News - December 2020

Fly from bad companions as from the bite of a poisonous snake. If you keep good companions, I can assure you that you will one day rejoice with the blessed in Heaven; whereas if you keep with those who are bad, you will become bad yourself, and you will be in danger of losing your soul.

“How much You have done, Lord, my God - Your wonders, Your plans for us - You have no equal. I will proclaim and speak of them; they are beyond number.” Psalm 40:5

(Grace and Peace) Today we stand before the Lord to give Him thanks for all the blessings He has granted us throughout the past year. If we carefully examine our life, we too can exclaim with the Psalmist, “Lord your mercies to me are beyond number.” With grateful hearts, treasuring the many tokens of His love for us - let us bid farewell to the past year, and with the Lord, enter into the New Year.

If you are silent, be silent out of love. If you speak, speak out of love.

“This disciple is the one who vouches for these things and has written them down, and we know that his testimony is true.” John 21:24

(Grace and Peace) Of the Twelve, one Apostle was unique in his confession of being 'the disciple Jesus whom loved.' For him, neither his name nor his ancestry mattered, only one thing mattered - his experience of being loved in a special way by Jesus. The beloved John received the Word into his heart, and so merited to rest his head on the Heart of Jesus, a privilege granted to no other disciple. From this Sacred Heart, he drew forth the most sublime mysteries ever to have flowed through the pen of man.

The more you have, the more you are occupied, the less you give. But the less you have the more free you are. Poverty for us is a freedom. It is not mortification, a penance.

“For a son has been born for us, a son has been given to us, and dominion has been laid on his shoulders; and this is the name he has been given, 'Wonder-Counsellor, Mighty-God, Eternal-Father, Prince-of-Peace' ” Isaiah 9:5

The Divinity of Jesus is one of the mysteries people in the world have trouble accepting. Many are ready to accept Jesus as a good man, others accept Him as a religious leader, still others a prophet. But Jesus was none of those. He was the Son of God, and He was God Himself. Isaiah prophesied about the Divinity of Jesus centuries before He came into the world. All His miracles leading up to the last and the greatest, His death and resurrection, testify to this fact.

We need no wings to go in search of Him, but have only to look upon Him present within us.

“The Lord says this: A voice is heard in Ramah, lamenting and weeping bitterly: it is Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.” Jeremiah 31:15

(Grace and Peace) Today we remember the Holy Innocents, the infants who gave their lives in place of the Christ. The blood of the innocents have always preceded the saving work of God. Before the Lord brought the Israelites from Egypt, many Hebrew children were slaughtered. Moses, however was miraculously spared. In the New Testament, Jesus was spared while a number of innocents had to die. Let us remember the silent sacrifice of many innocents who are killed in our own time - they are the ones who prepare the way for the Lord's work in our day.

Here is a rule for everyday life: Do not do anything which you cannot offer to God.

“So they hurried away and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger.” Luke 2:16

(Grace and Peace) When God sent His Son into the world, He willed that His Son should be born and be brought up in a family. The Holy Family of the Christ, His Virgin Mother and her pure spouse Joseph was Heaven on earth, an earthly paradise. Within this family the Divinity was pleased to dwell in all Its fulness. God deigned to manifest the glory of this family only to a select few while they lived here on the earth; it was to certain poor shepherds that this great grace was first granted from Heaven.

Sufferings gladly borne for others convert more people than sermons.

“Stephen was filled with grace and power and began to work miracles and great signs among the people.” Acts 6:8

(Grace and Peace) Stephen was the first martyr to bear witness to Christ with his blood after the Resurrection. Stephen was filled with grace and power. If we too need to bear witness to Jesus, we need grace and power. Grace comes through humility, power comes through suffering in the Name of Jesus. Therefore let us not be ashamed to humble ourselves nor to suffer for His sake.

It is Jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness; He is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; He is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is He who provoked you with that thirst for fullness.

“Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:11

(Grace and Peace) O happy day, the most blessed of all days, which saw your Creator! Today the invisible God was made visible to human beings. Today the God who dwelt in inaccessible light has come close to humanity. Today the God of infinite power and majesty became a helpless babe, the Son of Man so that no human being should fear to approach God. Today God gave Himself to us so that we might give ourselves to Him. Today God takes all our weaknesses on Himself so that we might be clothed with strength.

I tell you, if I would put up with all this and not be upset, in this is true joy and real virtue and the salvation of ones's soul.

“But you (Bethlehem) Ephrathah, the least of the clans of Judah, from you will come for me a future ruler of Israel whose origins go back to the distant past, to the days of old.” Micah 5:1

(Grace and Peace) Scholars say that Prophet Micah lived almost seven hundred years before Jesus was born. Yet he prophesied so accurately where the Messiah was to be born! So let us put our faith in the prophets, God is speaking through them! God is in control of history, so let us never be disheartened. God's prophecies are full of hope! Coming to the second part of the Word of God, we see that it is a lowly and unknown town that God chooses to bring forth the Messiah. God always chooses the least, the tiny, the insignificant to display His power. So the message for us is to consider ourselves the least, tiny, and insignificant so that God's glory will always be displayed in each one of us! Praise God!

Let the enemy rage at the gate; let him knock, pound, scream, howl; let him do his worst. We know for certain that he cannot enter our soul except by the door of our consent.

“The Lord will give you a sign in any case: It is this: the young woman is with child and will give birth to a son whom she will call Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:14

(Grace and Peace) God could have come into the earth in a variety of ways, but He came to be born of a virgin. The birth of Jesus Christ from a virgin is the greatest of mysteries and came to be in fulfilment of the above prophecy of Isaiah. Not even a single prophecy of the Scripture will fail to be fulfilled.

Learn to do thy part and leave the rest to Heaven.

“I shall put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; it will bruise your head and you will strike its heel.” Genesis 3:15

(Grace and Peace) Since Satan exploited the weakness of the woman, God determined to create a Woman who would be his arch-enemy - from her would proceed One who would bruise his head and deal him a fatal blow. This signifies that all the cunning and deceit of the Devil would once and for all be defeated by the humility of Jesus Christ.