Day by day take your time to pray , take time to talk with God

We hear people say "I don't have time to pray." With this type of focusing and active consciousness, we find ourselves surprised at the time we really do have. There are dozens of times in all of our days during which our minds are occupied with something: a song, re-playing the last event, practicing a conversation with someone, having an imaginary argument with someone, thinking through the "to do" list of the day. We can learn to fill these times with whatever we choose.
If we choose to let it be about our relationship with our Lord, it transforms our lives.
It all begins with our mornings. This week, when we first get up and perhaps for a few moments in the shower or getting dressed, let's tell the Lord that what we desire today is to be more conscious of how what we do this day is responding to his call to me to be his disciple. Then, during the day, in those moments while driving or shopping or walking down the hall to a meeting, we can talk about how we are living our call in this or that activity we are engaged in . Let us talk with God the Father , The Redeemer and the Comforter , let us pray :
Dear Lord, at times, my heart is quite sluggish. Give me hope today. Lift my spirits and give me perspective. When I find myself stiff and inflexible, make me into a new wineskin to receive the alive, new wine with which you wish to fill me. And let me be open to your call to discipleship today. What are the opportunities to preach your Word today? Where can I drive out demons, rather than sit with their discouragement and division? Please fill my home, my workplace, my heart with your Spirit and be always with me . Amen

Daily Gospel ( January 18 , 2009 )

The first reading is taken from the first Book of Samuel 3:3b-10, 19 and gives an account of Samuel's vocation to take over the leadership of the Chosen People.
The second reading is from the first Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians 6:13c-15a, 17-20 in which St. Paul makes it crystal clear that justifying fornication as part of Christian liberty is an incorrect interpretation of his preaching and that the body must be preserved from all immorality.
The Gospel is from St. John 1:35-42 and gives an account of the vocation of the first four Apostles who followed Jesus.

It was a momentous event in the history of salvation. It was the beginning of a stream of vocations that would grow and spread down through the ages until the end of the world.
It was momentous, firstly, in that Christ, who had come to open heaven for all men and who could find means of bringing them all to that eternal home without help from any man, decided instead to let men co-operate with Him in this divine task. He decreed to set up a kingdom in this world—His Church—which would be run by mere mortals for their fellow-mortals, but which would be under his protection and assisted by His divine aid until the end of time.
Christ chose this very human way, in order to make his Church more acceptable to our limited, human understanding and more approachable for sinful, human nature.
Today, let us thank our blessed Lord who provided so humanly—and yet so divinely for our eternal welfare. In the Church, which He founded on the lowly but solid foundation of simple fishermen of Galilee, He erected an institution against which the gates of hell, the power of all the enemies of our salvation, cannot prevail, for His divine guidance and help will be with it forever. Christ Church has had enemies and opposition from the beginning; they may be more numerous and more destructive than ever today. But the promise of Christ still holds good, his word cannot fail. Therefore, neither the opposition of materialistic enemies from without, nor the even more insidious attacks from faint-hearted and worldly-minded members from within, nothing can affect the safety and permanence of the building which Christ built on the Rock.

God Bless you all reading !

January 2009 ( Liturgical Year )

The month of January is dedicated to the Holy Name of Jesus

The opening days of January may be cold and nature bleak, but the domestic church still glows warm with the peace and joy of Christmas. We dedicate the New Year to Mary on the January 1st Solemnity honoring her as Mother of God; and on January 4, the Solemnity of Epiphany, we rejoice with her, as her Son is adored by the three Wise Men.
Herald John, who ushered in the Advent season, is present once again to close Christmastide on the feast of the Baptism of Our Lord (The First Luminous Mystery), and to open the Season of Ordinary Time. He points to Jesus, the Lamb of God who unites time and eternity in the Eucharistic Sacrifice, and even January’s diminishing darkness seems to echo St. John’s prayer: “He must increase and I must decrease.”
In this liturgical season the Church eagerly follows Our Lord as he gathers his apostles and announces his mission. At Cana’s wedding feast (The Second Luminous Mystery) he performs his first public miracle at the request of his Mother, and his disciples saw his glory and believed in him.
We, his present-day disciples, pray for a like faith as we contemplate the eternal wedding feast of the Lamb and the unique role of the Blessed Mother in the plan of salvation. May we wholeheartedly obey her words of counsel: “Do whatever he tells you.”
The feasts on the General Roman Calendar celebrated during the month of January are:

1. Mary, Mother of God, Solemnity
2. Basil the Great; Gregory Nazianzen, Memorial
4. Epiphany of the Lord, Solemnity
5. John Neumann, Memorial
6. Bl. Andre Bessette, Opt. Mem.
7. Raymond of Penafort, Opt. Mem.
11. Baptism of the Lord, Sunday
13. Hilary; Kentigern (Scotland), Opt. Mem.
17. Anthony, Memorial
18. 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Sunday
20. Fabian; Sebastian, Opt. Mem.
21. Agnes, Memorial
22. Vincent of Saragossa, Opt. Mem.
24. Francis de Sales; Our Lady of Peace, Memorial
25. Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Sunday
26. Timothy and Titus, Memorial
27. Angela Merici, Opt. Mem.
28. Thomas Aquinas, Memorial
31. John Bosco, Memorial