“For the glory of God is man fully alive, and the life of man consists in beholding God. For if the manifestation of God which is made by means of the creation, affords life to all living in the earth, much more does that revelation of the Father which comes through the Word, give life to those who see God.” St. Ireneaus

 

When are we fully alive? When we are in union with God, reflecting his image and likeness. And when we will be fully alive, we will, by God’s grace, be able to behold God in all his glory. A mirror covered with slime cannot reflect the sun. But a mirror wiped cleaned captures and reflects the brightness of the sun. God created us in his own image and likeness. We sinned. Jesus through his death and resurrection wiped us cleaned. It was then in baptism that our life reflected the life of God, as it was meant to. We need not only to keep our life clean but to polish it so that one day the glory of God will be perfectly reflected in us forever.

 

“He who receives Communion is made holy and Divinized in soul and body in the same way that water, set over a fire, becomes boiling... Communion works like yeast that has been mixed into dough so that it leavens the whole mass; ...Just as by melting two candles together you get one piece of wax, so, I think, one who receives the Flesh and Blood of Jesus is fused together with Him by this Communion, and the soul finds that he is in Christ and Christ is in him.” St. Cyril of Alexandria

 

This is a mystery of our faith. That is why we call it Communion. By God’s power and our receiving of the Body and Blood of Jesus in faith we become one with God and God with us. As St. Paul expressed it: “I live; yet now, it is not I, but truly Christ, who lives in me.” (Gal 2:20) We worship in awe and thanksgiving the real presence of God in this broken vessel. Unworthy as a struggling sinner, but made worthy by calling and grace, we surrender to the plan of God, by which we have a foretaste of the heavenly banquet.

 

 

Homily: Thirteenth Sunday Year B

Reading 1: God created life; he didn’t make death. He created us in his own image and likeness to live forever. When he breathed life into man and woman he gave them of his spirit, the immortal soul.  As a result, we will live forever. We are meant by God’s design to live forever with him in praise of his glory.

 

All that God created was good.  But as the reading said, “by the envy of the devil, death entered the world.”  Because the devil by his own choice was separated from God, so he wanted to separate man and woman from God. Death came from sin. The death the writer is reflecting on is not so much as physical death but spiritual death. Because of sin we will all physically die.

 

But God’s plan was not to be thwarted by the entrance of sin into creation. God in his mercy promised a Savior who would crushed the head of the evil one. That promised was fulfilled by the Son of God becoming Man. In faith we believe that because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, the lasting power of sin has been destroyed. We have been redeemed and reconciled. To die in sin means to be eternally separated from God and to experience the second death which is permanent. To die in Christ is to live with him forever in eternal peace.

 

Gospel: Jesus said, “I have come that you may have life, life to the fullest.” Extended illness is debilitating to life to the fullest. Physical death ends physical life. Jesus restores both the woman with this particular illness and the young girl to a more satisfying experience of physical life in anticipation of the fullness of life he desires for them and us.

 

Both Jairus and the woman saw Jesus as one who is empowered by God to heal the sick.  Initially, Jairus did not see Jesus as one who could restore physical life after death occurs. His daughter was dying. He sought her healing. The woman believed that Jesus could heal her, if she merely touched his robe. But her healing in not just for her. Jesus calls her to publicly attest to the power of God, restoring her to a fuller experience of life. This public witness was for the sake of Jairus.

 

When Jairus is told his daughter has died and it was no longer necessary for Jesus to do anything, Jesus challenged him to believe and trust in God’s plan. Her death was to serve a greater purpose than her healing would.

 

Jesus goes with Jairus, whose level of faith is being tested. The woman believed that if she would touch his garment, she would be healed. As Jairus trusted in the words of Jesus, he was about to see a greater manifestation of the power of God. Jesus raised his daughter back to physical life. Jesus is the Lord of life. But the physical healing of the woman and the physical restoration of the girl both pointed to the greater mystery of life with God forever in glory. The bondage of the woman and the loss of life of the girl, served the purpose of evil one.  Their restoration served the purpose of God.

 

Both experiences occur to draw us to the person who is the source of life. The greater miracle and sign of God’s love is our eternal salvation and eternal union with God in the fullness of life.

 

Reading 2: To be a disciple of Jesus, accepting him as Lord of one’s life and empowered and led through the anointing of the Spirit, one sees things differently. We see that all belongs to God and that we are stewards of the gifts God has blessed us with. One who is filled with the Spirit is a generous person.

 

We have become rich in Christ, whether we have much or little.  Trusting in the word of God that he is a generous giver, a disciple seeks what does God want him/her to do when an opportunity to financially help anther presents itself. The person does not give beyond one’s means, but ingratitude to God for what he/she has be given, knowing that God will care for the person in turn.

 

The faith community in Jerusalem was undergoing economic difficulties. Paul is asking the Gentile believers to take up a collection to help them. They are to do so not out of obligation but out of gratitude to what God has done for them.

 

“Don't say, ‘That person bothers me.’ Think: ‘That person sanctifies me’. St. Josemaria Escriva

 

When a grain of sand gets into the shell of an oyster, it secretes a substance to coat the intruder. Over time, this process results in the formation of a pearl. The same is true with the irritation that we experience from others. Instead of letting it become something negative, we can, with God’s grace, transform the situation as a means of our sanctification. That was the way of St. Therese of Liseux. When one of the nuns irritated her, she chose to transform the situation into a stepping stone to holiness. There is a pearl in formation in each of us.

 Thirteenth Sunday Gospel B

When Jesus had crossed again (in the boat) to the other side, a large crowd gathered around him, and he stayed close to the sea. One of the synagogue officials, named Jairus, came forward. Seeing him he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him, saying, "My daughter is at the point of death. Please, come lay your hands on her that she may get well and live." 

· It is obvious the girl is dying and to Jairus Jesus is his last hope. He must have heard or seen the power of Jesus already.  Do we sometimes wait until the last moment before calling upon Jesus?

He went off with him, and a large crowd followed him and pressed upon him. There was a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years. 

· Mark often times interrupts one story and inserts another that is connected.

· Her hemorrhage made her ritually unclean according to the belief of the Jewish people who followed the Law. That meant she could not go into the Temple without first be ritually washed.

She had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors and had spent all that she had. Yet she was not helped but only grew worse. She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak. She said, "If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured." 

                   She too had “heard” about Jesus. In her unworthiness she sought just  

                   to touch his garments            

Even the act of touching Jesus’ garment would technically make Jesus ritually unclean.

It is not enough to be in the presence of Jesus or even to touch him. The faith of the woman made the difference.

Immediately her flow of blood dried up. She felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who has touched my clothes?" But his disciples said to him, "You see how the crowd is pressing upon you, and yet you ask, 'Who touched me?'" And he looked around to see who had done it. The woman, realizing what had happened to her, approached in fear and trembling. She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth. He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction." 

Why did Jesus make a such a scene? Was it because he wanted the woman to publicly attest to the healing she had received from God? Do we give such a witness when Jesus moves in our lives? The healing was not for the woman only, but as will see, for the crowd but especially for Jairus.

While he was still speaking, people from the synagogue official's house arrived and said, "Your daughter has died; why trouble the teacher any longer?" 

        Imagine that you were the father of the girl and received such a message, what would you feel at the moment?

Disregarding the message that was reported, Jesus said to the synagogue official, "Do not be afraid; just have faith." 

      In other words, recall the healing of the woman and have the same faith.

      Where and when has Jesus said the same thing to you?

He did not allow anyone to accompany him inside except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. 

Why do you think Jesus did this? He is not looking for the approval of the crowd. He only wants to do the work of his Father.

When they arrived at the house of the synagogue official, he caught sight of a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. So he went in and said to them, "Why this commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but asleep." And they ridiculed him. Then he put them all out. 

Here Mark contrasts the faith of the woman who was healed and the people pressing upon Jesus as well as the faith of Jairus against the lack of faith of the weeping crowd.

He took along the child's father and mother and those who were with him and entered the room where the child was. He took the child by the hand and said to her, "Talitha koum," which means, "Little girl, I say to you, arise!" The girl, a child of twelve, arose immediately and walked around. (At that) they were utterly astounded. He gave strict orders that no one should know this and said that she should be given something to eat. 

It was not the faith of the child that brought the healing but the faith of the parents. What does this say to you?

How strong is your faith in the person and power of Jesus in times of difficulties?

What is God asking of you as you reflect on this passage?

 ‘Why, words, did I let you get out? I have often been sorry that I have spoken, never that I have been silent.” Arsenius, a desert father

How often have we spoken harmful words and regretted for having spoken them? But it was too late, the damage was done. We can apologize and repent, but the effects of our words are still there. What is needed is to think before we speak, something hard for many of us. Is what we are about to say said in love; is it the truth; will it build up the person; does it need to be said? We all know how it feels when others speak to us unkind words. We all know the hurt it causes in us.  This should be enough to give us pause before we speak unkindly to others.

 

"We become what we love and who we love shapes what we become.” St. Clair of Assisi

If we love wealth, we will be slave of wealth. If we love to look good, so others can admire us, our body will one day die. Then who will we be? But if we love Jesus, we will become more like him. In that love we learn to surrender ourselves to him, who in turn truly recreates us into the new creation. Then when we die, who will we be and whose will we be?

 

Take care above all things, most honored lady, not to insult God’s boundless loving kindness; you would certainly do this if you mourned as dead one living face to face with God, one whose prayers can bring you in your troubles more powerful aid than they ever could on earth. And our parting will not be for long; we shall see each other again in heaven; we shall be united with our Savior; there we shall praise him with heart and soul, sing of his mercies forever, and enjoy eternal happiness. When he takes away what he once lent us, his purpose is to store our treasure elsewhere more safely and bestow on us those very blessings that we ourselves would most choose to have. St. Aloysius

What a beautiful way to look at and approach death!  Would that each of us can have the same attitude before we die and at the death of loved one. The dead are still living, though gone from our sight. Our faith tells us that we will see and be with each other, if we died in Christ. While we feel their absence, we should celebrate their union on Christ. May each time we encounter the death of another, we may realize our time is short and continue to remain at one with God. We belong to the Lord whether we live or die. Run as to gain the prize on high.

 

“God speaks in the silence of the heart.”  St Teresa of Calcutta

 

When the prophet Elijah waited to hear God’s plan for him, it was in the quiet whisper in silence that he received his message. In that silence God’s quiet voice is heard. It is hard for us to enter into the quiet of silence because our mind is all over the place. Yet, that is the place and time God reveals his plan for us. There is no audible voice, but an inner awareness that brings peace to us. God himself gives us this direction in the Scriptures. “Be still and know that I am God.” Should we not follow it?

 

Homily: Twelfth Sunday Year B

Reading: Job was once rich, comfortable, respected, blessed. Then he lost everything, became an object of mockery, afflicted with physical problems.  His friends said it was because of some sin of Job. But Job maintained his innocence. He wanted to know why God had done all this to him, since he was innocent. He wanted God to give an account of himself to Job. The creature confronting the Creator, the pot it’s maker, the finite against the infinite.

God’s response was profound and simple. Remember who I am and who you are. Where were you, God says, when I created the universe and calmed the power of the stormy sea? In all the questions God put before Job, Job had no answers. He finally realizes that God is God and that in his humanity he understood so little of all reality.

Have we been so arrogant or audacious before God? Have we ever been angry with God and demanded to know why such and such was happening in our life? Have we ever reversed roles, thinking we had a right to demand from God answers? Sometimes we forget who we really are in relationship to God and who God is to us.

At the end Job repents of his arrogance and lack of understanding. He submitted to the will of God without the need of further understanding.

Gospel: Though the apostles heard Jesus’ teachings and saw the many signs and wonders, they still did not know who Jesus really was. They were committed to him as disciples. They followed and learned from him, but they could walk away at any time, as some did. Up to that point he was not the Lord of their life, the center of their existence.

So when they experienced a moment of test, they showed they were more concerned about their own safety rather than him; they did not believe that as long as he was with them, he would care for them in all circumstances. They panic as the storm worsened. “Do you not care that we are perishing?” Their focus was on themselves, not on Jesus. 

How many times have we experienced various storms in our lives and have felt that Jesus was asleep or that he was not concerned? Like the Apostles, we fail to remember that God is always with us for a purpose. God is always aware of what is happening in our lives. In those difficult moments, we are called to trust that God has a plan that we don’t understand. It is a time to entrust our lives to God, who is the source of all things.  

Reading 2: Paul provides us with the central mystery of our faith and its consequences in our lives. Christ died for all to remove our alienation from God as a result of sin. Because of his death and resurrection, we are a new creation. The old things—that which led us into sin—have passed away and the new life of relationship with Christ is present in us. As a result, love of Christ for what he has done for us should motivate all we do and are.

The way we look at things should have changed.  In other words, a conversion of heart and mind and way of life should have taken place. Before I may have seen and known Jesus as an historical figure, as someone others have told me about, as one among many.  Now, after all he has done for and in me, do I know him as the Lord and Savior of my life? Do I live for myself or do I live for Christ, who gave his life that I may live? Are we compelled by the love of God for us to respond with love?

God never forces his love upon us. He loves us and waits for our response. We can receive as little or as much of his love as we are open to him.

 

“Were you to ask,
‘what are the means
of overcoming temptations’,
I would answer:
The first means is prayer;
the second is prayer;
the third is prayer;
and should you ask me,
a thousand times,
I would repeat the same.”

St Alphonsus Liguori

Why would this saint emphasize prayer as the greatest tool to overcome temptations? What is the purpose of temptations? The Devil wants to separate us from God? What is the purpose of prayer? It focuses us on the Lord. If our focus is on the Lord, who loves us, then our attention is not on us, which is what temptations try to do. If our heart is directed on praising and thanking the Lord, where then is the power of the temptation?

 "There are in truth three states of the converted: the beginning, the middle, and the perfection. In the beginning they experience the charms of sweetness; in the middle the contests of temptation; and in the end the fullness of perfection." Pope St. Gregory the Great

This is the spiritual journey that we are on. It began for us in Baptism, but we were too young to know. Later, we had a " conversion" experience, when we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior. The full grace of our baptism was released. The reality of sin became clearer to us as we moved on. Not that we no longer sinned, but we saw sin for what it is. We began to deal with our sins, seeking through the Sacraments the grace to move from darkness  into light. Without knowing, we were on the road of perfection, which is completed in death and if necessary the purifying fires of purgatory. Keep your eyes on the prize.

 The Lord does not ask us to struggle alone....We do not make love even our own. God and God alone cam make this kind of love. We have to ask him for it, we have to receive it....We are not called to be restless activists in our works of charity. but people who are passive and patient, and in whom the love of God is working. For it is in this way, and only in this way that the loving action of God can spread in our world." Venable Madeline Delbrel

To love humanly is to love those who love us. To love heroically is to love those who are hard to love. This ability comes not from our strength but by surrendering to the grace of God. Since it is God's will that we love as he loves, even those in our eyes hard to love, he gives us the grace to so love. It was not easy for St. Francis to embrace a leper. He was motivated and empowered by God. Who is the leper in our lives?

 

Does not God have the power to resurrect each one individually, either to our honor and glory or to our dishonor and condemnation, reforming and restoring from each one’s same matter? God resurrects to dishonor the one who lived thoughtlessly in sins and to honor the one who lived in righteousness.  St Methodius

Everyone dies and everyone rises from the dead by the power of God and for his glory. Death is part of our human life. Resurrection is not. If we die in alienation of God after the gift of salvation, then our rising from the dead will be for our eternal condemnation. If we die in union with God after the gift of salvation, then our resurrection will be to live eternally with God. Our resurrection shows the finality of our choices in life. Choose with his grace to live with God now, so that by his grace you will live with God eternally. For this is our true destiny.

 

"The devil is afraid of us when we pray and make sacrifices. He is also afraid when we are humble and good. He is especially afraid when we love Jesus very much. He runs away when we make the Sign of the Cross." St Anthony of Padua

 

The Devil seeks to draw us away from God, as he did with Adam and Eve. When we pray, our focus is God, who is deserving of all praise. When we are humble, our focus is God, to whom we owe everything. When we love as Jesus taught, our focus is God, who is love. When we sign ourselves with the cross, we are embracing the instrument that overcame Satan. We have so many tools at our disposal to avoid falling for the temptations of the Devil. Each of these tools is a grace from God to strengthen us to remain faithful to God.

 

Homily Eleventh Sunday Year B

Reading 1: In the first reading the prophet Ezekiel is proclaiming words of comfort to a people in exile. They are shattered. Their former greatness as a nation has been destroyed. They see themselves as nobodies with no leader, no direction, no hope. Ezekiel says in this and all situations God is their hope. God is going to do something new. He will restore them. God will transfer his people from a kingdom of oppression, poverty and misery to a kingdom of justice, prosperity and peace of mind.

 

According to the laws of botany, you don’t expect to top off a tender shot from the crest of a great tree and expect it to become a great tree in turn. And yet from the worse scenario Ezekiel says that God is going to bring about a new and mightier kingdom, one that will last forever. This is the future messianic Kingdom which will proclaim the presence, the power and the plan of God. What seems impossible in the limited sight of human beings is possible for God, who is the beginning and end of all good things. The shoot here refers to God’s faithful remnants who remained steadfast in the midst of adversity and who in turn formed the nucleus of Israel after the exile.

It was out of these faithful remnants that God’s Anointed would emerge. The twig is figurative of the future Messiah. Isaiah touched on the same image in referring to the future Messiah when he says a shoot shall rise from the stump of Jesse. This Davidic figure will bring protection and prosperity to the “birds” who live on his branches. And all the other trees around this noble tree will know that the Lord is God because of the figure. Ezekiel is proclaiming a way forward for ancient Israel, a way that preserves some continuity with the old way of life — it is a twig from the top of a current tree. But a way that imagines something new as well. A new location. A new tree. New branches. Where Babylon had brought low its royal captive, God would raise up a mighty tree offering shelter for all kinds of bird and wild animal.

It is God’s direct intervention and initiative that is emphasized. God takes, sets, breaks off, plants, brings low, makes high, dries up, and makes flourish. God controls the action in the whole process. The tree will grow and produce fruit, but even these actions are under the watchful attention of God.

Gospel: Mark gives us two of the many parables of Jesus. Both deal with the fruitfulness of the seed.  In the first parable, even though the farmer scatters the seed on the land, he doesn’t produce the fruit. He can prepare the soil; he can cultivate the plant but its growth comes about by the providential plan of God in the appropriate time. So it will be with the kingdom of God, which is the Church that Jesus initially established with a small group of disciples. In spite of the human dimension of the Church, which at times has hindered its growth, the divine dimension under the guidance of the Holy Spirit has brought fruitfulness over the centuries.

In the second parable, small as the mustard seed is, it develops into a tree. Though the mustard tree generally averages only nine to twelve feet in height, it has a wide expanse and provides a nesting place for birds. Just as the tree welcomes the birds, so is God’s kingdom welcoming and open to many.

Jesus teaches something quite radical through these parables. He teaches that God’s Kingdom though begun in dishonor and ignominy, namely his death on the cross as a condemned criminal, will reach its fulfilment in a way that defies human expectations.

 Ezekiel reminds us through the symbol of the shoot that we must learn to not to lose hope in the face of adversity; we must learn to live the fallow time deeply and humbly. Jesus similarly challenges us to work for the coming of the Kingdom even if the desired result is not yet in sight.

Reading 2: Paul reminds us that as members of the Kingdom of God in the present moment, our home is not here, but with the Lord. Because of this mystery and truth, we live now in faith, hope and love, even though we do not see the fullness of the Kingdom yet in our lives. Our faith is in the person of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Our hope is in his promise to be with us always and to bring us into the fullness of his eternal life. Love is to be our way of life, choosing to do all things out of love of Christ. For we know that one day at the end of our earthly existence, God will judge us. What kind of disciples have we been? What have we done to bring forth his kingdom by our words and deeds? How have we embraced his Word? Our eternal salvation will depend on the way we live in the present moment.

James A. Garfield, prior to serving as President of the United States, was president of Hiram College in Ohio. One day a father asked Garfield if there were a short-cut whereby his son could get through college in less than the usual four years. He wanted his son to get on with making money.

The college president gave this reply,

“Of course there is a way; it all depends on what you want your boy to do. When God wants to grow an oak tree, he takes 100 years. When he wants to make a squash, he only takes two months.”

 

What is our vision, what is God’s vision for us? Are we in this journey for the long haul or for the easiest?

 

 "Christian perfection consists in three things: praying heroically, working heroically, and suffering heroically. St. Anthony Claret

What does this mean or look like? I think that St. Paul summarized this way of living in these words. "And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." "Heroically" is not meant to be understood from the aspect of quantity but quality. It is not the time we spend in prayer, or work or suffering, but the focus of our prayer, work or suffering. Some saints were called by God to greater prayer, work and suffering. However, most saints lived ordinary lives, doing ordinary things in an extraordinary way, namely, living a life in union with Jesus. That is the road for most of us.

 Eleventh Sunday Gospel B

Jesus said to the crowds: “This is how it is with the kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and through it all the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come.”

· Jesus teaches using the experiences of the people of his day. They planted and farmed. So, they could relate to his teachings. 

· Underlying this is the role of God in the process. The seed was not created by the farmer. The land was not created by the farmer. The sun and the rain were not created by the farmer. He plants and tends but it the providential work of God that is manifested.

· Jesus says that the Kingdom of God will grow the same way. God has planted the desire in the hearts of people for something more. Those who proclaim and share the Good News of God’s love are those who touch the core of the hearer’s heart. The fruit is the response of the hearer.

 He said, “To what shall we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use for it? It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.”

· Like the mustard seed which is small and seemingly insignificant, the Kingdom of God will such at the beginning. But through the grace of God in the working of those who proclaim the truth of salvation and in the hearers, the Church will spread far and wide and many will be part of it.

· The question we need to ask ourselves is what is our part in this mysterious growth? First, we are the hearers who benefit from the outreach and ministry of others. But we are also called to give to others what we have received. This is also the process of the growth. We can’t just be satisfied to receive; we must be fruitful by passing on the Good News. 

With many such parables he spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it. Without parables he did not speak to them, but to his own disciples he explained everything in private.

· To the extent people responded to his message, Jesus was able to explain further. 

· But because of the role of the disciples, he was forming them further by explaining everything in private. 

· The process: the hearer becomes a disciple then an apostle. The disciple is formed; the apostle is sent out to share with others.

"There are three traps of Satan, that steel joy and peace: one, regretting about the past, two, fear for the future, three, ingratitude for the present. "St. Anthony of the Desert

What are the remedies against these traps? Instead of regretting about the past, we need to ask God for the grace to learn from the mistakes of the past. Instead of fearing for the future, we need to entrust our future to God, whose plans are for our good. Instead of being ungrateful for the present, embrace the grace of the present moment with gratitude. God  lives neither in the past nor the future, only in the present. The past is gone, the future is not yet, the present is the only now we have. It is where we will find God.

 "Don't think about the good you have done, but about the good you are still failing to do." Blessed Edward Poppe

We all fall short of what God desires of us. We sometimes are comforted by reflecting on the good things we have accomplished over this short time of life. These deeds go before us. But there are so many more that we  are not doing that we could do. We cannot do everything. But are we doing what God is calling us to do? There is always the more. But what is the more that God is asking of us can only be discerned through prayer and openness to God. Each of us is different and each of us has a different calling. I am not called to do what someone is called to do. I am called by God to do what he wants me to do and to do it in love.

 

“If you know how quickly people would forget you after you died, you wouldn’t try to please anyone but God” St. John Chrysostom

This is a sobering but true thought. We spend so much time pleasing others with very little lasting results. On the other hand, how much time do we spend pleasing t.he Lord, who is more deserving because of all he has done for us? If people forget us after we die, that is normal. But we definitely do not want God to say, “I do not know you,” or not to remember us. The attitude of Peter before the religious leaders of Israel needs to be ours. “Whom should we obey? God or you.” His answer was spoken without hesitation. “We will obey God.” Doing the will of God and pleasing the Lord should be our goal in life before anything else

 

"A talkative, over-curious, and restless person is like an oven which is open and exposed on all sides, and which keeps no heat; you will never enjoy the sweetness of a quiet prayer unless you shut your mind to all worldly desires and temporal affairs.” St. Bruno

It is so hard to quieten our minds at times, especially when we come before the Lord in prayer. And yet without an attentive presence, our prayer will be mere words. It may help to spend the first part of our time before the Lord uniting ourselves with the angels and saints praising, glorifying and thanking God for his many blessings. If the distractions persist, then briefly talk to the Lord about these thoughts and concerns. Then try to focus on him in silence, contemplating his gracious love. Whether or not we hear anything is not important. We are there for him.

 "The Church is like a great ship being pounded by the waves of life's different stresses. Our duty is not to abandon ship, but to keep her on her course."  St. Boniface

This is the role of the Holy Spirit. When the Church is attacked externally by distorted teachings or internally by human sin, the wind of the Spirit keeps the Bark of Peter steady and firm. As the Spirit of Truth, the Advocate enables the Church to discern the true doctrine from erroneous speculations. This has been part of the history of the Church over the centuries. As the Spirit of holiness, the Spirit raises up reformers within the community of believers to recall the Bride of Christ to its original mission of witness as the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic church. As Jesus said: the gates of Hell will not prevail against the Church. This is our faith

 

Let it be understood that those who are not found living as He taught are not Christian- even though they profess with the lips the teaching of Christ. St Justin

A true Christian is one who lives consciously as Jesus taught. A true Christian is one, who in fact is in union with God in thought, word and deed. On the other hand, a pseudo Christian is one, who externally goes through the motions, but internally is far from the Lord. Just as Jesus had many disciples following him at different times, not all were committed. A true Christian is both in name and life-style. It is the difference between the wheat and the weed. Both may look the same externally, but are radically different. Jesus will honor real Christians in the end. The rest, who are in name only, he will not know.

Every man gives his life for what he believes. Every woman gives her life for what she believes. Sometimes people believe in little or nothing, nevertheless they give up their lives to that little or nothing. One life is all we have, and we live it as we believe in living it, and then it's gone. But to surrender what you are, and live without belief - that's more terrible than dying - more terrible than dying young. St Joan of arc

What are you willing to give your life for? Power, prestige, wealth, pleasure, honor, etc? To this Jesus said: “What does it profit one to gain the whole world, but lose one’s soul?” What is the treasure of great price that Jesus spoke of? Faith in Jesus Christ that leads to everlasting life. Nothing else can measure up to this. Everything else is rubbish, here today and gone tomorrow. But a life lived in faith in Jesus will allow us to break through the darkness of death into the light and life of eternal glory.