Sister Mary Rose

12 Sep 2015

Cottontails versus Babies

posted in: Pro-Life |

Cottontail and baby 1

In light of the recent horrific revelations regarding Planned Parenthood I wrote to US Senator Jeanne Shaheen requesting that she work for the defunding of this eugenic, racist organization. Yesterday, not surprisingly, she emailed back a letter to me filled with glowing praise for all that Planned Parenthood supposedly does to help women. Today (9-12-15) Jeanne Shaheen’s picture was on the front cover of the Foster’s Daily Democrat under the headline “Cottontail No Longer Endangered.” The picture shows her releasing cottontails into the wild.

What could be more ironic than a “Catholic” Senator who promotes abortion being praised for taking care of cottontails? Where is Shaheen’s concern for the millions of babies who are being brutally murdered and then sold for parts by Planned Parenthood? Even if Jeanne Shaheen did a tiny bit of research she would learn that Margaret Sanger who founded Planned Parenthood was a racist eugenicist. She was an associate of Hitler and she commissioned Dr. Ernst Rudin, the director of the Nazi Medical Experimentation Program to write an article in her magazine, The Birth Control Review. In her book entitled The Pivot of Civilization, Sanger argued for the elimination of “the Negro race” and for the sterilization of “genetically inferior races.” Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, more than 13 million African American babies have died by abortion (http://www.blackgenocide.org/black.html). That is equivalent to approximately 29% of the current African American population in the United States!

One would have to be seriously deluded or extremely naïve to think that Planned Parenthood is actually helping women. Ask Abby Johnson or any of the millions of grieving post-abortive women what they now think of Planned Parenthood. Nothing against cottontails!

1 Aug 2015

Honoring Our Father

posted in: News |

Honoring Our Father

Did you know that there is a Church approved apparition of God the Father? In 1932 God the Father appeared to Mother Eugenia Ravasio who at the time was the Superior General of the Congregation of Our Lady of the Apostles. The Father spoke to her in Latin—a language which she did not understand. Bishop Alexandre Caillot of Grenoble set up a board of experts in 1935 (which included theologians, doctors, and a psychiatrist) to investigate Mother Eugenia and the alleged apparitions of God the Father. After ten years of rigorous inquiry into both the character of Mother Eugenia and the content of the message, the Bishop concluded, “Following the dictates of my soul and my conscience, and with the keenest sense of my responsibility to the Church, I declare that supernatural and divine intervention seems to me the only logical and satisfactory explanation of the facts.” (The Father Speaks to His Children, 14).

God our Father explained the reason for His coming:

1) I am coming to banish the excessive fear that My creatures have of Me, and to show them that My joy lies in being known and loved by My children, that is, by all mankind, present and future.

2) I am coming to bring hope to men and nations. How many have long since lost it! This hope will make them live in peace and security, working for their salvation.

3) I am coming to make Myself known just as I am, so that men’s trust may increase together with their love for Me, their Father. I have but one concern: to watch over all men and love them as My children (The Father Speaks to His Children, 19).

We are living in a time of great anguish and moral disturbance. Consider the two recent events of the U.S. Supreme Court mandating the recognition of “same sex marriage” in all the 50 states and Planned Parenthood being caught selling parts of aborted babies. How has our society reached such a level of moral depravity? Isn’t it because we have forgotten the love of God our Father? St. John Paul II once wrote that

This is truly the key for interpreting reality….Original sin, attempts then, to abolish fatherhood, destroying its rays which permeate the created world, placing in doubt the truth about God who is Love and leaving man only with a sense of the master-slave relationship (John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994, p.228).

Let us begin to use this “key for interpreting reality” by recognizing what a gift it is to have a Heavenly Father Who has loved us from all eternity and Who called us into being. Let us thank Him for sending His Son to redeem us and His Spirit to sanctify us! Let us thank Him for holding us in being and for calling us to an eternity of joy with the Blessed Trinity and the whole communion of Saints! Let us show our gratitude by knowing, loving and honoring our Heavenly Father.

The Father made a request through Mother Eugenia that He be honored by a special feast which would occur on the first Sunday of August or on August 7^th. There is currently no feast of God the Father on the Church calendar despite the fact Jesus became man to make the Father known, loved, and honored! We would have no salvation except that the Father so loved us to give us His only Begotten Son! In fact we would not even exist except that He called us into being and continually sustains us in being. Surely it is a small enough request to honor God our Father with a special feast! During the upcoming Year of Mercy we should petition our Holy Father Pope Francis to establish a feast in honor of God the Father! To read the entire message of God the Father go to www.fatherspeaks.net.

22 Apr 2015

Mary, Who is Called the Magdalene

posted in: General |

The Easter season brings St. Mary Magdalene, Apostle to the Apostles, before the eyes of the whole Church. Many consider Mary Magdalene to be Mary of Bethany. St. Gregory the Great, among other Church Fathers, stated that this was so. Tradition in the West sided with this opinion for centuries. The collect for the feast of St. Mary Magdalene identified her as the sister of Lazarus up until the 1960s. Today even such noted scholars as Dr. Brant Pitre consider the likelihood that she is Mary of Bethany.

Consider the Scriptural evidence for this. Mary of Bethany anointed Jesus twice. This occurs in Luke 7: 36-50 for the first time. The second anointing is recorded in John 12:1-8, Matthew 26:6-13, and Mark 14:3-9. That these two anointings are separate events is evident from John 11:2 and 11:5: “Now it was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet dry with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. . . . Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister Mary, and Lazarus,” and from Luke 7:39, “Now when the Pharisee, who had invited him, saw it, he said to himself, ‘This man, were he a prophet, would surely know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.’” After Jesus had just raised her brother Lazarus from the dead, it would not make sense for Simon the Pharisee to wonder if Jesus knew who Mary was. Also consider that Jesus said of Mary of Bethany, “Mary has chosen the best part and it will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:42), and “Wherever in the whole world this Gospel is preached, this also that she has done shall be told in memory of her” (Mt 26:13). Writing about the Resurrection which occurred just about a week after Mary anointed Jesus for the second time, Matthew wrote, “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the sepulchre” (Mt 28:1). If Mary of Bethany’s recent anointing was to be told wherever the Gospel was preached, it is illogical that Matthew would have referred to Mary, the mother of James and Joseph (cf. Mt 27:56) as “the other Mary.” This title would have been reserved to the more well- known Mary of Bethany whom Jesus had so highly praised and who defended her action of anointing Him by saying, “Let her be that she may keep it for the day of my burial” (John 12:7).

Meditate for a moment on the greatness of this woman and who she is for the whole Church. It is easy to imagine that before she met Jesus, Mary Magdalene had lost her sense of identity. She was possessed by seven devils (cf. Lk 8:2). Probably she wandered from one relationship to another, giving her body to man after man; enjoying all the pleasures that she could find, but at the end of each day feeling utterly empty. Her sister, Martha, and her brother Lazarus must have been very concerned about her. They must have told her about Jesus and how He forgave sinners. Most likely Mary did not want to hear this; she probably didn’t want to change her life since these empty relationships were all that she had and she was afraid to be silent and to have to face her own emptiness. Yet she would have had no peace. We can imagine that her friends mocked Jesus and that she would laugh at their jokes but then experience a deep confusing sadness. What was the turning point? Maybe one day she heard that Jesus would be preaching nearby and went to hear Him. Maybe that day he told the story of a man having 100 sheep and losing one of them and going to seek for that one and then rejoicing over it more than over all the other 99. Maybe it was this story that pierced her heart.

We know that sometime after she had begun to convert she heard that Jesus was at the house of Simon the Pharisee. She took a jar of ointment and went into the Pharisee’s house. She knelt down at His feet and began to kiss them and to cry on them and to anoint them with the oil that she had brought. Jesus looked at her with a look that made her feel completely understood. Simon and the others were ready to mock Jesus because they knew that Mary was a prostitute. Simon was thinking that if Jesus was a prophet then He would know who and what manner of woman this was who was touching Him. Jesus did know. He saw her deepest identity that had been for so long obscured and He told her, “Thy sins are forgiven….Thy faith has saved thee; go in peace.” (Lk 7:48, 50). Seven demons, who had held Mary captive, fled at these words of the Incarnate Word. And from then on Mary Magdalene began to accompany Jesus with the other holy women and she joined them in helping to provide for Him and His Apostles (cf. Lk 8:2). Those who knew Mary before probably began to mock her. But she had finally found Him whom her soul loved and she would not let Him go ever again. When Jesus came to their house in Bethany, Mary sat and listened to His word while Martha served. When Martha became upset and complained to Jesus, He said, “Mary has chosen the best part and it will not be taken away from her” (Lk 10:42). While the world continued to regard Mary Magdalene as a prostitute, she was beginning to see in the eyes of the one she called “Rabboni” (meaning Teacher or Master) that her true identity was Daughter of the Father and even more amazingly—bride of Christ.

The story of St. Mary Magdalene and her journey from prostitute to bride of Christ is the story of the whole Church, the Bride of Christ. Each member of the Bride is called to make the same journey from whatever type of prostitution sin has mired him or her in– to the knowledge of being a son or daughter of the Eternal Father and the bride of Christ. There is no saint who can better show us this journey than the one who standing beneath the Cross became eldest daughter of the Church, then first witness of the Resurrection, and finally Apostle to the Apostles.

12 Mar 2015

Are Your Tax Dollars Funding Racism?

posted in: Pro-Life |

Are your tax dollars funding racism?

In the 2012-2013 fiscal year Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the United States, reported that it had received $540.6 million dollars in taxpayer funded government grants.

Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, worked closely with the scientists who devised Hitler’s “race purification” program. She commissioned Dr. Ernst Rudin, director of the Nazi Medical Experimentation Program, to write for the magazine she was publishing, The Birth Control Review. In her book, Women and the New Race, Sanger wrote that “the most merciful thing a large family can do to one of its infant members is to kill it.” In her newspaper, The Woman Rebel, Sanger wrote, “I look forward to seeing humanity free someday from the tyranny of Christianity no less than Capitalism.” Sanger, like Hitler, believed in eliminating races whom she considered to be inferior. In 1939 Sanger devised the “Negro Project” whereby she enlisted black ministers to propagandize for birth control. She said, “The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population and the Minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.” (Grand Illusions; The Legacy of Planned Parenthood by George Grant)

Since January 22, 1973 when the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision legalized abortion in the United States, more than 16,000,000 African American babies have been killed by abortion (about 25% of the African American population). Although African Americans comprise only 11 % of the national population, more than 43% of all abortions done in the United States are done on African American women. (www.priestsforlife.org)

In 2010, Dr. Alveda King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote, “The most obvious practitioner of racism in the United States today is Planned Parenthood, an organization founded by the eugenicist Margaret Sanger and recently documented as ready to accept money to eliminate black babies. The most positive step we can take to fight racism is to end the hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies given to an organization that fulfills the dreams of the Ku Klux Klan – a group Planned Parenthood’s founder once addressed.” (www.priestsforlife.org)

Perhaps of more concern than her secret e-mails as Secretary of State is Hillary Rodham Clinton’s remarks upon receiving Planned Parenthood’s “prestigious” 2009 Margaret Sanger award: “I admire Margaret Sanger enormously, her courage, her tenacity, her vision. I am really in awe of her; there are a lot of lessons we can learn from her life.” (www.priestsforlife.org)

9 Feb 2015

The Dawn of the Culture of Life

posted in: Pro-Life |

Sister Esther Marie and I had the privilege of attending the Vigil for Life Mass and the March for Life which occurred in Washington, D.C. on January 21- 22, 2015. At the Vigil Mass at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception I counted more than 40 Bishops in the opening procession. The procession itself, which also included hundreds of seminarians, deacons, and priests, took more than half an hour. Prior to the Mass we had attended the March for Life Conference and Expo and the Culture of Life Seminar which were held at the DC Renaissance Hotel. The purpose of these events was to educate the participants regarding the March for Life theme which this year was “Every Life is a Gift.”

The following morning prior to the actual March we attended the Youth Rally and Mass for Life which took place at the Verizon Center. There are so many young people who attend this Mass each year that the archdiocese of Washington has had to present it in two locations—another Mass was held at the DC Armory at the same time. Many of the young people attending these events had traveled for more than ten hours by bus to offer their witness to the beauty of life. The actual March for Life began at about 1:00 pm (after various representatives had given pro-life speeches near the Washington Monument). I have attended several Marches but this year’s was the most crowded in which I have ever participated! At one point we came to a standstill for quite a while since there was no room to walk forward! I saw only about 15 people who were advocating for abortion. Later I read in a newspaper that “thousands marched for life.” Having been there I can assure you that it would have been much more accurate to say that “hundreds of thousands marched for life.”

Although the secular media tends to ignore the significance of these events which take place each January in our nation’s capital, it is critically important that we all know that they are occurring because is it the dawn of the culture of life! With the help of God, Life is beginning to overcome the grim and disturbing culture of death which has become so noxiously pervasive in our country and throughout the world!

Shortly after returning from the March for Life I read a very misleading editorial in our local newspaper which is an example of the deceptiveness of the culture of death. It was written by Kate Murray and entitled “Banning information won’t reduce abortions.” The main premise of this editorial was that “education about contraception is a pretty good way to reduce unwanted pregnancies that may end in abortion.” The fact is that education about contraception would be useful if people were taught that oral contraceptives sometimes act as abortifacients and that they have been linked to increase risk of: cervical and breast cancers, heart attack and stroke, migraines, higher blood pressure, gall bladder disease, infertility, benign liver tumors, decreased bone density, yeast overgrowth and infection, and increased risk of blood clotting. http://bodyecology.com/articles/dangers_birth_control_pill.php#.VMzs7c85C1s

Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood clinic director, would dispute the naïve opinion promoted in this editorial that “everyone involved in women’s health care works to limit the number of necessary abortions.” In her book, Unplanned, she states, “I no longer saw Planned Parenthood as a benevolent charitable organization with the goal of decreasing unwanted pregnancies. I was now convinced that it was an abortion machine in the business of killing unborn babies and meeting revenue goals.” (pg. 130)

The third fallacy in this editorial was the assumption that killing unborn babies is ever necessary! For every baby that is killed by abortion in the United States there are 36 infertile couples who have a great desire to adopt a baby. Any one of these couples would adopt that baby in a heartbeat! http://liveactionnews.org/abortion-vs-adoption-why-so-many-choose-the-first-and-what-we-can-do/

Few people realize the magnitude of the crisis that has occurred through abortion. At this date we in the United States have killed more than 57.5 million of our children through abortion. This is equivalent to more than 18% of the current population which in 2013 was estimated at 316.1 million.

Education about the beautiful gift of human sexuality and procreation would be much more beneficial than teaching people, through the use of contraception and abortion, to treat one another as objects to be manipulated and exploited for sexual pleasure. People should be respected as unique personal subjects whose masculinity or femininity deserves to be respected for its awesome inseparable powers of unity and procreation.

21 Nov 2014

Taking the Offense Against Suicide

posted in: L.A.S.T. |

Taking the Offense Against Suicide

“Do thyself no harm, for we are all here” (Acts 16:28). With these words, St. Paul prevented his jailer from committing suicide. We need to unite with St. Paul and raise our voices in prayer and love against the great scourge of suicide.

When my childhood friend Rosemary committed suicide I remember feeling that nothing would ever be alright again. Since her favorite color was yellow, I entitled a poem I wrote in her memory, “Yellow Roses.” For many weeks after her death I continued to mourn for her; finally one of my Superiors in the convent told me to ask Rosemary to intercede with God that He would allow her to let me know that she was okay. So one Palm Sunday as I was sitting in our convent kitchen drinking a cup of coffee I prayed, “Rosemary, if you are either in Purgatory or Heaven, then I want you to send me a sign in one week. I’m not going to tell you what it should be, but I need to know it is from you.” Exactly one week later on Easter Sunday I was at another convent; I had somewhat forgotten about my prayer. That afternoon I happened to be looking through a drawer filled with free holy cards. Suddenly I saw one that had one of my favorite pictures of our Blessed Mother on it. Happily I took the picture out and realized that it was actually the front of a greeting card. I opened the card. Inside was a picture of yellow roses. Underneath this picture were the words, “Behold, I am alive, and I live forevermore.”

I do not need to tell you how much this card meant to me and also to Rosemary’s mother to whom I sent it. We need to reach out to the families and friends who are grieving suicide to reassure them that their beloved ones are not beyond the reach of God’s Infinite Mercy. In fact the Catechism of the Catholic Church reassures us that, “We should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives. By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance. The Church prays for persons who have taken their own lives” (CCC 2283).

St. Padre Pio said that he could just as easily pray for the happy death of his great grandmother as for someone who was dying that day. This means that our prayers can still help people who have already died by suicide because God is outside of time. At the moment of a person’s death God already sees all the future prayers that will be prayed for that person, and He can apply the graces obtained by those prayers to help the dying person to make the choice to receive His Merciful Love.

In the United States there are nearly 40,000 suicides annually; it is the second leading cause of death for 15-34 year olds.[i] Every suicide, including Brittany Maynard’s recent assisted suicide, is a grievous assault against the dignity of the person. We need to join together and form a chain of loving defense against suicide. We know that love is stronger than death (Song of Songs 8:6). As children we used to play a game called Red Rover. A team would join hands together and try to prevent a person from the other team from breaking through their joined hands. Let’s do this for all the souls who are tempted to commit suicide, and for those who have committed suicide and their families. Together we can form a great chain of prayer and in eternity we will see what was the great power and fruit of our united love for helping souls suffering from this grievous affliction.

As Daughters of Mary, Mother of Healing Love, we have formed the Lifeline Against Suicide Team (L.A.S.T.) and we hope that you will join us in taking the offense against suicide.

[i] http://www.usatoday.com/longform/news/nation/2014/10/09/suicide-mental-health-prevention-research/15276353/

LAST picture 11-17-14

15 Oct 2014

A Tribute to James Foley, Reporter

posted in: General |

For the same reason that we call the day Jesus was scourged and crucified “Good,” a terrible beauty has emerged following the brutal ISIS beheading of Global Post Reporter, James Foley. As members of his parents’ parish of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary in Rochester, NH we had united in prayer many times first to pray for Jim’s release during his 44 day imprisonment in Libya and then again to implore that he be released from his Syrian imprisonment.

After Jim was released from prison in Libya he came here to St. Charles Children’s Home in Rochester, NH to thank the Sisters and children for praying for his safe return. It was the first time I had ever met him, and so it was with some hesitancy, that I told him that during his Libyan imprisonment I had been praying for him particularly one Saturday morning when his parents were attending Mass at St. Charles. When I received Holy Communion that day, Jesus said to me, “I am going to release him, but first I have to release him from his inner prisons.” As soon as he heard this, Jim smiled and said, “That is what happened! Before this experience I was just focusing on being the top reporter; this has changed my whole perspective on what is important.” Then he began to talk about how much praying the Rosary had helped him during his imprisonment. I was happy to hear this, and I suggested that he consecrate himself to Jesus through Mary. Also because he was grieved about his photographer friend who had been killed at the time they were captured, I talked to him about how St. Padre Pio had said that we can pray for the happy death of people who have already died. This is because God is outside of time and equally present to all times. Seeing our future prayer, He can apply it in a present situation. Before Jim left that day I gave him a Brown Scapular which he began to wear immediately. This sacramental is considered to represent Our Lady’s mantle wrapped around her child. I know that during both of his imprisonments Jim was surrounded both by his own mother’s loving prayers and by the Love of the Mother of God. It is also noteworthy that after his release from prison in Libya, Jim always wore a cord Rosary on his right wrist which had been given to him by a good friend of his mother’s, Jackie Pelletier.

Jim was always reaching out to help other people. He organized a fundraiser in New York City for the widow of his photographer friend who had been killed in Libya. When asked by our pastor, Father Paul Gousse, why he was going back into such danger in Syria, Jim replied that he had to do it so that he could be a voice for the people who were being trampled underfoot like the grass.

After Jim was killed his loving influence was amazingly magnified. This was so evident on the Saturday after his death when a group of Muslims, some of them from Syria, organized a candlelight vigil in Jim’s honor on the Rochester Commons. One of them told how Jim had raised money in Syria to buy a much needed ambulance for the people. Many Muslims spoke of how grateful they were for all he had done for their people. It was very beautiful to experience such a deep unity of prayer between Muslims and Christians that occurred that night on the Commons. As we were leaving Sister Esther Marie stopped to speak to and hug one of the Muslim woman who tearfully told her, “People have said that I’m a bad person, but I’m not a bad person.”

The day after this vigil there was a Mass at Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Church for Jim. Being present at that Mass was an extremely profound experience because it was such a witness to the power of love overcoming hatred. I have never seen the Church more crowded than it was that day; but the amazing thing was that despite the terrible injustice of this murder there were no expressions of bitterness or vengeance at all– only a very tangible and powerful presence of love. Even the reporters seemed very touched by this. One reporter posted to Jim’s Facebook page saying, “I never believed in Heaven, Jim, until you got there!”

Last October 18^th we gathered for a special Mass at Our Lady of the Holy Rosary to pray for Jim’s release and to celebrate his 40^th birthday. At that time Fr. Paul pointed out how significant it is that Jim, whose life was dedicated to reporting the truth, and who was imprisoned in Syria, was born on the feast of St. Luke, the Evangelist (who was from Antioch in Syria). A year later it seems even more significant– St. Luke died as a martyr, giving witness to the Truth!
Jackie Pelletier (who had given Jim the cord Rosary) told me that at the Mass on St. Luke’s feast last year (Jim’s 40^th birthday) when she received Holy Communion, Jesus had said to her, “I am going to release him; but more people have to be converted first.” I think that on hearing this Jim would smile and say, “That is what happened!”

Jim Foley and SEM

13 Oct 2014

18. “The Spirit of your Father Who speaks through you.”

posted in: News |

“But when they deliver you up, do not be anxious how or what you are to speak; for what you are to speak will be given you in that hour. For it is not you who are speaking, but the Spirit of your Father Who speaks through you” (Mt 10:19-20).

Holy Spirit sky cropped

Spirit of My Father

Holy Spirit

Love between

The Father and the Son

Gift of God Most High

Come Holy Spirit

Fire cast by the Word

Burn away the clutter

Of my scattered thoughts.

Turn to ashes

My selfish plans.

Spirit of my Father,

Come Holy Spirit

Gift of God Most High

Live in me

And speak through me

And utterly possess me

As you possess

And speak through

My Immaculate Mother.

13 Oct 2014

17. “Who does the will of My Father in Heaven shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”

posted in: News |

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of Heaven; but he who does the will of my Father in Heaven shall enter the kingdom of heaven. Many will say to me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in thy name, and cast out devils in thy name, and work many miracles in thy name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of iniquity’” (Mt. 7:21-23).

When I was first converting from a life of sin I tried to do many good things to try to earn God’s favor and forgiveness. At the time I did not “know” the Lord nor understand that without Him I could do nothing (cf. John 15:5).

The Church is the Bride of Christ, she is One Body with Him through Baptism and the Eucharist, and she has the authority to act in His Name. As individual members of the Body we are called to do good works in His Name. Married couples can either have a truthful relationship in which they make a total self- gift to one another, or they can have a contracepted relationship which appears truthful, but actually prevents the husband and wife from “knowing” one another and becoming fruitful. Similarly we can act in Christ’s Name without “knowing” Him as the Bride knows the Bridegroom. This is done when we do external good works for our own self –glory, but we remain sterile because we don’t fully trust God or surrender ourselves to Him. We try to determine for ourselves what is good instead of following the Lord’s lead.

As an example consider Ananias, the believer in Damascus whom the Lord called to go and baptize Saul of Tarsus (cf. Acts 9:10-18). Intellectually this did not make sense to Ananias and he tried to reason with the Lord. But when the Lord still insisted that he go, Ananias obeyed and baptized the great Apostle Paul whose life continues to bear fruit down through the centuries. If Ananias had not “known” the Lord and was not “known” by Him, he may have said something like, “Lord, I don’t think it’s a good idea to baptize Saul, but I’ll go down to the marketplace and find five other people to baptize for You.”

We have to pray for the grace to trust the Eternal Father and to live in union with His Son Jesus Who always does the Will of the Father (cf. John 6:38). This requires the surrender of our plans and ideas of how we think the world should be saved.

13 Oct 2014

16. “How much more will your Father in Heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”

posted in: News |

“Therefore if you, evil as you are, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” (Mt 7:11).

Evil is the absence of good. Our Father in Heaven is the fullness of the Good. We inherited all types of evil (lacking in good) when our first parents disobeyed God and ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (cf. Gen. 2:17). Our Father did not want us to know evil (lack of good) but that was the choice of our first parents. Yet despite the evil of our fallen condition, we are still created in the image of the One Who is Good. “One there is Who is Good, and He is God” (Mt 19:17). Because we are created in the Image of the Good, it is still natural to us (part of our nature) to give good things to our children.

Noticing this almost universal principle of humanity should lead us to acknowledge our Father and Creator, the Source of all Goodness. Coming down from the Father of Lights, Source of every good and perfect gift (cf. James 1:17), this tendency of kindness to our children is like a shaft of sunlight pervading the darkness of our fallen condition and leading us to acknowledge Our Father in Heaven. Observing it should give us an unshakeable confidence that we will receive what we ask for and need from our Loving, Provident, Heavenly Father.

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