Podcasts about glory be

Send us a textBob Wills passed from this life on May 13, 1975, and almost 50 years to the day, I got to sit down with the daughter of the King of Western Swing - Carolyn Wills - to reminisce about her childhood, talk about what it was like at her house growing up, as well as celebrate her new success as an award-winning author with her children's book, "Glory Be! It's Punkin's Story!" about her father's horse, Punkin'.Many thanks to the folks at the Cowtown Birthplace of Western Swing Festival and its founder, Mr. Michael Markwardt for sponsoring this Western Swing series on Calling to the Good!For tickets to their annual Western Swing festival in Fort Worth, Texas each year check out their website at ⁠BirthplaceOfWesternSwing.com⁠!To order a copy of Carolyn's children's book visit ⁠BobWills.com⁠⁠CallingToTheGood.com⁠

Fr. Paul Born currently serves as the Parochial Vicar at Mary, Queen of Martyrs Parish in Plymouth, Massachusetts.   In Today's Show: Is the practice of burying a statue of St. Joseph to sell a house superstition? I went to receive communion with my hands held out and got a blessing instead, did I do something wrong? What was the relation between moral philosophy and spiritual theology? In the Glory Be prayer it says, "world without end." Won't this world eventually end? When Jesus broke the bread in the Road to Emmaus story, was that transubstantiation? Does leaving the Faith mean you never had faith to begin with? Dealing with public figures who are Catholic speaking on faith matters. When avoiding venal sin, is okay to feel annoyance and then offer it up? Should we not be cremated if God will reunite us with our bodies eventually? Can you define the difference between prayer and worship? Can I pray for my NHL team to win? Visit the show page at thestationofthecross.com/askapriest to listen live, check out the weekly lineup, listen to podcasts of past episodes, watch live video, find show resources, sign up for our mailing list of upcoming shows, and submit your question for Father!

The New Man is the center around the New Creation.  In the Old Creation that God Made Man was the Center of it.  In the New it is the same.  However, this is a NEW MAN.  This man comes out of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ.  The work that forms this man is Christ Himself.  The fullness of this man is Christ Himself.  Jesus Christ has brough forth of Himself One New Man!  Glory Be to God! Ephesians 2:13  But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.  14 For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; 15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; 

On this episode of Currently Reading, Kaytee and Meredith are discussing: Bookish Moments: heart pounding reads and bookish goodies Current Reads: all the great, interesting, and/or terrible stuff we've been reading lately Deep Dive: the stuff we don't love about book podcasting The Fountain: we visit our perfect fountain to make wishes about our reading lives Show notes are time-stamped below for your convenience. Read the transcript of the episode (this link only works on the main site) .  .  .  .  1:27 - Our Bookish Moments Of The Week 1:45 - How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny 5:41 - The Bookish Shop 5:50 - The Bookish Box subscription 7:15 - Our Current Reads 7:28 - Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire (Meredith) 10:18 - @hollyslitmagic on Instagram 10:49 - Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant 14:24 - Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire 15:47 - Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri (Kaytee) 17:41 - Changing Hands Bookstore 18:04 - A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas 20:16 - The Situation Room by George Stephanopoulos (Meredith) 21:50 - Sarah's Bookshelves Live 24:47 - Glory Be by Danielle Arceneaux (Katee) 27:31 - The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman 27:45 - Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto 27:59 - Glory Daze by Danielle Arceneaux  29:39 - Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz (Meredith, pre-order releases May 13, 2025) 29:55 - Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz 29:56 - Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz 34:27 - A Dead and Stormy Night by Steffnie Holmes 35:25 - This Changes Everything by Tyler Merritt (Kaytee) 35:44 - I Take My Coffee Black by Tyler Merritt 36:59 - The Trees by Percival Everett 39:36 - The Downsides of Book Podcasting 53:42 - Meet Us At The Fountain 54:00 - I wish Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito was turned into a graphic novel. (Meredith) 54:02 - Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito 54:48 - I wish for an easy way to find niche book things. (Kaytee) Support Us: Become a Bookish Friend | Grab Some Merch Shop Bookshop dot org | Shop Amazon Bookish Friends Receive: The Indie Press List with a curated list of five books hand sold by the indie of the month. April's IPL is brought to you by Warwick's in La Jolla, California! Love and Chili Peppers with Kaytee and Rebekah - romance lovers get their due with this special episode focused entirely on the best selling genre fiction in the business.  All Things Murderful with Meredith and Elizabeth - special content for the scary-lovers, brought to you with the behind-the-scenes insights of an independent bookseller From the Editor's Desk with Kaytee and Bunmi Ishola - a quarterly peek behind the curtain at the publishing industry The Bookish Friends Facebook Group - where you can build community with bookish friends from around the globe as well as our hosts Connect With Us: The Show: Instagram | Website | Email | Threads The Hosts and Regulars: Meredith | Kaytee | Mary | Roxanna Production and Editing: Megan Phouthavong Evans Affiliate Disclosure: All affiliate links go to Bookshop unless otherwise noted. Shopping here helps keep the lights on and benefits indie bookstores. Thanks for your support!

One of my favorite mystery series just got a brand-new installment! Glory Daze by Danielle Arceneaux has officially launched, and I couldn't be more excited. In this highly anticipated follow-up to the award-winning Glory Be, Glory Broussard is drawn into the mystery of her ex-husband's death—this time with an unexpected ally by her side. Compelling, … Continue reading Episode 161: Interview with Danielle Arceneaux, author of Glory Daze →

Petitionary prayer, meditation, contemplation, the Our Father, and the Hail Mary, the Glory Be. The Rosary has it all. If we stay with it and practice praying the Rosary, the different elements of it come together and gradually we realize that this prayer has the power to dispose our hearts, and the eyes of our hearts can then begin to look at the Lord with more love and affection, and the truth of what he has done for us in each one of the mysteries of his life can really leap forth for us.Follow us on: Instagram: ​​​​@contemplatapodcast Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/DominicanFriarsMedia Support: If you want to support this podcast, please visit dominicanfriars.org/contemplata

Want to reach out to us? Want to leave a comment or review? Want to give us a suggestion or berate Anthony? Send us a text by clicking this link!Today's Lenten meditation invites us into the profound mystery of divine indwelling—God's continuous presence in the soul of every baptized Christian in a state of grace.Drawing from John 8:29, we explore Christ's promise that just as the Father never left him alone, he never leaves us orphaned. This isn't merely poetic language but a spiritual reality that transforms our understanding of ourselves. As St. Peter teaches, through baptism, we become "partakers of the divine nature," genuine children of God through adoption that goes far deeper than legal terminology.Elizabeth of the Trinity captures this beautifully: "It seems to me that I have found my heaven on earth since heaven is God and God is in my soul." Meanwhile, St. Teresa of Avila describes our soul as "a palace of priceless worth, built entirely of gold and precious stones." These mystical insights remind us that we carry within us a sacred sanctuary where God continually abides.The meditation offers practical ways to honor and recognize this divine presence: saying the Glory Be throughout the day, speaking God's name with reverence, and quickly rejecting thoughts that would taint the soul. As we celebrate the feast days of St. Patrick and anticipate St. Joseph's feast, we're reminded how these saints lived from this awareness of God's indwelling presence. How might your life change if you truly believed God was always with you, not just metaphorically but actually dwelling within your soul? Take a moment today to pause, make the sign of the cross, and acknowledge the divine presence that makes its home in you.Support the showSponsored by Recusant Cellars, an unapologetically Catholic and pro-life winery from Washington state. Use code BASED25 at checkout for 10% off! https://recusantcellars.com/Also sponsored by Quest Pipe Co. Get your St Isaac Jogues pipe here: https://questpipeco.com/discount/Amish?redirect=%2Fproducts%2Fst-isaac-jogues-limited-edition********************************************************Please subscribe! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKsxnv80ByFV4OGvt_kImjQ?sub_confirmation=1https://www.avoidingbabylon.comMerchandise: https://shop.avoidingbabylon.comLocals Community: https://avoidingbabylon.locals.comRSS Feed for Podcast Apps: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/1987412.rssSpiritusTV: https://spiritustv.com/@avoidingbabylonRumble: https://rumble.com/c/AvoidingBabylon

Hour 3 Patrick discusses with callers who are using low-gluten hosts and about what the Church teachers in regards to those with a gluten intolerance and Celiac Disease. He also helps out a caller who has a daughter who may go to an Evangelical University. Daisy-What happens to those who have such a severe reaction to Gluten, they can’t receive a host with gluten? (0:39) Pamela- Eastern Rite Catholics have different hosts, is that okay? AND I have baptized children in danger of death with soapy water is that okay? (4:15) Miguel- What our family does during communion as we’re gluten free (11:27) Jose- My senior in High school has an opportunity to play soccer at an Evangelical University. Is that okay? (20:16) Greg- What is a good book with details about the primitive church? (25:34) Michael- Fatima prayer has been added to the rosary after the first Glory Be, is that okay? (33:08) Patrick explains that there can’t be gluten-free hosts (36:40) John- Plants have been modified which makes more gluten as a result (39:24) Laura- I am gluten free and I have always had this, as I suffered from symptoms (41:30) Juanita- son is away from the faith and re-baptized himself. is his soul in jeopardy? (45:24) Sharon-I went to an evangelical university and it was very anti-Catholic (49:39) Book Recommendation, “The Sacraments and Their Celebration”: https://www.amazon.com/Sacraments-Their-Celebration-Nicholas-Halligan/dp/159244931X What US Bishops say about Celiac Disease and low-gluten hosts: https://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/the-mass/order-of-mass/liturgy-of-the-eucharist/celiac-disease-and-alcohol-intolerance For those who want Gluten-Free hosts for their parish: Benedictine Sisters, https://benedictinesisters.org/ Cardinal Newman Society Guide to good Catholic Universities: https://cardinalnewmansociety.org/the-newman-guide/ Book Recommendation, “When the Church was Young”: https://www.amazon.com/When-Church-Was-Young-Fathers/dp/1616367776 Book Recommendation, Eusebius Ecclesiastical History: https://www.amazon.com/Eusebius-Ecclesiastical-History-Complete-Unabridged/dp/1565633717

In this episode, we welcome Fr. Mark-Mary Ames, CFR to talk about his podcast Rosary in a Year. He shares the inspiration behind his podcast and the importance of meditating on and understanding the mysteries of our faith. We also reflect on prayer being something received not produced, how the Rosary specifically answers the cry of our hearts to learn how to pray, and how Mary intercedes for us within this prayer. Our desire is that Fr. Mark-Mary's podcast will be an aid as you take the next step deeper in your prayer life.   Heather's One Thing - Instant Pot Creamy Tomato Basil Soup Recipe  Heather's Other One Thing - Sharing the Gospel with Our Lives: A Relational Approach to Catholic Youth Ministry by Bob Rice Sister Miriam's One Thing - Creamy Chicken Rice Soup Recipe  Michelle's One Thing - The Franciscan Friars of the Renewal Fr. Mark-Mary's One Thing - Christ in the City Missionaries   Other Resources Mentioned:  Rosary in a Year Podcast on Spotify, Apple, Ascension's Website (or app)   Announcement: Join us for our Lenten Study beginning March 5th, 2025 as we journey through “Jesus and the Jubilee: The Biblical Roots of the Year of God's Favor“ by Dr. John Bergsma. We look forward to sitting at the feet of a leading scholar as we unpack what the Lord has in store for us in the year of Jubilee. Order your copy at the St. Paul Center with promo code “ABIDE15” for 15% off. Amazon has very limited copies, so we recommend you order from St. Paul Center to ensure you receive your copy before Lent begins!   Journal Questions: What has my relationship been with the Rosary? Do I often perceive the Rosary to be a formulaic task or a channel of grace? How have I experienced a strengthening of my “concentration muscle” in the past? Do I see prayer as something I produce, or something I receive?   Discussion Questions: How were you formed in how to pray the Rosary? What obstacles do you experience when praying the Rosary? What do you desire for your relationship with Our Blessed Mother? How can I enter more fully into the Rosary during this Jubilee Year of Hope?   Quote to Ponder: "Mary was the first person to take the 'way' to enter the Kingdom of God that Christ opened, a way which is accessible to the humble, to all who trust in the word of God and endeavor to put it into practice." (Pope Benedict XVI)   Scripture for Lectio: “Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.” (John 19:27)    Sponsor - Ascension: Join Fr. Mark-Mary Ames and Ascension Press for a new installment of the “In a Year” series with the new Rosary in a Year podcast, which debuted in January as the #1 podcast in the U.S.!   The podcast's host, Fr. Mark-Mary Ames, CFR, takes listeners on a step-by-step journey that will change how they approach the Rosary—and prayer in general—no matter where they are in their spiritual life.    By starting small and adding on over time, listeners will find themselves falling more in love with this powerful Marian devotion, becoming a source of grace for the whole world.    In six different phases throughout the year, the podcast builds up from just an “Our Father", three “Hail Mary's”, and a “Glory Be” at the beginning, to joyfully praying the entire Rosary together by the end.   Along the way, listeners will learn the basics of prayer, discover the Biblical roots of the Rosary, and learn to meditate on each mystery like never before with help from Sacred Scripture, the writings of the saints, and Sacred Art.   You can listen to the podcast and download the Rosary in a Year Prayer guide by visiting our website here.    Whether you're already listening every day or this is your first time hearing about the podcast, it's never too late to start and there is no better place to listen to Rosary in a Year than in the Ascension app.   You'll get exclusive content and special features you won't find anywhere else, like full transcripts of each episode, the full text of the prayers and litanies Fr. Mark-Mary shares in the podcast, references to Sacred Scripture and the Catechism, images of sacred art, and much more that help you dive even deeper into each reflection on the Rosary.   You can also pray all four mysteries of the Rosary with recordings from Fr. Mark-Mary, Fr. Mike Schmitz, and Jeff Cavins, all for free in the Ascension app.   Download the Ascension App on your smartphone or tablet from wherever you get your apps, or by visiting https://link.ascension-app.com/Abide15    Additionally, you can get 15% off the following Rosary in a Year resources by clicking the links and using the promo code ABIDE15 at checkout: Rosary in a Year Prayer Guide (preorder) How to Pray a Better Rosary Rosary in a Year 5 Decade Gemstone Rosary (preorder)   Timestamps: 00:00 - Ascension 01:33 - Intro 02:26 - Welcome 03:20 - Fr. Mark-Mary 09:30 - Guiding Quote and Scripture Verse 09:59 - Inspiration for Rosary in a Year 13:16 - A Podcast for Formation in Prayer 15:00 - Mary and the Rosary 18:12 - Organization of the Podcast 22:18 - Prayer is Something Received 25:08 - Father's Hope for the Podcast 27:37 - One Things

Questions Covered:  3:46 – How do I convince a hardened atheist that God exists? Or even the historical figure of Jesus?  05:58 – How do we properly understand typology as pointing towards the New Testament?  14:10 – What does Jimmy think of the new document Antiqua et nova? Does he have any advice for the everyday person?  18:08 – I have a friend who doesn't believe God loves sinners and uses Ps 5:5 as evidence. Are there other verses to combat this?  22:15 – What exactly are charisms from the Holy Spirit and how does one discern them?  32:25 – Our visiting priest doesn't say “do this in memory of me” when consecrating the bread but does it for the wine. Is this valid?  36:15 – Can you assure me and help me further understand how God exists?  43:00 – If the pope were to time travel, would the seat be vacant?  49:06 – Would it be okay to ask a priest to bless my new firearm?  52:49 – I'm teaching my kids the Glory Be, and it says “world without end” at the end of the prayer? Why does it say that?  …

Send us a textWelcome to the latest episode of Laundromat Resource's Laundromat News Today, where your host Jordan Berry delivers the freshest stories shaping the laundromat industry. In this episode, we dive into inspiring tales of community impact, entrepreneurial grit, safety reminders, and even a dash of entertainment from the laundromat world.Here's a glimpse of what you'll discover:Community Champions: Meet Josh and Caitlin Ferguson from Oxnard, owners of Cleanse and Renewal Laundry. Learn about their incredible outreach ministry supporting individuals with disabilities and their heartfelt holiday initiative, distributing toys and feeding hundreds.Reviving Laundromat Legends: Find out how an anonymous hero in Fairbury, Nebraska, has restored a long-dormant laundromat, bringing a much-needed service back to the community. Plus, follow Edward Gomez's bold move to convert his laundromat into a 24/7 operation in Palatine, Illinois.Garage to Glory: Be inspired by Luke LeCroy's journey from running a laundry service out of his garage to owning a full-fledged laundromat in Northfield. This stellar example of starting small and dreaming big is a must-hear for aspiring entrepreneurs.Safety First: A cautionary tale from Lincoln, Nebraska, where a dryer fire caused significant damage, serves as a vital reminder to maintain your equipment and keep those lint traps clean.Critical Updates: Brief on the immediate drought contingency plan affecting laundromat operations in Marlin, Texas, and explore how the community is coping with these restrictions.Unlikely Heroes: An extraordinary story from England where an 84-year-old veteran fended off a laundromat robber using a pair of jeans, demonstrating courage and quick thinking.Entertainment Buzz: Discover a unique intersection of laundromats and music with New York's underground rapper Mike's new music video that prominently features a laundromat.Packed with stories that highlight resilience, innovation, and community spirit, this episode has something for everyone in the laundromat industry. Tune in now to stay informed and inspired!For full details, links, and more news, head over to laundromatresource.com, or subscribe to our newsletter.Listen to the full episode to catch all these amazing stories and insights only on Laundromat News Today with Jordan Berry. You won't want to miss it!Connect With UsYouTubeInstagramFacebookLinkedInTwitterTikTok

The Liturgical Year will soon be coming to a close but there are still a few great feasts to remember! **Celebrating Hallowtide** The Liturgical Year is soon coming to an end, but like the mythical phoenix, it will rise anew with the season of Advent. Before the Church reaches this climactic conclusion with the Gospel account of the end of the world and the General Judgment, it celebrates one of the most sacred parts of the fall season—Hallowtide. Hallowtide refers to the triduum of All-Hallows Eve, All Saints' Day, and All Souls' Day. Even though Pope Pius XII suppressed the vigil of All Saints in the 1950s, we can still observe this day as a time of spiritual preparation, thereby preserving the essence of Hallowtide. This celebration and commemoration embody the dogma of the Communion of Saints, an article of our faith explicitly stated in the Apostles' Creed: “I believe… in the Communion of Saints.” **All-Hallows Eve Program (Evening)** 1. Renew the Baptismal Vows (the promises made to God at Baptism, located in the Missal at the end of the Holy Saturday services). 2. Pray a Rosary (dedicate this Rosary to the entire Communion of Saints). 3. Sing “O Come, Holy Ghost” (praying to the Holy Ghost to grant us the grace to become saints). **All Saints' Day Program (Anytime during the day)** 1. Attend Mass (if possible). 2. Pray a Rosary (in honor of all the Saints and Angels). 3. Read from the “Lives of the Saints.” A family may choose their patron saint for the year and read about his or her life. If this is your first year doing this devotion, consider starting with St. Joseph, the Spouse of the Blessed Virgin, since every family should have a devotion to this great saint. Afterwards, sing “Holy God, We Praise Thy Name.” **All Souls' Day Program (Anytime during the day)** 1. Attend Mass (if possible, and perform the devotion described in the “Announcements and Reminders” section). 2. Prepare your Poor Souls list a few days in advance so the priest can place it on the altar during Mass, as is customary. 3. Pray a Rosary (for the faithfully departed). 4. Visit a cemetery (if possible; at a Catholic cemetery, you can choose anyone and pray for their soul. You may pray an Our Father, a Hail Mary, and a Glory Be. Follow those prayers with: “Eternal rest grant unto (him, her, them) O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. May the souls of the faithfully departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.”) **Suggestions:** One way that a family or individual can make the most of this holy time is by preparing meals that align with the nature of the feast. While the Church does not mandate fasting and abstaining on All-Hallows Eve or All Souls' Day, choosing to do so can enhance our appreciation for the importance of preparation and prayer. Traditionally, beans or lentils are served on All Souls' Day. Additionally, on the Feast of All Saints, consider preparing a special meal to reflect the celebratory nature of the feast. To read Father Anthony's article, "The Last Great Feast": http://www.franciscanfathers.com/popular_articles If you would like to have your dearly departed remembered at Mass on All Souls' Day, you may contact Father Anthony: fatheranthony84@gmail.com

Patrick tackles a tough issue brought up by caller Mary, who's dealing with tarot card readings in her assisted living facility. He discusses the importance of voicing her concerns and leveraging strength in numbers to create a positive environment.   Marie - I live in assisted living and someone who moved in is using Tarot Cards. I don't want evil spirits coming into my home. (01:43) Kevin - My son is getting married outside of the Church. What should I do? (06:17) Roberto - My ex-girlfriend and I are working in the same place. We have a good friendship but I have some mixed emotions about her. What should I do? (15:11) Christopher Columbus Remains Identified With 'Absolute Reliability' (23:23) Diane - How many times can you receive the Eucharist in one day? (24:38) Audio: How the highway numbering system works in the U.S. (and some California humor) (27:49) Ken - When I was in CA in the 70s, no one used the Interstate numbers. They used the names of the roads. (37:18) Jake - What does 'world without end' mean in the Glory Be? (40:20)

The post Glory Be appeared first on Faith Community United Methodist Church - Xenia, OH.

Jesus gave us the prayer we often call "the Our Father". But where do the other prayers of the Holy Rosary come from, like the Hail Mary? The Glory Be? Who selected the mysteries that we meditate on for each decade? ...who even decided to pray a rosary in "decades"? Fr. Mike breaks down the historical origins of the rosary as well as the logic that the saints who went before us used to organize the rosary as we know it today.

A new MP3 sermon from Indy Reformed Church is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Glory Be to God Subtitle: Psalms Speaker: Austin Reifel Broadcaster: Indy Reformed Church Event: Sunday Service Date: 7/7/2024 Bible: Psalm 29 Length: 37 min.

Patrick explores the profound journey of Nancy, a former advocate for the LGBTQ lifestyle who finds a deep conversion to Jesus and becomes a devout Catholic. He discusses a transformative dream she has, resisting sin even in her sleep—a sign of true spiritual maturity. He delves into insights from St. Thomas Aquinas on the nature of sin in dreams and the significance of aligning our will with God's grace.   National Education Association President Becky Pringle wants to “WIN ALL THE THINGS” (01:50) Andrew - I am a professional orator and I would suggest that woman identifies the goal before she encourages people to do whatever it is she is asking them to do. (10:51) Jodi - Why do we say 'world without end' in the Glory Be? (14:19) Florida man arrested after allegedly trying to withdraw 1 cent from bank Larry – When you know you've forgiven somebody (27:14) Lori - I am helping a young man come into the Church and his mom has a Free Mason bible in their home. What should he do? (30:52) Nancy (Twitter) – I was dreaming and was going to commit a sin in my dream. I said the Creed in my dream and didn't sin! (38:00) Michelle - Hospitality and being charitable in light of Jesus being rejected in his home town. For us, at what point do we decide who stays in our life and who leaves it? (46:46)

In this inaugural episode of No Filters, hosts Sarah Kroger and Dom Quaglia discuss Sarah's song ‘Glory Be'. Ever wondered how a song idea comes to life? You'll learn about the inspiration, writing, producing, and live performing of this song, which is based on a well-known prayer… the type of prayer Dom used to complain about. Whether you're a music lover, a prayer warrior or just a person who has ears and can hear, this episode is sure to give you something to think about. Key Takeaways:The song ‘Glory Be' is based on a well-known prayer of doxologyDom complains because he caresSarah hates turbulencePraying can help you live in a way that points people to God, not to yourselfSimple songs are not always easy to makeConnect with Sarah Kroger: Website: https://www.sarahkroger.com/about Instagram: / skroger Facebook: / sarahkrogermusic Listen to A New Reality

Daily Devotional Prayer - Prayer to St. Anthony of Padua Tuesday, May 7, 2024 Prayer to St. Anthony of Padua "In the name of the Father,the Son, and the Holy Spirit. O holy St. Anthony, gentlest of saints, your love for God and charity for his creatures made you worthy while on earth to possess miraculous powers. Miracles waited for your word, which you were ever ready to speak for thosein trouble or anxiety. Encouraged by this thought, I implore you to obtain for me the favor I seek in this novena (State your intention). The answer to my prayer may require a miracle; even so, you are the saint of miracles. O gentle and loving Saint Anthony, whose heart was ever full of human sympathy, whisper my petition into the ears of the Infant Jesus, who loved to be folded in your arms, and the gratitude of my heart will always be yours. One Our Father, one Hail Mary, and Glory Be to the Father, in honor of Saint Anthony. Saint Anthony, pray for us!" Prayer source: www.saintbenedict.com --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/almusalita-by-fr-luciano/support

Bible Study: (1:49) Acts 9:1-20 What makes this text truthful?  Jn 6:52-59 What does today's text actually say?  Letters (21:59)- What is the ‘world without end' in the Glory Be?  (23:32) – Question about dealing with a suicide (27:57) – I'm reading the ESV, why is it hard to find Catholic approved Red lettered Bibles? (32:48) – Singing of the psalms?  Word of the Day: Authority (37:59) Callers  (36:59) – We bought holy water fonts for my grandchildren; is it OK that they use it with their teddy bears?  (38:53) – Jesus says take my body and take my blood. But as Catholics we only take the bread. This seems unbiblical. Why? (45:22) – I don't chew the host, is that okay? (47:54) – What are my responsibilities as an aunt whose nephews don't practice the faith.

Diocesan Coordinator of Youth Ministries, Dustin Samford, discusses his faith journey from self proclaimed Agnostic to Youth Minister after his reversion to the Catholic Faith. Hosted by Sharron Hanisch and Mike Malcom, Glory Be: Interesting People and How They Pray brings lay, professed, and ordained from around the Diocese of Tulsa & Eastern Oklahoma to talk about faith, prayer, and the Catholic Church. Glory Be is produced by the Church of Saint Mary. Listen to the full catalog on:SpotifyApple PodcastsGoogle PodcastsYouTube

Retired priest, Msgr. Patrick Gaalaas discusses the distinction of being a Monsignor and looks back on his time as the last priest ordained before the split of The Diocese of Oklahoma City-Tulsa, as it became the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and The Diocese of Tulsa. Hosted by Sharron Hanisch and Mike Malcom, Glory Be: Interesting People and How They Pray brings lay, professed, and ordained from around the Diocese of Tulsa & Eastern Oklahoma to talk about faith, prayer, and the Catholic Church. Glory Be is produced by the Church of Saint Mary. Listen to the full catalog on:SpotifyApple PodcastsGoogle PodcastsYouTube

Holy Rosary for today (Monday, March 4) -- follow along Joyful Mysteries from RosaryMinded, featuring gentle guitar music backdrop. Our recommendation for a wide selection of high quality Rosary bracelets (affiliate link for the Catholic Company). https://www.tkqlhce.com/click-100853022-13359898 This video is sponsored by Sancti Couture: Live, Wear, Share Your Faith! https://www.sancticouture.com Full Holy Rosary - Featuring ALL 20 Mysteries (Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful & Glorious) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI9g6I_9xqM&t=23s Learn How to Pray The Rosary in Latin https://youtu.be/USpaV_qOtFA Read more about the Rosary and follow along on our blog: https://rosaryminded.com/ How to Pray The Holy Rosary First, let's step back and take a look at the Rosary itself, which will help with an understanding of the types of prayers and locations of these prayers on the rosary. The rosary itself is composed of 60 beads threaded together with a crucifix, and often a pendant of Mother Mary where the 3 strands meet. The Rosary is divided into 6 sections. The 1st section is composed of the introductory prayers, followed by what is called the 5 decades. First Section of the Rosary + The Sign of the Cross + The Apostles' Creed I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; He descended into hell; On the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; From there He will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen. +The Lord's Prayer (Our Father) Our Father, Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen. + Hail Mary (x3) Hail Mary full of Grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed are thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen. (note: 1st Hail Mary is for Faith, 2nd is for Hope, 3rd is for Charity) + Glory Be Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. Next, you will acknowledge the mystery and fruit of the 1st mystery (you will do this for each decade, on the Our Father bead). Note: All mysteries of the Rosary (based on the assigned day of the week) follow the same pattern. As a reminder, the mysteries are: Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful, Glorious. See chart at the bottom for reference) First Decade Announcement of the 1st Mystery, and Our Father (per above) + Our Father + Hail Mary (say 10 times, once per bead, while meditating on the mystery) + Glory Be (once) + Optional: Say the “O My Jesus” prayer requested by Mary at Fatima Remaining Four Decades + Announce the Next Mystery; then say the “Our Father” and repeat the decade steps above, as you continue through the remaining Mysteries. Closing Prayers + Hail Holy Queen + Final Prayers (Here at RosaryMinded, we also like to say the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel and the Memorare as well). RosaryMinded email address: rosaryminded@gmail.com Twitter & Instagram: @rosaryminded Image: Canva.com Music provided by Pixabay.com (royalty free) --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/rosary-minded/support

Danielle Arceneaux, author of Glory Be is interviewed by Robert Justice. Links Danielle's Website Robert Justice's Website Crime Writers of Color Website Subscribe to the Crime Writers of Color Podcast: Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Play iHeartRadio Podcast Music Provided by Chris Lang Jazz

Today, Fr. Kirby delves into the challenges of living in a fallen world and offers the spiritual tool of the Glory Be prayer as a solution to distress, temptation, anxiety, and more. Have you heard of the Glory Be prayer? Share in the comments!—Morning Offering with Fr. Kirby, January 20, 2024—————————Every morning, join Father Jeffrey Kirby as he begins the day with prayer and reflection. In a few short minutes, Father Kirby guides you in prayer, shares a brief reflection grounding your day in the Church's rhythm of feast days and liturgy, and provides you with the encouragement necessary to go forward with peace and strength. Let us do as the saints urge and begin our days in prayer together so as a community of believers we may join the Psalmist in saying, “In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.” (Psalm 5:3-4)

Brian Blacklock- Sunday AM November 12. -Glory Be- 1 Peter 1-1-2

Father Matthew Spencer is filling in for Patrick as the Christmas season approaches. The episode features insightful conversations, including a caller's question about the differences between infant and adult baptism, a listener's comment on Catholic traditions, and a discussion about Pope Francis's recent document on blessings for same-sex marriages. Join us as Father Matthew shares his thoughts, stories, and wisdom on these important topics and more. E-Frank - What's the difference between adult and infant baptism? Pat - I'm in my 70s, but back in Catholic School we learned to always bow at the name of Jesus and to bow during the Glory Be. Joe - Did Pope Francis say it is OK to bless same-sex marriages? (08:24) Fr. Matthew comments on the days of obligation George - My high school teacher said that when we see headlines in secular media about the Church you can believe the opposite. John – Please bless my son and daughter-in-law who are having twins at any moment Xavier - How do you forgive yourself after you've been forgiven in confession Janet - I'm a Catholic school teacher and I'm struggling with the same-sex blessings. I teach third grade. What should I tell them? Jill - My family is the only practicing Catholics in our family. We have a transgender person and a lesbian couple coming to Christmas. How do I navigate this? Claudia - Why is the pink candle lit two weeks prior to Christmas? (45:49)

Special Guest Host Father Matthew Spencer discusses the upcoming Christmas celebration and addresses common misconceptions about the holiday's origins. He delves into the significance of the Christmas novena and distinguishes between healthy spiritual practices and superstitious motives. Why is Christmas on December 25? (04:17) Joseph - What's the difference between a healthy novena and a superstitious one? Craig - Sextus Julius (160-240 AD) wrote and thought that Christmas was Dec 25. Hippolytus wrote that Christmas was Dec 25. Mary - What's the difference between CE and AD? Mary - When someone fights with me about my religious beliefs, I tell them I'm happy they believe in something! Carmen - I need book recommendations for someone who is not Catholic. This person is interested in learning. I purchased The Seven Story Mountain & the Four Loves by CS Lewis. Are those OK? Christina - My grandson's teacher told him not to make the Sign of the Cross when he says the Glory Be. Therese - How do we overcome the feelings of inadequacy before Christmas? (45:33)

Top Shelf is ending 2023 with the glorious Glory Be, a fantastic mystery by debut author Danielle Arceneaux. Glory Be is “Murder She Wrote” with an African American lead. Instead of Cabot Cove, readers will find themselves in Lafayette, Louisiana and you will want to take that journey!  Glory Be is the first in a … Continue reading E135: Interview with Danielle Arceneaux, author of Glory Be →

Rich, a native of San Jose, California, studied music at The Phil Mattson School, and earned his bachelor's and master's from Jessup University. Over the years, he has worked as a church musician and ministry leader. He writes, consults, and speaks about the intersection of creativity, faith and leadership. His new book, MINDBLOWN: Unlock Your Creative Genius by Bridging Science and Magic (2022), deconstructs creativity and the creative process. His first book, The Six Hats of the Worship Leader (2014), has helped thousands of church musicians and has appeared on the reading list at several universities. As a freelance writer, Rich writes here on RKblog.com, and several other prominent sites and has traveled throughout the US speaking to leaders and creatives. As a musician and songwriter, Rich is part of A Beautiful Liturgy, a unique collaboration with his daughter, Emilie Kirkpatrick. They released a five-song EP in 2016, a Christmas single and music video “Glory Be to God” in 2018, and a single and music video “In the Silence” in 2020. In March of 2012, Rich released a five-song EP titled “Drink The Divine.” His works are published by A Beautiful Liturgy Music (ASCAP), Epic Stache Music (ASCAP), and administered by his company Tehilla Music. Rich loves a good espresso and deep conversations with friends, new and old. He lives in the East Bay Area, California, with his wife and family.  

Fr. Shane Hewson, associate pastor at Tulsa's St. Bernard of Clairvaux Catholic Church, was ordained as a diocesan priest in June 2019.Graduating from OSU with a BA in Spanish, Fr. Hewson attended Seminary in Ohio at the Athenaeum of Ohio where he received his Masters in Catholic Studies.He later attended the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome where he received a BA in Theology in 2018, a License in Canon Law in 2022, and a Diploma Certificate in matrimonial jurisprudence in 2023. Hosted by Sharron Hanisch and Mike Malcom, Glory Be: Interesting People and How They Pray brings lay, professed, and ordained from around the Diocese of Tulsa & Eastern Oklahoma to talk about faith, prayer, and the Catholic Church. Glory Be is produced by the Church of Saint Mary. Listen to the full catalog on:SpotifyApple PodcastsGoogle PodcastsYouTube

Fr. Desmond Okpogba, pastor of the Church of the Madalene and Vicar Forane for the North Vicariate of Tulsa, was born and raised in Nigeria and ordained to the priesthood in 1989.Fr. Desmond shares his journey of Faith from Orlu, Nigeria to Tulsa, Oklahoma.Hosted by Sharron Hanisch and Mike Malcom, Glory Be: Interesting People and How They Pray brings lay, professed, and ordained from around the Diocese of Tulsa & Eastern Oklahoma to talk about faith, prayer, and the Catholic Church. Glory Be is produced by the Church of Saint Mary. Listen to the full catalog on:SpotifyApple PodcastsGoogle PodcastsYouTube

Sr. Barbara Austin and Fr. Steven Austin, religious siblings from Guthrie, Oklahoma, sit down to share their vocational journeys. Sr. Barbara, a former teacher at the Madelene and Monte Cassino, and former Prioress at St. Joseph's Monastery, received her education from the Benedictine Sisters and entered St. Joseph's Monastery in 1965.Fr. Steve Austin, ordained in 1984, has served as a pastor in several parishes for the diocese and is the current pastor at St. Francis de Sales in Idabel, Oklahoma. Fr. Steve earned his Master of Divinity from St. John's University in Minnesota.Hosted by Sharron Hanisch and Mike Malcom, Glory Be: Interesting People and How They Pray brings lay, professed, and ordained from around the Diocese of Tulsa & Eastern Oklahoma to talk about faith, prayer, and the Catholic Church. Glory Be is produced by the Church of Saint Mary. Listen to the full catalog on:SpotifyApple PodcastsGoogle PodcastsYouTube

Patrick shares an interesting article about the dangers of plastic take-out containers, gives reasons a priest can know a penitent is contrite, and helps a highschooler navigate the transgender ideology in his school. Patrick shares an email about his theme song, and how a listeners daughter knew two members of the band. Patrick shares an article about Is It Safe to Reuse Plastic Take-out Containers? Bob - When a priest absolves you, how does he know if you have forgiven others? Susan - From the Creed: Did Jesus really go to hell? Patrick - I attended a service last week. There was an interactive gospel - it was on a screen and parishioners were prompted to read part. Is this ok? Alex - Where did the Glory Be prayer come from? Natalie - My husband and I are going through counseling but I feel like I have had enough of his behavior. When do you know if enough is enough? Patrick reads an email form a high schooler who doesn't want to participate in the trans movement and needs help. John - Do you have a suggestion on writings on eternity besides the bible? Joanne - The priest didn't say the prayer after the Kyrie on Sunday and it bothered me. What do you think? Kay - If someone in your family claims to be Catholic but had a vasectomy, how do you approach them on this? A priest I know told me it was not necessary to do this. What do you think?

O most faithful companions, appointed by our Heavenly Father to be our guardians, we thank you for your kindness, caring and love, and for the benefits you have obtained for us. O holy angels, watch over us while we sleep. Comfort us when we are sad. Avert dangers that threaten us, and warn us of those to come. Turn us away from sin, and inspire us to do good. Encourage us to penance when we fall, and reconcile us to God. Do not leave us, heavenly guides. Comfort us in adversity, humble us in success, defend us in danger, and assist us in temptations, lest at any time we fall beneath them. Offer up in the sight of the Divine Majesty our prayers and petitions… [mention them here] …and all our charitable works, and help us persevere in grace until we enter into everlasting life. Amen. Conclude with one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and one Glory Be.

Sharron and Mike recount the top five guests of all time as chosen by you and the number of views of the video version of Glory Be podcast. They announce that they're taking a summer break - after one last great interview: Kylee Hernandez of Watts of Love. It will come out very soon.

Discover the origin of the prayer which is both a doxology and a stand against heresy. (“Catholic Prayers” series, no. 10, Glory Be)

Bible Study: (1:49) Acts 9:1-20 What makes this text truthful?  Jn 6:52-59 What does today's text actually say?  Letters (22:13)- What is the 'world without end' in the Glory Be?  (23:46) - Question about dealing with a suicide (28:12) - I'm reading the ESV, why is it hard to find Catholic approved Red lettered Bibles? (32:48) - Singing of the psalms?  Word of the Day: Authority (37:59) Callers  (39:53) - We bought holy water fonts for my grandchildren; is it OK that they use it with their teddy bears?  (44:05) - Jesus says take my body and take my blood. But as Catholics we only take the bread. This seems unbiblical. Why? (46:22) - I don't chew the host, is that okay? (48:55) - What are my responsibilities as an aunt whose nephews don't practice the faith.

The Holy Face Chaplet in Latin! To pray this chaplet, start by making the sign of the cross with the crucifix. 1. On the Crucifix – The Sign of the Cross / Signum Crucis In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Deus, in adjutorium meum intende: Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina. O God, come to my assistance. O Lord, make haste to help me. Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto. Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. 2. On each of the six larger beads (precedes each decade of six beads) in order say in honor of the five senses of Jesus. First of the sense of Touch, then Hearing, then Sight, then Smell, and finally Taste: “O mi Jesu misericordia!” “Gloria Patri…” “My Jesus, mercy!” and one “Glory Be..” 3. On the thirty-three small beads: “Surge Domine et dissipentur inimici Tui et fugiant qui oderunt Te a Facie Tua.” “Arise, O Lord, and let Thy enemies be scattered, and let all who hate Thee flee before Thy Face!” At the end of meditating on the senses of Jesus, continue repetitions of “Arise, O Lord” prayer on the remaining three beads, to bring the total to 33, one for each year of Our Lord's earthly life. On each of these last three beads, think about the wounds in His holy face from the slaps He endured, and from the crown of thorns. After all of this, repeat seven times, in honor of the the Golden Arrow book): 1) May God arise and let His enemies be scattered and let those who hate Him flee before His Face! “Surge Domine et dissipentur inimici Tui et fugiant qui oderunt Te a Facie Tua.”. (Psalm 67:2) 2) May the thrice Holy Name of God overthrow all their plans! Nomen Trinum Sanctum Dei cogitationes eorum omnes depraedatur! 3) May the Holy Name of the Living God split them up by disagreements! Sanctissimum Nomen Dei viventis eas discidiis dividat! 4) May the terrible Name of the God of Eternity stamp out all their godlessness! Horrendum nomen Dei aeternitatis deleat omnem impietatem suam! 5) Lord, I do not desire the death of the sinner, but that he be converted and live. Domine, nolo mortem peccatoris, sed ut convertatur et vivat. “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Pater, dimitte illis : non enim sciunt quid faciunt. (Luke 23:34) The “Golden Arrow” prayer (on the Crucifix): May the most Holy, most Sacred, most Adorable, Most Incomprehensible and Ineffable Name of God Be always Praised, Blessed, Loved, Adored and Glorified, In Heaven, on Earth and under the Earth, By all the Creatures of God, And by the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ, In the most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. Amen” "Sanctissimum, sacratissimum, adorabile, incomprehensibile et ineffabile Nomen Dei semper laudetur, benedicatur, ametur, adoretur et glorificetur in caelo, in terra et sub terra, ab omnibus creaturis Dei, et a Sacro Corde Domini nostri Iesu Christi in sanctissimo Sacramento Altaris. Amen." The Golden Arrow Book: https://amzn.to/3mLmLfi The Latin Prayer Podcast is on Patreon -  for those of you who are able to financially support the podcast please Click Here (https://www.patreon.com/thelatinprayerpodcast). A huge thank you to my patrons! Please check out our Resources, Gift Ideas & Affiliate Links page: https://dylandrego.podbean.com/p/resources-gift-ideas-affiliate-links Join me and others in praying the Holy Rosary every day; here are the Spotify quick links to the Rosary: Joyful Mysteries https://open.spotify.com/episode/1yhnGJNSl67psg94j3si3s?si=7IjqIg2wQQaZTJTiDm-Dhw Sorrowful Mysteries https://open.spotify.com/episode/3P0nIdaLuEjesHRMklwfoj?si=6qF7JBYpRiG0ylwuOohFwA Glorious Mysteries https://open.spotify.com/episode/3t7lCF7nFQDR3py1jjTAE1?si=hBb_5Ne5Rwu-993nUUqHqg Luminous Mysteries https://open.spotify.com/episode/6vlAjEGgWPCI79K7Eylh31?si=Hue9USzkTf-L3wrXrK79MQ 15 Decade Rosary https://open.spotify.com/episode/2q33PXMrinZi6fkaV6X7vn?si=Jy_d2xLlTVihD5qa4fSH9g To follow me on other platforms Click on my LinkTree below. linktr.ee/dylandrego If you have any prayers you'd like to request, or comments and/or suggestions - please email me at latinprayerpodcast@gmail.com. Know that if you are listening to this, I am praying for you. Please continue to pray with me and for me and my family. May everything you do be Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam. God Love You! Valete (Goodbye)      

Bible Study: (2:01) Gn 11:1-9 Father gives us theory of language  Mk 8:34—9:1 Why is the soul so important Letters (20:05) - Can I bless my home with holy water?  (22:44) - What kind of oath taking is Jesus referring to?  (24:41) - Did Moses have horns?  (28:07) - Who did Cain think might kill him? (32:19) - What are the knights templar?  Word of the Day: Twelve (36:00) Callers (38:05) - Why did John the Baptist not recognize Jesus? (40:33) - Does Paradise equal heaven?  (44:14) - The Glory Be and the Sign of the Cross seem similar. What are their origins and are they connected? (46:41) - Zachariah and the Feast Tabernacles: Any resources on this? (50:22) - Hebrew friend told me that a baby considered a human until it's 7 weeks old according to his tradition. Is that true?

February 11: Our Lady of Lourdes Optional Memorial; Liturgical Color: White (Violet on Lenten Weekday) Patroness of bodily ills A heavenly lady appears to a country girl, and miracles follow In 1858, 14-year-old Bernadette Soubirous told her friends that a beautiful young lady was appearing to her in a rock formation on the outskirts of her small town of Lourdes. A friend asked Bernadette to do her a favor—to hold the friend's rosary in her hands the next time Bernadette knelt before the beautiful young lady. Bernadette obliged. Later, Bernadette told her friend how the lady had reacted. The lady had noticed that Bernadette was not holding her own rosary but someone else's. The lady further said she was not there to make relics and told Bernadette to return next time with her own rosary instead of another's. Bernadette's unvarnished recounting of the lady's reaction was blunt but reasonable and, more importantly, authentic. This plainspokenness fit a pattern. Over and over again, whenever little, uneducated Bernadette was asked about the beautiful young lady she saw in the grotto, her answers never changed and included startling but authentic details. Bernadette reported that when she and the lady prayed the rosary together, the lady only said the Our Father and the Glory Be. Mary didn't pray the Hail Mary. How could she pray to herself? Would she say “Hail Me?” Bernadette reported that the lady spoke to her in the Lourdes' dialect which Bernadette herself grew up with, slightly different from standard French. Bernadette stated that a golden rose rested on each of the lady's feet. Of course! And when Bernadette respectfully asked the lady her name, she didn't understand the big words in the response: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” In addition to the miraculous cures associated with the healing waters of Lourdes, the very character of Bernadette, as well as the tone and content of her accounts, removed all doubt that the beautiful young lady she saw was indeed the Virgin Mary. Our Lady of Lourdes is perhaps the most powerful and prolific physical healer in the history of the Church after Christ himself. Through her intercession, and through the waters that flow in her magnificent shrine, many thousands have been cured of their infirmities, as medical records prove beyond any doubt. Holy Mary has appeared at various times and in various places, mostly to the simple and mostly in the country. She loves the faith of the simple and speaks to them in simple language. In this, Mary reflects the words of her Son Jesus. He speaks plainly. His message is clear. And Mary's simple words always point to the simple words of her own Son. God is like the sun whose fiery brilliance scorches the eyes of all who look right at Him. Get too close and you'll be burned. Like the sun, the Creator of the world can be distant, mysterious, and intimidating. But Mary is like the moon, bathed in a soft, pleasant glow. She's close to us, and easy on the eyes. The sun's heat and light may make life possible, but the sun itself is dangerous and remote. But Mary can be approached by man. And like the moon, she doesn't produce her own light but just reflects in a softer tone the powerful rays of the enormous star whose light generates life itself. Our Lady of Lourdes, give physical healing to all who invoke your intercession. The saving waters at your shrine have healed thousands of pilgrims. May all the prayers and supplications directed to you be immersed in the waters of your holy baths, so that what is asked may be granted through your intercession and according to God's will.

Have I mentioned that knitting is my favorite winter activity? Things have slowed down and I can have some time to catch up on my knitting projects. The garden has been put to bed. I'm still making cheese, butter and yogurt, but canning is done for the season. I have even gotten all the frozen fruit out of the freezer from this past spring and made the promised cherry and blueberry jams. For the first time, I made brandied figs. This and so much more coming up in this podcast episode. But first . . . Welcome to all the new listeners and a hearty holiday season welcome back to the veteran homestead-loving regulars who stop by the FarmCast for every episode. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I appreciate you all so much. Let's get on with some homestead updates. Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates Let's talk about the animals first. We love all of our animals. What would our homestead be without our animals? Pretty boring, don't you think? Cows Finally, we have good news on the bovine front. We believe that all of the cows are now bred. Glory Be to God. Natural breeding is superior by far. We have one calf scheduled for birth on March 5th 2023. Then the next two will be around the 16th of July. Then the bull comes along and we have six that will give birth between August 4th and September 4th. Here is the run down. Princess Princess is a lovely purebred A2A2 Jersey heifer, soon to be cow, giving birth to that first calf around the 5th of March. We used sexed AI semen for her so her calf will be 50% Jersey and 50% Normande and likely a girl, a heifer. She looks great and we are anticipating great genetics in her calf. She is small and so is her mom. Not quite miniature Jerseys, but close. Rosie is her mom and in her first lactation cycle she was giving us about three gallons of milk per day. We will expect a similar amount from Princess. We plan on selling her in the future as we move to a 100% registered Normande herd. Keep your ears open about when she comes up for sale as she will make a fantastic milk cow for some lucky family. Rosie Speaking of Rosie, she is in the second group of two giving birth in near the middle of July. Rosie is also a registered A2A2 Jersey. She was bred via AI to the bull Fullblood French bull Jacaranda. The semen was unsexed so the gender of her calf will be a surprise. This calf will also be 50% Jersey and 50% Normande. We will be keeping heifer calves that are 50% Normande, but like her daughter, Rosie will come up for sale sometime in the near future. Ginger Ginger is the second animal giving birth in mid-July. She is 75% percent Normande. That means she is not recognized as purebred, but her offspring will be as their percentage will be high enough to meet the minimum standard. The sire is also the Fullblood French bull Jacaranda. Ferdinand's Offspring The last group of six are all bred via Ferdinand. You will recall that he is the Guernsey bull that we purchased a couple of months ago. He did his job well. In one month, two hormonal cycles, he has impregnated all of our remaining cows and heifers. At least it appears so as of this recording. I'm not sure if we will be able to registered his offspring as 50% Normande. I'll have to check on that. Violet, Virginia and Wanda are all purebred Normandes but it may not be enough for proper registration. We shall see. Butter is a registered A2A2 Jersey. And the last two, Molly and Cookie are mostly but not registered Jersey cows. Though they are also A2A2. We will be keeping Molly as she does have 25% Normande genetics, but Butter and Cookie will also be moving on to another family. In the end, four of our cows will be up for sale in the next year or two. They are all great animals, but again, we are building a 100% Normande herd. Each year we will probably move out a couple more as we slowly inch toward our preferred genetic goals. Nickel We have Nickel waiting in the wings to get big enough to be our breeding bull. Ferdinand will have one more round of breeding our cows and then we will also sell him. As you can tell, he is a great bull and will be a wonderful addition to someone's herd. After that, Nickel will be our herd bull for a couple of years. And we will continue using AI as we can to improve the herd genetics. Scott is coming on board as our primary AI technician. Scott's AI Training This is a really great piece of news that I have to share. I mentioned in the last podcst that the idea was for Scott to be able attend an AI workshop and learn to do the procedure himself. Hallelujah, he was able to attend an AI tech training session just a couple of weeks ago. It was literally only an hour away and we made it happen so he could attend. He now knows the basics of how it is done and what challenges he may face. And we have lots of cows for him to practice on as he builds his skill. The first day he came home a little frustrated with his lack of skill. According to him, it is much harder than it looks from the outside. On the second day of the training session, he got the hang of it and all that is left now is for him to practice. The very next time that any of our cows get bred, Scott will be trying out his new skills. That is months and months from now but we are both excited about the prospects of being able to use AI much more effectively. We will share how that goes when we get there. The timing of this training session was truly a Blessing from God. Mack, Finn and Charlotte Now on to the livestock guardian dogs. There is not much to say here. I am still feeling so blessed that Finn returned after six months of roaming the countryside. We are still treating an infection in his left eye. It is a stubborn infection. Sometimes his eye is clear and then it will cloud up again. Just today we aggressively upped the amount of antibiotic cream we are using in that eye to see if we can knock out that infection once and for all. Otherwise, he is putting on weight and is very happy to be home. There was an early escape and one a day or so ago that was my fault for letting him loose with an open gate, but he is still with us. Charlotte is going along just fine. Sometimes she tolerates me petting her and sometimes still she won't let me near her. I just go along and pet her when I can. She is a great dog and I love her so much. Both Finn and Charlotte are currently with the sheep and the goat doelings. There are a couple of calves in there as well. I forgot to talk about Jill and Penny. Jill is currently up for sale if you know of anyone looking for a young heifer calf. We will be keeping Penny. She is 50% Jersey and 50% Normande. All is well in that pasture for the moment. Mack is with the cows. They don't really need him, but what else are we going to do with him. At some point, I would like to see all of the dogs and animals together. I'm not sure that will ever happen. We will always have heifer calves that need to be kept away from the bull and/or vise versa, but bull is kept away from the cows/heifer calves. And then there are ewe lambs and doelings that need to be kept away from the breeding ram and buck. I'm pretty sure we will always have two groups of animals. The best I can hope for is that all the of animals and dogs will eventually become interchangeable. At the moment I don't trust the large animals with Finn and Charlotte and I don't trust the small animals with Mack. So, there you have it. This may be our standard operating procedure going forward. I'll keep you posted. Kiko Goats Now for a little update on the goats. Things are going fairly well in that area. I have managed to tame all of the goats a fair bit. They will follow me anywhere if they think there might be a treat at the end of the road. All are growing nicely. It will be another two months before the girls can meet up with the boy. Lian and Amys are with the sheep and Rhuarc is right next door in the lower garden with a ram lamb as a companion. As soon as the girls are old enough, these two boys will be able to join the main group of sheep and goat girls. Sheep Several ewes are looking quite plump. I expect that we will have lambs in January or February. Not the best time of year, but I have found that these Katahdin sheep are really good moms and the lambs are generally hardy even in winter. If the weather is particularly bad, we can take them to shelter. Otherwise, this breed is very used to giving birth out in the pasture, even in the winter. I have heard of several breeders that specifically breed for birthing in January and February as they are looking for their lambs to reach market size by the time November rolls around and the various religious groups are looking for lamb and goat for their feasts. We may look at that market as well. Otherwise, we like to keep ours all the way up to the 12th month of growth. I'll keep you posted, but the sheep have dogs protecting them at the moment and I expect that we will actually have lambs soon and that we will be able to raise them to market weight without predators running off with them. At least that is the current expectation. Chickens The last animals to discuss are the chickens. Last time I mentioned that Mack had made mincemeat of one of the hens. We still have all of the rest of the hens and roosters. Just a few days ago, we added six new hens to the flock. One of our herd share members had more chickens than she wanted and she gifted us these hens. We are not sure whether they are Cinnamon queens or Rhode Island reds. Either way, they are providing us a couple more eggs a day. Of the eleven others that we have, we were getting 2 or 3 eggs per day. We added half as many hens but doubled our egg production. Now we are getting 5 or 6 eggs per day. Go figure. I don't know if I mentioned that I am looking at perhaps changing my mind of what breed of chickens that we raise. There are always good logical reasons for the breeds we choose for any given animal. However, the literature seems to be flawed on the chicken breeds I chose. I expected way more eggs from the American Bresse and Black Copper Marans. And it seems that the traditional Rhode Island reds are just better at producing eggs. I'll have to look it up. It may be that they are primarily egg producers and not a dual breed chicken. In the end, I may just give up on the whole dual breed idea for chickens. I'm really in it for the eggs. We just don't eat that much chicken so the meat is not a really big deal. That's for another day. In the spring we will do some incubations and hatch out some birds and see where we go from there. In the end, we may just have mutt chickens and forget about trying to raise specific breeds. Right now, as long as they lay lots of eggs, I don't really care. Creamery Let's move on that huge creamery project. Where do we stand with that? All of the floors are complete. As I mentioned in the last podcast, Scott was racing the clock to get that done. The temperature-sensitive nature of the glue and grout were driving that carriage. He made it. There were a few cold days where he had to wait, but in the end, he got it done. There are a few details he is working on for the pull box covers, but other than that, the floors are complete. Next up is the electrical. And of course, the plumbing. That is still looming large in my mind. I don't know how he will do it, but I do know that he will make it happen. It's just who he is as a person. At the moment he is moving his attention to fixing fences in the back fields. There is a good bit of standing hay back there but trees on the fences need to be cleared and those fences repaired. Another task on his calendar is gathering up pine wood for the wood stove this winter. For the past two winters we have not used the wood stove as other priorities and factors interfered with the collecting of wood. This year should be the time that we get back on track with using wood for fuel in the winter and getting that electric bill back down to a reasonable cost. Especially at this time in our economy when prices are rising. These tasks will take away from the time he has in the creamery. But I'm pretty sure we are still on track for USDA certification sometime in the spring or summer. Knitting, Cheesemaking, and Other Milk Products I want to talk a little bit about cheesemaking and other milk products before getting into my knitting projects. Cheesemaking Because we have had so much problem getting cows pregnant, we are currently planning to milk the cows as long as we can before drying them up for birthing their calves. Normally, that would be about a one-year cycle. This time, it's going to be nearly a year-and-a-half. Their milk production will continue to decline over time. And the cold of winter will also decrease milk production. These are additional days of learning and having new trials of which we have yet to have. Currently, the cows are still producing enough for herd share milk and for me to make cheese. I'm perfecting my techniques in cheesemaking and trying a couple of new ideas to improve flavor. We shall see in a few months if my efforts have paid off. Additionally, I'm still making yogurt a couple of times per week and butter every other week or so. It's a bit of a different winter experience to still be dealing with milk after the end of November, but it seems to be working out great for both Scott and myself. So far. I'm happy to continue the creative art of dealing with dairy products. Knitting My favorite winter pastime is knitting. In the summer it's all about the garden – planting, weeding, harvesting, canning and so on. But in the winter, things slow down and I get to take a break. What do I do with all that free time? Well, to be honest, there isn't that much free time. I just do a lot of stuff that was put off because I was in the garden and in the kitchen for every hour of every day in the summer. It's so funny that I have these knitting projects that sit for months on end without any progress whatsoever. Then winter comes and I can work on them. Do I get them finished? I guess it depends on the project. Victorian Newborn Set Knitting Pattern The one I'm going to talk about today is a really beautiful baby layette. It has a blanket, bonnet, booties and sweater. I've been working on the blanket for some time. It is a Victorian themed pattern. Lacy edges and cream or off-white base color. The contrast color is burgundy. I'll put a picture on the Locals platform and maybe I can work one in on the website. Perhaps I'll make it the featured photo on this podcast. Yeah, that could work. I started working on this at least two years ago. It is the most difficult project that I have ever done. First it was all about getting the pattern correct. I must have started over at least four times. That was the first year. The second year (and when I speak of years, remember that it is a few months in the winter) – The second year, it was all about starting the lacy edge. I have taken out that part at least six times. It was late last winter when I discovered that the pattern I was trying to use was flawed. Recreating the Pattern Here's that little story. As I get older, it is harder for me to read small print. And the pattern that I was using was already a year or more old and the pages stuck together and the print was mangled. So, what did I do? Well, I searched on line to try and find a “clean” copy of that pattern. I did find one. It was great for the “rosebud pattern”. It is the main theme in all of the pieces. But when it came to putting the rest of the pieces together, that pattern was a disaster. So, what do I do now? On the evening that I made the discovery that it was the pattern that was flawed and not my knitting skills, I set out to recreate the pattern from the original. And so I did. I spent about an hour in Microsoft Word. (Okay, it may have been more than an hour. At this point, I have no idea. I just know I needed the pattern to work.) I typed out every single instruction, every detail. Then I proof-read what I had typed. It all seemed to make sense. I still have the original just in case I made a mistake. I can go back with my magnifying glass and see if I can decipher what the actual instruction is supposed to be. However, I am pretty confident that I got it right. There is a pattern to patterns and I could see it clearly. After all, I had created it over and over again, incorrectly. So when I saw the correct instruction it made perfect sense. My Greatest Achievement Now to my greatest achievement so far. I've never been successful in making joins look natural. My work has always looked sloppy. But not this time. As I got started once again on this new adventure, I could clearly see the pattern this time. I could clearly see that it was working. I finished the first end of the blanket using a stitch I had never done before. But the instructions were clear and it worked the very first time. Yippee!! That's not the greatest achievement. No the greatest achievement was picking up the stitches on the starting edge of that blanket. YouTube helped me out. I watched a couple of videos on how it is done. In the past I just did the best I could with the instructions which read “pick up and knit X number of stitches. I don't know why it never occurred to me that there was an actual method to make it work smoothly. So, I watched these videos and gave their suggestions a try. Lo and behold, I created a seam that looks unbelievable. The top is just a continuation of the knitting. The bottom has to be created as if it is a continuation. Finishing the First Piece of the Project I never knew I could do such good work. I can't wait to start up the sides. I've already watched that video and I will watch it again before I start on the sides. First, I have to finish the bottom. And I have every confidence that I will make it look just as awesome as the top. Take a look at the picture to see what I am creating. This will be the most awesome knitting project I have ever done. Did I mention it was the hardest thing I have ever attempted? It is going to give me confidence to make the other really complicated pieces. That sweater, hat and booties are waiting in the wings. Now, in closing, I must mention that once I finish these difficult pieces that I already have in progress, I'm going to switch to making hat, scarf, mitten sets to give to the homeless. It's going to be my new mission for quite some time. These are simpler projects, but with a great deal more purpose. I have all of this yarn and patterns for Afghans and such that I have collected over the years. If you are a knitter, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Large Afghans are a lot of work and, when finished, I can only give it to one person. For the same amount of time and yarn, I can make something useful for those in need, several somethings in fact. I don't really know how many hats, mittens and scarves will come out of the vast amount of yarn in my closet. But I'm going to find out. There you have it and that is the end of my knitting story for this podcast. Take a look at the pictures of my current project on our Locals platform. That's peaceful heart farm DOT locals DOT com. Final Thoughts Well, that concludes this podcast. There is always something going on the with animals and I love sharing our stories with you. I hope you have your own dreams going and adventures going on. It may be the trials and tribulations of your children, your career or your family. Please share with us on our Locals platform. We'd love to hear from you. I hope you enjoyed my knitting story. I'm so excited to be getting back into the groove and feeding that creative impulse. What do you like to create? Let me know. If you enjoyed this podcast, please hop over to Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify or whatever podcasting service you use, SUBSCRIBE and give me a 5-star rating and review. It really does help. If you like this type of content and want to help us out, the absolute best way you can do that is to share it on all of your social media platforms. Share it with any friends or family who might be interested in this type of content. Let them know about the Peaceful Heart Farmcast. And come on over to our Locals community. Subscribe at peacefulheartfarm.locals.com. We'd love to have your support and input in the community. And we'd love to help you out by answering your questions. See you there! Thank you so much for stopping by our homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace. To learn about herd shares: Visit our website Herd Share page To share your thoughts: Leave a comment on our Facebook Page Share this show on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and all your social media If you are a paid subscriber, meet up with us on Locals. To help the show: PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW for Peaceful Heart FarmCast on Apple Podcasts. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher Radio, Google Play Music, TuneIn or Spotify Become a community member on Locals Donate on Patreon Website www.peacefulheartfarm.com Locals peacefulheartfarm.locals.com Rumble https://rumble.com/user/peacefulheartfarm YouTube youtube.com/peacefulheartfarm Patreon www.patreon.com/peacefulheartfarm Facebook www.facebook.com/peacefulheartfarm Instagram www.instagram.com/peacefulheartfarm

Join Pat Willie as she brings you two minutes of prayer and reflection. We believe that prayer is essential, life-giving, and life-sustaining. In this 2-minute prayer, we are praying for rejoicing. Please join us for 2 minutes of prayer to our Lord and Savior. Transcription: Hello. This is Pat Willie, the founder, and CEO of the not-for-profit ministry, The Gathering. When women gather, when women worship. Thanks for joining us for this podcast, the two-minute prayer. I believe that prayer is essential. It is life-giving and life-sustaining, and it only takes just a minute to pray. Father God in the name of Jesus we are just so elated and so blessed and happy to have you in our lives, for truly you make a difference. We thank you for the peace that you have given us. Even in the storm, you are our peace because we know that you can speak to the storms in our lives and there will be a calmness that only comes from you. And so God, I pray for everyone that's experiencing storms, emotional storms, storms in their health, storms in their relationships, I pray now, oh God, that you will speak peace in their life. In Jesus' name. Some are experiencing a storm in their health, and in their finances. But God, I thank you that as you were with the disciples in the middle of the sea on a boat, your word says you spoke to the storm and you said, peace be still. So I pray, oh God, that you will speak in their hearts and their minds. Give them the peace that passes all understanding. Give them your peace, oh God, in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Not only give them peace, God but give them the strength and the boldness to declare no matter what I'm going through, god is with me. Glory Be to God. For you promised us that you will never leave us nor forsake us. And we don't have to do life alone. We have you, Christ, on our side. And we have each other. Thank you for the support that we have in you. Thank you for the victory that we have in you. I pray a calmness and stillness. Peace is still in the lives of your people. In the name of the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Thanks for listening in today. Please subscribe to this channel by using the links below blessings. Now, this is the two-minute prayer podcast. Have a great day.   If you would like to make a donation to this ministry, please use this link. https://www.patwillieministries.org/donate

Today is National Stress Awareness Day – Patrick offers 5 stress reduction tips that only take 30 seconds Donna - Purgatory: when we go to confession after sinning do we need to still go to purgatory if we die? Barbara - Why is the Glory Be never said when reciting prayers for the dead? ‘Miracle' caught on video: Priest escapes unharmed when SUV hurdles his car Kathy - A family member is bashing on St. John Paul II for not handling the priest abuse cases better. How can I talk with them about this? Patrick shares Who Americans Spend Their Time With Ron - I just got a settlement. Do I need to give 10 percent straight to the Church? Bridget - Can we pray to another person's guardian angel? Jason - If a protestant and a Catholic get married does the protestant need to get other Catholic sacraments?

Patrick answers listener questions about if there is any proof outside of the bible that Jesus really existed, why we say “world without end” in the Glory Be, and he also shares a study that points to families eating dinner together is the key to children's health and he points out that YouTube has added pro-abortion info on his anti-abortion videos Heat from fingertips can be used to crack passwords, researchers find Carrie (04:20) - Is there any historical evidence for Jesus' existence? My husband doesn't think there is any. Family Dinners Are Key to Children's Health. So Why Don't We Eat Together More? Nathaniel - I got the InQUIZition book. We went over it after dinner and it was great! Rick (35:20) - Why do we say 'World without end' in the Glory Be? YouTube adds pro-abortion info to Catholic, pro-life videos Ashley - Why does Jesus say 'Do not Weep for me' to the women during his Passion?

(Best Of) The #Catholic #Church never taught slavery was ok, on opposing views on the Catholic view of the #Bible, is Jesus less powerful than the Father?, and the Glory Be #prayer. #slavery #Catholic #God #Jesus

The #Catholic #Church never taught slavery was ok, on opposing views on the Catholic view of the #Bible, is Jesus less powerful than the Father?, and the Glory Be #prayer. #slavery #Catholic #God #Jesus

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston in our neighborhood Churches or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com.Heavenly Father, we thank you that you, the Great God of the universe have given us this opportunity to come and worship you. We thank you Jesus, that while we were yet sinners, you came and you died for us. Not because there was anything lovely in us presently or in the future, but because you are a loving God. Lord, I pray, remove any distractions and help us focus on your Holy Word. Help us to meditate today on the Sovereignty of God that you are God over everything, over every detail, over all the minutia of our lives and all the minutia in the world. And help us take solace in the fact that you're in control, even when we look at our lives and we look at the world, it seems like everything is out of control. Your word tells us that when we submit ourselves to you, when we love you with all our heart, soul, strength and mind, you take every single aspect of our lives and you weave them all together for our good and for your glory.Bless our time in the Holy Scriptures now, as we look at a profound passage. It's difficult in many ways, but it's not difficult to understand. It's difficult to receive, so give us grace to receive it. We pray Holy Spirit, come now and minister to us. Take these words that are on paper, that are on screens and apply them to our hearts. Make us the people who love you with everything that we got. Love the Gospel with everything we got, so much so that we're willing to sacrifice anything and everything, so that others might have the opportunity to hear the Gospel and be prompted by the Holy Spirit generated in their hearts and drawn to you. Bless our time in the Holy Word. We pray all this in Christ's Holy Name. Amen.We're continuing our sermon series through Romans 9. Today, we're in Romans 9:1-5. The title of the sermon is, Heartbroken Over Eternal Souls. We've moved from one of the most popular passages in all the Scripture, Romans 8 to one of the least popular and most avoided. It's a difficult passage, but it's not that difficult to understand. I can explain it to you. It's difficult for many to accept and receive, partially because it cuts against the grain of our very nature. Our nature is driven by self. In many ways, we are natural Pelasgians. Pelagius taught that we have the power to come to Christ whenever we want. That we have a free will that's truly free and we can choose Christ whenever, wherever. That's not true.I love this portion of Scripture. It's balm to my weary soul, because it shows us that God is Sovereign. That God is King. That God is God. He is all powerful. He can do whatever he wills, and whatever he wills is good because he is good. I love this portion of Scripture because it reminds me I'm not in control, nor do I need to be. God is in control. And thanks be to Jesus Christ, the one who is in control loves me and wants the best for me. In Romans 8, one of my favorite verses is Romans 8:28, which says, "And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." Well this verse is only true, if God is Sovereign over every single detail in the universe. If God is Sovereign over everything, then he is Sovereign over who gets saved, because who gets saved is part of everything. And if you don't understand just how totally Sovereign God is, you don't really understand the character of God, not yet.Romans 9 is an explanation for why the word of God has not failed, even though God's chosen people Israel, as a whole, are not turning to Christ and being saved. In Romans 8, God says, "There is nothing that can sever God's people from God's love." There is nothing that can sever God's people from God's love, and here someone can raise the question, "Whoa, whoa, hold on. What about Israel? What about the Jewish People, the chosen people of God? Why aren't they flocking to Christ as they should be?" They have received so many of the privileges that many people are not born into.Here St. Paul says, "Hey, hold on. God never promised that salvation will be given to all of ethnic Israel, because salvation isn't based on DNA. Salvation isn't based on our genes. It's not based on our religious pedigree. It doesn't matter how many religious people you had in your family before you. What matters is faith in Jesus Christ, your own personal faith in Jesus Christ, your own relationship with Christ." God's word has not fallen and the sovereignty of God's grace has brought in, in Romans 9, as the final ground of God's faithfulness, despite Israel's faithlessness, their failure to trust in Christ. And therefore, God's sovereignty is the deepest foundation for the precious promises of Romans 8.With that said, would you please look with me in Romans 9:1-5, "I am speaking the truth in Christ. I'm not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelite. And to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen." This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word, may write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Three points to frame over our time. First, anguish over lost souls. Second, accursed and cut off. And third, religious privilege doesn't save.First, anguish over lost souls. Look at verse one. Look at Paul's solemnity. He's giving a declaration with the deepest sincerity that he can muster. He says, "I am speaking the truth in Christ." He invokes Christ, the second person of the Trinity. "I'm not lying. Speaking the truth. I'm not lying. My conscience bears me witness." Brings in his conscience. "In the Holy Spirit," brings in the third person of the Holy Spirit, to show us just how sincere he is and what he's about to say. Why? Because he knows that he's said some things that are problematic for religious Jewish people of his day and religious Jewish people of our day. Before Paul looks at how God has taken the Gospel from the Jews to the Gentiles community, grafting Gentiles in the place of Israel. That's what Romans 9-11 is about. He wants to make sure that these people, his brothers, his brethren, his kinsmen. His brothers that he grew up going to synagogue with these people. This is his family.He wants the Jewish community to know that he is writing these words with tears. He's not angry. He's not hostile toward them. He's speaking with a loving and burdened heart. Why is such a strong assertion of truthfulness of his love? Because he knows that he has spoken hard truths. And when you speak hard truths to people, it's easy for them to misinterpret your intentions. He's speaking truth, because he loves. Probably because Paul also knows that his fellow Jews were suspicious of his loyalty and his patriotism, because he was used by God to bring so many Gentiles into the people of God. He was viewed by a number of his Jewish people as a traitor, that he has lost his natural affection towards his people and he denies this.They doubted his love. So that's what he starts with. Why would they doubt his love? Because he said hard things, like Romans 2:24, "For as it is written, the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you." He's talking about religious people who offered God nothing more than mouth service. They worshiped God with their mouths, but their hearts were far from him. The Gentiles saw the testimony, the sermon of the lives of these people. And he said, "You worship God?" They blaspheme the name of God. Romans 3:9, "What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin." This was his message.His message has never changed. His message was, it doesn't matter what your pedigree. It doesn't matter what your genealogy. It doesn't matter what your DNA. It doesn't matter how many faithful people you had in your past, in your family. None of that matters, because God doesn't have grandchildren. God only has children. So everyone is a sinner. He's preaching the same message to both Jews and Greeks. And the Jews will say, "Hold on, hold on. You're saying we're as much sinners as the Gentiles?" And Paul says, "Yes. We're all sinners. We're all under the condemnation of God. We all deserve damnation. We're all accursed apart from God." And then he says in verse six, and we'll cover this next week in Romans 9:6. He says, "But it's not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel." It's not your genealogy that saves you. Saying it over and over and over, God's covenant doesn't guarantee the salvation of every Jew. The ultimate reason why some are cursed and cut off from Christ is that they are not among the elect.Romans 11:7, "What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elective obtained it, but the rest were hardened." Before he gets to these hard truths about election, he wants everyone to know that these truths are coming from a heart that loves people. He says in verse two of chapter nine, "That I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart." You can feel his pain as grief. It's a perturbed heart, kind of like Christ was. And the more that you know Christ and love Christ, the more Christ-like you become. This is why Jesus saves us, so that we can be refashioned and transformed into the image of Christ, that we become more Christ-like, and Christ loved sinners. Christ gave everything to save sinners.On his way to Jerusalem, he knows the passion is coming. He knows the crucifixion is coming, and he knows the people that he is dying for, killed by. These are people that he loves and he wants them to be saved. This is what Jesus says, as he cries out in lament about Jerusalem, a city that hardened their hearts against the word of God. Matthew 23:37, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it. How often would I have gathered your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you are not willing."Paul continues and this is point, accursed and cut off. In verse three, he says. This is how deep his grief. This is how deep his sorrow. He says in verse three, "For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh." Well, you got to pause here and meditate on what he's saying. What are you saying, Paul? The first thing that he's saying is an implication. What he's implying is, that his kinsmen, his brothers according to the flesh, his fellow Jewish believers are accursed and cut off from Christ. He does soften the statement of their loss by expressing in relation to his own anguish, but the statement's unmistakable. He's saying that the Jewish people who rejected Christ are accursed, that they're lost. They're on their way to hell, under the judgment of God.The word for accursed here is anathema. It's used in other places, like 1 Corinthians 16:22, "If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. O Lord, come." So why are these people accursed? What makes one accursed? Well, breaking the moral law of God. You break the moral law of God, God's curses upon your head. It's upon your soul. And there's only one way to be saved from the curse that we all deserve for our law breaking. That's the trust in the God Man, Jesus Christ, who was cursed on our behalf. These people rejected the only one who could save them from the curse of the law. Galatians 3:13 says, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree."Paul knows this. Paul knows that the only way to be saved from damnation is to trust in Jesus Christ, that Jesus Christ, the substitutionary atonement, he bore the curse that we deserve. And as soon as we trust in him, the curse is lifted off from us, and Christ's righteousness is imputed to us. "He who knew no sin became sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God." Paul knows this, but he still sees his brothers and sisters as kinsmen in the flesh. They've rejected Christ, and he says some haunting words. He says, "For I could wish that I were accursed on their behalf." What he's saying is hypothetically, if there were a way for them to be saved and for me to be cursed, I'm willing to take their curse upon myself and bear eternal torment forever.Of course, he's speaking hypothetically. It's impossible that any mere man could be cursed in exchange for the salvation of others, but Paul expresses this impossible wish in uncertain terms. He says, "My conscience bears me when it's in Christ, I'm saying the truth in the Holy Spirit." He knows it's not true, but if it were true, he would do it. The wish can't be fulfilled. Nothing can sever believers from the love of Christ. We already know this from Romans 8, but he says, "May I be damned so that they would not be." Martin Luther comments. He says, "It seems incredible that a man would desire to be damned in order that the damned might be saved."Well, this is as Christ-like as you can become. He sees people that he loves and he's willing to do absolutely anything and everything sacrifice everything for these people to meet Christ. That's what Christ did. He knew that there was no other way for people to be saved, other than for Christ to come, live a perfectly obedient life of love toward God and people. And then, Christ goes to a cross. He's crucified and the crucifixion was chosen by God. This is pre-destined sovereignty of God. He controls every single detail. God chose crucifixion, because it was the most excruciating form of capital punishment ever known to man, and even that was just a tip of the iceberg of the spiritual anguish that Christ went through. Christ bore our curse upon himself, and that curse was bearing the wrath of God in his soul. Christ went through hell so that we would not have too.You can hear the grief and the voice of St. Paul here at the unbelief of his people. And I wonder, could you say this? Could you say anything remotely close to this? Could you say you love someone so much that you give up your own salvation for them? Those of us who have loved ones who were lost, perhaps a sibling or a spouse or a child or a parent, a grandparent, friends, we know this grief. We know this sorrow. We made joy time with them, laugh with them, even play with them, but there's always a pain underneath knowing, unless this person trusts in Christ, we will spend eternity apart from each other. Luther put it this way, "Love is not only pure joy and delight, but also a great and deep heaviness of heart and sorrow."The good news is, we don't have to give up our salvation for the salvation of others. But if you put yourself in this posture of heart, where you're willing to give up your salvation for that of another, well it makes other things so much easier, like sharing the Gospel with them. As awkward as it can be as politically incorrect as it may be, you can have a difficult conversation with the person. And by the way, this is what St. Paul and by the way Jesus calls each one of us to. The great commission wasn't just given to the disciples or the Apostles or professional trained clergy. The great commission was given to each one of us. Jesus Christ tells each Christian, "Look, I've saved you and now I'm giving you a job. I'm commissioning you, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to do everything that I have taught you."I do want you to increase your evangelistic ministry. You should have one. Every Christian should have an evangelistic ministry, where you have unbelievers that you are heartbroken over, sorrow, anguishing your heart over, and you beg God to save them. And you take any and every opportunity to share the Gospel with them, to read Scripture with them, to speak truth in love and serve them. This is what Paul did. These aren't just words for Paul. He devoted his life, his whole life to sharing the Gospel, planting Churches and doing missionary work. Paul's immense heart broke for Israel and he uses the same word when he writes to the Galatians, the word anathema. The Galatians were being seduced away from the true Gospel in Galatians 1:8. He says, "But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a Gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed."So what he's saying to false teachers who do not preach the full Gospel? He says, "May you be cursed for preaching lies." What he's saying is, "Damn you for destroying the Gospel." This is the worst kind of curse that could be brought against a human being. It goes back to the Old Testament, when God's curse was upon Canaan and God tells the people of Israel, "Don't even take their goods. Slaughter them, give them up to absolute destruction." This is the kind of anathema that Paul is calling upon himself. "I am willing to go through this anathema so that my kinsmen could be saved." And the reader of Romans who knows his or her Bible will immediately spot, that the posture of heart in verse three is very similar to that of Moses.When Moses comes down from Mount Sinai and he sees that the people of Israel have fashioned golden calf, and they're worshiping it. Moses discovers the sin of the people and he knows that God is about to vanquish them, and he says, "God, you got to hold on." And he intercedes for them in Exodus 32:30-32, "The next day, Moses came to the people. You have sinned." And he said to them, "You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the Lord, perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.' So Moses returned to the Lord and said, 'Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold. But now, if you will forgive their sin. If not, please blot me out of your book that you have written."What a heart for the lost, and I pray that the Lord develops a similar heart in each one of us. This is why we exist. This is why this Church exists. This is why we have an army volunteers, every Sunday, show up here like 6:00 AM. They're here till like 2:00 PM, sweating and burning calories. You worship God and you get a workout. It's like CrossFit. Jesus is the center of the cross. This is what we do. We do everything. We do glorify God, and we want unbelievers to meet Jesus. That's what we want. And every single Sunday, there's unbelievers that show up and we hear, people get saved. We prep people for baptism, discipleship, et cetera. The Lord is doing his work.Third point is religious privilege doesn't save. Romans 9:4, "They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship and the promises." What he's saying is, some people are given more revelation than others. These are spiritual privileges. If you grow up in a Christian family, you have a father and a mother who care for you, teach you the Gospel, teach you Holy Scriptures, have devotions with you, pray with you, pray over you, care for you. And they embody the truth of the Gospel with their own lives. That's incredible privilege. I think of my own parents. Every single morning, I walk down the stairs as I go prep breakfast on the way to school. And my dad is on his knees, open Bible, praying to God. My mom and my dad loved the Lord, incredible privilege. But what we are you saying here, it doesn't matter the privileges that you've been given, if you don't do anything with them, if you don't make them your own, if you don't accept these blessings, privileges.The privileges missed, the first one is adoption. And here he is talking about Israel not as adoption given to individuals. And this has to be clarified because in Romans 8, he does say that we have been, "Christians individually adopted into the family of God." Israel did not have the same adoption. They had a national blessing of adoption conferred on them, but they still had to appropriate for themselves. In the Gospel of Matthew, we see this application from the Old Testament, when Jesus Christ was born and then Herod issued the threat of infant slaughter. An angel comes and warns Joseph in a dream to flee from Bethlehem and not to return to Nazareth, but go to Egypt until the threat had passed. And then Matthew tells us, that Joseph took Mary and the baby Jesus and fled to Egypt. And when the Herodian persecution was over, they come back to Israel, thereby fulfilling the Old Testament prophecy that we're given. And this is the text in Matthew 2:13-15."Now, when they had departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, 'Rise, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him.' And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, 'Out of Egypt, I called my son." Well, the original reference to this adoption was when God, through Moses brings Israel out of captivity, out of the yoke of slavery under Pharaoh and calling the nation, his son. And that's Hosea 11:1, "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son." The Israelites were those who had been called to enjoy the adoption, but then they've run from the Lord, turned from the Lord and turned to idolatry.The second privilege that they were given is the glory, and the Greek word for glory's Doxa, where we get the word doxology from. When we sing the Doxology after every Sunday Service, we're giving glory to God. He deserves it. The Latin equivalent of the word Doxa is Gloria, from which we get the Gloria Patri, Glory Be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning and is now and ever shall be. Amen. In this context here, Paul is undoubtedly referring to God's presence to people of Israel. God was amongst them, but the reader of Romans have forgotten that Paul has attributed this characteristic to Christians, that God is in us. The Holy Spirit is in us in a way that wasn't true with Israel, but they did experience the Glory, hovering over the mercy seat in the Arc of the Covenant, in the Holy of Holies and glory in Israel is connected to the Shekinah, the blazing light that manifested God's Glory and made him a consuming fire.Ezekiel saw the Glory of God rising from the City of Jerusalem and departing. And at the birth of Jesus Christ, the Glory of God flooded the landscape and the angelic choir gave Glory to God. The covenants were given to Israel, the covenants with Adam, with Noah, with Abraham, with Isaac, Jacob, Moses and with David. And the covenants we inherit from the Jews, not from the Gentiles. We inherit these from Paul's kinsmen. The covenants belonged to them. Covenants and promises probably goes together, but we'll get to the promises later, but all these covenants that God made and all the promises that God made belong to Christians as well. You elect remnant of Israel, you future ethnic Israel as a whole, and you Gentiles who trust in the Messiah and are grafted into the tree of the covenant of the promise, these are ours. Why? Because in Jesus Christ, "All the promises of God are yes," as 2 Corinthians tells us.The giving of the law. We received the law because the law was given by God to Israel. The law wasn't given to Hammurabi. It wasn't given to Babylon, Phoenicia or Egypt. The law was given to Israel and through Israel, it was given to all of us. And the law was given to us, so that we might realize that we are sinners in need of the Grace of God. Romans 3:19, "Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God." The whole world.The moral law is given to every single human being. It's not just the Jewish people. And as you read the Ten Commandments, you realize that there's a self authenticating power to them. That these are God's words and these words are written on our hearts, so that's the self authentication. And ultimately, the law is given to us to show us that we need salvation. We need Christ. Romans 10:4, "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." In the long term, aim of the law wasn't our condemnation. It was our salvation. For trusting the Messiah for our righteousness, the law has become to us, what it was given for, a servant to lead us to Christ. And the word worship.The worship was given to the people of Israel and the word for worship that he uses here is the same word as service. So to worship God is to serve God. To serve God is to worship God, the Greek word [foreign language 00:29:19]. Our instructions about how to bring praise, sacrifices to God in corporate worship were given to us through the people of Israel. And the word here refers to ministry of priests and the offering of sacrifices. And the supreme temple service, the supreme temple worship was the Passover. In the Passover, a lamb was to be slaughtered. Blood was supposed to be shed. And then you take that blood and you paint it over your doorway, so that the angel of death passes over your household. And then, 1 Corinthians 5:7 says that, "Christ is our ultimate Passover lamb. He has been sacrificed." He has performed the final and decisive atoning temple service on the cross. So when we say the temple service belongs to true Israel, we mean in the fullest saving way, our sins are forgiven and God welcomes us into his fellowship.Then six, he says, "The promises we're given to them." Which promises? And there are thousands in Scripture, but in particular, it's the promise that God would save his people from their sins, and we'll get that from the very beginning in Genesis 3 right after the fall. In Genesis 3:15, God gives us the Protoevangelion, the first Gospel in Genesis 3:15 where he says the following, "I will put enmity between you." He's talking to the serpent saying, "And the woman, between your offspring and her offspring, he." So this is the offspring of the woman. "He will bruise your head and you will bruise his heel." And this is God promising that the seed of the woman. This is going to be a human being, but it's a human being who can vanquish Satan. So it has to be God. He's the only one who can vanquish Satan. He's the one that will come and he's the one that will save.A friend sent me a video this week of Jordan Peterson. Apparently, he's been getting into the Bible recently, and it was a video of him with a slide behind him of every single Cross reference in Scripture. And it's just arc after arc after arc. And I'm like, I already knew this, but he was amazed. There's 65,000 Cross references in the Bible. I actually think it's more, but 65,000 Cross references in the Bible and he's like, "This book is ... You can't make this up. This is a miracle." He called it the first hyperlinked book ever. He's like, "There's no links to click, but it's hyperlinked." It's telling one story. 3000 years, three millennia, 40 plus authors, three plus language, all speaking in harmony unison about this Gospel. We have sinned. God is gracious, sends his Son to vanquish Satan, sin and death.All these things, the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship of God and God's promises, they came through to Paul's kinsmen Israel. Don't you see? This is why Paul is in tears. You've been given so much. You've been given every single piece of the puzzle. You're only missing the Cross at the center, Jesus Christ. Romans 9:5, "To them belong to patriarchs. And from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God overall, blessed forever. Amen." The implication of this is stated in Romans 11:28, "As regards the Gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers." And we'll get into that in a few weeks. But in other words, God freely chose Abraham, freely chose Isaac and Jacob and promised to their descendants that they would be heirs of God. And what we see from Romans 9-11 is that, this is meant in three ways.First, that there is an elect remnant of Israel. There always was, and there always will be. Elijah, I don't know if you remember this one text, where he's just complaining to God like, "God, I'm the only Christian. I'm the only one that loves you." I wonder if you ever feel like that in Boston. I'm the only one. I'm the only one in my company, probably the whole university. If you go to BU, you're probably right. I'm the only one. I'm the only one. And God says to Elijah, "Stop complaining. I've got 7,000. 7,000 people who have not knelt a knee to Baal. Well that's election. That's God's saving his remnant.There's also promise that all ethnic is real. At some point, in some future time, when they're alive, will be saved. It will be incredible revival amongst Jewish people. And Gentiles, that's us who trust in the Messiah, become sons of the fathers with the same blessing as the natural children. So if you repent of your sin and trust in Jesus Christ, you become a child of Abraham as much as Isaac was. Everything promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is yours, in the Messiah Jesus Christ.Verse five, I don't know if you noticed. He says, "Christ, who is God overall, blessed forever." Paul does affirm Jesus' Jewish ancestry, that Jesus was fully human, but he doesn't stop there. He gives one of the clearest, most decisive affirmations of the Deity of Christ, that we find anywhere in Scripture, that Christ is God. He's over all things, the entire universe. The Jews use this expression to refer to God's dominion over the entire creation. "Christ is God over all, blessed forever." So if you're having a conversation with a Mormon or a Jehovah's Witness, they don't believe that Jesus is God, just keep this one in the back pocket, Romans 9:5. Just take him there, Romans 9:5, "Christ is God, blessed forever."Here, someone might raise a legitimate question and say, "Will we go to heaven, be sad throughout all eternity, because of those who are cursed and cut off from Christ in hell?" What if we have a loved one who never turns to Christ? Brother or sister, sibling, spouse, child, there will be a sadness in eternity because of them. And the answer is no. The Scripture says, "God will wipe away every tear from their eyes and neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore." But God will have to wipe out tears.God will have to wipe off our tears. Why are we weeping in the first place, in a place of bliss? I think there will be moments in the very beginning, where we wish we had done more, kind of like Schindler's List at the end, where he is like, "Here's the watch. Here's the pen. I wish I had done more." Well, that's just a reminder for us to do the more now, be encouraged to be more bold and preaching the Gospel now. "And with respect to any affection that the godly may have had to the finally reprobate, the love of God will wholly swallow it up, and cause it wholly to cease," as Jonathan Edwards says.In conclusion, pray for God to burden your heart for the lost. If you hear this and you're like, "I've never even thought about praying for the lost." Well first, pray for your own heart, you're living in disobedience. Pray for your own heart to care for the lost and then pray for the lost and share the Gospel with the lost. Romans 10:1, this is what Paul says, "Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved." St. Paul had to pray for God to save people. He couldn't do it himself. He believed in the sovereignty of God. He believed that God elects people to salvation. And because he believed that God elects people to salvation, he prayed for God to save the elect. A lot of people use God's sovereignty in saving people as an excuse to do nothing. Well, if God saves people, then he doesn't need me to share the Gospel. If God is the one to predestine people a salvation, well he doesn't need me to do any. He doesn't need me to pray. That's false.If God predestines the end, he predestines the means. And the means that he predestines is for every single one of us to pray for the lost and share the Gospel with the lost. And the fruit of Paul's anguish is to pray for them and ask that God would save them. If Paul had to pray, if Paul prayed for the lost, we should too. If Christ prayed for the lost, we should too. Jesus Christ on the cross says, "Father, forgive them. They know not what they do." He's praying for the loss. And because Christ prayed for the loss on the cross for their salvation, we are called to pray as well. 2 Timothy 2:25 says, "God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth." May the Lord do so even now.If you don't know if you're a Christian, if you're still under the guilt of your sins and accursed and cut off from Christ, well don't stay there. Today, turn to Jesus Christ. Look to Christ on the cross. Christ crying out from the depth of his soul and anguish and heart, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Christ was accursed. Christ was caught off from God the Father, God the Holy Spirit, so we would never have to be. He bore the wrath of God, so that we would not have to. He bore the curse, so that we might receive the blessing. So trust in him as your only hope, and you will be saved today.I'll close in Matthew 11:25-30, before we transition to communion. It's a text where Jesus Christ thanks God for closing the eyes of some, opening the eyes of others and saying that only the one to whom the son reveals the Father can be saved. And still Christ says, "Come to me all who are burdened and heavy laden." Matthew 11:25-30, "At that time, Jesus declared, 'I thank you, Father Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children. Yes Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart. And you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."Lord, we thank you for all the spiritual privileges that you have bestowed upon us as a Church and as individuals. We thank you for the full canon of Holy Scripture, a word that testifies to you, a word that reveals you, a word that reveals the Living Word of God, Jesus Christ. Lord, we thank you that your, "Word is living and active, sharper than any two edge sword, piercing the division of soul and of marrow, revealing to us the intentions of the heart." And we come to you Lord and we ask for forgiveness of all our sin, of all our pride of all our selfishness and self-reliance, and help us not trust in our spiritual privileges.Make us people who only trust in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And make us people who walk in a manner worthy of the Gospel, to bring glory to you and attract attention to the beautiful Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe, every single person who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. We pray all this in the beautiful name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and savior. Amen.

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston in our neighborhood Churches or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you, the Great God of the universe have given us this opportunity to come and worship you. We thank you Jesus, that while we were yet sinners, you came and you died for us. Not because there was anything lovely in us presently or in the future, but because you are a loving God. Lord, I pray, remove any distractions and help us focus on your Holy Word. Help us to meditate today on the Sovereignty of God that you are God over everything, over every detail, over all the minutia of our lives and all the minutia in the world. And help us take solace in the fact that you're in control, even when we look at our lives and we look at the world, it seems like everything is out of control. Your word tells us that when we submit ourselves to you, when we love you with all our heart, soul, strength and mind, you take every single aspect of our lives and you weave them all together for our good and for your glory. Bless our time in the Holy Scriptures now, as we look at a profound passage. It's difficult in many ways, but it's not difficult to understand. It's difficult to receive, so give us grace to receive it. We pray Holy Spirit, come now and minister to us. Take these words that are on paper, that are on screens and apply them to our hearts. Make us the people who love you with everything that we got. Love the Gospel with everything we got, so much so that we're willing to sacrifice anything and everything, so that others might have the opportunity to hear the Gospel and be prompted by the Holy Spirit generated in their hearts and drawn to you. Bless our time in the Holy Word. We pray all this in Christ's Holy Name. Amen. We're continuing our sermon series through Romans 9. Today, we're in Romans 9:1-5. The title of the sermon is, Heartbroken Over Eternal Souls. We've moved from one of the most popular passages in all the Scripture, Romans 8 to one of the least popular and most avoided. It's a difficult passage, but it's not that difficult to understand. I can explain it to you. It's difficult for many to accept and receive, partially because it cuts against the grain of our very nature. Our nature is driven by self. In many ways, we are natural Pelasgians. Pelagius taught that we have the power to come to Christ whenever we want. That we have a free will that's truly free and we can choose Christ whenever, wherever. That's not true. I love this portion of Scripture. It's balm to my weary soul, because it shows us that God is Sovereign. That God is King. That God is God. He is all powerful. He can do whatever he wills, and whatever he wills is good because he is good. I love this portion of Scripture because it reminds me I'm not in control, nor do I need to be. God is in control. And thanks be to Jesus Christ, the one who is in control loves me and wants the best for me. In Romans 8, one of my favorite verses is Romans 8:28, which says, "And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." Well this verse is only true, if God is Sovereign over every single detail in the universe. If God is Sovereign over everything, then he is Sovereign over who gets saved, because who gets saved is part of everything. And if you don't understand just how totally Sovereign God is, you don't really understand the character of God, not yet. Romans 9 is an explanation for why the word of God has not failed, even though God's chosen people Israel, as a whole, are not turning to Christ and being saved. In Romans 8, God says, "There is nothing that can sever God's people from God's love." There is nothing that can sever God's people from God's love, and here someone can raise the question, "Whoa, whoa, hold on. What about Israel? What about the Jewish People, the chosen people of God? Why aren't they flocking to Christ as they should be?" They have received so many of the privileges that many people are not born into. Here St. Paul says, "Hey, hold on. God never promised that salvation will be given to all of ethnic Israel, because salvation isn't based on DNA. Salvation isn't based on our genes. It's not based on our religious pedigree. It doesn't matter how many religious people you had in your family before you. What matters is faith in Jesus Christ, your own personal faith in Jesus Christ, your own relationship with Christ." God's word has not fallen and the sovereignty of God's grace has brought in, in Romans 9, as the final ground of God's faithfulness, despite Israel's faithlessness, their failure to trust in Christ. And therefore, God's sovereignty is the deepest foundation for the precious promises of Romans 8. With that said, would you please look with me in Romans 9:1-5, "I am speaking the truth in Christ. I'm not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelite. And to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen." This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word, may write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Three points to frame over our time. First, anguish over lost souls. Second, accursed and cut off. And third, religious privilege doesn't save. First, anguish over lost souls. Look at verse one. Look at Paul's solemnity. He's giving a declaration with the deepest sincerity that he can muster. He says, "I am speaking the truth in Christ." He invokes Christ, the second person of the Trinity. "I'm not lying. Speaking the truth. I'm not lying. My conscience bears me witness." Brings in his conscience. "In the Holy Spirit," brings in the third person of the Holy Spirit, to show us just how sincere he is and what he's about to say. Why? Because he knows that he's said some things that are problematic for religious Jewish people of his day and religious Jewish people of our day. Before Paul looks at how God has taken the Gospel from the Jews to the Gentiles community, grafting Gentiles in the place of Israel. That's what Romans 9-11 is about. He wants to make sure that these people, his brothers, his brethren, his kinsmen. His brothers that he grew up going to synagogue with these people. This is his family. He wants the Jewish community to know that he is writing these words with tears. He's not angry. He's not hostile toward them. He's speaking with a loving and burdened heart. Why is such a strong assertion of truthfulness of his love? Because he knows that he has spoken hard truths. And when you speak hard truths to people, it's easy for them to misinterpret your intentions. He's speaking truth, because he loves. Probably because Paul also knows that his fellow Jews were suspicious of his loyalty and his patriotism, because he was used by God to bring so many Gentiles into the people of God. He was viewed by a number of his Jewish people as a traitor, that he has lost his natural affection towards his people and he denies this. They doubted his love. So that's what he starts with. Why would they doubt his love? Because he said hard things, like Romans 2:24, "For as it is written, the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you." He's talking about religious people who offered God nothing more than mouth service. They worshiped God with their mouths, but their hearts were far from him. The Gentiles saw the testimony, the sermon of the lives of these people. And he said, "You worship God?" They blaspheme the name of God. Romans 3:9, "What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin." This was his message. His message has never changed. His message was, it doesn't matter what your pedigree. It doesn't matter what your genealogy. It doesn't matter what your DNA. It doesn't matter how many faithful people you had in your past, in your family. None of that matters, because God doesn't have grandchildren. God only has children. So everyone is a sinner. He's preaching the same message to both Jews and Greeks. And the Jews will say, "Hold on, hold on. You're saying we're as much sinners as the Gentiles?" And Paul says, "Yes. We're all sinners. We're all under the condemnation of God. We all deserve damnation. We're all accursed apart from God." And then he says in verse six, and we'll cover this next week in Romans 9:6. He says, "But it's not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel." It's not your genealogy that saves you. Saying it over and over and over, God's covenant doesn't guarantee the salvation of every Jew. The ultimate reason why some are cursed and cut off from Christ is that they are not among the elect. Romans 11:7, "What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elective obtained it, but the rest were hardened." Before he gets to these hard truths about election, he wants everyone to know that these truths are coming from a heart that loves people. He says in verse two of chapter nine, "That I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart." You can feel his pain as grief. It's a perturbed heart, kind of like Christ was. And the more that you know Christ and love Christ, the more Christ-like you become. This is why Jesus saves us, so that we can be refashioned and transformed into the image of Christ, that we become more Christ-like, and Christ loved sinners. Christ gave everything to save sinners. On his way to Jerusalem, he knows the passion is coming. He knows the crucifixion is coming, and he knows the people that he is dying for, killed by. These are people that he loves and he wants them to be saved. This is what Jesus says, as he cries out in lament about Jerusalem, a city that hardened their hearts against the word of God. Matthew 23:37, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it. How often would I have gathered your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you are not willing." Paul continues and this is point, accursed and cut off. In verse three, he says. This is how deep his grief. This is how deep his sorrow. He says in verse three, "For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh." Well, you got to pause here and meditate on what he's saying. What are you saying, Paul? The first thing that he's saying is an implication. What he's implying is, that his kinsmen, his brothers according to the flesh, his fellow Jewish believers are accursed and cut off from Christ. He does soften the statement of their loss by expressing in relation to his own anguish, but the statement's unmistakable. He's saying that the Jewish people who rejected Christ are accursed, that they're lost. They're on their way to hell, under the judgment of God. The word for accursed here is anathema. It's used in other places, like 1 Corinthians 16:22, "If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. O Lord, come." So why are these people accursed? What makes one accursed? Well, breaking the moral law of God. You break the moral law of God, God's curses upon your head. It's upon your soul. And there's only one way to be saved from the curse that we all deserve for our law breaking. That's the trust in the God Man, Jesus Christ, who was cursed on our behalf. These people rejected the only one who could save them from the curse of the law. Galatians 3:13 says, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree." Paul knows this. Paul knows that the only way to be saved from damnation is to trust in Jesus Christ, that Jesus Christ, the substitutionary atonement, he bore the curse that we deserve. And as soon as we trust in him, the curse is lifted off from us, and Christ's righteousness is imputed to us. "He who knew no sin became sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God." Paul knows this, but he still sees his brothers and sisters as kinsmen in the flesh. They've rejected Christ, and he says some haunting words. He says, "For I could wish that I were accursed on their behalf." What he's saying is hypothetically, if there were a way for them to be saved and for me to be cursed, I'm willing to take their curse upon myself and bear eternal torment forever. Of course, he's speaking hypothetically. It's impossible that any mere man could be cursed in exchange for the salvation of others, but Paul expresses this impossible wish in uncertain terms. He says, "My conscience bears me when it's in Christ, I'm saying the truth in the Holy Spirit." He knows it's not true, but if it were true, he would do it. The wish can't be fulfilled. Nothing can sever believers from the love of Christ. We already know this from Romans 8, but he says, "May I be damned so that they would not be." Martin Luther comments. He says, "It seems incredible that a man would desire to be damned in order that the damned might be saved." Well, this is as Christ-like as you can become. He sees people that he loves and he's willing to do absolutely anything and everything sacrifice everything for these people to meet Christ. That's what Christ did. He knew that there was no other way for people to be saved, other than for Christ to come, live a perfectly obedient life of love toward God and people. And then, Christ goes to a cross. He's crucified and the crucifixion was chosen by God. This is pre-destined sovereignty of God. He controls every single detail. God chose crucifixion, because it was the most excruciating form of capital punishment ever known to man, and even that was just a tip of the iceberg of the spiritual anguish that Christ went through. Christ bore our curse upon himself, and that curse was bearing the wrath of God in his soul. Christ went through hell so that we would not have too. You can hear the grief and the voice of St. Paul here at the unbelief of his people. And I wonder, could you say this? Could you say anything remotely close to this? Could you say you love someone so much that you give up your own salvation for them? Those of us who have loved ones who were lost, perhaps a sibling or a spouse or a child or a parent, a grandparent, friends, we know this grief. We know this sorrow. We made joy time with them, laugh with them, even play with them, but there's always a pain underneath knowing, unless this person trusts in Christ, we will spend eternity apart from each other. Luther put it this way, "Love is not only pure joy and delight, but also a great and deep heaviness of heart and sorrow." The good news is, we don't have to give up our salvation for the salvation of others. But if you put yourself in this posture of heart, where you're willing to give up your salvation for that of another, well it makes other things so much easier, like sharing the Gospel with them. As awkward as it can be as politically incorrect as it may be, you can have a difficult conversation with the person. And by the way, this is what St. Paul and by the way Jesus calls each one of us to. The great commission wasn't just given to the disciples or the Apostles or professional trained clergy. The great commission was given to each one of us. Jesus Christ tells each Christian, "Look, I've saved you and now I'm giving you a job. I'm commissioning you, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to do everything that I have taught you." I do want you to increase your evangelistic ministry. You should have one. Every Christian should have an evangelistic ministry, where you have unbelievers that you are heartbroken over, sorrow, anguishing your heart over, and you beg God to save them. And you take any and every opportunity to share the Gospel with them, to read Scripture with them, to speak truth in love and serve them. This is what Paul did. These aren't just words for Paul. He devoted his life, his whole life to sharing the Gospel, planting Churches and doing missionary work. Paul's immense heart broke for Israel and he uses the same word when he writes to the Galatians, the word anathema. The Galatians were being seduced away from the true Gospel in Galatians 1:8. He says, "But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a Gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed." So what he's saying to false teachers who do not preach the full Gospel? He says, "May you be cursed for preaching lies." What he's saying is, "Damn you for destroying the Gospel." This is the worst kind of curse that could be brought against a human being. It goes back to the Old Testament, when God's curse was upon Canaan and God tells the people of Israel, "Don't even take their goods. Slaughter them, give them up to absolute destruction." This is the kind of anathema that Paul is calling upon himself. "I am willing to go through this anathema so that my kinsmen could be saved." And the reader of Romans who knows his or her Bible will immediately spot, that the posture of heart in verse three is very similar to that of Moses. When Moses comes down from Mount Sinai and he sees that the people of Israel have fashioned golden calf, and they're worshiping it. Moses discovers the sin of the people and he knows that God is about to vanquish them, and he says, "God, you got to hold on." And he intercedes for them in Exodus 32:30-32, "The next day, Moses came to the people. You have sinned." And he said to them, "You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the Lord, perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.' So Moses returned to the Lord and said, 'Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold. But now, if you will forgive their sin. If not, please blot me out of your book that you have written." What a heart for the lost, and I pray that the Lord develops a similar heart in each one of us. This is why we exist. This is why this Church exists. This is why we have an army volunteers, every Sunday, show up here like 6:00 AM. They're here till like 2:00 PM, sweating and burning calories. You worship God and you get a workout. It's like CrossFit. Jesus is the center of the cross. This is what we do. We do everything. We do glorify God, and we want unbelievers to meet Jesus. That's what we want. And every single Sunday, there's unbelievers that show up and we hear, people get saved. We prep people for baptism, discipleship, et cetera. The Lord is doing his work. Third point is religious privilege doesn't save. Romans 9:4, "They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship and the promises." What he's saying is, some people are given more revelation than others. These are spiritual privileges. If you grow up in a Christian family, you have a father and a mother who care for you, teach you the Gospel, teach you Holy Scriptures, have devotions with you, pray with you, pray over you, care for you. And they embody the truth of the Gospel with their own lives. That's incredible privilege. I think of my own parents. Every single morning, I walk down the stairs as I go prep breakfast on the way to school. And my dad is on his knees, open Bible, praying to God. My mom and my dad loved the Lord, incredible privilege. But what we are you saying here, it doesn't matter the privileges that you've been given, if you don't do anything with them, if you don't make them your own, if you don't accept these blessings, privileges. The privileges missed, the first one is adoption. And here he is talking about Israel not as adoption given to individuals. And this has to be clarified because in Romans 8, he does say that we have been, "Christians individually adopted into the family of God." Israel did not have the same adoption. They had a national blessing of adoption conferred on them, but they still had to appropriate for themselves. In the Gospel of Matthew, we see this application from the Old Testament, when Jesus Christ was born and then Herod issued the threat of infant slaughter. An angel comes and warns Joseph in a dream to flee from Bethlehem and not to return to Nazareth, but go to Egypt until the threat had passed. And then Matthew tells us, that Joseph took Mary and the baby Jesus and fled to Egypt. And when the Herodian persecution was over, they come back to Israel, thereby fulfilling the Old Testament prophecy that we're given. And this is the text in Matthew 2:13-15. "Now, when they had departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, 'Rise, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him.' And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, 'Out of Egypt, I called my son." Well, the original reference to this adoption was when God, through Moses brings Israel out of captivity, out of the yoke of slavery under Pharaoh and calling the nation, his son. And that's Hosea 11:1, "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son." The Israelites were those who had been called to enjoy the adoption, but then they've run from the Lord, turned from the Lord and turned to idolatry. The second privilege that they were given is the glory, and the Greek word for glory's Doxa, where we get the word doxology from. When we sing the Doxology after every Sunday Service, we're giving glory to God. He deserves it. The Latin equivalent of the word Doxa is Gloria, from which we get the Gloria Patri, Glory Be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning and is now and ever shall be. Amen. In this context here, Paul is undoubtedly referring to God's presence to people of Israel. God was amongst them, but the reader of Romans have forgotten that Paul has attributed this characteristic to Christians, that God is in us. The Holy Spirit is in us in a way that wasn't true with Israel, but they did experience the Glory, hovering over the mercy seat in the Arc of the Covenant, in the Holy of Holies and glory in Israel is connected to the Shekinah, the blazing light that manifested God's Glory and made him a consuming fire. Ezekiel saw the Glory of God rising from the City of Jerusalem and departing. And at the birth of Jesus Christ, the Glory of God flooded the landscape and the angelic choir gave Glory to God. The covenants were given to Israel, the covenants with Adam, with Noah, with Abraham, with Isaac, Jacob, Moses and with David. And the covenants we inherit from the Jews, not from the Gentiles. We inherit these from Paul's kinsmen. The covenants belonged to them. Covenants and promises probably goes together, but we'll get to the promises later, but all these covenants that God made and all the promises that God made belong to Christians as well. You elect remnant of Israel, you future ethnic Israel as a whole, and you Gentiles who trust in the Messiah and are grafted into the tree of the covenant of the promise, these are ours. Why? Because in Jesus Christ, "All the promises of God are yes," as 2 Corinthians tells us. The giving of the law. We received the law because the law was given by God to Israel. The law wasn't given to Hammurabi. It wasn't given to Babylon, Phoenicia or Egypt. The law was given to Israel and through Israel, it was given to all of us. And the law was given to us, so that we might realize that we are sinners in need of the Grace of God. Romans 3:19, "Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God." The whole world. The moral law is given to every single human being. It's not just the Jewish people. And as you read the Ten Commandments, you realize that there's a self authenticating power to them. That these are God's words and these words are written on our hearts, so that's the self authentication. And ultimately, the law is given to us to show us that we need salvation. We need Christ. Romans 10:4, "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." In the long term, aim of the law wasn't our condemnation. It was our salvation. For trusting the Messiah for our righteousness, the law has become to us, what it was given for, a servant to lead us to Christ. And the word worship. The worship was given to the people of Israel and the word for worship that he uses here is the same word as service. So to worship God is to serve God. To serve God is to worship God, the Greek word [foreign language 00:29:19]. Our instructions about how to bring praise, sacrifices to God in corporate worship were given to us through the people of Israel. And the word here refers to ministry of priests and the offering of sacrifices. And the supreme temple service, the supreme temple worship was the Passover. In the Passover, a lamb was to be slaughtered. Blood was supposed to be shed. And then you take that blood and you paint it over your doorway, so that the angel of death passes over your household. And then, 1 Corinthians 5:7 says that, "Christ is our ultimate Passover lamb. He has been sacrificed." He has performed the final and decisive atoning temple service on the cross. So when we say the temple service belongs to true Israel, we mean in the fullest saving way, our sins are forgiven and God welcomes us into his fellowship. Then six, he says, "The promises we're given to them." Which promises? And there are thousands in Scripture, but in particular, it's the promise that God would save his people from their sins, and we'll get that from the very beginning in Genesis 3 right after the fall. In Genesis 3:15, God gives us the Protoevangelion, the first Gospel in Genesis 3:15 where he says the following, "I will put enmity between you." He's talking to the serpent saying, "And the woman, between your offspring and her offspring, he." So this is the offspring of the woman. "He will bruise your head and you will bruise his heel." And this is God promising that the seed of the woman. This is going to be a human being, but it's a human being who can vanquish Satan. So it has to be God. He's the only one who can vanquish Satan. He's the one that will come and he's the one that will save. A friend sent me a video this week of Jordan Peterson. Apparently, he's been getting into the Bible recently, and it was a video of him with a slide behind him of every single Cross reference in Scripture. And it's just arc after arc after arc. And I'm like, I already knew this, but he was amazed. There's 65,000 Cross references in the Bible. I actually think it's more, but 65,000 Cross references in the Bible and he's like, "This book is ... You can't make this up. This is a miracle." He called it the first hyperlinked book ever. He's like, "There's no links to click, but it's hyperlinked." It's telling one story. 3000 years, three millennia, 40 plus authors, three plus language, all speaking in harmony unison about this Gospel. We have sinned. God is gracious, sends his Son to vanquish Satan, sin and death. All these things, the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship of God and God's promises, they came through to Paul's kinsmen Israel. Don't you see? This is why Paul is in tears. You've been given so much. You've been given every single piece of the puzzle. You're only missing the Cross at the center, Jesus Christ. Romans 9:5, "To them belong to patriarchs. And from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God overall, blessed forever. Amen." The implication of this is stated in Romans 11:28, "As regards the Gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers." And we'll get into that in a few weeks. But in other words, God freely chose Abraham, freely chose Isaac and Jacob and promised to their descendants that they would be heirs of God. And what we see from Romans 9-11 is that, this is meant in three ways. First, that there is an elect remnant of Israel. There always was, and there always will be. Elijah, I don't know if you remember this one text, where he's just complaining to God like, "God, I'm the only Christian. I'm the only one that loves you." I wonder if you ever feel like that in Boston. I'm the only one. I'm the only one in my company, probably the whole university. If you go to BU, you're probably right. I'm the only one. I'm the only one. And God says to Elijah, "Stop complaining. I've got 7,000. 7,000 people who have not knelt a knee to Baal. Well that's election. That's God's saving his remnant. There's also promise that all ethnic is real. At some point, in some future time, when they're alive, will be saved. It will be incredible revival amongst Jewish people. And Gentiles, that's us who trust in the Messiah, become sons of the fathers with the same blessing as the natural children. So if you repent of your sin and trust in Jesus Christ, you become a child of Abraham as much as Isaac was. Everything promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is yours, in the Messiah Jesus Christ. Verse five, I don't know if you noticed. He says, "Christ, who is God overall, blessed forever." Paul does affirm Jesus' Jewish ancestry, that Jesus was fully human, but he doesn't stop there. He gives one of the clearest, most decisive affirmations of the Deity of Christ, that we find anywhere in Scripture, that Christ is God. He's over all things, the entire universe. The Jews use this expression to refer to God's dominion over the entire creation. "Christ is God over all, blessed forever." So if you're having a conversation with a Mormon or a Jehovah's Witness, they don't believe that Jesus is God, just keep this one in the back pocket, Romans 9:5. Just take him there, Romans 9:5, "Christ is God, blessed forever." Here, someone might raise a legitimate question and say, "Will we go to heaven, be sad throughout all eternity, because of those who are cursed and cut off from Christ in hell?" What if we have a loved one who never turns to Christ? Brother or sister, sibling, spouse, child, there will be a sadness in eternity because of them. And the answer is no. The Scripture says, "God will wipe away every tear from their eyes and neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore." But God will have to wipe out tears. God will have to wipe off our tears. Why are we weeping in the first place, in a place of bliss? I think there will be moments in the very beginning, where we wish we had done more, kind of like Schindler's List at the end, where he is like, "Here's the watch. Here's the pen. I wish I had done more." Well, that's just a reminder for us to do the more now, be encouraged to be more bold and preaching the Gospel now. "And with respect to any affection that the godly may have had to the finally reprobate, the love of God will wholly swallow it up, and cause it wholly to cease," as Jonathan Edwards says. In conclusion, pray for God to burden your heart for the lost. If you hear this and you're like, "I've never even thought about praying for the lost." Well first, pray for your own heart, you're living in disobedience. Pray for your own heart to care for the lost and then pray for the lost and share the Gospel with the lost. Romans 10:1, this is what Paul says, "Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved." St. Paul had to pray for God to save people. He couldn't do it himself. He believed in the sovereignty of God. He believed that God elects people to salvation. And because he believed that God elects people to salvation, he prayed for God to save the elect. A lot of people use God's sovereignty in saving people as an excuse to do nothing. Well, if God saves people, then he doesn't need me to share the Gospel. If God is the one to predestine people a salvation, well he doesn't need me to do any. He doesn't need me to pray. That's false. If God predestines the end, he predestines the means. And the means that he predestines is for every single one of us to pray for the lost and share the Gospel with the lost. And the fruit of Paul's anguish is to pray for them and ask that God would save them. If Paul had to pray, if Paul prayed for the lost, we should too. If Christ prayed for the lost, we should too. Jesus Christ on the cross says, "Father, forgive them. They know not what they do." He's praying for the loss. And because Christ prayed for the loss on the cross for their salvation, we are called to pray as well. 2 Timothy 2:25 says, "God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth." May the Lord do so even now. If you don't know if you're a Christian, if you're still under the guilt of your sins and accursed and cut off from Christ, well don't stay there. Today, turn to Jesus Christ. Look to Christ on the cross. Christ crying out from the depth of his soul and anguish and heart, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Christ was accursed. Christ was caught off from God the Father, God the Holy Spirit, so we would never have to be. He bore the wrath of God, so that we would not have to. He bore the curse, so that we might receive the blessing. So trust in him as your only hope, and you will be saved today. I'll close in Matthew 11:25-30, before we transition to communion. It's a text where Jesus Christ thanks God for closing the eyes of some, opening the eyes of others and saying that only the one to whom the son reveals the Father can be saved. And still Christ says, "Come to me all who are burdened and heavy laden." Matthew 11:25-30, "At that time, Jesus declared, 'I thank you, Father Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children. Yes Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart. And you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Lord, we thank you for all the spiritual privileges that you have bestowed upon us as a Church and as individuals. We thank you for the full canon of Holy Scripture, a word that testifies to you, a word that reveals you, a word that reveals the Living Word of God, Jesus Christ. Lord, we thank you that your, "Word is living and active, sharper than any two edge sword, piercing the division of soul and of marrow, revealing to us the intentions of the heart." And we come to you Lord and we ask for forgiveness of all our sin, of all our pride of all our selfishness and self-reliance, and help us not trust in our spiritual privileges. Make us people who only trust in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And make us people who walk in a manner worthy of the Gospel, to bring glory to you and attract attention to the beautiful Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe, every single person who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. We pray all this in the beautiful name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and savior. Amen.

Friends of the Rosary: Today, we remember the second apparition in Fatima. On June 13, 1917, the Virgin Mary appeared for the second time to the three shepherd — Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta — children at the Cova da Iria in Fatima, Portugal. The Blessed Mother presented a whole spirituality centered on devotion to her Immaculate Heart. She said to Lucia: "Jesus wants to establish devotion in the world to my Immaculate Heart." Our Lady also asked to pray the Rosary daily, and she added the Fatima prayer that we recite after the Glory Be, at the end of each mystery. In other apparitions, the Holy Virgin would stress to the children to pray for poor sinners. On July 13, Our Lady would give the children this short prayer: “Make sacrifices for sinners, and say often, especially while making a sacrifice: O Jesus, this is for love of Thee, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for offenses committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.” Also today, we celebrate the memorial day of a popular saint, St. Anthony of Padua, Priest and Doctor of the Church. Ave Maria! Jesus, I Trust In You! + Mikel A. | RosaryNetwork.com, New York [ Second Year Anniversary | In the Memory of María Blanca ] • June 13, 2022, Today's Holy Rosary on YouTube — Daily broadcast at 7:30 pm ET