9th Sunday ordinary

Doing the will of God

My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
After Sept. 11th, one company invited the remaining members of other companies who had been decimated by the attack on the Twin Towers to share! At a morning meeting, the head of security told stories of why these people were alive... and all the stories were just the little things.
As you might know, the head of the company survived that day because his son started kindergarten.
One was late because of being stuck on the NJ Turnpike because of an auto accident.
One of them missed his bus.
One spilled food on her clothes and had to take time to change.
One’s car wouldn’t start.
One had a child that dawdled and didn’t get ready as soon as he should have.
One couldn’t get a taxi
One man who put on a new pair of shoes that morning took the various means to get to work but before he got there, he developed a blister on his foot. He stopped at a drugstore to buy a Band-Aid.
Yes dear brothers and sisters when we are stuck in traffic(God alone knows what all things come out off our mouth), miss an elevator, turn back to answer a ringing telephone…at all the little things that annoy us. Think to yourself this is exactly where God wants us to be at this very moment. God is at work watching over you. Just follow his will.
Make Jesus as our Rock and hang on to Him doing His will. The story is told about a shipwreck. One of the sailors, thrown from boat, flailed about in the water, thinking he would surely drown. As he moved his arms, trying to stay afloat, he felt something solid about a foot below the water level. He grabbed it and, even though the sea was churning around him, he managed to hold on. When dawn finally arrived - and the tide had gone out - he realized he was holding onto a rock some distance from the shore. A boat came to rescue him. They asked him, "Didn't you shake with fear when you were hanging on that rock."
"Yes," he replied, "but the rock didn't."
In today's responsorial psalm we prayed, "Lord, Be my rock of safety." You and I are like that sailor - tossed about on a dark sea. Like him, our one hope is reaching out for that rock - and holding tight when we find it. There will ship wreck even if we are doing the will of God, but God will be there as the rock. Morning will arrive.
It is not enough that we hear God's Word, but that Word must touch every element of our life. We can prophesy and that is not enough! We can do might deeds and that is not enough. True conversion means that our actions, our thoughts, our feelings—everything about us—must be firmly and clearly formed by God's Word.
Through the Gospel Jesus is asking us to do the will of God the Father. In Matthew 6:10 Jesus taught us to address the Father in these words” Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in Heaven” And Jesus is the real example of His teachings. In Luke 22:42 in The Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed to His Father in these words” Not my will but yours be done”.
Jesus did not say that no one who says "Lord, Lord" will enter the kingdom. He said, rather, that not all who say that will enter.
So, who among those who say "Lord, Lord" will enter? Answer is very simple; those who do the will of the Father.
What does God want us to do?
First and foremost, God wants us to follow the teachings of His son Jesus. At the Sermon on the Mount Jesus tells us: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you”(Luke 6:27-28). In his sermon on the Last Judgment, Jesus tells us; to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked.”(Mat. 25: 31-46)
Mahatma Gandhi once compiled a list of the seven sins of the modern world. Those sins are: wealth without work, business without morality, science without humanity, pleasure without conscience, politics without principle, knowledge without character, and worship without sacrifice. We know that there is nothing fancy there, just the basics.
Secondly God wants us to live out the plan he had in mind for us when he created us. To use the talents God gave us, not for our own selfish interests and pleasures, but for the advancement of God’s kingdom on earth.
It is not everyone who says Lord, Lord will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only those who does the will of God the Father.
Let us end this reflection today with the famous prayer of St. Ignatius. It has to do with God’s will. “Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will- all that I have and call my own. You have given it all to me. To you, Lord, I return it. Everything is yours; do with it what you will. Give me only your love and your grace. That is enough for me.”
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

Feast of Visitation May 31

My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
Our heavenly Mother Mary is the woman who was always there where she should have been: in Bethlehem, when the shepherds or magi came to adore the new born child (Lk 2, 16; Mt 2, 11), in Cana (Jn 2, 3) and on Calvary (Jn 19, 25). She would also be in the cenacle, beside the community being born (Lk 1, 14). She who said Yes to the Lord at one time maintains this Yes at all times: in happy and difficult times.
She is the woman of service. Her cousin was more in need than she and she didn’t hesitate in placing herself at her service (Lk 1, 39. 56).
we are shown, side by side, the two women, one seemingly too old to have a child, but destined to bear the last prophet of the Old Covenant; and the other woman, seemingly not ready to have a child, but destined to bear the One Who was Himself the beginning of the New Covenant. The Visitation is an anticipation of the final happiness of the encounter. Elizabeth was pregnant with two thousand years of waiting; Mary bore the hoped-for Eternity in her womb. The Old and New Testaments embraced in the meeting of Mary and Elizabeth.
It is this meeting that we celebrate today.
Mary visiting with Elizabeth. What gift did Mary bring to Elizabeth? We are not told that she brought foodstuff, although she might as well have brought some. We are told she brought just one thing: herself. She gave Elizabeth the gift of her very presence. And, dear friends, this is the best and the hardest gift of all. It is easy to send flowers, it is easy to send a parcel, but to give the gift of ourselves, to make out the time to be with somebody, that is the gift that many people long for but do not receive.
Another point we can make out of Mary's gift to Elizabeth is that one should give not according to one's convenience but according to the needs of the receiver. It was not convenient for Mary to travel the lonely, dangerous road from Galilee to the hills of Judea. It was certainly for her an uphill task. But Elizabeth needed a helping hand. She was six months pregnant and would no longer be able to go and draw water from the village well, to look after the crops in her garden and the animals in her farm; she would no longer be able to go to the market to do her shopping. So Mary, as soon as she learned that Elizabeth was six months pregnant went with haste and stayed with her for about three months, meaning, until she gave birth. Mary gave to Elizabeth what she needed when she needed it. That is the perfect gift.
Do you know one thing everybody needs today? Everybody needs encouragement. Everybody needs the interior peace and joy that comes from the Holy Spirit. This is what Mary's visit did for Elizabeth.
This is what we are asked to impart to one another as Christians, as the Temples of Holy Spirit. That is what we need to pray today through the intercession of Mother Mary, to impart joy and peace in our places.

Corpus Christy
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
If you wonder, what is the most precious gift that Jesus Christ gave to his church? The most precious gift that Jesus gave to his church is that which we celebrate today, the gift of his own body and blood in the form of bread and wine.
Flannery O’Connor, the noted writer of the mid-twentieth century, tells a story. She took a Protestant Lady friend with her to Mass a few times and after a short time the Protestant decided to become a Roman Catholic. She asked why she reached this decision. The Lady answered, “Well, the Priest is horrible and the sermon is so terrible, I knew there must be something else there to make all these people want to come.”
For us believers, this power of the Eucharist to attract people is justification enough to believe in the Real Presence.
Most of you may remember that in 1985 every television in the country showed footage of a woman who got pinned beneath a falling crane in New York City.
The TV cameras showed a team of paramedics fighting to keep her alive until a large crane could be brought in to lift the fallen crane from her.
The medical people gave her fluids, blood transfusions, and massive doses of painkiller. Then came the dramatic moment. The woman had a request of her own. She asked for the Body of Christ in Holy Communion. This too, the television cameras caught in all of its moving drama. It was a beautiful witness to the woman’s faith in the Eucharist.
Eventually, the woman was freed and rushed to a hospital, where a team of medical people saved her life.
Because we usually receive the Eucharist each time we go to Mass, we can tend to fall into the habit of receiving it routinely. As a result, we can tend to lose our appreciation of it.
Let me make this suggestion today. As you walk down the aisle to receive the Eucharist later on in Mass, focus your thoughts in a special way on who it is that you are to receive into your body.
A man who had had a few too many drinks stumbled across a Baptism service on a Sunday afternoon down by the river. He proceeded to stumble down into the water and stand next to the Minister. The Minister turned, noticed the man and said, "Mister, are you ready to find Jesus?" The man looked back and said, "Yes sir, I am."
The Minister then dunked the fellow under the water and pulled him back up. "Have you found Jesus?" the Minister asked. "No, I didn't!" said the man.
The Minister then dunked him under again, brought him up and said; "Now brother, have you found Jesus?"
"No, I did not!" said the man again. Disgusted, the Minister repeated the dunking, brought him up and demanded, "For the love of God, have you found Jesus yet?" The man wiped his eyes and said, "No sir I have not, but are you sure this is where he fell in?"
Many of us, when we hear the name of the feast that we celebrate today, the Body & Blood of Christ, think of the consecrated bread and wine. And, on one level, our thinking is true. If, however, our experience stops with this understanding and goes no further, then we miss something that is most significant. It is true, as I said, that the consecrated bread and wine are the Body & Blood of Jesus, but equally important, so are we. This is what happens when we celebrate the Body & Blood of Christ, that we are the Body & Blood of Christ.
St Thomas who composed Lauda Sion (Laud, o Zion) teaches us “The purpose of the Sacrament of the Eucharist is to achieve unity among the members of the Body of Christ.
In other words that Body on the Altar is for the sake of this Body in the pews. All of us, rich, poor, black, white, whatever our ethnic background, whatever language we speak, are united in Christ because we are caught up into his Body and Blood when we receive him in Holy Communion and he receives us.
Pope Leo I, who lived back in the fifth century says, "The effect of our communion in the Body and Blood of Christ is that we are transformed into what we consume." Do we realize this? My dear brothers and sisters!
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, our Pope Benedict XVI, who we might call "the theologian of the Church," says, "The Church is the celebration of the Eucharist; the Eucharist is the Church; they do not simply stand side by side; they are one and the same; it is from there that everything else radiates."
Yes dear brothers and sisters, this great feast invites us to ask ourselves, what does Holy Communion mean to us? If we do not appreciate it as much as we did the first time we received Jesus, then something is not right! Today when we come to receive Jesus, try to receive Jesus as if we were doing so for the first time- or for the last time- in our lives. Only a loving God could have given us such an unimaginable gift. The greatest gift ever we can receive when we are alive.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

photo of my previous parish St Stephen church 29th street :view from Empire State

Mission Appeal and the Trinity Sunday
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
I am Fr Sunny John, a Carmelite priest from India. I am coming from a country where there are more than 1.1billion people and there are 23 official languages. India is a federal republic of twenty-eight states and seven Union Territories.You May not fully understand me, you know why, because English is not my language.
On this Sunday every year we remember that God is our Father, our Daddy or Abba, and our brother Jesus who is Immanuel, God with us and nothing can separate us from his love except sin, and God is also the Spirit who helps us in our weakness.
The doctrine of the inner relationship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in such a way that each of them is fully and equally God, yet there are not three Gods but one, cannot be fully comprehended by the human mind. It is a mystery.
A story is told of St Augustine of Hippo, a great philosopher and theologian who wanted so much to understand the doctrine of the Trinity and to be able to explain it logically. One day as he was walking along the sea shore and reflecting on this, he suddenly saw a little child all alone on the shore. The child made a whole in the sand, ran to the sea with a little cup, filled her cup, came and poured it into the hole she had made in the sand. Back and forth she went to the sea, filled her cup and came and poured it into the hole. Augustine went up to her and said, "Little child, what are you doing?" and she replied, "I am trying to empty the sea into this hole." "How do you think," Augustine asked her, "that you can empty this immense sea into this tiny hole and with this tiny cup?" To which she replied, " And you, how do you suppose that with this your small head you can comprehend the immensity of God?" yes dear brothers and sisters Trinity is a mystery and we can’t fully understand it.
As we heard in our Gospel,
“God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost.”
Because God loved everyone, it is our duty to love our brothers and sisters who are in need. last Friday’s First reading from St James 2:15 we heard that “if a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, “ go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,” but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it?’
As John Lennon said: Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.
We are called to be missionaries going out to the whole world and spreading the good news. We can never help anyone in this world when we are fully equipped or wealthy. God is asking to show our love towards others. By the fact we are helping the people who help the people we are becoming part of that universal mission of Christ. There are millions of people who have nothing to eat a day. Whatever you wanted to do for the people in the third world countries you need financial help, if you want to teach them you have to provide food clothing and transportation.
God is not asking us to be a mother Theresa but he is giving you and me a chance to do what we can do to help at least one family or a person to lead a life worthy of human being.
There are many events occurring in our world that disturb us.
This May 12, 2008 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck near the major city of Chengdu China's biggest killer since 1976's Tangshan quake, conservatively estimated to have taken 250,000 lives. This killed more than 78,000 lives leaving many as orphans.
On Dec 26, 2004 a magnitude 9.0 earthquake occurred off the west coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia. This is the fourth largest earthquake in the world since 1900. The earthquake generated tsunamis which swept across the Indian Ocean within hours. Millions of people lost their lives in this disaster. You have shown your love and concern to them and still people are not recovered from these calamities.
There is nothing big or nothing small in giving, even a small sacrifice you make today for the Missions in the world will prayerfully be remembered by someone who is in utter need of your help.
One evening a mother and a child were coming back home after a long evening walk and on the way they got into a restaurant and picked up their dinner package. While they were walking this little child saw a poor man in the nearby waste barrel searching for his daily food. This child remembered the catechism class where she learned about the loving God. She hold tightly on her mothers’ arm and asked Mammy, mammy let me ask you a question. Is God alive, yes, is our God is a good and loving God? Yes. Mammy my teacher told me today Our God is a good and loving God and wherever you are in need you pray to God and God will send angels to help you. Is it True Mom? Yes indeed. If that is right why didn’t God send and angel to help this poor man to find a meal a Day?
Wow that is a real aching question. Mammy just paused a moment. And said “honey, who told you that God did not send an angel today. He did send you. Take our dinner packet and go and give it to that poor man and be an Angel of God Today. Yes dear brothers and sisters. By helping the Mission you are becoming an angel of God for someone. I thank most sincerely Bishop William Murphy and your loving and caring Pastor Fr George Michelle and all parishioners of St Patrick Church for your love and support. As 2 Corinthians 13:13 says “The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Love of God and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.” Amen.

Pentecost Sunday
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
Let us begin with the prayer by Cardinal Mercier to the Holy Spirit: O Holy Spirit, soul of my Soul, I adore You. Enlighten, guide, strengthen, and console me. Tell me what I ought to do and command me to do it. I promise to be submissive in everything that you ask of me, and to accept all that You permit to happen to me. Only show me what is Your Will. Amen.
Today we come to the high point of our Easter celebration, the Feast of Pentecost. Pentecost, meaning "fifty days" after the Passover -- was the feast day in which the Jewish people celebrated the Giving of the Law on Mount Sinai.
As we celebrate the Pentecost day, the birthday of the Church, we think of Holy Spirit, the third person of the Holy Trinity. Holy Spirit is the God of Unity. Wherever there is spirit of Unity and Love there is the Presence of Holy Spirit.
I wish to focus today on two readings. One from the first reading of the Vigil Mass from Genesis 11: 1-9 and second passage is from Today’s’ first reading from Acts of the Apostles 2:1-11.
When we study these two readings we see two different experiences. One is the Experience of Tower of Babel and the Experience of Pentecost.
Whenever human beings forget how limited we are and try to take the initiative in our dealings with God, what inevitably follows is disaster. In the story of the Tower of Babel in Gen 11 where human beings decided to build a tower that would reach to heaven. In this way they would have access to God whenever they wanted, in this way they could manipulate God. But in the process of building the human bridge to heaven God came and confused their languages. They began to speak different languages, there was no more communication, no more understanding among them, and they could no longer work together. The result was the proliferation of languages and human misunderstanding. Of course the lesson we are suppose to get from the story of the Tower of Babel is the effect of human pride and arrogance, thinking that we can reach God all on our own effort.
Where there is no Spirit of God there is confusion, misunderstanding and disaster.
In the Acts of the Apostles, the disciples of Jesus speaking in other languages? They heard the Apostles speaking in their own language. Yes dear brothers and sisters, where there is Holy Spirit, There is Unity and understanding. When you hear people complain they cannot understand each other pray for them for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Parents say they don’t understand the Children; children cry out they cannot understand the parents and the parents don’t understand them; then it is the right time to kneel down together and pray for a Pentecostal experience and an out pouring of the Holy Spirit.
Let’s have a closer look at these readings:
1. At Babel human beings decided to build a tower to God by their own effort; at Pentecost it is now God who decides to build a bridge to humans by sending the Holy Spirit. Babel was a human initiative, a human effort; Pentecost is a divine initiative, a divine activity through the Holy Spirit.
What God asks of us as believers always seems impossible. And it is indeed impossible if we rely on our own initiatives and will power alone. But if, like the disciples, we realize that godliness is above us, at the opportune time God will send the flame of the Holy Spirit to invigorate us, and change us from lukewarm to zealous, fervent, enthusiastic believers. And our God will make it possible.
2. Babel was a requiem of misunderstanding; Pentecost is a chorus of mutual understanding. The miracle of Pentecost is very different from the miracle of Babel. At Babel, the people came together with one language, understanding themselves. After God's intervention they dispersed no longer understanding each other. At Pentecost, on the other hand, people of different ethnic backgrounds (Persians, Asians, Romans, Egyptians, Libyans, Arabs, etc) came together unable to communicate, but after the miracle of Pentecost, they said, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? How is it that we hear them, each of us in our own language?" (Acts 2:7-8).
Now, you may ask, is there such a language that one could speak and everybody would understand in their own mother tongue? The answer is yes. And the name of that language is LOVE. Love is the language that all women and men understand irrespective of ethnic background. Everybody understands when you smile. Love is the language of the children of God, the only language we shall speak in heaven.
Our dear Savior has given us the Holy Spirit and His seven-fold gifts. (1 Corinthians 12:8-10). We all know that 7gifts of the Holy Spirit:
Wisdom – gives us a relish for the things of God; directs us to love Him above all things.
Understanding – enables us to know more clearly the great mysteries of our faith.
Counsel – alerts us to the deceits of the devil and dangers to our salvation. Fortitude – strengthens us to do the will of God; even to die before sin. Knowledge – equips us to know the will of God in all things. Godliness (piety) – inspires us to love religion and its practices; stirs us to obey out of love.
Fear of the Lord – fills us with a dread of sin.
These are the gifts of the Holy Spirit to the apostles as much as to us. Paul says those who have the Spirit have these twelve fruits of the Spirit: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Gal 5:22-23) and goodness, modesty and chastity. And today my dear brothers and sisters,let Us ask the Holy Spirit to fill us with His gifts and fruits. Amen.

Mother’s Day
There is probably no more unsung a hero than a true mother.
Tomorrow our nation takes an opportunity to celebrate our mothers. We put aside a day for Mother's Day. Mother's Day actually did not begin in America, but it began almost a couple of millennia ago. It began by people coming back to the church where they were baptized. They recognized that the Church was their mother at the baptismal font. So the idea was that they would celebrate a day when they would all go back to their mother church. All the converts would be there together, the ones from over the years, and they would all be together in the place where they were baptized. They would celebrate their faith and life that they had learned and received in that church.
There would be no putting love into practice if we did not have a means to be able to learn it in the first place, and that comes from our mothers. That is the commandment that Jesus gave us: We are to love one another as He had loved us. Where do we learn that except from our mothers? More than any place, for most people, they learn love from a mom. All of us, every single one of us, learned love at its beginning by dwelling for nine months listening to the beautiful sound of a heartbeat, the beating heart of our own mother. That was the sound that permeated our life more than any other for nine full months. Every single second of our existence for nine months, we heard constantly that rhythmic beat.
If a mom brings all of her babies to the doctor and they all put the stethoscope on, they hear the baby's heart and they can hear the mom's heart. When doctors would say a mother's heart sounds like lub-dub, lub-dub, but from a child's point of view they would say it sounds like love-you, love-you. That is what we grow up with. That is how we begin our life: with that constant reminder of love that a mother gives to her children. She conceives that child in love. She bears the child in love. She raises the child in love.
Just step back and consider again what a mother does, pouring herself out entirely for that baby. She has to do things for a child that normally none of us would like to do. Yet, how a mother rejoices even in that. We know that we don't always rejoice in some of those things even as moms, but for the most part, a mom accepts with peace and with joy in her heart even some of those things which are so unpleasant. She is full of love even when a child is sick and makes a mess all over. On a natural level, we would walk away from that. But out of love for a child, a mother enters right into that, not only to clean up the mess, but more than anything to be able to care for her child.
This weekend as we meditate upon this mystery of life we consider our first mother, Eve. We consider our spiritual mother, the Blessed Mother Mary. We consider the Church, Mater and Magister (Mother and Teacher). And we consider the most beautiful woman in our lives, our own mother, the one who gave us life, the one who taught us to love. She is the one who gave us to love GOD, so that even in the newness of life all things would be new once again. Our mothers, out of love for us, wanted to give us not only natural life but they wanted to share with us eternal life. They have taught us to love so that we would be saints. They have brought us to the baptismal font so that we can get to Heaven. They teach us by word and by example what it means to follow the commandment of love. Thanks be to God for moms. They are the ones who teach us the love of God in human form.
If we consider what she has done for us, what she is doing for us, what she will do for us... and compare this to what little thanks she receives in turn …Please…Let us not make the same mistake. The book of Ecclesiaticus (17:24-30) states, “Honor thy father and mother and forget not the groaning of thy mother. Remember that thou hast not been born but through them: and make a return to them as they have done for thee.” Let our Mothers know dear brothers and sisters, that we love them in whatever way it is possible now. Happy Mothers Day.

7th Sunday of Easter

Jesus shows us how to pray
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ
The second reading, from the First Letter of Saint Peter, reminds us that sharing in the Holy Spirit is really sharing in the sufferings of Christ. Whenever we follow Christ faithfully, we will suffer in one way or another. This seems to be a rule of life that never changes. The only condition is that we suffer for Christ and in Christ and that we won’t get caught up in ourselves.
In prophet Malachi 3:3 says: 'He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.'
This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God.
One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Wednesday Bible Study.
That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining Silver.
As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities.
The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse that says: 'He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver.' She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time.
The man answered yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.
The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, 'How do you know when the silver is fully refined?'
He smiled at her and answered, '! Oh, that's easy -- when I see my image in it.'
My dear brothers and sisters, if today you are feeling the heat of the fire, remember that God has his eye on you and will keep watching you until He sees His image in you.
Jesus prays for us. This is the message of the Gospel today. Jesus is always present, praying for us and being the one who guides and directs us. Jesus prays to his Father, his Father who is in Heaven! For that is what it means to pray: to lift up one's soul and one’s entire mind to God, who is in Heaven. With his prayer, he shows us how one must pray, and what must be said to our heavenly Father. Certainly, this prayer is indeed that of Christ, and many of the words in it befit Him and Him alone. But what is important to understand is the spirit of this prayer: a spirit of gratitude and thanksgiving, a spirit of complete trust in our Father!
The poem Broken Dreams written by Robert J. Burdette gives an example of how we often lack trust in God. This is that poem…
As children bring their broken toysWith tears for us to mend,I brought my broken dreams to GodBecause He was my friend.But then instead of leaving HimIn peace to work alone,I hung around and tried to helpWith ways that were my own.
At last I snatched them back and cried,“How could you be so slow”“My child,” He said, “What could I do?You never did let go.”
Our Lord revealed to St. Faustina that “Sins of distrust wound Me most painfully”
There are two principle reasons why we often lack trust in God — pride and fear. As our loving Father, God wants us to bring our needs to Him, including our broken dreams. That is an initial act of trust, because we would not bring our needs to someone if we did not think that they could help us. “But then instead of leaving Him In peace to work alone, I hung around and tried to help with ways that were my own.” How often do we do just that? This is our own pride acting up, thinking that we know better than God. It is distrust in God’s plan; we become impatient and want things done our way and according to our timeline.
The other reason we often distrust God is fear. I think that is why Jesus says over and over again throughout the Gospels, “Do not be afraid. I am with you always” Often when we see God’s will for us we also see the difficulties, struggles and even persecutions that will be involved and we are afraid. We don’t think we can do what God is asking of us. We might not understand why He is asking it of us. Yes dear friends, Can we really trust that God will not abandon us in our difficulties and need?
This is so meaningfully said.. : -
Look Back & 'Thank' God.Look Forward & 'Trust' God.Look Around & 'Serve' God.Look Within & 'Find' God!'
During this coming week before Pentecost I ask you to please pray like Mary, the women, the apostles and disciples for a renewed outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Church and on all of us that we may respond to God better.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Ascension of our Lord
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
St. Thomas Aquinas, in his small catechism (The Aquinas Catechism), presents three ways in which Christ’s ascension was profitable for mankind.
First, by way of a leader, Christ ascended in order to lead men to heaven. Before Christ mankind had no leader, no guide, but now Christ has guided the way. Moreover, the way was closed until Christ opened the way and showed it to us.
Second, by way of increasing our confidence, Christ ascended in order to make intercession for us, and so we read in St. Paul’s letter to the Hebrews, “He is able… to save forever them that come to God by Him, always living to make intercession for us.” (Hb 7:25); and in another place, “We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the just.” (1 Jn 2:1)
Third, by way of detaching us from earthly things, Christ ascended to draw our hearts to Him, and so we read in St. Matthew’s gospel, “Where thy treasure is, there also is thy heart also.” (Mt 6:21)
By His ascension,…
Christ has opened the way to heaven and has prepared a place for us in heaven;
Christ has a seat at the right hand of God the Father where He intercedes for us;
Christ has shown us where we must place our hearts.
We are so busy doing things, achieving, making progress that we can forget what life is all about, preparing to meet God in heaven. The Ascension of Jesus reminds us that we are ‘only passing through’ here, as we say. We are pilgrims on a journey. Just as Jesus’ earthly life was temporary, came to an end, and he ascended to sit at the right hand of the Father, so also our lives here are temporary, will come to an end and we will meet God in our eternal life. The Ascension of Jesus reminds us in all of our busyness not to forget what life is all about. One of the lines in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, our second reading today it is a prayer; so beautiful and relevant.
May God our Father...enlighten the eyes of your mind so that you can see what hope his call holds for you, what rich glories he has promised the saints will inherit and how infinitely great is the power that he has exercised for us believers. (Eph 1:18-19)
Before Jesus ascended, he entrusted his mission to the Apostles and disciples saying, “Go out to the whole world, proclaim the good news.” That mission was entrusted not only to priests and religious, but to everybody, to you. You are called by Jesus to preach the Good News where you live and work. As you carry out the Lord's mission Paul's advice to the Ephesians is a most beautiful guide for living and ministering in the name of God to others. Let us not be so busy that we forget about God. yes dear brothers and sisters
May God our Father...enlighten the eyes of your mind so that you can see what hope his call holds for you, what rich glories he has promised the saints will inherit and how infinitely great is the power that he has exercised for us believers.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

6th Sunday of Easter Season

Witness to Christ with the Help of Paraclete
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
Everywhere in Manhattan you see men and women traders trying to sell thing to passers-by. You could buy anything. One thing we have learnt from street trading is that success is often determined not by the quality of the goods but by the ability of the traders to advertise and get themselves noticed. No matter how precious the goods one has to sell, if you keep your mouth shut and do not advertise it to prospective customers, no one will notice and no one will buy. Something similar happens in the business of evangelization. No matter how precious and true our faith is, if we do not tell others about it, they will not know about it and they will not embrace it. In today’s second reading from the First Letter of Peter we have a wonderful teaching on how to share our faith with others.
“Sanctify Christ as Lord in your Hearts” (1 Peter 3:15a). This instruction is directed to those who are not “zealous for what is right” for fear of being harmed.
Fulton J. Sheen once said that we are God’s chosen people but often we behave like God’s frozen people.
We should be ready to defend the truth of our faith, but you may ask how? The simple answer is: Be grounded in the faith yourself and then you can share it with others. You can’t give what you don’t have. We must make effort to know our faith more by knowing the basic documents of our faith, the Bible, the teachings of the church, the Catechism. It was St Jerome who said: “Ignorance of the Bible is ignorance of Christ.”
Still we may not be strong enough. Don’t worry in today’s gospel we have another privilege: “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete” (John 14:16).
Ronald Amundsen, the great Norwegian explorer who discovered the South Pole took a homing pigeon with him on his trip. He told his wife that if he reached the end of the world, he would release the pigeon. His wife sat for hours, all alone in their big house looking up the sky for the promised pigeon. One day she looked out the bedroom window and saw the pigeon circling in the sky above. “He’s alive!” she cried, “My husband is alive!”
Our Lord promised not a pigeon but another paraclete.
What is a Paraclete? Many words have been used to translate this word into English. They include: Advocate, Comforter, Counselor, and Helper. The Greek Paracletos literally describes someone who is called to stand beside a client. In legal terms that would be your attorney. But a Paraclete is much more than an attorney. Probably the English word that we use today that most nearly captures the meaning of Paraclete is the word “coach.” The Paraclete is our coach, always by our side, to instruct and correct us when we make mistakes, to encourage and motivate us when we feel down, to challenge and inspire us to be the best we could, to defend us and fight for our rights when the judges are unfair to us. In short, the Paraclete means for us all that Jesus meant for the disciples.
Why do we need a Paraclete? For the same reason that athletes and sports people need coaches. No matter how good they are, sports people always need coaches. Left on our own, we are prone to mistakes and errors. Without God we can do nothing. In the 5th century ad there was a British thinker called Pelagius who taught that human beings have the natural ability to fulfill God’s commands if they so choose. The church condemned his teaching as a heresy, insisting that human beings always need God’s grace in order to please God. Pelagianism is the belief that we can fulfill our human destiny just by being ourselves, and that we do not need the grace of God that comes through faith, prayer or the sacraments. Many people today are Pelagians without even knowing it. Jesus tells us in today’s gospel that we all stand in constant need of divine help. We all need the divine Helper, the Holy Spirit who stands always by our side, the Paraclete.
We need to be witnesses of Christ, sanctifying Christ as Lord in our hearts in this present world!
"What can I do?" you may ask, "I am only a single individual. What difference can I make?" Maybe we can learn something from the story of the Cracked Pot
A water bearer in India had two large pots, each hung on each end of a pole, which he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it; and while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water at the end of the long walk from the stream to the master's house, the cracked pot arrived only half full. For two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots of water to his master's house. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, perfect to the end for which it was made.
But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do.
After two years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream. "I am ashamed of myself, and I want to apologize to you."
"Why?" asked the bearer. "What are you ashamed of?"
"I have been able, for these past two years, to deliver only half my load because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your master's house. Because of my flaws, you have to do all of this work, and you don't get full value from your efforts," the pot said.
The water bearer felt sorry for the old cracked pot, and in his compassion he said, "As we return to the master's house, I want you to notice the beautiful flowers along the path."
Indeed, as they went up the hill, the old cracked pot took notice of the sun warming the beautiful wild flowers on the side of the path, and this cheered it some. But at the end of the trail, it still felt bad because it had leaked out half its load, and so again it apologized to the bearer for its failure.
The bearer said to the pot, "Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of your path, but not on the other pot's side? That's because I have always known about your flaw, and I took advantage of it. I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back from the stream, you've watered them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate my master's table. Without you being just the way you are, he would not have this beauty to grace his house."
Yes dear brothers and sisters, each of us has our own unique flaws. We're all cracked pots. But if we will allow it, the Lord will use our flaws to grace His table. In God's great economy, nothing goes to waste.
God can use anyone to do His work including our weaknesses. Let’s ask our Lord to send the Paraclete for us.
Come Holy Spirit and fill the heart of your faithful and enkindle in them the fire of your love.
Amen.

Pope's Mass at Yankee Stadium

photos by fr Sunny John O.Carm.

http://picasaweb.google.com/vincentocarm/PopeSMassAtYankeeStadium please double click the link for the photos.

Pope at United Nations

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThOy4XK8DTs

Video taken by the Digital Camera

Pope is In Big Apple

Photo By Fr Sunny John

I was blessed to greet His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI today after his Historical address to the UNited Nation.

http://picasaweb.google.com/vincentocarm/PopeSVisitToUSA

Pope Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict XVI
His Holiness The Pope; Bishop of Rome and Vicar of Jesus Christ, Successor of St Peter; Prince of the Apostles; Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church; Primate of Italy ; Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Roman Province; Sovereign of Vatican City State; Servant of the Servants of God.
Pope Benedict XVI called himself “a simple, humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord.” When he was elected as the Pope on April 19, 2005 from the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica.
I do believe that our Pope is Mindful of His predecessor Pope John Paul the Great’s overwhelming popularity and His ability to fire up a crowd. We cannot just ask a person to follow the person who has in our mind as a role model. Most of us only know Pope John Paul II and it will be too much to expect the aged pope Benedict XVI to do the same as he did. Pope Benedict XVI is very humble and knowledgeable man. He is a great thinker and writer and no doubt a great scholar. As the teacher of the Church knows the important and need of our understanding of the Word of God. He focused more on the Scriptures than the dogmas. He invites us to “read the Bible and reread it in a personal dialogue with God.”
His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI will be 81 on April 16,2008(Today) was 78 years old at the time of his election and was not expected to be a globe-traveler.
Pope Benedict XVI, Joseph Alois Ratzinger was born in Marktl am Inn(Passau),Germany on April 16, 1927. After his theological studies and Priestly ordination on June 29, 1951, he taught theology in the University of Monaco, Bavaria,Bonn, Munster and Tubingen Regensburg. He was a counselor to Cardinal Frings during the second Vatican Council. On March 24, 1977, Pope Paul VI named him Archbishop of Monaco and Freising, and then Cardinal at the consistory of June 27,1977.On November 25, 1981, Pope John Paul II named Cardinal Ratzinger prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the President of the Pontifical Biblical Commission and of the Pontifical International Theological Commission. Since November 30, 2002, he has been the dean of the College of Cardinals.
On April 19, 2005, the Cardinals gathered at the conclave elected him the new Pontiff, and he took the name of Benedict XVI (which means “the Blessed”) after Pope Benedict XV who was the head of the Catholic Church during the World War I and saint Benedict of Nursia the founder of the Benedictine Monasteries and he was installed on April 24, 2005.
Let me put His Holiness’ words about the coat and the motto “As an Episcopal motto I chose the words from the Third Letter of Saint John:”Collaborators with the Truth’. To follow the truth places one in its service. For around a thousand years, on the coat of arms of the bishops of the diocese of freising there has been a crowned Moor. For me this is an expression of the Universality of the Church, that knows no distinction of race or class, since we are ‘all one’ in Christ(Gal.3:28). Moreover, I chose the image of a shell, which is, above all, a sign of our being pilgrims. And finally, from the legend of Saint Corbinian, founder of the diocese of Freising, I chose the image of the bear that, after eating the saint’s mule, was made to carry his baggage all the way to Rome. This is an expression of my personal destiny, and as Psalm 72:73 says: ‘ I was like a brute beast toward you. Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand.”
Prepared By Fr Sunny John O.Carm.

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI has arrived

The Great Event in USA has arrived and took off the Flag
The Great even began on April 15th 2008 Tuesday afternoon in Washington DC Airport Andrews Air Force Base. His Holiness Pope Benedict VII the 265th Successor of St Peter left Rome at 6am Eastern time today and He was 10Hours in the Alitalia Plane carrying the Pope. The Plane was visible in the Eastern Time from 3.50pm today. At 3:52pm The Flight touched the airport and the Historical event began in USA. Alitalia plane carried two main flags One of USA flag and the Papal Flag and the front door of the Plane had the picture of Coat of Arm of the Papacy. At 4:10pm 100 foot red carpet was spread out and President Bush and first Lady and the first daughter came to welcome His Holiness. Before Pope came out of the Plane the Apostolic Nuncio went into the Plane and at 4:11pm on a sunny day at 58 Degree Celsius. He came out alone and on the ground he greeted the President family and all the Bishops who were there and he started to greet the people around. He was not giving blessing or He followed the path of John Paul II by kissing the ground. To add to this Event this is the First time President is going out of his way and going to the airport to welcome any dignitary. What a great honor for the Pope together to the Catholic community in USA. Thanks to President for his gesture of acknowledgement. At 4:25pm His Holiness with his private secretary who is a Monsgr from Germany and the Apostolic Nuncio and headed to the Nunicature in Washington DC.
Report by Fr Sunny John O.Carm. 4:30pm 4/14/08

Bicentennial celebration

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International celebration Video Clips

To see watch the video clips please double click the links

Part 1 preparations:-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9Hr3c-eG4Q

Part2 Dinner :-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDpUZ9x9Xdw

Part 2 b if you dont see youreself in the part2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clYo4R41FWk

IF you are interested in the Photos:-http://picasaweb.google.com/vincentocarm/InternationalCelebration

Thank you for being part of it.

International Clebration

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3rd Sunday After Easter on Eucharist

The Emmaus Journey
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
Let’s look closely at the Emmaus supper. Our celebration of the Lord’s Supper , Holy Mass, divides into four parts, or rites: the Gathering Rite, the Liturgy of the Word, the Liturgy of the Eucharist, and the Dismissal Rite.
We find the same four rites present in the Emmaus supper. The gathering Rite for the Emmaus Supper took place on the Road. When Jesus and the two disciples came together and greeted one another.
The Liturgy of the Word took place when Jesus explained the Scriptures to the two disciples.
The Liturgy of the Eucharist took place in the house of one of the disciples. When Jesus “was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them.”
Finally, the Dismissal Rite took place when Jesus “vanished from their sight,” and the disciples went forth to bear witness to their encounter with Jesus in the breaking of the bread.
The evangelist says; they "recognized him in the breaking of the bread." (Lk. 24:35) Here is our problem: dear brothers and sisters Do we really believe and see Jesus when we break the bread of Life?
A Czech priest, Father Peter of Prague, lost his faith in the reality of Christ’s body and blood in the Eucharist. It might surprise some people to think that a priest might lose his faith in the Eucharist, but sometimes it does occur. Father Peter felt like a hypocrite celebrating the Eucharist while having some doubts about whether the Lord Jesus was truly there. But he hadn’t yet lost his faith in God and, hence, decided to give God the opportunity to give him that faith by doing something quite drastic. In 1263, he decided to make a pilgrimage to Rome, to pray at the tomb of his patron, St. Peter, for the gift of a renewed faith in the Eucharist. When it came to be Sunday, members of the group asked Fr. Peter if he might celebrate Mass for them. More out of courtesy than faith, he assented. They stopped at a small Church dedicated to St. Christina in Bolsena, Italy, and celebrated Mass on a side altar. During the Mass when Father Peter broke the host, as a priest always does to put a particle into the chalice, the host in his hands began to bleed profusely. It bled over his hands. It bled on the corporal and on the altar cloths. It started to pour down the altar onto the steps. The people, beholding the miracle in front of their eyes, started to shriek. The priest of St. Christina’s came to see what all the commotion was about and beheld the miracle with his own eyes. In 1264 Pope Urban IV declared that it is a Eucharistic miracle. Every time we celebrate Mass, what occurred in Bolsena — and in so many other Eucharistic miracles across the centuries — can occur here. Regardless of whether he chooses to do so or not, the reality is the same: we receive the same Christ who bled on the Cross, who bled in Father Peter’s hands. And our reaction to the Eucharist should be the same, whether a dramatic manifestation occurs or not, because it is Christ, God, whom we receive.
That’s why the Church asks all communicants to make a profound bow or genuflection before receiving the Eucharist, to help them to recognize inwardly that they are about to receive the Lord of Lords . I always wonder whether those who leave Mass early after having received the Lord really know that they’ve just received God, or, if they know that, whether they really love him. This time with the Lord here is so much more important than anything else we might want to do after Mass.
When it comes to believing in God we need to surrender our intellect to faith. As St. Paul says, in the Christian life we go by faith and not by sight (2 Cor 5:7). Can you be humble enough to admit that you do not know it all, and that not knowing it all it is possible for bread and wine to become the Body and Blood of Jesus while keeping the same appearance? There is a beautiful chant, “Trust, surrender, believe, receive.” Surrender your logic to God and receive the love of God for you! Surrender to God and receive his love.
To some extent, I would suggest, we are, all of us, on an Emmaus journey. We may be perplexed by events in our own lives, disappointments, loss of a job, Loss of a best friend, failure, collapse of a relationship, shattered dreams, and betrayal by friends. We are certainly very, very deeply disturbed by things that are happening in our own personal life and around. And we may feel as helpless and as hopeless as those two disciples did. If so.... if so, we need community. We cannot fight depression alone. We cannot make sense of things alone. We need to lean on one another for support. We need to search the Scriptures together to see what answers they may have for us. And then we can go out and spread this good news.
Sunday Eucharist, should never, never be from a sense of obligation that comes from some Church law, but rather of obligation that comes from a love of Jesus Christ and from a real consciousness that we need this companionship; we need one another; we need to be in community.
A teacher once asked her students which part of the Eucharist or Mass was the most important part. One Student said: the dismissal Rite is the most important part of the Mass.” “Why do you say that?’ the teacher asked.
The Student replied: - “the purpose of the Eucharist is to nourish us with the word of the Lord and the Body and Blood of the Lord, so that we may go forth to bear witness to the Lord and to bring the Kingdom of God into existence. “ He continued ; “the Eucharist does not end with the dismissal Rite. In a sense, it begins with it. We must go forth and proclaim to the world what the disciples of Emmaus did. We must proclaim that Jesus is risen. We must proclaim that Jesus lives on.”
Pope John Paul II wrote in his letter to the priest in 2004 “We were born from the Eucharist. If we can truly say that the whole Church lives from the Eucharist…we can say the same thing about the ministerial priesthood: it is born, lives, works and bears fruit “de Eucharistia.” There can be no Eucharist without the priesthood, just as there can be no priesthood without the Eucharist.” And dear brothers and sisters I will add to that there is no catholic faith without the Eucharist. Without believing that Jesus is really and truly and substantially present in the Eucharist.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

Divine Mercy Sunday

His Mercy Endures forever!
His mercy endures forever!" These words are echoed several times in Psalm 118. Yes, God's mercy endures forever!
There was a little boy visiting his grandparents on their farm. He was given a slingshot to play with out in the woods. He practiced in the woods; but he could never hit the target. Getting a little discouraged, he headed back for dinner. As he was walking back he saw Grandma's pet duck. Just out of impulse, he let the slingshot fly, hit the duck square in the head and killed it. He was shocked and grieved! In a panic, he hid the dead duck in the wood pile; only to see his sister watching! Sally had seen it all, but she said nothing. After lunch the next day Grandma said, 'Sally, let's wash the dishes 'But Sally said, 'Grandma, Johnny told me he wanted to help in the kitchen.' Then she whispered to him, 'Remember the duck?'So Johnny did the dishes. Later that day, Grandpa asked if the children wanted to go fishing and Grandma said, 'I'm sorry but I need Sally to help make supper. 'Sally just smiled and said, 'Well that's all right because Johnny told me he wanted to help' She whispered again, 'Remember the duck?' So Sally went fishing and Johnny stayed to help. After several day of Johnny doing both his tasks and Sally's; he finally couldn't stand it any longer. He came to Grandma and confessed that he had killed the duck. Grandma knelt down, gave him a hug and said, 'Sweetheart, I know. You see, I was standing at the window and I saw the whole thing, but because I love you, I forgave you. I was just wondering how long you would let Sally make a slave of you.'
Yes dear brothers and sisters, whatever is in your past, whatever you have done... And the devil keeps throwing it up in your face (lying, cheating, debt, fear, bad habits, hatred, anger, bitterness, etc.) ...whatever it is...You need to know that God was standing at the window and He saw the whole thing. He has seen your whole life. He wants you to know that He loves you and that you are forgiven. He's just wondering how long you will let the devil make a slave of you. The great thing about God is that when you ask for forgiveness; He not only forgives you, but He forgets. It is by God's grace and mercy that we are saved. Always remember: God is at the window! God provides. When Jesus died on the cross; he was thinking of you! And he will provide everything for you. This mercy and this forgiveness and this love is what we are celebrating today.
How does God reveal His mercy? He does so, first and foremost, by sending His only-begotten Son to become our Savior and Lord.
Divine mercy lies behind those encouraging words of Jesus, spoken in today's Gospel: "Peace be with you". Divine mercy is given to us in each celebration of the sacraments. Jesus shows a special Mercy in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The person must be gradually 'healed' of the negative effects which sin has caused him." Said Pope John Paul II.
Saint Faustina Kowalska saw two rays of light coming from Jesus' Heart that was overflowing with generous love, which illuminated the world.The two rays denote blood and water. The blood recalls the sacrifice of Golgotha and the mystery of the Eucharist; the water, according to the rich symbolism of the Evangelist John, makes us think of Baptism and the Gift of the Holy Spirit (See Jn 3:5; 4:14).
Jesus appeared to Saint Margaret Mary and showed us His heart to demonstrate how much He loves us. He said to her, "Behold the heart that has loved men so much and has been loved so little in return." He is loved so little in return because we don't really believe. We don't believe in the love of God. We don't believe in the mercy of God.
When Jesus appears to His apostles, he says to them, "Peace be with you." They were not at peace. They knew Jesus Christ, they believed in Him (sort of), but they were not at peace. The only reason we would not be at peace is because we don't trust Him. We don't fully believe. In our heads, we know; but in our hearts, we don't accept. We keep Jesus at an arm's distance so that our lives don't have to change.
When you kneel before the priest and hear those beautiful words of absolution, you walk out with the knowledge, the unshakable knowledge, that your sins have been removed from your soul. They are there no longer. The mercy of God is greater than anything we can do; that is what Our Lord wants us to know. There is nothing we can do that is bigger than Him. He wants, more than anything, to forgive our sins.
What is the worst thing anybody could ever do? Saint Therese of Lisieux tell us; that is like one little drop of water in the ocean of God's mercy. The worst thing, the biggest thing that we could ever commit is like one little drop of water in the ocean because God's mercy is infinite. His love for you is infinite; it is beyond anything we could ever grasp or imagine. As big as our sins might be, they are nothing for the Lord. If you have confessed the sin, it is gone, it is not there anymore.
We need to learn to trust. The devil gets us in many different ways. Devil tries to hook you up through many annoyed Catholics. He tries to convince us that we do not need to be forgiven because we really did not sin. We have numbed our consciences. We sit in front of the TV for hours, filling our minds with garbage, and then we do not think we have done anything wrong.
We need to learn to trust. Trust is one of the most difficult areas in the spiritual life to develop because it will only grow by doing it. Therefore, God has to put you into positions where you have no choice but to trust. We do not like that at all. We complain and we kick and we scream. Then we are not so sure we really want to do these things anymore. "If this is what it means to take up the spiritual life, I quit!" And that is exactly what we do. We pull back and we would rather sit in our unbelief and our untrusting way than to have to be put into a position where we really trust. We all like to say that we trust in Jesus, but when it comes right down to it most of us really do not. We are afraid of letting go of things because we are not sure if God is really going to do what He has promised to do.
We have to ask ourselves what does the word mercy mean. It is not simply forgiveness. Some people say it means God's forgiveness. We know that God is abundant in His forgiveness, but mercy means more than forgiveness. It is forgiveness plus an understanding of our weakness and an abundance of love. We would rather have someone be merciful toward us than simply forgive us. God is the embodiment of mercy. Mercy is where God's justice and love meets, and He is abundant in His mercy. He understands our sins. He forgives us with love. And of course the proper response to the mercy of God is that we be merciful to others. It all comes together in mercy.
Let us pray: "Eternal Father, I offer you the body, blood, soul and divinity of Thy dearly beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for my sins and those of the whole world; for the sake of His sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world."
In the name of The Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

Happy Easter

may the Risen Lord bless you with his Mercy and peace. Happy Easter.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJFfuYFAOv4