Thursday, October 24, 2013

Doing God's Holy Will

How do we know God's will for us? Simply, it comes through prayer. You can obtain great clarity by a simple prayer and putting yourself in God's presence in eucharistic adoration or at Mass.

Saint Faustina writes in her diary in spring 1937.

In the evening, I heard these words in my soul: My daughter, know that I shall speak to you in a special way through this priest [Father Plaza] so that you may not yield to doubt concerning My wishes. Already in the first meditation my soul was struck by the following words of the priest: I must not oppose God's will and God's designs, whatever they might be; and as soon as I am convinced of the certitude and the authenticity of the will of God, I have the duty of carrying it out. No one can release me from this. Whatever the will of God may be, once I have come to know it, I ought to carry it out. This is just a very short summary, but the whole meditation imprinted itself on my soul, and I have no doubts about anything. I know what God wants of me, and what I ought to do. (Diary entry 1101)

Friday, October 11, 2013

Come With Joy to the Presence of the Lord

Psalm 100:1B-2, 3, 4, 5

Come with joy into the presence of the Lord.

Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands;
serve the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful song.

Come with joy into the presence of the Lord.

Know that the LORD is God;
he made us, his we are;
his people, the flock he tends.

Come with joy into the presence of the Lord.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
his courts with praise;
Give thanks to him; bless his name.

 Come with joy into the presence of the Lord.

For he is good, the LORD, whose kindness endures forever,
and his faithfulness, to all generations.

Come with joy into the presence of the Lord.

Friday, October 4, 2013

Without Me You Can Do Nothing

John 15:1-17

The Vine and the Branches.

I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower.

He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and everyone that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.

You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you.

Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.

I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.

Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned.

If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.

By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.

As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love.

If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.

I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.

This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.

No one has greater love than this,j to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

You are my friends if you do what I command you.

I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.

It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you.

This I command you: love one another.

Jesus Is Everything

Col 1:15-20

Brothers and sisters:
Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of all creation.
For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth,
the visible and the invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers;
all things were created through him and for him.
He is before all things,
and in him all things hold together.
He is the head of the Body, the Church.
He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things he himself might be preeminent.
For in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell,
and through him to reconcile all things for him,
making peace by the Blood of his cross
through him, whether those on earth or those in heaven.