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

We Serve to Lead!

Jesus is our model!

In our Gospel Portion today, St. Mark 10: 35-45, we read about servant leadership.

“But it shall not be with you, but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you, must be slave of all.” Mark 43-44

Jesus has turned the world of leadership upside down. He showed this with His very life. He allowed Himself to serve others so that He would lead a service revolution!

Leadership in Jesus’ Way is not about wealth or power, but making everyone better in the encounter with Him.

The world would be a better place if the world took Jesus’ words and example seriously!

But like Jesus, we change the world by living out His message and His example.

Are we truly willing to lead like Jesus’ leads?

Have a blessed Lord’s Day!

Pax. The Hermit of Peace.

https://gofund.me/561b35cd

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

Jesus Rules!

When We Allow Jesus to Rule, Peace Reigns!

We are again at this special time of the year! We close our spiritual journey 2023 and next Sunday we will begin again. Each year’s Scriptures speak to us differently; the Scriptures remain but our lives changes and they speak to us where we are.

Today we look at the Final Judgment and we can look at our lives and see what side we are on. There are somethings that we cannot compromise on, if we are truly following Jesus, if Jesus is truly our King! We read from Matthew’s Gospel:

“Then the King will say to those at His right hand, ‘Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was in prison and you came to me.’”
Matthew 25: 34-35.

Jesus is very clear; the God of Mercy will be the God of the Final Judgement and the Judgement will be based on the mercy that we share with one another.

This challenge goes against what the world sees as important, and we are so affected by the world! We are called to rise above the world and its non-Christlike behaviors.

We can be Christlike and thank God we have this day to evaluate ourselves and become more Christlike; it will have eternal rewards!

Pax. The Hermit of Peace

https://gofund.me/e4fbd23a

Wholeness of Life Matters!

How We Live Reveals Who We Are!

Jesus had a real problem with hypocrisy! He was quite clear to the religious leadership of His people, Judaism. He heard one thing from their mouths, but He saw something different in their actions. Jesus found their way of living a major cause of His concern for them and the people that they were serving.

Jesus wanted better for His people, then and now!

It is not enough to have a title like teacher or father. All teachers, for Jesus’ Followers, must have as their real Teacher Jesus! All fathers, if they are Jesus’ Followers, must have Father God as their real Father Source! This requires the leadership of the people to be teachable!

Jesus tells us:

“He who is greatest among you shall be your servant; whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbled himself will be exalted.”
Matthew 23:11-12

Being humble means being teachable! Being able to be taught by Father God and the Lord Jesus will allow each one of us to be Servant-Leaders after the Heart of Jesus!

Pax.

The Hermit of Peace.

https://gofund.me/a1d90db2

The Wedding Garment

Make Love Your Garment!

The Wedding Feast is a Love Feast!

At times our Sacred Scriptures can be difficult to understand. For example, in the Gospel of St. Matthew 22:11-12,

“But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment; and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless…”

What is the “Wedding Garment “?

In this Parable of the Wedding Party we we know that Jesus is talking about being in line with God’s Kingdom. The original guests were invited and they had their own things to do, they did not join the party. Then the invite went to everyone, and they came, but one was not properly dressed. Being properly dressed for the party is essential. Not have the “Wedding Garment” is like being present at the affair and not really being there.

Perhaps being properly dressed refers to being clothed in love!

Clothed in Love makes sense because it is a love fest! God became one of us to bring us together in Divine Love!

We can be at the Wedding Feast and not really be there, because we choose not to be love.

This is a wonderful reminder and challenge! Being clothed in love means we are Kingdom People! This is our ongoing goal, working towards it, we will always belong at the “Wedding Party “!

Pax.

The Hermit of Peace.

https://gofund.me/a1d90db2

Forgive Always!

Forgive And Find Peace!

Jesus Leads The Way!

Life gets crazy, and we often have to deal with people who hate. Sometimes people will hate us and do things that take away our peace. However, the Lord Jesus has the answer for us to regain our composure and move forward in peace. We can and will rise again if we follow the Lord!

Jesus answers Peter, His chief Disciple, with the answer that can bring us out of whatever emotional situation that we may find ourselves in:

Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.”
Matthew 18:21-22

We find peace in Jesus!

Jesus understands the human situation and even though the Great Rabbi Jesus was speaking to Peter two thousand years ago, it is relevant to interpersonal relationships today and will be current probably to the end of time. Let us be honest, human relationships can be messy. For Peter, seven times forgiving someone is generous, however, we must follow the Master, Jesus, seventy times seven time, that means forgiveness without limit, as our peace seeking approach.

We do not forgive because of the other person, we forgive to be free!

A wise person once said, “We will all be friends in Heaven, so forgive and be in heaven today”!

Remember, no matter what has been done to anyone of us, forgive as Jesus taught! In doing so, we win! We will have a victorious life! We will be free! We will have peace!

Pax.

The Hermit of Peace.

https://gofund.me/a1d90db2