Tag Archives: God

Spiritual Checkup: Second Sunday of Lent

28 Sunday Feb 2021

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Last week, we embarked on a Lenten Mission to give our hearts a spiritual checkup. Throughout the mission, we are focusing on this key passage of Scripture:

And one of [the Pharisees], a lawyer, asked [Jesus] a question, to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” And [Jesus] said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.” Matthew 22:35-40

Our journey began by examining the priorities in our life with the goal of God being first place in all that we do. This week, we will be looking at the first portion of the Great and First Commandment:

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart…” Matthew 22:37a

What does it mean to love God with all your heart? First, we must ask the question, “What is love?” St. John the Evangelist in his first letter tells us “God is love.” In full context, he says:

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Lenten Mission: A Spiritual Checkup

21 Sunday Feb 2021

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Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting! Psalm 139:23-24

This Lent we are taking you on a Lenten Mission, a spiritual checkup if you will. This is the key passage for our Lenten reflection:

And one of [the Pharisees], a lawyer, asked [Jesus] a question, to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” And [Jesus] said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.” Matthew 22:35-40 (emphasis added)

Each Sunday during Lent, we will meditate on a portion of this passage. This will require slowing down from our normal routines so we can listen to God through His written word. With all meekness and humbleness, as we reflect on the two greatest commandments, ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you the condition of your spirit. Meditate and pray on each verse. What is the Spirit revealing to you? Do you need to repent of any spiritual sickness? Ask God to forgive you of your shortfalls. Pray for God to give you the grace to be better in the future. Make a commitment on how you are going to grow in one area.

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Love Revealed

21 Sunday Apr 2019

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God is Love

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed. Isaiah 53:4-5

Isaiah 52:13-53:12 makes up the fourth of the “Servant Songs” of the Book of Isaiah. This prophesies of the one who will save us from our iniquities. God became man for one reason: to die on the cross to free humanity from the chains of sin and death. Jesus is the “Suffering Servant” foretold in these prophecies. His death on the cross for our salvation shows us the true meaning of love: “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down is life for his friends” (Jn 15:13). Jesus is love personified.

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It Was Worth It!

27 Saturday Oct 2018

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Broken Family_03

Are you suffering difficulties and strife in marriage, even separation and divorce? God can heal your broken relationship.

Rose and I (Dennis) were both widowed. Before the death of my first wife, Therese, I experienced God’s love, mercy, and forgiveness in healing after divorce.

By faith, in confidence, with perseverance and obedience to God, my marriage was saved from the pit of death. God is faithful. He never gives up on any of His children. Was the pain of my divorce worth it? Was standing eight years for the healing of my marriage worth it? Were the sorrow, pain and loneliness worth it? Was having my marriage restored only to have my wife die two short years later worth it? Yes, by the grace of God, it was worth it!

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The Mass: A Life-Changing Encounter with Jesus – Part II

11 Sunday Mar 2018

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Last Supper_Juan de Juanes

Jesus with the Eucharist at the Last Supper, Juan de Juanes, Mid-Late 16th Century

To be a contagious Catholic, it is imperative to understand the Mass. If understood, the Mass is transformative. Your life will never be the same. Your family will be a beacon of light in a society that is broken and without hope.

Archbishop Allen Vigneron of the Archdiocese of Detroit in his recent pastoral letter Unleash the Gospel, offered the following vision for families:

Families who, having embraced their role as the domestic church and in connection with other families and single persons, actively seek the spiritual and social renewal of their neighborhoods, schools and places of work. Such families…would display a strikingly counter-cultural way of living: grounded in prayer, Sacraments and attention to Scripture; unusually gracious hospitality; a capacity to include those on the margins of society; and joyful confidence in the providence of God even in difficult and stressful times. Unleash the Gospel, p. 32

To this end, we offer you the second blog post in a series based on the Parish Mission at Our Lady of Good Counsel in Plymouth, Michigan given by Abbot Jeremy Driscoll, OSB, “The Mass: Supreme Encounter with God in Jesus.”

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The Mass: A Life-Changing Encounter with Jesus

03 Saturday Mar 2018

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St. Paul The Apostle Parish, Westerville, Ohio

In previous blogs, we have discussed Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron’s pastoral letter, Unleash the Gospel. This letter is the game plan for the transformation of the Archdiocese of Detroit into a “joyful band of missionary disciples.”

Archbishop Vigneron states that families are “the very heart of our archdiocesan efforts to unleash the Gospel, because they are the first and most important setting in which evangelization takes place.”

He offers an action plan for families to reclaim their identity with God (Unleash the Gospel, p. 33). The first and most important action he recommends is attending Sunday Mass as a family.

Those who find the Mass boring or view it as nothing more than an obligation to fulfill may be surprised by that recommendation. However, the “Mass is about love. It is not an idea about love but the supreme encounter with love.”[1] During the next three weeks, we will briefly explain the Mass to provide a better understanding of what happens.

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Prayer is Essential!

10 Friday Nov 2017

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Prayer Righteous Man

If a Christian is to have a vital and personal relationship with the living and true God, prayer is essential. St. Thérèse of Lisieux said “prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy.”[1] St. John Damascene said “prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God.”[2]

Pray at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. Ephesians 6:18

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