Thursday, July 5, 2018


Acts, Chapter 9, verse 26
When he arrived in Jerusalem he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple.

Christ tells us to love our enemy which is much easier to say than to do. Yet as much as possible we are to not fear them but strive to love them. Often, we find it difficult to love even our family and neighbors let alone our enemies. In fact, the opposite of fear is not courage but love. Hebrews, Chapter 13, Verse’ 1-6 show the following ways of living to demonstrate true love or charity.

·         In all that you do be an agent of hospitality. That is to be generous. Even the poor can be rich in their praise and love of others. Share not only your time, talent and treasure but truly give of yourself to others of your intellect, emotional support, and physical presence. A good guide is the spiritual works of mercy: instruct the ignorant; counsel the doubtful; admonish sinners; bear wrongs patiently; forgive offences willingly; comfort the afflicted; pray for the living and the dead.


·         Do what you can to free others of their prisons whether these are self-imposed i.e. addictions or through ignorance. A good guide is the corporal works of mercy: feed the hungry; give drink to the thirsty; clothe the naked; harbor the harbor-less; visit the sick; ransom the captive; bury the dead.


·         Marriage is the physical reality of our soul’s marriage to God through the Holy Spirit; therefore. If married love and honor your wife; be chase in spirit whether married or single knowing that marriage is the physical sign of your union with God. Disdain any kind of sexual defilement.


·         Avoid the love of money. Seek simplicity and contentment. Treat all the wealth you have as if it were Gods; on loan to you to build the Kingdom; which it is. You can do this if you know and trust God will never forsake you or abandon you.


The true meaning of love is to seek the good of the other as other.

Render unto Caesar[1]

This country cannot afford to be materially rich and spiritually poor.  John F. Kennedy

Have we become a soulless Nation? Have we in the pursuit of happiness; ignored the Gospel of Life. Realizing that if we put success or liberty as greater values than life that we are serving Caesar and not God. To understand this, we need to review the US Bishops “The Gospel of Life”.

The Gospel of Life[2]


Brothers and sisters in the Lord:

At the conclusion of the 1998 ad limina visits of the bishops of the United States, our Holy Father Pope John Paul II spoke these words:

Today I believe the Lord is saying to us all: do not hesitate, do not be afraid to engage the good fight of the faith (cf. I Tim 6:12).  When we preach the liberating message of Jesus Christ we are offering the words of life to the world.  Our prophetic witness is an urgent and essential service not just to the Catholic community but to the whole human family.

In this statement we attempt to fulfill our role as teachers and pastors in proclaiming the Gospel of Life.  We are confident that the proclamation of the truth in love is an indispensable way for us to exercise our pastoral responsibility.
"Your country stands upon the world scene as a model of a democratic society at an advanced stage of development.  Your power of example carries with it heavy responsibilities.  Use it well, America!"    --Pope John Paul II, Newark, 1995

When Henry Luce published his appeal for an "American century" in 1941, he could not have known how the coming reality would dwarf his dream.  Luce hoped that the "engineers, scientists, doctors . . . builders of roads [and] teachers" of the United States would spread across the globe to promote economic success and American ideals: "a love of freedom, a feeling for the quality of opportunity, a tradition of self-reliance and independence and also cooperation." Exactly this, and much more, has happened in the decades since.  U.S. economic success has reshaped the world.  But the nobility of the American experiment flows from its founding principles, not from its commercial power.  In this century alone, hundreds of thousands of Americans have died defending those principles.  Hundreds of thousands more have lived lives of service to those principles -- both at home and on other continents -- teaching, advising and providing humanitarian assistance to people in need.  As Pope John Paul has observed, "At the center of the moral vision of [the American] founding documents is the recognition of the rights of the human person . . ."  The greatness of the United States lies "especially [in its] respect for the dignity and sanctity of human life in all conditions and at all stages of development."

Now the word of the Lord came to me saying: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born, I consecrated you; a prophet to the nations I appointed you.
--Jeremiah 1:5

 The Way[3]

"Read these counsels slowly. Pause to meditate on these thoughts. They are things that I whisper in your ear-confiding them-as a friend, as a brother, as a father. And they are being heard by God. I won't tell you anything new. I will only stir your memory, so that some thought will arise and strike you; and so you will better your life and set out along ways of prayer and of Love. And in the end you will be a more worthy soul."

11.    Will-power. Energy. Example. What has to be done, is done... without hesitation, without more worrying. Otherwise, Teresa of Avila would not have been Saint Teresa: nor Iñigo of Loyola, Saint Ignatius. God and daring! 'We want Christ to reign!'

Daily Devotions
·         Drops of Christ’s Blood
·         Please pray for me and this ministry
·         Please Pray for Senator McCain and our country; asking Our Lady of Beauraing to intercede.


[1] Render unto Caesar, Charles J. Chaput
[2]http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/abortion/living-the-gospel-of-life.cfm
[3]http://www.escrivaworks.org/book/the_way-point-1.htm

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