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We're talking about why we should learn to forgive. Forgiving others is one of the more difficult virtues Jesus asks us to practice. Forgiveness does not mean that we overlook a person's lies or bad behavior. Rather, we let go of the hurt to live a peaceful, joy-filled life. Holding on to past wounds makes us bitter and gives others power over our lives. As St. Augustine famously said, “Resentment is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.” In this podcast, we learn that:  - If we've been hurt, we can pray for a forgiving heart.  - Practicing forgiveness doesn't give others a pass — it gives you peace.  - God will help us heal our wounds if we ask for strength and guidance. DOWNLOADS Get a copy of my new eBook, "12 Ways Guys Can Get Closer to Jesus"! https://justaguyinthepew.com/ebook SUPPORT: Join the Community! I've created a brand new resource for guys called "The Narrow Road." It's a monthly booklet and accompanying videos to help guys live a life of virtue and holiness. You can join The Community and subscribe to "The Narrow Road" here: https://justaguyinthepew.com/the-narrow-road NEW: Shop the store! We have a new Just a Guy in the Pew store where you can stock up on great merch HERE: https://store.justaguyinthepew.com/

[Comment: Imitators of Jesus and Mary] Friends of the Rosary: A false humanism is underway across western nations with the hidden purpose of denying the real presence in the Eucharist and the mystical body of Jesus Christ. The Prince of Lies is using his collaborators for this purpose. St. Michael the Archangel helps us to discern what are those snares and tricks. Our behavior as Christians should be remarkable and unique, as imitators of Jesus and Mary, living in love, as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us. As St. Paul reminded us in his letter to Ephesians 4:30 – 5:2, we must be “kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ.” “All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling must be removed from you, along with all malice.” Ave Maria! Jesus, I Trust In You! Our Lady of Fatima, Pray for Us! + Mikel A. | TheRosaryNetwork.org, New York Watch this Podcast in Video and/or attend the community-driven daily prayer every day at 7:30 pm ET on YouTube.com/TheRosaryNetwork

#love #dailybible #bible #bibleversefortoday #bibleverse #mothertheresa जीवनदायी वचन #54: सच्चा प्यार क्या है? [St. Mother Theresa] John 3:16 (Fr. George Mary Claret) Biblical Guide to Life #54: What is true love? [St. Mother Theresa] John 3:16 (Fr. George Mary Claret) Love is one of the most misunderstood and misused terms. Love is taken to be merely a feeling. It is reduced to be between romantic couples. If someone (other than your family members) tells you, "I love you", what would be your reaction? But, true love is much more than merely saying 'I love you'. According to St. Mother Theresa of Kolkatta (1910-1997), "तीव्र प्रेम मापता नहीं, बस देता है" "Intense love does not measure, it just gives." Real love is all about giving and giving oneself without measuring. It is a dangerous game! St. Mother Theresa learned to love from the Eucharistic Lord. She used to spend an hour in Eucharistic Adoration. That was her Power House. As St. John, the Beloved Disciple, says, हम प्यार करते हैं, क्योंकि उसने पहले हमें प्यार किया। (योहन का पहला पत्र 4:19) "We love because he first loved us." (1 John 4:19) "God is love" (1John 4:8) Separation from God is death. Being separated from God, we have no idea about 'What is true love?' The primary thing and foundation to love is to have been loved by God FIRST. St. Mother Theresa spent that ONE Hour with the Lord and let herself be loved by the Lord. Because she had personalised what Jesus said in John 3:16: ईश्वर ने संसार को इतना प्यार किया कि उसने इसके लिए अपने एकलौते पुत्र को अर्पित कर दिया, जिससे जो उस में विश्वास करता हे, उसका सर्वनाश न हो, बल्कि अनन्त जीवन प्राप्त करे। "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life." We don't let ourselves be loved by God, and at times by NO ONE for that matter. Do you realise the applications of the above statement of Jesus? Let's spend time in front of the Eucharistic Lord and let ourselves be loved by Him enough. Then we will be enabled to love as He loves us. Do you want to love? In other words, do you want to be in the image and likeness of God (cf. Genesis 1:26-27)? ====================== You are most welcome to follow me on the following platforms. ====================== To understand the Incarnation (the Word made flesh), try this book by Fr. C. George Mary Claret "God's Journey to Bethlehem: God's Way of Alluring You to Enter Into Your Heart" https://geni.us/nnB5 Connect him on http://bit.ly/WebGGOG Facebook Personal http://bit.ly/FacebookGeo Group http://bit.ly/GGOGFB Amazon Author Page http://bit.ly/FrGeorge Twitter http://bit.ly/TweetGMC LinkedIn http://bit.ly/LInGMC Medium http://bit.ly/MedGMC Pinterest http://bit.ly/PinCGMC Tumblr http://bit.ly/TumCGMC Quora Space http://bit.ly/QuoraGGOG Reddit http://bit.ly/RedditGMC --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/greatergloryofgod/message

#love #dailybible #bible #bibleversefortoday #bibleverse #mothertheresa Biblical Guide to Life #54: What is true love? [St. Mother Theresa] John 3:16 (Fr. George Mary Claret) Love is one of the most misunderstood and misused terms. Love is taken to be merely a feeling. It is reduced to be between romantic couples. If someone (other than your family members) tells you, "I love you", what would be your reaction? But, true love is much more than merely saying 'I love you'. According to St. Mother Theresa of Kolkatta (1910-1997), "Intense love does not measure, it just gives." Real love is all about giving and giving oneself without measuring. It is a dangerous game! St. Mother Theresa learned to love from the Eucharistic Lord. She used to spend an hour in Eucharistic Adoration. That was her Power House. As St. John, the Beloved Disciple, says, "We love because he first loved us." (1 John 4:19) "God is love" (1John 4:8) Separation from God is death. Being separated from God, we have no idea about 'What is true love?' The primary thing and foundation to love is to have been loved by God FIRST. St. Mother Theresa spent that ONE Hour with the Lord and let herself be loved by the Lord. Because she had personalised what Jesus said in John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life." We don't let ourselves be loved by God, and at times by NO ONE for that matter. Do you realise the applications of the above statement of Jesus? Let's spend time in front of the Eucharistic Lord and let ourselves be loved by Him enough. Then we will be enabled to love as He loves us. Do you want to love? In other words, do you want to be in the image and likeness of God (cf. Genesis 1:26-27)? ====================== You are most welcome to follow me on the following platforms. ====================== To understand the Incarnation (the Word made flesh), try this book by Fr. C. George Mary Claret "God's Journey to Bethlehem: God's Way of Alluring You to Enter Into Your Heart" https://geni.us/nnB5 Connect him on http://bit.ly/WebGGOG Facebook Personal http://bit.ly/FacebookGeo Group http://bit.ly/GGOGFB Amazon Author Page http://bit.ly/FrGeorge Twitter http://bit.ly/TweetGMC LinkedIn http://bit.ly/LInGMC Medium http://bit.ly/MedGMC Pinterest http://bit.ly/PinCGMC Tumblr http://bit.ly/TumCGMC Goodreads http://bit.ly/GoodReadsGMC Quora Space http://bit.ly/QuoraGGOG Personal http://bit.ly/QuoraCGMC Reddit http://bit.ly/RedditGMC Apple Podcasts http://bit.ly/trinityhspirit Google Podcasts http://bit.ly/podcastsgoogle --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/greatergloryofgod/message

#dailybible #bible #bibleversefortoday #bibleverse जीवनदायी वचन #47: ईश्वर मनुष्य बने क्योंकि वे आपको चाहते हैं [Origen] John 1:1,14 Biblical Guide to Life #47: God became man [flesh] because He loves YOU (Origen of Alexandria) God is in love with YOU and me. That love of God brought Him like YOU and me. Because love has the power to do so, as St. Clare says, "We become what we love and who we love shapes what we become." There were so many heresies in the Early Church and most of them were on the Most Holy Trinity and Incarnation. Origen of Alexandria (185-254) is considered to be the greatest Greek Father. His teachings and writings helped the Church to deal with the heresies. He said, हालांकि मसीह ईश्वर थे, वे शरीर धारण किए; और मनुष्य बनने के बाद, वे वही रहे जो वे थे, ईश्वर। "Although Christ was God, he took flesh; and having been made man, he remained what he was, God." The Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity took flesh from the Blessed Virgin Mary and became man. He is the Divine Person. By assuming human nature, He, the Second Divine Person has both the natures - divine and human. He is fully divine and fully human. To understand this great Mystery, let's take the help of St. John. आदि में शब्द था, शब्द ईश्वर के साथ था और शब्द ईश्वर था। शब्द ने शरीर धारण कर हमारे बीच निवास किया। (सन्त योहन1:1,14a) "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth." (John 1:1,14). The Word, Who is the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, became flesh. But, what is the reason behind His becoming man? The reason is HIS unconditional love for YOU and me. As St. Clare said, love makes the lover become like the beloved. That is the intensity of the love God has for YOU and me! Let's acknowledge His love, accept it and let ourselves be loved by the Word Incarnate! Let's take the risk! =================================== You are most welcome to follow me on the following platforms. =================================== To understand the Incarnation (the Word made flesh), try this book by Fr. C. George Mary Claret "God's Journey to Bethlehem: God's Way of Alluring You to Enter Into Your Heart" https://geni.us/nnB5 Connect him on http://bit.ly/WebGGOG Facebook Personal http://bit.ly/FacebookGeo Group http://bit.ly/GGOGFB Amazon Author Page http://bit.ly/FrGeorge Twitter http://bit.ly/TweetGMC YouTube Hindi Channel https://bit.ly/3yff7ef English Channel http://bit.ly/EngYTube Instagram http://bit.ly/InstaGMC LinkedIn http://bit.ly/LInGMC Medium http://bit.ly/MedGMC Pinterest http://bit.ly/PinCGMC Tumblr http://bit.ly/TumCGMC Quora http://bit.ly/QuoraCGMC --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/greatergloryofgod/message

#dailybible #bible #bibleversefortoday #bibleverse Biblical Guide to Life #47: God became man [flesh] because He loves YOU (Origen of Alexandria) God is in love with YOU and me. That love of God brought Him like YOU and me. Because love has the power to do so, as St. Clare says, "We become what we love and who we love shapes what we become." There were so many heresies in the Early Church and most of them were on the Most Holy Trinity and Incarnation. Origen of Alexandria (185-254) is considered to be the greatest Greek Father. His teachings and writings helped the Church to deal with the heresies. He said, "Although Christ was God, he took flesh; and having been made man, he remained what he was, God." The Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity took flesh from the Blessed Virgin Mary and became man. He is the Divine Person. By assuming human nature, He, the Second Divine Person has both the natures - divine and human. He is fully divine and fully human. To understand this great Mystery, let's take the help of St. John. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth." (John 1:1,14). The Word, Who is the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, became flesh. But, what is the reason behind His becoming man? The reason is HIS unconditional love for YOU and me. As St. Clare said, love makes the lover become like the beloved. That is the intensity of the love God has for YOU and me! Let's acknowledge His love, accept it and let ourselves be loved by the Word Incarnate! Let's take the risk! =================================== You are most welcome to follow me on the following platforms. =================================== To understand the Incarnation (the Word made flesh), try this book by Fr. C. George Mary Claret "God's Journey to Bethlehem: God's Way of Alluring You to Enter Into Your Heart" https://geni.us/nnB5 Connect him on http://bit.ly/WebGGOG Facebook Personal http://bit.ly/FacebookGeo Group http://bit.ly/GGOGFB Amazon Author Page http://bit.ly/FrGeorge Twitter http://bit.ly/TweetGMC YouTube Hindi Channel https://bit.ly/3yff7ef English Channel http://bit.ly/EngYTube Instagram http://bit.ly/InstaGMC LinkedIn http://bit.ly/LInGMC Medium http://bit.ly/MedGMC Pinterest http://bit.ly/PinCGMC Tumblr http://bit.ly/TumCGMC Quora Space http://bit.ly/QuoraGGOG Personal http://bit.ly/QuoraCGMC Reddit http://bit.ly/RedditGMC Apple Podcasts http://bit.ly/trinityhspirit Google Podcasts http://bit.ly/podcastsgoogle --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/greatergloryofgod/message

Lifting our hearts to Jesus in an Angel Embrace, while we listen to the Holy Spirit to the Gospels! Praise God! As we study the Gospels, today, we hear the Gospel of Matthew 1:18-25. As St. Joseph says "Yes!" to God, after God sent the Angel of the Lord to St. Joseph in a dream, letting him know not to be afraid to take mother Mary into his home. The Angel of the Lord continued to say that it was through the Holy Spirit that Mother Mary was with child, which was spoken through the prophet Isaiah, "Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means “God is with us." Which is a Divine message for all of us! St. Joseph's compassion for Mother Mary, and his "Yes!"to the Lord, is how we can all choose to follow in his example for our own families. Mother Mary and St. Joseph were chosen by the Lord to be the parents of Jesus, as Jesus came into the world for all families- for all in the world. "For God so loved the world the He gave His only Son, that whoever might believe in Him, might not perish, but might have eternal life." A special podcast in an Angel Embrace, and in Holy Intercession of the Holy Family, the Saints and St. Michael and all nine choirs of angels and the archangels of the Lord in the Holy Presence of God!

The reason Jesus requires us to be converted to become like little children is to imitate their humility, and a hallmark of a child's humility is his dependence on his parents. A child is always in need for his parents, and we must likewise imitate that quality of humility. We are called to recognize our poverty, embrace our dependence on God and become like beggars. As St. Isaac the Syrian says, “One attains humility by putting on the garment of a beggar.” Tune in to hear more about how we can grow in our dependence on God and imitate the humility of children.Fr. Joseph Abraham – July 17, 2021Christ the Savior American Coptic Orthodox ChurchDiocese of Los Angeleswww.thegoodsavior.org

Beginning this weekend, I want to begin another series of homilies, which will run through the end of August. I have taken the readings of the Sunday Masses and looked for a thread that is especially present in them. When the homily deals with the readings of a particular day, sometimes the overall perspective, the structure, the relationship between the messages from one Sunday to the next Sunday is lost. When all the readings are read at the same time, one may lose details, but one captures the ideas that are most reiterated or predominant in them. I have been praying about this topic for several weeks now and I have decided to focus on two aspects: the world's rejection of Christ and his disciples, and the Holy Eucharist. If I had to give a title to this series of homilies, I would use the words that Simeon used to describe to Mary, Jesus' mission on earth: "a sign of contradiction". Let us look, for example, at today's readings. In Ezekiel's prophecy, God accuses his people of having rejected him. The Lord calls Israel a rebellious, hard-hearted people who have rebelled against him. In the second reading, St. Paul said that he is content in the midst of insults, suffering, and persecution. That is to say, he takes it for granted that his message will meet with opposition from many, some who will even do violence to him, and in fact, he himself will end up martyred by the sword in Rome. Finally, today's Gospel is the sad story of Christ who on his return to Nazareth is rejected by his own people, who despise him for being the "carpenter". The sacred text tells us that Jesus was surprised by their lack of faith. In the first reading, the message of Yahweh through the prophet is rejected. In the second reading, the Apostle's message is rejected. In today's Gospel, Christ himself is rejected. Rejection, rejection, rejection. History repeats itself without interruption even to this day. You may recall that last Sunday, the Holy Gospel recounted the miracles of the healing of the hemorrhagic woman and the resurrection of Jairus' daughter. St. Mark told us that such wonders happened when Jesus arrived by boat from the other shore of Lake Galilee. What had happened on the other shore? Jesus had been rejected by the foreigners. "They begged him to go away from there," says the evangelist (Mk 5:17). Jesus returns to Jewish territory because the foreigners had driven him away. This Sunday, however, the message is not the rejection by foreigners, but the rejection by his own people, his neighbors, his own family. We are going to speak about this topic because I think it is very important. As I said, it will be a recurrent theme in the coming weeks. In today's world, we could use this analogy: the "foreigners" are those who do not call themselves Christians and the family of Jesus and his people are the Church. Christ is rejected by both without distinction. It is true that the Lord will find love in some of his disciples, but for the most part, Jesus will be rejected. As St. John writes at the beginning of his Gospel: "He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him." (Jn 1:11) Our Master was and is a "sign of contradiction". Fidelity to the teaching of the Church in today's world is paid for with scorn, humiliation, disparagement, attacks, caricaturing, mockery, and opposition - even on the part of many believers. The sign of our condition as disciples of the Crucified One is love, and the sign of our fidelity to that condition is the rejection of the world. In other words, we, like Jesus, are either peaceful "signs of contradiction" ready for martyrial fidelity, or we are not Christians. Either we embrace and accept our destiny to suffer persecution for the sake of the Gospel and the Church, or we become, in the words of St. Paul, "enemies of the cross of Christ". (Phil 3:18) The homilies in this series will end with two prayers, to be said by those who have the heart and courage to pray them with truth. If you do not agree, if they seem to you an exaggeration, or if they frighten you, or if you do not want to live them, it is better not to say them. Simply listen to them. They were written by St. Ignatius of Loyola and St. Francis of Assisi. I have learned them in Spanish and Italian, and for years I have been saying them every day. They express not what we are, but what we want to become. The first, from St. Ignatius, is this: “in order to imitate and be more actually like Christ our Lord, I want and choose poverty with Christ poor rather than riches, opprobrium with Christ replete with it rather than honors; and to desire to be rated as worthless and a fool for Christ, Who first was held as such, rather than wise or prudent in this world.” The words of St. Francis are: “May the fiery and honey-sweet power of your love, O Lord, wean me from all things under heaven, so that I may die for love of your love, who deigned to die for love of my love.” May the Lord grant us the grace of union with Him in the mystery of His rejection by the world so that we may one day be eternally welcomed into the eternal kingdom of Paradise.

As we celebrate the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul on June 29, Fr. Peter Armenio shares a reflection on the heroic lives of these two great saints who accepted Christ's invitation to repentance and fearlessly proclaimed the Kingdom of God. Their lives model for us a pathway of discipleship and illustrate the boundless love of God made known through the power of forgiveness. On this feast day, we pray for an increased trust in the Lord and the strength to fearlessly proclaim the faith in our daily life. As St. Josemaria reminds us: “Depend on Jesus for everything. You have nothing, are worth nothing, are capable of nothing. He will act, if you abandon yourself to him” (The Way, no. 731). ––––– Transcript: https://stjosemaria.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Transcript-From-Sinners-to-Saints-The-Solemnity-of-Sts-Peter-Paul.pdf ––––– THANK YOU FOR LISTENING! If you enjoyed today's podcast, please leave a rating or review here on SoundCloud and on iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/st.-j…id966458405?mt=2 Don't miss new podcasts from the St. Josemaria Institute!
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In all the Masses of this weekend and the next two weekends, I would like to take the liberty to use these homilies to speak of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus whose solemnity we celebrated on Friday and to whom this month of June is dedicated. Devotion to the Heart of Christ is not just another devotion: the Church calls it "a summary of all our religion" (Haurietis Aquas 15), because it is the one that moves us most gently, and at the same time most ardently, to love of our Lord. It is impossible to say everything we could say in the space of even three homilies, so I would like to focus on three Gospel passages that speak of the Heart of Jesus. I do so because it has been said that this devotion is not based on Sacred Scripture and that is simply and categorically false. The foundations of this way of living the faith are found in the Word of God itself. For this Sunday, let's look at the Lord's words in the Gospel of St. Matthew (11:28-30): “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” In this text, two fundamental ideas appear: the first is an invitation to learn from Jesus, to imitate him. The desire to imitate Christ is fundamental in the Christian life, but the imitation of the Lord cannot be a romantic imitation of the material aspects of his life. It is not a matter of living in the Holy Land, or of wearing tunics and sandals, or of growing a beard. It is impossible for us: none of us was born in a manger, nor did we spend our childhood in a carpenter's workshop, nor can we walk the same paths that the Lord trod. If that were what Christian imitation consisted of, there would always be an abyss, a disconnection between Him and us. On the contrary, what Jesus asks us to imitate is his Heart, his affections and his virtues. "Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart". The Lord here is pointing to the imitation of his virtues. The Heart of Jesus is what gave unity to the whole of the Lord's life. From the first moment of the Incarnation, Jesus lived in a continuous offering of himself to the Father. It is these attitudes and virtues that we must learn from Christ. He expressly mentions meekness and humility, but let us not forget that, in all cultures, the heart is the symbol of love, so it is also necessary to imitate Christ in his love. This is to say, that in our imitation of Christ, we must not go "off the beaten track", but we must get to the root of the Lord's behavior, his Heart, a Heart that is full of an infinite and inexhaustible love. From that Heart springs all that Jesus accomplishes. In Hebrew culture, the heart is not only a symbol of love: it is also a symbol of the interior life. The interior life of the Heart of Jesus is his intimate dialogue with the Father, and from it flows, as from a fountain of living waters, all that he is and does. The first idea of this Gospel passage is that of the imitation of the Heart of Jesus. In St. Matthew's text, however, we are not only told of this imitation, but in addition, the Heart of Jesus appears as the place of rest. Are you tired? If you are, listen to these words today: "Come to me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you will find rest for yourselves.” In our intimacy and in our relationship with Christ, we need to lay our head spiritually on his Heart, just as St. John did in a physical way at the Last Supper. Jesus' love for me should be the rest on which I lean, in which I find refuge, comfort, and understanding. When I am tired, overwhelmed, exhausted, worn out, discouraged, my prayer and my intimacy with Christ must consist in reclining in his Heart and finding there, in his bosom, rest and strength. Let us remain with these reflections this week. As St. Paul told us today in the second reading, let us seek to please the Father. For this, to please God, let us seek to imitate the virtues of the Heart of Jesus, especially in meekness, humility and love. May the Heart of the Lord be truly the place of our rest, particularly in the mystery of the Eucharist where we find our refuge, our solace, and our strength.

Sometimes we work too hard! Sometimes we carry the weight of the world on our shoulders. Jesus is the savior, not us. We are called to do our Best and let God do the Rest. We are called to be faithful, not success. As St. Padre Pio says; "Pray, Hope and Don't Worry." God can write straight with crooked lines, God can make all things work for the good of the Kingdom (Rm 8:28), the coming of the Kingdom is in God's hands; we do our best and let God do the rest!

We've often heard that phrase of our Father: “God he takes a risk with our freedom.” What does this mean? Josemaria Escriva: God wants us to cooperate with him in this task which he is carrying out in the world. He takes a risk with our freedom. I am deeply moved by the Jesus born in Bethlehem: a defenceless, powerless child, incapable of offering any resistance. God gives himself up to men; he comes close to us, down to our level. As St. Paul says: ”Though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant." God respects and bows down to our freedom, our imperfection and wretchedness. He agrees to have his divine treasures carried in vessels of clay; he lets us make them known; God is not afraid of mixing his strength with our weaknesses. (Christ passing 113) Music: Handel, Rinaldo Opera, Aria Lascia ch'io pianga, arranged by Bert Alink. ' Museopen.org For more meditations, check my channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/EricNicolai/videos www.ernescliff.ca www.opusdei.ca

''Wherever this Gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her (Matthew 26:13).'' How do you want to be remembered hundreds of years after your death? Do you want to be remembered at all? We can't see into the motives of her heart. But we can see that her one act of service is one of the most famous events in the history of Christianity. While some of the other events of Holy Week are more memorable, her act of love still shines through the history of Holy Week as an act of devotion for Christians to imitate. Just as we come to the altar to receive Jesus' body and blood in remembrance of Him. We serve our neighbor in memory of the unnamed woman. Harassed by the disciples. Praised by her Lord. How much greater is it to be praised by our Lord than to be ridiculed by those around us for an act of kindness? As St. Paul says, "I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us" (Romans 8:18). Suffering ridicule even from our fellow Christians is nothing compared to the glory to be revealed to us. As it was revealed to her by her Savior. Amen.

A Sermon for Ascension Sunday Daniel 7:9-14 & Acts 1:1-11 by William Klock   As you came today you walked through the lychgate and under those words carved on it: “Jesus is Lord”.  That’s the central truth we celebrate and remember in the Ascension and it’s an exhortation we need to hear right now more than ever.  People are living in fear of sickness.  Our government is trying to control the spread of that sickness—and for so much of the last year it feels like we’re wasting out time, like those people out cutting scotch broom along the public right of ways, while acres upon acres are growing on private land just the other side of a wire fence, like bailing water out of a sinking boat.  And, meanwhile, the scientists have been working frantically for a solution—and now we’ve got it, if only we can get it to people fast enough.  Brothers and Sisters, the people living in crippling fear need to be reminded that Jesus is Lord.  The politicians and the technocrats need to be reminded that Jesus is Lord.  And everyone who thinks that Science is our saviour needs to be reminded that Jesus is Lord.  Healthy fear, good government, and the miracles of science are all good things—but we need to remember that they are gifts of God under the lordship of Jesus. In our lesson from Acts, St. Luke tells us about Jesus as he led the disciples out of Jerusalem to the Mount of Olives.  He promised them that John’s prophecy would soon be fulfilled.  He was going to send his Spirit to baptise them with fire.  They didn’t know what that meant.  In fact, it didn’t even seem very important to them at the time.  They wanted to know about the kingdom!  That’s what the Messiah was about—he was supposed to come and restore the kingdom of Israel.  When he rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday they were thinking that maybe now he would finally throw off the poor itinerant rabbi disguise and restore the kingdom, throwing out the Romans and taking up David’s throne.  But instead Jesus allowed himself to be arrested, beaten, and killed.  They were despondent.  But then on Sunday he rose from the dead.  Maybe this was finally it.  But through the next forty days Jesus simply taught them the Scriptures.  The disciples were excited to have Jesus back with them.  They were excited about his resurrection, although they didn’t yet truly understand what it meant.  And so there on the Mount of Olives they asked again: Jesus, it’s great you’re alive again.  We appreciate all the Bible teaching.  But when are you going to bring the kingdom?  And in response Jesus once again promised them the gift of the Holy Spirit to empower their witness and then told them that it wasn’t their place to know the times and seasons fixed by the Father.  But then Jesus did something amazing: he ascended into the clouds.  There were the disciples staring into the sky, probably with their mouths agape, as Jesus disappeared from their sight.  And they just stood there, staring and staring until the two men, the two angels, broke into their wonder and amazement saying, “Hey, you men of Galilee!  Are you going to stand there forever staring into space?  Jesus went up to heaven and he’s coming back.  Didn’t he give you something important to do in the meantime?” What just happened there?  Why were they agape, staring into the sky?  It wasn’t just that Jesus had done something that no one else had ever done before.  No, it was because he did something that anyone who knew the Hebrew scriptures recognised.  In our Old Testament lesson from Daniel 7 we read about the one called the son of man.  Daniel saw in a vision a sequence of empires…Babylonians, Persians, Greeks.  They were ferocious, destructive, oppressing God’s people.  And then they were destroyed and, Daniel says, he saw this one like a son of man—a figure representing the people of God— “with the clouds of heaven…he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him.  And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.” God’s people had suffered, been defeated, exiled, oppressed and through it all the faithful continued and they cried out to the Lord and Daniel saw their prayers answered in the son of man as he was revealed in glory, as he came on the clouds to take his throne with the ancient of day.  Friends, the disciple stood there agape because right there on the Mount of the Ascension, Daniel’s vision had just become a reality.  The son of man had ascended to take his throne and that meant—it still means—that despite any appearances to the contrary, despite despotic kings, despite rejection and persecution, despite the ongoing presence of sin and death in the word, Jesus is seated on his throne, Jesus rules, Jesus is Lord. It is providential that Augustus chose to use the imagery of Caesar ascending into heaven to become a god and that “Caesar is Lord” became the quasi-religious pledge of allegiance to the Roman Empire.  I say it’s providential, because what the pagan Romans had been depicting in their imperial iconography for a generation before Jesus, was also struck down that day when Jesus did for real, what the Romans believed Caesar had done symbolically.  However much Caesar insisted that he was lord of the world, no matter how hard he pressed those early believers to acknowledge it, to offer him a pinch of incense on the imperial altars, no matter how many he crucified or fed to the lions, they knew that Jesus had done it for real and they persevered in faith knowing that Jesus is Lord. Jesus’ kingdom is here and now.  It’s not coming in the future.  It’s not coming after a rapture of believers.  It’s not coming before or after or in the middle of a Great Tribulation.  And it’s not something we have to go to heaven to experience.  The disciples asked Jesus when the kingdom was coming and Jesus responded by telling them that it was not for them to know.  I think he was smiling as he said that, because the next thing we see is Jesus ascending.  Just as the Ascension sends the message loudly and clearly that Jesus is Lord, it also sends the message loudly and clearly that his kingdom is here and now, even if the King’s throne is in heaven.  They asked him when the kingdom was coming and in response he gave them a dramatic visual that they’d never forget: They saw the King ascend to his throne.  Brothers and Sisters, the Ascension of Jesus tells us very dramatically and unmistakably that the kingdom is here and now.  Why is the Ascension important?  Again, it tells us dramatically and unmistakably that the kingdom is here and now. All of this is important, but what does it mean that Jesus is reigning and that the kingdom is here and now?  For that we need to look at the big picture.  In the beginning God created the Cosmos to give him glory.  At the centre of it was a garden and in that garden the Lord placed human beings to tend and to keep it.  Everything about the garden points to its being the Lord’s temple.  When the Israelites built the tabernacle, the design was meant to mimic the garden.  It was in the garden that human beings lived in the presence of the Lord.  And later it was in the temple that the Lord manifested his presence in the holy of holies.  The temple was the place where heaven and earth met and where the people went to meet with, to worship, and to fellowship with the Lord.  The temple pointed back to the garden.  When humanity sinned, the garden was lost.  Adam and Eve were cast out and an angel placed at the entrance to guard it.  And from there the story of humanity goes from bad to worse.  And yet the Lord never abandoned his Creation.  The creation was meant to give God glory and when it turned on him, instead of destroying it, God chose to manifest his glory by renewing it—by making a new creation.  And as humanity lost all knowledge of the Lord, he called Abraham to himself and through Abraham created a new humanity in the family of Abraham.  Through Abraham, the Lord began the work of restoring the garden. And yet think about a garden.  You can’t plant a garden in the wilderness and expect it to flourish on its own.  Enemies and wild animals will raid the garden and steal the fruit.  Without cultivation and protection the wild will quickly overcome the garden.  And so the Lord provided for the protection of his new garden.  He sent Jacob and his family to Egypt, where the king looked on them with favour, provided for them, cared for them, and protected them.  When the king of Egypt became hostile, the Lord himself rescued his new creation—Israel—and led her into the wilderness and to the promised land.  He fed her in the wilderness and he drove out her enemies from the land.  Eventually the Lord gave her a human king to protect his new creation from the wilderness—from the hostile enemies—that surrounded her.  But through it all, it was ultimately the Lord who was King and who protected his people.  Isaiah declared that “the Lord reigns” when Israel was faced with conquest by the Babylonian empire.  The Babylonian king and the Babylonian gods had no power over Israel no matter how bad things got.  In Daniel’s vision ferocious beasts represent the kingdoms of the earth that had conquered and dominated Israel, but in that vision the Lord takes the kingdom away from those monsters and delivers it to the saints and ultimately to the son of man—to Jesus.  Even when the Lord uses earthly kings to discipline his people, he continues to care for them.  That’s the purpose of his kingship and his kingdom: the care and cultivation of his new creation. And all this comes to full fruit in Jesus.  He has come as the Son of Man.  He has come as the Messiah—the true and eternal king in the line of David.  He has come to bring the Lord’s new creation to full fruit—to suffer for his people and to give them his Holy Spirit that they might truly be the new creation that Israel was supposed to be—that they might be the true sons and daughters of Abraham.  But not only that, he has also come to establish a kingdom over which he will rule himself—a kingdom to protect and to safeguard the new creation—the Lord’s garden as it grows and flourishes and spreads throughout the world.  This is the story of the book of Acts.  We read the beginning today: Jesus ascended into the clouds to take his heavenly throne.  Jesus is Lord, Caesar is not.  The rest of Acts is the story of the church, of the new creation, of the kingdom spreading throughout the world.  And Acts ends dramatically with Paul in Rome, in chains, proclaiming the lordship of Jesus right under Caesar’s nose.  Through the suffering, persecution, and martyrdom of the saints, the kingdom of Jesus has triumphed and will continue to triumph. Brothers and sisters, we are that new creation.  The wilderness has surrounded the Lord’s garden.  Earthly empires and kings have tried to steal its fruit, they’ve tried to stamp it out and burn it down, but King Jesus has preserved it.  Because of his preservation, past generations have carried the good news that Jesus is Lord from Jerusalem to Samaria and to all the world.  Because King Jesus has preserved it we know and believe that good news here in Canada, half a world away from that mount from which Jesus ascended to his throne two thousand years ago.  Because King Jesus continues to preserve his new creation, we can have confidence to go out in faith, to charge into the darkness with the light of Christ, knowing that no matter what happens the kingdom of God is here and now and that nothing will stop it.  As St. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians, this new creation of which we are a part is protected by the one who has been given all authority and who will reign until every last enemy is put under his feet, even death itself. Our hope as Christians is in that day.  Death is the last enemy to separate earth and heaven and on that day when Jesus finally defeats it, he’ll return from his throne on the clouds as the angels told the disciples.  As the joyful people of Rome went out to join their triumphant Caesar as he marched into the city as the conquering hero, St. Paul says that the people of Jesus will meet him in the air to accompany him as returns to earth the conquering hero—as he comes accompanied by heaven itself and restores earth and heaven. Brothers and Sisters, in the Old Testament the temple was the one place on earth where heaven and earth met and where the Lord could be known.  When Jesus came he became the temple for us.  The amazing thing is that Jesus didn’t leave it at that.  He sent his Holy Spirit to fill and indwell us.  We, his Church, are now the temple.  We are now the place where heaven and earth connect and where the Lord is made known.  And that’s our mission.  Carved on our lychgate are those familiar words: “Jesus is Lord”.  We pass beneath them as we come to the church to meet and to worship, but have you ever thought about what they really mean?  The next time you walk under those words remember the Ascension.  Remember that Jesus is seated on his throne, that his kingdom is here and now, and that he has made us his people.  We are his army, but not an army like those of Rome sent out to conquer barbarians with the sword.  Jesus calls us to charge into the darkness bearing his light, to suffer and even to die for the sake of the lost as we seek to make known his love, his peace, his justice, his mercy, and especially his grace. Let us pray: Gracious Father, in his Ascension you have raised Jesus to the place of kingship and authority.  Let us never forget the significance of his rule.  As we face the darkness, give us courage to shine his light brightly and to proclaim that he is Lord.  Increase our understanding of your love and grace that we might manifest it to hostile world around us.  And remind us, Father, to live in the hope of his sure return when all of his enemies have been subjected to his rule.  In the meantime, as we wait for the restoration of heaven and earth, let us be faithful representative of your kingdom, making heaven visible and known to all around us.  We ask this through Jesus Christ, our Saviour and our Lord.  Amen.

Continuing our Easter series, To and From Emmaus: In this podcast, Fr. Peter Armenio reflects on the importance of nurturing our interior life in order to draw close to our Heavenly Father and to share the light of Christ with others. As we see in the gospel passage, Christ makes himself known to the disciples through the breaking of the bread and in sharing of the Word. In this time of prayer and reflection, Fr. Peter challenges us to make resolutions that can help deepen our Eucharistic piety so that we can be transformed by the grace of Christ and inspired to live out the Divine Commission. As St. Josemaria explains: “If you don’t keep in touch with Christ in prayer and in the bread, how can you make him known to others?” (The Way, no. 105). ––––– Transcript: https://stjosemaria.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Part-Six-The-Means-to-Union-with-Christ.pdf ––––– THANK YOU FOR LISTENING! If you enjoyed today’s podcast, please leave a rating or review here on SoundCloud and on iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/st.-j…id966458405?mt=2 Don’t miss new podcasts from the St. Josemaria Institute!
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In our home, I love our garden. The autumn presents a stunning display, a plethora of colours. The bare boughs of winter, stark against the bleak skies, contrasts with the bud and fresh flowers of springtime. Always alive, it declares God's unsearchable character. We run a retreat called ‘Eyes Wide Open'. It offers an opportunity to find God's presence in the sights and sounds of nature. As St. Paul reminds us, ‘... all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.'

Happy Easter! I pray that you receive all the graces God has on offer during this season. As St. Paul says, "if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain". And so, I want Easter to have lasting meaning to each of our lives. Thus today, I give you a moment to pause and reflect.  For this EquipCast, we invited Fr. Taylor Leffler to reflect on the resurrection, the road to Emmaus, and what all this means for our life. May it be as fruitful for you as it was a joy for me to record. A Production of the Archdiocese of Omaha Editor: Taylor Schroll (ForteCatholic.com)

Fr. Donncha Ó hAodha concludes our Lenten podcast series reflecting on how we can become vessels of God’s love and instruments of God’s grace through our participation in the Way of the Cross and sharing in Christ’s passion and death. Despite our sinful nature, Christ continues to call each of us to be witnesses of his love and mercy. Fr. Donncha explains that through our participation in the sacraments and through sanctifying our daily work, we can respond freely to the love of Christ and be a channel of grace to those we encounter in the midst everyday life. As St. Josemaria explains: “Do everything for love. Thus there will be no little things: everything will be big. Perseverance in little things for love is heroism. A little act, done for love, is worth so much! (The Way, no. 813-814.) ––––– Transcript: https://stjosemaria.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/The-Way-of-the-Cross-in-Our-Daily-Lives.pdf ––––– THANK YOU FOR LISTENING! If you enjoyed today’s podcast, please leave a rating or review here on SoundCloud and on iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/st.-j…id966458405?mt=2 Don’t miss new podcasts from the St. Josemaria Institute!
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What is it like to be there on Mount Calvary, on Golgotha, at the moment of the death of Jesus in the company of Mary and St. John the Apostle and the Holy Women? Continuing our Lenten podcast series, Fr. Donncha Ó hAodha reflects on the wounds of Christ which helps us to realize our vocation to share in Our Lord’s suffering. As we contemplate Christ in his Passion, we are challenged to take part in it, allowing the cross to become a part of our daily life. By sharing in the cross of Our Lord, we become channels of grace through which we can lead others into an encounter with God. As St. Josemaria explains: “Do you want to accompany Jesus closely, very closely? Open the Holy Gospel and read the Passion of Our Lord. But don’t just read it: live it. There is a big difference. To read is to recall something that happened in the past; to live is to find oneself present at an event that is happening here and now, to be someone taking part in those scenes. Then, allow your heart to open wide; let it place itself next to Our Lord” (The Way of the Cross, 9th Station). ––––– Transcript: https://stjosemaria.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/The-Way-of-the-Cross-Discipleship-Transcript.pdf ––––– THANK YOU FOR LISTENING! If you enjoyed today’s podcast, please leave a rating or review here on SoundCloud and on iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/st.-j…id966458405?mt=2 Don’t miss new podcasts from the St. Josemaria Institute!
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From Ashes to Ashes in Christ Jesus By Rick Stuckwish The ashes for which this holy day is named, with which your forehead may be marked, are a sign of repentance because they signify and point to your death. There is nothing heroic in making this confession; it is simply the truth. You are mortal. You are dying, as you must, because you are a sinner. So much for your ambitions, your accomplishments, and your accumulated wealth. Your mortality and death are the necessary consequence and punishment of your sin, which goes far deeper than your behavior to the very heart and soul of you. Conceived and born in sin, you are unholy and unclean, not only at odds with God but unable and unwilling to seek Him out or draw near to Him. And yet, because you cannot escape His presence, His holiness consumes you. And yet, above all, the holiness of God the Lord is mercy. So He does not allow death to be or to have the last word, but He takes death itself into His hands to become the remedy and solution to your sin. For one thing, your dying brings an end to your sinfulness and sinning. As St. Paul says, the one who has died is freed from sin. But that would hardly be a happy ending, if that were it. Your death would not make things right, put things back together, or bring you to God in peace. However, what your death could not achieve, the death of Jesus Christ has done for you and all. The Lord your God does not desire your death, nor the death of any sinner, but that you would be set free from sin and death, and that you would live without sin, holy and righteous before Him. Therefore, God the Father has given His own dear Son, and the beloved Son has given Himself, even into death, in order to atone for your sin by His Sacrifice upon the Cross, by the shedding of His sacred Blood on your behalf. And having done so in holy faith and holy love, His Resurrection from the dead is now your Righteousness, in which you are raised up to newness of life in Him. As you have been taught by the Word and Spirit of God, you share in the death and resurrection of Christ by your Holy Baptism. That is why the ashes are signed upon your forehead in the shape of His Cross, recalling both His Sacrifice for you and your Baptism into Him, that you have died with Him, and that your life is hidden with Christ in God. Although you are still sinful, and your mortal body is still dying, returning to the dust whence you are taken, yet you are set free from the power of sin and death. You are alive, and you are righteous in Christ Jesus, by faith in Him. When you know that your righteousness is by this faith in Christ, and not by your own works or efforts, then you also know how to practice your righteousness rightly. It is to live by faith under the Cross of Christ in the hope of His Resurrection from the dead. It is a righteousness that cannot be seen by men; neither can you see it in yourself. But it is exercised in faith as you bear the Cross of repentance for your sin, and as you bear the Cross in love for your neighbor. Dying to yourself, you live unto God, and you live for those around you, not to impress them, but to care for them. This baptismal life is your whole burnt offering, the sacrifice of your whole body and life, which you render upon the atoning Sacrifice of Christ Jesus. By repentance and faith in His Cross and Resurrection, you are offered up, given up, and given over entirely to God. You are consumed by the fire of His Spirit, but so also purged of your idolatries and purified by the holiness of Christ. And the smoke that rises from this sacrifice is pleasing and acceptable to the Lord your God, as surely as the Father has received His Son back from the dead and seated Him at His right hand. Of particular interest on this day are the ashes of the whole burnt offering, which were removed by the priest from the Lord's Altar to a clean place outside the camp of Israel. For so do your body and life remain in this world, but no longer of it; no longer unclean because of your sins, which are removed, but cleansed and forgiven by the Blood of Christ Jesus and His acceptable Sacrifice. Even now in your still mortal flesh, you live and abide outside the camp with the Crucified One. And this burnt offering of your body and life as a Christian, this living sacrifice of repentance, faith, and love, is characterized and exercised by those three basic practices to which Christ Jesus refers in the Holy Gospel for this day: fasting, almsgiving, and prayer. Indeed, He does not teach you to avoid this fundamental piety of the Christian life, but to avoid all pretense and presumption, and to undertake these basic activities of discipleship in the fear and faith of the one true God. To fast, to give alms, and to pray are not to be practiced as a means of gaining righteousness before God or man. There is to be no bargaining with God, nor any boasting in His presence. But you are to fast, to give alms, and to pray by the righteousness of faith in Christ Jesus, because you are reconciled to God in Him. You are justified by His grace; you are cleansed and sanctified by His forgiveness; and, by your Baptism into Him, you are dead to sin and alive to God forevermore. To fast is to reduce your consumption, to give up for awhile what you otherwise rely upon, and to deny yourself the very things you crave the most. Whatever form it takes in your life, such fasting belongs to the daily dying of repentance. To curb your appetites in this way is to curb and put to death your flesh with all its covetous idolatry, to take up the Cross, and to follow Christ by faith. Almsgiving goes hand in hand with fasting, as you deny yourself and give what you have to others. It is, indeed, the sacrifice of yourself and the gift of yourself to your neighbor in his or her need. Not for praise and recognition, but for the sake of love, in thanksgiving to the Lord Jesus Christ, who has given Himself entirely for you. In quiet humility, then, exercise mercy, and be generous in charity as you have opportunity. So, too, forgive and do good to those who sin against you. But neither fast nor give alms without also calling on the Name of the Lord in prayer, which is the very voice of faith. By it you lay hold of Christ in the promise of His Gospel, and you store up treasures for yourself in heaven; not by scaling the heights, but by confessing the Word He has placed upon your lips, by receiving the gifts He gives into your hands, and by relying on His grace. In praying to the Father in His Name, you rise and ascend with Him who has come down from heaven to you, who has given Himself into death, who has risen and returned to the Father in glory. Everything begins with and continues to depend upon the Sacrifice of Christ. He is the One who knew no sin, who yet became the Sin Offering for you and for the world. In flesh and blood like yours, He has offered Himself entirely to His God and Father on your behalf, in order to atone for your sins, to reconcile you to God in perfect peace, and to bring you into fellowship with Him. Sin has been put to death once-and-for-all in His crucified Body. All its impurity, perversion, and stains have been removed by His Blood. And in His Resurrection and Ascension, He has entered into the presence of God as your merciful and great High Priest. Thus do you have access in Him to God the Father in heaven. Indeed, you enter the inner room of the Lord's own House and Home, into the Holy of Holies, not made with hands but eternal in the heavens. And, like Christ Himself — for you are in Him and He in you by the Gospel — your sacrifice of repentance is a pleasing aroma and your prayer of faith is a sweet-smelling incense in the nostrils of the Lord your God. He hears and answers your prayers in mercy, with compassion and generous charity. His gives you His alms in abundance for both your body and your soul, for this life and for the life everlasting. He restores you day by day, throughout Lent and every day, to all the blessings and benefits of your Holy Baptism, which are the fruits and benefits of the Cross and Resurrection of Christ Jesus. He pours out the Holy Spirit upon you, anointing you with the true Oil of gladness. He washes you, cleanses you, and sanctifies you through the forgiveness of all your sins. He clothes you with the priestly garments of Christ, that is, with His own righteousness, innocence, and blessedness. And He feeds you at His Table with the priestly Food and Drink of Christ, which are His Body and His Blood. These Gifts are hidden from your sight, and from the sight of every man, being given as they are in the grain offering and drink offering of bread and wine. But the Body and Blood of the Lamb are truly present, given and poured out for you here at His Altar on earth, while never ceasing to appear and avail for you before your God and Father in the Most Holy Place in heaven. Thus do we have fellowship with God in Christ, and with each other in His one Body. And thus do we give thanks to God and bless His Holy Name as we feast upon His Son in this sacrificial Meal. And our thanksgiving, too, is sanctified, acceptable, and pleasing to Him in Christ Jesus. You are able to approach the Lord's Altar with such confidence and joy, because you are clothed in Christ and covered by His righteousness. And by the same mercies of God in Christ, you are able to live in the world in love for your neighbor, purified within and without by the Holy Spirit. For the ashes of your perishing mortal flesh reside, even now, in a clean place with Christ Jesus; while yet, in Him, your body, soul, and spirit always live and abide in the presence of the Father. Therefore, even now, on this day of grace, in this time of salvation, return to the Lord your God. For He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love. And here in His Holy Communion is the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness, which are for you and for the many. Here is your Meat and Drink indeed. Here is not death, but your life and salvation in Christ Jesus. In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

[Comment: Risen] Friends of the Rosary: Life on Earth is a purification until we meet the Father again. Adam and Eve broke the bond with the Divinity and our nature got wounded. As St. Augustine described, our soul is restless until it rests on God. In our struggle, the Most Holy Mary is our advocate. God Himself sacrificed his Son taking a human form and suffering martyrdom after He was brutally tortured in Palestine. By doing so, He defeated sin and death and showed us the path to take—which is based on imitating Him. Like Jesus Christ—as we say in the first Glorious Mystery that we pray today—we will rise triumphant. Ave Maria! [Written by Mikel A. | TheRosaryNetwork.org, New York] ___ Today's Holy Rosary in Video | Today's Broadcast at 7:30 pm ET on YouTube.com/TheRosaryNetwork ___

Here is a secret of riches and success that has been buried 1,900 years deep. Since time began, mankind has been searching for this secret. It has been found and lost again — a score of times. The Ancients of all races have had some inkling of it, as is proven by the folk tales and legends that have come down to us, like the story of Aladdin and his wonderful lamp, or Ali Baba and his “Open Sesame” to the treasure trove. Every nation has such legends. Every nation has had its Wise Men, its men of genius and vision who glimpsed the truth that is buried in these old folk tales and who understood at least something of how it works. But it remained for Jesus to re-discover this secret in its entirety and then to show us clearly, step by step, how we might use it to bring us anything of good we might desire. For make no mistake about this: The miracles of Jesus were not something super-natural that could be performed only by Him, else how could He have picked seventy disciples — ordinary men, uneducated, untaught, fishermen, farmers, tax-gatherers and the like and sent them out two by two to perform miracles and wonders second only to His own, so that they returned to Him with joy, saying, “Lord, even the devils are subject to us through Thy name.” How could He have assured us “The thing that I do shall ye do also, and greater things than these shall ye do.” ? The miracles of Jesus were divinely NATURAL. Instead of being departures from natural law, they were demonstrations of what the law will do for you if you understand how to use it! God does not deal in exceptions. As St. Augustine put it “Miracles are not contrary to Nature, but only contrary to what we know about, Nature. ”Every force in Nature works along definite, logical lines, in accord with certain principles. These forces will work for anyone who possesses the key to their use, just as Aladdin's fabled Genie would respond to the call of anyone who rubbed the magic lamp. They can be neglected and allowed to lie idle, they can be used for good or evil, but the laws themselves do not change. It is merely the methods of using them that change. An airplane or an automobile would have seemed as great a miracle to the people of Jesus' day as the curing of a leper. Sending sound waves through the ether, to be picked up by a little box called a radio, would have been as wonderful to our fathers as is the sending of our voice over a beam of light to us today. Yet there is nothing super-natural about either of these. The forces of Nature have always been there, ready for our use. It is our understanding of them that has changed, our knowledge of how to USE them. BUY MY BOOK! https://www.amazon.com/Reality-Revolution-Mind-Blowing-Movement-Hack/dp/154450618X/ Listen my book on audible https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Reality-Revolution-Audiobook/B087LV1R5V Music by MettaverseNocturneInner worldshealing restorative ambientthe light holdersa still mindreturn to sourcefield of onenessjourney through the multiversehealing tranquility777hz deep relaxationlanguage of lightlove the universal constanta universal languageinto the omniverse  ➤ Listen to them on Soundcloud: http://bit.ly/2KjGlLI➤ Follow them on Instagram: http://bit.ly/2JW8BU2➤ Join them on Facebook: http://bit.ly/2G1j7G6➤ Support their Work at Patreon: http://bit.ly/2TXQhu3➤ Subscribe to their channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyvjffON2NoUvX5q_TgvVkw All My Orison Swett Marden Videso - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKv1KCSKwOo9daFLxe21nNa2K-GNqObsx  All My Neville Goddard Videos In One Playlist - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKv1KCSKwOo8kBZsJpp3xvkRwhbXuhg0M All my videos about Dr. Joseph Murphy - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKv1KCSKwOo_OtBhXg2s85UuZBT-OihF_ For all episodes of the Reality Revolution – https://www.therealityrevolution.com Join our facebook group The Reality Revolution  https://www.facebook.com/groups/403122083826082/ Subscribe to my Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOgXHr5S3oF0qetPfqxJfSw Contact us at media@advancedsuccessinsitute.com #robertcollier #lawofattraction #success #expectation #motivation

See https://president.ie/en/diary/details/president-michael-d-higgins-marks-la-fheile-bride President Michael D. Higgins issued a special message to mark Lá Fhéile Bríde / St. Brigid’s Day. In his Message, the President recalled the origins of St. Brigid’s Feast Day, highlighting the influence that St. Brigid has had on Irish society, and noting that her examples as a strong female voice in a male dominated world can inspire us also in present times. The President noted that, as we celebrate the courage and commitment of St. Brigid in her day, we in our day pay tribute to all of those who continue to put their lives at risk as they continue their important work, for the benefit of all of us their fellow citizens. As St. Brigid’s Day traditionally marks the beginning of Spring, the President expressed his hope that this Spring will bring the end of the long “winter of the Covid pandemic.”

Church and State: The Importance of Corporate Worship and Submission to the Governing Authorities by William Klock I spent this week preparing a sermon for the Sunday after Epiphany, a sermon about the young Jesus in Jerusalem after the Passover and Mary and Joseph searching for him frantically, perhaps with the naïve hope that the health order shutting our churches would be lifted this week.  With the order extended for another month, it seems appropriate to address that subject instead. Like every church, you all have a variety of opinions on how we should be dealing with the pandemic and with the current health orders.  I’ll say at the outset that I’m thankful you’ve been pretty gracious in dealing with differences.  This has been a difficult time for pastors, caught between demands that we obey government orders (or even go beyond them) and others demanding we defy orders.  I’ve lost count of the pastors I know who have been fired for making the “wrong” choice or who have simply broken down and quit.  I am not looking forward to the aftermath to come, because there will likely be a lot of split churches in future.  In our own church, we’ve lost one person who, apparently, felt we should be continuing with our normal activities, despite health orders, and we’ve lost a couple of people who were upset that we continued meeting in the Spring and didn’t impose our own mask order in the absence of one from the province.  I’m not a doctor and neither is anyone else in our congregation.  Health experts, like our Provincial Health Officer, are there—even given emergency dictatorial powers—for a reason.  They’re qualified to address these issues.  No one here is qualified to make these decision and so we abide by the orders and guidelines given by those who are.  If the experts issuing health orders, for example, leave the wearing of masks up to private judgement, a pastor or vestry with no medical expertise has no business ordering they be worn, binding the conscience of believers, and effectively excommunicating anyone whose private judgement dictates otherwise.  If the health officials tell us we must wear masks indoors, we will—not because I or the vestry thinks it’s a good idea and issues an order for the church, but because those in authority in the government who are qualified to issue such orders have told us to and as good Christians we submit to the civil magistrate. Now, that said—and I’ll come back to this issue of obedience to the civil magistrate later—I think it’s important to address these issues.  And here’s how I’m going to address it today.  First, I want to look at ecclesiology.  Ecclesiology is the branch of theology that deals with the church—ekklesia is the Greek word for “church”—and so this branch of theology addresses who and what we are, what we do, and how we do it.  Our ecclesiology answers important questions like “What does it mean for the Church to gather?”, “Do we have to do it in person?”, “Can our gatherings be ‘virtual’?”.  Things like that.  Second, we need to look at our political theology.  How does the Church relate to the State and the State to the Church?  Where does the authority of one begin and the other end?  What do we do when they overlap or seem to be in conflict?  And, finally, we’ll bring this back to our current situation, which has been complicated by a broad failure of the Church to adequately address these issues. So, first, ecclesiology.  The greatest failure, I think, has been here.  It’s not surprising.  For generations a large swath of Evangelicals has downplayed theology.  Get a group of pastors together and try to recite the Creed and most can’t do it.  I’ve been sitting there more than once when it happened.  So it’s no surprise when the people sitting in the pews are theologically illiterate.  Ecclesiology was one of the great subjects of the Protestant Reformation, but we’ve reached a point where we’ve got pastors who don’t even know what the word means.  A big part of the problem is that for the many years—especially since the 1970s—Evangelicals have been doing church, not based on well-thought-out ecclesiology, but on pragmatic principles—based on whatever will get the biggest number of butts in the pews or reach the biggest number of people, but a great deal of what we’ve done has undermined the integrity of the Church.  We’ve downplayed commitment and sacrifice and submission to the Lordship of Jesus, while turning the faith into a therapeutic and private spiritual hobby that we do by ourselves.  And the problem is that when something like the coronavirus hits us, we have nothing solid on which to base our response—or, as we’ve seen, we fall back on the faulty, unbiblical foundations we’ve been building for the last fifty years. It’s sad, but not surprising that a church that for decades has promoted the idea—whether overtly or not—that you can “go to church” in front of the TV in your pajamas and with your coffee, has so quickly adopted this “virtual church” model.  Consider that in the Spring, almost every church in British Columbia stopped in-person services.  The fifty-person cap imposed on us certainly made things difficult for larger churches, but we’ve since seen that it’s not an insurmountable problem.  Our Roman brothers and sisters, for example, understanding how important it is for the Church to gather in person, eventually worked out a system of two services a day, six days a week.  For many churches like ours, the limit posed no problem at all.  But most churches didn’t even try.  Most simply went to some kind of “virtual” model.  Now most understood that this was a stop-gap measure, that this isn’t how things are supposed to be.  That said, however, there have been quite a few pastors failing to make this distinction and even some touting it as a “new normal” that’s better than what we had before.  I fear what the fallout will be.  I can no longer count of the number of people who have said something like, “I don’t know that I’ll ever go back.  It’s so much easier and comfortable to watch at home and I can do it at the time I want” or “This has been such a blessing.  We don’t have to get the kids ready for church.  Hubby and I can just watch in peace while they play.  This is so much better.”  And all of this is reinforcing that old half-truth as I hear people say repeatedly, “The Church is not a building,” by which they mean that gathered, public worship is not of the essence of the Church.  The polls being done in recent months say that when this is over, church attendance will be down something like 30%, either because people will be watching from home or will simply have dropped out after months (or a year) of non-attendance.  That’s a staggering and tragic number and those who shut down when they didn’t have to are big contributors. Brothers and Sisters, in-person worship is part of the essence of the Church.  It is not an optional add-on to something we otherwise do privately.  Let me go back to that statement that the Church is not a building.  I said it’s half true.  It’s true that the Church is the people, not the building.  But the statement is misleading.  To be the Church, the people have to meet together and that requires a place, whether it’s a cathedral, a storefront, a house, or the shade of a great tree on an African plain.  You see, there’s no such thing as an ecclesiological vacuum.  If we don’t take the time to develop a biblical ecclesiology or at least to listen to our forefathers in the faith who worked out a biblical ecclesiology at great length, some kind of half-biblical and poorly-thought-out ecclesiology will fill the vacuum—and as this pandemic has put pressure on the Church, this is exactly what’s been revealed. So what does the Bible say about the Church?  A year’s worth of sermons could easily develop to answer that question, but I’ll try to answer it briefly here.  Let me go back to that statement that the Church is not a building.  There’s a reason why church buildings are so closely associated with the people who are the Church, that we’ve come to refer to both as “church”.  To gather together in some place established for that gathering is of the essence of the Church.  Consider the very word “Church”.  The Greek word used in the New Testament is one you’ve heard before: ekklesia.  The word literally means “assembly” and the New Testament writers use it to describe both the people who assemble and the assembly of those people—pretty much exactly parallel to the way we use “church” to refer to God’s people assembling together and the assembly of God’s people.  But the key here is the assembly.  The ekklesia does not exists apart from the assembly.  The members can go off to their own homes, to their work and other affairs and be apart from each other, but they remain the ekklesia, because they are the part of the assembly when it gathers together.  The church is defined by its physical gathering for corporate worship.  It’s defined by other things as well, most importantly our union with Jesus, but it’s also defined by its nature as a gathered people.  There’s no such thing as a loner Christian.  A person who, due to extraordinary circumstances can no longer be part of our corporate gathering—say they’ve had to move into a nursing home—remains a part of the Church, because they’ve been part of the assembly.  But you can’t be part of the Church if you’ve never been a regular part of the assembly.  This is part of the problem with so-called “virtual church”.  It may serve as an emergency stop-gap in times like our own, it may even be a good thing in that respect, but it’s not “church”.  It’s the church doing its best to maintain connection and some kind of venue for teaching and worship in extreme circumstances.  But if virtual church—whether today’s livestreams or the TV broadcasts we’ve had for decades—are all you’ve ever been part of, you’re not part of the church.  This has always been the danger of the broadcast church and it’s why responsible evangelism, while it may use these methods to reach unbelievers, always stresses the need for those it connects with by TV, radio, or Internet to join the physical gathering of the local church and to take part in the very physical sacraments, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, that mark God’s people out as his own, as the Church. We see this gathering, this physical coming together, throughout the New Testament.  We don’t have time to look at all or even most of those passages, but let’s look at a couple of them.  First, let’s look at St. Luke’s description of the Church just after Pentecost.  Acts 2:42-46: And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.  And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.  And all who believed were together and had all things in common.  And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.  And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts. Fellowship, together, attending.  These are the sorts of words that characterize the Church through the New Testament.  It’s in our name, because it’s what we do.  Those early brothers and sisters were known for gathering together to hear the apostles, to fellowship, and to worship together.  They shared common meals as part of their gatherings and, in those early days, the Lord’s Supper was part of those meals, not merely a ritual meal as it is for most today.  All of this requires presence.  And, Luke says, they were devoted to it.  That word “devoted” in verse 42 is something we might pass over, but it’s vitally important, particularly today.  Even before the pandemic, many Christians showed a lack of devotion to the gathering of the Church.  There will always be occasional necessities, travels, illnesses that prevent our attendance, but Luke’s description here should prompt us to ask if we’re really devoted.  Do we prioritise gathering with the Church to worship on Sundays?  Or is it something we do when we don’t have something else to do?  Does our devotion inform our other commitments?  There are lots of competing options these days.  Do sports or clubs take us away from the Church?  Sometimes it’s a more subtle sort of competition.  Do we neglect things that need to be done in preparation for Monday, leaving them to the last minute so that we end up missing church to get them done?  Do we do things on Saturday (or Saturday night) that we know will leave us exhausted and unwilling or unprepared to get up for church on Sunday?  Maybe we know getting the kids ready will be a hassle on Sunday morning, but we neglect to do everything we can to prepare them Saturday night.  These are all things that reflect our priorities.  In the pandemic we might look at things like our non-church activities that expose us to infection and raise our risk of passing the virus to others when we gather together.  If I have to limit the number of people I’m around during the week, I want to do everything I can to prioritise my activities so that I can safely include the Church in that limited circle of people. The other passage I’d like us to look at is Hebrew 10:24-25: And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. First, notice how the gathering of the saints together has a familial aspect to it.  We gather to exhort and to encourage one another in the faith.  It’s a means by which we love each other and put that love on display for the sake of the world.  In a day when Christianity has largely morphed into an individualistic and private affair—me, my Bible, and Jesus—the writer of Hebrews reminds us that that is not the nature of Christianity.  As St. Paul tells us multiple times, we are part of a body.  That body requires all of its parts to function and each of the parts requires the body to survive. And, it’s important to note, that this comes here in Hebrews as an apostolic command.  Do not neglect to meet together.  Like the command to keep the Sabbath, this doesn’t mean that we’ve sinned by missing church due to some necessity.  There are good reasons sometimes.  You may be ill.  There may be some emergency.  For some few who might be at truly great risk in our current situation, there may be good reason to stay at home.  There may be a health order issued by the government.  There are sometimes good reasons to miss the assembly or even to cancel the assembly for a Sunday or for a short season, but we may not neglect it without such a good reason. And, I think it’s important to add in light of what has happened across our province, it is wrong for church leaders to deprive the saints of the opportunity to gather, short of such a reason.  It is one thing for members of the Church, in their private judgement and assessing their own risk, to absent themselves by choice.  It is another thing entirely for the pastor or the vestry or even the bishop to suspend the church’s services, depriving the people of the sacraments and the opportunity to gather for worship.  This is, I think, a grievous wrong.  It is one thing if necessity or emergency dictates it.  Perhaps a wildfire surrounds us or an earthquake has made it impossible to gather or the governmental health authority issues an order closing churches, but absent such a situation, the leaders of a church must at least offer the opportunity to gather to the people of the church. Finally, the New Testament puts the Lord’s Supper at the centre of our worship, alongside the preaching of the word.  You can, as you are now, watch a recording or a livestream of a sermon, but the Lord’s Supper requires physical presence as much as it requires physical bread and physical wine.  Sadly, we’ve even muddled this up today.  I’ve watched pastors on livestreams send people to the kitchen to get “something to drink and some kind of bread”, even if it’s orange juice and Doritos.  I watched one pastor pantomime the Lord’s Supper, pretending to drink from a pretend chalice and to eat pretend bread, and then pretending to pass it through the computer screen.  Some in our own tradition have taken to distributing pre-consecrated bread and wine for people to eat during the livestream of a service and others who think they can consecrate bread and wine in someone’s home via the Internet.  None of these things is the Lord’s Supper.  The key to the Lord’s Supper is not the consecration of the elements.  When Jesus blessed the bread and wine, he was giving a simple blessing as we do over our own meals, giving thanks to God.  The bread and wine don’t change into something else to make the Lord’s Supper the Lord’s Supper.  The key to the Lord’s Supper, just as it was the key its precursor, the Passover, is the presence of the family, the people of God, gathered to share in a meal by which we participate in the death and resurrection of Jesus, in the events by which he has delivered generation after generation of believers from the bondage of sin and death and made us a new people.  You cannot celebrate the Lord’s Supper alone.  Like the Passover, it requires the gathering of the family around the Table, physical presence, to eat real bread and to drink real wine. People have said to me, “It’s unfair.  We don’t get Communion, but you can have it whenever you want!”  Brothers and Sister, that’s not true.  I know there are ministers who do that, but for me to celebrate the Lord’s Supper with my own family in private would be an abuse of the sacrament.  It would be like the father depriving his family of food while he eats himself.  No, your fast is my fast and I will eat the Lord’s Supper for the first time again with all of you, when we’re allowed to meet again together. So now that we’ve established that gathering together is essential to being the Church, what authority does the State have to restrict our gatherings?  Does it have any authority at all to do this?  Most churches have exposed a dearth of thinking about ecclesiology, but in the last few months a few pastors have been preaching things more or less along the lines of “Jesus is the Lord of the Church and the State has no right to tell us what we can or can’t do!”  Some of you have forwarded links to those sermons to me.  This is a problem, too.  I admire their willingness to take a stand—and at some point in future that kind of stand may be necessary—but at this point in time, these guys are ignoring half a millennium of well-developed Protestant political theology. These arguments claiming that the State has no authority over the Church are all rooted in a misunderstand or misapplication of principles of political theology that go all the way back to Martin Luther and the Reformers.  Before the Reformation, the Church claimed authority over everything: the Church, the Family, the State…everything.  The Reformers changed that.  Luther wrote of “three estates”: “But of holy orders and true religious institutions established by God are these three: the office of priest, the estate of marriage, the civil government.”[1]  In other words, what Luther is saying is that God has established three orders or spheres of governance in the world: the Family, the Church, and the State.  More recently, the Dutch statesman and theologian, Abraham Kuyper, developed a similar and related idea known as “sphere sovereignty”.  The idea being—and it’s a biblically grounded one, as was Luther’s—that these God ordained “spheres” such as Family, Church, and State each have their own authority.  Kuyper’s “sphere sovereignty” has held a major place in Protestant Reformed Theology in the last century, so it’s not surprising that a lot of these sorts of sermons are coming from that quarter. So I think most everyone can agree that there are God-ordained spheres or estates, each with its own authority, but apart from the Old Testament law, which was unique to Israel, the Bible doesn’t draw crisp, clean circles around these spheres the way some folks today would like to think.  That would make things easier on paper, but it would lead to chaos in the real world.  The problem is that in the real world the spheres overlap.  So it’s easy to look at our current situation and declare that the State has no authority to suspend church services, but in reality none of us actually believes that.  There are all sorts of situations in which civil authorities can legitimately interfere with our services.  The Charter of Rights and Freedoms recognizes the freedom to peaceably assemble, but the Charter also includes what is known as the “reasonable limits” clause, which recognizes that these rights are not absolute. So when it comes to something like our doctrine, there is a very clear boundary between the authority of the Church and the authority of the State.  The Minister of Health, for example, has no authority to dictate to us what our doctrine is or should be.  He would be seriously overstepping his authority to try tell us we should believe this or that as justification for closing our churches, for example, saying that “virtual church” is just as good as regular church.  That’s a matter of doctrine. But in other matters, the State may intrude on the Church’s sphere.  The State has no say in how a church chooses or ordains pastors, but there are circumstances—say I was caught embezzling funds—in which the State can rightly bar a guilty clergyman from his job.  We readily accept that the civil authorities can put occupancy limits on our building for reasons of public safety and noise restrictions on our musical activities so that we don’t become a public noise nuisance.  We accept that the fire marshal or building inspector can close our building due to safety concerns.  That happened right here in 1974, when the cenotaph was dedicated.  They wanted to hold a dedicatory service in the building, but the building was in such disrepair that the Fire Chief barred them from using it.  That Fire Chief was Lawrence Burns, a man most of you know as a devoted Christian and leader in the local church.  In times of war, the State may restrict how and when a church may meet.  During the Blitz, Londoners were barred from churches after dark, lest the light become a target. Plague and pestilence have—until now—been such a thing of the past that most of us have forgotten that the Church has addressed these issues for us already.  Richard Baxter, one of the finest of the Puritans, wrote this in his catechism: Question 109: May we omit church-assemblies on the Lord’s day, if the magistrate forbid them?   Answer: 1. It is one thing to forbid them for a time, upon some special cause, (as infection by pestilence, fire, war, etc.) and another to forbid them statedly or profanely.  It is one thing to omit them for a time, and another to do it ordinarily.  It is one thing to omit them in formal obedience to the law; and another thing to omit them in prudence, or for necessity, because we cannot keep them.  The assembly and the circumstances of the assembly must be distinguished. (1) If the magistrate for a greater good, (as the common safety,) forbid church-assemblies in a time of pestilence, assault of enemies, or fire, or the like necessity, it is a duty to obey him. 1. Because positive duties give place to those great natural duties which are their end: so Christ justified himself and his disciples’ violation of the external rest of the sabbath. ‘For the sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath.’ 2. Because affirmatives bind not ‘ad semper,’ and out-of-season duties become sins. 3. Because one Lord’s day or assembly is not to be preferred before many, which by the omission of that one are like to be obtained….”[2] Notice, first, that Baxter acknowledges the authority of the State overlaps that of the Church here.  The civil magistrate has every right to impose limits or rules or even to suspend our gathering if it is justified in doing so for public health and safety.  As Baxter quotes Jesus, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.  Baxter also reminds us that while a sin is always a sin—in other words, when God commands, “Thou shalt not murder,” there is never any circumstance in which it is okay to murder—the same is not always true of God’s positive commands.  We are obligated to gather together, and doing so should be normative, but there will be times when it’s okay not to.  Think again of the Sabbath.  Israel was commanded to keep the Sabbath, but that didn’t mean leaving your donkey in a ditch or your son down a well to do so.  The command to keep the Sabbath is not absolute in the way the commands not to murder or not to commit adultery are.  And, finally, he points out that it may be prudent to suspend Sunday worship for a short time if not doing so would mean having to suspend it for a longer time.  I think that’s particularly applicable in our current situation—or at least it is potentially so. Now, Baxter’s catechism never had any official authority in any ecclesiastical jurisdiction, so let me quote a short bit of the Augsburg Confession, which is one of the formularies of the Lutheran Churches: Article XXVIII: Of Ecclesiastical Power … Therefore the power of the Church and the civil power must not be confounded. The power of the Church has its own commission to teach the Gospel and to administer the Sacraments. Let it not break into the office of another; let it not transfer the kingdoms of this world; let it not abrogate the laws of civil rulers; let it not abolish lawful obedience; let it not interfere with judgments concerning civil ordinances or contracts; let it not prescribe laws to civil rulers concerning the form of the Commonwealth….   There are aspects of the civil magistrate’s authority that rightly and justly overlap the authority of the Church and—with some exceptions amongst the Anabaptists—Protestants have always recognized this.  This is part of the practical outworking of St. Paul’s exhortation in Romans 13 to be subject to the governing authorities: Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.  Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.  (Romans 13:1-2) Are there circumstance in which Christians may or are even required to disobey the civil magistrate?  Of course there are.  But this isn’t one of them.  If the magistrate were requiring we do something sinful—say offering a pinch of incense to Caesar—we would be bound to disobey.  But suspending church services for a limited period of time because of a pandemic is not one of those situations.  It is not a sin to cancel our corporate worship out of necessity. Now, finally, what if we disagree with the health orders?  Let me approach this from two angles. First, there’s been a lot of talk about these health orders and the persecution of the Church—as if our government is hostile to Christians.  Something like that may be going on in other jurisdictions, but it’s just plain foolish to think that in British Columbia.  First, our Health Minister and our Premier are both church-goers.  They belong to very liberal churches that we would likely consider heretical in belief, but they are “religious people” and they’ve made it clear that they value religion and even “church”.  Second, the health orders in BC target everyone, not just Christians.  We haven’t been singled out.  I think it’s important to stop the persecution talk right now.  That may really come someday, but it’s not now. But, let’s say these orders were unfairly aimed at churches.  I think the best test to determine whether or not that’s the case is to look at what’s happening with theatres and concerts.  Is the government allowing theatres to operate?  Can people gather for a concert?  In terms of a pandemic, those venues are comparable to a church service.  If churches were ordered closed, but theatres were still open, we’d probably have just cause to claim persecution or, at least, that we’re being unjustly targeted.  But that’s not the case in British Columbia.  I know it seems stupid that you can’t go to church, but you can still buy liquor and dope, but the fact is that shopping—whatever your shopping for—is a less risky situation than sitting in a room full of people for an hour or two. But if we perceived the health orders to be imposing an unjust bias on us, would we be justified in engaging in civil disobedience as some are doing?  No.  Here’s why.  Scripture obligates us to be subject to the governing authorities.  That means that we must first avail ourselves of the means of redress that our system of government has provided—and it has provided them.  We can contact our MLA.  We can write to our Premier, our Health Minister, and—while they haven’t made it easy—even our Provincial Health Officer.  If that doesn’t get us anywhere, we have recourse to the Courts.  These are all avenues that we need to exhaust before we can justifiably engage in civil disobedience when the issue at stake is not one that involves sin.  If we did otherwise, we would be disregarding Scripture’s command to be subject to the governing authorities, and that would be a problem. Why is this important?  Consider how our relation with the civil authorities impacts our witness as Christians.  This is what lies behind most of what the New Testament has to say on the subject.  Paul urged Timothy to pray for those in authority.  The idea, he writes, is that we “lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.”  Christians should not be known for creating chaos and constantly raging against the civil authorities.  Paul similarly wrote to Titus Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. (Titus 3:1-2) Paul hits some of us close to home.  It’s easy to quarrel about these things and it’s easy to cross the line from legitimate and godly criticism and into speaking evil.  I know the struggle, but struggle we must.  This is part of our witness.  Peter, in particular, addresses that aspect of it: Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.  For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.  (1 Peter 3:13-15) Christians are the last people who should be known as trouble-makers.  That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t stand up for our rights, but it does mean we need to make sure that when we do, we do it in the least disruptive and most gracious way possible. And that gets to the final point I want to make.  Part of what’s going on in BC is our own fault and we need to own that.  The day before this “social lockdown” was put in place, Adrian Dix and Bonnie Henry held one of their conference calls with “faith leaders”.  In that call they thanked religious communities for having done such a good job.  There had been no issues with public religious gatherings when the protocols they’d given were followed.  This is why so many were shocked when, the next day, the health order issued shut us down.  Archbishop Miller, the senior Roman prelate in BC, wrote a letter of protest.  A law professor at UBC wrote a letter stating that this kind of action was likely unconstitutional.  You can’t suspend a charter right without good reason and none had been given.  When Dix and Henry responded, it was to say that with the goal of keeping businesses and schools open, they were curtailing what they deemed to be “social” activities.  This makes sense to an extent.  We’ve seen that most business and educational activities haven’t posed great threats.  Community spread was happening largely in social gatherings and that’s what they targeted.  The problem is that churches had proved ourselves safe and low-risk and the authorities admitted that freely literally the day before.  When confronted about this the next week in a press conference, Henry brushed it off, rightly pointing out that social gatherings have been a problem, but then unjustifiably lumping public religious gatherings into the same general category.  Legally, the authorities need to provide some kind of reasonable evidence that our services are a credible threat to public health before curtailing them, but that has never been done. This is a point that could be challenged in court, but it’s unlikely to go anywhere.  Why? Because the vast majority of Christians in British Columbia sent a clear message back in the Spring. The health authorities permitted us to meet with caps on attendance nd with safety measure in place, but the vast majority of churches shut down anyway.  When other jurisdictions were ordering churches closed, the authorities here, knowing how important our public gatherings are—or, at least, should be—allowed us to continue to meet.  I was overjoyed at the time.  We were one of the few Reformed Episcopal Churches on the continent still meeting during March and April and May, because our health authorities knew it was important we be able to meet.  And yet what happened?  Every other church in the Comox Valley closed its doors and the same happened across the province.  We were handed a great privilege and were in a unique situation in North America—and most Christians in BC threw it away.  The church at large in BC sent a message to our authorities, who had bent over backwards so that we could continue to meet, that the corporate gathering of the saints isn’t really that important after all. And that, I think, is a good reason for us to be circumspect in our protest.  The majority of our church leaders, our brothers, and our sisters have sent a message to the government that it’s okay for the government to shut us down without demonstrating that we pose a threat to public health.  And so the response from the government and the response from the public to protest and to the churches that are defying the orders is something like, “Stop being trouble-makers.  Physical gatherings aren’t that big of a deal—see all the churches that shut down even though we didn’t ask them to.  The Church isn’t a building.”  And our witness goes down in flames.  I don’t have all the answers as to how we rebuild from here.  It will take a lot of wisdom and a lot of wise Christians working together.  It will take the education of the Church at large.  Consider, I’ve said nothing here that is new or that’s my own novel interpretation.  Everything I’ve said this morning is what the Church has been saying for hundreds of years.  The problem is that much of the Church has stopped listening to our forefathers, to our history, to our own doctrinal formularies.  Brothers and Sisters, we need to pray for our leaders, for our community, and for the larger church.  And we need to be faithful in our witness to the best of our ability.  This means being good citizens under the current circumstances.  I think it’s also a time in which the Lord is reminding us that there’s more to being the Church than gathering on Sunday mornings.  We aren’t able to do that, but there are so many other things we can be doing to witness Jesus to the world—things that we haven’t done very well in the past when we were meeting regularly together.  Some words of that great Anglican divine, Richard Hooker, are fitting.  He wrote at a time when there was a great deal of contention and quarreling going on in the Church of England and this is what he wrote: In the meantime, shall there be no doings?  Hardly!  There are the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness.  These things we ought to do; and these things, while we contend about less, we leave undone.  Happy those whom the Lord comes and finds doing them instead of quarreling…[3] Friends, we cannot meet together, but we can be faithful in witnessing the justice and mercy of the kingdom and I can’t think of a time when the world needs that witness more than it does now.   Let’s pray: Heavenly Father, we come to you this morning, a people dispersed by order of our government and pray for your mercy.  Deliver us from this time of sickness, give wisdom to our leaders that they might deal with us justly, and restore us to our fellowship.  Fill us with wisdom and grace, we ask, that we might respond to our governing authorities with humility and work for the reformation of your church with all godliness.  We ask this through Jesus our Lord.  Amen. [1] Luther’s Works, 37:365 [2] A Christian Directory, pp. 870-872. [3] The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity in Modern English, Preface.vi.5.

Merry Christmas and welcome to worship! We continue our celebration of the birth of Jesus, and we are thankful for what His coming means. In a world that is often discouraging, Christ gives us hope. In a season of cold darkness, Jesus gives light. In a coming year of uncertainty, the Son of God assures us that no matter what comes we are secure in His care. Today, we turn to the ancient words of the prophet Isaiah, who ministered to the people of God 700 years before Jesus’ birth and spoke of the significance of the Christ’s earthly work. “I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness” (Isa. 61:10). Christ came to remove the filth of sin with all its stains and to clothe us in His perfection. Our story is a true “rags to riches” story because of His saving work. That work started in a manger where our Savior was wrapped in rags, though He deserved the very best of garments. As St. Paul says, “Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9). May God bless us all as we gather in grateful worship.

Merry Christmas and welcome to worship! We continue our celebration of the birth of Jesus, and we are thankful for what His coming means. In a world that is often discouraging, Christ gives us hope. In a season of cold darkness, Jesus gives light. In a coming year of uncertainty, the Son of God assures us that no matter what comes we are secure in His care. Today, we turn to the ancient words of the prophet Isaiah, who ministered to the people of God 700 years before Jesus’ birth and spoke of the significance of the Christ’s earthly work. “I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness” (Isa. 61:10). Christ came to remove the filth of sin with all its stains and to clothe us in His perfection. Our story is a true “rags to riches” story because of His saving work. That work started in a manger where our Savior was wrapped in rags, though He deserved the very best of garments. As St. Paul says, “Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9). May God bless us all as we gather in grateful worship.

Merry Christmas and welcome to worship! We continue our celebration of the birth of Jesus, and we are thankful for what His coming means. In a world that is often discouraging, Christ gives us hope. In a season of cold darkness, Jesus gives light. In a coming year of uncertainty, the Son of God assures us that no matter what comes we are secure in His care. Today, we turn to the ancient words of the prophet Isaiah, who ministered to the people of God 700 years before Jesus’ birth and spoke of the significance of the Christ’s earthly work. “I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness” (Isa. 61:10). Christ came to remove the filth of sin with all its stains and to clothe us in His perfection. Our story is a true “rags to riches” story because of His saving work. That work started in a manger where our Savior was wrapped in rags, though He deserved the very best of garments. As St. Paul says, “Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9). May God bless us all as we gather in grateful worship.

[Comment: Magnificat] Friends of the Rosary, As we walk into the end of Advent and Christmas appears on the horizon, we hear today the Magnificat, the hymn of praise of Mary to God (Luke 1:46-56). The Mother of Jesus says to Elizabeth: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,” or “My soul magnifies the Lord”. The Blessed Virgin Mary announces that her whole being is based on glorifying the Divinity. She hides herself to nothingness by her profound humility. She only wants to give honor to the Creator. The holiest and most perfect of all human creatures in history—the new Eve—empties herself and she gives away fully to God. And then what happens? The Eternal Father exalts her, making her full of grace. Mary becomes a vessel for the Lord. She transforms herself into the superabundant source of life. Mary is the mysterious channel of God's merciful love for all humanity. Ave Maria! [Written by Mikel A | The Rosary Network, New York] ___ Through the Blessed Virgin Mary—the model for all men and women at all times—we reach Jesus Christ. As St. Louis de Montfort says in his masterpiece of “The True Devotion to Mary”, Mary is God's mysterious channel. “She is His aqueduct, through which He makes His mercies flow gently and abundantly,” writes the Marian saint. ___ [Today's Holy Rosary in Video | Today's Broadcast at 11:00 pm ET on YouTube.com/TheRosaryNetwork] Christmas Day's Holy Rosary: 12:00 Noon ET via Zoom

Sermon for the Third Sunday in Advent 1 Corinthians 4:1-5 & St. Matthew 11:2-10 by William Klock I am not a baker and I was never particularly good at chemistry.  I know that somehow when you add water to wheat, the gluten does something and that when you feed sugar to yeast under the right circumstances it makes bubbles and the gluten traps the bubbles so you end up with fluffy bread instead of bricks, but I don’t really understand the specifics: why one kind of flour works differently than another, why some recipes use water and others use milk.  Why do some use eggs and others don’t?  I’m not a baker.  But I don’t need to be, because we have a bread machine in our house.  The recipe book that came with the bread machine could be titled “Bread for Dummies”.  It’s foolproof.  But like they say, never underestimate dummies and fools.  The first time I used the bread machine I was in a rush.  I was under the impression that you just dump in the ingredients and the machine does the work.  Well, it does.  But you have to do exactly what it says.  The recipes are very specific.  They even tell you what order to put in the ingredients.  And so I was miffed when the recipe was very specific in saying to add room temperature milk and a room temperature egg.  I didn’t think I’d have to plan thirty minutes ahead with a bread machine.  What difference could it make?  So I poured in cold milk and plopped in a cold egg.  And the bread barely rose, because the dough was cold and the yeast didn’t activate until the very end of the kneading and rising cycle.  Instead of bread, the machine made a brick. It’s funny, too, how obstinate we can sometimes be when we make mistakes like this.  I asked Veronica what went wrong.  “I did just what the book said,” I said.  I was very insistent.  But as she pressed me for details, I admitted that the milk and egg were cold.  “That’s it,” she told me.  But I doubled-down.  I mean, shouldn’t the flour—the biggest ingredient—have brought the temperature up?  I was in denial.  My pride was hurt.  It makes you feel pretty dumb when you can’t even make bread with a bread machine.  But it also highlights why following the instructions is important. This is where our lessons today point us.  If the over-arching theme of advent is to be prepared, we’re reminded today, we’re exhorted today to be faithful in doing what the Lord has called us to do.  God’s people have always had a very specific calling, whether we’re talking about his people in the Old Testament or his people in the New.  Jesus has established his church to carry on what has always been Israel’s mission, ever since Abraham, but now to carry it out in light of Jesus the Messiah.  Now, there’s a lot of room for creativity in how we fulfil our mission, but Jesus also gave us very, very clear instructions and if we throw out the core of our mission in the name of creativity or flexibility or pragmatism, we’re going to fail. Last week I read Rod Dreher’s new book, Live not by Lies, and it had me thinking about this.  The last few years, Dreher has been writing about what the Church, particularly in North America, needs to be doing as we enter a new dark age.  I think that to anyone with eyes to see, he’s right that the North American Church is woefully unprepared to live as a minority community, let alone to live in an environment that is becoming increasingly hostile to us.  For the last couple of generations we’ve been failing to instil lasting faith in our children and have lost them to the culture.  In the last decade, our people, our leaders, and our churches have been falling like dominos to Postmodern apostasy.  And there’s a reason for this.  We’ve left the recipe aside and we’re trying to bake bread with too many shortcuts and with the wrong ingredients.  We’ve sidelined what Jesus told us to do and have put other things at the centre of what we are.  We’ve changed and watered down the message.  We’ve muddled the truth to the point that many Christians can no longer distinguish between God’s truth and the world’s lies.  And, all too often, we’ve stopped trusting in the Holy Spirit to do the work of converting hearts and minds and have been trying to do it ourselves. Our lessons today focus our attention on the faithfulness of God’s ministers.  The Epistle focuses on St. Paul and the Gospel on John the Baptist.  The choice of lessons is linked to the Ember Days that fall later this week.  The Embers Days come around four times a year and, at least historically, were the traditional times for ordinations.  With that in mind, our advent lessons today call the clergy to faithfulness to our mission and remind the Church of the importance of faithful ministers.  But even though today’s focus is on what we might call “professionals”, there’s a broader principle that applies to all of us, to all Christians, as ministers of the Gospel. Let’s begin with our Epistle, 1 Corinthians 11:1-5.  And we’ll want a little background to understand it.  The Church at Corinth had a lot of problems and a big part of it was that many were having trouble setting aside their old, pagan ways.  They had compromised much.  There were some serious sins in the church that needed to be dealt with, but weren’t.  People were justifying them by appealing to Christian liberty.  There were also divisions within the congregation.  Paul had founded this church, but the people didn’t want to listen to him anymore.  They’d become enamoured of other preachers.  There’s nothing to indicate these other preachers were preaching anything apart from the gospel.  The problem in Corinth wasn’t their fault.  The problem was that Paul was about the last flashy person you could imagine and when other preachers came along who were more attractive and who were better speakers than Paul—that was something the Greeks valued very highly—they kicked Paul to the curb.  Not only would they not listen to him, he wasn’t even welcome anymore.  They judged him a loser.  That’s what’s behind our Epistle today.  Let’s read: This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.  Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.  But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court.  In fact, I do not even judge myself.  For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me.  Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart.  Then each one will receive his commendation from God.   I’ve always wondered how hard it was for Paul to write this, especially the bit about “This is how you need to regard me: I’m a servant of Christ and a steward of God’s mysteries.”  Good clergymen tend to err on the side of humility, even to a fault.  The only guys I’ve ever known to say things like this have been egotists who never should have been in ministry in the first place.  Paul had one advantage that only the apostles had and that was that they had known Jesus in the flesh and had been commissioned by him personally.  I can’t say that and neither can anyone else alive today.  That said, there is a place for God’s stewards to assert their calling in the face of unjust judgement.  Most of us, when faced with unjust criticism nod humbly, say nothing, and take it to God, but Paul reminds us that there is a time to speak up against these kinds of judgements.  I think that goes for every Christian, too.  We’re all minister of the gospel.  Increasingly the world hurls unjust criticisms at us.  I was reading an article on The Record’s Facebook page last week.  It was about some churches on the Mainland defying the shutdown order.  The comments were painful.  It was interesting that none of the dozens of nasty comments was really aimed at the defiance of the orders these churches were making.  The nasty comments were all more generally about how Christians are haters or bigots or racists or knuckle-dragging mouth-breathers and that the clergy are just in it for the money.  I’m sure plenty of Christians saw these comments, but there were no responses.  Yes, to respond is probably pointless.  People who have bought into Postmodern thinking don’t care about reasoning or facts; it’s all about their feelings and you can’t argue with feelings.  And yet, here we are, ministers of the gospel and stewards of the mysteries of God and increasingly we’re just letting the false judgements and accusations of pagans back us out of the public square.  We go silently and sit facing the corner like disciplined children—and I think a lot of the time we actually feel guilty when we hear these accusations, even though we know better. Brothers and Sisters, Paul stresses that ministers are to be found faithful.  That goes for apostles and for pastors and for all of us.  Yes, we need to weigh criticism.  We need to ask if there’s anything to it.  Sometimes there may be.  Maybe we’re not being faithful to Jesus’ instructions and we need to hear it.  But Jesus’ instructions aren’t hard to understand or discern.  As a minister, I’m called to preach the word, especially the gospel about Jesus, and to administer the sacraments.  It’s not quite that simple, but that is the core.  And for all of us, we’re called to proclaim the gospel about Jesus to the world around us and to live in a way that accords with being the people of God.  We proclaim Jesus and we live the life of the Spirit. We do need to reflect on our lives in light of that and ask if we’re being faithful.  This is one of the reasons we need to steep ourselves in God’s word.  If we don’t know what God expects, how will be faithful?  Think again of the bread recipe.  Are we following it?  Often time we’re not.  It’s not that we’re not well-intentioned.  We want to see things happen, but sometime we get impatient.  We take shortcuts.  Or we think we can make better bread by changing the recipe.  People out there don’t like to hear about sin, so we’ll tone that part of our preaching down.  People out there don’t like commitment, so we’ll make church commitment-free.  People out there don’t like liturgy and sermons, so we’ll have a rock concert and preach pop-psychology instead.  People don’t feel like getting up on Sunday mornings and driving to church, so we’ll broadcast it to their TVs and computers instead.  People want activities and they want to hear about themselves and how good they can be, so we’ll build our churches around programmes and self-help preaching.  These things can bring short-term gains, but in the long-term they’ve been a disaster.  We wonder why people won’t commit, why they’re still worldly, why we’re losing our children, and why we’re seen as increasingly irrelevant.  It’s like we’ve tried to bake bread by replacing the flour with glitter.  The end product might look exciting, but in the end it’s not only unable to nourish, it’s slowly poisoning us.  In contrast, the real work of the gospel is rarely flashy.  Sometimes it brings persecution and even martyrdom.  It means relying on God, not ourselves.  And it means being in it for the long-haul.  Consider Israel.  God called Abraham and it was two thousand years before Israel’s story culminated with Jesus.  And the in-between was as full of hardship, slavery, judgement, and exile as it was prosperity and growth.  And that was God working with a single, small people.  Brothers and Sisters, our mission is the world. So be faithful to the gospel, build churches around word and sacrament, pray and fellowship together, raise covenant children who know Jesus.  And as we do that, remember that the judgement that matters is not the judgement of other people or the world, but of God.  That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have an ear to the ground.  That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t listen to the world’s judgements.  Sometimes we need to know how the world sees us—even if it’s false—so that we can better know what we’re up against.  So that we can better respond with the gospel.  And, sometimes, the world’s rebukes may have some truth to them.  Jesus promised that his people would be persecuted for his sake, but we need to make sure that we’re actually being persecuted for his sake and for our faithfulness to his word.  I know plenty of Christians who claim they’re being persecuted, but when you get down to it, it’s just that people don’t like them because they’re jerks, not because they’re preaching Jesus.  People will still hate us for preaching Jesus, but Friends, we do need to be sure that as we preach Jesus and as we stand firmly on the Scriptures that the world rejects, we are squeaky clean.  There’s a balance.  We need to live the gospel as much as we preach the gospel.  We’re to announce God’s judgement on sin, yes, but we’re also to announce God’s mercy to repentant sinners. This was John the Baptist’s struggle.  Let’s turn over to today’s Gospel.  John has gone from announcing the coming kingdom and baptising people in the Jordan to being locked up in prison.  He got there by way of criticizing Herod.  It wasn’t just some off-the-wall criticism.  Tied up with his announcement of the kingdom was John’s denouncement of Herod for marrying his former sister-in-law.  Herod couldn’t help but draw a connection between John’s fiery preaching and himself.  If John was saying that the King was soon to come, it meant John was saying that Herod wasn’t really the king.  So poor John is now in Herod’s dungeon and he’s frustrated and confused.  He’d been faithful in his divine calling to herald the coming Messiah—his cousin, Jesus—and he’s landed in prison.  No big surprise there.  He wasn’t the first prophet to offend a king and end up in prison.  But Jesus—the Messiah—was on the outside, preaching, teaching, healing, forgiving, having dinner with tax collectors and sinners, and leaving John to rot.  Something was wrong with Jesus’ priorities, or so John was beginning to think.  We’ll pick up from there: Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”  (St. Matthew 11:2-10) I don’t think John was really doubting whether Jesus was the Messiah.  I think this was his way of saying, “Um…Jesus.  Shouldn’t the Messiah be getting his faithful herald out prison?”  Of course, that also meant all the other things to go along with it.  A simple jailbreak wouldn’t do.  The jailbreak would have to be part of a wholesale overthrow of Herod and the Romans—which, of course, is what most people expected the Messiah to do.  Here’s what Jesus says to John’s men in return:  “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.  And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”  (Matthew 11:5-6) You see, John expected the Messiah to be like Elijah, confronting the prophets of Baal and calling down fire from heaven.  John wanted to see fire and brimstone.  There’s a place for that.  In a sense John wasn’t wrong.  Jesus is the Judge and, you can be sure, he will judge the world and everyone in it.  I suspect that being a fire-and-brimstone sort of prophet—and that is what John was called to be so there’s nothing wrong with that—I suspect that being that kind of guy means that you get fixated on judgement.  When your tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.  Anyway, Jesus’ sort of responds by saying something like, “You expected Elijah…and you’ve got Elijah…but before I come in judgement, there are a lot of people…people like the widow of Zeraphath…people who need to know God’s mercy.”  As Jesus says in John’s Gospel: I came not to condemn, but to redeem.  Sinners already stand condemned.  Judgement is coming.  Announcing that judgement was John’s mission.  But before the judgement comes, what the Israel needed most was to know God’s mercy, to know his salvation.  This is why Jesus’ road to the throne had to be by way of the cross. So Jesus corrects John.  He sets him straight about the Messiah.  But he then turns to the crowd and praises John: As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?  What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing?  Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses.  What then did you go out to see?  A prophet?  Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.  This is he of whom it is written, “‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face,          who will prepare your way before you.’ (Matthew 11:7-10) Even though Jesus’ mission was one of humility and of mercy, Jesus praises the faithfulness of John to his ministry as the fiery herald of judgement.  Again, John was expecting the Messiah to come like Elijah, bringing confrontation and fire from heaven, but what Jesus says—albeit a little obliquely for reasons that get beyond our lesson today—what Jesus says here is that John is the prophet like Elijah.  John is the fire-and-brimstone preacher.  John is the herald announcing judgement and calling the people to repentance.  Jesus quotes from Malachi 3 and confirms two things: John is truly the one sent to herald the Messiah and, two, that means that Jesus truly is the Messiah—the one whom Malachi said would come both to refine Israel and to make her offerings pleasing to the Lord and to judge the unrepentant. Now, in the short-term this was bad news for John.  It was bad news for Jesus, too.  Both the Messiah and his herald would be put to death.  But death was not the end.  As it turns out, it was by the death of Jesus that deliverance was bought and in his resurrection, he was vindicated and the unjust verdict on him overturned.  In his resurrection and his ascension, Jesus was confirmed as the Messiah, as Lord.  In that we see the faithfulness of God to his promises and knowing God’s faithfulness, we have hope.  As St. Paul wrote to the Romans: If we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall surely be united with him in a resurrection like his” (Romans 6:5).  This is one of those parts of the gospel that we often prefer to ignore or to leave out of our preaching, because it offends.  We’ve sort of got the opposite problem John had.  John was fixated on judgement and on fire from heaven.  Like so many Jews, he wanted to see God vanquish Israel’s enemies and he nearly forgot about God’s mercy.  Our problem is the opposite.  We’ve become so afraid of preaching about sin and about judgement, that we can’t even preach mercy and grace anymore—because mercy isn’t mercy and grace isn’t grace if we’re not guilty of anything.  And if we gut our preaching of mercy and grace, we can talk all day about the love of God, but there will be no depth to it.  We will make the cross of Jesus pointless.  Why?  Because we can only begin to plumb the great depths of God’s love when we see that he gave his Son to die for our sake—for the sake of sinners who would otherwise stand condemned to destruction. That brings us back to the recipe for bread.  Brothers and Sisters, bread is often kind of boring.  But made properly, it nourishes.  It keeps us alive.  There’s a reason why Jesus used it as a metaphor for himself: I am the bread of life.  There’s a reason why it’s a symbol over and over in story of God’s people for his faithful care and sustenance.  And it points to the way God works and the way his gospel and his word work in the world.  It’s rarely flashy.  And you have to patient, because it takes time to rise.  But like the Messiah, who humble himself to take on lowly human flesh, who humbled himself to be born of a lowly virgin, and who humbly went to death on a cross, the simple bread of the gospel, the good news that Jesus died, that he rose, and that he is Lord, brings life to the world.  To preach it faithfully means to preach it whole and to preach it pure.  Friends, be faithful stewards.  Stick to the recipe.  Preach the Lord Jesus, crucified and risen to give forgiveness and life to sinners.  Build churches centred on the faithful preaching of God’s word and the administration of the sacraments, where, knowing God’s faithfulness, God’s people sing and pray together, where they raise covenant, gospel children, where we live as people who know the hope of God’s life in the age to come. Let’s pray: O Lord Jesus Christ, who at your first coming sent your messenger to prepare your way before you: grant that the ministers and stewards of your mysteries may likewise so prepare and make ready your way by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, that at your second coming to judge the world we may be found an acceptable people in your sight; who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

What do we really want? We live in a world of competing desires. Every day we’re bombarded by promises to make us truly happy. If you just buy this product, or read this book, or try out this dating app, or start this diet program, or exercise more, then you will be happy. If your relationship with your spouse or with your children or with your friends were better, then your heart would finally be full. No matter how hard we try, nothing less than God will satisfy our hearts: As St. John of the Cross puts it, “They are as deep as the boundless goods of which they are capable since anything less than the infinite fails to fill them.”

As St. Bridget for a long time wanted to know the number of blows Our Lord received during His Passion, He one day appeared to her and said: ‘I received 5480 blows on My Body. If you wish to honor them in some way, say 15 Our Fathers and 15 Hail Marys with the following Prayers (which He taught her) for a whole year. When the year is up, you will have honored each one of My Wounds. He further made the following promises to anyone who recited these Prayers for a whole year: I will deliver 15 souls of his lineage from Purgatory. 15 souls of his lineage will be confirmed and preserved in grace. 15 sinners of his lineage will be converted. Whoever recites these Prayers will attain the first degree of perfection. 15 days before his death I will give him My Precious Body in order that he may escape eternal starvation; I will give him My Precious Blood to drink lest he thirst eternally. 15 days before his death he will feel a deep contrition for all his sins and will have a perfect knowledge of them. I will place before him the sign of My Victorious Cross for his help and defense against the attacks of his enemies. Before his death I shall come with My Dearest Beloved Mother. I shall graciously receive his soul, and will lead it into eternal joys. And having led it there I shall give him a special draught from the fountain of My Deity, something I will not for those who have not recited My Prayers. Let it be known that whoever may have been living in a state of mortal sin for 30 years, but who will recite devoutly, or have the intention to recite these Prayers, the Lord will forgive him all his sins. I shall protect him from strong temptations. I shall preserve and guard his 5 senses. I shall preserve him from a sudden death. His soul will be delivered from eternal death. He will obtain all he asks for from God and the Blessed Virgin. If he has lived all his life doing his own will and he is to die the next day, his life will be prolonged. Every time one recites these Prayers he gains 100 days indulgence. He is assured of being joined to the supreme Choir of Angels. Whoever teaches these Prayers to another, will have continuous joy and merit which will endure eternally. There where these Prayers are being said or will be said in the future God is present with His grace. Support the show (https://paypal.me/akpantoja?locale.x=en_US)

Johann Gerhard has been leading us to find consolation at the death of loved ones and friends. As St. Paul wrote, to live is Christ and to die is gain. While death is truly our fiercest enemy, Jesus’ death and resurrection has made it a “port of safety.” Life in …

Readings: Wisdom 6:12–16 Psalm 63:2–8 1 Thessalonians 4:13–17 Matthew 25:1–13 According to marriage customs of Jesus’ day, a bride was first “betrothed” to her husband but continued for a time to live with her family. Then, at the appointed hour, some months later, the groom would come to claim her, leading her family and bridal party to the wedding feast that would celebrate and inaugurate their new life together. This is the background to the parable of the last judgment we hear in today’s Gospel. In the parable’s symbolism, Jesus is the Bridegroom (see Mark 2:19). In this, He fulfills God’s ancient promise to join himself forever to His chosen people as a husband cleaves to his bride (see Hosea 2:16–20). The virgins of the bridal party represent us, the members of the Church. We were “betrothed” to Jesus in Baptism (see 2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:25–27) and are called to lives of holiness and devotion until He comes again to lead us to the heavenly wedding feast at the end of time (see Revelation 19:7–9; 21:1–4). As St. Paul warns in today’s Epistle, Jesus is coming again, though we know not the day nor the hour. We need to keep vigil throughout the dark night of this time in which our Bridegroom seems long delayed. We need to keep our souls’ lamps filled with the oil of perseverance and desire for God– virtues that are extolled in today’s First Reading and Psalm. We are to seek Him in love, meditating upon His kindness, calling upon His name, striving to be ever more worthy of Him, to be found without spot or blemish when He comes. If we do this, we will be counted as wise and the oil for our lamps will not run dry (see 1 Kings 17:16). We will perceive the Bridegroom, the Wisdom of God (see Proverbs 8:22–31, 35; 9:1–5), hastening toward us, beckoning us to the table He has prepared, the rich banquet which will satisfy our souls.

What do authentic, faith-filled friendships look like? Reflecting upon the life of Pope Saint John Paul II, we see the witness of his authentic, faith-filled friendships come to fruition through his life of piety, trust in the Lord, and love of neighbor. In this podcast, Fr. Peter Armenio examines the life of Pope Saint John Paul II and draws inspiration from the personable interactions he shared with those close to him. By imitating the lives of the saints and pursuing a relationship with Christ, we can learn to foster genuine friendships in our own life and journey with others along the path of holiness. As St. Josemaria explains: “In a Christian, in a child of God, friendship and charity are one and the same thing. They are a divine light which spreads warmth” (The Forge, no. 565). ––––– THANK YOU FOR LISTENING! If you enjoyed today’s podcast, please leave a rating or review here on SoundCloud and on iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/st.-j…id966458405?mt=2 Don’t miss new podcasts from the St. Josemaria Institute!
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Full Text of ReadingsFriday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time Lectionary: 471All podcast readings are produced by the USCCB and are from the Catholic Lectionary, based on the New American Bible and approved for use in the United States _______________________________________The Saint of the day is St. Gerard MajellaOn October 16, we celebrate the feast of St. Gerard Majella. St. Gerard was born the son of a tailor on April 6, 1726. He grew up about fifty miles south of Naples in Muro Lucano, Italy in a large, poor family. When St. Gerard was only 12, his father Dominic Majella entered eternal rest.Upon the death of his father, his mother, beholden to poverty, sent St. Gerard away to live with his uncle. St. Gerard thereafter became an apprentice to a tailor. This tailor treated him well; however, the foreman treated him poorly. After serving as a sewing apprentice for a couple years, he insteadbecame a servant in the household of the bishop of Lacedonia, who was a cantankerous master. Upon the death of the bishop in 1745, he returned home. At the age of 21, he became a journeyman. He split his earnings for his mother and the poor, and made offerings for the holy souls in purgatory. Afterwards, he opened his own tailor shop.At a young age, St. Gerard tried to join the local Capuchins, but he was turned down twice due to his youth and poor health. He also tried to become a hermit, but that too was not God's will for him. He then entered the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer in 1749 and professed of perpetual vows under the Redemptorist's founder, Saint Alphonsus Liguori, in 1751.He served as tailor and infirmarian and became known for his extraordinary supernatural gifts of bilocation, prophecy, ecstasies, visions, and infused knowledge. Though not ordained to the holy order of priest, his spiritual direction and advice were sought by many among the clergy and communities of nuns, to which he alsogave conferences. He was most successful in converting sinners, and was widely known for his sanctity and charity.In 1754, he was calumniated and accused of lechery bya woman namedNeria Caggiano. Caggiano later admitted her charge was a lie. Even before she admitted to her falsehood, St. Gerard did not deny her charges. As these charges were still up in the air, his superiors became suspicious, so they put him under surveillance and excluded him from communion for months until the girl admitted that she had lied. When asked by Saint Alphonsus why he had kept silent in such circumstances, St. Gerard replied that he thought such patience was required in the face of unjust accusations. As St. Gerard bore this calumny with such humility and patience, Saint Alphonsus said, "Brother Gerard is a saint." St. Gerard was sent to Naples soon after, but when the house was inundated by visitors wanting to see him, he was sent to Caposele a few months later. He served as the porter there and ministered to the poor of the town. St. Gerard spent the last few months of his life raising funds for new buildings at Caposele. Just prior to his death, St. Gerard visited his friends, the Pirofalo family. One of the daughters ran and called after him as he left the home, as he dropped his handkerchief. Speaking through the gift of prophecy, he replied, "Keep it. It will be useful to you someday." Years down the road, when this young women was in danger of childbirth, she recalled these words of St. Gerard, and requested the handkerchief. The handkerchief was applied to her, thus a miracle: her pain immediately ceased and she gave birth to a healthy child.St. Gerard died oftuberculosis on October 16, 1755at theage of29 in Caposele. He was beatified by Pope Leo XIII on January 29, 1893, and was canonizedon December 11, 1904 by Pope Saint Pius X.He is the patron saint of mothers, motherhood, expectant mothers, childbirth, children, pregnant women, unborn children, the pro-life movement, the falsely accused, good confessions, and lay brothers. Saint of the Day Copyright CNA, Catholic News Agency

[Comment: Angelic Guardianship] Friends of the Rosary, It is a truth of our Catholic faith that each soul has assigned to it a guardian angel. In today's Gospel, Jesus points out that all people, even little children, have a guardian angel in heaven watching over us and looking at the face of God throughout their mission on earth (Matthew 18:10). It is also written that the Lord Jesus was strengthened by an angel in the Garden of Gethsemane and that an angel delivered St. Peter from prison. So each of us has an angelic guardianship from our birth and until death. These spirits – servants and messengers from God; "Angel" in Greek means messenger – guide us to heaven only if we desire it. Because, as St. Thomas Aquinas wrote, angels cannot act directly upon our will or intellect. Today's feast, which appeared in Spain during the sixteenth century, is an invitation to pray to our guardian angels. [Written by Mikel A | The Rosary Network, New York] __ For recognizing that angels are our protectors and guides in the path toward salvation. They assist us on our earthly pilgrimage by helping us in temptation and protecting us from physical danger. With such bodyguards, what are we to fear? As St. Bernard of Clairvaux, wrote, "As often as you sense the approach of any grave temptation or some crushing sorrow hangs over you, invoke your protector, your leader, your helper in every situation. Call out to him and say: Lord, save us, we are perishing." The prayer to the guardian angels has been present in the Church since at least the beginning of the 12th century: Angel of God, my Guardian dear, to whom His love commits me here, ever this day be at my side, to light and guard, to rule and guide. Amen. [Written by Mikel A | The Rosary Network, New York] — [Today's Rosary in Video]

Full Text of ReadingsMemorial of the Holy Guardian Angels Lectionary: 459/650All podcast readings are produced by the USCCB and are from the Catholic Lectionary, based on the New American Bible and approved for use in the United States _______________________________________The Saint of the day is The Guardian Angels"For he hath given his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. - Psalm 90:11The truth that each and every human soul has a Guardian Angel who protects us from both spiritual and physical evil has been shown throughout the Old Testament, and is made very clear in the New. It is written that the Lord Jesus was strengthened by an angel in the Garden of Gethsemane, and that an angel delivered St. Peter from prison in the Acts of the Apostles.But Jesus makes the existence and function of guardian angels explicit when he says, "See that you despise not one of these little ones: for I say to you, that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father who is in heaven." (Matthew 18:10).In saying this Jesus points out that all people, even little children, have a guardian angel, and that the angels are always in Heaven, always looking at the face of God throughout their mission on earth, which is to guide and protect us throughout our pilgrimage to the house of our Father. As St. Paul says, "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent to minister for them, who shall receive the inheritance of salvation?" (Hebrews 1:14).However, they guide us to Heaven only if we desire it. St. Thomas Aquinas wrote that angels cannot act directly upon our will or intellect, although they can do so on our senses and imaginations thus encouraging us to make the right decisions. In Heaven our guardian angels, though no longer needing to guide us to salvation, will continually enlighten us.Prayer to the guardian angels is encouraged, and the habit of remembering their presence and support leads to frienship with them. The prayer to the guardian angels has been present in the Church since at least the beginning of the 12th century:Angel of God,my Guardian dear,to whom His lovecommits me here,ever this daybe at my side,to light and guard,to rule and guide.Amen.Let us affectionately love His angels as counselors and defenders appointed by the Father and placed over us. They are faithful; they are prudent; they are powerful; Let us only follow them, let us remain close to them, and in the protection of the God of heaven let us abide. St. Bernard of Clairvaux Saint of the Day Copyright CNA, Catholic News Agency

In this podcast we rebroadcast a cherished meditation from the first five years of the St. Josemaria Institute Podcast. This reflection from Msgr. Fred Dolan leads us to consider our own relationship with Mary, through whom we are led closer to the heart of Christ. As St. Josemaria Escriva wrote: “Today as in other times, the rosary must be a powerful weapon, to enable us to win in our interior struggle and to help all souls. Exalt holy Mary with your tongue: God asks you for reparation, and for praise from your lips. May you always want to know how to spread peace and happiness throughout the world, through this beautiful devotion to our Lady, and through your watchful love” (Holy Rosary, Author’s Note). ______________________________________________________________ CELEBRATING FIVE YEARS! Learn more about our podcast milestones as we celebrate the fifth anniversary of the St. Josemaria Institute Podcast: https://stjosemaria.org/celebrating-five-years-of-the-st-josemaria-institute-podcast/. ______________________________________________________________ THANK YOU FOR LISTENING! If you enjoyed today’s podcast, please leave a rating or review here on SoundCloud and on iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/st.-j…id966458405?mt=2 Don’t miss new podcasts from the St. Josemaria Institute!
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Over a year ago, Jill Devine received an email from Jenita “Jay” Hladyshewsky asking to be a guest on the podcast. Jay is the Owner/Photographer of Bellissimo Studio. As described on her website: As St. Louis Area's Premier Boudoir and Intimate Glamour Studio, we create meaningful experiences of self-love and empowerment through elegant intimate glamour and boudoir photography. Celebrate the beautiful woman you have become through a day of pampering, acceptance and love. Do It For You Because You Are Fine Art! In all honesty, Jill wasn’t too sure about having Jay on because Jill wasn’t comfortable with intimate glamour and boudoir photography. After taking some time to think about it and running the idea past a close friend, Jill decided to contact Jay. Just because something makes Jill uncomfortable, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be discussed. That’s not the purpose of Two Kids and A Career. The podcast is platform to discuss all types of things, whether it makes you feel comfortable or not. Contacting Jay and asking her to be on the podcast was 100% the right thing to do. Jay is a champion for women: Jay took her passion for empowering others from her extensive years in the nonprofit field to empowering women through intimate glamour photography. Jay deeply believes women, today more than ever, must celebrate their accomplishments and femininity. She helps her clients find their strength, while capturing their own inner and outer beauty in a medium that can be remembered forever. Her philosophy is “You are fine art.” Jay told Jill about the struggles she had with not feeling like she was enough. She didn’t think she was pretty enough or skinny enough. She knew she needed to change her way of thinking and that’s when transformation began. Jay and Jill discussed how, as women, we are so hard on ourselves and Jay wanted to show women how beautiful they are right now, in this moment, which is one of the reasons she opened up Bellissimo Studio. Recently, Jay created EmbodyMe: Working in collaboration with licensed therapists and facilitators, each workshop dives deep into discovering who you are and a reawakening of your beauty all while the visual empowerment photography coach brings to life the visual aspect of your journey. Whether it is an EmbodyMe session or a small group encouragement workshop, all events include a recording of your journey. Within each platform, the coach and trainer creates a space in which growth is encouraged, beauty is celebrated and love is embodied. Jay also talked about being adopted and her journey in finding her birth mom in this week’s episode. Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/bellissimophotographystudio IG - @bellissimo_photo_studio Phone: 314.266.8549 Email: jay@bellissimophotos.com Two Kids and A Career Website: https://www.jilldevine.com/ Two Kids and A Career Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jilldevine/?hl=en Two Kids and A Career Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JillDevineMedia/ Thank you to our sponsor: Blondin Professional Real Estate

As St. Paul's missionary activity expands, we hear how new people are drawn into greater roles and responsibilities, including Aquila, Priscilla and Apollos. Question: how is God calling each of us today? May 23, 2020 - Cathedral Rectory - Superior, WI Fr. Andrew Ricci - www.studyprayserve.com  

How important it is for us to hear the words "Do not be afraid!" As St. Paul was encouraged to let go of fear, we are also directed to live our faith in the face of every trial. May 22, 2020 - Cathedral Rectory - Superior, WI Fr. Andrew Ricci - www.studyprayserve.com  

As St. Paul heals a crippled man and directs the people's praise to Jesus, we understand that a fundamental part of our discipleship is to be agents of God's healing in the lives around us. May 11, 2020 - Cathedral Rectory - Superior, WI Fr. Andrew Ricci - www.studyprayserve.com  

Children seem to get it.  They seem to understand that God dwells in their hearts.  Of course if you asked them how they know this they may look at you with a confused look and not know how to respond.  But, nonetheless, somehow they do understand that God dwells within them.So what would you say if someone asked you, “How do you know that God comes and makes His dwelling within you?”  Perhaps you also may be at a loss for words to describe this incredible mystery of our faith.   Do you believe this to be true?  That God wants to make your heart and soul His dwelling place?  If so, how does this happen?By the gift of faith we, like little children, just know that God wants to dwell within us.  We know that He wants to possess our souls, speak to us, strengthen us, lead us and guide us.  We know, by the gift of faith, that God is real and desires the deepest and most intimate relationship with us.  We just know.The good news is that faith leads to understanding.  This means that the more we are attentive to the voice of God speaking within us, leading and guiding us, the more we begin to understand His indwelling presence.  As St. Augustine said, “Faith is to believe what you do not see. The reward of faith is to see what you believe.”  Faith in God’s indwelling presence leads us to the answer of the question above.  The answer is one that God and God alone can give to us.  We can share our faith with others, give witness to His presence in our lives, and give those around us the answer to that question through faith.  How do I know God dwells within me?  The answer: Because I see Him there, I speak to Him there, and He speaks to me.  Reflect, today, upon the Lord living within you.  Let Him speak to you and, in that ever deepening conversation, allow His Indwelling Presence to grow and to become manifest to others.  God wants to not only dwell within you, He also wants to shine through you.Lord, come live in my heart.  Make my heart Your dwelling place.  Help me to see You there, to meet You there, to converse with You and to love You in my soul.  Jesus, I trust in You.Source of content: catholic-daily-reflections.comCopyright © 2020 My Catholic Life! Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission via RSS feed.

Rev. Brady Finnern, pastor at Messiah Lutheran Church in Sartell, MN, joins host Rev. Timothy Appel to study Romans 3:1-8. As St. Paul preaches that all men are unrighteous, objections arise, but the Apostle will not let any of them stand. If all stand condemned by the Law, Jews questioned the importance of having been a part of God’s people under the covenant of circumcision. The advantage was not in the outward rites apart from faith, but the proclamation of the Word of God that is received in faith. Wherever that Word is proclaimed, God is at work for the forgiveness and salvation of His people. The unfaithfulness of some was not the fault of God, nor does it bring into question His faithfulness. Rather, it points to the need to let God be God and allow Him to judge our sins so that He can judge us innocent for the sake of Christ. Sinners still try to insert themselves into the equation, however, even going so far as to claim credit because their unrighteousness allows God the opportunity to show His righteousness. Such foolishness pushes God off His throne and fails to recognize that sin and unrighteousness leads to death. St. Paul here sets the stage for the far better Gospel he has to proclaim: free salvation from sin and death. “The Righteousness of God for You” is a mini-series on Sharper Iron that goes through St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans. Human righteousness cannot save, because all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory. Only the righteousness of God can bring life and forgiveness to sinners. This is the righteousness that He has fulfilled in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is the righteousness that is revealed in the Gospel, the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. This is the righteousness that is not earned, but is freely given by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

When we pray “lead us not into temptation”, it may seem like God has the capacity to tempt us. But that’s not the case. God does not tempt us, but he can and sometimes must put us through tests. Here are a four helpful ways to look at this part of the Our Father: Tests reveal things to us. When God tests us, it reveals how much faith, hope, and love we have in God and for God. Tests also strengthen us. As St. Paul says, “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope” (Romans 5:3-4). When we say, “lead us not into temptation”, what we’re really asking is “God, please don’t test me beyond my ability.” Trials will and must come, but when they do, we should ask God for no more than what we can endure. While God may not tempt us, the evil one does. God tests us by allowing the evil one to do what he does—so we can benefit from the strength and self-revelation that comes from the test. Hopefully this helps you say this part of the Our Father with more understanding and stronger intent.

In today’s podcast, Fr. Peter Armenio shares a reflection on the virtues lived out by St. Joseph in his role as a father, husband, and tradesman. St. Joseph exemplifies servant leadership and sacrificial love and models for us how to say yes to the will of God. By growing in our understanding of these virtues, we can resolve to grow in holiness in our daily life and seek sanctity in the world today. As St. Josemaria Escriva explains: “As you get to know [St. Joseph], you discover that the holy patriarch is also a master of the interior life – for he teaches us to know Jesus and share our life with him, and to realize that we are part of God’s family. St Joseph can teach us these lessons, because he is an ordinary man, a family man, a worker who earned his living by manual labor – all of which has great significance and is a source of happiness for us” (Christ is Passing By, no. 39). ______________________________________________________________ THANK YOU FOR LISTENING! If you enjoyed today’s podcast, please leave a rating or review here on SoundCloud and on iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/st.-j…id966458405?mt=2 Don’t miss new podcasts from the St. Josemaria Institute!
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Jesus Christ came to earth not only to save us from sin and death but also to show us how to embrace suffering and persevere through temptation. In this podcast, Fr. Peter Armenio reflects on the three temptations Christ endured while in the desert and explains how we can follow his example when facing temptation in our daily life. Through his humanity, Christ gives witness to the intentional effort needed to turn away from sin and achieve growth in our spiritual life. As St. Josemaria Escriva writes: “The whole episode is a mystery which man cannot hope to understand: God submitting to temptation, letting the evil one have his way. But we can meditate upon it, asking our Lord to help us understand the teaching it contains” (Christ is Passing By, no. 61). ______________________________________________________________ THANK YOU FOR LISTENING! If you enjoyed today’s podcast, please leave a rating or review here on SoundCloud and on iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/st.-j…id966458405?mt=2 Don’t miss new podcasts from the St. Josemaria Institute!
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In today’s podcast, Fr. Peter Armenio shares a reflection on embracing Mary as our spiritual Mother. He illustrates the idea that Mary is a great miracle worker through whom we can identify with our Lord and conquer the struggle to become holy by drawing inspiration from the Marian devotions of St. Josemaria Escriva, St. John Paul II, and Bl. Alvaro del Portillo. As St. Josemaria Escriva explains: “I would recommend that, if you haven’t already done so, you find out for yourself by personal experience the meaning of Mary’s maternal love. It is not enough just to know she is our Mother and to think and to talk about her as such. She loves you as if you were her only child in this world.” (Friends of God, no. 293). ______________________________________________________________ THANK YOU FOR LISTENING! If you enjoyed today’s podcast, please leave a rating or review here on SoundCloud and on iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/st.-j…id966458405?mt=2 Don’t miss new podcasts from the St. Josemaria Institute!
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In today’s podcast, Fr. Peter Armenio reflects on the charity of God as “fuel” that enables us to seek holiness in the ordinary moments of everyday life. Our receptivity to God’s grace increases as we continue to strengthen our relationship with him through prayer and the sacraments. The grace we receive fills our life and will overflow into our relationships with one another, leading those we encounter closer to Christ. As St. Josemaria explains: “Charity is not something we ourselves build up. It invades us along with God’s grace, ‘because he has loved us first’. We would do well to fill, to saturate ourselves with this most beautiful truth: ‘If we are able to love God, it is because we have been loved by God.’ Ask God boldly for this treasure, for the supernatural virtue of charity, so that you may practice it even in the smallest details” (Friends of God, no. 229). ______________________________________________________________ THANK YOU FOR LISTENING! If you enjoyed today’s podcast, please leave a rating or review here on SoundCloud and on iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/st.-j…id966458405?mt=2 Don’t miss new podcasts from the St. Josemaria Institute!
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