God and his faithfulness

Introduction

The Merriam Webster dictionary defines the word faithfulness as “deserving trust, keeping your promises or doing what you are supposed to do.” We say God is faithful because we can trust him to keep his promises and do what he is supposed to do.
The passage I have selected for my sermon today speaks about a man named Isaac and how his whole life is a retelling of what happened to his father Abraham to whom God had promised to make him into a great nation. The lesson conveyed is of God’s continuing faithfulness.

Text: Genesis 26:1-32

(1) Not changed by our situations

Read Genesis 26:1-6
(I) Isaac occupied the same land that his father Abraham did and famines were common in that land. Both had faced them.
(II) In Abraham’s time when the famine came he fled to Egypt. Isaac wanted to do the same but God stopped him and restated the blessing to his father.
(III) Just like his father Isaac assessed God’s faithfulness based on the severity of the famine. He did not know that God is not challenged by man’s situations.

Lent: 40 Days of Exodus

Lectio Divina: 1st Sunday of Lent, Year A

By Monsignor Francesco Follo

PARIS, March 07, 2014 (Zenit.org) - 1)  Lent: 40 Days of exodus[1] to go to the Promised Land.
      As suggested by today’s liturgy (the first Sunday of Lent) the right way to take part in Lent is to remember and relive what it was like for Him the 40 days of prayer and fasting spent in the desert and that ended with the passing of three tests.
     In the narration that Jesus did ​​for his disciples, the three temptations, which summarize this time of trial, let quite clearly understand that, in a battle that foreshadowed his agony, He chose the love of the Father and the charity for us and started drinking the cup of the New Covenant, which He would have then sealed with his offering on the Cross.

Does Evil Exist? Ppt

Advent Reflections -PPT

Advent Reflections 2011 from amycoultas

Something to think about

CHURCH has 6 letters, so does MOSQUE.

BIBLE has 5 letters, so does QURAN.

LIFE has 4 letters, so does DEAD.

LOVE has 4 letters, so does HATE.

FRIENDS has 7, so does ENEMIES.

TRUTH has 5, so does LYING.

HEAL has 4, so does HURT.

POSITIVE has 8, so does NEGATIVE.

SUCCESS has 7, so does FAILURE.

ABOVE has 5, so does UNDER.

JOY has 3 letters so does CRY.

HAPPY has 5 letters so does ANGER.

RIGHT has 5 letters so does WRONG.

Are they by coincidence?

Choose wisely.

This means LIFE is like a double-edged sword.

We should choose the better side of Life!

Questions From Jesus Christ

Lets take a look at some of the important questions asked by our Lord Jesus Christ. These are the questions that HE wants answers to.

1. How many loaves do you have? (Matthew 15:34)

Loaf or bread represents my Word. You cannot survive with the earthly bread alone, you need ME, the bread that came down to give you eternal life. I am the Word made flesh. MY WORD is eternal. Strive therefore to LEARN MY WORD. How many scriptures do you know by-heart? Can you call to mind and recite at least a couple of them in a crisis? Do you practice living by MY WORD? Just as you satisfy your hunger better by having more loaves, the more the number of scriptures in your heart, the better your life.

“Think! Think! Think!”

She was hurt over the lack of trust and the “behind the back” comments made by her co-worker. Was the one who brought it to her attention even truly her friend? Her fingers flew over the keyboard with words of defense, explanations and justifications of her own actions. She fought back the tears! She had worked so hard in this place!
As her anger and hurt subsided she talked it over with a friend. Her sense of Injustice was real. She did need to address the rumors. Thankfully she had not pressed “send” on her original email. Together with her friend she explored her options. She truly wanted to respond in a way that would honor her Lord and not simply react only to throw more fuel on the fire.

Reflect upon these..-Quotes 79

10 Sunday C - Raising Dead Man - Homilies

 Introduction: 

We see it every day on the news—the raw grief of a parent whose child has died, perhaps in a drive-by shooting or while serving in Afghanistan. Sometimes the tragedy is tied to an automobile accident. We hear of these deaths so often that we become numb to the pain. Then comes something like the shooting in Newton, Connecticut. Parents, friends and neighbors weep.

_________________

  a) A Key to the Reading

Today’s gospel gives us the story of the raising of the son of the widow of Nain. A look at the literary context of the 7^th chapter of the Gospel of Luke will help us to understand this episode. The evangelist wishes to show that Jesus opens the way for us by showing us something of what is new about God as it comes to us in the proclamation of the Good News. This is how  transformation and openness come about: Jesus listens to the prayer of a foreigner, a non-Jew (Lk 7:1-10)  and raises the son of a widow (Lk 7:11-17) The way in which Jesus reveals the Reign of God comes as a surprise to the Jewish brethren who were not used to this kind of openness. It is a surprise also to John the Baptist who sends messengers to ask, Are you the one who is to come or are we to  wait for another (Lk 7:18-30). Jesus mocks the fickleness of his contemporaries: They are like children sitting in the market-place and calling to one another, “We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not weep.”’(Lk 7:31-35). At the end we see Jesus’ openness to women (Lk 7:36-50)

 

Live a Life that Matters....Reflections

When God says “NO”

 

YOU HAVE TO THIS!!!

God Said NO!!
I hope you can get the effects on your computers!
The words are great, but the  movements of the faces add a lot….

I asked God to take away my habit.

 

 

Every Day Christmas - Flash

True Success - reflections

There is great value in who you are. Let it flow into all you do.
Success is not really a matter of getting this thing or having that experience. True success is being able to live each day as the beautiful, authentic person you are.

Recall Notice

The Maker of all human beings (GOD) is recalling all units manufactured, regardless of make or year, due to a serious defect in the primary and central component of the heart. This is due to a malfunction in the original prototype units code named Adam and Eve, resulting in the reproduction of the same defect in all subsequent units.

17 Sunday B July 29 - Homily

17TH SUNDAY - B

29-07-2012

Like the crowds we have gathered here to hear the message of Jesus.
Like those crowds we have gathered here to be fed from his hands.
Like on that hillside, Jesus takes our loaf, gives thanks to the Father, and gives it to all of us who are sitting around ready to be fed by him.
Like on that hillside, we know that this food with which he feeds us is precious, and that it is the food for the whole world.
Like those people who acclaimed him as 'the prophet who is to come into the world', we acclaim him as our priest, our prophet, and as our king – not a king whose kingdom belongs to this world, but as the king who presents the kingdom of truth and life to our Father in heaven.

"There is enough for all our needs, but there is not enough for all our greed."

16 Sunday B- Homilies-3

XVI SUNDAY -B

Introduction: Today’s readings explain how God, like a good shepherd, redeems His people and provides for them. They also challenge us to use our God-given authority in the family, in the church and in society, with fidelity and responsibility. Today, pastoral ministry includes not only the pastoral care given by those named or ordained as “pastors,” but the loving service given by all Christians who follow different callings to serve and lead others.

15 SUNDAY B July 15 - Homilies & Prayers

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Gospel reading: Mark 6:7-13

****************************************
Michel DeVerteuil
Lectio Divina with the Sunday Gospels
www.columba.ie
Textual Comments

This passage contains several separate sections. Each has an important message for us today.

1. Jesus summoned the Twelve.
He selected a group of people who he felt would be able to represent him before the world. He called them by name so that he could send them into the world not merely as a group, but as individuals.

13 Sunday- B -Liturgical Prayers

13th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

Greetings (see second reading)
We are gathered in the name of Jesus: he was rich but became poor for our sake to make us rich out of his poverty. He brought us life and healing. May his life and grace be always with you. R/ And also with you.

Introduction by the Celebrant

A. God Is Pro-Life

Two great enemies in life are death and illness. Almost every one of us is scared of them. Are we convinced that God too is pro-life, that he is an enemy of death? Even the Old Testament assures us: "Death is not of God's making." Jesus' resurrection is the sign that death has been overcome in its roots. It is the gate to life. In this eucharist we express our faith that we believe in Jesus as the Lord of life.  

13 Sunday - B-Several Homilies - July1

13 Ordinary Time Sunday July 1

 Homily from Father James Gilhooley

Several years ago I caught a revival of the nineteenth century A Doll's House by the incomparable master Henrik Ibsen in New York City. The director was the great Ingmar Bergman. Ibsen has his protagonist Nora rejecting out of hand the stereotype of being "just" a wife and mother. She says to her chauvinist husband, "I don't believe that any more. I am a human being - just like you." For almost a century, historians have hailed Ibsen as a pioneering fellow in the area of women's rights. What short memories they have! For nineteen centuries before Ibsen there was a Man named Jesus. The woman cured of the hemorrhage was much admired in the early Church. The early historian Eusebius tells us a statue of her was erected at the miracle's site in Caesarea in northeastern Palestine. Perhaps it was set up by early feminists. It remained there to the fourth century. The Roman Emperor Justinian, who was not a friend of things Christian, destroyed it. Very modestly he put up one of himself. However, God and women both got even. Justinian lived to see his likeness destroyed by lightning. No doubt he got the message.

13 Sunday-B- Reflections and Prayers

Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Gospel reading: Mark 5:21-43 

Today’s gospel comprises two distinct stories with no particular connection between them so you should decide to meditate on one or the other.
- there is the raising of Jairus’s daughter to life, which by a peculiar arrangement is told in two separate sections (verses 21-24,+ 35-43);
- and there is he healing of he woman with the haemorrhage (verses 25 to 43).
Remember that the miraculous cures by Jesus, while they record historical facts, are also lessons in how God works and invites us to enter with gratitude into his work of grace in our own lives and in the world today.