“…my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” – John 6:32-33 God is the giver of all good things: “…all good giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17). The very best gift–the most perfect gift– God the Father gave us was the gift of His Son:…
“Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” – Matthew 22:21 In this Sunday’s Gospel passage about the coin and Roman taxes (Matthew 22:15-21), the coin belongs to Caesar, but Jesus directs the people to consider what belongs to God. This makes me reflect on what things in this world that belong to God. The answer is everything good! St. James taught: “Every generous act of giving, with…
And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. – Luke 17:15 How can we thank God for all that He has done for us? What could we possibly have to offer Him? Our first reading and Gospel passage offer us two parallel examples to consider. Naaman, who was healed from leprosy, wanted to give Elisha a…
Have you ever (like me) found yourself grumbling about all the work that you must do each day? My to-do list list seems long and tedious, and I grumble. The work I do for my family goes unnoticed, and I grumble. Projects that I work hard at don’t go my way and—you guessed it—I grumble. Oh, not all the time, and most of the time the grumbling isn’t even out loud. However silent, the unrest…
God has done so much for us. We can ask ourselves if we truly give thanks each and every day for all that God has given us. Like the leper in today’s Gospel reading who returned to give thanks to God for his healing, the first step of gratitude is simply to notice how God cares for us. Each of us has so much to be thankful for. We’ve received small, everyday gifts and large,…
“What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it?” (Lk 15:4). Thanks be to God for His mercy! If Jesus didn’t seek out His lost sheep, how many of us would be living in sinful ways? How much good would be left undone by us if He would have let us wander off…