Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path. (Psalm 119)
Acts 4:1-12 Forgiveness is perhaps the most important – and the most challenging – choice we make in our lives. Whether it is passive or active, that is whether I am receiving the forgiveness of my own transgressions or forgiving someone their injustice against me, the choice to enter into forgiveness releases the same streams of the mercy of God that flowed through Christ Jesus at his death and resurrection. The moment I choose mercy over revenge, words of tenderness over speaking with cutting or vitriolic intent, and compassionate understanding rather than being powerful and right, I am aligning my broken and vulnerable spirit with the Holy Spirit of Father God. The Spirit of God, we must remember, chose to give up his only, human (made from earth), Son, “Jesus Emmanuel” , a.k.a. “God saves by being with us”, knowing that humankind would torture and crucify his beloved Son because it did not know mercy, had no vocabulary for tenderness and had sold out to the power and the “right” of the world, the flesh and the devil. That is the kind of mercy, of uncalculated Grace, that is unleashed when we choose light over darkness, love over spite and life over death -that is when we choose forgiveness and release from sin - in all aspects of our relationships. Then, upheld by the arms of mercy we are able to give and fore-give, ‘just like our Father in heaven’, and become who we are meant to be: sons and daughters of Father God released forever by forgiveness of sins. Will I have the wisdom and the courage to choose, the mercy of forgiveness – from others for the wrongs I have done to them, to others for their transgressions against me, and for my soul’s freedom and health? Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. (Matthew 5:7) This is what Easter is: it is the exodus, the passage of human beings from slavery to sin and evil to the freedom of love and goodness. Pope Francis A Blessed, Holy and Happy Easter season to you and your family. May you evermore align your heart with the will of God, as Jesus did! Allelulia! Even when all looked like death, it was really Life! Alleluia! Alleluia! Soli ad gloriam Dei Gospel Mystery of the Day on FaceBook & www.gospelmysteryoftheday.ca
0 Comments
Luke 24:15 -48 & John 21:1-14 It didn’t make sense, but it was great - if somewhat frightening! Their Master had died on a cross and was now risen from the dead. As the disciples talked and walked together those first few days after the Resurrection of Jesus, we can imagine that their hearts and minds were ‘all over the place’. But there was much more to the Resurrection than sudden appearances on a road, in a room, or at a blazing beach fire fish fry. Each time He appeared to his disciples, Jesus explained the significance of what they were living through. “Everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets and the psalms is being fulfilled”. Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures… and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed… Finally, sometime during the 40 days Jesus was on earth in his resurrected form, before his Ascension into heaven, Peter, James, John, and all the disciples ‘got it’ – and then went on, accompanied by the power of the Holy Spirit of God to set the world on fire. Do I ‘get it’? Do I understand the sin-shattering and world-shaking significance of the Resurrection of the Son of Man who was/is the Son of God? Do I live into the reality of God’s redemption of Humankind from the bite of darkness and deceit, by really living into repentance and forgiveness for myself and for others? Will I take into myself the healing salvation of God brokered by Jesus Christ’s incarnation, ministry, death and resurrection by my thoughts, words and action? Risen Christ, help me real-ize how you redeem us. The Lord is just in all his ways, and kind in all his doing. The Lord is near to all who call on him in truth. (Psalm 145: 17 & 18) Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and Hallelujah is our song. Saint John Paul II A Blessed, Holy and Happy Easter season to you and your family. May you evermore align your heart with the will of God, as Jesus did! Allelulia! Even when all looked like death, it was really Life! Alleluia! Alleluia! Soli ad gloriam Dei Gospel Mystery of the Day on FaceBook & www.gospelmysteryoftheday.ca John 5:19-30 Why did Jesus do it? He could have gone back to Galilee and prolonged his productive ministry. Even if he had celebrated Passover in Jerusalem that year he could have slipped away as he had several times before when the authorities were out to get him. Instead, Jesus stayed at Jerusalem and hung around in his favorite place in the olive orchard where Judas and the temple guard would be sure to find him. Why? Weeks before Jesus told his disciples the deep purpose of his life, to do the will of his Father in heaven. Like his step father Joseph and his mother Mary before him, Jesus listened to his Father’s will, and did it. But more than merely human obedience compelled Jesus to live into his Passion and to die upon a cross for our salvation: .As the Son of God who was the Son of Man, Christ Jesus took up his cross and on purpose carried it to his own crucifixion to proclaim once and for all that human beings are designed to become beloved sons and daughters of our heavenly Father – and so are designed to do God’s will just as Jesus did. Is my life too purpose-full of the agendas of the world, the flesh and the devil? Or is it perhaps too purpose-less having given up on faith to inform me of God’s Love and Mercy directed at me? Or will I, like Christ Jesus align my thoughts, words, and actions so uncompromisingly to the will of God that I , like Christ, simply “trust and obey’ the will of Father God? Holy Spirit of Christ Jesus, align the purpose of my heart with yours. The Lord is just in all his ways, and kind in all his doing. The Lord is near to all who call on him in truth. (Psalm 145: 17 & 18) The Spirit comes gently and makes himself known by his fragrance. He is not felt as a burden because God is light, very light. Rays of light and knowledge stream before him as the Spirit approaches. The Spirit comes with the tenderness of a true friend to save, to heal, to teach, to counsel, to strengthen and console Saint Cyril of Jerusalem A Blessed, Holy and Happy Easter season to you and your family. May you evermore align your heart with the will of God, as Jesus did! Allelulia! Even when all looked like death, it was really Life! Alleluia! Alleluia! Soli ad gloriam Dei Gospel Mystery of the Day on FaceBook & www.gospelmysteryoftheday.ca John 5:16-30 Who knows the full will of God? No human being on earth. Only Jesus sought perfectly to live into the perfect will of God –and was stretched on a cross for doing so, only to rise again on the third day. We do have indications of God’s will in holy scriptures, that is, in the B.I.B.L.E. –Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. “Come all you who thirst, Come to the living waters.” God said through Isaiah. “Seek the Lord while he can be found. Call upon him while he is near,“ counsels the Psalmist. “Seek first the Kingdom of heaven and his righteousness,” said Jesus, who also counsels us to “Come to me all you who labour and are heavy laden,” and “Do this in remembrance of me.” I realize that undoubtedly when I choose God’s way, that is Jesus’ way, of learning, loving, and living, I enter into the realm of the Holy Spirit of God, the holy place of forgiveness, mercy, courage, purity, faithfulness and all the facets of fulfilled being. So what am I seeking? Am I seeking to find ways to do my own will and then stamp it with “grace”? Or will I, like Jesus at all times in his life, seek the will of God –by prayerful consideration of the Holy Writ and making a choice to walk with Jesus –and do it? Holy Spirit of God help me seek to do your will, not mine. The Lord is just in all his ways, and kind in all his doing. The Lord is near to all who call on him in truth. (Psalm 145: 17 & 18) “Prayer is as necessary as the air, as the blood in our bodies, as anything to keep us alive –to keep us alive to the grace of God.” Saint Teresa of Kalcutta Soli ad gloriam Dei Gospel Mystery of the Day on FaceBook & www.gospelmysteryoftheday.ca Holy Spirit of God make me alive, together with Christ Jesus, for it is by grace I have been saved…3/12/2024 Ezekiel 47: 1-12, Ephesians 2: 4-10 Perhaps the river of God’ mercy and grace is counter-intuitive for humankind, starting out as a trickle and quickly becoming a deep river of purifying water, but it is nonetheless life giving. To everyone who takes time to walk along the banks of God’s river of mercy and grace, and chooses to eat the ripe fruit on the branches of the trees on its banks and to apply their healing leave to the wounds of heart, mind and spirit, it is the best nourishment and medicine in the world And for everyone who takes at dip in its waters, it is not only refreshing, but purifying. This was the mercy Christ Jesus engaged throughout his Passion and Resurrection. This is the mercy he extended to every man, woman and child by his obedient suffering and rising again. This is the grace by which I – by which we – have been saved. Will I walk through life unaware of the river of life just beyond the trials and troubles of this life? Or will I take time through prayer and meditation to walk along the banks of the river of God’s mercy and to immerse myself in its healing and cleansing waters? Holy Spirit of God make me alive, together with Christ Jesus, for it is by grace that I have been saved. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea. (Psalm 46:1-2) “Prayer is as necessary as the air, as the blood in our bodies, as anything to keep us alive-to keep us alive to the grace of God.” Saint Teresa of Kalcutta Soli ad gloriam Dei Gospel Mystery of the Day on FaceBook & www.gospelmysteryoftheday.ca |
AuthorBeverly Illauq lives in Kemptville, Ontario, where she greets each morning by seeking the Gospel Mystery of the Day - the Word of the Lord for direct and practical application to the specific challenges & joys of the day. Archives
March 2024
Categories |