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.

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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.

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Jesus Teaches Love!

Are we teachable?

Jesus’ disciples, in today’s Gospel Portion (St. Mark 10: 2-16), exhibited a behavior that was repugnant to Him. We read in the Gospel,

And they were bringing children to Him, that He might touch them; and the disciples rebuked them.

But when Jesus saw it, He was indignant, and said to them, “Let the children come to me, do not hinder them; for such belongs the Kingdom of God.” Mark 10: 12-13.

What were the Disciples thinking? They seemed to misunderstand their Master!

Jesus wants all to come to Him! He has a blessing to give everyone. Unlike the officials in Jesus’ time who came to Him to try to trick Him, these parents sent their young ones to receive the blessing that only Jesus could give.

We are to be childlike! Our greatest desire is to be connected to Jesus, to live in His blessings! However, as adults we allow things to keep us away from being in the blest state with the Lord.

Total surrender means to come to Jesus just as we are and let Him take control.

May our motto be,
“Jesus, I surrender all to you, please take me and bless me and always keep me in your blessing.”

Being childlike in Jesus matters!

Happy Lord’s Day!

Pax. The Hermit of Peace.

https://gofund.me/561b35cd

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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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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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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