What are the most important things needed to live a good life?
The most important things to do each day is to show love to yourself and to everyone one you meet. Kindness matters! Peace.
Author: hermitageofpeace
The Hermit of Peace following the Rule of St. Benedict.
Happy Birthday, Church!
Blessed Pentecost Sunday!
Today, Eastertide and Ascensiontide come to an end, and what a fitting end because it is also a beginning—the beginning of the Church.
Let us retrace how we got here. Jesus died on the Cross on Good Friday and He rose from the dead on Resurrection (Easter) Sunday. He was with His disciples for 40 days and on Ascension Thursday He ascended to Father God. For the First Novena of Prayer, Mary the Mother of Jesus, and Jesus’ Disciples met in the Upper Room preparing themselves for the Holy Spirit. The day of Pentecost, fifty days after Resurrection Sunday, Jerusalem was filled with Jews from many different places. It was the Great Feast of Shavuot. As Mary and the Disciples were filled with God’s Spirit and Peter gave the first sermon to the followers of Christ and the Church began! Many started their relationship with Jesus and His Apostles on that day. We are the result of this glorious event!
Happy Birthday, Church!
Let us look at our Gospel Portion for today. It is, St. John 2O:19-23. We will concentrate on,
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
St. John 20:21-23
Jesus gave the leaders of the Apostolic Church the powers needed for the Church and they passed this power to the clergy to today. Through ordination, there is an unbroken line to 2025 Anno Domini! It is all about Jesus’ love for us!
Today is our day! Rejoice in the Spirit’s Presence! When we go to Ordained Priest in this Apostolic line, we have Jesus’ power through the Holy Spirit!
We are truly blest!
Rejoice and be glad because we are in the Love of Jesus, now and for ages unending! Amén! Alleluia!
Pax. The Hermit of Peace.
Be At One With Jesus!
Be at one with everyone!
Happy Sunday in Ascensiontide (the time between Ascension Thursday and Pentecost Sunday). This Sunday is Jesus’ prayers for us. Our Gospel Portion is St. John 17:20-26. We will concentrate on the following,
“Holy Father, I pray not only for them but also for those who will believe in Me through their word, so that they may all be one, as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.”
St. John 17:20-21
We are in this in-between time from Ascension Thursday, 40 days after the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesús Christ and the great Feast of Pentecost. This allows us to prepare our hearts to receive God’s Spirit in a new and powerful way.
We need God’s Spirit because the spirit of the world, the spirit of evil seems to be overwhelming. We need the Gifts of the Spirit and we need the Attributes of the Spirit to rise above the spirit of the world. For example, we and the world need kindness, which comes from God, rather than meanness which is so common in the world.
Please use this time to remind us of how God wants us to treat ourselves and others. People are suffering and we may be suffering ourselves, we and the world need God’s Ways to be lived out in us!
May God’s Spirit, the Holy Spirit, come alive in us and make our world a better place!
Pax. The Hermit of Peace.
Pray For The Presence of The Holy Spirit!
Let us prepare for The Lord’s Ascension and the Novena of the Holy Spirit!
My friends, we are in the last section of Eastertide, and we are getting prepared to embrace this wonderful time of the year. We need Easter! Easter helps us embrace the complexities of our lives.
Our Gospel Portion for today is St. John 14:23-29. We will concentrate on,
“But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, * and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
John 14:26
Jesus realized that we have to be reminded about Him all of the time. Evil is ever present and without Jesus, we would succumb to the evil around us. Concretely, this would mean we would forget to love like Jesus. There are many situations that we deal with that will lead to a non-love response, but Jesus provides the Divine Spirit for His Message to come back to our minds.
Pause, pray, and act only in love!
My friends, if we take only one thing from Eastertide, may it be that we treat everyone the way that Jesus would.
This week on Thursday, we will remember the day that Jesus ascended to the Father. On that day we will begin the Novena to the Holy Spirit. These are days that Mary, Jesus’ Mother, and Jesus’ Disciples joined in prayer in the Upper Room waiting for the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Make this upcoming Pentecost powerful in our lives by joining Mary and the Disciples in prayer and allow the Holy Spirit to pour afresh on us in power!
Pax. The Hermit of Peace.
Be Love and Show Others the Way of Love!
Let Jesus be your guide!
On this Fifth Sunday in Eastertide, we have a renewed commandment of love. Jesus is clear that all who follow Him must abide by His commands. Our Gospel Portion for today is St. John 13:31-35, and we will concentrate on the following,
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, you also love one another.
By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
St. John 13:34-35
People will know we are Christians by our love. This concept was part of a children’s church song when I was growing up, and it will always be true because Jesus is quite clear about it in His Word!
For all time this is essential for all people. We improved the world around us by doing what Jesus said and did. Continuing with this line of thinking, Jesus is still living in the world by how we treat one another.
Yes, my sisters and brothers, there are many people who say they belong to Jesus, and that is between them and God. Our concern is whether, are showing our relationship with Jesus by how we treat others.
Do we love everyone as Jesus would?
We may remember the meaning of the letters WWJD, meaning, What Would Jesus Do? This filter of our actions will never lose its significance!
We are to make a difference in our world!
Make a difference today, tomorrow, and forever! Be Jesus, be Love and show the world who we belong to!
Enjoy the Eastertide and be encouraged!
Pax. The Hermit of Peace.
Happy Good Shepherd Sunday!
Happy Mother’s Day!
What a beautiful day celebrating these wonderful ideas!
Our Gospel portion for today is St. John 10: 27-30. We will concentrate on the following,
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow me.” John 10: 27
We are in a relationship with Jesus. When we humbly accept the reality that if we want to live in peace, we have to listen to Jesus’ voice and let Him guide us through the various dangerous situations that the world has in store for us, we will have that peace.
Mothers teach us how to hear Jesus. They connect us to the Lord. Our faith is taught to us by our mothers and that is more than the teaching of the prayers. We learn from them the voice of the Savior because they have already heard Him and applied this knowledge in the way they live.
Our relationship with Jesus comes first from our mothers’ relationship with Him.
Thank you, Mothers, for all you have done for us!
Pax. The Hermit of Peace.
https://www.gofundme.com/manage/help-our-lady-of-mount-caritas-serve-the-needy
We Testify to the Resurrection!
The World Needs Our Testimony!
We are in this wonderful time of the year, Eastertide! As we continue to meditate on the central event of human history, the Resurrection, we have the Gospel Portion, St. John 21: 1-19. We are in the Post Resurrection accounts when Jesus provides His teachings in glorified form. Our section to concentrate on is,
He told them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, for the quantity of fish. John 21:6
Peter and some of the disciples are fishing, they have returned to their old way of life. We can sense that they returned to their comfort zone. They had been through some very overwhelming times. The Crucifixion by itself is an amazing experience. The Resurrection is beyond human imagination.
Jesus’ teaching ministry had to continue!
Peter and his friends even though they were experienced fishermen, had applied their trade, they were unsuccessful. However, when Jesus told them to throw out the nets again, going against their training, they received a miracle catch. They realized that it was their Master!
We have our message here! The Resurrected Lord will bless our efforts! What seems impossible is possible through Jesus!
Do everything through Jesus!
May we put all of our hopes in Him!
Pax. The Hermit of Peace.
God is Merciful, Praise God!
Happy Mercy Sunday!
Today we celebrate the Octave Day of Easter. We remember that Jesus suffered, died, and rose again so that we might have mercy, that is to be united with God forever! Our Gospel Portion is St. John 20: 19-3. We will meditate on the following,
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His Name. John 20: 30-31
Jesus came into our world for no reason but to make God’s love and mercy available to us. The only requirement is to surrender to God!
Mercy is freely given, but to experience it, it must be received!
Receiving God’s mercy will change our lives. It will also change how we treat ourselves and others.
Receiving God’s mercy will make the world a better place because we will make it a better place.
We experienced Divine Mercy every Second Sunday after Easter Sunday. This is a necessary reminder for us, and at least for me, I need to treat myself and others with mercy.
There is so much hate in the world, and that reality is not a new one, but we, the Jesus People, bring mercy and love to this world in such a need for us!
Be mercy and love!
Pax. The Hermit of Peace.
Jesus Rose and He Takes Us With Him!
Alleluia Amen!
A glorious day to be alive!
Jesus, who died on the Cross, on the third day rose from the dead and spent 40 days working with His Disciples and then Ascended to the Father to reign until He returns, at the end of the ages, is our marvelous reality!
Let us look at a section of one of the Resurrection accounts,
While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel;
And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here but has risen.” Luke 24:4-5
Jesus is Risen!
The impossible happened! A very dead person rises from the dead and He takes us with Him!
Jesus was not born for Himself! He did not grow up to adulthood for Himself! He did not teach us for Himself! He did not suffer for Himself! He did not die on the Cross for Himself! And He did not rise from the dead for Himself! Jesus did it all for us!
What will we do for Him? We have fifty days to celebrate His resurrection. What will we do to change our lives as a gift in response to the radical love that Jesus reveals in His 33 years of His earthly life?
Make this Eastertide 2025 awesome!
Pax. The Hermit of Peace.
Let Jesus Come In!
Happy Palm Sunday!
Today we celebrate Jesus’ grand entrance into Jerusalem as He enters His Passion and death. Many received Him in jubilation, but in a few days would be swayed to support His execution. Our Gospel Portion today is St. Luke 19: 28-40. We will concentrate on,
As He rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks in the road. As He was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with loud voices for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying,
“Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!”
Luke 19: 36-38
Holy Week is very important. It is a time to get closer to Jesus. It is crucial get as much as possible from this week. However, life gets in the way. At this time in our world, there are many distractions, therefore, it is our responsibility to open our hearts and let Jesus come in.
Jesus has healing for us! But we must close our hearts from the distractions so that we can receive Jesus’ Peace in our hearts.
Let the love of this week permeate us! Let us travel with Jesus in a profound way, and with Easter, Resurrection Sunday, we will rise with Him.
Peace is available! May Jesus reign in our lives!
Pax. The Hermit of Peace.
Hermitage of Peace 