Archive for December 28, 2015

Joyful Mystery 4

Posted: December 28, 2015 by CatholicJules in Meditations

## The presentation of our Lord in the temple

+ Do I purify myself regularly so as to be reconciled with God? Do I prepare myself before each Eucharistic celebration?

+ Do I consecrate myself to Jesus? Do I perform acts of consecration? Little sacrifices, acts of mercy towards others?

+ Have I stayed awake faithful to the Lord our God, awaiting His coming? Have I done my priestly duties of reconciling people with God? Have I done my prophetic duties of sharing His Word? Singing His praises?

+ Do I share the wisdom and knowledge given to me by God with His people?

+ Through faithful, love, service and sacrifice may I be granted a chance to look upon the face of Christ as Saint Simeon and Saint Anna did. Amen

Knowledge Of God

Posted: December 28, 2015 by CatholicJules in Personal Thoughts & Reflections

Recently someone thanked me for sharing my ‘vast’ knowledge of the faith and sharing all spiritual aspects which brought the members closer to God.

So I began to ponder what is it that I really know? How much have I really shared with anyone?

In my own journey, I went from 0 to 60 in 3 secs (the speed of a Ferrari) all because of my surrender to the Lord of God. He taught and guided me whether it be from Holy scripture, people or events. That is how my knowledge of Him and my faith grew.

The more I learned the more I realised I didn’t know. In other words in striving to know God and even about Him, no one can ever say they know and understand everything there is to know and understand. The day we stop learning is the day we die even if it is only a spiritual death.

Knowledge of God kept privately is superficial knowledge. One may know about Him but have no real relationship with Him.

For having true knowledge of Him is to share in His love. Such knowledge cannot be contained. The more it is shared or given away the more it is received and lived.

Hence I only know what I know received from Him, can only understand what I know by sharing it with others. I thereby live the experience and knowledge of Him received in my life for others. Amen

On Today’s Gospel

Posted: December 28, 2015 by CatholicJules in Personal Thoughts & Reflections

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A world plunged in darkness because of the sins of men. Wars fought leaving in its trail innocent victims, especially the blood of young children. This is not history! But the present and likely holds the same in the future.

The Holy Family shows us that they too lived in such darkness and had to flee like refugees. However they carried with them the hope for our future. The true light that can never be extinguished! The light of the world that pierces through and rids it of the darkness.

And so likewise we too can carry the light of Christ into the world. So that sinners may repent and be converted. So that we together with the little innocent Saints in heaven can rejoice in the peace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen

First reading
1 John 1:5-2:2

This is what we have heard from Jesus Christ, and the message that we are announcing to you: God is light; there is no darkness in him at all.

If we say that we are in union with God while we are living in darkness, we are lying because we are not living the truth.

But if we live our lives in the light, as he is in the light, we are in union with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

If we say we have no sin in us,
we are deceiving ourselves
and refusing to admit the truth; but if we acknowledge our sins,nthen God who is faithful and just will forgive our sins and purify us from everything that is wrong.

To say that we have never sinned is to call God a liar and to show that his word is not in us.

I am writing this, my children,
to stop you sinning; but if anyone should sin, we have our advocate with the Father,

Jesus Christ, who is just;
he is the sacrifice that takes our sins away, and not only ours, but the whole world’s.

Gospel
Matthew 2:13-18

After the wise men had left, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother with you, and escape into Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, because Herod intends to search for the child and do away with him.’ So Joseph got up and, taking the child and his mother with him, left that night for Egypt, where he stayed until Herod was dead. This was to fulfil what the Lord had spoken through the prophet:

I called my son out of Egypt.

Herod was furious when he realised that he had been outwitted by the wise men, and in Bethlehem and its surrounding district he had all the male children killed who were two years old or under, reckoning by the date he had been careful to ask the wise men. It was then that the words spoken through the prophet Jeremiah were fulfilled:

A voice was heard in Ramah,
sobbing and loudly lamenting:
it was Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted because they were no more.