Tuesday 11th Week of Ordinary Time

 

Love Your Enemies Mt. 5:43

Jesus taught that we should love our enemies.

He taught this at a time when Israel was a conquered and occupied country.

So it was not an easy teaching;

It had to be put into practice everyday.

We live in a time of political, social and religious division.

There is no better time to put this teaching into practice.

And we too have opportunities everyday to put it into practice.

Love of our enemies,

Is not a suggestion of Jesus,

But a commandment.

To be kept everyday.

Monday

 

St. Anthony of Padua

St. Anthony of Padua’s prayer to the Blessed Virgin

We beg you Our Lady and our hope,

You who are the star of the sea,

Illumine your children,

Engulfed in the turbulent sea of sin;

Guide us to the safe harbor of forgiveness,

So we may successfully complete the journey of our life

With your protection.

With His help

Whom you carried in your womb

And nourished at your holy breasts.

To Him be honor and glory

Throughout all ages. Amen

The Most Holy Trinity

 

I like sports and I think many people do too so I am going to use a sports analogy to describe the Holy Trinity

In sports there is the coach.

The coach has a plan;

And he presents it to the team

And if they follow it,

They will win.

And every team has a star

One person around whom the plan is formed.

And in every big game;

There is a fire that cannot be quenched

an enthusiasm that flows over the crowd.

A passion to leave it all on the court or the filed.

This is the Trinity.

God the Father had a plan,

To defeat evil and restore humanity to what it once was.

And His only Begotten Son,

Is the Star;

Around whom the plan is formed.

In every interview Jesus had with the Pharisees

He said that He did not come to do His own Will,

But the Will of the One Who sent Him.

And the Holy Spirt was the Fire that burned within Him,

So that every time Jesus fell,

He got back up;

And finished what He was asked to do.

And that filled the Disciples to go out from behind their locked doors

To conquer the world.

The game however is not over.

The mission is not over.

We are part of the team.

And we each have a role to play in the game of life.

If we do our own will;

If play as individuals;

If we are apathetic about our Faith;

We will lose.

But If we do what the Father asks of us and carry our His Plan;

If rally around Jesus, and follow His lead;

And if we burn with a fire and enthusiasm that nothing can stop us;

The victory will be ours!

And in Heaven we will storm the court;

Tear down the goal posts;

Lift up the palm branches of victory;

And carry Jesus around on our shoulders;

Who led us to victory in the game of life and death;

Friday 10th Week of Ordinary Time

Whispers in the Wind. 1 Kings 19:11-16

God told Elijah to stand on the mountain for He was going to be passing by.

And God was not in the powerful wind

Or the earthquake

Or the fire.

But in the still whispering sound.

Until we can calm our hearts and souls from all the noise of the world,

and the until we can silence our own passions and desires

We will never hear the still small voice of God

Whisper in our ear.

Thursday 10th Week of Ordinary Time

 

Anger leads to Fire Mt. 5:20-26

Jesus warns his disciples against the sin of anger,

Because those who are angry will be liable to judgment.

This is because Anger is like a Fire that can easily burn out of control.

And when it does it can lead to Gehenna and the fires of hell.

Better to make Peace before the Judgment

And be reconciled,

Rather than risk the fires of Gehenna where one will not be released until the last penny is paid.

Wednesday 10th Week of Ordinary Time

 

One against 450 1 Kings 18:20-39

Elijah was the last Faithful prophet in Israel.

All the other 450 prophets had gone over to worship the false god of Baal.

It does not matter what everyone else is doing or believing;

It does not matter if we are the only one.

Faithfulness is not a matter of following the crowd ;

But of standing alone against all odds.

And still believing!

Tuesday 10th Week of Ordinary Time

 

The Jar of Flour shall not go empty. I Kings 17:1-7

The Widow of Zarephath had nothing.

Only a jar with a handful full of flour.

But Elijah came along and told her to take what little she had

And fix him some bread.

And because of her generosity,

God was generous to her

And her jar never ran out of flour.

Even in the worst drought.

Generosity is a gift given by those who have little,

Not by those who have abundance.

For the poor can be generous even in their poverty

For God will be generous in return.