DIWALI
Acts,
Chapter 20, Verse 20
I
earnestly bore witness for both Jews and Greeks to repentance before God and to
faith in our Lord Jesus.
Paul here is exhorting the Ephesian leaders to have
the heart of an effective leader which is “being before doing.” Leadership
begins with the heart.
Paul had a heart that was:
1.
Consistent-he lived steadily while moving
among them.
2.
Contrite-he acted humbly and willingly
showed his weakness.
3.
Courageous-he didn’t shrink from doing the
right thing.
4.
Convictional-he communicated his convictions
boldly.
5.
Committed-he left for Jerusalem, willing to
die for Christ.
6.
Captivated-he showed that a surrendered man
doesn’t have to survive.
The Hindu’s in India celebrate its
festival of lights today. Diwali is an ancient Hindu festival of lights, which
represents the eternal triumph of light over darkness or the victory of good
over evil. Diwali, which literally means row of lights in Hindi, is primarily
celebrated in India. This celebration of light is India's most important
holiday and marks the start of the New Year.
Seek
the light of the adoration candle and visit Christ in the adoration chapel
today and ask for the conversion of the world.
Nothing is
irreparable for Jesus and for Mary. A widow, desperate because her husband had
committed suicide by throwing himself into a river, came to Ars and met the
Curé upon leaving the church. He bent toward her and told her, “He is saved.”
As she made a gesture of incredulity, the saint repeated emphatically, “I tell
you that he is saved. He is in Purgatory, and you must pray for him. Between
the parapet of the bridge and the water he had time to make an act of
repentance. It is the Blessed Virgin who obtained this grace for him. Remember
the shrine to Mary in your room? Sometimes your husband, although irreligious,
united himself to your prayer. That merited repentance and the supreme pardon
for him.” Before leaving, she confided to M. Guillaumet, superior of the
College of St. Dizier, a witness to the scene, “I was in a dreadful state of
despair, imagining the tragic end of my husband. He was an unbeliever, and I
lived only for the thought of leading him back to God. Then he drowned himself
by a voluntary suicide! I could only believe he was damned! Oh! never to see
him again! Yet you heard what the Curé of Ars told me repeatedly: ‘He is
saved!’ I shall see him again in Heaven after all!” See the delicacy of Jesus
and of the Blessed Virgin! A person did some good which he had forgotten, but
they had not forgotten, and at the right moment they made use of it, if I may
put it that way. Jesus makes use of everything to save us. How astonished we
will be in Heaven when we see that! Some make Him a judge who strikes men down
and seeks revenge, whereas in fact He seeks to save us by all possible means.
·
The
devil certainly wants you to give in to temptation and do what is wrong,
because his main goal is to turn us away from God. When we yield to temptation,
you can be sure we make the devil happy.
·
But
the devil isn’t directly responsible for every temptation we face, nor can we
blame him when we give in and do wrong. Temptations come to us in many ways—but
when we give in to them, we alone are responsible for what we’ve done. The
Bible says, “Each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged
away and enticed” (James 1:14).
·
Remember,
it isn’t a sin to be tempted; even Jesus was tempted by the devil to turn away from
God’s plan (see Matthew 4:1-11). But it is sin to give in to temptation and go
our own way instead of God’s way. Every sin is an act of rebellion on our part,
telling God we think our way is better than His way. But that is a
lie, for God’s way is always best.
·
Don’t
fight your temptations alone; if you do, you will fail. Instead, ask God to help you by
giving you the courage and inner strength to turn away. Begin by asking Christ to come into
your life, forgiving and cleansing your sins and coming to live within you by
His Spirit.
·
Then
learn to walk with God every day, through prayer and fellowship with other
believers and reading the Bible. The Bible says, “God is faithful. … When you
are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it”
(1 Corinthians 10:13).`
WASHINGTON[5]—His
Eminence, Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo, Archbishop of Galveston-Houston and
President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, has issued the following
statement on receiving the news of the Rev. Billy Graham's death:
"Today,
we pray for the soul of the Rev. Billy Graham to the Lord he so dearly loved
and offer our condolences to his family. Billy Graham was a preacher of God's
Word not only in his sermons, but also in the very life he lived. His
faith and integrity invited countless thousands around the world into a closer
relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Thanks be to God for
the ministry of Billy Graham."
My beloved, obedient as you have always been, not only when I
am present but all the more now when I am absent, work out your salvation with
fear and trembling.
"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."
111. Don't show the cowardice of being 'brave'; take to your heels!
Daily Devotions
[1]John Maxwell, The Maxwell Leadership
Bible.
[4]https://billygraham.org/answer/does-the-devil-cause-every-temptation-we-face/
[5]http://usccb.org/news/2018/18-040.cfm
[6]http://www.escrivaworks.org/book/the_way-point-1.htm
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