Gratitude & Thanksgiving

JUSTICE AND RELATIONSHIPS Am I a good person? Am I just? Justice is about giving people what you owe them and not taking away what they have a right to. When we do that, the result is good relationships. So, justice is the virtue that makes good relationships. Transcript -  THREE KINDS OF JUSTICE The Catechism of the Catholic Church mentions three kinds of justice: Commutative Distributive General

The below extracted from Daily Rosary Meditation gives a summary of the messages revealed to the three children at Fatima over six months of 1917.   It sets out also the actions we can take to partake in the mission.  

Jesus as the sun  shines simultaneously on the tall cedars  and on each little flower  as though it were alone on the earth So our Lord is occupied  particularly  with each soul  as though there were no others like it And just as in nature  all the seasons are arranged  in such a way  as to make the humblest daisy  bloom on a set day and in the same way  everything works out  for the good of each soul. St Therese of Liseux -----

Ever wonder why the Church publicly displays ash on the foreheads of her people on Ash Wednesday, making it an outward and visible sign of fasting and yet, the Gospel reading on the day tells us to conduct our pious acts of fasting, alms-giving and prayer in secret?  Is this a direct contradiction? Dr Brant Pitre's talk helped me understand Christian fasting through a deep dive into the Ash Wednesday Scripture Readings:   The first reading every year is taken from the Book of Joel, and speaks about a day of public fast ,  The Gospel passage from Matthew speaks about conducting the spiritual disciplines of fasting, prayer and alms-giving in private  during the season of Lent

Do we know the meaning of ashes, and the significance of putting ashes on our foreheads on Ash Wednesday?   

Transcript - ——- At some level, we all feel like hypocrites.   Every Christian is obliged to share the fullness of Christ's truth and none of us lives up to it. So, a hypocrite is  not someone who hasn't succeeded at Christian perfection. And, what is the sin of hypocrisy that enrages Christ so dramatically? 

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end.  Nor do I really know myself.  And the fact that I think I am following Your will  does not mean that I am actually doing so.  But I believe that the desire to please You  does in fact please You.  And I hope I have that desire  in all that I am doing.  I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.  And I know that, if I do this,  You will lead me by the right road,  though I may know nothing about it.  Therefore I will trust You always  though I may seem to be lost. And in the shadow of death.  I will not fear,  for You are ever with me.  A nd You will never leave me  to face my perils alone.  Amen. – Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude, page 79.

We are often unable to decide, unwilling to choose, unwilling to commit, because we are afraid. We are afraid of choosing wrongly. How can we be sure we are making the right decisions? ———————  The following is the transcript from a rosary meditation in the AMEN app from the Augustinian Institute. ———————  It’s a common occurrence for us to be unable to make a decision . We just can’t seem to commit to a course of action.  Sometimes this is called analysis paralysis . “I can’t make up my mind.” It’s a kind of procrastination , beating around the bush. “I can keep putting off the big choices. I just don’t know what God’s calling me to.” ———————  KNOW THAT WE CANNOT BE 100% SURE We can’t have certainty in prudential decisions.  We can know with certainty what not to do (for example, we know we should never murder anybody, and you should never blaspheme), but we can’t know with certainty what we should do in any given situation.  That’s because, in any ...

Today’s Scripture talks about delighting in the law. “ I, the Lord, your God, teach you what is good for you.  I lead you in the way that you must go.  If only you had been alert to my commands, your happiness would have been like a river….”  Isaiah 4:8 “ Happy the man whose delight is in the law, who ponders his law day and night .”  Psalm 1 ———————————- Below is the transcript from a sermon by St John Henry Newman. ———————————- OUR CONSCIENCE AND SCRIPTURE It would have been strange if the God of nature had said one thing and the God of grace taught us another; if  the truth which our conscience taught us without the information of Scripture, were contradicted by that information when obtained.   But it is not so - there are not two way of pleasing God.   What conscience suggests, God has sanctioned and explained. ———————————- DUTIES OF THE GOSPEL & THE LAW To love God and our neighbour are the great duties of the Gospel as well as the law. ...

All gifts from God are supposed to be geared towards the ultimate goal of our transforming union with God through Jesus Christ . ———————————- The following is the transcript from a rosary meditation in the AMEN app from the Augustinian Institute. ———————————- GOD GIVETH All the good things given to us are supposed to be pathways to a relationship with God, not substitutes for that relationship. God wants to make us sharers in His divinity and offers us a Kingdom that never ends. ———————————- WE BUILD OUR IDENTITY IN THE WRONG THING He gives us so many good things - life, education, professions, business achievements, spouse, family, kids, grandkids, intelligence, freedom, physical strength and beauty, comfort, pleasures…. But this is the precise problem - we build our identity, our self worth, our happiness on these things. ———————————- HE WANTS TO GIVE US SO MUCH MORE God wants to give us so much more - He wants to give us Himself.  He wants to flood us with His divine life and m...

“ The immense blessings of God can only enter and fit an empty and solitary heart. ” St John of the Cross We must be empty to be filled by God. ———————————- The following is the transcript from a rosary meditation in the AMEN app from the Augustinian Institute. ———————————- THE FRUIT OF SUFFERING God does not send suffering.   God allows it and turns it to our favour.   The fruit of this experience is that we can be totally stripped of every earthly thing we relied upon.   ———————————- BEING EMPTY TO BE FILLED Beibg empty of all things, we surrender ourselves totally to God. We let God do what God wanted to do through the people and events in our life. Once we are empty, God floods our soul with the river of living water, His divine life. ———————————- NADA - JOY-FILLED ABANDONMENT The word that encapsulates St John of the Cross’ teaching is the word “ Nada”. Nada means to be unconditionally surrendered to God.  It means having a joy-filled to the abandonment of the g...

Our failure to be grateful blocks our happiness. It is important not only to feel thankful, but to also display thankfulness towards our benefactor

Mercy goes further. It means sorrowful at heart. Mercy moves us to do what we can do to help the other. Sharing a reflection by Don Schwager on Luke 17:11-19 which I found so enlightening....

Often, the greatest problem is not our paralysis, our pain, our struggles.  The biggest problems is when we refuse to stand up  for our pain, our rejections, our brokenness. We have gotten so used to our situation, with our coping mechanisms all in place. The Lord wants to enter.   Turn our focus back to Jesus.

As we worship in church, we remember in gratitude, the generations before us, anointing this place of worship. We join our prayers to their.

Such a refreshing look... "if you are exhausted about your heart's obsession with the fixed past and your mind's focus on the uncertain future your lungs are the perfect place for you read on....

Discernment is the mother of all virtues;  everyone needs it either to guide the lives of others,  or to direct and reform his own life.     W e could see clearly through any action of ours,  or into our entire lives,  if we had a simple eye.    A simple eye is an eye,  and it is simple.  This then, is discernment.

  Consolidating and re-sharing the set of semons given by Rev Fr Bobby recently.   Together, they give a wonderful perspective of sufferings in our lives, the posture we ought to have, the importance of the Word of God, and how we overcome the evil one who uses adversity to negate God in our lives.   It is never about what we expect, what we want, what we need to control.  It is about how generosity - in thanksgiving, forgiving and alms-giving - is the antidote to so many ills in our lives.  And that peace & joy is attainable just because Jesus is THE source of our joy and peace, not anything or anyone else. May you be blessed just as I am by these gems. Part 1 - Suffering Video: https://youtu.be/LGRh7r9rlBY Notes: https://gratitu de-thanksgiving.blogspot.com/2023/03/notes-taken-homily-given-by-rev-fr.html Part 2 - Mercy Video: https://youtu.be/hc9CfnAZvOM Notes: https://gratitude-thanksgivi ng.blogspot.com/2023/03/notes-taken-homily-given-by-rev-fr_15.htm...

Thanksgiving, Forgiving, Alms giving. God's nature is giving. Give cheerfully. Seek the Giver of all gifts.

  In the Word of God we find peace. Peace is not the absence of problems. Peace is the presence of Jesus. Peace is already given to us. Praise is mandatory for peace. Jesus is the source of peace.