We are called to be prayerful, so we can be just and merciful.  The prophet Isaiah taught us that God’s holy mountain, God’s earth is to be a “house of prayer”.  That means our life should be a “house of prayer” – if our life is a “house of prayer” we will be just and merciful.

We will still have crosses to carry, hardships to deal with, evil to confront. BUT we will have God’s Joy to sustain us, a gift given because God’s mercy has saved us.   

Maybe this story can shed some light on living a “house of prayer”, it is called Tested Strings

“Musicians who play stringed instruments like violins … call them ‘tested’ strings. ‘Tested’ strings are stretched and strained to remove all the unsteadiness; then they are put through a number of chemical tests, until they produce a perfect and full tone.

When installed and tuned, tested strings bring out the full resonance and tone of the instrument … producing melodies that are noticeably warmer and richer ….  Christ promises us that He will keep us in tune … if we trust … his hand ….”  (Connections, 08-10-08)

 

We are called to Trust His Word!  We called to share God’s love, justice and mercy with the world.  Be a “house of prayer”, Trust the Word of God and live the Word of God.  Be the best disciple of Christ that you can be.

May God Be Praised!

Join me and cry out from the depths of your heart to the Lord who hears us.  “Lord, listen to my prayer: turn your ear to my appeal.” [Psalm 143]

God, You are our refuge and our hope, we turn to you during this COVID 19 pandemic and plead for Your intercession.  In Your mercy and Your compassion “… grant eternal rest to the dead, comfort to mourners, healing to the sick ….” [Collect from Mass Time in Pandemic]

Provide strength to the first responders and medical personnel, and wisdom to government leaders.  End this coronavirus scourge.  Bring Your light to all who wander in the darkness of this pandemic and give each of us hope in Your eternal love today and every day.  Amen.  [Dcn. George Kelly]

In the Old Testament Job’s life became dreadful, who would want to live it?  At one time Job was happy, wealthy and righteous; he was living the dream and then the bottom fell out.

Job learned that, “Suffering can no longer be interpreted as it was in Deuteronomy, namely, as a direct punishment for sin ….”

Job dealt with a problem we all deal with, the problem of suffering.  There is no satisfactory answer to that question [this side of the grave].

Jesus came to give us Life in God and He gave us the Scriptures so we could deal with what is most important in life.  Job learned to: PRAY, SERVE and LOVE.  We need to learn the same lesson.

Jesus PRAYED, SERVED and LOVED. 

St. Paul reminds us that our entire life should be based on living the Gospel.  Healing connects us with our deepest center, the deepest part of our being.  “Ram Dass, an American spiritual teacher in the Hindu tradition who suffered a debilitating stroke in 1997, [distinguishes between a cure and a healing] … ‘While cures aim at returning our bodies to what they were in the past, healing uses what is present to move us more deeply to Soul Awareness ….’”    [Once Upon A Gospel, William Bausch, p.171]

Curing, healing, serving, praying and loving that is quite a load to take on, quite a challenge. 

This old prayer may help us: “I asked God for strength that I might achieve; I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey.

I asked for health that I might do great things; I was given infirmity that I might do better things.

I asked for riches that I might be happy; I was given poverty that I might be wise.

I asked for power that I might have the praise of men; I was given weakness that I might feel the need for God.

I asked for all things that I might enjoy life; I was given life that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing I asked for, But everything I had hoped for.

Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.

I am, among all people, truly blessed.”  [Ibid., p.173]

Our FAITH is a great gift, often we fail to appreciate its grandeur, its awesome nature, its true wonder.

Take a few minutes today, in silence, think about how you might:

Pray more faithfully, Serve more frequently, Love more selflessly.

How you can be more thankful for the cures, BUT far more grateful for the healings?

May God Be Praised!

Join me and cry out from the depths of your heart to the Lord who hears us.  “Lord, listen to my prayer: turn your ear to my appeal.” [Psalm 143]

God, You are our refuge and our hope, we turn to you during this COVID 19 pandemic and plead for Your intercession.  In Your mercy and Your compassion “… grant eternal rest to the dead, comfort to mourners, healing to the sick ….” [Collect from Mass Time in Pandemic]

Provide strength to the first responders and medical personnel, and wisdom to government leaders.  End this coronavirus scourge.  Bring Your light to all who wander in the darkness of this pandemic and give each of us hope in Your eternal love today and every day.  Amen.  [Dcn. George Kelly]

Today we pray to the Lord our God, “Fill us … that we may gain WISDOM.”  In the letter to the Hebrews – God is portrayed as an artist; an artist creating a masterpiece; we are part of that masterpiece.

The kingdom of God is a gift we cannot earn; BUT it is a gift we can throw away.  We are called to use our worldly riches to build up the Kingdom of God; not to bound to them.  Jesus is not saying that wealth/riches are bad in and of themselves; BUT they can make the path of the Kingdom very hard to follow.

All we have, whether a hut in the mountains, or a mansion in Palm Springs, is a gift from God, and no matter how hard we work tilling the soil or managing our stock portfolio – in the end all is a gift from God!  A key ingredient of WISDOM is acknowledging that all we have is a gift from God!  Our job is to discern what God wants us to do with the gifts God has given us.  Jesus is offers us true, lasting wisdom; He promises that it will satisfies us.

WISDOM is realizing that God created us and loves us.

WISDOM is realizing that God walks our journey with us.

WISDOM is believing that the Word of God became flesh in Jesus Christ.

As disciples of Jesus Christ we should hold the Gospels in our hearts; they should be the center of our lives, all we say, do and believe should emanate from them!  Pope Benedict XVI wrote, “Only through believing … does faith grow and become stronger.”  Believing should be at the center of our being; believing should permeate our lives!

Today reflect on the gift of the Kingdom.   

May God Be Praised!

Join me and cry out from the depths of your heart to the Lord who hears us.  “Lord, listen to my prayer: turn your ear to my appeal.” [Psalm 143]  God, You are our refuge and our hope, we turn to you during this COVID 19 pandemic and plead for Your intercession.  In Your mercy and Your compassion “… grant eternal rest to the dead, comfort to mourners, healing to the sick ….” [Collect from Mass Time in Pandemic]

Provide strength to the first responders and medical personnel, and wisdom to government leaders.  End this coronavirus scourge.  Bring Your light to all who wander in the darkness of this pandemic and give each of us hope in Your eternal love today and every day.  Amen.  [Dcn. George Kelly]

“Marketing experts … tell start-up businesses how important it is to develop a corporate logo. ‘Brand identity’ they call it, pointing out that symbols serve to generate not only product familiarity but also, identification with the overall philosophy of an organization.

As the authors of one book on logo design state, ‘The success of any business organization lies in its ability to persuade its audience to do what it wants. The ultimate goal of any designer when creating a logo is … to develop a rhetorical and informative mark - one that not only identifies the company and its business, but also helps persuade viewers to respond in a specified manner." [Lael P. Murphy, Come Survey the Wondrous Cross as a Symbol of Our History]

Many people have heard the expression “a picture's worth a thousand words" that is even true in the spiritual arena.
 

 

For the Jewish people it is often the Star of David, for Buddhists, the figure of their enlightened teacher, and for Christians the it is the cross of Jesus Christ.  Seeing the Cross reminds of God's love for each one of us.

Nike’s Swoosh, McDonald’s, Golden Arches, Coke Cola, Apple and recently COVID 19, and many other logos permeate our media, some for a short time, some for a long time but the Cross is forever our sign.  Spend a few minutes, reflecting on one of the Crosses below:

May God Be Praised!

Join me and cry out from the depths of your heart to the Lord who hears us.  “Lord, listen to my prayer: turn your ear to my appeal.” [Psalm 143]

God, You are our refuge and our hope, we turn to you during this COVID 19 pandemic and plead for Your intercession.  In Your mercy and Your compassion “… grant eternal rest to the dead, comfort to mourners, healing to the sick ….” [Collect from Mass Time in Pandemic]

Provide strength to the first responders and medical personnel, and wisdom to government leaders.  End this coronavirus scourge.  Bring Your light to all who wander in the darkness of this pandemic and give each of us hope in Your eternal love today and every day.  Amen.  [Dcn. George Kelly]

Fr. Michael Murray, OSFS wrote, “One writer, paraphrasing/adapting the thought of St. Francis de Sales and St. Paul has a very interesting insight on the relationship between gratitude and trust in God.

Here is what he writes: ‘Grateful people are not envious; they are generous.

Grateful people are not arrogant; they are humble. Grateful people are not disdainful; they are amiable and affable.

Grateful people are not easily provoked; they are patient and peaceable. Grateful people do not rejoice over evil; they bask in the light of goodness. Grateful people do not complain in the face of difficulties; they remind themselves of how blessed they are.

Grateful people enjoy a deep sense of trust: trust in God, and trust in others, nourished by the hope to which they are called in the person and promise of Jesus Christ.’”

Today work at being a Grateful person, the world needs Grateful people now more than ever.

May God Be Praised!

Join me and cry out from the depths of your heart to the Lord who hears us.  “Lord, listen to my prayer: turn your ear to my appeal.” [Psalm 143]

God, You are our refuge and our hope, we turn to you during this COVID 19 pandemic and plead for Your intercession.  In Your mercy and Your compassion “… grant eternal rest to the dead, comfort to mourners, healing to the sick ….” [Collect from Mass Time in Pandemic]

Provide strength to the first responders and medical personnel, and wisdom to government leaders.  End this coronavirus scourge.  Bring Your light to all who wander in the darkness of this pandemic and give each of us hope in Your eternal love today and every day.  Amen.  [Dcn. George Kelly]

Pondering Prayer

To find true peace and contentment we must give our heart, soul and will to God – for God’s good pleasure.

Prayer is not a magic wand that fulfills your desires, but it is what helps you keep the faith when you don’t understand God’s will, Pope Francis said.

Jesus is showing how important and necessary it is to pray tirelessly, all the time and not just every now and then, “when I feel like it,” the pope said. 

“We all experience moments of exhaustion and discouragement, above all when our prayers don’t seem to work,” he said.  Contrary to the stubborn judge, he said, God speedily secures “the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night,” according to the Gospel of St. Luke (18:1-8).

But that doesn’t mean God will respond when “and in the ways that we want. Prayer is not a magic wand,” the pope said. When Jesus prayed that his father spare him from “the bitter cup of his passion,” he also put himself fully in God’s hands, asking that the father’s will — not his own — be done. 

“Prayer is what keeps the faith; without it, faith wavers,” Pope Francis said. And it is in prayer that people experience the compassion of God who comes to his children “filled with merciful love.”

Live simply, Care deeply, Speak kindly, and Love generously!

May God Be Praised!

Join me and cry out from the depths of your heart to the Lord who hears us.  “Lord, listen to my prayer: turn your ear to my appeal.” [Psalm 143]

God, You are our refuge and our hope, we turn to you during this COVID 19 pandemic and plead for Your intercession.  In Your mercy and Your compassion “… grant eternal rest to the dead, comfort to mourners, healing to the sick ….” [Collect from Mass Time in Pandemic]

Provide strength to the first responders and medical personnel, and wisdom to government leaders.  End this coronavirus scourge.  Bring Your light to all who wander in the darkness of this pandemic and give each of us hope in Your eternal love today and every day.  Amen.  [Dcn. George Kelly]

Remember to do your part in fighting the COVID 19 Pandemic:

1.    Pray daily

2.    Wear your mask

3.    Wash your hands frequently

4.    Maintain 6-foot social distance

5.    Pray some more

 

 

Join me and cry out from the depths of your heart to the Lord who hears us.  “Lord, listen to my prayer: turn your ear to my appeal.” [Psalm 143]

God, You are our refuge and our hope, we turn to you during this COVID 19 pandemic and plead for Your intercession.  In Your mercy and Your compassion “… grant eternal rest to the dead, comfort to mourners, healing to the sick ….” [Collect from Mass Time in Pandemic]

Provide strength to the first responders and medical personnel, and wisdom to government leaders.  End this coronavirus scourge.  Bring Your light to all who wander in the darkness of this pandemic and give each of us hope in Your eternal love today and every day.  Amen.  [Dcn. George Kelly]

We are blessed and maybe this song will help us remember that we are blessed: Blessed are they … [sung by the University of Notre Dame’s Folk Group]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzH-Vo4ocRo

May God Be Blessed!