“You are God: we praise you.
You are the Lord: we acclaim you ….
Lord, show us your love and mercy,
— for we have put our trust in you.
In you, Lord, is our hope.
— And we shall never hope in vain.” Amen [Excerpts from the Te Deum]
Today spend some time praising God.
May God Be Blessed.
May God Be Praised.
In our first reading St. Paul thanks the Philippians for their assistance, he is grateful to God for the generosity of the Philippians. Jesus reminds not to focus on accumulating earthly wealth. He reminds to share our wealth with those in need. What we choose to prioritize by our life choices guides how we live and how we love God.
When Martin Luther King Jr. accepted the Nobel Prize he offered this profound reflection, “We have learned to fly in the air like birds and swim in the sea like fish. But we have not learned the simple act of living together as brothers and [sisters].” {Action: Praying in a Contemporary Way, by Mark Link}
Remember that God knows our hearts and when we choose God’s priorities to guide our life our hearts will be filled with God’s joy. Take a few minutes to reflect on your priorities and whether they are in accord with the teachings of Jesus?
May God Be Praised.
In Revelations (7:2-4, 9-14) we read that we are “marked
with a seal”, and indeed we are at our Baptism. We were Champions forever
as a follower of Christ!
Jesus gave His disciples, and He gave us the Beatitudes – the principals for us
to live by; like a GPS to get us to Heaven the ultimate Championship. Each one of us is called to be Holy, the
Second Vatican Council, in Lumen Gentium, referred to this as the “Universal
Call to Holiness”. We can be holy – by having Jesus as the center of our
lives in our mind, in our heart, and in our hands.
In the Play WICKED the song, For Good offers us a powerful and beautiful
message, “But because I know you, I have been changed for good.”
We are changed for the good because in our Baptism we were sealed to the heart
of Jesus, and we are called to share His message with each person we meet.
My hope and prayer for each of you is that the people who meet you are changed
for the good. That is how a disciple of Jesus Christ lives.
May God Be Praised!
Today’s Gospel tells us that the most important commandment is to love God and the best way to do that is to love your neighbor. How can we do that? This story can help us, it comes from the Nanticoke Indian Tribe, and is called “The Tale of Two Wolves.”
One evening, an elderly Cherokee brave told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said "the battle is between two 'wolves' inside us all.
One is evil: it is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.
The other is good: it is joy, peace love, hope serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith." The grandson though about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: "which wolf wins?" “The old Cherokee simply replied, "the one that you feed."
And that is our lesson today feed the good and confess the bad, then your life will be holy.
May God Be Praised.
On All Souls Day and during the entire month of November we should pray for those who have gone before us. It is the month we Commemorate the Faithfully Departed. In particular we remember our loved ones who are in “the land of the living” those who have touch our lives in a profound way, sharing with us the love of God.
St. Francis de Sales said, “Those who go stay, and those who stay go.” Our loved one take a part of us with them and a part of them remains with us. Today we reflect on that day when every tear is wiped away and we will rejoice in heaven with our Savior, Jesus Christ and those loved ones who have gone before us.
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon them, may their souls and all the souls of the faithfully departed rest in peace.
May God Be Praised.
All Saints Day
May you one day join the saints in heaven, until you do share your glimpse of God here on earth with us.
May you one day join the saints in heaven, until you do share your glimpse of God here on earth with us.
Our Lady of Perpetual Help, pray for us.
St. Joseph, pray for us.
St. Francis de Sales, pray for us.
All the Saints in Heaven, pray for us.
May God Be Praised and your day be Blessed.
