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There was a monk chosen to be a door-keeper at his monastery who attained a profound degree of union with God, and spiritual fulfilment far greater than that found in any grand but unnecessary religious project, or in any worldly career. God can give unsought and unexpected gifts and joys to humble people in any walk of life.
A mother gives joy to God when she loves and cares for her children. She has given joy to God if she was prepared to love those little ones she has 'lost' through miscarriage. Though they did not survive, they are miniature human beings, once given life by God.
A mother gives joy to God when she loves and cares for her children. She has given joy to God if she was prepared to love those little ones she has 'lost' through miscarriage. Though they did not survive, they are miniature human beings, once given life by God.
Christ asked me to forget about my little faults, and to be joyful at the wonderful company of the Saints. They gather here with us, at Mass, to praise the Father through Christ, at the offering of the Holy Sacrifice.
Some people have refused to love God. Yet without love for God, they cannot enter Heaven. By their own choice, they have turned away from happiness and peace; and when they die they fall towards Hell. They will never again experience joy, having refused to acknowledge the Source of all joy.
It is a terrible thing, that people in many parts of the world are enslaved by other human beings. The worst sort of slavery, however, in God's sight, is enslavement to sin, because, in it, people are in danger of losing not just earthly joy but Eternal happiness, if they do not repent.
It is the desire of Pope Benedict that everyone come to what Holy Scripture calls 'the obedience of faith'. He enjoys a little leisure time; but his whole desire is to bring people away from dissent and disobedience. The really new, radical way of 'being Church' today is to believe everything the Church teaches, as he does, and to put it into practice.
Just as Jesus came silently through a locked door to be with His friends in the Upper Room, and to bring them courage and joy, so He comes silently to us when we put our trust in Him, and pray sincerely: and we receive His peace and encouragement.
Christ was paraded by His captors before jeering crowds; yet He accepted without hatred or impatience the humiliating treatment he received because of His words. He let nothing stop Him from His mission to show out His Divine nature and to rescue us from our sins. We cannot repay Him for all He suffered to bring truth and salvation to the world; but we give joy to Him when, in gratitude, we show love towards Him and our neighbour.
Christ was paraded by His captors before jeering crowds; yet He accepted without hatred or impatience the humiliating treatment he received because of His words. He let nothing stop Him from His mission to show out His Divine nature and to rescue us from our sins. We cannot repay Him for all He suffered to bring truth and salvation to the world; but we give joy to Him when, in gratitude, we show love towards Him and our neighbour.
A person who rarely prays, or who prays but does not open her heart completely to Christ cannot develop an intimate friendship with Him. It is as if she declares that He is a good friend but, not trusting Him, keeps the door of her soul on the chain.
Can we imagine that the Blessed Virgin Mary did not know when her son had risen from the dead? She knew, at the moment of His rising, as she experienced in her own heart His bliss and glory. She cried out in joy - and later on was overwhelmed with joy when He visited her before anyone else.
Those Holy Souls who have been helped by our prayers, and who are ready for Heaven, are like people who have been hauled up a great cliff, to arrive in joy and gratitude at the top, from which they can see Heaven's glory nearby.
Those Holy Souls who have been helped by our prayers, and who are ready for Heaven, are like people who have been hauled up a great cliff, to arrive in joy and gratitude at the top, from which they can see Heaven's glory nearby.
Christ longs for all the People from whom He was born to realise that He is the One promised by the Prophets. Jesus, son of Mary, is the Messiah: the Holy One of God, Who longs for everyone to follow His way. There is no group or nation that can be ignored as we share the Good News of Christ by proclamation, with joy. Dialogue is not enough.
All the souls in Purgatory join in our prayers, as we praise the Father, through Christ, in the Spirit, at Mass. Yet each one longs for the day when he will not only praise God but will also see Him, from amongst the Saints, who also pray with us and who enjoy the glory of God, and His beauty.
As a drug-user suffers when his supply of drugs is withdrawn, and his whole body cries out for its former source of pleasure and well-being, so a soul in Hell suffers - because of his own free choices - when, in Hell, he is suddenly without all those things that make it pleasurable and joyful to be a human being. He is without light, love, joy, peace, beauty, comfort or tenderness - all through his own fault, by his sinful choices.
Each person on earth is given the choice: whether to serve God or to ignore Him. Those who refuse to live according to God's laws offer a great insult to their Creator; and if they persist in that state until death, it will be as if each is freely choosing to hurl himself away from his Creator, and so away from all love, light and joy.
Everyone needs to be 'cleansed' of all sin. Christ asked me to picture people who never wash or clean their teeth, and who grow dirty and smelly, and often infected. People who refuse to repent or to confess their sins, He said, are deeply loved by the Father, but they stink, before Heaven, and would be wise to accept the help He offers for their transformation and joy.
A person who decides, for love of Christ, to seek out the most lonely or weary people at a celebration, or those who have travelled far, is 'like a Jesus' for others, giving companionship and joy - and in doing so pleasing our Saviour.
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