Prayfor2

The Sunday reading on May 27th from Saint Paul’s letter to the Romans is full of hope,but sneaks a subtle condition toward the end that we need to keep in mind.

Brothers and sisters: For those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a Spirit of adoption, through whom we cry, "Abba, Father!" The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

Did you catch it? The good news is we are adopted sons and daughters of a loving father. The condition is that we also have to suffer with him. Think about how much of our world if oriented toward the avoidance or numbing of suffering. What if what we are medicating out way out of is the very thing that will sanctify us, humble us, and make us more loving in a sacrificial way?

Let’s pray – Father of Grace and mercy…your love is unyielding, and you call us your own through the redeeming power of your son, Jesus Christ. Help us to pick up our crosses daily, knowing that suffering is a very necessary part of our redemption, so that we may be also glorified with you one day in Heaven. Amen.

Today is Easter. There are any number of great teachers in the world. There have been many that have died for a noble cause. But there is only one person in history that not only did both of those, but also claimed to be God….and then rose from the dead to prove it.

Listen to the Gospel from Saint John, Chapter 20…

On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, "They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don't know where they put him." So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first; he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in. When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed. For they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.

Jesus, our Redeemer – Alleluia…indeed you are risen! Amen.

Thank you for tuning in to Redeemer Radio for our Lenten reflections series. You can revisit them anytime at godislove.blog, or on the Redeemer Radio app.

Today is Good Friday, the most solemn day in history. Imagine being a disciple, spending 3 years side by side with Jesus, listening to this revolutionary teacher, this loving miracle worker. Think about this being the messiah you had been waiting for – the savior that would unite all nations, restore the temple, and be a truly noble king for all people.

And then consider the shock of seeing this savior, who you imagined being untouchable, unjustly tried and put to death. We know how the story ends three days later, but today, we feel the weight of his cross. Take time today to dwell in the injustice and suffering our Lord and Savior had to take on to redeem us, as we read from the Gospel of Saint John, Chapter 19.

Aware that everything was now finished, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I thirst.” There was a vessel filled with common wine. So they put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop and put it up to his mouth. When Jesus had taken the wine, he said, “It is finished.” And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit.

Jesus Our Savior – You were pierced for our iniquities, and crushed for our sins. You bore the punishment that made us whole, and by your wounds we were healed. We thank you…we praise you….and we adore you. Amen.

Thank you for tuning in to Redeemer Radio for our Lenten reflections series. You can revisit them anytime at godislove.blog, or on the Redeemer Radio app.

Holy Thursday’s readings share Jesus’s Last Supper, where he institutes the Holy Eucharist. Jesus asks his disciples to do this in remembrance of Him. More than merely thinking back to something, remembrance means transcending time and space to be made present again at that event. The Jewish people believed that they were made present at the Passover event with their ancestors as they prepared to escape the tyranny of the Egyptians. The Last Supper is the new Passover, and in remembrance, we transcend space and time to be made present again at Jesus’s Last Supper at every mass.

Listen to Saint Paul’s 1st Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians:

Brothers and sisters: I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, "This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.

Jesus our Savior – you offer nothing less than yourself in the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. Help our spirit of remembrance, appreciating that we transcend space and time to be seated with you at the Last Supper in every mass. Amen.

Thank you for tuning in to Redeemer Radio for our Lenten reflections series. You can revisit them anytime at godislove.blog, or on the Redeemer Radio app.

One reason I stress making the daily readings a part of your prayer routine is that you start to see the New Testament prefigured in the Old Testament, and the Old fulfilled in the New. We can read the Old Testament very much like a detective’s mystery, filled with clues about how the story will end. There were at least 150 predictions in the Old Testament that were fulfilled in person of Jesus Christ – an almost impossible number mathematically. Unless, of course, you are the creator of the world!

Listen to this reading from Isaiah, Chapter 42. First, picture not knowing Jesus but anticipating a coming savior of the world. Then listen knowing the end of the story, and how brilliantly the prophecy describes the Jesus we know and love.

Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one with whom I am pleased, Upon whom I have put my Spirit; he shall bring forth justice to the nations, Not crying out, not shouting, not making his voice heard in the street. A bruised reed he shall not break, and a smoldering wick he shall not quench, Until he establishes justice on the earth; the coastlands will wait for his teaching.

Father of Grace and Mercy – you love us so very very much. Thank you for unveiling yourself to us across thousands of years and scores of prophets in the Old Testament. Help us to see your beautiful son in new ways – prefigured in the Old, and fulfilled in the New. Amen.

Thank you for tuning in to Redeemer Radio for our Lenten reflections series. You can revisit them anytime at godislove.blog, or on the Redeemer Radio app.

Faith or works? There often seem to be conflicting statements in Scripture regarding faith and works. Saint Paul’s letter to the Ephesians says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast.”

Yet listen to the very next line, “For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them.” Our good works are part and parcel of a saving faith. After all, Saint James later added that, “faith without works is dead.”

Do your actions embody your faith in Jesus Christ? How often do they reflect the love of God?

Let’s listen to Jesus’s words in Friday’s reading from the Gospel of Saint John, Chapter 10, where he challenges his disciples to judge Him by HIS works.

“If I do not perform my Father's works, do not believe me; but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may realize and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father."

Let’s Pray - Father of Grace and Mercy – We recognize you are the Son of God by your works on behalf of the Father. Help us to reflect our faith in you through our works – may we be your hands and feet as our actions demonstrate your love. Amen

Tune in to Redeemer Radio for more reflections as we walk through this Lenten season together or pray with them anytime on the Redeemer Radio app.

I love Holy week and all of the masses leading up to Easter. Unfortunately, Spring Break sometimes falls over this time, and our family has to endeavor to find a new Church home.

One Palm Sunday, when our four children were very young, we found ourselves at mass in a Florida strip mall. The church area tiny, so we were forced to sit out in the hall on folding chairs, facing a blank wall.

The Palm Sunday gospel is an extended reading that shares the passion and death of Jesus, and is rich in showing His sacrificial love – that is unless you’re wrestling four squirmy little ones. I hate to admit it, but I kept thinking, “Oh please, Father, make it a short homily.”

As the reading concluded, and we sat down on our slippery shiny seats, the priest said, I am going to give the world’s shortest homily. Prayers answered! He said my homily is all of three words, and comes from the 1st letter of Saint john.

God is love.

Here amid the 800,000 words of the bible were three that distilled who God is to His very essence. Love. Not the fuzzy feeling of attraction, but the willingness to give of yourself for another.

Dwell in that today – God, is love.

Let’s Pray - Father of Grace and Mercy – as we reflect on your passion and death the Palm Sunday and Holy week, help us to see that you are love itself, and that love in it’s very essence is sacrificial. Amen.

Tune in to Redeemer Radio for more reflections as we walk through this Lenten season together or pray with them anytime on the Redeemer Radio app.

In Wednesday’s reading from gospel from John, chapter 8, we hear the famous line, “the truth will set you free.” Jesus doesn’t claim to be a way, or a truth, or a life, but THE way, THE truth and THE life.” The fullness of truth is revealed in the person of Jesus Christ and is a free gift to all. And living in THE truth leads to true freedom, in so much as we actively choose to live in the word of truth each day and each moment. Listen to Jesus speaking to the Jews who had believed in him,

"If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." They answered him, "We are descendants of Abraham, and have never been in bondage to any one. How is it that you say, `You will be made free'?" Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, every one who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not continue in the house for ever; the son continues for ever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

Let’s pray – Father of Grace and Mercy – You love us so relentlessly that you thirst to set us free from the slavery of sin. Help us to accept your word as truth, so we would repent and turn into the arms of your love and mercy. Give us the grace to know that your truth truly sets us free. Amen.

Tune in to Redeemer Radio for more reflections as we walk through this Lenten season together or pray with them anytime on the Redeemer Radio app.

While many of our efforts throughout life concentrate on seeking happiness, most of us realize happiness is always fleeting and is are often contingent upon our mood and surroundings.

God promises us something much more permanent through a new life in Christ – the gift of joy.

Joy is the anchoring, sustaining a sense of peace we encounter knowing we abide in the heart of love itself as adopted sons and daughters of God. Jesus, addressing his disciples in John 15, goes to far as to say, “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.”

Listen to Monday’s first reading from the book of Isaiah, chapter 65

"For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. But be glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress

You were created to be a joy. Do you cultivate a heart of joy, keeping the garden free of the weeds that would choke it out?

Father of Grace and Mercy – thank you for the gift of joy. Let that gift root deeply into our souls, that we would both abide in it no matter our trials, and radiate it out to all we encounter. Amen.

Tune in to Redeemer Radio for more reflections as we walk through this Lenten season together or pray with them anytime on the Redeemer Radio app.

Fasting is one of the three pillars of our Lenten journey, along with prayer and almsgiving, or charity. Fasting by itself is healthy – eating less is healthier, and can heighten our other senses.

But the real benefit of fasting is helping us to detach from things of the world that consume too much of our time and attention. Whether that’s social media, texting, TV, alcohol, or food, Lent spotlights unhealthy attachments and encourages healthy detachement.

Listen to Sundays reading from Saint Paul to the Romans, highlighting this healthy detachment from things in the flesh,

Brothers and Sisters - those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Any one who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although your bodies are dead because of sin, your spirits are alive because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit which dwells in you.

Father of Grace and mercy – you know what’s best for us because you designed us. Help us remember that while we in the world, we are not of the world, and that our fasting leads to a healthy detachment from the things of the world. Amen.

Tune in to Redeemer Radio for more reflections as we walk through this Lenten season together or pray with them anytime on the Redeemer Radio app.