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In Ephesians 6, Paul gives us two contrasts in the fight that we need to focus on. First, Paul tells us that people are not our fight. Second, comes when we read verses 12 and 13 together. In verse 12, Paul says that and then in verse 13 he says, “”
In today's gospel we find a story of a man whose son was dying. I think this is every parent’s deepest fear—that somehow, someday, in an accident or by illness or through some other means our children will be taken from us. Nothing seems more unnatural than the death of a child.
What did Jesus mean then, when He said, "Do not judge " (in Matt.7:1)?
For some, the Rosary can become a merely mechanical action, something to be rushed through as a duty. Since the grace of any sacramental is dependent upon the attitude of the person using it, devout and thoughtful use of the Rosary is a prerequisite to enjoying the grace of the devotion.
If Jesus had not come to earth, there would be no forgiveness on earth, and if he had not conferred on the apostles this ministry of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:18), we would have no forgiveness today. But we can thank God that Christ did indeed come and that he passed on his authority to the Church to reconcile sinners to God.
Mary is truly our Mother of tender compassion, our "Mother of Mercy." Let us look at four ways in which Mary can be truly called the merciful Mother of Christians, and of every soul searching for God.
What lies beyond that border-line of creation's beginning, when God was all? What was "BEFORE the foundation of the world?" What took place when the Deity was Absolute, and unrelated to the non-existent universe?
There are things we go through that need the help of other people. This means that in relationships, we find weight bearers to help us carry what we could not and cannot carry by ourselves. God makes it that way so that we can’t do Christianity by ourselves.
If we walk in the Spirit, the world should know us by our walk. The apostle Paul said walking is a weapon. It’s how we fight. When we walk by the Spirit, we will not carry out the desires of the flesh.
In our Gospel reading for today we read about an amazing miracle and then an even more amazing response. Someone got more than what they asked for.
In one of his sermons, Martin Luther King Jr. said, “I imagine that the first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: ‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?’ But by the very nature of his concern, the Good Samaritan reversed the question: ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?’”
So at the beginning of Acts, with the creation of the early church, Jesus was equipping them with something for the worst times Christianity would face. He was also equipping them with something for the worst times Christianity would face. He was also equipping us. How does God get his people ready for this type of environment?
C.S. Lewis said, “Everyone thinks forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive.” That was most likely true for Saint Maria Goretti and her mother Assunta.
What effect does it have on you when you think that God says “a pure religion” is to “visit orphans”?
There are many temporal dangers of unchecked anger, such as depression, drug or alcohol abuse, or physical illness like heart disease. However, I want to focus on the spiritual and eternal danger we face if we don’t fight anger.
When Peter writes to the Christians under heavy persecution from Nero, he does not talk about getting rid of Nero and his government but of getting rid of stuff within each of us individually. While people are trying to get rid of politicians, We have forgotten to deal with ourselves.
Our Lord is the Good Shepherd. He is the Good Shepherd because He loves the sheep. He cares for the sheep. He lays down His life for His sheep.…
Jesus is called Shepherd three times in the New Testament and each time, a special adjective is put in front of the word to show His role in our lives
Christ could easily have erased His wounds from His body. He could have removed all those marks of His suffering when He rose from the grave. But He did not. Instead, there were the nail wounds in His hands and feet, and there was the gaping wound in His side. What was the reason for this? Why did He show them his wounds? I will give you three reasons why, “He shewed them his hands his feet and his side” (Luke 24:40, John 20:19)
“Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise” Galatians 4:28. God gives us the promise and He does this out of love. God is always faithful even when we aren’t.
“For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light” (Ephesians 5:8)
There may be joy found in several fields of activity. Some find it in sport, some in music, some in their profession, and some even in Christian work. But the purest joy in the universe is to be found only in fellowship with the Father
Hebrews 11 tells of the prophet Enoch, who so pleased God and walked so intimately with him, he never died. Enoch is an example for us as we learn to walk with God.
We tend to pick and choose when we want our light to shine and when we don’t. But imagine for a moment, what would happen in other areas of our lives if we decided that sometimes we wanted the light to shine and other times not.
The old wine had to run out, at Cana, before Jesus did His miracle. He is waiting now for our strength to come to an end. All our failures and defeats are meant by God to bring us to the end, for He can manifest His power perfectly only in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9).
Jesus was the only person ever born who had the opportunity to choose the family into which he was to be born. None of us had that choice. Which family did Jesus choose?
It can be easy to loose that spirit of Christmas. Stores will not be playing Christmas music anymore, the world around us will have taken down all the decorations that remind of this special holiday, and Hallmark will no longer be showing those somewhat cheesy Christmas movies that pull you in in spite of yourself. But for Catholics, we will just be getting started.
There are times in our life when we go through certain crises'. When we are trying to serve the Lord and we find that although we are doing everything that we know to do, we are spiritually tired, we lack the grace and Holy Ghost power to keep going! We need a renewed awareness of the life that was given to us in the sacraments of baptism and confirmation. We need an intensified awareness of the presence and power of the Holy Ghost. We need to be endued with power from on high again. The "rivers of living water" seems to have dried up in our lives. There seems to be a dam from within that is keeping it flowing out of our lives. Yet Jesus had promised that everyone who believed in Him would have rivers of living water flowing out of their life - they'd never be dry.
You NEVER just “happen” to have something happen in your life. There are no coincidences for Christians. GOD is orchestrating every situation, every circumstance, even (and especially!) the difficult ones, for His purposes, to “clean” you; to “refine” you; and to prepare you for Emanuel's coming.
