For You .......................

      My dedication to all the Priests of the World!

My People,

Good Morning! May the Peace of Jesus follow you and the Love of Mama Mary guide you!

It’s good to be back writing after a silence of three months. Sorry for the silence, I have missed you so!

Every morning brings a new hope. Every day is a gift from God. I love this song ‘Morning has broken’, it is one of my favourites and it is my Sunday special. When I play the numbers, it always begins with Morning has broken-today as I write this letter I feel that love, I feel my heart racing out to God, and singing Praise God! Praise God! Praise God!

Morning has broken, like the first morning.
Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird.
Praise for the singing, praise for the morning,
Praise for them springing fresh from the Word.

The words were penned by Eleanor Farjeon and sung by "Cat Stevens".  This song was a rage in its own time and no surprise to that. It’s one of the classics-time can do no damage. If you’ve never heard this song then pretty please do so whenever you can. I promise, you will feel your heartbeat more than you’ve ever felt.

Have you ever watched the rains or when there are heavy winds blowing? Tell me, what is it that makes the branches sway with the breeze. They look like they were waltzing to a perfect sound of music being played? Don’t you think?

Have you heard the church bells toll the ‘Ave Maria”- I go weak in my knees. I simply feel myself so light. I can feel my heart race, I cannot find myself able to express the emotions. Let me just say……………

This is what I’m saying-this is what I’m asking for you to come alive with all the zest you can possibly find. Bring it on.

I want you to know what it is to be happy. And you will realize that you need to have that kind of excitement everyday. You need to feel that rush.

In Psalm 118:24 we read the words of David, “This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.”

This is the feeling that I am talking about. You know the kind where your heart dances when a person begins to talk about God. I want you to know and experience that feeling.

Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning.
Born of the one light Eden saw play.
Praise with elation, praise every morning;
God's recreation of the new day.
 

As I wake up at 5.00 am in the morning, I get to listen to the sparrows, chirping. If you would just listen to them, they seem so excited. I think in their own amazing way they glorify God. 

The first thing I do every morning I fall prostrate before God, and I sing a song of praise to the ‘Holy Trinity’.

Every morning, is a promise that God delivers to us.  I wake up every morning with the excitement that this could just be my day.

All of Gods creation gives glory to God. Have you seen the birds they chirp with gladness (sing their songs of joy) when they don’t even see the rays of the sun. So what is it they know that we don’t?

I think overtime we have forgotten what it is to know how to hear God’s voice. We have forgotten that God is the most lovable there is. Every yearning of love in our hearts is rightfully His. 

Nature is tuned to God. All of creation has always functioned the way God intended it. They recognize their Creator and they rightfully acknowledge Him. Look at the birds of the air, they don’t see the Sun, but they know it will rise. They follow a pattern. That is a link of signs that is there. So who says man is the smartest? Given a billion years we still fail to understand Gods goodness and look at the birds – given a billion years they always did sing to the Creator and they continue to do so.

For the last three months I have been unable to hear. Whatever I could-would have to be from a very close range and what I could hear would be a bare minimum. Thank God there are mikes in the Church.

Initially in the first two weeks, I felt completely lost. I did not know how to express my emotions to anyone and no one possibly would ever understand. But it was during those moments when the world to me was lost; I would hear the Holy Spirit-in full flow.

I was in the grace of God! I do not know how to describe those moments, because honestly what am I, to be thought of by God, to let me feel His presence?

I still have a problem in hearing, but just for 3-4 days I was able to hear clearly. And when I did I could hear nothing but complaints from people, bitter resentments and jealousy. I would hear stories about XY and Z. They were all complaints, always complaints, always hurting one another. I felt people’s contempt for each other.

When God gave me the ability to hear for 3-4 days, God was telling me that I was alright. I am still learning.

I realized how important it was to be a part of the people and not be lost in the crowd. I believe words that we speak are important. We must take guard of what we speak and not speak in haste.
Luke 6:45 states: A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.

What I realized is that we all need prayers. So much bitterness, so much resentment is bad for the soul. We all need to pray for Gods mercy. We need to remember that Jesus is the only one Who continually suffers on all our behalf.

Psalm 46:10 states: “Be still, and know that I am God...”

Quiet your mind of all the things on your list and just focus on God. Let Him speak to your heart, and let Him fill you with peace and strength each and every day.

Troubles may surround us, yet we can enjoy a calmness and peace of mind of which the world knows nothing... Our Peace does not depend upon peaceful conditions in the world but upon the indwelling of the Spirit of God in our hearts.

Isaiah 26:3 states “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.”  

God will keep him in peace, at all times, under all events whose mind is stayed upon God, because it trusts in Him.... We must trust God at all times, under all events. We must firmly and faithfully adhere to Him with an unshakable confidence in Him; and submit to God’s perfect will at all times and we will bring in the blessings of the perfect Peace of God.

Make your relationship with Abba, Father your highest priority, and He will direct your steps!

I’ve learnt that God loves us and wants for us to be absolutely convinced that He desires to talk to us—to tell us things we’ve never seen or heard before.

Step 1: Have an unshakable confidence that God wants to speak to you. Be fully persuaded and convinced of that. What God tells you will never go beyond the boundaries of Scripture.

Step 2:  Time and quietness-two essential things. You need to be willing to shut yourself in with God and let all other voices hush away.

Step 3: Ask in faith. Believe that God is able to convey His mind to us and enable us to understand His perfect will.

Jesus said, “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?” Luke 11:11-12.

In other words, “If you ask your heavenly Father for a word—a clear direction or a particular need—do you think for a moment He will instead let the devil come and deceive you?”

When God speaks, peace follows!

In my walk of life, I have learned that rejection is a part of life.

There are so many times we end up feeling alone and rejected.

• People we call family – this one hits the hardest. Some of us grow up with the feeling that we are never wanted. What do you do, when the ones who brought you into the world are the ones who discard you?
• Partners (Man & Wife) in a lifetime commitment (marriage) – walk away breaking each others trust.
• People (friends – colleagues) who you expect to stand by you are the ones who let you down.
• Sometimes People with great potential are left behind in the rat race.

There could be many reasons-let it suffice that no matter what you do, sometimes you are bound to feel that nothing is good enough.

Sometimes rejection could come for no reason at all. And there is nothing you could do to ease that pain. Let me say, I understand, I do. Let me walk with you.

• Supposing-that I love someone.  I don’t want him to go through any hurtful feelings I don’t want him to suffer in any way. All and everything that he could undergo through becomes my pain, my experiences. But that person feels nothing.
• Now supposing no matter how much I love this person-he could care less or not care at all.
• And also in another case-I could just be every other person he knows.

In the 3 instances that I just wrote about, the only thing that is important is my love for him. It does not matter what he thinks or knows, I love him so much, that his life is what matters to me. All I see is his happiness, because I love him. But on all counts I am the one who gets rejected by him. I don’t matter to him at all.

Moving further in this paragraph – I will choose to mention the subject as a 2nd  person –instead of using YOU, the word that will be used will be ME. So as you read I want for you to understand what I mean to say.

Mark 15:1 states: "Immediately, in the morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council; and they bound Jesus, led Him away and delivered Him to Pilate."

As I read this, my heart is filled with sadness. The hands of Jesus are bound for me. He did not want me to suffer for the guilt of my sins, so He chose to suffer for me.

He was brought before the council and falsely accused and He took all the accusations for me.  He chose to be mocked out of love for me. He chose to be handed over to a death that was given to a criminal for me. He chose all this to save me.

Jesus loved me to death. He chose to die on the Cross for me that I might have eternal life. He wanted me to experience all goodness of His immense love.

When the world did not want me-when my own rejected me, when people thought that I did not count too much, Jesus told me I love you to death.

In the above paragraph, I placed the 3 instances before you-The example given was of one who is in love and gets rejected.

Now understand this, Jesus got rejected by all and do you think it stopped there?

Quiet honestly, even today Jesus gets denied. We feel pain for ourselves, we never think of Jesus. We make the sign of the Cross, when we pass a church or at a celebration of the mass. Do we ever think that He was the one who hurt the most, yeah we know it, but do we ever think? Do we ever feel? Does it ever occur to us that we are never ever alone in our worst moments? That He who was rejected by all will hold us close to His heart and bleed for us to save us from the pain.

But the thing here is – to let Him in. 

I want for you to know that Jesus has His arms open wide, to let us know that whatever the both of us go through, He will never tire of waiting for us to come to Him.

As Christians we will face trials time to time. But through it all, Jesus showed us that the Cross was not the end of the road.

When we face trials, when troubles come and they will, let us remember to carry our Cross with the pride, that we have before us Jesus who showed us that He continually gives us the grace with the power of the ‘Holy Spirit’ to overcome all our obstacles.

Philippians 4:13 states: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

It hurts especially when you have done nothing wrong to be rejected. You could be a good hearted person and yet be rejected by all the good hearted people. But that don’t make you bad.

Rejection, it is tough for any human being-but a Cross that we know that Jesus has carried. Love with all your heart and love all those people who make it possible for you to face this sweet trial. Offer these trials for the souls in purgatory. Suffer it with Love and offer it to God. Love even more than you can possibly imagine.

 

1 John 4:18 states “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear...”

God is love. He is perfect, and His love is perfect. There is nothing you can do to make God love you more and nothing you can do to make Him love you any less. His love toward you is steadfast; it’s unchanging. His arms are always stretched out toward you, and He is always ready for you to come to Him.

 

It’s so difficult to go on in life when everything around us is based on hurtful memories. Too often we carry the load and sometimes we carry it too long – and sometimes a lifetime.

One thing I have learnt from my own life experience-is that no pain is meant to take you down. God wants us to know Him more. He wants us to know His ways, walk in His ways, and experience His victory.

Paul says that he was pressing on toward the goal of Christ’s calling. In Philippians verse 13 he says, “One thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.” To press forward, we have to let go of the past. We let go by forgiving and choosing not to dwell on things that can hold us back. When we do this we can rise higher in the things God has for us.

I Love what Fr. Alvaro reminded us of in his homily on the 14th of July at the 10:15 mass that our true happiness comes from knowing God, loving and serving Him and being happy with Him in this world.

All through the day we need to thank God for His goodness, meditate on His promises, and ask for His help. Acknowledge God in all that you do. That’s when God will fight your battles.

1 Thessalonians 5:17 states: “Pray without ceasing.” 

Listen to the Holy Spirit’s prompting to pray. Know that God is with you and for you, and when you acknowledge Him in all your ways, He will direct your path.

One way to acknowledge God is to simply ask for His help.

2 Chronicles 20:4 states: “So Judah gathered together to ask help from the LORD...”

It opens the door for Him to direct our steps, even in the little things. God will help you find what you may not have found. He will put you at the right place at the right time. And sure, you can do this without God’s help. But when you learn to hear His voice in the little things, you’ll be confident to hear Him in the big things. You’ll come into an anointing of ease. What should have been a struggle won’t be a struggle.

When God asks you to do something, don’t reason it out. Don’t think. Be quick to obey.

1 Samuel 15:22 states:  “...To obey is better than sacrifice...” 

Actions speak louder than words. Be of good attitude, people will notice there’s something different about you.

They’ll see the depth of your character and know that you are a child of the Most High God.

With All my Love,
For Love Prevails!
AnitA.

A walk to eternity……..

When the world does you wrong,

I would be the one to walk a thousand miles with you.
When it comes to you, I never want to ever say goodbye.
I’d never even try.
I am here and will always be-to the day I die
Heart to heart, never to be apart
Here I am and will always be
With nothing to eternity between you and me

I’d walk that walk ……..         

FOR YOU!


PRAYER: Abba, Father, keep me obedient and always faithful, I pray. Amen.