Category: Spiritual

Healing Without Limits!

Surrender to the Divine Will!

It is so easy to think we have a monopoly on Jesus’ Power. However, in our Gospel Portion today, St. Mark 9 38-48, we see the Lord Jesus correcting the Apostle John over his concerns that an individual not of Jesus’ disciples was casting out demons. We read,

John said to Him, “Teacher, we saw a man casting out demons in your Name, and we forbade him, because he was not following us.

But Jesus said, “Do not forbid him; for no one who does mighty works in My Name will be able soon after to speak evil of Me.” Mark 9 38-39.

God chooses who God chooses to use for God’s glory!

We can understand St. John and his concern that he had about an outsider doing works in his Master’s name. But God will be not limited!

There is always a limit to our understanding of God’s actions.

The focus of the Disciples of Jesus must be on what we are doing for the Kingdom of Heaven. It is so easy to look at what someone else is doing. Doing this waste precious time on doing our job of healing the world!
Let God do what God does! Let us focus on what has been assigned to us! And let us pray that others be faithful to do what has been assigned to them.

May God Kingdom come to earth as it is in Heaven! May each of us do our part to make the Kingdom present in the world!

Have a blessed Sunday!

Pax. The Hermit of Peace.

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Jesus Is So Gentle!

Jesus’ Message is Stong!

Jesus in our Gospel Portion today, St. Mark 9: 30-37, reveals how patient He was with His Apostles and He reveals that He is patient with His disciples today and until His Glorious Return. We read from this portion,

And He took a child and put him in the midst of them; and taking him in His arms, He said to them, “Whoever receives one such child in My Name receives Me; and whoever receives Me, receives not Me but Him who sent Me.” Mark 9: 36-37.

The Apostles were confused. They did not know how to deal with the reality that Jesus would killed by those in authority over their people. They ignored this situation and went to what was easier to deal with, who would be first in Jesus’ Kingdom.

Jesus understood that Jesus’ execution was too much for them to handle, so He used this opportunity to explain what true leadership means. True leadership means receiving all people with love. A child represents someone that may only love you in return.

We have to serve a child! We have to protect a child! We have to guild a child! If we do these things, we are receiving Jesus!

Jesus promotes Servant Leadership! May we live what He promotes and change our world!

Pax, The Hermit of Peace

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We Must Carry Our Cross!

Peace is Found in Following the Lord!

Jesus helps us today with our Gospel portion, St. Mark 8:27-35. Here we see Our Lord dealing with who He is, what will happen to Him, and what His followers must do. Let us concentrate on this last part of the text. We read,

And He called to Him the multitude with His disciples and said to them, “If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow Me.

For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the Gospel’s will save it.” Mark 8: 34-35.

There are two Crosses, selves, that exist in our lives. The first Cross is the one made by the world, and the other cross comes out of being a disciple of Jesus. If we hold onto the cross of the world, we are doomed because the worldly Cross follows the evil one. It leads to enjoyment of the things of the world in a self-centered way. Whereas discipleship of Jesus’ leads to participating in Divine Love. In doing so we find life in abundance.

Choose the Jesus’ Cross, though it is often one of suffering, it is the one way to peace.

Choosing this cross will change the way the world is if we carry our Jesus’ Cross faithfully. As the old children’s hymn states,

“The one way to peace is the Power of the Cross.”

Choose peace!

Pax. The Hermit of Peace.

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Be Opened!

The Lord Wants Us to Receive Him!

In our portion of the Gospel today we have Jesus healing a deaf-mute person and the message has something to tell us about our situation at times. We read in the Gospel of St. Mark,

And looking up to Heaven, He sighed and said to him, “Eph’phatha,” that is, “Be opened!” And his ears were opened, his tongue was set free, and he spoke plainly.  Mark 7: 34-35.

The person healed by Jesus could hear the truth and speak the truth after his experience with Jesus.

Jesus is the Supreme Truth, and if we surrender to Him, we will be set free!

Our society may inhibit our healing from Jesus. Often Jesus is counter-cultural to the society that we live in. But all we need to do is to open up His Word and live His Word, He will heal our deaf-muteness!

Jesus is calling over us Eph’phatha, but are we willing to let Him take control?

Have a blessed Lord’s Day!

Pax. The Hermit of Peace.  

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Put Your Focus on Jesus!

Jesus Will Straighten Your Path!

Today in our Gospel Portion, we have a scene between Jesus and His Disciples and the Pharisees and the Scribes. Our focus on life is addressed.  We see in St. Marks Gospel,

Jesus says, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person which by going into him can defile him; but the things which come out of the person are what defiles him,” Mark 7:14-15.

Jesus tells His Disciples 2,000 years ago and He is telling us today that our focus matters. The Pharisees and the Scribes were taken aback by the Disciples not doing the ritual of washing of hands before meals. Their focus of the external kept them from hearing Jesus and with the end result, missing the message of Jesus and changing their lives.

What we focus on matters!

The external actions of others, the actions of people, must not keep us from Jesus and His message.

Distractions exist but do not let them keep us from knowing and loving and living Jesus!

Pax. The Hermit of Peace

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Hold On To Jesus!

Jesus Will See You Through!

Jesus is so radical for some people that His message is avoided! Today we see in St. John’s Gospel that some of His disciples walked away from following Him!

May we never fall into the trap of placing our egos ahead of Our Lord!

St. Peter gives us the response that we must follow if we are true believers! We read in the Gospel of St. John,

Jesus said to the Twelve, “Will you also go away?”

Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that You are the Holy One of God.” John 6: 67-69

St. Peter, though he had faults, he was a truly a flawed individual, he is a wonderful example for us. He kept making mistakes but he kept coming back. The Pilar of the Church was a real person. His ego did cause him problems, but unlike Judas, his ego did not lead to permanent death!

Trust in Jesus regardless of what our feelings are and what our thoughts are.

Jesus is the Way, His Word and His example is what we need live in true peace!

Total Trust in Jesus!

May we say to ourselves and fashion our actions with this old yet useful phrase, “What would Jesus do in this situations?”.

Pax. The Hermit of Peace. 

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Life is Christ!

Feed on Him and Live!

We continue with Jesus the Bread of life which is so important for those who follow Jesus! We must feed on Him because He is our life! We read in St. John’s Gospel,

So, Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you will have no life in you…” John 6:35

There are so many distractions in our lives, with all the craziness, the Presidential Election in the U. S., all the wars around the world, and everything that we see in the news, without the right food, Jesus, we may enter despair and depression!

But if we feed on Jesus despair and depression will not be the final result!

However, since the Jesus’ time, there have been forces determined to destroy the food of our only hope in a world bent on self destruction. Faith tells us that these forces cannot win. We see in the Cross that, though these forces nailed our Hope to the Tree, our Hope rose on the third day.

Eat Jesus and keep rising!

Pax. The Hermit of Peace.

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Taste and See the Goodness of the Lord!

Eternal Life is Ours!

Jesus makes us a promise in today’s selection from the Gospel of St. John. We read,

“I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if anyone eats if this bread, he will live forever.” John 6:51

When we consume Jesus, we partake of His Divine Life and it changes how we live in the world! As people living in the world, we will have struggles, but they cannot destroy us.

We join the Lord who turned the instrument of death, the Cross, into the instrument of life eternal!

Eternal life is ours if we feed on Jesus, in His word and in the Sacraments!

Every cross we have to deal with becomes the key to resurrection! We, through Jesus, overcome all that is meant to destroy us!

Feeding on Jesus will bring us through all things, if we surrender to Him and let Him take control of all of the situations that we go through! Even the final cross, our earthly death, cannot have the final say, or to put it as St. Paul said,

“O death where is thy sting or grave where is thy victory.” 1 Cor 15:55

Feed on Jesus and have Eternal Life!

Eternal Life Now!

Pax. The Hermit of Peace.

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Receive the Bread of Life!

Jesus Came to Feed Us!

Life is not easy! There are many struggles that we have to handle. There are many storms we have to traverse! Without food, we may collapse on our way. There is physical nourishment and of course that is extremely important! But we cannot live without “Soul Food” and this is the food that God gives us!

In our Gospel reading from St. John today, Jesus shares with us His teaching on the spiritual food we need for the journey of life. We read,

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.” John 6:35

Jesus and knowledge of Him gives us the spiritual bread for the journey. When we feel hopeless, which can happen when we are in the midst of a storm, when we eat of Him, we will find the spiritual nourishment to carry on.

Jesus will get us through every situation. This has been my experience and I know, without a doubt in my mind, that Jesus will do the same for you!

Feed on Jesus and prosper!

Pax. The Hermit of Peace.  

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Give All to The Lord!

Today as we meditate in the Gospel of St. John in Chapter 6 the feeding of the Multitude, we look at a young person who gave to the Lord all that he had, and Jesus could work the miracle. We read in St. John’s Gospel,

“Here is a lad with five barley loaves and two fish, but how far will that go with so many?” John 6:9.  

Never underestimate what Jesus can do!

It is not how much we have to give to Jesus; it is what Jesus will do when we put our total trust in Him!

Jesus, after teaching the multitude, saw the need that the people had, they needed a meal to stay safe as they return to their homes. Jesus would provide the meal through the resources of His people. His Apostles still did not know Him. They judge the situation in an ordinary, natural way, they did not have enough to feed the people. However, when we deal with Jesus, we encounter an extraordinary, supernatural way!

Do not underestimate Jesus!

Give to Jesus what you have. Trust in Him, and let Jesus work the miracle He decides!

Jesus, I surrender all to You, take control of everything!

Pax. The Hermit of Peace.

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