My People,
Good Morning! The most beautiful thing of a new day is the promise of life. I love the thought of watching a sunrise, albeit depending on the location you are in, but the sheer joy of watching it is something else. It’s one of the miracles that happen every day and we take it for granted.
Proverbs 3:5 - Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight.
The sign of the cross is: a confession of faith; a renewal of baptism; a mark of discipleship; an acceptance of suffering; a defense against the devil.
When you make the sign — you are professing your belief in the Father, and in the Son and in the Holy Spirit.
Day 14th July, 2015 – I have completed the topic. I had my PC crash and would you believe when I thought the 21st was the right day, the electricity just went off. 22nd I came in late. Does not make sense does it. I hope that this gets done today the 24th July, 2015.
Good Morning! The most beautiful thing of a new day is the promise of life. I love the thought of watching a sunrise, albeit depending on the location you are in, but the sheer joy of watching it is something else. It’s one of the miracles that happen every day and we take it for granted.
Proverbs 3:5 - Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight.
The sign of the cross is: a confession of faith; a renewal of baptism; a mark of discipleship; an acceptance of suffering; a defense against the devil.
When you make the sign — you are professing your belief in the Father, and in the Son and in the Holy Spirit.
Day 14th July, 2015 – I have completed the topic. I had my PC crash and would you believe when I thought the 21st was the right day, the electricity just went off. 22nd I came in late. Does not make sense does it. I hope that this gets done today the 24th July, 2015.
Day 21st June, Fr. William spoke of Amazing Grace in his homily. He told us of the person who wrote Amazing Grace and the situation that forever changed the author’s life. Here is - John Newton, the self-proclaimed wretch who once was lost but then was found, saved by amazing grace.
Newton was, the son of a commander of a merchant ship. In 1744 John found conditions on board intolerable, he deserted but was soon recaptured and publicly flogged and demoted from midshipman to common seaman. Finally at his own request he was exchanged into service on a slave ship, which took him to the coast of Sierra Leone. He then became the servant of a slave trader and was brutally abused. Early in 1748 he was rescued by a sea captain who had known John's father. John Newton ultimately became captain of his own ship, one which plied the slave trade.
Although he had had some early religious instruction from his mother, who had died when he was a child, he had long since given up any religious convictions. However, on a homeward voyage, while he was attempting to steer the ship through a violent storm, he experienced what he was to refer to later as his “great deliverance.” He recorded in his journal that when all seemed lost and the ship would surely sink, he exclaimed, “Lord, have mercy upon us.” Later in his cabin he reflected on what he had said and began to believe that God had addressed him through the storm and that grace had begun to work for him.
For the rest of his life he observed the anniversary of May 10, 1748 as the day of his conversion, a day he subjected his will to a higher power. “Thro’ many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come; ’tis grace has bro’t me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.” He continued in the slave trade for a time after his conversion; however, he saw to it that the slaves under his care were treated humanely.
By 1755, after a serious illness, he had given up seafaring forever. He became a minister.
Among Newton’s contributions are “How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds” and ”Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken,” as well as “Amazing Grace.” It appeared under the heading Faith’s Review and Expectation.
Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound)
That sav’d a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears reliev’d;
How precious did that grace appear,
The hour I first believ’d!
That sav’d a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears reliev’d;
How precious did that grace appear,
The hour I first believ’d!
Thro’ many dangers, toils and snares,
Self-control is the effort to resist the temptation. It is demonstrating the fruit of the Spirit instead of committing the works of the flesh.
I have already come;
’Tis grace has brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.
The Lord has promis’d good to me,
His word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.
Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease;
I shall possess, within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.
The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine;
But God, who call’d me here below,
Will be forever mine.
additional verse:
When we've been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we'd first begun.
Luke 9:23 Jesus says we should “deny ourselves” and “take up our cross daily,” and follow Him.
Self-control is the fruit of the Holy Spirit: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and . . . self-control” Galatians 5:22–23
It is about resisting the temptation which includes losing our temper-in our thoughts and actions. Thoughts lead to action this includes controlling ourselves completely, despite the temptations.
1 John 2:15-17: “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”
Self-control is the effort to resist the temptation. It is demonstrating the fruit of the Spirit instead of committing the works of the flesh.
1. To love others as Christ loved is to walk in love. To give of oneself for others is living a life of sacrifice.
2. To get along with others and make peace instead of constantly getting into conflict.
3. To patiently bear with others rather than quickly condemning them.
4. To look out for the good of the people.
5. To be faithful and keep the faith.
6. To be compassionate and merciful with a heart full of love.
We need to learn from Jesus and pray to the Spirit of God for the gift of self-control. It’s not easy to say Yes but Jesus in all humility allowed God the Father’s will in His life to the point of being subjected to a shameful death on the Cross.
My cousin used to think I was obsessed about attending Bible class. He is aware that I write on God. So far he has read just a topic. Last month he asked me as to why I write? Nobody reads is what he said. I said maybe nobody does and that’s okay. But since I have started to write, it’s made a change in my life.
Day 27th June, 2015 – My cousin attends the Bible class along with me. After and since he keeps insisting that I read the Bible. He says do you understand that Fr. Puts so much effort into explaining. I understood what he meant. Maybe I took it for granted too, but yes we are blessed.
Day 9th July, 2015 - In life when we come to love some person or we have certain members of our family, we get to know their habits thus knowing their approach to life. Some of them can literally box the world and some are timid. Some others are so gentle and lovable and kind, that our hearts simply are bound to them. In other words we want to be around and it never pleases us to watch people say anything to them or about them. What I am saying is how precious and rare are such people that our hearts immediately get attached to them.
This is to my realization and if you could walk for a while with me.
God the Father gave His all to us - His only Son.
Jesus gave His all - His life for the love of His Father and us for us.
The Holy Spirit is the gentlest, kindest - tender hearted person of the Holy Trinity. He is all wisdom. He lets us feel and in doing so we come in perfect harmony of understanding what it is to be like Jesus. Now the Father and the Son as tender hearted and loving as they are and now imagine this to be giving their all to us ‘the Spirit of God’.
The Holy Spirit as wonderful as a person of the Holy Trinity, but yet the One who hurts the most and easily-the one who groans in pain with us and for us to God, gives us His all each and every day-from the start of time to eternity.
We cry to give something to someone but God poured out not only just His Heart, He poured out Himself for us. He did not do it just once. It is an ongoing process. He gives and gives and gives. Let us learn to never tire of giving.
Thank You, Father.
Thank You, Jesus.
Thank You, Holy Spirit.
Fr. Ashlyn during the Bible class will always instruct us with certain key notes that he will have repeatedly drilled in to us. These are some of them. I wish I could remember all. Hence foreword, I think I should write to remember.
- Pray, Pray & Pray.
- To be like Mary, and accept the will of God.
- To make an effort to read the Word of God.
- That signing oneself when entering the Church means a renewal of the sacrament of baptism.
- We must have a thankful and persistent heart.
- He explains forgiveness with reference to the fifth petition of the ‘Our Father’.
- To make time to be with Jesus in the ‘Blessed Sacrament’.
- Seven petitions to the ‘Our Father’. He always takes the time to mention one petition either during the Bible class or during the celebration of the mass.
I have with the grace of God and what I have understood of Fr. Ashlyn’s explanation put up the topic to the seven petitions -
- A stress is always laid on the point of Humility. I must say, I have always watched Fr. Ashlyn celebrate the mass with no footwear that to me is his way of reverence. You have to watch him to know the point of humility. I have a lot to learn.
- Jesus words were deny yourself, take up your cross daily and follow me.
- Fr. Ashlyn always reminds us that God is never sitting to punish us.
- The gift of self-control.
This year we are studying Luke-and as Fr. Ashlyn explains the whole Bible comes alive. The answers they always come in silence.
I know God keeps His promise – I know it will come and I have asked God for health to be able to be everything the Word of God expects me to be so that I could live up to my promise to God. God in His generosity gives abundantly, we must never fail to ask.
Of late, I have been unwell. Its two weeks and I am unable to hear clearly. I can only try to understand through certain words, I find it very difficult to understand. So if you ask me, yes this is a very difficult time.
At Church, I can hear the Priest and I thank God for that.
When in total pain and the feeling so low, when I cannot hear and I feel people talk so fast that I am unable to catch up with them, I break up to these tiny little fragments. I cry to myself and in such a moment, I thank God, with a heart that completely feels only gratitude. I love Him even more. I told Jesus, I can’t stop loving You. I felt only love. I feel Jesus closer now than ever. I hear Him, more now than ever before.
I have learnt that in my times of silence my thoughts immediately go to God and His reach me more clearly and without interruption. I find my being one with God – the most well defined moments in my life. They become precious because I get closer to His heart. Amen.
I have learnt that I am nothing without Him. HE is my joy. I have learnt that we need to be humble at all times and to surrender ourselves to His care.
Jesus meek and humble of heart make my heart like unto Thine!
Day 13th July, 2015 – Great is my joy. I have found or rather God in His infinite wisdom made me come across Saint Peter Julian Eymard, "Apostle of the Eucharist"
Below are the His quotes that I love.
“We believe in the love of God for us. To believe in love is everything. It is not enough to believe in the Truth. We must believe in Love and Love is our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. That is the faith that makes our Lord loved. Ask for this pure and simple faith in the Eucharist. Men will teach you; but only Jesus will give you the grace to believe in Him. You have the Eucharist. What more do you want?”
”He loves, He hopes, He waits. If He came down on our altars on certain days only, some sinner, on being moved to repentance, might have to look for Him, and not finding Him, might have to wait. Our Lord prefers to wait Himself for the sinner for years rather than keep him waiting one instant.”
“How kind is our Sacramental Jesus! He welcomes you at any hour of the day or night. His Love never knows rest. He is always most gentle towards you. When you visit Him, He forgets your sins and speaks only of His joy, His tenderness, and His Love. By the reception He gives to you, one would think He has need of you to make Him happy.”
"Love cannot triumph unless it becomes the one passion of our life. Without such passion we may produce isolated acts of love; but our life is not really won over or consecrated to an ideal. Until we have a passionate love for our Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament we shall accomplish nothing."
I’ve learnt that God is bigger than all our circumstances.
When you believe all things are possible. Mark 9:23
Don’t talk of problems or of how they look. Keep the focus on God. If you look humanly at a problem then in all probability you will be making a declaration of that problem. And would you be wrong? No, humanly speaking. But look at it from the eyes of God. And ask yourself this when you are tempted to give up Is it Impossible for God? And then go back to Mark 9:23
When you believe all things are possible. Mark 9:23
People love to tell tales. And all the talk never takes you anywhere. Gossip is damaging not only to the person who is being talked about but also the one who is doing the talking.
People always begin with talking about themselves and how horrible things are for them. And seldom will you find the other person trying to stop and put sense into you. Misery loves company and so you have people as friends who will then tell you about themselves all the time making you even more miserable than when you began the conversation with.
Stop talking things that are irrelevant. When I hear people talk (mostly complain-some are really genuine, so this is not about them) day in and day out, it is always the same topic or person and that could be a concern. Realistically speaking they have no control over their mouth.
If you read the Bible you will notice that
Jesus spoke only when He needed to and when He did it would always be to glorifying God.
When you hear people talk too much, you will never hear them talk sense.
Then there are those people who talk loud-and that’s simply calling for attention.
And then there are people who love telling tales just to be in a particular group or simply to belong
No matter what the reason for talking could be, people always love talking about themselves, or being the centre of attention.
Being quiet means being with and in the realm of God-speaking only when the moment presents itself, thus never being anxious.
When you believe – you will work for the glory of God.
What am I? I am absolutely nothing. Dust I am and to dust I will return. Amen.
Your mind will give you 100 reasons why it’s not going to happen. Faith says walk on. I don’t see a way but I know God is the way.
How often we forget the One who created the universe.
He spoke the worlds into existence.
Most people believe they will never accomplish their dreams. It is easier for them to believe in the negative situation then to focus their belief in the positive.
One touch of Gods favour is all we need.
One touch of Gods favour SUDDENLY changes everything.
One giant leap when Jesus stepped down from Heaven to become fully human while remaining fully God (conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit).
One mighty push from God can thrust us light years ahead.
People don’t decide who you are or what you become. God does. Dare to believe.
Don’t set limits to what God can do.
Don’t let the facts keep you from God’s best.
When you take the limits off of God - He'll amaze you with His goodness.
When on the path to achieving the dream-look head on and never at the facts-things may be against but remember God is always for us.
You will meet cynics who will tell you dreams they are just a waste of time and will have it proved to you. But who said you will never meet cynics. Shake off all the doubts and negative voices. There will be plenty of them.
When God dreams HE dreams big. Look at Genesis 1: In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth. Did he stop there? No.
Did He let the hurt of Adam and Eve get to Him? No.
God in all His wisdom before creation knew, what each day after creation would bring, He still went ahead with His dream, called it into existence and all the while knowing that for this dream He would need to have His only begotten Son sent as a living and pure sacrifice.
Dreams don’t come easy. But they do come true. Abba Father dreamed big. He dreamed of me and you. And He dreamed for me and you. He never gave up on us.
When we dream let us only begin to understand that God walks before us. He never asks us anything that He Himself has not done. And does He ever ask us anything more than what He in His grace has given us? Never, the beauty of this wondrous, magnificent God is, He has made us His equal and given us free will.
Tell me have you met a God who just gives and gives and gives? This is my God.
My heart, my life, my entire existence is Yours forever. Amen.
Jesus, meek and humble of heart make my heart like unto Thine!
Don’t do the calculations, trying to find out if it will happen or not or how it will happen? Our job is to believe. It’s that simple.
Choose faith. Don’t limit God. God has ways to get you to your destiny that you never thought of.
Have fun! Because you will get there not a minute before and not one second late than the God appointed time. We are faithless, but God is faithful.
REMEMBER: God is the way!
Faith activates God's power.
When you look at the facts you may go wrong, because you are looking at it from the human angle (your eye). That’s not faith. Faith believes that even though there is a storm and you are stuck in it, that it will pass and you will reach land in Gods good time.
What you always need to know and remember is that you are forever loved therefore you can never be forgotten. When you do this, you may cry at times when it hurts but you will never ever give up. I pray for you, that when you are in the storm that you remember that you are stronger than you think.
Remember: You are always on the palm of His hand.
One time Jesus was by the sea. A man named Jairus said my little girl is sick and he begged Jesus to come and heal his daughter. Jesus kept getting delayed on the way to her. Finally someone from the man’s house came and told him that it’s too late, the little girl has died. As soon as Jesus overheard the words that were spoken Jesus said, “Do not be afraid; only believe.” Mark 5:36
If you’re going to stay in faith you can’t keep focusing on the obstacles. What we need to do is learn from the obstacles. What is the purpose of the obstacle, what is it here for? Ask the Spirit of God, for guidance.
Most of the time obstacles are noting but steps to make us walk in the direction to the plans which God has for us. But often we do not trust God enough or at all. We fail.
It’s not unusual to be afraid, when something comes our way. But we need to surrender that fear to Jesus, and let Jesus take over. Fear disables belief. That is why Jesus says, “Do not be afraid; only believe.”
When we talk about Jairus it is so important to understand that Jesus did not just go to Jairus’s home. Jesus knew Jairus’s daughter would face death. But the time had to be right when Jesus would reach there. And it was so important that Jairus witness the healing of the woman who had suffered the flow of blood for 12 years. Her faith had healed her. It was faith that needed to be witnessed and learned from.
For anything in the world, after a known person came and declared to Jairus that his daughter was dead would only mean one thing that she was. And here was Jesus, telling him, “Do not be afraid; only believe.”
So Jairus really had one choice because he loved his daughter, he would have to believe, ignore what common sense says and go with Jesus, especially after what he had witnessed of the woman who suffered haemorrhage for 12 years. She believed and was instantly healed. If he followed with that kind of belief, then yes His daughter would just be asleep, like Jesus had told when he entered the (Jairus’s) house. So yes the only thing he would need to do to hold his child again, to see her breathe is to “only believe.”
Jesus reached the house of Jairus and was ridiculed for saying that the child was asleep, but Jesus did not let it deter Him from what He had to do. He entered the room of the child. I love the words Jesus utters here it makes my heart flutter every time I hear it. Then He took the child by the hand, and said to her, “Talitha, cumi,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.”
The little girl (12 years of age) arose.
How many dreams would come to pass if we ignored when somebody ridiculed us? Faith means walking into God’s blessings. Jesus did not stop on being ridiculed. He went with following His Fathers will. Paul said in Corinthians 4:17-18 For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, because we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
Every trial means that we come in the grace of God even more than the other times. At the moment of testing, it may not seem so but belief is another thing altogether. You are not placing your belief on some human being because we all are fallible.
Numbers 23:19 - God is not man, that he should lie
or a son of man, that he should repent.
Has he said, and will he not do it?
Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfil it?
1 Kings 17 says It was a time of great famine. The widow was about to cook the last of the food for herself and her son when Prophet Elijah came and asked for food. He said make me something first and then make something for yourselves. He then says to her: For thus says the LORD the God of Israel: The jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that the LORD sends rain on the earth.
God supernaturally supplied.
God can bless us at any place where we are. God is not location bound or time specified. He can bless you and me in spite of what's going on around us. The odds may be against us but the Most High God is for us. His blessings will chase us down.
God didn’t stop because of the famine. God can bless us right in the middle of the famine. If we can keep a mindset like this, nothing will ever bog us down. We will rise to conquer in the name of ‘Christ’. And conquer we will. Amen.
God has the final say. Don’t let anything or anybody talk you out of the promise God put in your heart.
Remember, we serve a supernatural God. Be like Jesus and remember that in a perfect storm we need to be perfectly calm like Jesus. Remember, Abba Father watches over you and me. We will make it through the storm. Amen.
With all my Love
For Love Prevails!
AnitA.
PRAYER: Abba, Father, keep me obedient and always faithful. Remember, this your servant.
Mama Mary keep me humble, I pray. Amen.
