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

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TODAY’S WORD…

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What we see now is like a dim image in a mirror;

then we shall see face-to-face.

What I know now is only partial;

then it will be complete

– as complete as God’s knowledge of me.

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– 1 Corinthians 13:12 (GNT)

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My dear friends, we are now God’s children,

but it is not yet clear what we shall become.

But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like Him,

because we shall see Him as He really is.

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– 1 John 3:2 (GNT)

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REFLECTION…

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The expectant joy there is in people of faith!

That wonderful yet inexplicable feeling one gets

when the heart exults in acknowledgement of the truth,

which it gladly recognises and accepts!

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Here on earth, nothing can really compare to that joy,

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Yet, the joy that people of faith feel now

is nothing compared to what it will be like

when they meet the Creator face to face,

and see Him as He really is!

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REPETITIVE PRAYER FOR TODAY…

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Jesus my Lord, I pray to live in Your light.

I pray to be made worthy to see You face to face,

and to be with You forever!

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TODAY’S WORD…

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Don’t put your confidence in powerful people;
there is no help for you there.
When they breathe their last, they return to the earth,
and all their plans die with them.

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– Psalm:146:3-4 (NLT)

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REFLECTION…

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We must always test everything which persons in power say

whether it is of obvious or less obvious consequence.

We need a clear conscience so as to apply careful discernment,

as we allow ourselves to be led, only, by God’s just principles.

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If we allow ourselves to be misled by humans,

then it will be our selfish nature that convinces us.

What we will be overlooking

is that when it eventually comes to the crux,

those same humans will not be there to help us.

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God, on the other hand, is always to be trusted; always with us.

He made us in His image

and He so loves us that He sent His Only Son to save us,

so that we may enjoy eternal life in His Glorious Presence!

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QUOTE…

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“Faith is first of all a personal adherence of man to God.

At the same time, and inseparably, it is a free assent to the whole truth that God has revealed.

As personal adherence to God and assent to His truth,

Christian faith differs from our faith in any human person.

It is right and just to entrust oneself wholly to God and to believe absolutely what He says.

It would be futile and false to place such faith in a creature.”

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– Catechism of the Catholic Church. CCC 150..

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REPETITIVE PRAYER FOR TODAY…

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Lord Jesus, I believe in You, I hope in You, I trust in You!

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TODAY’S WORD…

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The eyes of the Lord watch over those who do right;
His ears are open to their cries for help.

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The Lord is close to the brokenhearted;

He rescues those whose spirits are crushed.

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– Psalm 34:15,18 (NLT)

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He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds.

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– Psalm 147:3 (NLT)

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REFLECTION…

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The eyes of the Lord watch over those who do right;
His ears are open to their cries for help.

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted;

He rescues those whose spirits are crushed.

He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds.

It is essential for the follower of Christ to realise

that righteousness does not depend solely on upright conduct,

but that what really identifies the just person

is his or her repentance

and humble recourse to the Lord.

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PRAYER…

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Lord, hear my prayer!

In your righteousness listen to my plea;

answer me in Your faithfulness!

…I am ready to give up;

I am in deep despair.

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Remind me each morning of Your constant love,

for I put my trust in You.

My prayers go up to You;

show me the way I should go.

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You are my God;

teach me to do Your will.

Be good to me, and guide me on a safe path.

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– Psalm 143:1,4,8,10

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REPETITIVE PRAYER FOR TODAY…

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O Lord, my God, my Saviour,

help me live in Your joy and peace.

Guide me and give me strength.

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TODAY’S WORD…on anger…

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If we say that we are in the light, yet hate others,

we are in the darkness to this very hour.

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If we love others, we live in the light,

and so there is nothing in us that will cause someone else to sin.

But if we hate others, we are in the darkness;

we walk in it and do not know where we are going,

because the darkness has made us blind.

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– 1 John 2:9-11 (GNT)

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You are the people of God;

he loved you and chose you for his own.

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So then, you must clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.

Be tolerant with one another

and forgive one another whenever any of you has a complaint against someone else.

You must forgive one another just as the Lord has forgiven you.

And to all these qualities add love, which binds all things together in perfect unity.

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– Colossians 3:12-14 (GNT)

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Do not use harmful words,

but only helpful words, the kind that build up and provide what is needed,

so that what you say will do good to those who hear you.

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And do not make God’s Holy Spirit sad;

for the Spirit is God’s mark of ownership on you,

a guarantee that the Day will come when God will set you free.

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Get rid of all bitterness, passion, and anger.

No more shouting or insults, no more hateful feelings of any sort.

Instead, be kind and tender-hearted to one another,

and forgive one another, as God has forgiven you through Christ.

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– Ephesians 4:29-32 (GNT)

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Remember this, my dear friends!

Everyone must be quick to listen, but slow to speak and slow to become angry,

for human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires.

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– James 1:19,20 (GNT)

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REFLECTION…

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We all know anger from personal experience.

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All should understand, but many refuse to accept the fact

that anger, in just the right amount, is a normal, even healthy response to reality.

The challenge, of course, is in keeping anger down to just the right amount.

If anger moves outside the range of normal, it can be sinful and potentially destructive.

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Anger can be with self.

When driven deeply inward, anger can turn into depression.

When turned outward toward others anger can lead to violence,

even to destruction of property and persons.

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Anger must, therefore, be managed,

and one way of managing it is to accept it as a reminder that you are alive and well,

but at risk of doing harm to yourself, or others, or both.

Knowing that you are in harm’s way, you become cautious.

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Be slow to anger.

Let the emotion blink you down to a slower speed.

Out-of-control anger can be nothing but harmful to yourself and others.

No one’s perfect.

But neither is anyone exempt from the duty of holding himself or herself in hand when emotions rise to threaten the peace in human relationships.

Not to do so is to encourage the assault of anger on all that is good, and decent.

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So admit that anger can be sinful,

and don’t let yourself off the hook too easily when your patience wanes and emotions of anger rise.

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Take moments of self-examination and repentance before you participate in the Sacrament of Reconciliation

as a good time to reflect on the need for anger management

and your ability to hold yourself in hand.

– Fr. William J. Byron, SJ – from Catholic OnLine.

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REPETITIVE PRAYER FOR TODAY…

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Oh how I need You Lord.

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Bend down, O Lord, and hear my prayer;

answer me, for I need your help. [Ps 86:1]

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TODAY’S WORD…

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I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened

in order that you may know

the hope to which He has called you,

the riches of His glorious inheritance in His holy people.

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– Ephesians 1:18 (NIV)

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REFLECTION…

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Since God and hope are inseparable,

we strive for a deeper knowledge of God,

which will fill us with a fuller and livelier hope!.

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The perfect companion for faith and love

is hope – glorious hope –

which shines brightly within us who have faith!

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REPETITIVE PRAYER FOR TODAY…

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Holy Spirit, come, and fill me with glorious hope.

Accompany me on this journey, and lead me safely and surely to my Maker.

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TODAY’S WORD…

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Freedom is what we have – Christ has set us free!

Stand, then, as free people,

and do not allow yourselves to become slaves again.

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– Galatians 5:1 (GNT)

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REFLECTION…

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What a rallying cry!

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It is when we go to Jesus,

when we get to know Him,

when we open our hearts and minds to Him

and place our full faith and trust in Him,

that we will recognise Him as our Saviour

and realise what true freedom really means.

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True freedom

is when the “faith” we claim to have

goes beyond the religiosity of ritual and tradition.

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True freedom

is attained when love prevails

and when, to us, all else pales in significance when compared to Christ’s promise.

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But we need to always be on our guard,

because the world will never give up in trying to deceitfully enthral us

and draw us away from Christ.

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QUOTE…

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“As for you, my friends, you were called to be free.

But do not let this freedom

become an excuse for letting your physical desires control you.

Instead, let love make you serve one another.

For the whole Law is summed up in one commandment:

“Love your neighbour as you love yourself.”

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But if you act like wild animals,

hurting and harming each other,

then watch out,

or you will completely destroy one another."

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– St. Paul (Galatians 5:13-15)

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REPETITIVE PRAYER FOR TODAY…

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Lord, I am Your servant.

You have set me free in Your love and grace…and I am Yours!

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TODAY’S WORD…

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This is a trustworthy saying:

If we die with Him,
we will also live with Him.
If we endure hardship,
we will reign with Him.
If we deny Him,
He will deny us.
If we are unfaithful,
He remains faithful,
for He cannot deny who He is.

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– 2 Timothy 2:11-13 (NLT)

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REFLECTION…

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Through Baptism, the Christian becomes a participator in the passion, death and burial of the Lord,

and also in the glory of His resurrection.

The life we live with Christ will attain its full form in heaven.

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As Christians, we have a stark choice to make in the face of difficulties –

the choice is between endurance, or else denying our faith.

If we focus on Christ, rather than on ourselves,

we will endure and be faithful

and we will also reign with Him.

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What encourages and reinforces our Christian endurance

to stay faithful, come what may, even in the face of adverse circumstances,

is our Lord’s eternal faithfulness.

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What encourages and reinforces our Christian endurance to stay faithful,

is walking with the Lord every moment of the day,

and getting to know Him better through reading His Gospels

and realising how much He loves us.

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QUOTE…

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“Not to us, O Lord, not to us,
but to Your name goes all the glory for Your unfailing love and faithfulness.”

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– Psalm 115:1

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REPETITIVE PRAYER FOR TODAY…

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Lord Jesus, Your love and faithfulness fill me with strength and hope.

Thank You, my Lord.

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TODAY’S WORD…

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So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith,

for all of you who were baptised into Christ

have clothed yourselves with Christ.

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– Galatians 3:26-27 (NLT)

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REFLECTION…

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When we accept Christ Jesus, through faith, as the Son of God

and as our Lord and Saviour,

and place our full trust in Him.

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As we immerse ourselves in the true Christian faith,

that is when we become children of God.

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QUOTE…

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“The Holy Spirit was not content with saying that we are bathed and anointed:

here He says that we are “clothed”,

and the clothing we are given is not just something beautiful and costly:

it is Jesus Christ Himself,

who is the sum total of all beauty,

all value,

all richness…

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What He means

is that the beauty of Jesus Christ,

His justice,

His grace,

His riches,

His splendour,

shine out from us with the splendour of the sun

and is reflected as in the purest of mirrors."

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– St. John of Avila

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REPETITIVE PRAYER FOR TODAY…

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Lord, clothe me in Your righteousness and love.

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TODAY’S WORD…

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Jesus said,

“When an evil spirit goes out of a person,

it travels over dry country looking for a place to rest.

If it can’t find one, it says to itself, ‘I will go back to my house.’

So it goes back and finds the house clean and all fixed up.

Then it goes out and brings seven other spirits even worse than itself,

and they come and live there.

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So when it is all over,

that person is in worse shape than at the beginning.”

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– Luke 11:24-26 (GNT)

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REFLECTION…

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Had Jesus said this two thousand years later,

He would have been clearly warning us against “new age” philosophies

and their deceiving alternative, and often occult spirituality.

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“New age” philosophies and complimentary empowering practices

encourage and teach what are known as self-emptying techniques.

So far, so good

…or is it?

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In new age self-emptying, there is no real and essential “step two”

– there is no being filled with God or the Spirit of Christ.

Basically you are encouraged to create a spiritual vacuum.

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But vacuums have a natural tendency to be filled.

So when we empty ourselves without calling upon the Spirit of God to come and fill the emptiness and take over,

aren’t we risking that the “wrong” spirits rush in?

“Then it goes out

and brings seven other spirits even worse than itself,

and they come and live there.”

We need to be aware that such spirits manifest themselves in various forms

such as

anger, arrogance, bitterness, brutality, confusion,

cruelty, deception, envy, fear, hatred,

insecurity, jealousy, pride, resentment, or terror.

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The devout Christian prays to the Holy Spirit of God,

and asks to be emptied and taken over fully by Him,

and to be renewed, and healed, and filled with His love.

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For Christians, the spiritual life is a relationship with God

which, gradually and through His grace, becomes deeper.

In the process, it also sheds light on our relationship

with our fellow men and women, and with the universe.

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Jesus wants us to beware of deceitful “new age” practices

which, by their very nature, simply cannot be Christian.

Although the techniques are presented as liberating and apparently harmless,

they are, in fact, subtly and deceitfully anti-Christian,

and the “god” or the “power” or “force” or “energy” which (not “who”) is often referred to, is certainly not our Living God.

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New age practices and philosophies tend to entrap those

whose Christian faith is rather shallow;

whose knowledge of the Word is only notional;

who do not have a deep personal relationship with Christ.

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Teach us Your ways, Lord, that we may walk in Your truth!

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QUOTE…

… from the Forward of a 2003 study produced by the Pontifical Council for Culture and the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue… (the full study is attached)

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“The present study is concerned with the complex phenomenon of “New Age”

which is influencing many aspects of contemporary culture.

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The study is a provisional report…

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These reflections are offered primarily to those engaged in pastoral work

so that they might be able to explain how the New Age movement differs from the Christian faith.

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This study invites readers

to take account of the way that New Age religiosity addresses the spiritual hunger of contemporary men and women…

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The present publication calls attention to the need to know and understand New Age as a cultural current,

as well as the need for Catholics to have an understanding of authentic Catholic doctrine and spirituality

in order to properly assess New Age themes.”

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– JESUS CHRIST THE BEARER OF THE WATER OF LIFE – A Christian reflection on the “New Age”.

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REPETITIVE PRAYER FOR TODAY…

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Holy Spirit, empty me

and fill me with charity, compassion, faith,

gentleness, hope, humility, joy, kindness,

light, love, mercy, modesty, patience, peace,

purity, security, tranquility, trust, truth, understanding, and wisdom.

Holy Spirit, help me to walk in Jesus’ Light and Truth.

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TODAY’S WORD…

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Those who fear the Lord will live,

because they have put their trust in the One who can save them.

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Fear the Lord,

and you will have nothing else to fear.

If your trust is in Him, you will never act like a coward.

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People who fear the Lord are fortunate,

because they know where they can look for help.

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The Lord watches over those who love Him;

He is their strong protection and firm support.

He shelters them from the heat,

shades them from the noonday sun,

and keeps them from stumbling and falling.

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He makes them cheerful

and puts a sparkle in their eyes.

He blesses them with life and health.

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– Sirach 34:13-17 (GNT)

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REFLECTION…

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The only thing that matters is to have a reverential, positive and productive fear of God

– not a mere ‘fear’ of His power and righteous retribution,

but a wholesome dread of displeasing Him.

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The fear of God is an attitude of respect, a response of reverence and wonder

– it is the only appropriate response to our Creator and Redeemer.

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QUOTE…

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“Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true wisdom.

All who obey His commandments will grow in wisdom.

Praise Him forever!”

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– Psalm 111:10

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REPETITIVE PRAYER FOR TODAY…

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Lord, help me always embrace and strengthen the faith which I profess,

that I will always love, revere and obey You, my God.

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