Category: Jesus
Friar’s Corner: God wants to raise us up
At the end of St. Paul’s Roman letter in chapter 13, he emphasizes love, the love that Jesus was all about in His gospel messages. This is what we owe to one another, sharing God’s love. Amen! This is what our family, friends, neighbors, fellow workers, others and the world long to hear and see in us, God’s love. One way you can do this is by sharing God’s transforming love in your life. Nancy Ward can show you how in her book, Sharing Your Catholic Faith Story: Tools, Tips, and Testimonies.
FIrst Call
I fell in love for the first time when I was six years old. Coming from an “unchurched but Catholic-on-the-books” family, I did not learn of Jesus until I entered first grade. I’m forever grateful to my parents for sending me to Catholic school, for there I learned of this wonderful person who truly loved me.
I could not help but love him in return, and in fact, I was so taken with him that as soon as I could more or less spell, I scribbled his name all over my school books. (I had a teenaged sister who wrote names of boyfriends on her books, so I knew how that was done.)
Friars Corner: Be a Living Sacrifice
“St. Michael the Archangel, illustrious leader of the heavenly army, defend us in the battle against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of darkness and the spirits of wickedness in high places. Come to the rescue of mankind, whom God has made in His own image and likeness, and purchase from Satan’s tyranny at so great a price. Holy Church venerates you as her patron and guardian. The Lord has entrusted to you the task of leading the souls of the redeemed to heavenly blessedness. Entreat the Lord of peace to cast Satan down under our feet, so as to keep him from further holding humans captive and doing harm to God’s Church. Carry our prayers up to God’s throne, that the mercy of the Lord may quickly come and lay hold of the beast, the serpent of old, Satan and his demons, casting them in chains into the abyss, so that they can no longer seduce the nations.”
Friar’s Corner: Big Rock, little rock
Today’s Matthew 16:18 has two interpretations. One is that Peter is the rock on which the church of Jesus was built. The other is that Jesus, Himself is the Rock of our salvation. Peter is the “little rock” next to Jesus. He was obviously a stabilizing factor within the early church and today. The Catholic papacy has been something of the eye of almost every religious hurricane in the course of Christian controversy.
Leave the Doing to God
God lets me wait for the surprise ending as my sisters did. My older sister would make me wait, just like I did my little sister, for a surprise kiss or cookie until the big task was finished — cleaning the bathroom, cooking dinner or decorating for a party.
When I work hard at my goals and wait on Jesus, I enjoy the ending more than the start because of the joy of looking in his eyes and anticipating a glorious ending.
Friar’s Corner: Living on Jesus’ Words
Let us grow deeper in faith, hope and love from this day forward. Let us really repent of our past sins and not following Jesus. Let us spend more time each day closer to Jesus in our prayer, wanting to be closer to Him. He will heal us and fill us with all the grace and power we need to bring His good news to others.
TheSimpleCatholic: Why you are never too old to evangelize
I’m part of the elder generation of faithful Christians who know the Truth and bring that Truth to the spiritual orphans of our secular culture. Vigorous and sturdy, we shall bear fruit among those whom no one else can evangelize but who can relate to us right here and now. We interact with the walking wounded at Walmart and can minister to the casualties of the culture of death.