Tag Archives: obedience

The Way of the Cross: Path to Joy

04 Sunday Apr 2021

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The Resurrection_Andrea Mantegna, 1459

The Resurrection
Andrea Mantegna, c. 1459

He is risen! He is risen indeed! Halleluiah!

On this day that Jesus burst forth from the tomb, conquering sin and death, it is important to comprehend and appreciate what He has done for us by dying on the cross. Let us begin with prayer:

Lord, help me to understand the cross. Help me to comprehend all that Christ has done for me in dying for the forgiveness of my sins. Lord, give me grateful awe as I ponder the mystery of the cross. Give me the grace to respond to your generosity by giving you my all, my very life, for your love and mercy are beyond compare. I ask this through Christ Jesus, Amen.

To begin to understand Christ’s willingness to suffer and die for you, imagine heaven. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are looking at you with unimaginable love. They are discussing your life, how you have sold yourself into sin and slavery. They see you lost and without hope, heading to eternal destruction. The Father speaks, “Who will bring him back?” The eternal Son of God, robed in majesty and splendor, immediately responds, “I will go.” The Holy Spirit realizes what this will cost. God’s magnificent plan for your salvation is set into motion. The Son leaves heaven to be nailed to a cross…for you!

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Spiritual Checkup: Fifth Sunday of Lent

21 Sunday Mar 2021

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This Lent we invited you to go on mission, to take a spiritual checkup of the depth of your love for God. We have been using this key passage from Scripture to guide our 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)

During the first four weeks of Lent, we examined the first and great commandment (1st week, 2nd week, 3rd week, 4th week). Today, we look at the second commandment: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt 22:39).

Jesus commanded His disciples to “Love one another even as I have loved you” (Jn 13:34). It is through the love of Christ that we can love our neighbor, even the one that we find most irksome. Jesus also told His disciples, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (19:26). To be able to love as God loves, we must know God intimately. St. John the Evangelist tells us, “He who does not love does not know God; for God is love” (1 Jn 4:8).

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Blessings from the Lord

13 Sunday Dec 2020

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And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God. Deuteronomy 28:2

Eighteen years ago today, we were joined together in the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony. We believe that was the fulfillment of God’s promise to us.

We were both widowed, and in the midst of our grief, God encouraged both of us with this verse from Jeremiah: “For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jer 29:11). We held on to these words tightly as the days, months, and years passed by without our beloved spouses.

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. 1 Corinthians 15:56-58

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St. Joseph: Exemplar of Fatherhood

21 Sunday Jun 2020

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The Childhood of Christ, Gerrit van Honthorst, c. 1620

Father’s Day is celebrated in the United States on the third Sunday of June. It is a day to celebrate fatherhood, paternal bonds, and the influence of fathers in society, especially in the foundation of society, the family. Unfortunately, there is a father absence crisis in America. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 19.7 million children, more than one in four, live without a father in the home. The consequences of this are devastating and a major factor in nearly all social ills in America today.[1]

Here are some facts on the astounding impact fathers have on their children:

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Good Things Come to Those Who Wait on the Lord

30 Saturday Jun 2018

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Zachariah and Elizabeth_crop

In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah; and he had a wife of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years. Luke 1:5-7

Zechariah and Elizabeth were called “upright in the sight of the Lord” because of their devotion to God. Not only were they obedient to God in the outward compliance to the letter of the law, their obedience grew out of hearts desiring to please Him.

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