Speaking Words of Peace

 ~~~ Isaiah 4:2-6 ~~~ Psalm 122 ~~~ Matthew 8:5-11 ~~~

 

Because of my relatives and friends
I will say, “Peace be within you!"
Because of the house of the LORD, our God,
I will pray for your good.

Jesus is met by a centurion soldier whose child is sick.
He does not ask Jesus to change his plans.
He does not take up Jesus' time with idle gossip.
He does not try to question Jesus in order to trap him.

This centurion officer knows the power of a command.
He gives orders to the men under his command daily.
He is accustomed to having his orders followed promptly and precisely.
So he simply says to Jesus....
“Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof;
only say the word and my servant will be healed.
By now you should recognize this sentence;
we say it during the Mass before we receive the Eucharist.
 

 

So what, you may ask, does this have to do with advent? 

This centurion has greater faith than many of us who claim to follow Jesus today.
Here we have a man who was not called by Jesus to be one of his followers.
Here we have a man convinced that his child's healing was possible...
even from a distance.
The physical presence of Jesus was not required for healing
only his words.
We are waiting for this 'Word' to become flesh and blood. 

Many come to touch and to be touched by Jesus,
 but this man only sought the healing intention of Jesus. 

 

This soldier was asking Jesus to pray for his child.
Every day we are asked to pray for someone.
How attentive are you with responding in prayer?
 

 Blessings come in consciously
 sharing the Peace of the Lord with others.

 Sometimes in knowing this kind of peace we can find healing.
Sometimes the person may just need to know that someone cares.
I invite you to be that one who cares enough
to pray and extend God's peace.

Anticipating the Light

  ~~~ First Sunday of Advent ~~~

~~Isaiah 2:1-5~~Psalm 122~~Romans 13:11-14~~Matthew 24:37-44~~

 

The beginning of Advent
 the beginning of the new liturgical year...
a time when we look forward every year to the 'coming'.
 The coming of shopping, visitors, family gatherings, Santa Claus, decorating,
caroling, sitting by the fire...
When is there a time during Advent where we can just stop
to think about who is coming.
The Messiah is coming disguised as an innocent helpless baby.

Advent is a time filled with anticipation.
Advent a time of preparation.

During advent we can look to the light of the Lord.
His light is in the distance, but we know it is there.
We long to see this light...to walk in this light.
We long to participate in his light.

...let us walk in the light of the Lord!
 

 

 As we absorb this light of the Lord we are moved
 to spread his good will and peace.
If you will during advent we are different...we
put on the armor of light...

 We become better people as we strive to leave behind any darkness in our life.
It is not possible to walk in the light of the Lord
if you are still shackled to darkness.

Light always dispels the darkness.
Light always finds its way inside through the tiniest of cracks.
There is virtually no way to keep the light from seeping inside.

If you notice most of the decorations center around light during advent.
We light our trees, our yards, our neighborhoods, out shopping malls.
We use light of all sizes shapes and colors.
We fill our environment with artificial light as we wait
 for the arrival of the true light.
Our advent wreath has a candle to be lit for each of the four Sundays.
We are eagerly awaiting the birth of the Light of the World...
Jesus himself. 

We are urged to stay awake!
If we are asleep we will not see the light of the Lord.

 May Blessings shine upon you from the light of Christ.

Beautiful Feet

 ~~~ Feast of Saint Andrew ~~~
~~~ Romans 10:9-18 ~~~ Psalm 19 ~~~ Matthew 4:18-22 ~~~

 

...it is written,
How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news! 

 

Jesus walked along the seashore where he called his first apostles...
Peter and Andrew. These two brothers were fishermen.
They shared much of their time together every day.
Now Jesus is calling them both to follow him.
Jesus invites them to walk along side of him.
To walk with him as he brings the good news to the whole world.

When these two began following Jesus they probably had no idea
 that they too would be sharing the good news.
They did not realize that day the they would be left
 to walk in the footsteps of Jesus.

Those who have gone a mission trip
may be able to relate to this verse better than the rest of us.
 I have been told that the joy is evident on the
faces of the villagers when the missionaries arrive.

Just seeing that you have come to their little village because
you love the Lord raises them up.

A missionary walks in the footsteps of the Lord;
 their presence brings joy to the locals.

 

 

 Walking through the streets of a town brings you closer
to the people who live there.

You get a sense of who the people are who live there.
 

For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. 

 

 There is a whole chain of events that take place to close the circle of faith.
Someone must be sent to preach...
someone must there to listen...
once they have heard they must believe...
now the new believers can turn to the Lord for their needs.

Faith becomes then the grounding factor for future needs.
For those who hear will experience a
refreshing of their soul;
 a rejoicing of their heart;
 and an enlightening of their eye.

Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life.

 

 The words of the Lord keep our feet firmly planted
on the ground giving us the stability we need
 to continue bring the good news.

Dirty, smelly, calloused, tired and worn, Jesus had the most beautiful feet.
His feet carried him into places where he could heal.
His beautiful feet carried him to where he could do the most good...
to where he could bless people, often unexpectedly.
 

 Saint Andrew, pray for us.

Blessings come in bringing the good news to others...
We too can have beautiful feet.

The Kingdom is Near

 ~~~ Daniel 7:2-14 ~~~ (Psalm) Daniel 3:75 ~~~ Luke 21:29-33

 

 Daniel has a vision in reference to the four major empires...
Babylonian, Median, Persian, and Greek.
The kingdom of God by contrast, is not depicted as a grotesque beast,
but by a human person.

Just as nature has a life cycle so too is it with God.
He will return; no one can say exactly when.
There is a natural circle of life.
New life springs from the apparent ruins of death.

...the Kingdom of God is near.

 

 

 When he reached the Ancient One
and was presented before him,
He received dominion, glory, and kingship;
nations and peoples of every language serve him.

 

 When all is said and done here on earth, greater things will happen in heaven.
Everything, all of creation will pay homage to Jesus.
We will be given the vision of what our heart longs for today.
Everything will bend down to give honor and glory to the Son.

We have been promised life everlasting.
On the last day his words will come to full fruition.
The Kingdom of Heaven will be revealed like never before.

...bless the Lord;
praise and exalt him above all forever.
 

 Blessings as we try to praise him more perfectly.
Holy is his name and worthy of our complete praise.

Give Thanks to Our God

~~~Thanksgiving Day ~~~

~~Sirach 50:22-24~~Psalm 145~~ 1 Corinthians 1:3-9~~ Luke 17:11-19 ~~

(I am using the optional reading for today) 

Brothers and sisters:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I give thanks to my God always on your account
for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus,
that in him you were enriched in every way,
with all discourse and all knowledge,
as the testimony to Christ was confirmed among you,
so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift
as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He will keep you firm to the end,
irreproachable on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God is faithful,
and by him you were called to fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.



 

 If you read nothing else today read these few verses
written by Paul to his beloved in Corinth.

When was the last time someone told you
that they gave thanks to God for you?
Have you ever told another person that you thank God
 for their presence in your life?
Thank your spouse or best friend for loving you.

 

Today I invite you to tell at least one person
that you thanked God for their presence in your life. 

It is always proper to express thanksgiving and gratitude.
Thank you...
two small words that can send out ripples far and wide.

Old Testament Graffiti

~~~ Daniel 5:1-6, 13-14, 16-17, 23-28 ~~~ Daniel 3:62 ~~~ Luke 21:12-19 ~~~

 

 But the God in whose hand is your life breath
and the whole course of your life, you did not glorify.
By him were the wrist and hand sent, and the writing set down.

The king summons David to interpret the 'handwriting on the wall'.
This common phrase has its origin from this passage of the prophet Daniel.
When someone sees the handwriting on the wall they see the reality.
Often the truth concerns something negative.
 

 The king was filled with alcohol and was foolishly
making his material possessions equal to God.
There is no such deity as the god of gold, silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone.
How small he considered God to be...how wrong he was.

Not is his wildest dreams could the king have imagined that the real God
would send him a message written on the very walls of his banquet hall.
This strange event preempted all of his celebrating.
His rejoicing was quickly replaced by visible signs of fear.
The king now shaking is overcome with terror.
There right before the eyes of all present appears graffiti written by God.

God gave the king an escape hatch...he gave him Daniel
to show him how he was going astray.

 

 

David is inspired to reveal to the king how he confused he is...
how frivolous his chosen objects of praise.

David is filled with the spirit of the Lord...he is honest in reporting to the king.

Give glory and eternal praise to him.
  

There is only one God and he alone deserves our honor,
glory, and eternal praise. 

Even today we have reason to believe that God will give us
the right words we need to speak.
David courageously spoke the words of truth to the king...
you have it all wrong, your highness.
The end of the Babylon empire is coming to an end.

I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking...
 

 If we are to be given the right words to speak we must first
ask for them to be sent to us.

If we do not ask; how will we recognize the touch of God on our lips?

We can now purchase giant decals to adhere to the walls of our own home.
We can choose what 'handwriting on the wall' we want to see.
 What message would you want to see scripted on your wall?
Yes, you can create a custom wall message.
Just search the internet and you will see.

Here is one I would love to see every day...
"Write your hurts in the sand...
carve your blessings in stone."

As we get a day closer to Thanksgiving Day make sure
you have carved your blessings for this year deep within your heart.

 
We give thanks for you, our readers.

Do You Want to Know?

~~~ Daniel 2:31-45 ~~~ (Psalm) Daniel 3:57 ~~~ Luke 21:5-11 ~~~

 

People have long speculated about the end times being near,

they base this opinion on the increase of  wide spread disasters...famines...wars...floods...earthquakes...

or comets streaking across the sky....

 

Most likely God will not be setting up billboards across the world

 foretelling of the end of civilization as we know it. 

Instead we are told that we will not know the hour in which the end will occur.

Then they asked him,
“Teacher, when will this happen?
And what sign will there be when all these things are about to happen?”

 

We like to know...we even gloat about our knowledge of things.

God is not going to provide queue cards in advance of his return.
Not knowing, by design should keep us more attentive
to what is taking place around us.

  

 

Rather than concerning ourselves with the possible signs of the end
we should be focused on our relationship with God. 

 

 Yet God has given us numerous signs of his magnificent glory.
He has shown us that as he cares for the lilies and birds of the fields
 he will care for us much more.
He has shown us he will search for the one lost sheep.
He has shown us that he will cure the sick, make the lame walk,
and purge those possessed by evil spirits.
But above all he has shown us, by the cross,
 that his love for us is the greatest sign.

We do not need any signs of the end times.
We only need to live like believe in life ever after 
as we have been promised.

Blessings come in trusting
that we do not need any new special signs.