Irrational Joy

‘I tell you most solemnly, you will be weeping and wailing while the world will rejoice; you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy.’

Jn.16:20

Jesus at the Last Supper is telling His disciples He is about to be taken from them but that He will return.  He is promising that His resurrection will happen and it will be a source of great joy for all believers.

Catholics and all Christians are resurrection people.  It is the great non-sensible event that makes sense of everything.  It flies in the face of the world’s understanding of death which is destruction, decay and final ending.  For Jesus His resurrection meant new life and a new and greater beginning.  He has led the way for us to follow into the same glorious resurrected state.  No wonder we have every reason to be joyful!

Today I remind myself of the reason for my irrational joy…  the promise I have for my resurrection.

Lord Jesus, you are the first born into the new and eternal life promised to us.  Thank you Lord for the source of great joy your promise gives me, today.

Little Flower, please pray for me.

Come Holy Spirit

Sixth Week of Easter

…it is for your own good that I am going because unless I go, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I do go, I will send him to you.

Jn.16:7

Jesus is in the upper room of the Last Supper giving His final words of encouragement to His disciples.  He recognises their grief in hearing that He is leaving them but puts it into perspective by revealing God’s plan in it all… He must go so the Holy Spirit may come!

This is an amazing fact.  I am better off, according to Jesus, with Him not here with me in the flesh.  Why?  …because it has allowed the Holy Spirit to come into my life.  Jesus places huge emphasis on the importance of the Holy Spirit and His role in the Church, on His role in my life.  Do I place the same importance on the third person of the Blessed Trinity?

Come Holy Spirit and renew the face of the earth… renew me!

Little Flower, please pray for me.

Command to Love

Fifth Week of Easter

What I command you is to love one another.

Jn.15:17

Jesus is giving His final exhortation to His disciples, knowing that His passion and death are imminent. When a man knows he is about to die and his loved ones are around him, the words he gives them are well thought out and important.  Jesus chooses to talk to His followers about love.

A command is not a request.  When a command is issued in the army, soldiers obey that command even if it means placing themselves in extreme danger.  To ignore a command means the soldier is no longer part of the fighting force, he is on the outside. 

Jesus commands me to love.  If I ignore this command I can no longer call myself a follower of the Way, call myself Christian. By making love a command, Jesus is telling me this is essential to being part of God’s Kingdom.  To love is not just a nice thing to do, it’s essential for my own salvation. 

Today, I choose to be a lover.

Lord Jesus, You showed the greatest love by laying you life down for me, your friend.  Fill me with Your love that I may pass it on to others.

Little Flower, please pray for me.

The Gift of the Holy Spirit

Fifth Week of Easter

In fact God, who can read everyone’s heart, showed his approval of them by giving the Holy Spirit to them just as he had to us.

Acts.15:8

Paul and Barnabus have returned to Jerusalem to discuss with the elders and Apostles what should their approach be to pagans who convert.  Peter supports accepting them without burdening them with Jewish laws.  He argues from his own experience where converts were immediately given the Holy Spirit on accepting the Good News of Jesus.

The Holy Spirit was recognised by the early church as a stamp of approval, an imprimatur from God Himself.   The Holy Spirit was a desirable friend, helper and advocate.  Do I hunger as much for the Holy Spirit?

Come Holy Spirit of God.  Empower me that I my be a greater witness to the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Little Flower, please pray for me.

Pruned by the Word

Fifth Week of Easter

Every branch in me that bears no fruit he cuts away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes to make it bear even more. You are pruned already, by means of the word that I have spoken to you.

Jn.15:2,3

Jesus continues His final exhortation to the disciples at the Last Supper.  Here He  uses the analogy of vine and branches.  He is the vine, we are the branches.

At first reading the phrase Jesus says, “You are pruned already, by means of the word that I have spoken to you”, seems strange.  How can His words prune me?  But when I think about what a difference His words through inspired sacred scripture have made in my life, I can start to understand what He means.  His words have pruned me.  The old man is slowly being cut away each time I read scripture and let it touch my heart.  It happens to me each time I spend this morning time Scripture Journaling.

And the opposite happens as well.  Whenever I have periods of not listening to His words, not having my morning devotional time, the old weeds sprout up again within me.

What a wonderful gift scared scripture is.  It keeps the weeds at bay and enables good fruit to be borne.

Lord Jesus, You are my vine, I am Your branch.  Thank you for your word that keeps me pruned and rooted in You.

Little Flower, please pray for me.

My Peace I Give You

Fifth Week of Easter

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Peace I bequeath to you, my own peace I give you,

a peace the world cannot give, this is my gift to you.  Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.

Jn.14:27

Jesus has just washed the disciple’s feet at the Last Supper and is now giving His final words to them, words of comfort.

I remember sitting in Mass as a non-Catholic, listening to these words being said by the priest at the start of the consecration.  Even though I was observing the Mass through sceptical eyes, that prayer resonated within me.  I wasn’t a peace-filled person and something within me wanted that peace that was being offered.  It was the first attractive face of Jesus I started to recognise.

The appeal of this gift from Jesus is still there.  I need the peace beyond understanding that He continues to offer me.  Saint Paul said ‘We all have to experience many hardships before we enter the kingdom of God’ and he’d just been stoned and left for dead.  Jesus’ gift means that no matter what my circumstance is, I can be a peace-filled person.  And having that peace, I can pass the gift on to others… today.

Who and What

Fourth Week of Easter

SCRIPTURE
 ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip,’ said Jesus to him, ‘and you still do not know me?
Jn.14:9

OBSERVATION
Jesus is giving His final teaching to His disciples at the Last Supper.  He is explaining His divine nature, how He and the Father are one.  Philip still doesn't quite get it and blurts, ‘Lord, let us see the Father and then we shall be satisfied.’ 'You must believe' is Jesus' reply.  He then promises the Holy Spirit who will teach all who believe.

APPLICATION
I have been with Jesus for over 25 years and yet there is still much I do not know about Him. Philip kept asking questions and eventually got know Jesus so well that he died a martyr's death for Him.  The mystery of who and what Jesus is doesn't go away but it is worthy of my best efforts to solve it.
So, I keep asking...

PRAYER
Jesus my Lord and my friend, you are the greatest mystery ever presented to me.  I place my hope and trust in You.  Holy Spirit, teach me about Jesus that I may love Him more.
Little Flower, please pray for me.