?Your will be done, on earth as in heaven.? ? Matthew 6:10

We stood side by side, trying to keep ourselves from crying. It was my mother?s funeral Mass. Holding hands as we prayed the Our Father, my sisters and I couldn?t hold back our tears anymore. I couldn?t utter the line, ?Your will be done.? No, Lord, it?s not easy to let Your will be done.
        Then it was Christmas Eve Mass, our first without her. Again, we stood side by side, trying to control our tears lest the people around us get distracted. Again, as we held hands for the Our Father, we were unable to hold them back. Before I knew it, my pack of tissue was being passed around. ?Lord, it still hurts to let Your will be done.?
        Almost four years have passed. The pain keeps coming back. But there?s joy now, too, in knowing that I have become stronger with her passing away. His will for my mother was perhaps to take her earthly suffering away so He can bring her to eternal joy. For me, it was perhaps to make me a stronger person so I can pursue His plan for my life. Tess VA.

REFLECTION:

God?s will hurts sometimes. But if we go through the hurt, we?ll surely find joy afterwards.

Lord, even if it isn?t easy, help me to accept Your will in all areas of my life.

Isaiah 55:10-11

God never does anything without a reason or without the intention to carry it through to its conclusion. This is the way that we should approach our spiritual lives ? seeking to be faithful to God?s will and seeking to bring it to fulfillment in the best way that we possibly can. If we make this a focus for our lives I am sure that we will never have to worry about not having anything to do! There is always at least one aspect of our lives where we need to grow in holiness.
  
10 For just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down and do not return there till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to him who sows and bread to him who eats, 11 so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.

P S A L M 

Psalm 34:4-5, 6-7, 16-17, 18-19

R: From all their distress God rescues the just.

3 [4] Glorify the LORD with me, let us together extol his name. 4 [5] I sought the LORD, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. (R) 5 [6] Look to him that you may be radiant with joy, and your faces may not blush with shame. 6 [7] When the poor one called out, the LORD heard, and from all his distress he saved him. (R) 15 [16] The LORD has eyes for the just, and ears for their cry. 16 [17] The LORD confronts the evildoers, to destroy remembrance of them from the earth. (R) 17 [18] When the just cry out, the LORD hears them, and from all their distress he rescues them. 18 [19] The LORD is close to the brokenhearted; and those who are crushed in spirit he saves. (R)

G O S P E L

Matthew 6:7-15

Let us seek to spend time studying the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples and consequently us through them. It is a blueprint for the call to holiness in that it encompasses so many of the aspects of the Christian life including, praise, petition, intercession, forgiveness, deliverance and so on. Perhaps it might be a good idea for us to spend one day for a week on each of the lines of this prayer in order to try and make it more meaningful than just something we recite once in a while.

7 In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 ?This is how you are to pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread; 12 and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; 13 and do not subject us to the final test, but deliver us from the evil one. 14 If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.

my reflections
think: God never does anything without a reason or without the intention to carry it through to its conclusion.

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God?s special verse/thought for me today________________

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T O D A Y ? S BLESSING LIST

Thank You Lord for: ____________________________________

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READ THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR Joshua 15-19

We all readily accept the effectiveness of rain in watering the earth. I grew up in the driest inhabited continent, Australia, and have seen my fair share of droughts and the wretched state of the countryside when there are prolonged periods without rain. Conversely, I have also witnessed the dramatic transformation of that same land when sustained rains finally arrive. There is no more succinct and effective demonstration of the need life has for water. I wonder why we are so reluctant to give the same credence to the Word of God in terms of our faith.
      The Reading from Isaiah 55 likens the effectiveness of rain on the land to Word of God coming forth into the lives of His people. Herein lies the challenge for us: to open our hearts to receive God?s Word, such that our openness will result in His Word being able to accomplish its mission. In the Creation accounts of Genesis, we see the power of the Word of God bringing something out of nothing and order to the chaos. It is this same effect that God wants to have in our lives with His Word today. The problem being that few of us are alert enough to the presence of His Word in order for the Word to enter into hearts that are willing to receive it.
      There is almost a universal lament in today?s Church concerning the lack of vocations. Why is God not calling more men and women to the priesthood and religious life? Apart from the fact that I believe religious life is in the process of major change, I do not believe that God has stopped calling people to it or to the priesthood ? it is just that we, as a people, are not listening to His voice very well, or are simply refusing to respond to a call when it is there in favor of a secular vocation and lifestyle.
      There is little doubt that we live in confusing and somewhat difficult times. Let us pray that God will raise up men and women who can point us in the direction of a greater openness to the Word of God and a deeper submission of mind and heart to the leading of His Holy Spirit. Fr. Steve T.

REFLECTION QUESTION: How often do I ask God what He wants me to do with my life? Have I ever done this?

Lord Jesus, grant me the grace to hear Your call and to be obedient to it. I pray that Your Word for my life will never fall upon deaf ears.

St. Leander of Seville, archbishop, pray for us.