Being Humble Always Matters!

Through humility, we can be raised!

Love and humility are intertwined. We cannot separate the two. We find this in the life of Jesus, who chose to join humanity even though He remained Divine.

Today our Gospel Portion is St. Luke 14:1-14, and we will meditate on,

“For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

St. Luke 14:11

Jesus is the example that all of His followers must follow. He provides the means to bring Heaven to earth, and He showed this in His 33 years of life with us.

St. John the Apostle told us that God is love (1 John 4-8), and we see that lived out in Jesus’ life. Now our challenge is to live love out in our lives. When we encounter every individual, we are to be that love.

It is normal to love those who love you back; however, what is most difficult is to love those who openly hate you! This is so hard to do, but we are called to do this supernatural love.

Genuine humility is required to love like Jesus!

Remember, God allowed those who hated Him to execute Him, and He forgave them and the whole world! To receive that forgiveness, we must humble our pride and love those who aim to harm us.

When we become like Jesus, we allow Him to exalt us in the present moment!

Be humble like Jesus and be exalted by Him! Live in Heaven on Earth!

Pax. The Hermit of Peace.

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Follow Jesus!

Happy St. Peter and St. Paul Day!

We celebrate two key founders of the Apostolic Church, St. Peter and St. Paul. They are essential in understanding the original Church of Jesus Christ. They provide an example of how we should function as the Apostolic Church today. Jesus gave Peter the message, and Peter and Paul followed it until they were martyred. Our Gospel Portion for today is St. John 21:15:19, and we will meditate on,

Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.” St. John 21:17

It is a simple message, yet the world complicates it. It led to the Crucifixion and death of our Lord and the martyrdom of Saints Peter and Paul, the many martyrs of the early Church, and is present in our world today in the recent Martyrdoms of the Christians who attended the Divine Liturgy in Syria.

Feeding the Sheep is a problem for those who refuse to follow the Love Jesus taught and still teaches through those who are faithful to Him!

Sadly, through the two thousand years of this message, there is still so much hate. But we celebrate the faithfulness of our ancestors in the faith. We know that many faced cruel deaths, but they are still alive and are interceding for us today!

Love never dies!

My friends, keep “feeding the Sheep”!

Feed the sheep with food, feed the sheep with the Word of God, and feed the sheep with actions of Divine Love!

Be Jesus today!

Happy Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul!

Pax. The Hermit of Peace.

Follow Jesus!

Happy St. Peter and St. Paul Day!

Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.” St. John 21:17

Feeding the Sheep is a problem for those who refuse to follow the Love Jesus taught and still teaches through those who are faithful to Him!

Love never dies!

My friends, keep “feeding the Sheep”!

Feed the sheep with food, feed the sheep with the Word of God, and feed the sheep with actions of Divine Love!

Be Jesus today!

Happy Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul!

Pax. The Hermit of Peace.

Be A Child Of The Most High!

Love Matters!

Being a Child of the Most High is challenging. However, it is a sure way to find true peace in one’s life. Jesus models this way of life.

Our Gospel Portion today is St. Luke 6:27-38 and our section to use today follows,

“But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for He is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish.” Luke 6: 35

How does one truly become a Child of the Most High, simply it is to do what the Son of God Did! Jesus’ words and example are the way of life that brings peace on Earth and good will to all. This way of life goes against the way people normally live and treat one another, but it is the way of peace.

Be little Jesus and transform our lives.

The life, Passion, and Death of Jesus is His modeling of the good life for us. It is the life of a true child of the Most High.

Be like Jesus and change the world one person at a time!

Pax. The Hermit of Peace.

https://gofund.me/033e2079

Give Jesus Total Trust!

Jesus will make something beautiful out of us!

In our Gospel Portion today (St. Luke 5: 1-11) we have a very important conversation between Jesus and Simon Peter. We read,

And when He ceased speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”

And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night! But at Your word I will let down the nets.”

And when they had done this, they enclosed a great shoal of fish; and as their nets were breaking. They beckoned to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boat, so that they began to sink.

But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” Luke 5: 4-8

We must think like Jesus, not like Simon Peter. Jesus knows us better than we know ourselves. Simon Peter had a limited understanding of himself. And that makes perfect sense. He knows how holy Jesus is, he knows how powerful Jesus is, and he knows how sinful he is. But Jesus saw through the shortcomings of Simon Peter and He knew He could do marvelous things through him.

Simon Peter did follow Jesus and Jesus could build His Church using him! Simon Peter surrendered to Jesus and this gives us an example for us to follow!

Do not let our opinions of ourselves become a barrier to God’s plan for us!

Let Jesus have His way with us and He will do marvelous things through us too!

Be blest!

Pax. The Hermit of Peace.

https://gofund.me/033e2079

Be Kingdom People!

Let nothing separate us from the Lord!

We live in a world of many distractions and these distractions can get in the way of our relationship to Jesus. In our Gospel Portion today (St. Mark 10: 17-30) we see that at work in the life of one individual. We read,

And he said to Him, “Teacher, all these I have observed from my youth.”

And Jesus looking upon him loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and come follow me.”

At that saying his countenance fell, and he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions. Mark 10:20-22

What keeps us from following Jesus in a more complete way?

We know from the reading above, this poor rich man had possessions that kept him from following Jesus completely. But things that we have that are important to us can do the same thing. Could it be the company that we keep? Could it be the places that we go? Or could it be our habits? Whatever it is, we know that the Lord is still merciful and is waiting for us to let go and let Him take control.

Each day we have an opportunity to let go and follow Jesus. He knows us and He loves us, and He has peace for us. He will help us surrender to Him and join His earthly kingdom!

Be Kingdom People!

Have a blessed Lord’s Day!

Pax. The Hermit of Peace.

https://gofund.me/3b910b57

We Were Lost, But Now We Are Found!

Thank God for Jesus!

There are so many opportunities to get lost and there are so many people who claim to love us, but really have their own agenda at work. But God enters and leads us to “Green Pastures”. We are given a place of peace in a world of confusion.

Thank God for Jesus!

We read in the Gospel of St. Mark,

As He (Jesus) landed He saw a great throng, and He had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and He began to teach them many things. Mark 6:34.

The sheep have to be taught!

Without the Good Shepherd, we would be lost in the world! There are so many problems that we have to deal with on the daily basis, with His word we have the means of handling our situations and staying in love and in peace.

The people in our Gospel selection today knew they were missing something in their lives and that something was Jesus!

Perhaps we are those people today and Jesus wants to be available to us! All we have to do is to seek Him.

Today there is so much hurt all around us, in our families, at our work places and in our society, but we do not have to despair! Let the Good Shepherd speak to our hearts and let Him take control. Let Jesus show how to be more like Him in all of our relationships.

“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me; for I am gentle and lowly of heart, and you will find rest for your souls”. Matthew 11:29

Pax. The Hermit of Peace.

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Be Faithful Like Jesus!

Jesus models for us how to deal in any situation, be faithful to God!

We read in the Gospel of St. John,

“If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there shall My servant be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.” John 12:26

We must look at this Gospel selection from the context that we are in liturgically. We are in the Season of Lent, the last days of that season and in the time called Passiontide. We are preparing our hearts for Holy Week.

In this time, we know that Jesus would experience some horrendous abuse of those in authority in His culture. Jesus would experience denials and betrayals of those near and dear to Himself. Jesus would ultimately be murdered on the Cross. Yet He remained faithful through it all. Jesus would be honored by Father God and He would rise again!

Jesus is the Model for us all!

Our entering into the Passion of Jesus is not just for the days leading up to the Glorious Resurrection Sunday. Rather, Jesus sets a pattern for all of us follow in how we to live as His followers.

We will rise again regardless of whatever we have to experience! There is no stopping a child of God!

Have a most blessed and fruitful Passiontide!

Pax. The Hermit of Peace.

https://gofund.me/a1d90db2

We Will Not Be Destroyed!

We Belong to Jesus!

Jesus had Holy Anger with the Market Place Temple! He turnover the money changer’s tables and made a scene that reminds us of the importance of keeping the house of prayer focused on love. And then He related the true place of prayer, the human person. We read in the Gospel of St. John:

Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” John 2:19

The physical house of prayer is very important, put the true place of worship is the individual. As radical as Jesus cleansed the Temple in Jerusalem two thousand years ago, He calls us to be radically focused on love in the Temple of our bodies.

During this holy time of Lent, may we work on protecting our temples, our bodies from things that separate us from God who is Love. May we work on keeping ourselves focused on love and remember we will rise with Jesus!

Pax. The Hermit of Peace

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Become a Jesus Follower!

Happy Lord’s Day!

Becoming a follower of Jesus changes our whole perspective in our lives. We allow Jesus to use us wherever we are. We bring all of gifts, all the skills that we have, but use them now for the greater glory of God!

We read in the Gospel of Mark:

And passing along by the Sea of Galilee, He (Jesus) saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net in the sea; for they were fishermen. And Jesus said he them, “Follow me and I will make you become fishers of people.”Mark 1:16-17

Simon and Andrew had a major life shift. They would be reworked as instruments of Kingdom Building! But they were still Simon and Andrew. They would use their knowledge base, their expertise in a new way, Jesus’ Way!

As followers of Jesus, we too make use of our knowledge base and our expertise, that does not change. However, what changes is how we use these gifts.

Let us reflect on the gifts that we have and discern how we are using them to bring the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth!

May we be the change that changes our world!

Pax. The Hermit of Peace

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