God Our Protector

The power of prayer is unimaginable. Prayer is a mutual, personal and spiritual communication with God who is our creater and protector. God knows all our needs, and He has a plan for our lives, but it is our responsibility to acknowledge God's graces and works in our lives and prayer is that acknowledgement. Through prayer we are thanking God for the graces we have received in our lives and spending time in His presence. Though God knows our every needs, we are again reminded of the importance of asking for God's helping hand in our needs as Jesus says in Mathew 7:7, "Ask and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you."
Again Jesus says, "If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer." (Mathew 21:22). So we need to pray as it is the time for us to be with God in spirit.
The prayer for God's protection in Psalm 91, is very important in the lives of many people. People have experienced the powerful hands of God's protection every time they said this prayer before anything they do. The devil is looking for an opportunity to ruin the lives of men. This powerful prayer will keep the devil away and destroy all his plans, as God protects us in His palms.

Psalm 91 GOD OUR PROTECTOR
Whoever goes to the Lord for safery, whoever remains under the protection of the Almighty, can say to Him, "You are my defenderr and protector. You are my God; in You I trust." He will keep you safe from all hidden dangers and from all deadly diseases. He will cover you with His wings; you will be safe in His care; His faithfulness will protect and defend you. You need not fear any dangers at night or sudden attacks during the day or the plagues that strike in the dark or the evils that kill in daylight. A thousand may fall dead beside you, ten thousand all around you, but you will not be harmed. You will look and see how the wicked are punished. You have made the Lord your defender, the Most High your protector, and so no disaster will strike you, no violence will come near your home. God will put His angels in charge of you to protect you wherever you go. They will hold you up with their hand to keep you from hurting your feet on the stones. You will trample down lions and snakes, fierce lions and poisonous snakes. God says, "I will save those who love me and will protect those who acknowledge me as Lord. When they call to me I will answer them; when they are in trouble, I will be with them. I will rescue them and honor them. I will reward them with long life; I will save them."

Dear friends, what a wonderful God we have. We need to be always thankful to Him for His protection and blessings in our lives. Thanks be to God.

Prayer - Very Necessary

St. Alphonsus Ligouri observes, "God gives to every creature the means to support itself. Man alone myst struggle to support his life. God Himself wants to be man's support." However, God has made us free. He will not force HIs help upon us. We must acknowledge our own weakness and ask for His help. So, prayer is absolutely necessary for us. God can always give us His grace. But His plan seems to be to give His special graces only in answer to prayer. "Ask and you shall receive" (Mathew 7:7). All the graces God has decided to give us, He wants to give through prayers, not because prayer is necessary for God to know what we need, but it is necessary for us to understand our needs. (St. Thomas).

You and I, everyone would like to become a saint. To be a saint, one must practice charity to a heroic degree. But charity is impossible withour prayer. A saint is a man of prayer.

The secret of all our strenght is prayer. Prayer is all powerful with God. It places the infinite power of God at our disposal. Every problem in life is overcome with faith and prayer. Great is the power at the disposal of every one. It is the most universal of all helps. When God wishes to elevate a soul, He increases its spirit of prayer.

Workaholism (over work) and lack of fidelity to prayer can be destructive forces in the active lives of apostolate of priests and religious. If we increase our "social service" without without proportionate increase in prayer-life, we are at the brink of danger! If we have more work, we must pray more.

We have to make our relationship with God the axis of our life, the central point around which all else revolve. When we are very busy, we may give up recreation, study time and sleep, before our prayer time is invaded. The more we pray, the more we find that we need to pray, and the less we pray, the less we realize our need to spend time with God. One who is too busy to find time for prayer will lose his faith. If we do not seek a personal relationship with God, we will start forgetting Him.

Courtesy: Prayer with the heart, Fr. C. Bernard, C.R.

Prayer with the Heart

George Washington, when he was President of America, used to pray daily for an hour in the morning before he began work and another hour in the evening after work. St. Thomas Moore used to spend, daily the time between 2 am and 6 am in prayer. They had, indeed, realized that 'More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.' Miss Monica Baldwin, the ex-nun, wrote in the Times of London that she and Fr. Charles Davis lost their vocation because they neglected to pray. Fr. Davis renounced even his faith. Bernard J Topel of Spokane used to advise his seminarians to cultivate personal prayer or discontinue thier clerical studies. The Spokane diocese got more vocations than any other in the country, while many other dioceses are suffering a drop in the number of vocations.


Personal Prayer:
I am not speaking here just of vocal prayer or of meditation strictly speaking, but rather about personal mental prayer. This prayer is more a loving than thinking; more an attitude than words or thoughts; it is more spontaneous than structural, more a listening than a talking.
What is prayer and how to pray are two questions difficult to answer. It cannot be otherwise as St. Paul himself testifes; "We do not know how to pray as we ought"(Romans 8:26).

Courtesy: Prayer with the Heart, Fr. Chacko Bernard C.R.

Who Am I?

Who am I? Ofcourse I am a human being with all the feelings, craving and desires to live a life as comfortable as I can in this world and not willing to think about death at all. For many this is the right (false) way of thinking. But is it true? Are we not hiding the reality? Are we just ignoring the fact that we need to nourish our souls as well?
A human being is made of spirit and body, but more often we spend time thinking of the desires, feelings and comforts of the body and ignoring the spiritual needs, the sprititual cravings and often unfilling the spiritual desires.
God really would like us all to nourish our souls, so that we can be the shareolders of His kingdom one day when we all have to live this body and end all the desires of the body through death.
For a man to be a human being, he needs to have a body as well as a well-nourished spirit. The tempatations of this world always remain as an enemy of God's spirit that dwell in us. We need to fight against this evil temptations and stand against our own physical desires sometimes, to regain spiritual strength. We shoud be able to resist and avoid our feelings such as anger, lust, craving for wealth, greed, jealosy and any other feelings that keep us far from receiving the gift of God.
Parents should be more careful to lay a good example and model for their children, by living a life as Jesus told us to live, abiding the Word of God and living as a real christian.

The Risen Lord

Are you prepared to meet the risen Lord?

What is the basis of our faith in the resurrection? The scriotures tell us that "faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the convictionof things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). Faith is an entirely free gift that God makes to us. Our faith is a free assent to the whole truth which God reveals to us through His word. Faith is certain because it is based on the very word or God who cannot lie. Faith also seeks understanding. That is why God enlightens the "eys of our hearts" that we may know what is the hope to which He has called us (Ephesians 1:18). Peter the apostle says, we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1Peter 1:3). Through the gift of faith the Lord reveals Himself to those who believe in His word and He fills them with "new life in His Holy Spirit". Do you live in the joy and hope of the resurrection? And do you recognize the presence of the Risen Lord in His word, in the "breaking of the bread", and in His church, the body of Christ?

"Lord Jesus, may we always live in the joy and hope of the resurrection and never lose sight of its truth for our lives."

This reflection is courtesy of Don Schwager (c) 2012,
whose website is located at http://www.rc.net/wcc/readings

Holy Saturday

This is the night, when Christ broke the prison-bars of death and rose victorius from the underworld. (The Exsultet)

At the first sign of dawn, the women went to the tomb with the spices they had prepared. (Luke 24:1)

Lord Jesus, Your death was like no other death and Your mortal corpse unlike any other. Divivne power preserved your body from corruption and decay. Through your divine mercy may all the departed be granted a share in Your risen life.

"We Are Forgiven" - Good Friday

Then (Pilate) handed Him over to them to be crucified. (John 19:16)

There are at least a thousand lessons to be learned at Calvary, and then there are the mysteries beyond these lessons, which bring us to the shores of an endless sea. But in keeping with our theme, the work of Christ as Saviour and Redeemer, the forgiveness of sins by Christ on the Cross seems to be the lesson that we should concentrate on for these meditations...
We must look at the incredible and mysterious event of the death of a God, the only God who ever died, and realize that it happened for us that we might live forever. We are forgiven-we need only accept and acknowledge the forgiveness and the need to repent, to change as much as we can.
We have two more things to do. As Jesus Christ made clear in his life and works: We also must forgive, and we must love and help others in return for what God has done for us.

Fr. Benedict J. Groeschel, C.F.R.
The King, Crucified and Risen
Courtesy: Living Faith

Holy Thursday - A Transforming Experience

"This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." (1Corinthians 11:24)

Those of us who experience our First Communion as children may sometimes take this precious sacrament for granted, but those who come to it as adults tend to treasure it.
I heard many stories about the place of honor that Eucharist takes in the lives of the faithful when I was inteviewing people for a book about why Catholics choose the faith. One man who had been estranged from the Church talked of returning because he felt empty without the Eucharist. A woman who became Cathlic after marriage was drawn to the opportunity to be with Christ through the Eucharist almost any time she chooses. And a Catholic man who rediscovered his faith as a teenager found an intimacy in the Eucharist that he believes can transform our hearts.
May we all experience that transformation on this Holy Day.

Beth Dotson Brown
Beth Dotson Brown is the auther of Yes! I Am Catholic: How Faith Plays a Role in My Life, published by St. Mary's Press.

Wednesday of Holy Week

"The Lord God is my help, therefore I am not disgraced; I have set my face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame." (Isaiah 50:7)
Why do you look around you here, since this is not the place of your rest? Your rest must be in healvenly things, and you must look on all earthly things as transitory and passing away.
All things pass away, and you together with them...Christ was despised by all men in the world, and in his greatest need was forsaken by His acquaintances and friends, and left in the midst of reproaches.
He was willing to suffer wrongs and to be dispised, and do you dare to complain of anything?
Christ had many adversaries and backbiters; do you wish to have all men as your friends and benefactors?
How shall your patience win its crown, if no adversity befall you?
If you are not willing to suffer opposition, how will you be a friend of Christ?
Bear up with Christ and for Christ, if you desire to reign with Christ.

Thomas a Kempis
The Imitation of Christ
Courtesy: Living Faith

Tuesday of Holy Week

Be my rock of refuge, a stonghold to give me safety, for you are my rock and my fortress.(Psalm 71:3)
Howmany times have we cried our to God for protection, safety or guidance? Sometimes the world we live in or our individual situations seem to bleak that God is our only recourse, our only hope for change and salvation.
During this Holy Week as we contemplate the final days of Jesus on earth, we remember vividly what He endured to save us. Along with His suffering came a promise for our protection and salvation. In return,Jesus did ask us for something - He called us to imitate Him.
Our challenge this week is to look around us for those who might be crying out for guidance, for friendship, for an understanding ear. Some of them are not familiar with a loving God to whom they can take their plea. Simply put, it is up to us to show them the love Jesus modeled for us. The Holy Spirit guides us and God protects and strengthens us to spread heavenly love on earth. The suffering of Jesus calls for nothing less.

Beth Dotson Brown
Courtesy: Living Faith

Monday of Holy Week

You always have the poor with you....(John 12:8)
A Relatively inconspicuous line, but one of the most oft-quoted of the gospels: "You always have the poor with you." What makes this humble verse so frequently repeated? Regularly dostorted, it serves as a handy rationale for ignoring the poor. "What's the point in helping the poor? Didn't Jesus say that the poor we would always have with us?" Right. But understood in the proper context, it simply means that there will be endless opportunities to help the poor. If I may borrow from another of the Lord's Sayings, many are called to help the poor but few do. There will always be those who lack the personal resources to manage their lives no matter how much money you give them, and there will always be those who are in need because others have failed to help. Whom will I help today? Whom will you help?
My precious God, You fill me with blessings and make me rich with the wealth of your goodness. You send the poor to me for help. Give me the grace I need to open my hand and share what I have with them.

Paul Boudreau
Between Sunday
Courtesy: Living Faith