Author: admin

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Gospel: Luke 11: 5-13

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Suppose one of you has a friend
to whom he goes at midnight and says,
‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread,
for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey
and I have nothing to offer him,’
and he says in reply from within,
‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked
and my children and I are already in bed.
I cannot get up to give you anything.’
I tell you, if he does not get up to give him the loaves
because of their friendship,
he will get up to give him whatever he needs
because of his persistence.

“And I tell you, ask and you will receive;
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives;
and the one who seeks, finds;
and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
What father among you would hand his son a snake
when he asks for a fish?
Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg?
If you then, who are wicked,
know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit
to those who ask him?”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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Examine your prayer life. 

What is your conversation with God like? When you pray, do you find yourself constantly asking for things? Or is your prayer life more about spending time with God?

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In today’s Gospel, Jesus says, “Ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”

Act like the persistent neighbor who kept banging on his friend’s door until he got what he wanted.

Sometimes we interpret these words to mean, “If I pray hard enough, long enough, even loud enough, then God will give me exactly what I want.” 

But Jesus isn’t telling us that we can manipulate the mind of God, or twist his arm into doing whatever we’d like. Rather, “ask, seek knock… and the door will be opened to you.” 

Behind that door is not a thing, but a Person, the Holy Spirit. This is the sole guarantee of prayer.

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Saint Paul says the fruit of the Holy Spirit – thus the fruit of prayer – includes, “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”

Maybe you’ve been praying for a conflict at work to end. Even if it hasn’t, through prayer God will soften your heart, release you from the throes of judgment, and fill you with the peace and patience you need to navigate it and persevere.

Maybe a particular temptation keeps tugging at your flesh. Even if God does not uproot it, the Holy Spirit will give you the grace you need to resist and remain faithful.

Perhaps your heart has become fearful or restless, prayer may not change the cause of your stress, but can replace the fear with peace.

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Set aside a few quiet moments today. 

Ask, seek, and knock on heaven’s door until the Holy Spirit answers. Then invite the Spirit to dwell within you.

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Image credits: (1) Calvary Chapel of the Holy Spirit, South Jersey (2) RayChoi.org (3) Godsongs.net

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Gospel: Luke 11: 1-4

Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished,
one of his disciples said to him,
“Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.”
He said to them, “When you pray, say:

Father, hallowed be your name,
your Kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread
and forgive us our sins
for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us,
and do not subject us to the final test.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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Why is the Lord’s Prayer so meaningful?

It comes directly from Christ’s own prayer life. As the disciples say to him in today’s Gospel, “Lord, teach us how to pray as you pray.” 

So, the Lord begins by telling us to call God our “Father.” But he uses the term, Abba, meaning, Papa or Daddy. We are meant to address God from a place of familial intimacy.

“Papa, hallowed be thy name.” 

To “hallow,” means, “to be holy or set apart.” Thus, we are praying for the grace to keep God as holy, or first, in our lives. 

We all know how challenging that can be. Often, there are a variety of other people and things vying for our attention – our marriage, our career, our children, our own plans and desires, material things, and so on. 

We must strive to keep God first. All day. Every day.

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Towards the conclusion of the Lord’s Prayer, we ask God to, “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” This points to the very heart of God’s identity – his ability to forgive sins. 

Throughout the Gospels, Jesus tells people like the woman caught in adultery, “Your sins are forgiven. Go, and sin no more.”

Jesus could not forgive her sins unless they were somehow committed against him, just I cannot forgive your sins, unless they are committed against me.

Jesus is the one who is affected by every sin committed, and thus he is the only one who can forgive them all. He asks only one thing from us in return: to forgive one another.

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These are two things we can strive for today: to keep God – our Papa – first in our lives, and to forgive those who trespass against us.

What does that look like for me?

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Image credits: (1) Sermon Series, ministrypass.com (2) ministry-to-children.com (3) pinterest.com

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Gospel: Luke 1: 26-38

The angel Gabriel was sent from God
to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,
to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph,
of the house of David,
and the virgin’s name was Mary.
And coming to her, he said,
“Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”
But she was greatly troubled at what was said
and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
Then the angel said to her,
“Do not be afraid, Mary,
for you have found favor with God.
Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,
and you shall name him Jesus.
He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High,
and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,
and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever,
and of his Kingdom there will be no end.”
But Mary said to the angel,
“How can this be,
since I have no relations with a man?”
And the angel said to her in reply,
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
Therefore the child to be born
will be called holy, the Son of God.
And behold, Elizabeth, your relative,
has also conceived a son in her old age,
and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren;
for nothing will be impossible for God.”
Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to your word.”
Then the angel departed from her.

The Gospel of the Lord.

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A few years ago, on the cover page of National Geographic there was a picture of the Blessed Virgin Mary with the title, “The Most Powerful Woman in the World.”

More than one billion Catholics refer to her as their spiritual mother, a command first given by Jesus to John at the Cross: “Behold, your mother.” 

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Two factors that inspire Marian devotion are her relatability and her many apparitions throughout the centuries. 

Like many Christians, Mary was poor. She spent time as a refugee. She accepted God’s plan for her life while she was still a teenager, modeling the art of surrender, which she does again while standing faithfully at the foot of the Cross.

Mary is powerful because she is relatable.

Secondly, she pulls back the veil between heaven and earth. The first reported Marian apparition took place in the year 40 AD, some time after her assumption. There have been an estimated 2,000 apparitions since.

Of these, fewer than 20 have been officially approved by the Vatican because of their rigorous process of verification.

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But one of Mary’s apparitions, which we celebrate today, was her appearance as Our Lady of the Rosary to Saint Dominic in the 13^th century. Part of her message to him was that, if he spread devotion to the rosary, then his religious order – the Dominicans – would flourish. 

To this day, some 800 years later, Dominican nuns and priests minister around the world, their religious order having produced more than 70 Saints!

In several other apparitions since, Mary has continued encouraging devotion to the rosary, as we not only meditate on the life of Christ, but also seek Mary’s powerful intercession.

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May she, the most powerful woman in the world, pray for us.

Hail Mary…

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Image credits: (1) National Geographic, Mary Most Powerful Woman in the World (2) The Annunciation, Saint Louis Art Museum (3) Free Rosary Stock, StockImages