Living Sacrifice: Growing in Faith Through Scripture and the Mass

In the Gospel this weekend Jesus teaches with great authority and by His own power casts out the unclean spirit.  Christ gives His authority to the Church to teach and drive away evil.  How are we able to grow and thrive in our Christian life through and because of that authority?

Christ is the perfect Messenger, who preaches the total and complete message of the Gospel and offers us the opportunity to encounter God and be transformed.  

God calls all of us to seek Him, know Him and love Him with all of our strength and to be formed in the unity of the Church (CCC, #1), so that He can send us out to renew the face of the earth.  Are we hearing Him?

Christ born in Bethlehem is manifested as the salvation of all nations.  We are called to discover in Him all that we need and desire.  

Our Opening Prayer this week encourages us to imitate the Holy Family in "practicing the virtues of family life."  By practicing faith, hope and charity, we grow closer to God and to each other. 

God made visible in Jesus Christ calls us to become swept up in love of all things invisible and to make His love known in the world.

In this season when we decorate our homes and our Churches, we also seek to decorate our lives with the virtues and grace that will warmly welcome Jesus Christ this Christmas.

To live true humility is to have an accurate assessment of who we are and to live within the limits of the person God has created us to be.  The Blessed Virgin Mary and St. John the Baptist teach us this weekend-in their own words-what it means to be humble and to serve the Lord.

We celebrate with great joy the coming of Christ as a child in Bethlehem so that we may be all the more ardent in our desire for His second coming.  May Christ find us watchful and ready this Advent!

When we place Christ as King of our hearts and King of the nations, He gives us His peace and newness of life. 

St. John Paul II teaches that women are first in the order of love.  Women teach all of humanity what it means to receive the gift of love from God and to express that love in the world around us. 

The Scriptures for this weekend's reading help us to meditate on the four "last things": Death, judgment, heaven and hell.  How is Christ, who calls us to eternal life with Him, asking us to be more mindful of that final end?

God calls us to seek Him in humble prayer to ask for good shepherds and good leaders in the Church.  How are we called, during this Vocations Awareness Week, to ask for an increase of vocations to the priesthood and religious life?

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.