Love Triumphs!

The Resurrection of the Lord Jesus means that Love will have the final victory!

First let us wish our Eastern Orthodox Sisters and Brothers a Happy Resurrection Sunday!

We read in St. John’s Gospel,

“This I command you, to love one another.”

John 15:17 RSV-CE

The Commandment of Love is central to Jesus and His true followers. This makes perfect sense because He is the personification of Divine Love. Jesus entered our world so that we can enter into God who is Love. The problem is living this Love is difficult because those who follow this Love will often experience the pushback, to a greater or lesser degree, what Jesus experienced as He promoted Divine Love in human relations.

Love anyway!

Do not give up Heaven because people choose to live in hell!

True followers of Jesus will experience their crosses. Be strong, embrace your cross, and live the peace that passes all understanding!

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.

https://gofund.me/1b9dd565

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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Rejoice and Be Glad!

Jesus Is Risen, He Is Truly Risen!

Happy Third Sunday of Easter! We see in our Gospel selection from St. Luke that the post-Resurrection Jesus comes to His Disciples. They could not believe their eyes. Is it truly our Lord? The Disciples had difficulty accepting the resurrection. It was too marvelous to believe! Jesus had to meet them where they were. We read in the Gospel,

And while they still disbelieved for joy, and wondered, He said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave Him a piece of broiled fish, and He took it and ate before them.

Luke 24:41-43

Jesus knew this action would be proof He was not a ghost.

With this proof, Jesus’ Disciples would give up everything to serve Him. For three hundred years, following Jesus could mean death.

The radical nature of the Resurrection must change our lives. We need Easter, We need Resurrection Sunday, because it reminds us how we are to live. There are so many messages in the world and they may take us off our Christian Life Path. Easter reminds us that we are a Resurrection People and that Love will be Victorious!

What Jesus said two thousand years ago, He is saying to us now,

“You are witnesses of these things.”

Luke 24:48

May we live as People of the Resurrection and witness to the world the Power of Love!

Pax. The Hermit of Peace

https://gofund.me/a1d90db2

Divine Mercy Matters!

Happy Divine Mercy Sunday!

There is an urgent need to live Divine Mercy in our lives. Our world needs to see it in how we treat ourselves and each other. We can change the trajectory of our lives and those we encounter. We can go from chaos to peace and lead others to peace too! We read in the Gospel of St. John,

Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.”

John 20:21

As we close the high holy days of Easter, we are challenged by the words of the Risen Lord Jesus to be His presence in the world. God entered into our midst over 2000 years ago in the womb of Mary His Mother and as the world so desperately needed Him then, so do we need Him now. Humankind must always be challenged to live supernaturally!

We must live the Mercy that we say we believe in! People need to see that there is another way to live, the Mercy Way!

How we treat ourselves and others say volumes about what we really believe!

The world still has hope, and it begins with us!

We must ask ourselves honestly, are we living the fact that Jesus rose from the dead?

Are we living Divine Mercy?

Happy Divine Mercy 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.

https://gofund.me/a1d90db2

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

Joy Matters!

Happy Laetare Sunday!

We celebrate the Fourth Sunday of Lent. We are at the middle section of the Lenten Fast and we have already come so far in the Holy Season. Our selection from the Gospel of St. John reminds us why, no matter what we are going through, we can choose joy. We read from the text:

For God so loved the world that he gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life.

John 3:16

This message is our base! When life gets ugly, and the storms are raging, John 3:16 reminds us that whatever we are going through, it will pass. Jesus will get us through everything we have to deal with if we give it to Him!

Enjoy this wonderful reminder of why we have Lent. It is all about Jesus. He came into the world so that the power of sin and death cannot, will not, have the final say.

Be joyful. We have Victory in Jesus.

Pax. The Hermit of Peace.

https://gofund.me/a1d90db2

We Need Glorious Experiences!

The Cross Is Real and So Is the Resurrection!

As we celebrate the Second Sunday of Lent, we meditate on the Transfiguration. Let us look at Peter. We read in St. Mark’s Gospel:

And Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is well that we are here; let us make three booths, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

Mark 9:5

Peter was having a glorious time and he wanted to hold on to the moment. He saw the Divine Nature of his Lord and Master, he also saw his heroes, Moses and Elijah. Everything made sense! Everything was beautiful!

Peter’s desire could not be fulfilled. Life does not work that way. He would have to come down from glory and experience the Passion, Cross, and Death of his Lord and Master, Jesus He would have to experience his personal failure in the denial of his relationship with the Savior, but he would also, along with John, the beloved disciple, experience the Empty Tomb! Jesus would destroy death!

May we look at Peter and see our road too. We will have glorious experiences with our Lord and Master. We will experience also terrible things in our life journey, and because we know our Lord is God, we will get through whatever we are experiencing because we know we have the Final Victory in the Lord Jesus.

Pax. The Hermit of Peace.

https://gofund.me/e4fbd23a

Be Led by the Spirit!

Make this Lent Life Changing!

The glorious season of Lent we enter into again! We need Lent because there are so many distractions that are present in our lives that can take us from our true purpose as Children of God. If we allow ourselves to enter deep into the Lenten Fast, we will receive a renewed life of peace, hope and love.

Our example for Lent and, hopefully, for all aspects of our lives, is Jesus. We read in St. Mark’s Gospel:

The Spirit immediately drove Him (Jesus) out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with wild beasts; and the angels ministered to Him.

Mark 1: 12-13.

In this short section of the Scriptures which describes the first Lent, we see things that we must be aware of for our Lenten experience.

We will be tempted, but we will also experience the consolation of God through the Angels. Be strong during the rough times of these forty days and and allow ourselves to be transformed into the Children of God, in the way we live, as we are in fact, by our Baptism.

The things in this world war against the love we were created to share. Let this Lenten Season bring us back to who we truly are made to be.

Let this Lent radically change us and in doing so improve the world around us!

Be renewed!

Pax. The Hermit of Peace.

https://gofund.me/3599664e