The love of God is linked with the love of neighbor. “Whoever says he is in the light, yet hates his brother, is still in the darkness” (1 Jn 2:9). Christianity is not strictly a personal salvation story; such a faith can fall into self-centeredness and disdain for the world. We are called to be leaven in the world, to bring light to the darkness. Jesus wants us to be his arms and legs and voice in the world.
Am I content to say prayers and make weekly Mass―but do little else? Might God be asking me to get more involved in the parish? In school? In some kind of charity work? How can I get beyond myself today?
Lord, help me live according to the New Testament. Amen
We are assured of God‘s fidelity who will fetch us and bring us to life. This fetching is so that we will love the Lord, our God with all our heart, and without our soul. This is what gives us life. The word is near to our hearts, so we can do this. But God has set before us each day life and good, death and evil so it is our choice. Do you need a reminder to lean on the Holy Spirit within you?
What are the things that take your heart away from the Lord? What do you need to do to get rid of them? Take these questions to the Lord and pray today and ask him to help you fight these important battles.
I have sat before you, life and death, blessing, and curse; therefore, choose life, that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice, and clinging to him;for that means life to you and length of days, that you may dwell in the land, which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them” Deuteronomy 30:19-20
Lord God, we give you thanks today and praise. We thank you for your word. You give us your truth and you give us a sign of your heart that you do for us life and good death and destruction. You want us to choose life. This is your will for us that we choose life. And yet we are so fickle. We are so quick to turn away from you, and we are so quick to forget that you love us with the love of a father. We turned to other things and other people and we ultimately end up betraying you. The one who has loved us like no one has ever loved us. So help us God please help us not only be faithful and always turn to you, knowing that we can trust in your goodness and your love, and your mercy. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen
Traditional Prayers Teach Us the Correct Attitudes to Have Towards God. We can think of them helping give us an attitude adjustment.
What better prayer could we devise than a prayer using the very words Jesus taught us here? Yet the “Our Father” is a traditional prayer, a prayer with set words, prone to be recited merely by rote. But in fact, traditional prayers are an invitation to meditate, set up in a way that appeals to beginners.
In the “Our Father,” as in all traditional prayers, we repeat phrases that express the essence of a correct relationship with God. Whether we already hold these attitudes in our heart or not, the beauty of traditional prayers is not what we say, but how we say it. If we pray these words, trying to make them our own, conforming our heart to the attitudes they express, then little by little we will form a Christian heart, a heart that loves the way it should.
Lord, teach me through the “Our Father” to pray more deeply.
We are called to love, to serve, and to accept the responsibility of bringing others to Christ and Christ to one another. Our family, our spouses, our children, our coworkers, and all the people in our lives need our love and attention. And they need good examples – examples they can follow in striving for holiness.
How can we be such examples and gather the strength we need to carry out this important call? We must turn to prayer, calling on God, his mother, and the Saints and angels for help. The heavens await our requests.
Pray, without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17) Jesus wants us to ask, to seek, and to knock. Allow him in. Every day. All day. Open yourself up to receive his abundant blessing and gifts of grace.
It is not necessary to always be in church to be with God, we can make a private chapel in our heart, where we can retire and commune with him. Peacefully, humbly, lovingly. We are all capable of these intimate conversations with God.
There are a number of universal principles to be considered in the plan of God for our lives and there are certain things every Christian should do. God does have a plan for our lives and this plan is good. To discover this plan, we need to follow the guidelines given in Scripture: give thanks, be set apart, do what is right, and understand suffering and glorification in Christ. These are the biblical guidelines we are given to live life.
Priorities, we all have them. I don’t know about you, but I know when mine are out of whack. At times, I used to race from one thing to another barely having time to go to the bathroom. I bought into the lie that my worthiness was defined by my productivity.
Recently, when I was talking with a friend and asked how she would like to grow in her spiritual life this year, she answered that she would like to see more fruits of the spirit in her life, like patience. We find growth in our spiritual life through the fruits that we produce.
The practice of Lectio Divina allows us to discover what God’s passages in the Bible mean for each of us personally. I’m slowly working my way through the Gospel of Matthew, which is rich with wisdom. When I “Ask” (my word of the year), I usually find an answer during my time in the Word or holy reading.
