Prayfor2

Is there a more common stereotype than, “Catholic guilt?”

We are actually called to a life of joy, lived in the truth of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, we live in an era of relativism, where truth is said to be a personal choice, or outright denied. C.S. Lewis even said, “When you hate the truth, the truth sounds hateful.”

Guilt, and a conscience properly formed in truth, are the core of our spiritual nervous system.

Guilt is like putting your hand on a hot stove – you quickly become aware something is wrong, and are compelled to do something about it. God doesn’t want you to keep your hand on the stove, just like he doesn’t you wallowing in guilt.

Listen to David writing in Psalm 32…

Blessed is the one whose fault is removed, whose sin is forgiven.

Blessed is the man to whom the LORD imputes no guilt, in whose spirit is no deceit.

Because I kept silent, my bones wasted away; I groaned all day long.

For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength withered as in dry summer heat.

Then I declared my sin to you; my guilt I did not hide.

I said, “I confess my transgression to the LORD,” and you took away the guilt of my sin.

Let’s pray – Father of grace and mercy – you long to free us from guilt and shame. Help us appreciate guilt as a call to action, a spiritual hot stove that inspires our repentance and return to the truth of your love. Amen.

This is Mike Kelly with Pray For 2 - two minute prayer reflection on the daily readings of the Church. Listen to them anytime at Prayfor2.com, or on the Redeemer Radio app.

Love is all you need.

John Lennon’s song may not have been theologically complete, but it was on the right path. Love is PRIMARILY what you need.

Why?

Because God IS love – it is His very essence, and because you are created in His image and likeness, it is part of your very essence. You are happiest when recognizing that you come from love, and that your purpose in life is to love, sacrificing self-interest and becoming a self-gift.

As essential as the theological virtues of faith and hope are, they are both meant to point us to the ultimate, which is love - the Divine nature of God Himself. Listen to Saint Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, interchanging the words God and Love…

Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, [love] is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails….So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Let’s pray – Father of grace and mercy, you are the author of love. Help us rest in the beating heart of your love, while inspiring within us action to share your love with all we encounter. While love may not be all we need, help us recognize the primacy of your Divine love. Amen.

This is Mike Kelly with Pray For 2, offering two minute prayer reflections on the daily readings of the Church. Listen to them anytime at prayfor2.com, or on the Redeemer Radio app.

Why do I have to confess by sins to a priest…why can’t I just confess directly to God?

This is a common objection to the sacrament of confession. The answer is that Jesus, being the Divine Psychologist, knew this would not satisfy our human nature. He knew that we would need to be fully accountable – taking responsibility that we had done wrong, and making a full account of it.

He also knew that we would need a person to person encounter to share that, and to know we were forgiven. The priest, acting in the person of Christ, delivers words of forgiveness that we need to hear.

Confession was not an invention of the Church. It was a foundational gift of Jesus Christ, given in an appearance to His apostles after his death and resurrection in John chapter 20…

“Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”

Let’s pray – Father of grace and mercy – you gave us the gift of confession as the Divine Psychologist. Help us to recognize how healthy it is to be cleansed from the bonds of guilt and shame, and freed to become the very best version of ourselves – the person you uniquely created us to be. Amen.

This is Mike Kelly with Pray For 2, offering two minute prayer reflections on the daily readings of the Church. Listen to them anytime at Godislove.blog, or on the Redeemer Radio app.

Many try to reduce Jesus Christ to a, “great moral teacher” to escape the magnitude of His divinity, and the demands of his teachings. But Jesus claimed to be much more than a great moral teacher – he claimed to be God.

Let’s ponder this with C.S Lewis, from his book Mere Christianity,

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God.

A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell.

You must make your choice.

Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. Let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. ... Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, …I have to accept the view that He was and is God.”

Let’s Pray – Jesus our Redeemer – Thank you for breaking into our human world not as a liar or lunatic, but as the Way, the Truth and the Life – our God and our loving Lord. Amen.

This is Mike Kelly with Pray For 2 - two minute prayer reflection on the daily readings of the Church. Listen to them anytime at Prayfor2.com, or on the Redeemer Radio app.

EYES UP Matthew 14: 22-32 1/22/2020 (287)

Is there anything more frustrating than falling into recurring sin? Why do we ebb and flow in the spiritual life?

There is a clue in the Gospel of Matthew, where we see Peter ebb and flow in dramatic fashion.

Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side…When evening came, the boat was being tossed about by the waves…. During the fourth watch of the night, he came toward them, walking on the sea. When the disciples saw him they were terrified. “It is a ghost.” At once [Jesus] spoke to them, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.” Peter replied, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus. But when he saw how [strong] the wind was he became frightened; and, beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”

Peter takes a leap of faith, trusting Jesus will support him. But as soon as he takes his eyes off Jesus, he begins to sink. We thrive in the spiritual life when our eyes are up, fixed on Jesus. We fall when we lose sight of him.

Let’s pray – Jesus our Redeemer. Help us to keep our eyes up and fixed on you, that we might abide in your love and the thrive in the life of holiness you designed us for. Amen.

This is Mike Kelly. You can find Pray For 2 at Prayfor2.com, or on the Redeemer Radio app.

BLESS THE LORD O MY SOUL - PSALM 103 - 1/23/2020 (290)

I was recently given Psalm 103 as a penance after confession as a way to dwell in the God’s rich mercy.

Today, let’s pray this psalm of gratitude:

Bless the Lord, O my soul;

and all that is within me, bless his holy name!

Bless the Lord, O my soul,

and forget not all his benefits,

who forgives all your iniquity,

who heals all your diseases,

who redeems your life from the Pit,

who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,

who satisfies you with good as long as you live

so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

The Lord works vindication

and justice for all who are oppressed.

He made known his ways to Moses,

his acts to the people of Israel.

The Lord is merciful and gracious,

slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

He will not always chide,

nor will he keep his anger forever.

He does not deal with us according to our sins,

nor requite us according to our iniquities.

For as the heavens are high above the earth,

so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;

as far as the east is from the west,

so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

As a father pities his children,

so the Lord pities those who fear him.

For he knows our frame;

he remembers that we are dust.

As for man, his days are like grass;

he flourishes like a flower of the field;

for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,

and its place knows it no more….

Bless the Lord, O my soul! Amen.

This is Mike Kelly. You can find Pray For 2 at Prayfor2.com, or on the Redeemer Radio app.

BELONG BELIEVE BEHAVE Matthew 11:28-30; Revelation 22:17 (292) 1/24/2020

How do we join a new group? Typically, we receive and accept invitation to belong. Second, there is recognition of shared values, or belief. Finally, we modify our actions to align with the group, or behave.

Belong, believe, behave.

For someone newly approaching faith communities, it can feel like this order is mixed up. It may feel that I have to believe or behave a certain way before I can belong. Even worse, I may see hypocrisy in how those who belong and claim to believe actually behave, and be driven away.

The beauty is that Jesus invites all. He famously derided the rich and powerful, instead seeking out and inviting the outcasts - the materially and spiritually poor. And the Church he founded is a meant to be hospital for the broken, not a museum for the perfect, including the hypocrites.

And all – including you - are welcome.

Let’s listen today to couple of these invitations.

“The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let him who hears say, “Come.” And let him who is thirsty come, let him who desires take the water of life without price.”

Jesus, in the Gospel of Matthew, says,

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Let’s pray – Jesus our light. You say, “come.” Help us accept this free invitation. May we all know that we belong in your love. Amen.

This is Mike Kelly with Pray For 2. Listen to them anytime at Prayfor2.com, or on the Redeemer Radio app.

All people sin. But at the same time, you are not defined by your sin. That is secondary. Your primary identity is a beloved son or daughter of God, the creator of the universe and father of all. Accepting Jesus’s free gift of grace reconciles you from your sin.

So I want to caution you about calling yourself a sinner. The devil, the great accuser, wants you to fall into the trap of identifying with and wallowing in your sins. But Jesus Christ came into the world precisely to liberate you from them. And He gave the Church the gift of the Sacrament of confession so when we fall into sin, we can again be reconciled.

Saint Paul went to great pains to explain this to the Romans,

“as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all men. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man’s obedience many will be made righteous. Law came in, to increase the trespass; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Let’s pray – Jesus our Redeemer. You came to call sinners to a new identity, that of a beloved son and daughter of the father of Love. Help us accept your grace to reconcile in you, that we would bask in the light of your mercy, granting us the freedom us to be all you designed us to be. Amen.

This is Mike Kelly with Pray For 2. Listen anytime at prayfor2.com, or on the Redeemer Radio app.

Most of us think of an epiphany as an enlightening revelation or discovery – an “aha moment.” In the Church, it means manifestation, as in the Christmas story of Jesus, where he became present to the Magi, and they recognize Him as the promised Messiah and Savior of the world.

Today, let’s pray with the Old Testament prophecy from Isaiah, where the Messiah is predicted. See if you recognize some of the elements of the Epiphany story that will take place hundreds of years later.

Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.

Lift up your eyes round about, and see; they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from far, and your daughters shall be carried in the arms. Then you shall see and be radiant, your heart shall thrill and rejoice; because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you. A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Mid′ian and Ephah; all those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord.

Let’s pray – Jesus our Messiah. You are our epiphany – God made manifest in the world. May the light of your love and truth be a revelation in our lives. Amen.

This is Mike Kelly with Pray For 2. Listen anytime at prayfor2.com, or on the Redeemer Radio app.

Why did Jesus enter into the world?

The simple answer was to say, “I love you.” Jesus loves you right where you are, but he also loves you too much to leave you there. This great light appeared in the darkness to shower grace into our sinful nature, but only if we are willing to accept that grace.

Listen to the prophet Isaiah, talking about this coming Savior nearly 700 years before his birth on Christmas.

“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined. You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Mid′ian. For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end.

Let’s pray – Jesus our Savior. You came to say, “I love you.” Help us to welcome the light of that love into our hearts. Help us to thrive in your grace as we continue to strive toward a life of holiness. Amen.

This is Mike Kelly with Pray For 2. Listen anytime at prayfor2.com, or on the Redeemer Radio app.