Good morning By My Side friends. Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you all.
Today in this month of March 2022, and as we journey through Lent, I want to bring you a message of hope from Bishop Fulton Sheen, a bold visionary within the Catholic Church, and Michael Dopp, a dynamic Ottawa Catholic who is a leader in many missionary works:
These are challenging times for our world given the atrocities occurring in Ukraine as well as the displacement of millions of refugees.
These are also difficult days in our world as we have lived through a widespread disruptive global pandemic while at the same time experiencing in even more dark ways, the decline of the church. This has left many people and especially Catholics confused as they wonder where God’s hand is in all of this.
The answer remains the same: The Father is calling all people to encounter a relationship with His Son Jesus through surrendered prayer.
Inflation, pandemics, compromised leaders, war, increased suicide rates, gender confusion, uncertainty inside and outside of the church; none of these change the simple truth that our amazing God is relentlessly pursuing each and every one of us. He is to be our rock and our anchor. No matter what storms we face, Christ is there to love us, heal us, forgive us, strengthen us and fill our hearts with hope.
Perhaps more than many of us have seen in our lifetime, the proclamation of the Gospel has taken on a renewed urgency. The darkness in individual hearts is only revived through faith in Jesus and entering into full communion with Him and His church. Only in Jesus Christ do we find true hope that will carry us from this life, into eternity. Only in Jesus can all that is broken in this fragile and fallen world be gathered once more and made whole.
This is the choice before us: either try to revolutionize the world and break under it or revolutionize ourselves and remake the world.
God invites us to enter into a deeper friendship with Jesus (which will be our joy) and to bring Him to a world that is quickly losing hope (which will be their joy).
Nothing ever happens in the world that does not first happen in human hearts. Prayer begins by talking to God but it ends by listening to Him. In the face of Absolute Truth, silence is the soul’s language. Ask Him to reassure you, that when you are at your weakest, He is at His strongest.
A little food for thought from Fulton Sheen and Michael Dopp. Have a wonderful day everybody. MJ xo
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