JOY Alive in Our Hearts

The joy of conversion, Christian community, and the Catholic faith

Category: Catholic

Catholic / Conversion / Evangelization / Giveaways / Sharing Your Catholic Faith Story

Free Kindle ebook with Sharing Your Catholic Faith Story

Being a Christian means being an evangelizer. The new evangelization calls us to keep our faith strong by giving it away with our love, friendship and testimony. How do we share how God is writing his love story on our hearts? The award-winning  Sharing Your Catholic Faith Story: Tools, Tips,  and Testimonies answers the question, “How do I share my faith story?”
While supplies last, everyone who purchases a Sharing Your Catholic Faith Story paperback from JoyAlive.net will receive the ebook free. Just go to JoyAlive.net/shop/ and select The Word Works.  Shipping is free within the continental United States. (Choose the option for shipping within Texas, if applicable.)
You will receive an autographed book and a KIndle voucher for the ebook.

Catholic / Coronavirus / Eucharist / Evangelization / Jesus

Where is Jesus?

I can detect his presence in the world around me. When I walk by the lake near our home, with no mask needed; he’s in the sunshine on my face and the wind at my back. When I turn the corner into my street, his voice resounds in the laughter of children playing, unafraid of germs and viruses. He sings to me in anointed music in my earbuds. I feel him most intimately where no social distancing or masks are needed — at home in the smiles and hugs of my husband. As reassuring as these realities of the presence of Jesus are, they don’t quite touch the explicit ache in the depths of my heart for the Eucharist.

The Friar's Corner

Catholic / Fr. Bob Hilz / Holy Spirit / Jesus / Joy / Pentecost / Scriptures

Friar’s Corner: Holy Spirit Novena

Are you ready for a new Pentecostal Fire? Last week I shared with you the major work of God, the Holy Spirit, that Jesus told his closest followers about at the Last Supper. At the Ascension forty days after his Resurrection, Jesus commanded them to remain in the city until they would receive POWER from on high. This is the only novena, 9 days of prayer, that we find in Scripture.

Catholic / Coronavirus / Evangelization / Interviews / Joy / Sharing Your Catholic Faith Story

Young Catholics Respond

When you are open to God’s love and surrendered to him, his love overflows from your hearts. The pandemic puts us in a cocoon of vulnerability where God can fill our hearts with his love. Use this time to fill your hearts to overflowing with his love.

Share what God did for you in the last few months. You’re not bragging on your accomplishments, you are giving glory to God for his goodness. And that goodness can come to others if they can detect it among their misery.

The Friar's Corner

Catholic / Eucharist / Evangelization / Fr. Bob Hilz / Holy Spirit / Jesus / Living Your Faith / Sacraments / Scriptures

Friar’s Corner: Called into service on the way to heaven

When our churches reopen, we want to get frequently to Mass and receive the real presence of Jesus in his bread and wine, not just spiritually as now. Next, we pray more and ask the Holy Spirit to show us how and where we are to tell others about God’s loving plan for us. We want to know our ministry to make the lives around us more productive for God’s kingdom and to bring them his Good News. Amen!

The Friar's Corner

Catholic / Catholic family / Fr. Bob Hilz / Jesus / Joy / Prayer / Sacraments / Saints / Scriptures

Friar’s Corner: Jesus is our daily Bread of Life

St. Luke’s gospel this Sunday tells us that two disciples, Cleopas and an unnamed disciple, had left Jerusalem even though the women had told them that Jesus’ body was not in the tomb and that they had seen him in his new presence. These two disciples were walking along to Emmaus and a stranger began to walk with them as they were talking about those things that had happened to Jesus. This stranger they did not recognize began to explain why Jesus had to go through those things. Briefly, it was toward evening and they stopped at an inn for dinner and rest. When did they recognize him it was Jesus? At the meal when he took the bread, blessed and broke the bread. They had been at the Last Supper. Their eyes were opened yet Jesus instantly vanished. They ran back to the Upper Room to tell the others. This story is critical. Pray and think about it.