Random Thoughts and Prayers, by Deacon Sam                                               April, 2025

LOVE,    JUSTICE,    CHARITY,    MERCY

• Do good to others - become a person who loves.

• Do not speak evil about others - say helpful things that people need to hear.

•  Pray for those who do us harm and dislike us. 

• Be imitators of the example of Christ with patience, generosity and kindness.

Jesus asks us to be a great heart in our world and to do this because His Heavenly Father has done this for us. This is what makes the world a better place.

- It has been said that silence is the doorkeeper of the interior life. Alone with our thoughts, what are we each thinking? Put Scripture into your mind and then become silent. Walk in silence and see what God reveals in your heart. Be a person who acts and loves like Jesus. 

Experience quiet moments of contemplation:

• to put us in accord with God's will;

• to avoid distortions and distractions;

• to not be controlled by temptation;

• to not disregard the consequences of our actions;

• to decrease the things in our life that we find more attractive than God;

• to trust that God is always with us and to give Him thanks.

- Salvation depends on how we live our life. God gave us all ONE commandment – LOVE. We love through concrete action. Think of it: we all have opportunities many times each day to practice charity (eg. spouses to each other, parents and children to each other, etc.). We can show caring for strangers and for those we don't much like. Do not be indifferent to the needs of others. Christ is present in the sick, the lonely, the downtrodden, the grieving -  we do what we can to lift them up rather than make excuses for not helping them. Our sins of omission are a failure to love - we close our hearts to others. In Lent we are reminded how to live as we prepare for Easter. Do we do for others more than we do for ourselves? We don't need a theology degree to go to heaven - what we do need is to love - which is a whole way of life.

Jesus urges us to be ‘gentle and humble of heart’. But sometimes He tried to shake people up. His miracles tried to bring deeper faith to people; He was upset with the money changers in the Temple; He called some people hypocrites; He said that some people have hardened hearts. Sometimes Jesus tells us to snap-out-of-it because we get set in our ways. God is merciful and any time is a good time for us to come around to God, not stray or meander away from Him. God never strays away from us. He died on the cross for love of us. Turn away from sin, admit wrongdoing, get ourselves back on track and turn to the love of God. God does not want to condemn us. Aretha Franklin once said that her soul was in ‘the lost and found’. We are all  guilty of something but we stand alive because of Jesus’s grace and mercy.

“As you announce peace with your mouth, make sure that greater peace is in your hearts.”         

- St. Francis of Assisi

“Actions speak louder than words. Let your words teach and your actions speak.”  

- St. Anthony of Padua

“Let us protect with love all that God has given us.” - Pope Francis

“If the only prayer you say in your life is ‘thank you’, that would suffice.” -  Meister Eckhart

“Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.” - Mother Teresa