Tagged: Prayers in English

“I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life.” –Deuteronomy 30:19 Recently, a group of Catholics were praying a rosary in front of the local abortion mill. A car drove by and a woman shouted at the group, “My body, my choice!” She made a choice as proclaimed in today’s Mass readings: to choose life or death, blessing or curse (Dt 30:19). How incredible that Almighty God gives us human beings the freedom to choose our own eternal destiny, heaven or hell. There is no other option. The love of God is so magnanimous...

“When you come to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for trials.” –Sirach 2:1 To prepare ourselves for trials, we must expect them. “Anyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus can expect to be persecuted” (2 Tm 3:12). Expect it. “Christ suffered in the flesh; therefore arm yourselves with His same mentality” (1 Pt 4:1). The psalmist stated: “If an enemy had reviled me, I could have borne it…but you, my other self, my companion and my bosom friend!” (Ps 55:13, 14) It is hardest to take sufferings inflicted by those closest to us, because we don’t...

Jesus “replied by saying to the crowd, ‘What an unbelieving lot you are! How long must I remain with you? How long can I endure you?’ ” –Mark 9:19 A lack of faith distresses Jesus (Mk 6:6). Jesus came into the midst of a crowd which lacked faith and expressed His exasperation quite openly (Mk 9:19, 23). Many of us are surrounded by crowds of people who lack faith. What is our comfort level in these crowds? Does it likewise distress us that people live lives lacking in faith? What kind of words do we speak when in the presence...

“It was from that place that He scattered them all over the earth.” –Genesis 11:9 We are divided, fragmented, even shattered. Even our divisions are divided and sub-divided. Our different languages, nationalities, and denominations have cut the human race and even the body of Christ into hundreds of thousands of pieces. Pride is the cause of our divisions and divisiveness. Like the builders of the tower of Babel, we want to make a name for ourselves and make monuments to ourselves reaching high into the sky (see Gn 11:4). We want to be better, superior to others, to stand apart,...