TO LIVE WELL TO LOVE GOD

"In order always to live well, we must store up deeply in our minds certain general maxims about eternal life: Everything in this life, whether it be joy or sorrow, passes away but in eternity nothing passes away. What good is all the greatness of this world at the hour of death?

All that comes from God, whether it be adverse or prosperous, all is good and is for our welfare. We must leave all to gain all. There is no peace to be found without God. To love God and save one's soul is the one thing necessary. We need be afraid of nothing but sin.






If God is lost, all is lost. He who desires nothing in this world is master of the whole world. He who prays is saved, and he who does not pray is lost"
      St Alphonsus Liguori  

GO INTO THE SILENCE

MARK : 6:30-34

Have you ever heard a gentle voice, from somewhere deep inside of you, reminding, encouraging, even urging you with the following words: "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest"{v.31NIV]? Prayer is at the heart of the Christian life because in prayer we commune with God. The more we pray, the more we want to pray; the less we pray, the less we want to pray. With prayer we flourish; without prayer we wilt.  With prayer we grow in our relationship with God; without prayer God becomes ever more distant and remote.

 Something terrible has happened to our understanding of living the Christian faith, something truly alarming and frightening, and if we don't do something to stop it, our faith is under threat. What is this terrible, alarming and frightening thing that has happened? It is this:  we have replaced prayer with action, contemplation with the apostolic; we value doing over being, and social action over the interior life. We have lost sight that God works from the inner life to the exterior life, and not the other way around. In fact, there is a new undercurrent which clings to the notion that the Christian faith is purely and simply about helping and serving others. Of course, it is self-evident that the Christian life involves love and service but a love and service which is rooted in prayer, firmly established first and foremost in a living, breathing relationship with God.

 Christians are not the only ones who undertake works of love and charity- often people of no faith are outstanding and wonderful humanitarians. The Christian life cannot be reduced to social action.
We need to spend time in Eucharistic Adoration.
Let us reflect on the following words from St Teresa of Calcutta:
" I know I would not be able to work one week if it were not for that continual force coming from Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament[during my holy hour of Adoration] to be alone with Jesus in adoration and intimate union with Him is the Greatest Gift of Love- the tender love of our Father in Heaven".
[ Taken from Bible alive Sunday 22nd July 2018]  

HOLY  SATURDAY

Death is a fact of life.  A fact, however, that we avoid, don't talk about and fear.  George Bernard Shaw rightly quipped that only two things in life are certain: death and taxes - and even in death there are taxes!
Death is an important topic because our faith is rooted in Jesus rising from the dead. Faith, then, doesn't avoid death, but rather confronts it head on. Jesus not only confronted death: He conquered it.

Jesus is the Author of Life and, by dying on the cross, he destroyed the one who has the power of death, the devil. Jesus holds the keys of Death and Hades so that at His Name every knee should bow in heaven and earth and under the earth.

"Today a great silence reigns on earth, a great silence and a great stillness. A great silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and He has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began....He has gone to search for Adam, our first father, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, He has gone to free from sorrow Adam in his bonds and Eve, captive with him - He who is both their God and the son of Eve...."I am your God, who for your sake have become your son....I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead."(from Ancient Homily on Holy Saturday)

 

THE CONVERSION OF ST PAUL

"Acts of the Apostles 22:3-16"
Paul said to the people, "I am a Jew and was born at Tarsus in Cilicia. I was brought up here in this city. I studied under Gamaliel and was taught the exact observance of the Law of our ancestors. In fact, I was as full of duty towards God as you are today.  I even persecuted This way to the death, and sent women as well as men to prison in chains as the high priest and the whole council of elders can testify, since they even sent me with letters to their brothers in Damascus. When I set off it was with the intention of bringing prisoners back from there to Jerusalem for punishment.

I was on that journey and nearly at Damascus when about midday a bright light from heaven suddenly shone around me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" "I am Jesus the Nazarene, and you are persecuting me". The people with me saw the light but did not hear his voice as he spoke to me. I said: "What am I to do, Lord?  The Lord answered "Stand up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told what you have been appointed to do".  The light had been so dazzling that I was blind and my companions had to take me by the hand;  and so I came to Damascus.

"Someone called Ananias, a devout follower of the Law and highly thought of by all the Jews living there, came to see me, he stood beside me and said, "Brother Saul, receive your sight". Instantly my sight came back and I was able to see him. Then he said "The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will, to see that Just One and hear his own voice speaking, because you are to be his witness before all mankind, testifying to what you have seen and heard. And now why delay? It is time you were baptised and had your sins washed away while invoking his name."

Paul's  conversion is a testament to God's grace, and his life is a testament of one who preached, taught, proclaimed, witnessed to and lived by God's grace. For him the Christian faith wasn't about what he did for God but what God had done for him in Jesus Christ. Today we rejoice in our conversion, but seek on-going conversion through prayer, reading Scripture and adoring Christ in the Eucharist.