Articles of the Month
A Time For Thanksgiving
We have much to be thankful to God, to Our Lord Jesus and to Our Blessed Mother for. We should be thankful to Our Almighty Father for the gift of His Son to our humanity and to the world and for the salvation that we hope to eventually share with Our Lord in the future. We thank Our Heavenly Father for our very existence on earth and for our ability to make a difference in the world around us. We were all born to accomplish certain life goals, not only for ourselves and for our families but also to help make a difference with others who we may come across in our lives. Our Almighty Father nourishes us with daily food and with the necessities of life. Everything we have is given to us by the grace of God. We owe our total existence to Him and we should be very grateful for the blessings that He bestows on us every day of our lives. Do we thank Him everyday or do we just take everything that we have for granted? We should reflect on this question every day and give Our Heavenly Father the praise and honor that is due Him daily. We should also be living correctly on this earth and honoring the Commandments of God. Otherwise, we will suffer condemnation at the judgment of our life. Our Lord is our Saving Lord who never loses sight of us, even when we may think He is far away from us or even when we choose to be far away from Him. He gives us His Body and Blood for heavenly food and for the nourishment of our very souls. Truly, without Our Lord, we can be empty, sad, unfulfilled, dissatisfied with our lives, etc. but when we choose to be united with Him, we experience love, joy, virtue, satisfaction, true fulfillment in our lives, soul-saving graces and nourishment and zeal for the Catholic faith. Our Lord Jesus is alive here on earth through the Eucharist. Heaven comes down to earth every day at the time of the Consecration of the Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of Christ and we should never forget that. Are we receiving Our Lord in the Eucharist every week or are we lax and lazy and not doing everything we should be doing to go to Heaven at the end of our lives? We, as Catholics, should be attending Confession, going to Mass every week and receiving Our Lord in the Eucharist. He calls each one of us to the Heavenly Banquet every week. Let us not disappoint Our Lord any longer by ignoring Confession, Mass and the Eucharist. After all, Our Lord tells us that if we do not receive him in the Eucharist, we will not be raised to eternal life on the last day and we will not have life within us here on earth without Heavenly Nourishment for our souls. We should also thank Our Blessed Mother for her endless dedication and love that She has for us and for her tireless intercession for us daily through the Rosary. She reminds us through the Rosary that we can attain Heaven if we recite the Rosary everyday of our lives. That is Her promise to us and we should believe Her but in order to attain Heaven, we must also be following our Catholic duties to go to Confession, weekly Mass and reception of the Holy Eucharist. Reciting the Rosary alone, without following our Catholic duties, will not allow us to go to Heaven. They must go together so that we will be blessed with eternal life. So, we must be careful not to substitute our weekly Catholic duties for the Rosary. We should also thank Our Blessed Mother for saying "Yes" to God and for giving birth to Our Lord and therefore, helping to bring salvation to the world. We also thank Our Blessed Mother for being responsible in helping to save so many lost souls in the world. Our Lord Jesus can never say "No" to Our Blessed Mother, especially when she asks for our betterment and our salvation to Her Son. She definitely has Her eye on us and She will never let us get out of her sight when we rely on Her in our lives. That we can be sure of. So, let us never lose sight of the blessings that are constantly being bestowed us by Heaven. Our Heavenly Father, Our Lord Jesus and Our Blessed Mother definitely love us all. Please never stop loving Them. We should be grateful and thankful to Them every day of our lives. May God and Our Lord Jesus bless you and your families always. |
Christmas and the need for repentanceChristmas is the time of year when we thank God for the blessings that He has bestowed on us during the entire year and also in our entire lives. We are endebted to Our Heavenly Father. We thank God and Our Blessed Mother for the birth of Our Lord Jesus in the Nativity because Our Lord Jesus has given us salvation if we choose to follow Him throughout our lives until the end of our lives. His birth signaled a new beginning for humanity, a time to shed off the sins of the past and to begin again. We are assured of our salvation if we follow the Catholic Church's teachings, God's commandments and live holy lives all of our lives. Not one of us is perfect, that is true but that should not be an excuse to continue to live lives that only anger God and Our Lord Jesus. Even though we may not see Their anger, nevertheless, they become angry when there is injustices and unrepentant, grave mortal sins that grow rampant in our world. Many sins cry out to heaven for vengence such as in abortion, human trafficking, pornography, open sexual promiscuity, etc. but yet Our Heavenly Father still continues to bless this world. How can this be? No one knows why Our Heavenly Father has so much patience with us but Our Blessed Mother has warned many times that the need for swift repentance should be taken seriously as soon as possible. We should not hesitate to change our lives now, not later. She has also warned in the past that many wars, illnesses and subsequent casualties took place because people refused to amend their lives. She states that the cup is running over on humanity's sins. Many people still do not heed Her warnings and continue to sin on a regular basis as if Our Heavenly Father could not judge them for their offenses. But, He can and will do so. Let us then take this time to repent our lives and encourage others who are leading sinful lives to come back to the Catholic Church. Let us encourage others that have been away from the Church to go to confession, to go with us to Mass and receive the Holy Eucharist. We are promised that if we make every effort we can to repent our lives, turn away from sin permanently, say the Rosary daily, go to confession frequently, attend Mass weekly and receive Holy Communion weekly, adhere to the 10 commandments, we have an excellent opportunity to go to Heaven. It's that easy. Don't let anyone or anything get in the way of your salvation! Let us make every effort to make Our Lord Jesus, Our Blessed Mother and Our Heavenly Father happy and proud of us by showing Them that we can be faithful and holy Christian Catholics. When the temptation to sin comes our way, let us quickly send it far from us. Make sure you pray frequently because as the saying goes, "No one can go to Heaven without prayer". May God continue to bless you and your families always and help you to withstand the many temptations that come our way every day. May you please listen to the invitation that Our Lord Jesus and Our Blessed Mother gives to you now to change your lives for the better and follow Our Lord Jesus until we share in the glory of Heaven. |