" Come, and you will see"

This past Friday morning Mass reading was on first chapter of John verse 35-39:

John 1:35-39

Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition (DRA)

 ^"The next day again John stood, and two of his disciples.

 And beholding Jesus walking, he saith: Behold the Lamb of God.

 And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.

 And Jesus turning, and seeing them following him, saith to them: What seek you? Who said to him, Rabbi, (which is to say, being interpreted, Master,) where dwellest thou?

 He saith to them: Come and see. They came, and saw where he abode, and they stayed with him that day: now it was about the tenth hour."

What struck me in this scripture was Jesus words " Come and See", He(Jesus) would like for us to be like the two disciples and approach him, and he too will tell us to come and see what he as to offer, and what he wants to show us. He invites us each and everyday to open our hearts and let him in so we can see his graces and blesses and like the two disciples we too can see where he lives. Today Jesus is in the chapel waiting for us and wondering "Could you not watch one hour with me?" (MT 26:41), Pope Benedict has proclaim 2013 as 'The year of Faith' and since Lent is just around the corner, what a great opportunity for us to "Come and See" what he has to offer... May God Bless you and your family!

Healing

Matthew 8:2-4 

"And behold a leper came and adored him, saying: Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.
And Jesus stretching forth his hand, touched him, saying: , I will, be thou made clean. And forthwith his leprosy was cleansed."

Here was a scripture verse of many that I thought(Knew), if I had the strong faith as this leper did
Jesus would say the same words "I will, be thou clean. How many today lack this strong faith and feel
Jesus would turn us down, let Jesus clean whatever areas in our life that are unheal due to lack of knowledge! AMEN

A C T S Retreat/Mens

This past summer on Father's Day weekend I made a retreat and would like to tell you about my experience of my trip. First of all, I would recommend all who at one time or another, who have being thinking of going to please make that move, it is something that you will not regret. It was my first retreat of any kind and so the unknown of what is coming was to me a little scary, for lack of a word. But nevertheless, there I was on the Bus heading to who knows what but God himself(no pun intended) anxiety, nervously and scare, all at the same time. I've always wanted to make this retreat, I use to see Men and Women so excited when they got back; the funny thing about this is the Holy Spirit did not what me to go just to see why these Men and Women were so excited or just be curious, no it wanted my 'Full Attention'. The last 3 to 4 years on my way to work I always stop at my Church, sit  in front of the cross and just mediate for about 30 minutes. I knew that there was going to be a men's retreat in about a month from now, so one day I decided to ask Jesus I have been coming here every morning for the last few years, what do you want me to do? There was a sign just as you were leaving the Church about the retreat, when, where, and date, but on that day that I ask where are you leading me, that sign became Huge and all I remember saying was, you are going to have to work with my wife on that! It wasn't until a few weeks after, that my wife at a Sunday Mass, turn to me and said ' by the way I sign you up to go to the retreat' and quickly my thoughts turn to why do you(Jesus) want me to go! There were 3 powerful events that hit me so hard at the retreat and I felt the Holy Spirit in all of them, and I would love to write about them; so here it goes. First one was the first night there, we did the 'Station of the Cross' that evening, we were given each a nail ,and mine look very long. I look around to see if everyone else had a long one as will, but it was to dark to see. We were encourage to each take turn in helping Jesus carry the cross, of course someone play the part of Jesus, when it was my turn we had two station left to go so I went to the head of the cross to carry it and let me tell you it felt very heavy even though you had 4 other men helping you. At the conclusion of the play we use the hammer and with the nail that we had from the beginning, we pound the nail to the cross, as I was going to the cross to pound the nail I went to the side where the hands would be at, but some how was lead(Spirit) to the front where the head would be. As we went back to our rooms, I mediate on just what happen and how I felt at that time. It seems like I was walking with Jesus on his way to the cross, I wonder why the cross felt so heavy and why did I hammer the nail by the head, I heard these words in my heart "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. "(LK 9:23)He does not tell us how heavy or light it will be but for us to pick it up and follow him. When I pound the nail by the head, the nail represents sin, it reminded me of the scripture verse "“Father, forgive them(Him), for they(He) do not know what they(He is) are doing.” The next most powerful experience was at the end of the next day, as I walk into my room there was a bag full letters written by Family and Friends, the one that caught my attention was written by My beautiful wife who open up and wrote some amazing words that brought tears in my eyes. When I ask her about the letter she said, I had to write it quickly because the church was calling to let me know that they are getting ready to send them out, but does not recall what she had wrote, you knew that she open up to the Holy Spirit and it guide her to write what she wrote.......... "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word..,husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. (Ephesians 5:25-28) For those of us who had not really read this verse, might want to or need to! And finally, out of all those men there was a very young man who was 20 yrs old and he gave his testimony but it was his last words that he said, that literally knock me out of the chair. he said to all the Fathers there,tell your Children you love them because 'WE LOVE YOU'. I am very guilty of not telling my older sons how much I love them. Even today I am still working on that, but with the love of Jesus and his grace I will overcome this fault of mine. "“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-29). There is so much more to write on the retreat, but if the opportunity arise to go to a Mens Retreat, I encourage you, to pray about it, and see where the Holy Spirit leads you..AMEN

Thoughts # 2

Matthew 9:27-30 " As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!”
  When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”
   “Yes, Lord,” they replied. ²⁹ Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith let it be done to you”; ³⁰ and their sight was restored. Jesus warned them sternly, “See that no one knows about this.”

As this verse was read to us the other morning in Mass, it occur to me that I was one of the blind men that scripture is talking about. Although I am not physically blind I was  spiritually blind, I have cried out to Jesus many times in my early years but my faith was weak, Jesus wants us to have strong Faith like these two men "Have mercy on us, son of David". He wants us to call out to him from our hearts and really ask for his help, and he will ask "do you believe I can do this" with the Faith like these two blind men, you to will say "Yes, Lord I believe! Then you wiil hear him speak to you and say " According to your faith let it be done to you" and just think about it, almost the say words that Mary told the angel Gabriel "Let it be done to me accoring to thy word" (LK 1:38) Let Jesus touch you and restored your lives and unlike the two blind men, Jesus wants you to tell everyone what he  did for you!  Amen

1 Kings 19:3-8

As I sat at Church this morning, I ran into this Old Testament verse which reads: 1 Kings 19:3-8
"And when he( Elijah) saw that, he arose, and Fled for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there.
But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.
And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat.
And he looked, and, behold, there was a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again.
And the angel of the LORD came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee.
And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God."

Don't we in our time, also feel like Elijah and let 'Life' get the best of us, and like Elijah we have to 'arise and eat.' But unlike him, we do not have bread on a hot stone or a jar of water, we have so much more.
We have the Spiritual bread that Jesus tells us in the Gospel of St John (JHn 6:51) "I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."
Like the Prophet Elijah, we are in a spiritual journey of 'Forty days and Forty nights' and that is an indefinite time that God gives us. So let Christ in the Eucharist which is the bread for our journey feed us. After all, Jesus himself said, "Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed."(JHn 6:54-55) AMEN!