So much to think about.... deciding is not easy

This is really thought provoking

What are Priests supposed to do ?

Priests always struggle with questions like the one below.... I have erred on both sides. I really resonate with what Our Holy Father says in his conversation with these priests (This comes from Whispers) This whole topic seems to me a matter of engaging culture. How do we reach out to people on the edge, on the fringe... those just barely evangelized... The circumstances are a little different on a college campus... We don't have lots of first communions, however we have to find a way into the lives of young men and women who have just barely been introduced to Christ. We also struggle with students who what to be sponsors or God parents but who have little or no religious practice. Thank you B16 for understanding our challenges and sharing your thoughts on the matter in a pastoral way.

------------- From Whispers ---------

Midway through his stay at the Alto Adige seminary, however, the pontiff journeyed to the local cathedral, where he held the latest of his signature Q&A sessions with the clergy of his vacation diocese. The meet-ups invariably include at least one notable quote, and -- with the encounter now translated in full -- this time around the buzz has honed in on B16's response to a priest who, "thinking that in any case it’s better not to snuff out the wick of a weak flame," sought pastoral insight on accepting the less-than-fully-committed for the sacraments:

The Pope's response:

Well, I can’t give an infallible answer right now, I can only try to respond based on what I see. I have to say that I’ve followed a path similar to yours. When I was young I was rather more severe. I said: the sacraments are the sacraments of the faith, and when the faith isn’t there, where there’s not practice of the faith, the sacraments can’t be conferred. When I was Archbishop of Munich I always discussed this with my pastors, and there too there were too factions, one severe and one more generous. I too in the course of time have realized that we have to follow instead the example of the Lord, who was very open also with the people who were at the margins of Israel at that time. He was a Lord of mercy, too open – according to many of the official authorities – with sinners, welcoming them or allowing himself to be welcomed by them at their dinners, drawing them to himself in his communion.

Thus I would say in essence that the sacraments are naturally sacraments of the faith. Where there is no element of faith, where First Communion would just be a party with a big lunch, nice clothes and nice gifts, then it can’t be a sacrament of the faith. But, on the other hand, if we can see even a tiny flame of desire for communion in the church, a desire also from these children who want to enter into communion with Jesus, it seems right to me to be rather generous. Naturally, for sure, it must be part of our catechesis to make clear that Communion, First Communion, is not automatic, but it demands a continuity of friendship with Jesus, a path with Jesus. I know that children often have the intention and desire to go to Sunday Mass, but their parents don’t make it possible. If we see that the children want it, that they have the desire to go, it seems to me almost a sacrament of desire, the ‘vow’ of participation at Sunday Mass. In this sense we naturally should do everything possible in the context of sacramental preparation to also reach the parents and – let’s say – also awaken in them a sensibility for the path that their children are taking. They should help their children to follow their own desire to enter into friendship with Jesus, which is the form of life, of the future. If the parents have the desire that their children should make the First Communion, this somewhat social desire should be expanded into a religious desire to make possible a journey with Jesus.

I would say, therefore, that in the context of catechism with children, the work with parents is always very important. It’s an occasion for meeting the parents, making the life of faith present also to the adults, so that they themselves can learn anew from the children – it seems to me – and to understand that this great solemnity makes sense only, and it’s true and authentic only if, it’s realized in the context of a journey with Jesus, in the context of a life of faith. The challenge is to convince the parents a bit, through the children, of the necessity of a preparatory path, which reveals itself in participation in the mysteries and begins to foster love for those mysteries.

This is a fairly insufficient response, I would say, but the pedagogy of the faith is always a journey, and we have to accept today’s situation, but we also have to open it up little by little, so that it’s not directed at the sole aim of some exterior memory of things, but so that the heart is truly touched. In the moment in which we become convinced, the heart is touched, it’s felt a bit of the love of Jesus, and it’s experienced a bit of desire to move in this direction. In that moment, it seems to me, we can say that we’ve accomplished a real catechesis. The true sense of catechesis, in fact, should be this: to carry the flame of the love of Jesus, even if it’s small, to the hearts of children, and through the children to their parents, thereby opening anew the places of the faith in our time.

29th Sunday of Ordinary Time Year A

Reading 1 Responsorial Psalm Reading 2 Gospel

The end of the Gospel of Matthew is an amazing drama…
Jesus is desperately trying to reach out to the religious leaders
of his time.

He knows what is in store for the Jerusalem that he loves.
He tries everything to get them to recognize him as the Messiah.
He tries everything he can to get them to
let go of their power,
to let go of their riches,
to let go of their pride, their arrogance.

Because he loves them
He longs for the day that they repent.

The last three weeks Jesus reached out to them over and over again.
This week the religious leaders counter attack if you will.

They considered Jesus to be such a threat to their world
that they had to be careful

The people believed in him so
they begin by even flattering him.

Then bitter enemies joined forces.
Pharisees were very anti Roman
If he said pay the tax directly
they would be able to rally the people against Him.
They did not want to recognized any Roman Authority.

The Herodians were accommodators or collaborators…
they cooperated with the Romans for their own personal enrichment
and at the expense of their people

If he said don’t pay the tax
then the Herodians would report him to Romans
because it would be another feather in their cap.

It is a very difficult spot for Jesus to be in
It was definitely a no win situation…

His answer is famous and transcends time

After looking at the coin he says.
Give to Caeser what is Caesar’s and give to God what is God's.

And it Begs the question…
What is Caesar’s
What is God’s

From that simple phrase all of us have to garner
our place in this world and our place in this culture.

What is our role in civil society?
What do we owe our country?
What do we owe God?

Everything we have comes from God.
In God alone will our souls be at rest.
In God we find our origin,
our reason to live,
and our final goal or destiny

In everything we do we should try to live our lives
as God would have us do

God comes first obviously…
And God’s will comes first.

But the parable clearly teaches that
we also owe something to Caesar
we also owe something to our culture our country.

Because we benefit from many things in our country
we are obligated to contribute to the common God.

We share the benefit of the roads and the infrastructure
And we are obligated to share in their expense.

Giving to Caesar means being willing to pay our fair share of taxes.

But being a responsible Catholic citizen
demands more.

Because the Gospel teaches us that we are all
Brothers and sisters.

We should also live lives of service.

We should be involved in our communities

We should go beyond the minimum in helping those in need

We should coach little league teams
And camp with cub scouts
We should wash cars for the next band trip
And donate food to the food bank

We should care about our brothers and sisters all over the world
and not live lavish lifestyles at their expense
We must share from our abundance.

And we should teach our children
from a very very early age to do the same.

For followers of Christ
lives of service
are not a pious extra.
They are not the icing on the cake.

They are part of the Gospel's call to love one another
as God has loved us.

Very Sadly we all fall short on this.

In the early church people were able to point out
Christians by the way they cared for others

“See how they love one another”

I’m not sure if that is still the case for us
If it was
what a different world it would be.

Finally Caesar (our country and our culture)
Needs our participation
We do this in several ways.

The first is obviously by voting

When we go to vote it is our right and our duty
to take with us all of our values and ideas with us.

We have a right and an obligation to vote according to our conscience
weighing carefully what every candidate clearly stands for.

But our call to participate goes beyond simply voting in elections.

All of us are also called to participate in our culture
by helping to form it

We are called to participate in the public arena
We are called to contribute to the discussion
which shapes our world and its values

Our culture needs us
Our culture needs our values
Needs our ideas
our hopes and our dreams

Our culture needs our witness

Our culture needs to share our conviction that every human being
From the womb to the tomb is special with inalienable rights and responsibilities

Our culture needs to know that we are not alone
and we are cared for and loved by God.

How do we give to Caesar what is Caesar's?
How should we participate in the formation of our culture.

I guess the question could be rephrased to...

How do you change a human heart,
How do you change a human culture

You don’t yell at it
You don’t ridicule it
You don’t proclaim all its faults
Or distain it
You don’t think you are better than it…

You change a human heart and a culture of Human hearts by
Loving it
Forgiving it
By Challenging it lovingly
You change a human heart and a culture of human hearts
by sacrificing for it

You change a human heart and culture of human hearts by dying for it.
That's what Jesus did.

You change a culture like you change a person.
This is what giving to Caesar what is Caesar's is all about

Sisters and brothers
Election day is fast approaching
but our involvement in our city and country and world
has to be so much more.

There is so much need
There is so much to do.

That’s what we owe to God
And That’s what we owe to each other

Amen

Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A

Reading 1 Responsorial Psalm Reading 2 Gospel

Both this week and last week we have heard Jesus reach out to the
religious leaders of his time with an almost desperate voice,
a desperate love

He saw where they were headed
(he sees where some of us are headed)
He knew how much they were entrenched in their sin
And he longed to call them to conversion
He loved them
(Sometimes you yell the most at the kid you love the most)

Last week
The religious leaders of his time were represented as the unfaithful tenants in God’s vineyard
They were those who refused to listed to the prophets and even killed the Son

This week
The religious they were the invited guests to the wedding banquet

It was the custom of the time to send runners out with invitations
Informing the invited that there would be a wedding feast soon and to get prepared

When the meal was ready (no microwaves then)
the runners would return to bring back the guests

The guests (the Jewish people and religious leaders of his time) knew that they were invited
They knew they were the chosen people

They knew that it was a special occasion
and theirs was a privileged place

They knew that had even received several invitations
God had invited them to fellowship over and over again in their history
Yet somehow and they refused

They were busy
They were otherwise concerned
one went to his business, another his farm,
some even beat up those bringing the invitation.

The guests were being invited into happiness
Into joy
They were being invited Into friendship and fellowship with the king

What kept them away?
Why did they refuse ?

The answer is probably different for each of them.

Some were too focused in the moment
They were probably overwhelmed by what was happening at that moment in their lives
(That happens to all of us some time)

Some just were not interested
They were betting on themselves
they thought that they had a good life already
they didn’t believe that the banquet would be better

Some probably resented being told anything.
How dare that king tell me when I am supposed to come
I am the master of my own destiny….
I’ll come when I am ready

Some just didn’t want their lives to change
They were afraid of change
They were afraid to change

Because of their hardened hearts they lost their chance
Because of their refusal of God’s love
they did not enjoy the banquet of the Lord

So the king invited a whole other group of guests
People who never thought they would get an invitation

They were the outcasts
The religiously incorrect
The sinners, the broken ones
Those burdened with addictions
The bandits, the prostitutes, you get the picture

He invited people who never thought they had a chance
And
When they received the invitation
which they never expected
they responded

They responded with a conversion of Heart
They did their best to leave their sad pasts behind them
They trusted the king and they came
They dared to hope for more.

And They even came properly attired
For the feast

They came with dressed with the desire to live virtuously
They were admitted to the banquet because
The love of the king even when they were sinners overwhelmed them

Sadly one man tried come without this change of heart
He entered the banquet without being clothed in virtue
or even the desire of virtue

He wanted the benefits of the Heavenly banquet without being willing to pay the prices

The King even approached him and asked him why he was not properly attired
He Probably in the hope that he could reason with the man
give him one more chance

Sadly the man was not ready to change
He was not ready to even try to be
Be the person that God created him to be
And he was thrown out back into his sadness

Friends…
The Word of God transcends time
The Word of God was not only addressed to the Jewish people at that sad moment in history
The Word of God is also addressed to us.

We are the guests
We are the invited
We are the chosen ones
We who have the gift of faith
We who through no merit of our own have been given the incredible gift of faith

Which one of these characters in the this parable are we
Which one of the characters in this parable represents our lives and the choices we have made

We have to ask ourselves…
Which one?

All of us have been invited
Have we accepted the invitation
Or are we too busy

Are we too busy to give more than 1 hour a week to God
How much of our time, and our energy are we willing to place in God’s call to fellowship

What are we bringing to the banquet

How many of us feel so lost in the present
that we can’t even think of God and God’s call
You know the drill you find yourself thinking

I have so much to do
So much calling is calling for attention

How many of us have found ourselves saying thing like
I want holiness
I want to life a virtuous life a good life
But I don’t have time now

How many of us have convinced ourselves in our hearts that
we have everthing we need right now
How many of us trust ourselves our world and our riches
more than God

How many of us kind of say Yes I’ll come to the banquet but when I’m old
And when I don’t have any better options

Yes God speaks to us
God speaks to each one of us

With a kind of desperate voice
A desperate love
He longs for us to enjoy the heavenly banquet

Pray God we all say yes.
Pray God that we and the people we love are not tricked into refusing the invitation

Pray God that all of us and the people we love are able
To make the changes needed in our lives to worthy of attending.

Amen

Friday Morning "My Day Off"

Time to rest
Time to re-create
Time to pray
Time to prepare this weekend's homily
Time to be with friends
Time to walk away
Time to walk period
Time to explore to see something new
Time to have Mass for the Football team

Why did God give us the 7th day
Why a "day of rest"
Why did God give us the sabbath ?
The Sabbath is important because it refocuses our efforts for the other 6 days
The Sabbath is important because it reminds us of our purpose and were can direct our energies
The Sabbath is important because it can keep us from burning out getting over loaded

Lord help me you my "Day Off" wisely
so that refreshed and renewed I may serve you with a generous heart
AMEN

Wednesday Adoration Homily - Lord Teach us to Pray -

The Gospel of Luke has been called the Gospel of prayer
Over and over again Jesus is found praying in Luke’s Gospel
Before major events
Before he enters a town
and often after he leaves one

The Disciples simply ask
Lord teach us to pray
Not Lord teach us a prayer

In the Our Father we find not only a wonderful prayer
but Jesus also teaches us about God and what should be part of every prayer

By calling God Father:
Jesus is teaching us that
that God is the source of life,
that God is the Creator of every living thing.

Jesus is also teaching us that we are God’s children,
We are sons and daughters, of God.

And if we are children of the one God,
then we are brothers and sisters to each other.
And there can be no exceptions.

Whenever we pray this prayer
Whenever we pray any prayer it has to
bind us together into one human family

Every prayer which leaves our mouth should speak to this profound truth
Every prayer is for everyone

Do we understand this when we say the word Father in prayer.

Am I prepared to see every single person on the face of this earth,
regardless of race, nationality, skin color,
class, occupation, age, religion,
or behavior… as my brother and sister?

If not,
How can we continue to pray ?

Hallowed be your name or
May your name be held holy:

God’s name is already holy and nothing we can do can make it any more so.

In this petition Jesus tries to help us understand that God is greater than us
That God is beyond our grasp

He is all Good all Powerful all Loving

With this petition Jesus wants the whole world sing with the angels,
“Holy, holy, holy…” like the scene in the Book of Revelation before the very throne of God

God does not need our praise but we do
When we realize that God is holy we are saying that we belong to him and recognize him as Lord.

Your kingdom come:
God’s Kingdom is that world where God’s will prevails
in people’s hearts and minds and relationships.

It produces a world of freedom, peace and justice for all.
In praying this petition, we are not just asking God to bring it about while we sit back and wait.

We are also committing ourselves to be partners with God in bringing it about.
Our co-operation in the founding of the God's Kingdom is essential

To be a Christian,
To be a disciple of Jesus is essentially
to be involved in this task of making the Kingdom a reality.

All of us have to help bring about the founding of God’s kingdom
All of us have to bring the world to God

With the petition
Give us this day our Daily Bread…
Jesus teaches us there that it is right and good for God’s children to petition their Father for the things they need…
not necessarily the things we want.

Like any Father God will provide for us

The author in living spaces spoke at lengths about the pronoun us.
Who does the us stand for.

Is it us who pray this prayer?
Is it our family ?
Is it our our friends acquaintances?
Or does the us mean that we are praying for everyone
all of God’s children

When we say give us
Are we not praying for the whole world

Are we not asking that the whole world receive what they need…

If this is the case
with this petition are we not promising to help make that happen?

Are we not promising to share God’s resources with all of God’s children

That’s a scary implication for a country that uses way beyond our far share of the world’s natural resources to sustain our life style.

With the petition
and forgive us our sins
for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us,

Jesus is teaching us that in our prayer we can ask for forgiveness
It is implied that God really wants to forgive us our sins.

But when we ask for forgiveness for our sins
we are also promising to forgive those who sin against us

This petition teaches us that we will only be forgiven
in proportion to how much we forgive.

If that is indeed the case
How many of us still harbor anger or resentment in our hearts

And how many of us can count on God’s forgiveness
if we have not forgiven each other from our hearts?

And do not subject us to the final test….
With this last petition Jesus is reminding us that our world is filled with temptation and that we permanently need God’s loving protection
God’s Loving Mercy.

We need God’s presence in our lives
So that we may not ever permanently separate from God’s love


In teaching us the Our Father
Jesus teaches us how to pray
And reminds us that…

We are precious in God’s eyes
He is our Father we are His Children

He reminds us that
That God is ever greater than us

That God’s will and God’s dreams are what is best for us
And that we should work to follow God’s plan in our lives

Jesus reminds us that we have a role in God’s plan
that all of us have to work for
The coming of His kingdom on earth

Along our Journey home God will provide our daily bread
He will give us what we need
It is good and right and just to depend on him for our daily necessitates

We should never forget that we can count on God’s forgiveness
if we forgive each other

And finally that God will be with us always on the journey home to him

Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Reading 1
Responsorial Psalm
Reading 2

Gospel

May the peace of Christ reign in our hearts.

Images like wild grapes, vineyards, hedges, landowners etc.
are not part of our normal experience,
but the people who heard these parables understood them completely.

And it is important that we try to enter
into the symbolism and meaning of those words.

We need to ask ourselves what is God saying to us?

The vineyard… could it symbolize creation, could it be our world?
Could it be ancient Israel ?
Could it symbolize God’s chosen people with whom
God longed to have a special relationship?
It could be all of the above.

Grapes and wild grapes…
Could they be the fruit of our labors..
The work of our hands?
Not just what we produced with our work
But who we become.
The lives we live, the people we are?

I often get lost in the thought that I am the work of my hands.

The Land owner is God…
God who gives us everything we need,

The vineyard described in the parable is beautiful.
God who gives us a a wonderful world, a beautiful vineyard
a place which is capable of providing for us abundantly, richly.

Maybe We are the tenants…
The world does not belong to us
It is given to us in trust
It is given to us so that we can find our way back
to God.
It is given to us so that we can give back to God with
the work of our hands.
Like the tenants were supposed to give the landowner some of the fruit
of their labor.

The tenants also symbolizes the religious leaders of the time
They were given the care of the vineyard
they were given the care of God’s people.

God like the Landowner wants us to love him.
God like the landowner wants to enjoy the work of our hands.
God wants to be proud of us.
God wants to rejoice in our successes and pick us up when we fail.

He is so desperate for us to live as we should.
That he repeatedly sends
Servants or Prophets to encourage us and guide us on our journey
The patience and perseverance of God is astounding

Remember that powerful line
But the tenants seized the servants and one they beat,
another they killed, and a third they stoned.

The landowner does not give up the tenants…
Even when they are steeped in sin and violence
So desperate is the Landowner for the well-being of the tenants that
He sends his son his own flesh and blood to
guide his tenants home.

------------------------

Moved by jealousy and anger and mostly greed they kill his son
only then are they dealt with.

As you can see this parable is intense.
Jesus spoke it to the religious leaders of his time
Because he loved them with all their sins ..
He held a mirror up in front of their faces
He showed them who they were
He didn’t sugar coat.

They had done horrible things
Motivated By greed and
a lust for power they
killed the prophet
They killed the Messiah

And a in the year 70 roughly 40 years after Jesus’ death
in a terrible war of destruction,
The Romans would destroy all that was dear to them.

But because the scriptures are the word of God
They not only speak to the people of his time…
they speak to us.
When we read the Scriptures they also call us
to look at ourselves in the mirror
To see who we are and what motivates us

Here are some questions for us the tenants of the vineyard.

Are we giving God his do?
Are we making God proud of us?
Are we producing and becoming the men and women God would have us be?
Are our grapes bountiful or wild?

Are we taking care of the vineyard?
Are we caring for it so future generations can enjoy it and benefit from it?
Are we sharing the vineyard’s, abundance fairly?
Do all of our brothers and sisters have the ability to share in its resources?

Are we arrogant do we think we know it all like the tenants?
Do we listen to the prophets and teachers that God
repeatedly sends us over and over and over again
Or do we persecute them or just a bad do we mock them
Marginalize them, ignore them make fun of them?

What is are our motivations in life?
What are our goals ?
What pushes us forward?
We are in a terrible economic crisis now
because lots of people many motivated by greed gambled
and lost lending people money they could not afford?

What place does greed have in our lives?
Do we live to acquire more and more and more prosperity
or
do we live to make a difference in peoples lives?

Are we working for ourselves like the tenants or are we
living the generous lives that God calls us to live ?
What motivates us?

What place does the Son of the Landowner have in our lives
The baptists and evangelicals often ask…
Have we accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior….

Good Question Have we?
Do we follow his teaching, his counsel, his law?
Or do we drive him from heart and tried to kill him
like the tenants drove the son from the vineyard.

This parable is as powerful today as it was when it was proclaimed
Over 2000 years ago.

Let us listen and learn.
Amen

Live as if you are dying...

I just got back from the Franciscan Monastery. Every year on the eve of the Feast of St. Francis. Franciscans from all over gather to commemorate the death of our Holy Father Francis.

In the homily the friar spoke about living each day as if you were dying. Granted at first it sound morbid but as I listened to him I began to think. What would I be doing differently now if I knew I was dying soon. What would I do differently if I knew that I would be meeting God in the near future? As my mind wandered lots of things came to me. I still have so much work to do.

One thing is certain you never really know how much time you have, you never really know when your time on earth will be up. You never really know when you will be called home to judgement. I guess it makes sense to live like you are dying. What would you work on ?

A homily for a Football Team

(Pre- Maritime NY Game - Go Cards)

May the peace of Christ Reign in our hearts…
For a long time now I have decided to always try
and base my reflections on the readings of the day.
I try to reflect on whatever God gives us to reflect on

Today’s readings are not ones that I would have picked
but they are what have given to us
so it is important to think about them on them.

And that is precisely what the first reading is getting at.
Job is angry with God
Job he was a man of outstanding virtue
He had the respect of everyone
He had a certain level of material comfort
but as things are taken from him
And he faces suffering
he gets angry

He begins to fight with God.
He presumes to know more than God Himself
He begins to judge and criticize and second guess
As absurd as it seems... in his mind he makes himself God
He thinks he knows better

And because God loves Job
The proverbial 2X4 comes from the sky

Have you seen heaven?
Do you know were it is?
Have summoned the dawn?
Or seen the gates of the nether world?
Have you seen the source of the Ocean

In reality God puts Job in his place
Basically he says
I am God and you are Job
And I am all powerful and you are not
And I am all knowing and you know very little
Be humble
Know your place
That’s the message of the first reading a very important message indeed

The Gospel from Luke is hard to understand because
it is the last few lines in a very long story.

It almost seems desperate if you can ever call God desperate.
The tone is strong and in your face

It is meant to snap us out of our complacency
When God says
Woe to you
Woe
Woe to you…. That’s not good.

Jesus is simply trying to try one last time
to break through to those places
where the Gospel has already been preached

The people of these Capernaum and Chorazin have heard the gospel preached
The people of these cities have seen miracles
They have experienced the presence of God
They have been blessed... with many blessings

Yet they just won’t change
They are complacent
Comfortable in their error

They refuse to give up their poor choices
and accept God’s will in our lives.

And it as if God wants to get in their face...
I tries desperately to break through

As I think about it
I think it is important for me to hear these readings…
It is important for all of us to hear them.

How often like Job do we
think we know more than God?
How often do we think we can pick and choose
what we are going to follow in God plan?

How often do we say to ourselves and even others…
I understand this so I will follow it
I agree with that so I will make it a part of my life
or
I like that part of God’s law so I will follow it

But that doesn't make sense to me so I won’t follow it.

Sometimes people with this type of attitude are called supermarket
Christians, or supermarket Catholics…

They feel that they have the right to pick and choose what part of God’s law they will follow
Just like Job thought he knew better than God

Fellas our only question should be
can be

Is this part of God’s law or not
If something is part of God’s law we are bound to follow it.

Have we summoned the day
Do we know where heaven is
Have we seen the gates of the netherworld?

Reflecting on the Gospel

We like Capernaum and Corazin have received many gifts
The Gospel has been preached to us
We have received lots of opportunities
The chance to learn, to study
We have a level of material well being
We blessed with the ability to play a sport and be good at it
To have a passion for something that we enjoy doing

We have received so much
and what kind of men have we become ?

I ask myself frequently with all the blessings that I have received
What have I done with them?

I think the tone of the gospel
calls us all to reflect
on what have we done with God’s blessings in our lives

There is always room for improvement in my life
there may be room for improvement in yours too.

Let’s try more and more to conform our lives to God’s law
not just the part we find comfortable or easily understandable.

Let’s allow the blessings we’ve received to change us
and mold us into the men that God would have us be

We are not God
and the blessings we have received
call us to follow God's will without counting the cost.

These are important lessons indeed.
Amen

What a wonderful gift.

I am Humbled and Grateful !!
Click here to find out why
It's not you who should thank me
it is I who thank God and You
for the gift of my vocation
and the chance to live it.

Thank YOU