A LAMP TO MY FEET. A LIGHT FOR MY PATH.

TODAY’S WORD…

Thus says the Lord God:

I myself will search for my sheep,

and will seek them out.

I shall judge between sheep and sheep,

between rams and goats.

– Ezekiel 34:11,17

REFLECTION…

God has made Himself a shepherd for His people;

He always looks out for them,

neglecting none.

The Lord is the Good Shepherd

who takes care of all of us.

This love, this care,

this kindness and concern of our Lord

includes the practice of justice.

Where there is Divine love and mercy there is also justice

– in fact, love can never exclude justice

Since we seem to have an incessant and selfish desire to want more,

at any cost – even that of losing our soul,

will we be found wanting

when we will come to be judged by our Shepherd, our King?

PRAYER…

My Lord, my God,

my Shepherd, my King,

I know that You love me

and that You care for me,

never taking Your eyes off me.

Lord, I pray

that I will always love You back in return;

that I will always do Your will

and obey Your commands,

and be unselfish in my love for others,

so that when You come to judge

…I will be found worthy.

For this I pray with all my heart,

my Lord, my God,

my Shepherd, my King.

.

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TODAY’S WORD…

“He is God not of the dead, but of the living.”

– Luke 20:38

REFLECTION…

With these words,

Jesus, Son of God made man, enlightens us and fills us with hope and joy

as He teaches us and emphasises

that God is “not of the dead, but of the living.”

Jesus reassures us that there exists a permanent relationship

between God and all righteous people, even those who have died.

These may be considered dead as far as their bodies are concerned,

but they are otherwise alive, truly alive, in God!

The souls of the dead are immortal

– and they are awaiting the resurrection of their bodies.

Amen!

QUOTE…

“By death the soul is separated from the body,

but in the resurrection

God will give incorruptible life to our body, transformed by reunion with our soul.

Just as Christ is risen and lives for ever,

so all of us will rise at the last day.”

– Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC1016)

PRAYER…

I believe in You, Lord God, Father Almighty,

Creator of Heaven and Earth,

and in Jesus Christ Your Only Son, our Lord.

Yes, Lord, I believe – with all my heart.

I believe in the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.

I believe,

because through Your Holy Spirit and by Your grace,

I have been touched by Your Word.

Lord Jesus, I believe in You,

and I believe that You are the Way, the Truth and the Life.

Thank You for my faith, Lord,

and thank You for giving me life.

Thank You for saving me

and redeeming my soul for life everlasting.

Amen.

.

TODAY’S WORD…

“Let your heart hold fast my words;
keep my commandments, and live.”

 – Proverbs 4:4

Jesus said,

“If you obey my commandments,

you will abide in my love.”

 – John 15:10

REFLECTION…

God is life.

By keeping His commandments we abide in His love.

When we abide in God’s love – we live!

The certainty that God loves us is the source of Christian joy,

but it is also something which calls for a fruitful response on our part,

which should take the form of a fervent desire to do God’s will in everything.

If we put God’s Word into our hearts it will produce the blessings of life.

Keeping His commandments, gives us life – life in abundance.

PRAYER…

My Lord and my God,

Your commandments keep me going in the right direction,

they keep You in my sight,

they keep my soul alive,

acknowledging You as my loving King.

Lord, it is by having You in my heart

that I can truly claim that I live!

Lord, Your commandments give me life – in abundance!

Thank You, Lord.

I love You, Lord.

.

TODAY’S WORD…

“We will not obey the king’s words by turning aside from our religion to the right hand or to the left.”

– 1 Maccabees 2:22

REFLECTION…

True and honest Christians do not succumb to temptations

to gain social and financial advantage by being untrue to their conscience and religion.

A true believing Christian, who has a personal relationship with Jesus and adheres to His teachings,

understands that compromise, in matters of the soul, is a trap for the ambitiously self-centred.

A loving Christian’s zeal for God and for the Truth is not something to be scorned,

but it must be neither vehement nor fanatical.

Such zeal for the truth,

makes a Christian unyielding to society’s sometimes-threatening pressures to conform.

True Christian zeal is firmly based on Christ’s two great commands:

that of loving God with all our heart, soul, and mind

and of loving our neighbour as ourselves.

QUOTE…

“Be uncompromising in doctrine and conduct.

But be yielding in manner.

A mace of tempered steel,

wrapped in quilted covering.

Be uncompromising, but don’t be obstinate.”

– St. Josemaria Escriva

PRAYER…

Lord,

in those situations where I feel threatened and pressured by society

to conform to ‘modern trends of thought’, which go against Your teaching and commands,

give me the strength of faith and character that I need

to refuse to bend my Christian principles and beliefs.

You are the same, Lord, yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

You never change.

Your truth never changes.

Lord, You are love.

I want to be guided always by You,

I love You, Lord. Thank You, Lord.

.

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TODAY’S WORD…

Do not be conformed to the desires that you formerly had in ignorance.

Instead, as He who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct;

for it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

– 1 Peter 1:14-15

REFLECTION…

When we accept God’s call and allow Him to come into our hearts,

we enter into a personal relationship with Jesus

and He changes us and renews us.

As He strips away our weaknesses,

we realise and admit how ignorant and blind we were without Him.

Now that I can see,

I must resist going back to the dark, to my old ways.

Now that I can see,

I want to…I must…continuously strive to be righteous and holy.

The essentials of true holiness,

which a true Christian should focus on so as to avoid getting side-tracked,

are love for God and neighbour;

mercy and forgiveness;

as well as justice, faithfulness, and generosity.

Holiness should be an interior disposition of our heart – put it into practice.

PRAYER…

Lord Jesus,

don’t allow me to get distracted by the shining lights

of so many treacherous attractions.

I want to be holy.

Lord Jesus,

in my spiritual life, don’t let me just to settle for outward religious practices,

but allow these to transform my heart and mind,

and to keep them set on You

and on Your will for my life.

Lord, help me put all I receive from You, into practice.

Lord, I want to be holy as You are holy.

.

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TODAY’S WORD…

Zacchaeus was trying to see who Jesus was,

but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature.

So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see Him,

because Jesus was going to pass that way.

– Luke 19:3-4

REFLECTION…

Zacchaeus was a tax collector

and, as such, was hated by the people,

and seen as being guilty of abuses

and a collaborator of the despised Roman authorities.

No doubt moved by grace, he was certainly very keen to see Jesus,

and he did everything he could to do so,

shedding any kind of human pride or fear

and even risking the ire and scorn of the crowd – Jews and Romans alike.

Now I may feel far removed from Zacchaeus.

I may also think of myself as an upright Christian,

but am I honestly prepared to publicly show my feelings and excitement for Jesus

– like I may do for politicians or, say, my favourite football team or rock star?

Why is it that so many professed Christians

let false shame or fear of criticism

prevent them from publicly acknowledging their Lord and Saviour?

Is it a matter of “political correctness”?

Is it because we do not want to “offend” non- believers or people of other faiths?

Correctness in the secular, political realm is not the concern of Christians or the church

because “we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives.

And we are eagerly waiting for Him to return as our Saviour.

He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like His own,

using the same power with which He will bring everything under His control.” – Philippians 3:20–21

It may be judged politically incorrect to say that Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life – but it is the truth!

PRAYER…

Lord Jesus,

forgive me for those occasions

where I felt Your Spirit prompting me to proclaim my love for You

…but I cowardly shied away,

for fear of criticism or repercussion.

How can I, Lord, acknowledge You as the Son of God,

without feeling elated and wishing to proclaim You

both by word and deed!

Jesus, please give me strength of character.

Send Your Holy Spirit, Lord,

and fill me with a strong and ardent love for You.

.

TODAY’S WORD…

Dear brothers and sisters, never get tired of doing good.

– 2 Thessalonians 3:13

REFLECTION…

In an increasingly God-less and self-centered society,

goodness and kindness to others seems to have lost its Christian edge.

To a good Christian,

the opportunity to do good is seen as a privilege.

It is the great distinguishing characteristic of God that He always does good

– and He is good!

It was also what marked the character of the Redeemer,

who ‘went about doing good’ (Acts 10:38).

Whenever God gives us the opportunity and the means of doing good,

it should be, to us, an occasion of special thanksgiving and joy.

A good Christian ought to get tired of doing everything else

but never of demonstrating kindness and goodness.

PRAYER…

My Lord and my God,

it is only when I stop thinking of my problems and start to count my blessings,

that I realise how many You have given me.

Lord, I thank You for this abundance of blessings,

and I ask You to provide me with opportunities

to share their fruit with others.

Lord, help me want to do good

and to give from what I have – materially and spiritually –

to those who are deprived.

Lord, help me realise and desire

the excitement that there is in doing what is good,

and let my soul rejoice in serving You!

.

TODAY’S WORD…

“Remain united to me, and I will remain united to you.
A branch cannot bear fruit by itself; it can do so only if it remains in the vine.  In the same way you cannot bear fruit unless you remain in me.”              – John 15:4

REFLECTION…

Our Lord is emphasising that anyone who is separated from Him is good for nothing, just like a branch separated from the vine.
Apart from the Lord, we are nothing and we can do nothing.

The life of union with Christ is necessarily something which goes far beyond one’s private life: it has to be focused on the good of others.

We also must not separate our union with Christ from our ordinary life, since through the very performance of our tasks and duties, which are God’s will for us,  we will actually be promoting the growth of our union with the Lord.

It follows that a person who is not united to Christ by means of grace, will eventually rot and be discarded.

PRAYER…

Jesus, You give me life.
Make me one with You, Lord.
Help me become the person You created me to be.

TODAY’S WORD…

One day Jesus told His disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up…                                                                                                                                                    – Luke 18:1

REFLECTION…

Jesus wants us to persevere in prayer and to do so with confidence and faith.
God, who is infinitely just, and who is our Father, listens to the persevering prayer of His children and never fails to respond justly if they persist in seeking His help.

They should always pray and never give up.
Here is what Pope Saint John Paul II tells us about the need to pray:

“Why must we pray?

1. We must pray first and foremost because we are believers. Prayer is in fact the recognition of our limitation and our dependence: we come from God, we belong to God and we return to God!
We cannot, therefore, but abandon ourselves to Him, our Creator and Lord, with full and complete confidence […].

Prayer, therefore, is first of all an act of intelligence, a feeling of humility and gratitude, an attitude of trust and abandonment to Him who gave us life out of love.
Prayer is a mysterious but real dialogue with God, a dialogue of confidence and love.

2. We, however, are Christians, and therefore we must pray as Christians. For the Christian, in fact, prayer acquires a particular characteristic, which completely changes its innermost nature and innermost value. The Christian is a disciple of Jesus;
he is one who really believes that Jesus is the Word Incarnate, the Son of God who came among us on this earth.

As a man, the life of Jesus was a continual prayer, a continual act of worshipand love of the Father and since the maximum expression of prayer is sacrifice,
the summit of Jesus’ prayer is the Sacrifice of the Cross,
anticipated by the Eucharist at the Last Supper
and handed down by means of the Holy Mass throughout the centuries.

Therefore, the Christian knows that his prayer is that of Jesus; every prayer of his starts from Jesus;
it is He who prays in us, with us, for us.
All those who believe in God, pray; but the Christian prays in Jesus Christ: Christ is our prayer!

3. Finally, we must pray because we are frail and guilty.
It must be humbly and realistically recognised that we are poor creatures, confused in ideas, tempted by evil, frail and weak,
in continual need of inner strength and consolation.

Prayer gives the strength for great ideas, to maintain faith, charity, purity and generosity.
Prayer gives the courage to emerge from indifference and guilt, if unfortunately one has yielded to temptation and weakness.
Prayer gives light to see and consider the events of one’s own life and of history in the salvific perspective of God and eternity. Therefore, do not stop praying!
Let not a day pass without your having prayed a little!
Prayer is a duty, but it is also a great joy, because it is a dialogue with God through Jesus Christ!

Every Sunday, Holy Mass: if it is possible for you, sometimes during the week. Every day, morning and evening prayers, and at the most suitable moments!”

PRAYER…

Jesus, teach me how to pray.
Draw me close to You, Lord, and lead me into prayer.
Take over my heart and mind and place my focus on You.
Increase my faith and help me persevere and stay firm in love and truth.
Lord Jesus, I love You and I trust in You!

ALWAYS SEEK GOD’S GUIDANCE…

“Show me Your ways, LORD, teach me Your paths.
Guide me in Your truth and teach me,
for You are God my Saviour, and my hope is in You all day long.”
– Psalm 25:4-5

“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.”
– James 1:5

“I will praise the LORD, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me.
I keep my eyes always on the LORD. With Him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.”
– Psalm 16:7-8

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.”
– Proverbs 3:5-6

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.”
– Psalm 32:8

PRAYER…

Thank you, Lord, for being there for me
and for allowing me to cry out to You in my times of need.
It is amazing to me that the Lord of the Universe would take time to listen to me
and to care about what I say.

O Lord, my Saviour, there are things happening around me right now that I do not understand.
Some of these things make me feel weak, helpless and afraid.
Even in the midst of this, I know that You are the Lord.
I know that the situation is in Your hand, and I trust You.
I beseech You for strength and for wisdom
that I would be able to endure this situation
and be able to handle it in a way that would bring glory and honour to Your Holy Name. Amen.