We are saints in the making are we not? Well, the code of conduct for a saint can be found in today’s first reading! As much as I would like to say we will all surely get there, the truth is that unless we are prepared to suffer; surrender fully to the will of the Lord our God, renounce ourselves and take up our cross then we will hardly make any headway. We need to live in the power of the Holy Spirit everyday of our lives for the endurance needed to run the race.
Impossible? NO! For nothing is impossible for the Lord our God. We have everything we need in Him, so let us stay the course!
Your word is a lamp for my steps Lord and a light for my path. Amen
Saint Philip Minh, Priest, and Companions pray for us…
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First reading
2 Corinthians 6:1-10 ·
How we prove that we are God’s servants
As his fellow workers, we beg you once again not to neglect the grace of God that you have received. For he says: At the favourable time, I have listened to you; on the day of salvation I came to your help. Well, now is the favourable time; this is the day of salvation.
We do nothing that people might object to, so as not to bring discredit on our function as God’s servants. Instead, we prove we are servants of God by great fortitude in times of suffering: in times of hardship and distress; when we are flogged, or sent to prison, or mobbed; labouring, sleepless, starving. We prove we are God’s servants by our purity, knowledge, patience and kindness; by a spirit of holiness, by a love free from affectation; by the word of truth and by the power of God; by being armed with the weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left, prepared for honour or disgrace, for blame or praise; taken for impostors while we are genuine; obscure yet famous; said to be dying and here are we alive; rumoured to be executed before we are sentenced; thought most miserable and yet we are always rejoicing; taken for paupers though we make others rich, for people having nothing though we have everything.
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Gospel
Matthew 5:38-42
Offer the wicked man no resistance
Jesus said to his disciples: ‘You have learnt how it was said: Eye for eye and tooth for tooth. But I say this to you: offer the wicked man no resistance. On the contrary, if anyone hits you on the right cheek, offer him the other as well; if a man takes you to law and would have your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone orders you to go one mile, go two miles with him. Give to anyone who asks, and if anyone wants to borrow, do not turn away.’
CatholicJules.net 
Rise and Walk
4h sedan
Forgiveness
humility
Justified
Pride Fall
Palma il Giovane – 1542 – Healing of Paralytic
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6
A few days ago a reader emailed me and asked me to write about what to do after a Pride Fall? The reader stated that after a fall like this, it is hard to keep up hope. She wanted me to try to put into words what could be done, besides the obvious of Mass and the Sacraments, as many don’t have Spiritual Directors to speak to.
I have probably written about this in various ways in the past, but I am going to try to assemble all of it here for clarity’s sake because I do think it’s important and because I do think we all need the reinforcement of one another when we are suffering. I know I needed it. My friend Ashley simply said to me, “you can do this, God is in this with you, his grace is sufficient,” multiple times last year. Those words kept the flame of hope alive in me. So I write this for anyone who is suffering and not understanding the ways of God. I know I felt paralyzed at times. God wants us to rise and walk.
It is extremely humbling and often humiliating when we fall in Pride. When we think we know the right course of action and everything comes crumbling down, it is often hard to recover, especially if you are sincerely trying to do God’s will, as Peter was. I remember struggling so much with what God was allowing to happen to me over the last year. I will also state, I know there were people actively cursing me and God was allowing it. I didn’t understand. It seemed God was taking everything away from me. Hadn’t I been faithful was the question I kept asking? God was silent a lot. In the middle of it, it is hard to bear. I remember simply praying for mercy and grace and clinging to belief. Looking back from the other side now, I see no other way to perfection in love. Even today, my areas of pride are pointed out daily. I recognize them quickly because of the ordeal of the last year. I was doing everything the laws of God asked, and I loved God, but I was relying a lot on myself. God wants us to lean on Him, letting Him guide when to act and when to wait. When to speak and when to just pray. God desired to draw me closer. He desires this for you too. Most of us are too afraid to get this close because it hurts so bad as it involves in letting go of many things that comfort us and just accepting the situation that is. Sometimes it involves money, sometimes it’s health, sometimes it’s relationships, the humbling can come from any myriad of things. All the time God is revealing, if you look. It unites you to His cross and reveals the things hidden in your heart that keep you away from Him. He wants to draw you inside the gate, where the innermost depth of your heart lay so His Divine Love can pour into it. We have to keep this in perspective otherwise our human ways draw us further from him.
You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly exhibited as crucified! 2The only thing I want to learn from you is this: Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? Having started with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh? Did you experience so much for nothing?—if it really was for nothing. Galatians 3:1-4
From here, I will outline step by step what I would do after a Pride Fall.
Remember that God loves you no matter what. He never stops loving you. You don’t have to earn his love.
“But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8
2. Do not try to justify yourself. When you try to explain or defend what you did God cannot come in and be your justification. Satan will try to convince you to explain yourself, much the way Adam explained to God that the woman given to him made him do it, rather than just saying sorry.
Much more surely, therefore, since we have now been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God Romans 5:9
3. Do not stuff your emotions. Emotions are a gift from God that help you to process when something happens. Be totally open with God about your emotions. He can handle them. He can reveal truth through them. Do not try to be “good enough”, just honest with God about exactly where you are. The most healing can take place when your heart is poured out and nothing is held back. Satan wants you ruled by emotions. God wants to reveal the wound using emotions. One way is out of control, the other is to place you on firm ground.
Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. Psalm 62:8
4. Ask the Lord what it is He wants you to face? What is it he wants you to stare at in order to convert and change? What is your serpent on the staff? Satan wants all things hidden, God wants to reveal the hidden things with love.
if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14
5. Be open to what He tells you and reveals to you. He does not condemn, but convicts you to change. He never shows you something to get you stuck in shame, only to widen your view to a God’s eye view. Satan is the accuser. God is the healer.
“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him. John 3:17
6. Forgive anyone who needs forgiving; that includes yourself, and even God. God hasn’t done anything wrong, but from our skewed perspective it can sometimes seem that way, forgiving God allows us to let go so he can heal us. Forgiveness is truly freeing. Satan wants you bound in the chains of unforgiveness, God wants to free you.
Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. James 5:16
7. Wait on the Lord. Do not expect everything to be fixed and for suffering to go away. Fixes are short term and don’t address the core of what needs healing. Healing is a long term process and the Lord walks you there. The goal is to love even though you’re suffering and the grace from that love will spill into your world and healing will begin. Chances are it took time to get where you are, it will take time to walk out of it too. Satan tries to distract and rush things. God moves with slowly in a distinct direction that will produce what is best for you.
but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31
8. Don’t lose hope in the Lord. His promises are true and He does work all things for the good of those who love Him. Satan wants you to despair so he can send a spirit of murder to attack you with horrible thoughts. God wants you thinking bigger of who He is and for you to know He is way stronger than Satan.
Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. Hebrews 10:23
9. Pray without ceasing. Pray prayer from your heart and the Spirit will intercede. Satan fears those who pray. God moves you towards union with Him when you pray.
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with groanings too deep for words. Romans 8:26
That about sums up how to handle a Pride Fall. I believe Saint Peter did all of these things in between the time he denied Jesus and wept, to the day of Pentecost. By the time He got to Pentecost his heart was totally ready for the Spirit to descend because of the walk He had already been on.
I hope this is able to help anyone out there who is suffering with why something happened. I don’t think God wants us stuck in the why, but he wants us to look at the Who. To look at the one who can heal and in whose image He is trying to form us in perfection. Anything not of Him we should desire to go, even if it hurts. And if you’re in a place where you don’t desire what keeps you from God to go, pray then to desire that.
May God bless you all this Father’s Day. Remember the heavenly Father who loves you so much he sent His only Son to die for you.
In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 1 John 4:10
Thank you Veronica, so so needed when one is suffering.
Hjärta till hjärta och ansikte mot ansikte: i reparation
15 juni 2023Patriciaenk
“Ty så älskade Gud världen”
Hjärtat av hängivenhet till det Heliga Anletet är gottgörelse för hädelse. Biskopar inbjuder katoliker att be det heliga hjärtats litania som gottgörelse för upprörande hädelse som tyvärr har blivit accepterad av kulturen idag. Var snälla och be litanian om Jesu Heliga Hjärta och offra all kärlek från Jesu Heliga Hjärta till Gud Fadern i den Helige Andes enhet om förlåtelse, barmhärtighet och syndares omvändelse:
Litania till Jesu Heliga Hjärta
Herre, förbarma digHerre, visa barmhärtighet.
Kristus, förbarma digKristus, förbarma dig.
Herre, förbarma digHerre, visa barmhärtighet.
Kristus, hör ossKristus, hör oss.
Kristus, hör oss nådigt.Kristus, hör oss nådigt.
Gud himlens Fader,förbarma dig över oss.
Gud Sonen, världens Återlösare,förbarma dig över oss.
Gud, den Helige Ande,förbarma dig över oss.
Den heliga Treenigheten, En Gud,förbarma dig över oss.
Jesu hjärta, den evige Faderns Son,förbarma dig över oss.
Jesu hjärta, format av den Helige Ande i Jungfrumoderns livmoder,förbarma dig över oss.
Jesu hjärta, väsentligen förenat med Guds Ord,förbarma dig över oss.
Jesu hjärta, av oändligt majestät,förbarma dig över oss.
Jesu hjärta, Guds heliga tempel,förbarma dig över oss.
Jesu hjärta, den Högstes tabernakel,förbarma dig över oss.
Jesu hjärta, Guds hus och himmelens port,förbarma dig över oss.
Jesu hjärta, kärlekens brinnande ugn,förbarma dig över oss.
Jesu Hjärta, rättvisans och kärlekens boning,förbarma dig över oss.
Jesu hjärta, fullt av godhet och kärlek,förbarma dig över oss.
Jesu hjärta, avgrund av alla dygder,förbarma dig över oss.
Jesu hjärta, högst värt all lovprisning,förbarma dig över oss.
Jesu hjärta, kung och centrum för alla hjärtan,förbarma dig över oss.
Jesu hjärta, i vilket alla skatter av visdom och kunskap finns,förbarma dig över oss.
Jesu hjärta, i vilken det bor gudomlighetens fullhet,förbarma dig över oss.
Jesu hjärta, i vilket Fadern var välbehagad,förbarma dig över oss.
Jesu hjärta, vars fullhet vi alla har tagit emot,förbarma dig över oss.
Jesu hjärta, längtan efter de eviga kullarna,förbarma dig över oss.
Jesu hjärta, tålmodigt och barmhärtigt,förbarma dig över oss.
Jesu hjärta, berikar alla som åkallar dig,förbarma dig över oss.
Jesu hjärta, livets och helighetens källa,förbarma dig över oss.
Jesu hjärta, försoning för våra synder,förbarma dig över oss.
Jesu hjärta, laddat med opprobrium,förbarma dig över oss.
Jesu hjärta, krossat för våra brott,förbarma dig över oss.
Jesu hjärta, lydig intill döden,förbarma dig över oss.
Jesu hjärta, genomborrat med en lans,förbarma dig över oss.
Jesu hjärta, källa till all tröst,förbarma dig över oss.
Jesu hjärta, vårt liv och uppståndelse,förbarma dig över oss.
Jesu hjärta, vår frid och vår försoning,förbarma dig över oss.
Jesu hjärta, offer för våra synderförbarma dig över oss.
Jesu hjärta, frälsning för dem som förtröstar på dig,förbarma dig över oss.
Jesu hjärta, hopp för dem som dör i dig,förbarma dig över oss.
Jesu hjärta, alla helgons glädje,förbarma dig över oss.
Guds lamm, som tar bort världens synder,skona oss, o Herre.
Guds lamm, som tar bort världens synder,hör oss nådigt, o Herre.
Guds lamm, som tar bort världens synder,förbarma dig över oss, o Herre.
V. Jesus, saktmodig och ödmjuk i hjärtat.R. Låt våra hjärtan tycka om dina.
—EWTN
Låt oss be:
Allsmäktige och evige Gud, se till din mest älskade Sons Hjärta och till den lovprisning och tillfredsställelse som Han erbjuder Dig i syndares namn; och till dem som bönfaller om din barmhärtighet, i din stora godhet, ge förlåtelse i samme Jesu Kristi namn, din Son, som lever och regerar med dig i evigheters evighet. Amen.
“Du vet att jag själv inte ser det Heliga Hjärtat som alla andra. Jag tror att min makas hjärta är mitt enbart, precis som mitt är hans ensamma, och jag talar till honom då i ensamheten från detta ljuvliga hjärta till hjärta, medan jag väntar på att begrunda honom en dag ansikte mot ansikte.” – St. Therese av det heliga ansiktet och Jesusbarnet
Till Jesu Heliga Hjärta
~av St. Therese av det heliga ansiktet och Jesusbarnet
St. Therese av Lisieux
Vid den heliga graven böjde sig Maria Magdalena
i tårar när hon sökte efter sin Jesus.
Änglarna ville trösta hennes sorg,
men ingenting kunde stilla hennes sorg.
Klara änglar, det var inte ni
som denna brinnande själ kom och letade efter.
Hon ville se änglarnas Herre,Att ta honom i sina armar,
att bära honom långt borta.
Nära graven, den sista som stannade,
hade hon kommit långt före gryningen.
Hennes Gud kom också och beslöjade sitt ljus.
Maria kunde inte besegra honom i kärlek!
Visar henne först sitt välsignade ansikte,
snart kom bara ett ord från hans hjärta.
Jesus viskade det ljuva namnet på: Maria och
gav tillbaka hennes frid, hennes lycka.
O min Gud, en dag, som Maria Magdalena,
ville jag träffa dig och komma nära dig.
Jag såg ner över den väldiga slätten
Där jag sökte Mästaren och Konungen,Och jag grät när jag såg den rena vågen,Den stjärnklara azurblå, blomman och fågeln:
“Ljus natur, om jag inte ser Gud,Du
är ingenting för mig utom en stor grav.
“Jag behöver ett hjärta som brinner av ömhet,Vem kommer att vara mitt stöd för alltid,Vem älskar allt i mig,
även min svaghet …
Och som aldrig lämnar mig dag eller natt. ”
Jag kunde inte hitta någon varelse
som alltid kunde älska mig och aldrig dö.
Jag måste ha en Gud som tar på sig min natur
och blir min bror och kan lida!
Du hörde mig, bara vän som jag älskar.
För att hänföra mitt hjärta blev du människa.Du
utgöt ditt blod, vilket högsta mysterium!..
Och du lever fortfarande för mig på altaret.
Om jag inte kan se glansen i ditt ansikte
eller höra din ljuva röst, o min Gud, kan jag leva av din nåd,
jag kan vila på ditt heliga hjärta!
O Jesu Hjärta, ömhetens skatt, Du Själv är min lycka,
mitt enda hopp.
Du som visste hur man charmar min ömma ungdom,Stanna
nära mig till den sista natten.
Herre, endast till dig har jag gett mitt liv,
och alla mina önskningar är välkända för dig.
Det är i din oändliga godhet
som jag vill förlora mig själv, o Jesu Hjärta!
Ah! Jag vet mycket väl, all vår rättfärdighet
är värdelös i dina ögon.
För att ge värde till mina uppoffringar,
vill jag kasta dem i ditt gudomliga hjärta.
Du hittade inte dina änglar utan fläck.
Mitt i blixten gav du din lag!…
Jag gömmer mig i ditt Heliga Hjärta, Jesus.
Jag fruktar inte, min dygd är Du!…
För att kunna se på din härlighet vet
jag att vi måste passera genom eld.
Så jag, för min skärselden, Välj din brinnande kärlek,
o min Guds hjärta!
När jag lämnar detta liv, skulle min landsförvisade själ
vilja göra en handling av ren kärlek, och sedan, flyga bort till himlen, dess hemland,
gå genast in i ditt hjärta.