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THE CLOAK

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  I remember the time when  St. Martha's Church sponsored the sheltering and feeding of the homeless. In fact several volunteers coming from different ministries and prayer groups in the parish made themselves available for this activity. It was a pooling of resources which amounted to something big. It became a venue of good works where the Lord abides forever for where there is love there is God. Amen. Hallelujah! 1 Kings 8:1-7, 9-13 ...Then Solomon said, “The LORD intends to dwell in the dark cloud; 13 I have truly built you a princely house, a dwelling where you may abide forever.” There is no doubt that God is able to fulfill all His promises and carry out everything that He said. A confirming event that I consider very special was whenever we chance upon Fr. Mike Barry. We have been following him wherever he has a healing session nearby and to have an unexpected chance of attending mass celebrated by him is something I consider a great blessing and indeed a very pleasant...
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SALT AND LIGHT

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   Nothing that we do for our brothers and sisters especially for the least of them would go unnoticed by our Heavenly Father. He knows and sees all. Thus it is always for the best that we strive to be good not only to ourselves but to others as well. We can never out give God. He is generous beyond our comprehension, as in Luke 6:36-38, Be merciful, just as (also) your Father is merciful. "Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you."  The Lord is calling us to go much further from the fast that we have all been used to doing. We need to come up with concrete effects within ourselves and the people around us when we fast as specifically stated in today's 1st reading. We can not just go on fa...
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DESTINED FOR SUCCESS

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  It is a good idea to follow Solomon's wisdom in today's 1st reading. And consequently this sharing from Didache. It is definitely just the right story that we needed to hear. Here it is entitled: Wise Discernment   “Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong.” – 1 Kings 3:9a  The group of companies I worked for was closing down and I was about to lose my job. Some people with whom I had former business dealings offered me more than double my salary to manage their company. Upon closer scrutiny, I learned that this company didn’t pay minimum wages and didn’t pay the right taxes. But I desperately needed a better job then and lifted my cause in prayer to God. Through my wife’s prayer, God told me not to take the job. A few years later, a multi-billion tax scandal landed on the front page of the papers. At the center of the scandal was this same company. Its owner, who had offered me the job, was on the run...
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KAIROS (the appointed time in the purpose of God)

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  Today's 1st reading is a sort of eulogy for King David who was laid to rest in God's appointed time of departure from earth. Death can be viewed in many different ways. We should always come into terms with the truth that we encounter many and various situations that sum up all our experiences. Some pleasant but some are not. It is best to always work towards an attitude of acceptance. These things are all part and parcel of the so called cycle of life. If we are not able to go through this cycle then we can never experience the fullness of time. This could make better sense if we think of a place which has 4 seasons. If we weren't able to stay in such place for the entire year then we couldn't experience these 4 seasons. There is a need for us to go through each and every season in order to fully appreciate and differentiate one from the other. In the same way that we go through a cycle in life and experience first hand, true to life circumstances and events which ma...
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CARRY ON

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    If we are to read the entire 1 st  reading which is taken from the Old Testament we can not help but think that we have a God who is vindictive. This is due to the fact that it shows an entirely different and ancient understanding of morality and punishment. This is why people who intend to read the entire bible are advised to read backwards, start with the New Testament before reading the Old Testament. We, the present day Christians are truly and deeply blessed when it comes to attaining a better understanding of God than the Israelites during those ancient times. The coming of Jesus in the New Testament made all the difference for us in terms of God's revelation of mercy and love. Just imagine our God coming to us in the form of man to suffer, die on the cross and resurrect after 3 days to show His great love and save us from our sins. Throughout all the ages we have never seen a much greater sacrifice than this. We have a glorious background and history for our fa...
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LOVE ABOVE ALL

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    How would we feel if someone wants to get rid of us? Would we still find ourselves loving that person? Just like David in today's 1st reading we should not harbor any ill feelings in our hearts.    The love that he has in his heart triumphed over the hatred that should have risen from the evil plot of his son, Absalom to kill him. Just like King David we sometimes encounter people who say all bad things about us and in today's 1st reading we are urged to imitate David's kindness and self control despite the curses being hurled at him he decided not to fight back. He continued to trust in God's goodness and mercy who sees all things we are going through. We must find the love of God above all. Amen. Hallelujah! 2 Samuel 18:9-10, 14b, 24-25a, 30-19:3 ...Joab was told that the king was weeping and mourning for Absalom; 3 and that day’s victory was turned into mourning for the whole army when they heard that the king was grieving for his son. We have to be grateful t...
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THE SILVERSMITH AND THE SPARROW

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      Life is never easy and fair at times.    If we go through trials and hardships and sometimes lose heart when confronted by our doubting and questioning minds then we should always stand firm in our principles and convictions anchored in Jesus. No matter how difficult it may seem we must not lose sight of what kind of suffering Jesus had to go through    and all our problems will fade in the background. Nothing we do in our entire lifetime will ever seem fit for a God who is perfect in countless ways and will always fall short of His glory. We just have to be thankful that God never gives up on anyone of us for He looks not on our sins but on our faithfulness. We always have a choice to improve, move forward and not lag behind. After all the years and experiences God is continuously at work in us and will always look forward to that day when we will come to be with Him, perfected through Jesus and united with Him in His wonderful kingdom in heaven...
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