“But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”
Matthew 5:44
Today’s world is so full of hatred so it is harder than ever to treat those who wrong you with kindness. My prayer for you is that God will give you the strength to show love to those who hurt you, because the only way to change the world is through kindness and love.
“My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.”
having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed.
Daniel 6:4
So the governors and satraps sought to find some charge against Daniel concerning the kingdom; but they could find no charge or fault, because he was faithful; nor was there any error or fault found in him.
Daniel didn’t have Christ like we do , think about this we have much more greater power being baptized by The Holy Spirit. We have much more responsibility to stay perfect in faith, we have a lot of knowledge, lot of history if we just research and look ,therefore we have much responsibility to know The Truth which is Christ. Stay perfect in Him.
2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. —John 1:2-3 | Third Millennium Bible (TMB) Third Millennium Bible, New Authorized Version, Copyright 1998 by Deuel Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved. Cross References: Genesis 1:1; Proverbs 8:30; John 1:1; John 1:10; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Colossians 1:16’ Hebrews 1:2; Hebrews 11:3
John 10:1, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.”
What was Jesus saying here when He made such a bold statement and what door was He talking about? By the way, where have I entered? Did I enter through this door that He’s refering to or am I classified as a thief and a robber?
Jesus was referring to entrance into the Church How did you become a part of the Church, were you baptized (submerged) in water, in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins were washed away, or are you still in sin because you were baptized in titles and therefore, you are still living in sin? If the latter describes the course of action you have taken, sorry my friend, He’s talking about you.
John 10: 9, “ I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.”
You see, you HAVE TO enter the kingdom through Him. In Acts 2: 37-38, the question was asked and the answer given about how a person can be saved. “…Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” Yes, in His name and not titles. After all, what use are titles when we are admonished by God’s word in this way, “And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, doall in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.”- Col. 3:17.
If you are walking in a crowd at the carnival or airport with your dad and all of a sudden, there’s a surge in the crowd, and you get separated from him, shouting for dad may not help because many dads are in the crowd and your dad may have turned back to look for you, when you went forward looking for him. When you get to a security post to seek assistance, when you tell them you can’t find your dad they’re going to need his full name and if you don’t know your dad’s name, they won’t be able to page him to come and get you. If they knew his name, they could simply page him to come get you at the security post; problem solved. It’s a somewhat similar situation. When you’re in trouble, are you going to shout “father, son and holy ghost help me” or are you going to call on the name of Jesus until your deliverance comes? Use the name, best results!
Furthermore, the Word also says, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”_ Acts 4:12. Therefore, as Jesus Christ had said, you are a thief and a robber if you “entered” by some other means and we all know that thieves and robbers cannot enter Heaven, so it would now be wise to turn back and enter through “The Door”, Jesus Christ before the the door closes and time changes to eternity.
I started reading the BL manga “ten count” by takarai rihito last night cuz I needed a break from drawing and remembered the vol 1 copy I was gifted with years ago.
it started out really cute (vol 1). then I had to look for the rest online, and it took a really uh… weird turn? um.
I felt like I was told nothing the entire story…… these werent the same characters from vol 1. I appreciate the uh twistedness of it? but I guess with a heavy topic like that, I hoped that it wouldve been addressed more substantially rather than… what I was actually given lmao
Domine, non sum dignus, ut intres sub tectum meum: sed tantum dic verbo, et sanabitur anima mea. Echoing the centurion of today’s Gospel we say these words three times before Holy Communion: “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof: but only speak the word, and my soul shall be healed.” (Mt 8:8) The repetition of this sentence three times implies that the prayer is addressed to the Holy Trinity who is addressed as Lord, Domine,Kyriein the original Greek text of St Matthew’s Gospel. For it is the Holy Trinity who is invoked in this work of healing the soul, of restoring us to full health, salus, salvation. For salvation comes to us when the Blessed Trinity comes to dwell under our roof, to dwell in us through charity. In the Holy Mass, therefore, the prayer of the centurion is perfected and fully realised, even more powerfully then through the miracle recounted in today’s Gospel. For in the Holy Mass, through the miracle of the Eucharist given to us in Holy Communion, God himself enters in to unite us to himself, the Blessed Trinity. Thus St Augustine heard the Lord say to him: “I am the food of strong men; grow and you shall feed on me; nor shall you change me, like the food of your flesh into yourself, but you shall be changed into my likeness”.
I wish to highlight in particular two aspects of these words to St Augustine. Firstly, there is mention of growth so that we can feed on the Lord. The implication is that as we grow in faith, in fidelity to Christ and his commandments, in Christian maturity, then we shall feed better on the Lord. And secondly the result is that we shall be changed into Christ, and this is something gradual, interior, transformative of who I am.
It is important to remember this, lest we think that the Eucharist is magical, that is to say, that it acts and causes our salvation independently of us. For if we look at the centurion’s statement, he says: “sed tantum dic verbo”, but only speak the word. What is this word that the Lord must speak in order to heal our souls? Is it a word of command like a military leader’s? Is it a declarative word like a king’s who thus makes laws? How does the word of Jesus cause the health and salvation of our souls?
A nominalist view would take it that Christ, perhaps through a juridical act, or through an act of will, just saves us by declaring us to be saved. So, Christ gives the word, declares one to be free of sin and righteous in God’s sight, even if one hasn’t repented nor turned from sin, and so it is; one remains passive in this view of salvation. This, sadly, is a common view even among Catholics these days, but it is a classically Lutheran view. As Luther says, God imputes the righteousness of Christ to the sinner, because he is just “covered under the shadow of Christ’s wings” such that his sins are not counted as sins. So, by his word, God just declares a sin to not be sinful any longer. This is nominalism. And it is also wrong. This is not what is meant when we Catholics pray, “just speak the word, and my soul shall be healed.”
So, what is the word that we refer to in this prayer? How is my salvation, the healing of my soul, caused by the Word of God? And how does Christ speak the Word?
St John tells us, as we hear in the Last Gospel after every Mass, that God creates all by his Word, the divine Logos. And so the Word of God is creative, causes things to be, and actuates the good. God’s Word is not nominalist, it doesn’t declare something to be what it is not. God’s Word, after all, is truth and so he can neither deceive nor lie. Rather, God’s Word effects that which it signifies, it causes reality to be. So too do Sacraments, for they are actions of Christ the Logos,the Word of God. Sacraments, therefore, also effect what they signify; they cause our healing and salvation.
Therefore, during the Mass when we pray: “speak the word, and my soul shall be healed” we are referring to the Eucharist, to Holy Communion, by which Christ, the Word made flesh, enters under our roof sacramentally. The divine Word, therefore, is spoken and comes to dwell among us in the Holy Mass, and we receive him into our own bodies that we might be healed of sin, and so saved for eternal life. So when we echo these words of the centurion, let us speak with the faith, trust, and humility of the centurion, a faith which moved the Lord so much in today’s Gospel: “Truly, I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.” (Mt 8:10) Hence, before we receive the Eucharist, we say these words, Domine non sum dignus and so we make an act of faith: faith in the power of the Sacrament; faith in the power of Christ, the living Word of God to heal us, to save us, to vivify my soul.
Hence the Catechism teaches that “Communion with the flesh of the risen Christ, a flesh ‘given life and giving life through the Holy Spirit,’ preserves, increases, and renews the life of grace received at Baptism. This growth in Christian life needs the nourishment of Eucharistic Communion, the bread for our pilgrimage until the moment of death, when it will be given to us as viaticum.” (CCC 1392)
However, does this Eucharistic Word of God, spoken in the Mass, and entering under our roofs through Holy Communion heal us and save us immediately? It certainly has the grace and power to do so, but it seldom actually does so. It is not our human experience to be instantly changed into Saints just as we do not suddenly grow or age or change. Rather, it is fitting and proper that human beings grow gradually, as St Augustine suggests.
And yet, it is also possible that God’s Word is spoken, that we receive the Eucharist frequently and even daily, but we do not seem to be healed of our sinful addictions and vices. Why might this be? The Catholic theology of grace is that Christ’s righteousness is not imputed to us as Luther imagines it to be, but rather, it is infused. As such, the grace of Christ truly changes us from within. As such, when we speak about receiving the Sacraments and especially the Holy Eucharist we must speak about doing so with worthy and proper dispositions so that we are open to the graces and spiritual power and healing contained in the Sacraments.
The revered Dominican spiritual doctor, Ven. Louis of Granada thus said that “The more excellent the Sacrament, the more it demands good preparation for its reception and purity of intention… the Eucharist demands actual devotion and reverence in the reception of Communion. This devotion cannot be present without attention, and therefore, one should rid his mind of all distractions and fix his mind on God.” Like the centurion, we approach the altar, therefore, with humble faith. As Louis of Granada says: “The first thing required for a worthy Communion is that one recognize, with great humility, that no human efforts will suffice to make this preparation if God does not assist him. As no one can dispose himself for an increase of grace without grace, so no one can prepare for the reception of God but God. Therefore, one should beg Him with humble and burning desires to cleanse and purify the house where He is going to dwell…
Another requisite for a worthy Communion is purity of intention, which means that we should receive Communion for the proper purpose. For the intention of an action is the principal circumstance of a human act; therefore it should be especially considered… The principal and most proper end of the Eucharist is to receive into our souls the spirit of Christ by means of which we are transformed into Him and we live as He lived, with the same charity, humility, patience, obedience, poverty of spirit, mortification of body, and disdain of the world that He manifested…
[And] the third thing required for the reception of Communion is actual devotion [so] we should approach Communion with the greatest humility and reverence and at the same time with the greatest confidence and love, and the greatest hunger and desire for this heavenly bread.”
Do we not see all these qualities in the centurion who approaches the Lord in today’s Gospel? With humility and faith but with confidence and trust in God’s mercy too, he says: Lord, I am not worthy… Therefore, we too approach the Lord, and we are disposed to receive him as we say today: Domine, non sum dignus, ut intres sub tectum meum: sed tantum dic verbo, et sanabitur anima mea.
