RANDOM THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS, by Deacon Sam                                     June 20, 2023


B        -        I        -        B        -        L        -        E
Basic     Instruction     Before      Leaving       Earth

There are no orphans in God's family. We are one in the Body of Christ. Life in God begins now and continues into eternity.

- Jesus was not a pessimist. He is the way to God through God's redeeming love. The cross was not a sign of defeat but a victory over sin and evil. We believe that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament and the completion of the New Testament. His resurrection is His victory over death and evil. We will all experience trials in our life but Jesus gives us strength to handle them.

- Faith is not a feeling and not merely an intellectual assent. Doubt is not a feeling - it suggests hesitation with faith. I make a decision to surrender my life to God. Doubt is a refusal to submit Intellect to the Lord.

Questions to ask:

• What does the church teach?
• How am I going to follow Jesus?
• How can I be faithful to the Lord and live as He wants me to when I live in a world full of darkness?

We must keep our eyes fixed on Jesus - do what is necessary, then do the possible and soon we may be doing the impossible. Jesus is with us always - even when we fail.

Our body is a temple, a place where God abides, where God is present in a unique way. By virtue of our Baptism, we are each a temple of the Holy Spirit and, as such, we are each meant to be the presence of God in this world. As a temple of the Holy Spirit we are each a place of worship and sacrifice. We all share in the Kingdom Priesthood of Jesus – we offer sacrifice with an ordained priest at Mass. “May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands for the praise and glory of His name for our good and the good of all His holy church." We ask that the priest's sacrifice and ours may be pleasing to God. Wherever we go, worship is happening. Everything we do can be a spiritual sacrifice to be offered to God. Our family life, our joy, our love, our suffering, etc. We offer the holiness of our lives to God - our worship is not limited to what we do for one hour at Mass on Sunday. We can sanctify every moment of our daily life. Every moment is a visible sign of God in our life. There is no moment that God is not worshiped.

- Jesus says  - Obey my commandment to love one another as I love you.

- At the center of our being we find God.
- Jesus is always there for us.

- At the heart of Christian life is the Eucharist – which we do in memory of Jesus.
- The Risen Christ comes to us in His self-giving love.

- We long for an outpouring of the Spirit on our leaders to overcome all that threatens our world.

- May we all emulate Mary's dedication to service.

- With openness of our hearts and minds, we as a church are united by our faith in Christ. May we allow Him to work and us and through us to help us overcome our biases and divisions.

- True love is love that is completely self-giving. May we strive to grow in our love for God and for one another.

- What would someone who is not Catholic notice about us who are? The world doesn't so much care about what we think -  it is more interested in what we have witnessed. "What is truth?" Pontius Pilate asks. Truth is what is - it accurately reflects what is. An objective truth is that Jesus Christ is God. He said He is God and His miracles are a demonstration that He is. Jesus rose from the dead. He is who He says He is. As Christians we have hope because Jesus is who He says He is. Jesus is the reason for my hope.

 - God the Father created us.
 - God the Son redeemed us.
 - God the Holy Spirit sanctifies us.
 
We are loved profoundly and deeply by God. Our response is to believe in Him.

We are each called to approach God without preconceived ideas about who God is and who we are. We are called to let God tell us who He is and who we are. Dear God, what kind of Sunday worship do you want? Worship is for God and it shapes our heart. We are to approach God with open hearts – when we do this we find the Lord. God is not made in our image – we are made in His image. God is an eternal exchange of love – we are not necessary; God does not need us. God constantly pours Himself out in love - He chooses to love us. Our deepest identity is love – we are most like God when we give of ourselves to others, when we reach out to meet a need in others.

Questions for each of us to ask ourselves:
How can I bring love to the world?
God whom do you want me to love?
Whom are we willing to help?

Dear God, may we never grow indifferent to the needs of your people.

- Does my soul magnify the Lord and does my spirit rejoice in God my Savior? God grants us an eternal soul and He wants relationship with us now and forever. He also wants us to have fellowship with each other. Mary is our Mother and our guide. She wants us to be safe and to find our way to heaven. She points us in the direction of her Son. May we follow Mary’s courageous example and do God’s will.

- “Truth sees God and wisdom contemplates God, and from these two comes a third, a holy and wonderful delight in God who is Love.”                                                     St. Julian of Norwich

- I have been all things unholy. If God can work through me, He can work through anyone.”
       St. Francis of Assisi

- “You know well enough that Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, nor even at their difficulty, but at the love with which we do them.”        St. Therese of Lisieux