Living Sacrifice: Growing in Faith Through Scripture and the Mass

We are completely dependent upon God for mercy, grace and forgiveness.  Starting from there, we are able to love God and our neighbor freely and generously.  

God calls us to give ourselves entirely to Him.  In letting Christ completely into our lives we are set free and become the men and women we have always been created to be.

Jesus pours out His life for us on the cross and in the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist.  How are we receiving that awesome gift and letting it change us?  

Christ calls us to become His precious vineyard and to bear the fruit of the Kingdom of God.

God manifests His power in a most significant way by pardoning and showing mercy.  That power is able to effect change in our lives and transform in Christ.  

God's mercy and generosity surprises us and transforms our lives, helping us to offer the sacrifice of praise.  

The supreme law of the Church, states Canon Law, is the salvation of souls (Can. 1752).  The readings this weekend challenge us to confront sin because nothing is as important as that salvation.  God desires the triumph of mercy over sin and draws us home to eternal life with Him.

The Paschal Mystery of the suffering, death and resurrection of Christ is the central mystery of our redemption.  Christ calls us to unite ourselves to His sacrifice and to become "a living sacrifice" to God.  

God grants authority to human persons according to our dignity.  He confers the "Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven" on St. Peter in this Sunday's Gospel, granting him the power to absolve sins, to teach doctrine and to discipline.  This authority is given to draw souls into the Kingdom of Heaven and the gates of the netherworld will not prevail against it.  

God calls all of us to salvation, to be fully alive in a relationship of love with Him.  That reality begins with the Jewish people and, through the Messiah, is offered to all the nations of the world.  Are we living the abundant life that God calls us to in salvation?

Although we often experience drama in our everyday lives, God is often at work in the silence and in the solitude.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that the drama of prayer is most fully revealed in the Word, who became flesh and dwells among us (CCC, #2598).  How is God calling us to become more entrenched in that drama as we follow Christ in daily life?

Jesus manifests His glory on the mountain to Peter, James and John in order to strengthen them for the changes, trials and tribulations that they will face.  God is calling us to eternal glory, something wonderful and amazing.  That truth can carry us through the challenges we face and bring us home to God.

Our freedom is what makes us most like God.  In freely choosing the good that God reveals and ultimately the good which is God as our final end, we can grow in joy and peace.  God offers us the greatest of choices, a true treasure buried in the field and the pearl of greta price!

God, who loves us and creates us for good, gives us the entire Christian faith and message as an answer to the Question of evil.  Only the Christian faith in its entirety is sufficient to help us navigate the complexities and challenges of daily life and the struggle against evil.

God is constantly revealing Himself in our lives, through the created world, in Sacred Scripture and in daily life.  Are we listening?  God want us to bear tremendous fruit in Christ.  What is He saying to you?

God comes to us in our suffering.  When we are struggling with the challenges and difficulties of life, God enters into our lives and gives us hope.  He helps to carry our burdens and invites us to participate in His amazing work of redemption.

In our baptism we have died to sin and Christ now lives in us.  When God looks at us He sees in us another Christ, even Christ Himself.  

In the Christian life we are on a pilgrimage home to heaven.  Christ comes to us in the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist to strengthen us on the way and lead us to eternal life with God.  

Sometimes our love for God can grow cold and we need to reignite the fire of faith.  Jesus promises the Holy Spirit to His disciples, the Advocate who remains with us and and is in us!  The Holy Spirit is the Gift of God to us when we want to draw close to Jesus and follow Him more closely in our daily loves.  Come Holy Spirit!

Christ, the Good Shepherd, calls us each by name.  We are called to tune in to that voice in our vocation, in Sacred Scripture and in our daily prayer.  He is leading us to new and eternal life.  Are we listening?!

God's mercy comes to us to transform our lives and to bring us forgiveness and grace.  Open the door!  Allow God's mercy to flood your life and become an instrument of God's mercy for those around you.

Death is a finality that we will all face.  We cry out to God " de profundis ", from the depths, and He answers us not simply with the promise of the resurrection but with the amazing gift of Himself.  

We are created with the desire for something . . . Someone . . . greater than ourselves, greater than we can even imagine.  In the Christian faith, that One we are searching for has found us!

God calls us to live the moral life by the decisions and choices that we make.  We become who we are by the way we cooperate with grace and follow Christ.

The most authentic portrait that we have of Jesus Christ is found in the Beatitudes.  We are called to live the Beatitudes and so become a portrait of Christ in this world.  God calls us to the blessed life right here, right now.