“And Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said this, he gave up the ghost.” Luke 23:46 Dear Friends – Starting with the disciple Stephen, who was brutally stoned to death, many of the Christian martyrs who followed in Christ’s footsteps experienced horrific and excruciating deaths. Some of these saints also endured much longer cruelty… for days, months, even years, …
“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:10) Dear Friends – An individual with a diseased heart lies at death’s door until a transplant brings new life. Our physical bodies can be renewed in many different ways due to ever-advancing medical technology, however, our spiritual bodies can only be made anew by Almighty God. When our heart is crushed by sorrow, …
“He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19) Dear Friends – God promised, through Jesus uttering those words above, that a time of miracles had come… a year of the Lord’s favor. Can you imagine being a listener in the Synagogue that day they first heard those …
“Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” (Colossus 1:15) Dear Friends – As you look into the Christmas manger this year and see that adorable baby Jesus smiling back at you, how many of us I wonder, will ponder that this precious babe is really the image of the invisible God? Those of us familiar with the history of Christianity will immediately recognize that newborn in …
“To you, Lord, I cried, to my God I made appeal. The Lord listened and had pity. The Lord came to my help. O Lord my God, I will thank you forever.” (Psalm 30:8, 10,12) Dear Friends – There is no greater joy than to be able to shout out: THANK YOU GOD! The moment those spontaneous words jump forth from your mouth your whole being is abuzz with …
“Ah! sinful nation, people laden with wickedness, evil race, corrupt children! They have forsaken the Lord, spurned the Holy One. Wash yourselves clean! Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes; cease doing evil; learn to do good. Come now, let us set things right, says the Lord: Though your sins be like scarlet, they may become white as snow.” (Isaiah 1:4, 16-18) Dear Friends – Amazing, that those …
“With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men… Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.” (James 3:9) Dear Friends – We live in a time when the rhetoric of everyday life in every class of society has gone beyond vulgar to downright nasty evil. It is this progressive way of life that disregards religious principals, where …
Jesus replied to the one who told him His mother and His brothers were outside: “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother.” (Matthew 12:46-50) Dear Friends – It almost sounds like Jesus is disowning His earthly …
“You thought evil against me, but God turned it into good.” (Genesis 50:20) Dear Friends – In the first book of The Bible, God makes evident right away one of His most important lessons to learn, and that concept is repeated throughout every book of The Bible thereafter… that Almighty God loves, protects, and reverses evil into good. No matter what evil anyone plots against you or whatever human disaster …
“For I am the Lord your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you: Do not fear, I will help you.” (Isaiah 41:13) Dear Friends – Fear is something we quickly learn in our early years especially when something goes bump in the night, or when we drop and break a family treasure and know with certainty, punishment will occur for carelessness… a reality that is …
A Greek woman approached Jesus and begged Him to remove the demon from her daughter. “He said to her, Let the children be fed first. For it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs. She replied and said to him, Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps. Then he said to her, For saying this, you may …
Then the King said to his servants, “The feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy to come. Go out, therefore, into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find. The servants went out into the streets and gathered all they found, bad and good alike, and the hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to meet the guests he …
Jesus said to her, “Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction.” (Mark 5:21-43) Dear Friends – Jesus unknowingly administered a cure to a woman who suffered hemorrhages for twelve years, and then discovering it, He turned around, and is quick to point out to her that it was her faith that saved her. She had believed that if she could just touch …
“If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he wrongs you seven times in one day and returns to you seven times saying, ‘I am sorry,’ you should forgive him.” (Luke 17:3-4) Dear Friends ~ Pointing out one’s sins to another is not an easy thing to do… in fact, it is one of the hardest things you will ever do because the consequences …
“Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God: “The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:14-15) Dear Friends – Too much rich holiday food has many of us repenting from such gastrological indulgences to the point that we might declare, “never to eat again!” or at least, to fast or go on a healthy diet to start off the New Year. Changing habits… …
“Jesus Christ said: “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen! Come, Lord Jesus! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all.” (Revelation 22:20-21) Dear Friends – The quote above is from the very last words of The Bible and refers to Christ’s second coming in judgment at the end of times. However, I found myself recently wishing and praying that this Christmas, Jesus would not only come and be born again in …
Almighty God said: “Let us make man to our image and likeness: and let him have dominion over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and the beasts, and the whole earth… God blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it and rule…” (Genesis 1:26, 28) Dear Friends – Farmers and backyard gardeners everywhere are reaping their months-long efforts with bountiful …
“SAY BUT THE WORD, and thy servant will be healed.” (Matthew 8:8) Dear Friends – The profound statement above was made by a Roman Centurion to Jesus, because he didn’t think he was worthy to have Jesus make the trip to his home, but he desperately wanted Jesus to cure his servant, and more importantly, he believed that Jesus could do just that. Jesus was so amazed by the Centurion’s …
“The harvest indeed is great, but the laborers are few. Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest, to send forth laborers into his harvest.” (Matthew 9:37-38) Dear Friends ~ Summer is winding down with tinges of autumn seen here and there; vacations are pretty much over and with school back in session the Labor Day weekend has become the unofficial end of summer pleasures. In our mountain community it’s time for …
“We love because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19) Dear Friends – When you are looking for love and someone takes an interest in you and they make the first move, you can’t help but be flattered and so you reciprocate a desire to get to know them to see if a genuine attraction exists. You meet for coffee and chitchat through the essentials until dates and further outings …
“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath,” said Jesus. (Mark 2:27) Dear Friends ~ Creator God, who is our Heavenly Father, is so misconceived by the secular culture as some sort of tyrannical despot who demands obedience to unfair rules, when in reality those rules are mostly for our good, not His! Yes, He requires we acknowledge His Supremacy with respect, and why shouldn’t …
“Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” (Ephesians 6:4) Dear Friends ~ Fatherhood is such a complex role for men when their primary obligation is to be away from their children most of the day earning a living… but, it is precisely that steadfastness to duty that will relay so much to the children. Children learn from example …
“When Jesus (from the cross) saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then He said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” From that hour the disciple took her into his own household.” (John 19:26-27) Dear Friends – The very last thing Jesus did before dying was to give His Mother another son to love and care for, as …
“The winter is past; the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come…” (Song of Solomon 2:11-12) Dear Friends – Such joy arrives with the first vestiges of spring; the buds are bursting on the barren branches ready to explode under growing warmth, while the daffodils also eager to bloom, push their green stems onward and upward. Oh, what delight it …
“Whoever believes in me has eternal life.” (John 6:47) Dear Friends ~ The month of March encompasses the season of Lent that began in February with Ash Wednesday and then for forty days up to Easter Sunday. We are to remember the forty days Christ spent in the wilderness in prayer to His Father, fasting and being tempted by the devil, all of which was the necessary preparation for His …
“Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, is not pompous, it is not inflated, It is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick tempered, it does not brood over injury. It bears all things, believes all things, hope all things, endures all things. Faith, hope, and love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:4,7,13) Dear …
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9) Dear Friends ~ It truly is beyond every capability that we mortals possess, to imagine what Almighty God has in store for us, and since we know that God is Love, only goodness will be bestowed by Divine Providence… all the material problems of life are …
“For God so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) Dear Friends ~ Our Greatest Gift received is our being… our material and spiritual life… both created by Almighty God. When God The Father saw how drastically wrong this gift was being used, His infinite wisdom recognized the need for a physical teacher …
“Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, His love endures forever.” (Psalm 107:1) Dear Friends ~ The most popular holiday in the U.S. for families to get together is Thanksgiving Day. Airlines are swamped and in the areas were hard winter hasn’t taken over the roads, everyone tries to get to Grandma’s house for that scrumptious banquet. A day to Give Thanks: to Almighty God heartfelt appreciation for the …
“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1) Dear Friends – Autumn is bursting forth here in the mountains with fall’s vivid and varied shades of gold popping out everywhere you look, and highlighted so beautifully with accents of burgundy red from the maple and poplar leaves, all beginning to fall to the ground by the ever so gentle winds of …
“Jesus called the children to Himself and said, let the children come to me and do not prevent them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” (Luke 18:16) Dear Friends ~ It’s Back To School Time! How can we ever forget those exciting and anxious first days of school each year either as a student, a parent, or a teacher… jitters and butterflies take over as the …
“Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all things will be given you besides.” (Matthew 6:33) Calendar 4 St. John Vianney 8 St. Dominic 10 St. Lawrence 14 St. Maximilia Kolbe 15 Assumption of BVM 23 St. Rose of Lima 28 St. Augustine Dear Friends ~ The saints highlighted this month are among the most renowned of church history. St. …