Jesus said to her, “Mary”, she turned to Him and said, “Rabbouni,” which means teacher. John 20;16
St. Mary Magdalene is a wonderful teacher to us! She belonged to Jesus and nothing else mattered. Because of her faithfulness, she gives us Jesus.
Mary Magdalene is often called the Apostle to the Apostles, and rightfully so! She stayed and talked to Jesus! She stayed and was rewarded with the gift of the Resurrected Jesus! She shared this message with the Apostles and she shares with all of the Disciples of Jesus (including Us), throughout Human History!
Enjoy this Feast, and remember the key point is Jesus Rose from the Dead, and we have the eyewitness account from this Holy Woman!
May we never give up on looking and finding Jesus!
The Prophet Elijah kept the faith in YHWH alive and risk his own life to do it. His actions brought God’s People back to YHWH.
Today we celebrate the Feast of Elijah the Prophet and may we realize that our faithfulness to the Divine One can and will change our world!
We read in in Second Kings: As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elisha saw this and cried out, “My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen os Israel!” And Elisha saw him no more. 2 Kings 2:11-12
“As for what was sown on good soil, this is he who heard the word and understands it; he indeed bears fruit , and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty. “ Matthew 13:23
The use of parables by Jesus are so important, they speak to our hearts and we can hold on to them because we are challenged by them. What does our parable say about us today?
Are we Good Soil?
In the natural order, we have the ability to make soil good. We can keep it moist, we can fertilize it, we can hoe it, and we can remove the weeds. It is much the same in the spiritual order. We can remove the things in our lives in order that we can receive the Seed of God, that is, the Word of God, and allow it to bear abundant fruit in our lives, in our world!
What can we do now to be good soil?
Total surrender is key in making ourselves good receptors of the Word! In total surrender, we know that there is nothing we can do to undo the past. Also, we know that worrying about the future will not help! We know that the present moment is where we can receive and be changed by the Word of God! When we do this we can become wonderful receptors of the Divine Word, It can take root, and if we stay in the present moments, we can produce abundantly!
“For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:30
Life gets crazy!
Normal people like us have many challenges that we have to deal with on a regular basis. And these things can become overwhelming! Yet Jesus wants us to use His Way to meet these situations.
What is the Jesus technique?
Jesus uses the Divine Power of Love!
When we allow love to be the reason that we do the things that we do, our situations change. Love means to take care of ourselves. It means to eat healthy, to get enough rest, and to stay away from things that that could harm us.
When we allow love to be the way we deal with people we encounter, even those who want to hurt us, we do the best that we can to live in peace and not to try to hurt the person back. This releases us from a terribly heavy burden and put the burden that Jesus wants us to have, love. We learn to do what we are able to do, loving ourselves in the process, and then letting go, and moving onward!
Jesus on the Cross is the Divine Example of the Power of Love at work. Jesus did what He was sent to do, He loved us to the end, but in actuality, it was the Beginning for us! Hate tried to kill Love, but on the Third Day, Love Rose Never To Die Again!
This Love is our power and how we are to maintain peace in our struggles! Learn from Jesus and live in love!
“And whoever gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he shall not lose his reward.” Matthew 10:42
A cup of cold water may seem to be insignificant, but it is not! Any act of love is holy and keeping with our lives in Jesus! We are true disciples of Jesus when we show love to one another!
We are called to make a difference in the world! Remember the old children‘s Church song, “They will know we are Christians by our love.” We can look at it the other way, they will know we are not Christians because we hate! We have many things in our lives that we can easily react with hateful words and actions, but we are challenged, by Jesus, to “not go there”!
Jesus reminds us, “And he who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” Matthew 10: 38
Loving people we encounter and carrying our crosses can not be separated! There will be people we are forced to deal with who will try to harm us. What will be our response? We are called to follow Jesus! Jesus returned love even as He was dying on the Cross!
The Cross of Jesus is our example of how we are to carry our crosses. We are called to even be kind to people who are not kind to us! This approach to living will not be always easy, but our efforts matter and in the process we will become better Disciples of Jesus in our world!
“Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.” Matthew 10:31
Jesus reminds us of how much we are important to God. It is important that we are reminded of this often because that may not me the message we have to deal with in self talk, or in the relationships that we have with the people we encounter on the daily basis.
Jesus lived a life that tells us that we are valuable! Our value is not based on what we have done, or how much we have, but simply because we are!
Wow!
If we truly believed that we are valuable because we are, how would that change how we approach life? Perhaps we would take better care of ourselves. Maybe we would not have to self medicate ourselves with alcohol, or drugs, or anything else we use to make ourselves feel better about ourselves!
An ouch moment!
What if we read about Jesus’ messages as much as we follow our heroes in the world, would not our lives be changed!?
My friend, God joined us in Jesus Christ Our Lord to tell us of our true worth. May we not fear but trust and become the wonderful people we were created to be!
When He saw the crowds, He had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Matthew 9:36
The Father as a shepherd!
Without the shepherd, the sheep are lost. Without direction, we are lost. We all need a father! The greatest father is God! God sent God’s Self in Jesus Christ our Lord to direct us through the maze of life’s journey. Jesus commissioned us to follow His example and teaching that we can father one another, to help direct one another out of love.
The Gift of the Father
Many of us have had wonderful and loving fathers. But not all. However, I think we all have had Father figures in our lives, a grandfather, an uncle, a friend, a mother who had to be father too!
We give honor to all of those wonderful people, both living and deceased, who love us and direct us, and may we also be good fathers and father figures to those whom we love and guide in our lives.
May the Creator who guides the Creation lead us to love and support those who have guided us on life’s way, and fill us with the Holy Spirit, so that we can love and guide those we have been given to serve. We make our prayer though Jesus Christ Our Lord!
“As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me.” John 6: 57
Being in communion with Jesus means being truly alive in God. God became one of us in our Lord Jesus Christ. At the Last Supper, Jesus gave us Himself, His Body and Blood, so that we could be connected to Him in a most intimate way. Jesus becomes one with us and in us!
In this intimate oneness, we are given the food that helps us focus our lives and continue our journey in the world.
We become more like Jesus and if we receive Him well, that is , with open hearts, we gradually become more like Him and help change our world through Him!
We become the Living Tabernacles of the Divine! Our egos decline and the Great I Am rises in us! We become more of the image and likeness of the Divine! We become who we were meant to be.
We are intimately joined to Jesus!
May those who encounter us know, by the way we live, that we are at one with God!
For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
This is the love affair our Creator initiated with us. We celebrate this when we celebrate the Holy Trinity. The Father sent the Son through the power of Holy Spirit. The Creator has wrapped us in the love affair that is eternal. We have the choice to join this love exchange and live eternally, and eternity begins now, if we surrender ourselves and join Jesus, the Son.
When we join this Trinitarian Love Affair, our lives change. Many people try to find love and often they find it in the wrong places, yet if our first love is in God’s perfect love, we can deal with the disappointments that human love can bring to us.
When we join the Divine Love, we have to rise to the challenge of that Love! We must love our sisters and brothers! These sisters and brothers might hurt us, but if we faithfully follow the Divine Love, we return love to those who hurt us! Jesus showed us what this love looked like on the Cross when He forgave those who murdered Him.
Living in the Trinity means to become like Jesus!
Loving in the Divine Way requires Supernatural Power and that power is provided by the Holy Spirit that allows Jesus to be reborn in us!
God loves us first, God invites us to join in this love affair, and when we surrender to Divine Love we become love itself. This Love changes the world in the way we live! May we be the Love-change the world so desperately needs!
“Finally, sisters and brothers, rejoice. Mend your ways, heed my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.” 2 Corinthians 13:11
Hermitage of Peace 