Get out of yourself. We were made to see.
"Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God"
Don't agonize over little decisions in your daily life.
Instead, pray for the people in Syria faced with the decision to die for Christ or live for naught.
Pray for the people faced with decisions to deny "marriage" to same-sex individuals.
Marriage is between one man and one woman. It is an exchange of life.
"I came that they might have LIFE, and have it to the full"
We were made to receive the fullness of life. Every other thing falls short. Nothing else is worth it.
Pray for the woman faced with the decision to abort her child, believing the lie that her life will be "over" if she keeps her child. Pray that she realize that her life and her child's life are just beginning.
Pray for grace for your own soul when you are faced with life and death decisions every day.
"Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!
Maybe the grocery clerk is contemplating suicide and your decision to ask about her day is the light she needs.
Maybe the woman you passed on the street just lost her job and your decision to smile gives her strength.
"The joy of the Lord is my strength"
Maybe the teen who cut you off on the interstate is doubting the existence of God and your decision to pray instead of grumble will save his soul.
Maybe the priest whose homily bored you is saving YOUR soul through hidden sacrifice.
"Be kind; everyone you meet is fighting a great battle"-Ian MacLaren
"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."
"But He said to me: My grace is sufficient for you; for power is made perfect in weakness"-St. Paul
Thank You, Lord.
"The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it."
Wake up, world!
There is POWER in the name of Jesus.
"At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow; every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is LORD."
It's gonna happen one day...EVERY KNEE, EVERY TONGUE will pronounce JESUS CHRIST as LORD. No man can quench the truth, no matter how hard he will try. No matter how hard the devil will try to get him to.
He already tried...and failed.
Let us constantly have the name of Jesus on our lips and the Word of God in our daily meditation. Let us receive the Word of God and keep it while we have it .
At this very moment, Christians around the world live imprisoned for their faith, denied a Bible. They rely on the Word they have memorized in their hearts.
At this moment, we sit with dusty Bibles on our shelves and virtual Bibles at our fingertips.
Lord, let us not one day regret that we did not invite the Word to consume us while we were privileged to have it.
"Blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it." -Jesus
Perhaps one day our greatest consolation will be that we kept the Word of God in our hearts.
It is imperative that we pray. Every day. That we enter into Communion. Scripture. That we let ourselves become immersed in the life of the Trinity.
We must be a people on fire with Love.
Like tongues of fire, we must reach out and touch others.
If the fire is contained within us, if it does not move outward, we will burn ourselves.
The Heart of Jesus burns with love for us.
For you, for me, for all the people.
Let us carry the flame of His Love in our hearts.
What a tragedy it would be to realize, at the end of our lives, that we lived without SEEING.
"Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God."
Let us strive now for purity of heart to see, that we shall not mourn for many missed opportunities.
What a tragedy it would be to see then that we were blind now to the aching Christ in our neighbor, waiting to be touched with a
"Spark of pure love"-St. Louis de Montfort
Set our hearts on fire with "sparks of pure love" to share with others.
Let us be unashamed of the Gospel.
Fill us with a zeal to share the Gospel.
Set our hearts on fire with the Gospel.
"Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us...while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?"
Lord, call us forth from our paralysis.
"Child, your sins are forgiven...Rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home."
Let us turn to our Father and ask forgiveness.
Let us rise from our complacency. our couches, our comfort zones.
Let us rise from our judgmentalism, our self-righteousness; from our petty arguments and our self-absorbed selfishness.
Let us rise from the paralysis of routine and fear of making a spectacle of ourselves.
Let us become the spectacles through which Love is magnified and the world sees Love.
Let us become like little children, bold and unafraid to reach out to the stranger.
Let us pick up our stretchers and hold them high above our heads as a sign of freedom.
Let us then, "clothed with power from on High", bring them forcefully down upon the head of satan.
"They triumphed over him by the Blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death."
Let us not shrink from death but rise to Life.
Let us rise to go home.
Let us run and stumble, fall and be raised, running and running and running home.
Only give us the grace not to run alone.
Burn a fire beneath us so that we cannot be complacent
Cannot find comfort
We were not made to be comfortable where there is sin.
Open our eyes to see smoldering wicks in hearts around us
"A smoldering wick He will not snuff out"
Set them ablaze.
Let us run home with the world,
So that, when we run into Your arms,
You will lift us up to see
The treasures we have "stored up for ourselves in Heaven":
Souls set ablaze
By our seeing them on earth
In love and prayers
By a life well lived
Only in Your Mercy
Impossible on our own
But your great joy to achieve
"For nothing is impossible for You".
Thank you! I needed this!
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