future. Although at times fear can be the tool God uses to protect us from destruction it can misguide us and drive us away from what we should be doing instead of avoiding danger. Knowing what we are afraid of is a lifetime pursuit. Losing our fear by trust in Jesus Christ, Our Savior is accomplished in a moment by the power of the Holy Spirit. Choosing the action which is then allowed by that trust means that we are willing to give up whatever we have allowed to support us in life. Therefore, we give it up and drop...and when we do we realize that God and His saints are there to support us.
Fall into God and you will feel the greatest freedom of all. We are not drugged or distracted by lies, rather, we are free to fall into our destiny. . . The Kingdom of God.
DROP BY AND SEE US
MORE ABOUT OUR PURPOSE:
Croisé (kwaa-zay) is intended to help men focus on the truths which lead to greater understanding of life which has as its purpose to serve the Divine design of life which will one day gain us entrance into the eternal Kingdom of God. To do this is not only good for each individual person but it serves all the human family. Croisé professes that a prime tool to accomplish this is to pray before the face of Jesus Christ. This is how we test the call from God to fulfill our obligation to His Divine Plan because by praying and meditating before Christ our focus on the profane is diminished and our perception of truth is purified allowing better decisions and stronger commitment to accomplish what is good.
Croisé asks: What is your goal(s) in life? How do you know?
Go to our Goals Page and check out the five goals of Croisé.
A saint is someone who knows that they are holy because it is a gift they have received, but they are too humble and too busy seeking God's grace to tell anyone else.
"Come to me all you who are heavily burdened and I will give you rest."
A Challenge Holy Hour is a time to gather to pray before God. It is a time of utmost honesty of the heart. It is a time to seek from God what He wants you to do. It is a time to face honestly the times in the past when God's will was not done.
The hour uses music that has always moved the mind and body toward God who exposes His face in front of us in the Body of Jesus the Lord. Readings of the spiritual masters are used to bring the history of spirituality to the current moment. Meditation in silence for a time provides the space for the Spirit to bring thoughts and to receive answers that were not evident before.
The Challenge is first to break away from the suction of voices, demands, and people of the world that pull you away from God. Then the Challenge is to lose the fear of living by truth instead of past practices. But the great challenge is to allow yourself to be filled up by the God who wishes to bring the Eternal Life of heaven into your life here on earth.
The final challenge is to return to the well again and again and partake of the living water which is Christ Jesus. It can all be accomplished because God wants it to be.
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
"Son, you must diligently make it thy aim, that in every place and in every action, or outward employment, you be inwardly free and master of thyself, and that all things be under thee and not you under them."
The Imitation of Christ
Book III, Chapter 38
HOW IS OUR WEBSITE
DIFFERENT THAN OTHERS?
There are many Catholic websites for men available on the internet. Many of them are loyal to the Church and make available many suggestions as to how to participate in the Catholic faith. We fully support many of their efforts. But you will notice quickly that Croisé does not primarily focus on news events of the day or teach how to pray devotions. We are involved in the mechanics of faith. What makes up the human person and how that human nature can respond to God and the divine structure of all reality to fulfill what Our Lord Jesus called the "Kingdom of Heaven" and "Eternal Life" is our focus.
We are not offering coursework but an organic integrated way of meditating on and responding to the truth of both our human nature and God's revelation to us. What is offered in these pages more clearly presents in our day and age an humble approach toward understanding the historically accumulated truths of the Catholic faith and spiritual practices, especially modes of prayer, which bring about health and happiness in a confusing age. In some ways we fulfill for men what other websites have missed.
So What Do I Do Now Lord?
The question is clear and maybe the answer is, too. We draw from the life of Christ himself our own course to follow. Jesus often prayed on His own spending time with the Father. He then returned to reinforce the bond between Him and the disciples. So prayer and bonding are the goals we must set for ourselves. Even in the garden before he was taken away Our Lord prayed. Everyone else fell asleep. in other words they did not have the strength, wisdom, courage and resolve that prayer brings. This would come later for them.
The time has come for many of us to finally wake up and pray. Even if we are avoiding the prayer to avoid the answer we already think we may get: that we must turn ourselves over to the Divine Will of the Father and set aside what we have been doing in life (and we actually may be doing things that we do not really enjoy but we find ourselves stuck by habit and see no way out), pick up our cross and share in the mission of Jesus Our Savior of transforming the world.
WHAT'S IN YOUR LIBRARY?
(See Our Articles Page)
Coming Events
Croise Holy Hour every Monday from
7:00 to 8:00 PM at
St. Cecilia's
in the Our Lady of
Nebraska Chapel. See the face of Christ and live.
You should always be willing to do great things for God but should never pursue greatness. Greatness will pursue you if and when you are needed.
Question:
What must I leave and who must I join with for the cause of the Cross of Christ and the Church that He founded?
What goals and decisions may be involved in the consideration of this provocotive thought?
Do I see anyone giving their life to promote the life that the Spirit of Christ calls the world to live?
It's all easy.
Just hang with us and keep hitting this website. We'll do the work, you just pray and set goals!!!!
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Question:
Are you going through life just trying to keep warm? Are the times when you are alone times to revive yourself and also to pray to the God who made you or is your isolation an escape from the challenge of living in union with others as God has designed? God will give us all through prayer and Christian fraternity the ability to fulfill our obligation toward others and enjoy it.
Here St. Michael shares in Christ's victory by holding the world in his hand and his sword has been lowered. It's managing the victory that now counts.
A Rose By Another Name
Just May Not SMELL As Sweet
There has been a trend for Churches who proclaim to be Christian to vacate the name of Christ in their websites and other materials. This sometimes is a tactic to get people interested in them without serving to irritate some former conception about the Christian faith or just demonstrates timidity in the face of the modern media/educational/religious milieu.
The videos of everyone in tennis shoes and shorts hanging on their phones every minute as if worship of God is like every other moment of the day is a delusion. Due to how sin affected human nature our daily perception of God is limited. So the danger is that we will pursue the worship of God in the same way we pursue daily life: aimed at bringing us inordinate pleasure. We need the God given rituals of the Church to temper our proclivity to seek personal pleasure (like those great beats we bounce to in music) when we should be allowing the ritual which is offered to us by the Holy Spirit to actually calm our bouncing and help prepare us to pursue daily life ready to respond to God's impulses to hold back disordered pleasure and live according to our original human nature which is to recognize God - like in those elevated songs we otherwise would hate to listen to or worse yet, in silence!!
The truth about the Holy Name of Christ is that it should never be qualified or minimized, if so it could be a sign that many other things are being minimized. We do not want to miss the only truth that can lead anyone to God the Father in wholeness in accord with the Divine plan. Moderation in all things says St. Augustine, except the Name of the Lord we say.
Preventing Our Suicide
In the 1890s French Sociologist Émile Durkheim conducted a study of suicide. He had determined that protestants had a higher suicide rate than Catholics. This was 300 years after the reformation so protestantism had a lot of time to seek its own end through many different forms of congregations, interpretations of scripture and morality and various leadership models. Those circumstances promoted less uniformity in practice. Durkheim posited that Catholics were still influenced by many norms of belief and behavior regarding daily experience of their religion. This was greatly due to a consistent model of centralized leadership, set of teachings and church calendar.
The protestants contrarily were greatly split and instead of generally accepted norms of faith across large sections of society they had experienced a breakdown of social standards which normally would influence behavior.
Continue reading this on our Commentary Page
"God teaches the soul
by pains and obstacles,
not by ideas."
Jean-Pierre
de Caussade, S.J.
1675-1761 A.D.
Vrooom...sputter, sputter
What Are The Atheists Offering This Model Year?
Anticipation of the new model line up always excites those who plan on trading old for new this year. The key for those trying to catch a new customer is to present something that appears to be different than your own last year’s model but also differentiates you from other available choices. Next to cost the daily driving experience usually closes the deal.
What are the atheists offering this year that really improves on last year’s model? Are the HBO and comedy network comedians adding any horse power to their engine of adolescent satire, inaccurately connected vignettes of religious history or smug, immature observations of morality? The audiences of endless hoots and meaningless giggles remind one of the small but loyal group of buyers of the American Motors Pacer. One felt trendy driving one but they only lasted as long as the new even less convincing alternative was rolled out. What is life like when you actually believe that you should have stuck with the "Gremlin?" What's old is what's new with the non-believer. It goes back a long ways....................
It's All In The...
Goals of Croisé
Go the to the Goals page to see what the Croisé goals are and where they come from.
From these goals objectives will flow which animate the activities of our lives and connect our work, romance, family, play, study, worship and prayer.
Life is an organic experience of God, our selves, other persons, and the world around us. But we have to know how to live with all them connecting in the proper way so that we not only enjoy them but see how they prepare us for the life that will come that transcends the here and now.
Check Out The Good Book List on the Articles Page.
We recommend the classics proven over time to help millions in their path to God.
The 13th Step
Whether it's the 12 steps of AA or the 12 Rules For Surviving the Chaos by Jordon Petersen no matter how effective they are for those who use them they are not enough. There is one additional step which we believe completes the human person at every level of their being. This is the final prime goal of Croisé. You will find it on the Goals Page. And this step does not depend on the other 12 steps of any program or 12 rules of life. Check it out. Hint: Brother Lawrence had it right a long time ago.
Adore Him Continually:
Live and Die With Him
“Pray remember what I have recommended to you, which is to think often on GOD, by day, by night in your business and even in your diversions. He is always near you and with you; leave Him not alone. . . Adore Him continually, LIVE AND DIE WITH HIM: this is the glorious employment of a Christian; in a word, this is our profession; if we do not know it we must learn it. I will endeavor to help you.”
Let us continually turn to Brother Lawrence for that help in the great spiritual classic The Practice of the Presence of God containing his original letters from the 17th Century.
You Don't Have To Climb Everest...But Goals Still Help
One of the greatest tools of the human personality is the setting of goals. The process leading to the developing and assessing the worthiness of particular goals is worth all amount of attention. Many times we develop our goals without any consultation. Within that fault is a fear that others will make us feel foolish for what we pursue or that our ego leaves us feeling that no-one is worth including in the process. Sometimes we fear that if we reveal things to others they will attempt to circumvent our success out of their fear that it will somehow affect their security either psychically or materially.
A great unknown to most of those who attempt this is that God is more than willing to help us by granting us the wisdom to choose proper goals and to aide us along the course to obtain them. Hilary had Tensing. We have our own Sherpas. Seeking advice doesn't end with friends: saints and the Lord are the best guides. If a goal is holy in its nature we will be glad for help because we are not the only one who will reap the harvest, therefore we do not have to worry about not sharing with others. This is the benefit of Croisé because all share in the benefit of working for our goals. Some will do so alone but many will join the group and learn that the more who are included in a holy pursuit the greater the benefit for the Kingdom of God. See our Goals and Action page for more about our prime goal and five sub goals.
Saints are the greatest examples of refusing to listen to those around you and persisting without flex in doing what you know God wants you to do.
You must be exactly the same. If God is calling you to do something good and holy and you have done everything to validate that call.....YOU MUST DO IT. No matter what anyone else says.
If God wants to stop you he will stop you in His own way and time.
Jesus, God or Man?
The Catholic Church teaches that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God made man: that God took upon Himself the nature of a human without losing any of His Divine Self. This is the truth promoted in the Gospels and all the traditions of the Church since the beginning. Since that beginning from time to time some while searching to understand this truth have mistakenly tried to portray Jesus as solely a human and used various means to justify this error including means of studying scripture. While the German universities in the last half of the nineteenth century were hatching the ideas that led to Naziism they were also toying with the way to study Holy Scriptures. In a nutshell they wanted to give interpretation to historical and human motivation that "created" the scriptures. St. Pius X addresses this issue in one of the most impactful papal documents called Pascendi Domini Gregis. See the following quote and more in one of the most pointed statements ever made by a pope on our Saints Page in the section about St. Pius X.
. "...vaunt themselves as reformers of the Church; and, forming more boldly into line of attack, assail all that is most sacred in the work of Christ, not sparing even the person of the Divine Redeemer, whom, with sacrilegious daring, they reduce to a simple, mere man.” 26 – Pascendi Dominici Gregis, 2
Could the current state of affairs in the Church be rooted in the rationalization of denying the Divinity of Jesus which would leave some free to interpret any act of desire and subsequent behavior as justifiable notes of the conscience. And this begs the question: Who do we pray to God or a man?
to the door of a noble life
KEY
Without fail always be generous. Especially with those who can never repay you. This seems counter intuitive but it is the Gospel way. And don't worry about wasted effort. IF YOU CONSISTENTLY AND ALWAYS follow this rule others will come to know you as a tool of God and they will try to help you because many people recognize something they want and need to be part of. But you cannot change this rule and have it work because it has already been programmed into the divine matrix by the creative power of God. This is the most important LTI (long term investment) you can make in your life.
The
Eight Minute Miracle
If you get an urge to pursue your addictive behavior. Stop! Choose not to light that cigarette or go to the evil website no matter how much you are craving it. If you can hold out for eight minutes your body will have gone through its urge cycle. The more times you hold out, the easier it gets. Use an egg timer to let yourself know when you've won the
skirmish.
Hah!
Take
that Satan!!
"Seek and Ye Shall Find."
Make the effort to find the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament so that you can pray often before the face of God. We must turn away from the world and toward God at times so we are not confused by the lies which fly through the air.
Shhhhhh......One of Our Biggest Secrets
Wrapped up inside our goals is the secret to fighting addictions. Addictions happen because a pleasure experience becomes the focus of our interior soul which is connected to our body. We will continue to pursue that particular pleasure until some other pleasure competes with it. Sometimes that doesn't happen because the physio-chemical nature of our body in some ways changes and the need reaches beyond pleasure. The answer to the question of how to overcome the addiction lies in finding some competing experience for the soul which brings greater pleasure and is strong enough to reorganize the organism of the body to "cure" the particular addictive behavior. We know that this must reach beyond the physical body because often even its impending destruction does not compel one to stop the application of the addiction stress. Therefore, the greatest source of pleasure for the mind and soul is to do the will of the God that created us. When this reality hits the mind and is proferred to the soul, if the free will element of the soul so chooses the addiction can be overcome. This is true but is often confused because there can be several competing addictive conditions in the same person.
The core truth here is that the will is powerful enough to control many aspects of the body. The traditional revelation of this truth has come through a massive historical record of the success of penance. Penance is the choosing of mind to control matter (body) and in many cases has enabled the penitent to overcome extreme addictions and many levels of the appetites of the body such as hunger, sleep, chemical addictions and physio-chemical alterations of the human body. This also applies to certain types of depression. If we accept the Lord's help He will surely give it to us. But we cannot blame God for our refusal. The mind must learn the path of change and the will must desire it more than the addiction.
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CONTACT US AT: croise@cox.net