Jesus, the Bread of Life-giving Love

 This past week, Jesus has kept leading me back to the Bread of Life Discourse in the Bible.  It has shown up in the daily Readings, at youth group, and in a bible study.  Praise God!  He is Present in the Eucharist!  Jesus is calling us to have faith in what He says, and to receive Him as sustenance to what it means to follow Him with our very lives.

We must never take His Presence among us for granted, and know that He makes Himself small, so that we are not afraid to approach Him.  We have an approachable God, and He is showing us the way of the gospel!  

Jesus wants to give of Himself, though it takes our willingness to be attentive to this great Mystery of merciful love.  He does not force us; He only bids us.  I was blessed with an opportunity to go to adoration this week, and what a blessing it always is!  Can we fathom His great love for us?  He is among us in the Eucharist, and makes us "walking tabernacles" when we receive Him at Mass.  So we must go forth, bringing that same love and mercy to others!  

Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Second Reading Reflection

 In this Sunday's Second Reading (for the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time), St. Paul writes to the Corinthians about his proclamation of the gospel: and woe to me if I do not preach it!  He feels drawn to his obligation to tell the world that Jesus is Lord, the promised Messiah who walked the earth, suffered, died, and rose again, for our sakes.  And now, it is the apostle's duty, and our duty, to bring Jesus to others.  

Like Paul, we are called to use our gifts with his same call from the Spirit.... "and woe to me if I do not preach it!" with our actions, with our words, and with our lives!

I encourage you- I plea for you- to read the rest of the 2nd Reading (1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23) and see how you too, are called to bring the light and hope of Christ to others.  This is Good News!  God places us at this time and place on earth, for a reason.  "All this I do for the sake of the gospel, so that I too may have a share in it."

God be Praised!

Moving Forward in the Joy of Christmas

 God be Praised, I found the time to do a video on the YouTube channel (I encourage you to visit "A Catholic Presence" for my latest one)!  Though still in the Season of Christmas, we are past all the officially marked holidays, including this one and New Years.  I do not plan on removing my decorations for at least another week, but it's already back to the grind of working and less preparing.  

Christmas is not yet over.  How can we live out this sacred time within the "ordinariness" of our lives?  To practice gratitude for Christ's coming down from heaven to live among us, and even to die for us? To let the "peace of Christ control your hearts" (excerpt from Collosians 3:15).  We have prepared the way for Him this advent; now it is time to keep Him at the center of our lives.

What will your resolution be in this new year, and how committed are you to keeping it?  I pray for your perseverance in it, your peace in it, and that you do it with love, as St. Faustina learned to do (and I shared in my latest video).  May God continue to bless you, and may you magnify Him in it, as Our Lady demonstrated so well in her Magnificat.