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GROWING STRONG IN THE LORD

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THURSDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Eph 6:10-20; Ps 144:1-2,9-10; Lk 13:31-35 The Spiritual Armour for Daily Battle Our spiritual warfare is deeper and more subtle than many of us realise. Because confusion abounds in our understanding of spiritual reality, the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and what salvation entails, a thousand and one false spiritualities also exist. As long as we remain in the dark about the Gospel of our Lord, we remain prone to the most subtle spiritual attacks. The major and most destructive weapon of Satan is deception. Our Lord called him the father of lies, for that is where his greatest power lies. With the power of delusion, he rules the whole world and leads myriads of souls and angels into hellish fire. The core revelation of Jesus Christ about himself for our salvation is the statement in Jn 14:6: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” In this revelation, Jesus sets himself up as the only weap...
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ALIGNMENT WITH DIVINE WILL

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SAINTS SIMON AND JUDE, APOSTLES Eph 2:19-22; Ps 19:2-5; Lk 6:12-19 Their Word goes forth through All the Earth We celebrate the holy Apostles, Saints Simon and Jude. Each apostle has an interesting background. Simon hailed from Canaan and is often called ‘the Zealot’ because of his political interest and involvement. He belonged to the Zealot party and opposed and fought against Roman rule. Tradition considers him the bridegroom at the wedding in Cana, where the Lord worked his first miracle of turning water into wine. The Lord transformed the zeal of the bridegroom of Canaan for the earthly kingdom of Judah and Israel into zeal for the heavenly kingdom. Saint Jude, on the other hand, was the relative of our Lord. He was usually called his brother, being the son of Mary the wife of Cleophas. He is also the brother of James the Less. So, James and Jude were children of Mary, the relative of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus. Scripture gave a brief record of him, for he ...
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OUR SPIRITUAL LEAVENING

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TUESDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Eph 5:25-33; Ps 128:1-5; Lk 13:18-21 The Spiritual Leavening of Our Bodies Through the life, passion, death, and resurrection of the Son of Man, we have been given a new life through the enduring Word of God. The life we have received is spiritual, for the Word of God is spirit and life. Our faith in Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word of God, has given us a new spirit. This new life is a spirit, which exists as an orientation within our body. We know this spirit's presence by the new awareness and orientation toward the Father we feel within, at the centre of our being. The spiritual awareness and orientation give birth to the babyish cry, ‘Abba, Father!’, we utter in union with the Holy Spirit. So, in this deep and overwhelming interior operation of prayer, we become aware of the Holy Spirit and a new life through the orientation and hunger for the Being we call ‘Father.’ As spiritual babies, we must keep this interior awareness and mak...
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LOVING AS CHRIST LOVED

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MONDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Eph 4:32-5:8; Ps 1:1-4,6; Lk 13:10-17 Our Vocation to imitate God Saint Paul admonishes us, as he did to the Christians at Ephesus, to imitate God’s love. Can we imitate God’s love? Our answer is the same answer our Lord gave Peter when he wondered about the difficulty of our salvation. If we consider the question with human eyes, as Peter did with human salvation, it would be impossible. Hence, the Lord answered him: “For man it is impossible, but not for God, for everything is possible for God. The same response applies to imitating God’s love. Paul gave them the admonition because of his familiarity with the grace of Jesus Christ. The Son of God became man to reveal the incomprehensible love of God the Father for us. He revealed God’s love practically to us by cleansing us of every defilement. By the same act with which he revealed the Father’s love for us, he washed away our sins. The death of the Son of God on the Cross of Calvary reve...
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IMITATING DIVINE CHARITY

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SUNDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Exod 22:20-26; Ps 18:2-4,47, 51; 1 Thess 1:5-10; Mt 22:34-40 The Commandments of Love The Law of God came to its foundation when grace appeared on earth. Without grace, the Law was as fruitless as a barren fig tree. But we must understand that God’s Law is perfect, as Psalm 19:7 says: “The Law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.” The Law of God revives our souls by revealing our souls' weakness and keeping us alert for the coming of grace, through which we receive spiritual life. The Law of God is perfect because it reveals God’s mind for us; for God’s will is perfect and the source of every perfection. By fostering the proper orientation to God, away from self in our souls, the Law prepares us to receive God’s life and perfection. The Law renews the image of God, who is a sacrifice, within our souls by dissuading us from trusting in ourselves in the worship of God, guiding us to entrust ourselves to him. A true worshipper of God...
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PRODUCTIVITY IN THE FACE OF EVIL

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SATURDAY, TWENTY NINTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Eph 4:7-16; Ps 122:1-5; Lk 13:1-9 Bearing Fruit in the face of Evil Sad events make us ask questions concerning fate and what it really entails. We have stated that God created the whole universe and orders everything within it for his own good purpose. Does our belief in the divine ordering of things and events on earth exclude negative outcomes or events from the operation of different natures created by God? Certainly not. God created every nature; he also acts through each nature’s operation to realise his good purpose. Unfavourable outcomes from operations of natural things, which we call material evils in distinction from moral evils, are part of divine foreknowledge and ordering of natural events. Hence, the faithful who pray to God for deliverance from evil, moral and material, ask for divine grace to uphold our weak wills, to always choose what is truly good and not seemingly evil. With grace, we act according to the Father’s ...
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GOD'S COMMUNICATIONS

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FRIDAY, TWENTY NINTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Eph 4:1-6; Ps 24:1-6; Lk 12:54-59 Spiritual Signs of Our God Communication usually happens between two people or parties who understand the meaning of the signs used. God is the Supreme Spirit and the origin or father of spirits. He always communicates spiritually to us in various languages. Cf. Heb 1:1. But because most of us are spiritually dead or unresponsive, we hardly receive or understand the communication from God, our Father. God is no stranger to our spiritual paucity; he also employs physical signs and means within our understanding and operations. But because these physical means and signs are far removed from the spiritual realm, we cannot easily make spiritual meaning from them. We need a spiritual medium to interpret God’s will as coded in the physical signs. The Son of man is the chief medium of the Father’s mind for us. He came among us to reveal the will of God the Father, to enable us to acquire a spiritual life and co...
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