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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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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Let Jesus Bless You!

Believe and Trust in Him!

It is possible to miss a blessing because of unbelief. What a shame! We see in our Gospel selection of today, how unbelief in Jesus can keep us from healing. We read in St. Mark’s Gospel,

And He (Jesus) could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands upon a few sick people and healed them. And He marveled because of their unbelief. Mark 6:5-6

Familiarity breeds contempt! And contempt blocks miracles. However Total Trust in Jesus allow miracles to enter into our lives!

What does this say to us as we live our lives today? Most of us know Jesus, but do we believe He can bring miracles into our lives.

Familiarity breeds contempt, but faith opens the door for Jesus to take control!

Jesus wants to bring peace and healing into our lives, but He will not force it on us! Allow Him to work the miracles He has in store for us!

Lord save us from blocking Your blessings in our lives!

Pax. The Hermit of Peace.

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Be Consecrated in The Truth!

Mother’s Day Blessings!

There is a New World that we live in that is different from the world we see. This is Heaven on Earth and those who belong to this world live in Jesus!

As we come to the end of Eastertide (next Sunday is Pentecost Sunday which ends the season) we are reminded that we are different than the rest of the world even though we must function in it. We have been consecrated by the Resurrected Lord Jesus and we are to live this consecration. We read in St. John’s Gospel,

“They are not of the world, even as, I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is the truth. As You sent Me into the world, I have sent them into the world” John 17:16-18

Jesus has brought us together to be with Him now and always. The people we interact with must see that we are different. And that the life we live is attractive and inviting. The best way to bring people to the Jesus’ Kingdom is to live as citizens of that Kingdom!

And may we never forget that the majority of people who live in the Jesus’ Kingdom were born and raised in it. We ask blessings on all of the mothers of our lives, both living and deceased!

Happy and blessed Mother’s Day!

Pax. The Hermit of Peace.

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Let the Word Prune Us!

May we bear an abundance of fruit!

Jesus uses the grape vine to help us understand our place in the world as His Disciples. We read in the Gospel of St. John,

“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.”

John 15:4 RSV-CE

Abiding is key for our relationship to Jesus and to the world. In this relationship we make Jesus present in us, in our places of school or work, in our activities of entertainment and in everything we do. In keeping this relationship constant we make the miracles we need, and our world needs! We will bear much fruit!

However, if we sever this relationship, we are dead as representative of Jesus. We are not able to produce the fruit that the world most desperately needs.

Choose to be fruitful!

This means staying in the Word! This means living the Word, the Bible and letting it convict us!

Allow ourselves to be pruned by the words of Jesus!

We may not be able to change the world, but Jesus is able to change the world if we remain true Disciples of Jesus!

Pax. The Hermit of Peace.

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We Are Loved! We Will Not Be Lost!

Happy Good Shepherd Sunday!

We are still celebrating Easter! And in this Fourth Sunday of Easter, we celebrate a key feature of our Lord in our relationship with Him. We read in the Gospel of St. John,

“I am the Good Shepherd, I know my own and my own know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for My sheep.”

John 10:14-15

It is so easy to get lost in the world. God knows how we can get ourselves into trouble. And because God loves us, God joined us in Jesus Christ our Lord. Sheep have not been known to be smart creatures. Without guidance, without a good shepherd, they can fall off a cliff. Sheep are easy prey for wolfs and other predatory creatures, they would lose their lives without the protection of a good shepherd. This is the reality for sheep, and I cannot speak for you, but I can speak for myself. I need a Good Shepherd, and I know Him as Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Having a personal relationship with Jesus is a life saver! His word leads us through dark places into sublime green pastures. Jesus will fill us with His love so that we are overflowing in His grace. We do not have to fear evil, because He has conquered that too!

Today let me leave you with a prayer from Fr. Dolindo Ruotolo,

“O Jesus, I surrender myself to You, take care of everything!”

My friends, once we have done all that we can do, leave everything in God’s hands.

Have a blessed Sunday!

Pax. The Hermit of Peace.

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Let Us Follow Jesus!

Let Us Rise with Him!

Happy Palm Sunday!

Today we enter into the ending of our Lenten Fast, and the beginning of Holy Week! We enter into the culmination of the Incarnation! And we enter this time with great exuberance! We read in St. Mark’s Gospel,

“Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the Kingdom of our father David that is to come! Hosanna in the highest!”

Mark 11:10

Let us be one with Jesus as He travels through this week of His Passion and Death!

If we stay with Jesus, though we will suffer because of the ever-present evil that is around us, though we may get misunderstood by those around us, we will experience the Victory in Christ!

The more we find time to walk with Jesus this week, the greater our blessings will be.

No matter what we are going through, remember that in Jesus we will find the Victory of peace, joy and love!

Have a blessed Palm Sunday and a blessed Holy Week!

Let us keep each other in prayer!

Pax. The Hermit of Peace.

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