Gift: Piety (Reverence)

Farewell of Saints Peter and Paul, showing the Apostles giving each other the holy kiss before their martyrdom. (Alonzo Rodriguez, 16th century, Museo Regionale di Messina).

(Are we going to have to wait until our martyrdom until we recieve this holy kiss?)

Reading:  Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you.  For while your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, I want you to be wise as to what is good, and simple as to what is evil; then the God of peace will quickly crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.  (Romans 16:16,19-20)

Observation:  I have noticed lately that I have lost that reverence for a greeting of a fellow believer that I have always loved so much.  It has never been a holy kiss as Paul is suggesting here to the Romans, but it was always a hug or a hand shake.  I don’t know if it is my own shame from my sinful nature that causes me to back away from others when I meet them, or the fact that I can see the fact that they are not comfortable with it.  It actually has become more popular to greet someone, even a fellow believer with some kind of a sarcastic remark, rather than an actual greeting.  I am going to try and rectify this today when I meet fellow believers. 

How awesome would it be if I could find a way to say the final line of the verses that I selected from the first reading today whenever I left the company of fellow believers?   I could just say, “The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.”  instead of my normal, “God bless you.”

Personification:  Love (Latin: caritas)  In order to display the fruit of love today, I will need the grace of our Lord Jesus to be with me.  If I was to actually greet everyone with a hug or a handshake today and the greeting of God bless you, I think I would be well on my way to personifying the fruit of love to everyone I meet.  When I leave the company of others today, I will try and remember to say, “The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.”  How often do I meet fellow believers when I am out in public?  Shouldn’t I see it as a cause for a simple celebration?

Prayer:  Lord, help me display your Love to everyone that I meet today.  Please help me to show that Love to my family first and then to everyone that I meet today.  I ask this in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

The Children of Abraham…

This video is close to my heart this morning, knowing what we know of our most recent fallen soldiers at Fort Hood…May the Lord’s peace come to the families of the soldiers that are asleep…God bless you.

Scripture:  Realize then that it is those who have faith who are children of Abraham.  But the law does not depend on faith; rather, “the one who does these things will live by them.”  (Galatians 3:7,12)

Observation:  It is my understanding that it is not the law or observance of the law that justifies me as a believer.  It is by my faith in the promise that was passed down through generations from God through Abraham to me.  A heritage that was purchased for me by Jesus dying on the cross to ransom me from the law.  But not for liberty from the law, but so that I can truly live by them.

Application:  It is my sincere hope that, by the grace of God, I will continue to live by faith and never forget that it is not the law that makes me righteous, but the grace of God who gave his Son so that I could share in his promise that all nations would be blessed.

Prayer:  Lord, in your infinite wisdom, grant me the ability to be put on blinders to the things of this world that would take me away from how you are calling me to follow your son.  Please allow me, by your grace, to follow him in all areas of my life.  I ask this, as always, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Gift: Knowledge

Reading: None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself.  For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord; so then, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.  (Romans 14:7-8)

Observation: The emotion I am feeling this morning is expressed best by the word gratitude.  God is good…All the time…All the time…God is good.  In the midst of my sinfulness, God loves me.  At the pinnacle of my faith walk with Christ in the church, God will love me.  I guess the gratitude that I am feeling this morning is centered on the fact that I am nothing without the Lord, and I am so grateful to Him for using me, a worthless sinner, to do His work.

Personification: Self-Control (Latin: continentia) In order to be the personification of the fruit of self-control, I will definitely need the grace of God to accomplish it today and for the rest of my life.  I am overcome this morning with the fact that without God, I cannot do anything worth while and even then it is only worth anything if I give the glory to Him.  My flesh wants to cry out to take credit for all the good things that I do, but the Lord who dwells in me is telling me to fade to the background, and give all glory and honor to the one who is Good.

Prayer: Lord, I want to thank you for being in my life.  I’m sorry that it took me so long to start to follow you, but I want to follow you for the rest of my life with the help of your grace.  I ask this, as always, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Stay on fire for God…

(This is part of my daily prayer, every morning…)

Gift: Counsel

Reading: Do not grow slack in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.  (Romans 12:11)

Observation: This is the first verse that spoke to me this morning when reading the readings before Mass.  I was hoping Father Roy would shed some light on the Gospel reading or give me another way to look at it in order to get something else from it, but I guess this is what I was supposed to hear for today.  I guess it doesn’t make much sense now that I look back on this morning, who am I to question what God is bringing to my attention?

Personification: Peace (Latin: pax) Today, the responsorial psalm reminds me that it is only in God that I will find real peace.  It is my hope that God will give me the grace I need to be an instrument of His peace to others.  I don’t know how God could ever find me worthy of his grace, but I will pray that he continues to see me in the light of the sacrifice of his Son and not in my sinfulness.

Prayer: Lord, help me to bring your peace and comfort to others by placing in my mind and my heart your Word.  Please let me not only be a container that holds your grace, but allow your grace to flow through me to others as well.  I ask this, as always, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

What a dream…

Gift: Fortitude

Reading: We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life. (Romans 6:4)

Observation: I had a dream last night that I believe was a foreshadowing of the communion service that I asked to be able to lead today. I was given the choice to lead this week or next and I chose this week. The dream that I had involved an older person who had passed away that was brought into the small chapel before our service started. I walked out in order to give the people that were mourning the death of their lost loved one a chance to be alone with their loved one who was asleep. I think this dream is a reminder to me that we spend too much time mourning for the dead and not enough time living in new life that Jesus died to give us. If our loved ones who passed away before us were to come down from heaven and say anything to us, I think they would say, “Why aren’t you living the new life Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died to bring to you?”

Personification: Joy (Latin: gaudium) In order to learn the lesson taught to me by those that have gone to the Father before me, I must start to live displaying the fruit of Joy to everyone that I meet today and for the rest of my life. I will need God’s grace to be the fruit of Joy to some people, but I trust that He did not send down his Son to die for nothing, rather He wanted me to be able to live in newness of life, with Joy in my heart at all times.

Prayer: Lord, help me to bring Joy into your world and not just the Joy that comes from making people happy but make me into someone who can truly show your everlasting Joy to others. I ask this, as always, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

Watch the whole video…this is truly everlasting joy…God bless you…

God knows me…

This is the bag that I picked out to give all the middle schooler’s who participated in the rally as a reminder of our Service Project…

Gift: Counsel

Reading: The earth is the LORD’S and all it holds,

the world and those who live there.

For God founded it on the seas,

established it over the rivers. (Psalm 24:1bc-2)

Observation: In reading these verses from the Responsorial Psalm this morning I couldn’t help think that God knows how long it takes me to complete a project. I don’t know if others around me are comfortable with the speed in which things get done, but at least I know that God knows me and even knew before I started the project, when it would be completed. We did a service project for our middle school rally last weekend and I was putting together the video and the pictures with some music. It was taking a little longer than I had anticipated, because of a problem getting the camcorder connected to the laptop, but I decided yesterday to finally give up trying to make that work and I put the pictures to music along with captions that talk about the theme for the rally as well as the service project.

Personification: Self-Control Today, I am hearing God tell me that he knows me and I should be willing to display the fruit of self-control in other ways of my life. I just heard on the radio that I need to learn to say no to demands for my time in order to put myself under control of the Father, rather than being controlled by this world. A big thank you to Proverbs31.org for the words of encouragement this morning, God is working in my life and I love it.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for being with me while I struggle to please everyone around me and I’m sorry for not living up to the standard that was set by your Son on earth. Please supply me with enough grace to not only put my actions under your control, but also to keep my focus on where you want me to be spending my time. I ask this, as always, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

Humble me, O Lord…

Gift: Piety

On this day let us revive in ourselves an attraction toward Heaven that calls us to carry on in our earthly pilgrimage. Let us lift in our hearts the desire to always unite ourselves to the family of the saints, of which we already have the grace to be a part.

Reading:
For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 14:11)

Observation: It is important for me to keep in mind that it is not for my own selfishness that I am working so tirelessly to build up the kingdom of God. I must rely on the grace that comes from God to keep me humble in all of my endeavors. If I can remember that I would have nothing without the grace of God. Whatever gifts he gave me, I need to see that they are given to me to build up the kingdom and not for any other reason that I could come up with.

Personification: Love I will work tirelessly to display the fruit of love to everyone that I meet today. The love that I feel God is calling me to display is not one that expects to receive something in return. Rather, it is only looking to help others feel that God sees great value in them by the acceptance and love of one of his servants. Of course, I will need grace to be humble enough to be his servant and not try and make his will subject to my unworthy opinion.

Prayer: Lord, help me know that it is by the grace of God that I am able to show your love to others, and supply me with enough grace to recognize the different ways that you are calling me to show your love to your people. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Word speaks to me where I am…

Gift: Wisdom

Reading: But your holy ones had very great light; And those others, who heard their voices but did not see their forms, since now they themselves had suffered, called them blest; And because they who formerly had been wronged did not harm them, they thanked them, and pleaded with them, for the sake of the difference between them. Instead of this, you furnished the flaming pillar which was a guide on the unknown way, and the mild sun for an honorable migration. For those deserved to be deprived of light and imprisoned by darkness, who had kept your sons confined through whom the imperishable light of the law was to be given to the world. (Wisdom 18:1-4)

Observation: It was the morning after I was present at a presentation on what is really going on with the migrant worker in this country, as well as what happens to their families, that I read this reading in my normal reading of the Word of God because it is where I am at in re-reading the Old Testament. It seems pretty clear to me that it is my job to help bring the flaming pillar to these people on the unknown way, so that they can have a mild sun for an honorable migration. I guess the challenge is to find how exactly God is calling me to take part in this very important outreach to the undocumented migrant workers. The first challenge will be to gain a better understanding of the Spanish language.

Personification: Kindness
If I am going to display the fruit of kindness to people in this world. The first step is to meet them where they are at. It will be my goal to work tirelessly to find out how we can make contact with the migrant workers that are in the state of Oregon and show them God’s kindness in any way possible.

Prayer: Lord, help me to stay focused on this part of the ministry that you have called me to and continue to supply me with the grace necessary to focus on your will in my life and not my will but your will be done…I ask this, as always, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Jesus compares, “The Kingdom of God”

Gift: Wisdom

Reading:
Then he said, “What is the kingdom of God like? To what can I compare it? It is like a mustard seed that a person took and planted in the garden. When it was fully grown, it became a large bush and ‘the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches.’” (Luke 13:18-19)

Observation: This morning was the first time that I think I really understood the significance of what Jesus was saying about his comparison of the Kingdom of God and a mustard seed. Since I related this comparison to the time when he explains that if you have the faith even the size of a mustard seed, you could move mountains, that is the reason that in reading this message from the Gospel before I have missed the point. I was hearing this morning that Jesus is saying that although the Kingdom of God may not start out very big, actually it will have very humble beginnings, it will grow into something that will be beyond all of our expectations. Jesus was not saying that the mustard seed would grow into something that was majestic, rather it grows into something that takes over. The mustard bush is a weed, for all intents and purposes, but it is known for taking over the whole area in which it is planted. It is up to me to make sure that it is planted here, and God will ensure it takes over…

Personification: Joy (Latin: gaudium) Today, I am going to try and display the fruit of joy to everyone that I meet. It will be easier to do if I can see my Yankees win the first game of the World Series today, but seriously I will need the grace that God has been giving me to continue to penetrate deep into my heart so that I can truly be joyful to everyone that I meet today and for the rest of my life. The knowledge of the fact that all we have to do is make sure that the Kingdom of God is planted here and God will help us make it take over this area, should be cause for a certain amount of jubilation…

Prayer: Lord, help me to display your Joy to everyone and no matter what happens today and for the rest of my life around me, allow me to remember that it is by the grace of God that I am still alive and it is the same grace that will cause the Kingdom of God to grow around me in our Parish. I ask this, as always, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

If Paul was a miserable one, what does that make me?

Gift: Piety

St Paul, by El Greco

Reading: Miserable one that I am! Who will deliver me from this mortal body? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 24-25a)

Observation: I am discovering this morning that true piety does not lie in a prayer life that is beyond reproach or a propensity to follow all the directions of God as it pertains to his will. True piety lies in acceptance of the fact that without the Savior I am incapable of being delivered from this mortal body. Paul had an acute awareness of his sinful nature and because of that was not seen as a hypocrite.

Personification: Gentleness (Latin: mansuetudo) It is my goal today to show the fruit of gentleness that comes from the Father, rather than the anger that comes from within me. If I can truly keep in mind my own sinfulness at all times, as well as my reliance on Jesus Christ, my lord and savior, I should be easier to remember to act with the gentle nature that comes from God. It would be great to leave the wrath of God to the one who is worthy of having it, and leaving my own temper out of my relationships so that other could see Jesus through me.

Prayer: Lord, help me to act in concert with your will and to remember that your will for me is not eternal damnation. Rather, it is eternal life. Both here on earth right now and in eternity because of the life, death and resurrection of your Son, my Savior, without whom I am completely without worth. I ask this, as always, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.