Ember Saturday
Isaiah, Chapter 44, verse 8
Do not fear or be troubled.
Did I not announce it to you long ago? I declared it, and you are my witnesses.
Is there any God but me? There is no other Rock, I know of none!
Our
God knows we are fearful and troubled and that we seek refuge in other god’s such
as sex, drugs and rock and roll. Yet, still he is patient and tells us plainly
there is no other. He is that is. There is no other rock (refuge) from the
terrors that bind us.
While
cleaning out my files the other day I came across this note. I don’t know the
source but thought I would share it.
A
Note From Heaven
Dear
Beloved One,
I
see your loneliness and fears, your guilt and frustrations. I see your endless
search for love and fulfillment. All this must be, in order for you to come the
the end of your own understanding—then you can hear My voice. Listen carefully
amid the noise of the world and you will hear…I love you, I shed My blood for
you to make you clean. Give yourself completely to Me. I created you to be just
as you are, and you are lovely in My eyes. Do not criticize yourself or become
depressed for not being perfect in your own eyes. This leads only to
frustrations. I want you to trust Me one step, one second at a time. Dwell in
My power and My love and be free, be yourself. Don’t allow other people to
control you. I will guide you, if you let Me, but be aware of My presence in
everything. I will give you patience, love, joy, and peace. Look to Me for
answers for I am your shepherd and will lead you. Follow Me only!! Do not ever
forget this. Listen and I will tell you My will.
Let
My love flow from you and spill over to all you touch. Be not concerned with
yourself—you are My responsibility. I will change you without your ever knowing
it. You are to love yourself and love others, simply because I love you. Take
your eyes off yourself, look only to Me, I lead, I change, I create, but not
when you are striving. You are mine…let Me have the joy of making you like
Christ.
Your
only command is to look to Me and Me, only—never to yourself and never to
others. Do not struggle, but relax in My love. I know what is best and will do
it in you. Stop trying to become, and let me make you what I want.
My
will is perfect;
My
love is sufficient. I will
Supply
all your needs…
Only
look to Me.
I
love you,
Your
Heavenly Father
The Devil and Temptations[1]
The Kingdom of Darkness
·
This kingdom offers a false peace and happiness
in sin. Man is capable, especially in heaven, but even here on earth, of
experiencing a deep joy and a deep peace given by God. Many of us have
experienced this. The false joy offered, for example, in the sin of drunkenness
or drug abuse. This false joy is also offered in the sins of sex before
marriage, adultery after marriage, or homosexuality.
·
When people are deeply involved in these sins,
or in murder, violent anger or in deep hatred, jealousy and unforgiveness, they
are really living in the kingdom of darkness and can open themselves up to the
possibility of direct attacks from the evil spirits.
·
The danger today is that sin has become very
"respectable" in our society. Sex before marriage, adultery, heavy
social drinking, abortion, and homosexuality have all attained a certain
"respectability." They do not seem so bad. That is because they are
not bad in the kingdom of darkness.
·
Our homes should be sacred, peaceful places in
which to live. Our homes need to be clean. We should not let them become dirty
or allow disorder by having junk and filth accumulate in our drawers and
closets. The power of evil abhors cleanliness.
·
Remove anything in your home that has had
something to do with witchcraft, a spiritualist, a curandero, a medium, an
oriental religion or cult or that has been used in a superstitious way. Destroy
it or see to it that it is destroyed. Do not keep jewelry that is symbolic of
witchcraft or is a sign of the Zodiac. Remove and burn all pornographic
pictures and magazines--even those that have been put away in a drawer, closet
or trunk. Get rid of all religious literature that does not agree with the
basic truth of our faith that Jesus Christ is divine. He is the Son of God, our
only Savior who brings us to the Father. Remove and destroy literature from the
Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons, Christian Science, Unity, Science of Mind,
Scientology, Hare Krishna, Yoga, Transcendental Meditation, Divine Light
Mission, Unification Church of Sun Myung Moon, the Children of God and the Way
International. None of this or similar literature should be around our homes.
Do not allow the influence of evil to come into your home through television.
Carefully monitor the programs that are seen. The values taught by television
advertising are not the values preached by Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel
of St. Matthew, chapters 5, 6 and 7.
571 The Paschal
mystery of Christ's cross and Resurrection stands at the center of the Good
News that the apostles, and the Church following them, are to proclaim to the
world. God's saving plan was accomplished "once for all" by the
redemptive death of his Son Jesus Christ.
1171 In the
liturgical year the various aspects of the one Paschal mystery unfold. This is
also the case with the cycle of feasts surrounding the mystery of the
incarnation (Annunciation, Christmas, Epiphany). They commemorate the beginning
of our salvation and communicate to us the first fruits of the Paschal mystery
of Christ.
It is
the same Paschal Mystery that we celebrate every Sunday at every Mass. This
mystery should evoke the ancient Passover of the Jews when the firstborn
children of Israel were spared and they were liberated from slavery. Their
delivery began in each household with the sacrifice of the lamb and the
smearing of the lamb’s blood on the doorposts which delivered the Jews out of
vice into virtue and the worship of God in sincerity and truth. In the Last
Supper Christ became the lamb that transformed his execution into a once for
all sacrifice. During Lent we mirror the Jews 40 years of purification when God
purged them of the residual effects of generations of interaction with Egyptian
Idolatry. Christ in His own life fasted for 40 days in the wilderness as a
model, like His baptism for His disciples to imitate. So, every year, we
prepare like Him for our Easter where we will offer our sacrifice, small as it
may be to Him. Lent is the season of fasting that begins today and ends on Holy
Saturday (except for Sundays; ancient Fathers forbade fasting on Sundays). This
is our tithe or a tenth part of our year for the Lord. We fast from “good”
things; for in our fast we give them to God, so that we learn not to put
anything before Him. We pray that by this movement of purification we
may be illuminated and finally come to union with Him. In a sense
during Lent we “pass over” from sin through penance to communion.
Of all the observances of Lent, the chief among these is the Great Fast. So intertwined are the words Lent and the Great
Fast, that in fact the Fathers of the Church sometimes used the terms
interchangeably. This solemn obligation is believed to be of Apostolic origin
and takes its precedent, as we mentioned above, from the examples of Moses,
Elias, and Jesus Christ. The Great Fast used to consist of both abstinence and
fasting. Christians were expected to abstain not only from flesh meat, but from
all things that come from flesh, e.g. milk, cheese, eggs, and butter. Eastern
rite Christians still observe this practice, while the Western church gradually
kept only abstinence from meat (reference to all lacticinia, or
"milk foods," was dropped in the 1919 Roman Code of Canon Law). Both
East and West, however, agree on the importance of fasting. Originally this
meant taking only one meal a day, though the practice was modified over the
centuries. The preconciliar practice
in the U.S. was for all able-bodied Catholics ages 21 to 60 to have
one full meal a day which could include meat, and two meatless meals which
together could not equal one full meal. Snacking between meals was prohibited,
though drinking was not. Ash Wednesday, Fridays and the Ember Days were days of total abstinence from
meat, while Sundays were completely exempted from all fasting and abstaining. The
idea behind the Great Fast -- as well as other periods of fasting -- is that by
weakening the body it is made more obedient to the soul, thereby liberating the
soul to contemplate higher things. St. Augustine gives perhaps the best
example: if you have a particularly high-spirited horse, you train it at the
times when it is too weak to revolt. It is our opinion that this venerable
practice should still be taken seriously.
Even though current ecclesiastical law has reduced the fast from forty days to
two and eliminated the thirty-three days of partial abstinence, this does not
mean that observing the Great Fast is not salubrious or praiseworthy. This
said, however, the Great Fast should not be adhered to legalistically. In the
words of St. John Chrysostom: "If your body is not strong enough to
continue fasting all day, no wise man will reprove you; for we serve a gentle
and merciful Lord who expects nothing of us beyond our strength."
Daily
Devotions
·
Please pray for me and this ministry
[2]
Hahn, Scott, Signs of Life; 40 Catholic Customs and their biblical roots. Chap.
7. Lent and Easter.
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