Tagged: Prayer Intention

“You will suffer in the world. But take courage! I have overcome the world.” —John 16:33 At the age of sixteen, after Christmas Mass, I found in the alcove of the Church a pamphlet called Through the Bible in One Year. It featured a daily checklist in which you could read several chapters of the Bible a day for an entire year. Each day, you checked the box when you finished the readings, and at the end of the year, you would have read the entire Bible. On the first day of 1973, I was excited to read several chapters...

“He was lifted up before their eyes in a cloud which took Him from their sight.” —Acts 1:9 Because we can grow in love when we are in someone’s presence, we treasure the time we spend with those we love. A birth is such a wonderful event because the baby is present to the world and not only to the mother. A death is so difficult because we can no longer in the same way be in the presence of the one who has died. Therefore, Jesus’ Ascension would seem to have presented a major problem. Jesus could no longer...

He was “instructed in the new way of the Lord. Apollos was a man full of spiritual fervor. He spoke and taught accurately about Jesus, although he knew only of John’s baptism.” —Acts 18:25 Apollos was: “a man of eloquence” (Acts 18:24), “an authority on Scripture” (Acts 18:24), “instructed in the new way of the Lord” (Acts 18:25), teaching “accurately about Jesus” (Acts 18:25), and speaking “fearlessly in the synagogue” (Acts 18:26). Nevertheless, Apollos “knew only of John’s baptism.” Apollos did not have new life in Christ and in the Holy Spirit. Why wasn’t Apollos invited to give His life...

“Be not discouraged!” —Zephaniah 3:16 Recently, I was hospitalized for a short time. No one knew I was in the hospital, as I had no time to call people to pass the word. Naturally, I had no visitors during that brief stay. I could easily relate to Elizabeth’s experience on the day that Mary visited her. Elizabeth had gone into seclusion for five months (Lk 1:24), implying that she had no visitors in that interval. She couldn’t have expected Mary to visit, since to her knowledge Mary was not aware she was pregnant. God directly informed Mary of Elizabeth’s pregnancy,...

“I tell you truly: you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices; you will grieve for a time, but your grief will be turned into joy.” —John 16:20 Imagine a little boy sitting in a swing. This child’s slightly older brother begins to push his brother in the swing. At first, the younger brother is delighted. Then his brother pushes the swing harder. The younger brother begins to become afraid. He cries to his brother to stop. The older brother pushes even harder. The younger child begins to scream and cry. This scene is analogous to trusting in the...