Tagged: Prayer Intention

FIRST LOVE

“Accept death.” —2 Maccabees 7:29 Loving God is more important than living (see Ps 63:4). Like the seven brothers in today’s first reading for Mass, hundreds of thousands of believers have laid down their lives for love of God. Loving God takes priority over any suffering. The faithful mother in today’s first reading endured the extreme suffering of personally seeing her seven sons maimed and martyred. Loving God takes priority over family (Lk 14:26), money (see Mt 6:24), lifestyle, and self (Lk 14:26). If you are rejected, penniless, homeless, and despised as a failure, your life is nevertheless beautiful if...

A NOBLE EXAMPLE

“Therefore, by manfully giving up my life now, I will prove myself worthy of my old age, and I will leave to the young a noble example of how to die willingly and generously for the revered and holy laws.” –2 Maccabees 6:27-28 The ninety-year-old Eleazar refused to save his life by pretending he was eating pork. He knew that the example of his life of holiness would remain with others long after he died. Eleazar intentionally decided to offer his life and his faithful death as an example (2 Mc 6:19ff). St. Stephen’s example of holy martyrdom became an...

READY OR NOT – HERE I COME

“The heavens and the earth will pass away but My words will not pass.” –Mark 13:31 The end of the world is certain. The Lord proclaims: “The heavens and the earth will pass away but My words will not pass” (Mk 13:31). The end of the world is unpredictable. “As to the exact day or hour, no one knows it, neither the angels in heaven nor even the Son, but only the Father” (Mk 13:32). The end of the world “shall be a time unsurpassed in distress since nations began until that time” (Dn 12:1). “During that period after trials...

READY OR NOT – HERE I COME

“The heavens and the earth will pass away but My words will not pass.” –Mark 13:31 The end of the world is certain. The Lord proclaims: “The heavens and the earth will pass away but My words will not pass” (Mk 13:31). The end of the world is unpredictable. “As to the exact day or hour, no one knows it, neither the angels in heaven nor even the Son, but only the Father” (Mk 13:32). The end of the world “shall be a time unsurpassed in distress since nations began until that time” (Dn 12:1). “During that period after trials...

PERSIST AND PRAY

“Listen to what the corrupt judge has to say.” –Luke 18:6 Jesus doesn’t tell us to pay attention to what the widow says. He tells us to pay attention to what the corrupt judge says (Lk 18:6). One message of this parable is that persistent evil can be worn down by persistent good. Greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world (see 1 Jn 4:4). It may seem to us that there are strongholds of the evil one that cannot be defeated. Evil in our culture may seem to be as giant as Goliath...