Posts Tagged ‘life in the spirit’

On Today’s Gospel

Posted: May 22, 2021 by CatholicJules in Personal Thoughts & Reflections
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What gives us our identity? The family we were born into? Our education? Our life experiences? Our country? Our culture? If all of these is the sum of that which makes us who we are, then naturally it will be how we live and react to situations as we live in the world. We will therefore always come up short, wanting and lacking. We will be as the country song goes, “Looking for love in all the wrong places.” Seeking affirmation from our fellow men and women alike.

We are called to so much more! To be more and beyond! That is to live our identity as children of God so loved by our Heavenly Father. We were after all created in His likeness and image. How then are living as Holy Children of God just as our Heavenly Father is Holy. We can only do so if we surrender ourselves to His Holy Will and when I say surrender, I mean we willingly choose to unite our wills with His. For we are called to divine life with Him. We can only do so through Jesus Christ our Lord and the Holy Spirit He wants to breathe into us so as to live our lives in the Spirit and in His love.

How can this be if our hearts are full? Full of the baggage of this world and of ourselves! Therefore it is imperative we empty ourselves, fall on our knees in humble worship of Him who loves us and wants us to be reconciled unto being One with Him. So that we can receive Him fully in our hearts, minds and soul. We will never question His Will for us nor His Will for another and simply love as we are called to love Him and one another.

Holy Spirit Lord, lead and guide me.

Just as You moved upon the Void and darkness at creation.

Just as You moved in the tomb of Christ

Just as You moved upon the disciples at Pentecost

Move in my life, in my family, in the Church, in my Nation and in my World today. Amen Alleluia!

First reading

Acts 28:16-20,30-31 ·

In Rome, Paul proclaimed the kingdom of God without hindrance from anyone

On our arrival in Rome Paul was allowed to stay in lodgings of his own with the soldier who guarded him.

    After three days he called together the leading Jews. When they had assembled, he said to them, ‘Brothers, although I have done nothing against our people or the customs of our ancestors, I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans. They examined me and would have set me free, since they found me guilty of nothing involving the death penalty; but the Jews lodged an objection, and I was forced to appeal to Caesar, not that I had any accusation to make against my own nation. That is why I have asked to see you and talk to you, for it is on account of the hope of Israel that I wear this chain.’

    Paul spent the whole of the two years in his own rented lodging. He welcomed all who came to visit him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching the truth about the Lord Jesus Christ with complete freedom and without hindrance from anyone.

Gospel

John 21:20-25

This disciple is the one who vouches for these things and we know that his testimony is true

Peter turned and saw the disciple Jesus loved following them – the one who had leaned on his breast at the supper and had said to him, ‘Lord, who is it that will betray you?’ Seeing him, Peter said to Jesus, ‘What about him, Lord?’ Jesus answered, ‘If I want him to stay behind till I come, what does it matter to you? You are to follow me.’ The rumour then went out among the brothers that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus had not said to Peter, ‘He will not die’, but, ‘If I want him to stay behind till I come.’

    This disciple is the one who vouches for these things and has written them down, and we know that his testimony is true.

    There were many other things that Jesus did; if all were written down, the world itself, I suppose, would not hold all the books that would have to be written.

On Today’s Gospel

Posted: July 12, 2019 by CatholicJules in Personal Thoughts & Reflections
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What are you complaining about? How everyone seems to be judging you? How tired and miserable you are with plodding through many work commitments ? How much you are sacrificing for your family to feed your lifestyle and theirs? How much if any of it, is in bringing the message of Christ Jesus to anyone or every one? Are you struggling to bring your child or children up in the faith? How much of the sufferings you endure is for building His Kingdom through the community? How generous and charitable are you with your time, actions and not your purse? Can you even identify with the hunger and thirst of those genuinely suffering because they have nothing to eat or drink? No one to care or comfort them? Again what are you complaining about?

Let us stay awake sisters and brothers! We have a mission and that is to share the love of the Lord our God with everyone. So that in coming to know our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ they might have life to the full in Him now and forevermore. No hardships and sufferings should ever deter us from sharing the joy of the Gospel because God’s Spirit is within us. We may not have all the answers at hand but we will have it as needed through the power and working of the Holy Spirit. God our loving Father will provide for all that we need, let us only stay focused on Jesus our Lord and strive to live life in the Spirit. Amen

First reading

Genesis 46:1-7,28-30
‘I can die, now that I have seen you alive’

Israel left Canaan with his possessions, and reached Beersheba. There he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. God spoke to Israel in a vision at night, ‘Jacob, Jacob’, he said. ‘I am here’, he replied. ‘I am God, the God of your father’, he continued. ‘Do not be afraid of going down to Egypt, for I will make you a great nation there. I myself will go down to Egypt with you. I myself will bring you back again, and Joseph’s hand shall close your eyes.’ Then Jacob left Beersheba. Israel’s sons conveyed their father Jacob, their little children and their wives in the waggons Pharaoh had sent to fetch him.
Taking their livestock and all that they had acquired in the land of Canaan, they went to Egypt, Jacob and all his family with him: his sons and his grandsons, his daughters and his grand-daughters, in a word, all his children he took with him to Egypt.
Israel sent Judah ahead to Joseph, so that the latter might present himself to him in Goshen. When they arrived in the land of Goshen, Joseph had his chariot made ready and went up to meet his father Israel in Goshen. As soon as he appeared he threw his arms round his neck and for a long time wept on his shoulder. Israel said to Joseph, ‘Now I can die, now that I have seen you again, and seen you still alive.’

Gospel

Matthew 10:16-23
The Spirit of your Father will be speaking in you

Jesus instructed the Twelve as follows: ‘Remember, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves; so be cunning as serpents and yet as harmless as doves.
‘Beware of men: they will hand you over to sanhedrins and scourge you in their synagogues. You will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the pagans. But when they hand you over, do not worry about how to speak or what to say; what you are to say will be given to you when the time comes; because it is not you who will be speaking; the Spirit of your Father will be speaking in you. ‘Brother will betray brother to death, and the father his child; children will rise against their parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by all men on account of my name; but the man who stands firm to the end will be saved. If they persecute you in one town, take refuge in the next; and if they persecute you in that, take refuge in another. I tell you solemnly, you will not have gone the round of the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.’