Ephesians 5:6-17

 
It takes just the blink of an eye. When my late uncle was in a drug induced paralysis preceding his death, the only way he could communicate was to blink his eyes – once for yes, twice for no.  Those blinks spoke volumes and changed the course of his treatments, his family’s grieving hearts, and perhaps his own soul. Similarly for us in our walk with Christ Jesus. One brief action, or word, can impact my own and others lives. A flick of my eyelid, closes the closet door of my heart… and I can have a moment with Jesus, praying scripture or hearing his quietly firm spirit in my heart… and then open my eyes to move ahead with His wisdom into the next thought, word or action along my journey. The difference ‘finding out what Jesus would have me do’ makes can change the course of history, propelling me and others away from the black holes of sin and death, into the life-giving kingdom of God. Will I take a moment with Jesus to find out what He would have me do, before rushing ahead into the agendas of the world, the flesh and the devil?  Holy Spirit of Jesus, help me to find out what you want me to do, then do it.
 
 
May you be filled with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding to live in a manner worthy of the Lord…      (Colossians 1:9-10))
 
“A single act of love makes the soul return to life.”
St. Maximilian Kolbe  
 
Soli ad gloriam Dei
Gospel Mystery of the Day on FaceBook & www.gospelmysteryoftheday.ca
 

 
Psalm 51

 
The forgiveness of sins is not magic that we don’t have one minute and have the next.  Nor it is something we work for and achieve. The forgiveness of sin, that is the propitiation or appeasement of our sins, is the application of the crucified body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ Jesus that ‘soaks up sin’ and saves us from being prey to the powers and principalities of evil and darkness that attempt to divert us, make us ‘transgress’ away from God our Father and the life we have in Him. In grade four I graduated into the world of writing in ink.  With a straight pen, a bottle of blue ink sunk into an inkwell in my desk and a piece of thick, porous blotting paper, we were set! Invariably blobs and spills of ink happened in our exercise books, on our desks, and stained our fingers. The trick was to apply the blotting paper as soon as possible, to make the stains lighter or to be blotted up altogether. It was a messy business! Life is a messy business!  Using the pen of this life to write our story in eternity means that there are blobs and spills of accidents and missteps spattered here and there throughout our lifetimes. The beauty of God’s will is that there is a remedy for the mess we make of our ‘exercise books’ … the redemption brokered by the Son of God who was the Son of Man on the cross through the mighty Mercy of God that raised him again to New Life.  Will I take up my ‘blotting paper’, the love and mercy of God, and allow my Redeemer, Jesus Christ, to blot out my transgressions, my mis-takes? Along with all other men and women throughout the ages I ask for the merciful forgiveness of my Father through the propitiation of his Son:  “Blot out my transgressions, O my Redeemer!”
 
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.      (Psalm 51:10)
 
“The Christian life is a continuation and a completion of the life of Christ in us.”
St. John Eudes   
 
Soli ad gloriam Dei
Gospel Mystery of the Day on FaceBook & www.gospelmysteryoftheday.ca
 

Gospel Mystery of the Day        Saturday, August 17, 2024
                                               
Good Morning!      
Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path. (Psalm 119)
 
Ephesians 4: 17-24

 
This gift we call ‘free will’ is difficult to manage.  Since Eden, it is human free will choosing the deceits of evil over God’s principles of life, that leads us into more grief and confusion than anything else.  Think Adam and Eve hurriedly covering up with fig leaves and running away from Father God, out of the perfection of connection in the “garden”. Free will allows us to choose evil over good time and time again, and so it is the critical factor that gradually turns our hearts, minds, souls and strength either more and more towards, or away from, our Father’s face. It is when we turn away from God that our spirits become dry and worn out, moth-eaten and despondent; it is due to free will that we can so easily and quickly descend into bindings of meaningless and reactive choices, rather than the true freedoms of Faith, Hope and Love extended to us by the Mercy of God, through Christ Jesus. And It is God’s righteous and holiness, born of pure truth and mercy that is the path out of tepid, death-dealing and depressing lives. No wonder St. Paul, a man of strong mind and intelligence reminded the Ephesians, and so by extension us today, to ‘“be renewed” in the spirit of our minds’. We must be careful to maintain godly drivers and turn away from evil devices that warp our choice of thoughts, words and deeds to carry out by our be-ing.   When we clothe our beings with the “New Man”, that is Christ Jesus risen from the death and destruction of the cross in the fullness of righteousness and holiness, we are able to live into our ultimate purpose – to become the likeness of Father God.  Will I let go of the rot and mold in my soul and allow God to renew the spirit of my mind so that I can make good choices in my thoughts, my words and my actions, informed, as they are meant to be, by God’s righteousness and holiness?   Holy Spirit of Jesus, renew the spirit of my mind to direct my being by your righteousness and holiness. 
 
I am the light of the world, says the Lord; whoever follows me will have the light of life. Alleluia!     (John 8:12)
 
“A single act of love makes the soul return to life.”
St. Maximilian Kolbe  
 
Soli ad gloriam Dei
Gospel Mystery of the Day on FaceBook & www.gospelmysteryoftheday.ca