Like in the past, everything will be far from simple or easy. There will be highs and lows in our experiences this year but we are assured that everything about us will be in the hands of our Father.
When you are on the sidelines and see someone who is actually laying down their life and doing something that is worthy of great value, it can either make you want to join in and praise with them, or there might be something in you that makes you despise the freedom and joy.
A meal is a time when people learn to love each other. It is around a table that friends perceive best, without having to explain it, the warmth of being together. It is at table that fraternity expresses, creates or strengthens itself.
I die daily is not about morbid preoccupation with mortality but rather about its liberating practice of self-offering. It is practicing for it which quell paralysing fears. When we learn to die daily to selfish inclinations, our last farewell can be one of quiet peace in hearts.
Deep within us lies an existential fear of death. We dread that final moment when we must release our grip on all we possess, bid farewell to those we cherish, and cross the threshold towards the unknown. This fear drives us to do everything in our power to delay or avoid death.
Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.
A multitude of heavenly host appear and illumine the night sky. With all prayers and the light that scatters the darkness in our lives, we can hurdle new challenges and reach safely back to the shores of home amidst the difficult storms of life.
Like in the past, everything will be far from simple or easy. There will be highs and lows in our experiences this year but we are assured that everything about us will be in the hands of our Father.
Therefore, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. Are you not of more value than they?
Blessed are the poor in the spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.
For so it is that a man who has laboured wisely, skilfully and successfully must leave what is his own to someone who has not toiled for it at all. This, too, is vanity and great injustice, for what does he gain from all the toil and strain that he has undergone under the sun?
For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.
If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink. For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see.
Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear much fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit because apart from me you can do none.