“AND YOUR FATHER WHO SEES IN SECRET WILL REPAY YOU.” MT 6:1-6, 16-18
Humbly submit your will to God (Thy Will be done) and consecrate yourself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through Mary and Joseph.
Today, Jesus teaches us 3 important lessons in being Christ-like. Repent means to change our heart (the way we look at life/they way we think) to be more like Christ’s most Sacred Heart. A servant. An instrument of God’s peace, love, and joy. We are called to holiness through our baptism.
Jesus died to have a relationship with us, so that we may know Him, imitate Him, and return to the Father. We are called to fight Satan and profess a creed. Fr. Mike Schmitz says, “What we believe in is what we belong to. What we belong to is how we live and what we are willing to die for.” This is our Christian identity branded onto us at Baptism.
In fasting, we search for the temptation in our life that is leading us the furthest from God and work on it. We may need to “cut off our hand or pluck out our eye” if it is causing us to sin. We may need to fast from our cell phone, computer, tablet, TV, to help us avoid the near occasion of sin.
Fasting is the first step in fighting addiction. Which addiction do you need to work on? The 3 areas of our life that must be controlled or rightly ordered are world/culture (electronics/social media), flesh (7 deadly sins), and material goods (unnecessary material goods) to enter into the Kingdom.
God’s grace is necessary and surrendering into His loving arms to make small gains and continue the journey towards holiness. This will help us to be more present in our relationships and communicate more which leads to peace and joy. This may help us to not rush through our work to get to our entertainment, but concentrate on what we are made for, relationships.
Most importantly, our relationship with God, prayer and reflection on the Scriptures, silence and listening. We might feel empty the first week when we give something up, this is okay, we must walk through the desert, fall to our knees and tell God we need Him to help us.
Once we recognize that we need God, we are well on our way to growing towards Him. This in turn opens our hearts to good deeds and giving alms to the poor. In prayer, we get back to center where Jesus is and He will guide us to what is right. Jesus is Truth, reality, what is. This helps guide us and lead us.
Repent means to change your life and grow in holiness. It is difficult and maybe even impossible, but with God’s grace anything is possible if you believe. What do you need Jesus and His grace to transform in your life?
Today’s challenge: Recognize you need God through fasting from something that is keeping you away from the most important things in life, God, family, friends, and work. Receive God’s blessings and love and share them with those in greatest need. Love the unlovable.
Be a servant, be a saint today!
#Christian YOLO
In this scripture Jesus teaches us 3 important lessons in being christ-like Jesus died to have a relationship with us. This is why we fast, because Jesus died for our sins so we should give up something or do something for him. Most importantly, our relationship with God, prayer and reflection on the Scriptures, silence and listening. We need God through sacrifices, and sacraments.
“What we believe in is what we belong to. What we belong to is how we live and what we are willing to die for.”
This stuck out to me because it is an important thing to think about and have in your mind/conscious. it asks if we believe that God, really sent His one and only Son down on this earth to die for us. It asks us if we live a prayerful and holy life. And are we willing to die for it?
These 3 thing Jesus teaches us are the only ways to get to heaven. First with fasting it’s more than just no meat on Fridays but it’s God asking us to stay away from anything that could cause us to sin. With prayer were told that it’s more than just talking and asking for things from God its listening to his response and sitting in silence with him. And with alms giving it more than giving 5 bucks at church on Sunday it’s giving your prayers up for someone in need or your sufferings for those suffering in purgatory.
Jesus died for our sins not his own and the least we can do is go 40 days while just fasting like to give up candy,sweets, and pop. We should not eat as to make you completely full just so its a small sacrifice that we can show our appreciation. That Jesus gave his life just so we can live a good one and while fasting we should also try to make new habits such as talking to him more often or even just praying a Our Father a day.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus shows us that we should not boast about our good doings and to do good things in secret. It helps us see that God is always watching us no matter if what we do is good or bad. I feel like He is telling me to be humble and not brag about good things I have done and let my actions express myself, not my words. He wants us to be good Christians/Catholics by doing good things without anyone knowing. This does not mean, however, that we should not help others because others are watching. Don’t go looking to do good things just because people are or aren’t watching you. Always help others no matter the situation. Jesus is here for us wherever we are and we should be here for others like He is for us.
What stuck out to me was the 3 important lessons in being Christ-like. I think I need to find a way to remember those 3 things throughout every day because that is what’s going to get me closer to God. All God wants is for us to realize that He will love us no matter what. We cant give up because of one thing we do. We need to let God lead the way to HIm.
“slow to anger rich in kindness” We need to bring more things to God, and not think of him as a mean overlord but as a friend who wants to help and forgive us, trust the Lord
I think in the reading we are getting told to fast and give alms for lent. And to suffer with Jesus as he suffers the punishment for our sins.
Living the faith is hard. We always fail, time and time again, and it is easy to wallow or sit in our sin. Lent is a time to get back up on our feet. To relight the conviction inside of us. Everyone will give something up, and it will be hard. But we need to remember not to complain, or not to try and convince ourselves that we are having it worse than others. Doing this will make us believe that we are better than others, that we are willing to give up more than others. This is why faith is hard. You do things to get closer to God, but our human tendencies twist that action or deed in a different way to tempt us. When you fast, give alms, or pray, do it in a way that others won’t see. However, don’t be afraid to do a good act or a holy deed in public. Just make sure that you don’t let your faith get to your head. This is one aspect that shows that God can bring forth good, like humility, from sin.
We must do the three main things we need to do this lent, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. But in the gospel today it said not to brag or boast about what you are doing, and to do it in secret and the Lord will see.
We are given 3 ways to become more Christ-like followers of God Praying, Fasting, and Giving in these 3 things I realize that none of them are putting yourself first you live in giving to the Lord your whole self and to the people around you, and I believe doing this will bring more happiness to you, and are the best ways to live life.
Today, I believe that Jesus is calling us to be humble. He wants us to pray, but not to boast about it. He wants us to fast, but not to complain about it. He wants us to live righteously, but with humility.
Today the gospel talked about how God sees all that we do. It shows us that we do not need others to know when we pray cause that does not matter. All that matters is God and you don’t need to show others when all that matters is Him. He is the center of our life and we can work towards heaven and him by prayer, fasting, and alms giving. These things help others and help you get closer to God.
I think this is saying that we need to keep believing in god. We are starting to go away freom him and we need to keep following him.
Something that I got from this was, that God is the all power, there is nothing that we can have that is better, or has more power than God, and I think that this is important for us to realize since so many of us go after material possessions, and whether or not people want to admit it, that is their god, and we need to be the people to call out of that and go and follow the true God, Jesus Christ.
A thing that stuck out to me is that there are 3 things that Jesus teaches us. It’s crazy how many times 3 is associated with God. I think the Lord is trying to tell us that during lent we must pull away from our natural habits and try to be more like Christ. That we need to pull away from sin.
In the scripture today it said the purpose of lent is to give something up or sacrifice something . God gave up his son to die for our sins. Jesus gave up his own life so that we can spend the rest of it with God in heaven. Fast, prayer and alms giving are the 3 ways to grow in holiness. I can use this in everyday life because I need to remember that God and Jesus both did something for us so we need to do something for them.
If we believe in God, we will win Heaven. When we fast, we try to stop doing things that lead us away from God. When we pray, we speak to God and ask him for the grace that will help us. When we Give Alms (giving) we give something to someone which brings us closer to God.
Jesus died for us so we can give up something for 40 days.God is the only thing that matters not anything else.We can talk to him in prayer and during church.We can worked towards Heaven by praying,confession,fasting,and giving up something for Lent.
I think it means that if we pray or fast, we should make a big deal about it. We shouldn’t go out to the street and start yelling how great and holy we are. Instead, we should pray and fast alone, telling no one what we are doing.
I think Jesus is trying to tell me to get closer to him this Lent. To help me do that I can fast, pray, and give alms. Jesus does not want us to be seen or us to brag that we are doing something good. When we do good, we should do it secretly and the Father will see that.
What really stuck out to me was “What we believe in is what we belong to. What we belong to is how we live and what we are willing to die for.” What I think Father means by this anything we do or say reflects on us and our personality. That is why we should always think through our actions and thoughts.
The words ” fasting, and weeping, and mourning” stood out to me for me becuase that is just what we do to celbrate lenten season we fast we weep and we mourn until that date when he rises(easter).
Today I think Jesus is telling us how to bring ourselves to the foot of the cross this Lent. He dosn’t say “if” you pray,fast, and give. He says “when” you pray,fast, and give. This is showing that it is not just a choice, it is more of an expectation. If we don’t do these things ever, then how are we supposed to grow closer to Him? Just like anything else we have to practice.
I think what Jesus is saying today that you need to be good when nobody is watching.You might never get credit on earth for heaven though they see all the little things you do down here on earth so just do the right thing when nobody is watch and you will get repaid in heaven for your good actions down here on earth.
Jesus is telling us not to be boastful. Not to show off what you have or what you are doing. He is reminding us to be humble.
What stuck out to me was the 3 important lessons in being Christ-Like. This stuck out to me because it teaches me the 3 important lessons to be more like Christ. It teaches us that fasting is the first step in fighting addiction, prayer is when we can go to God and ask him for anything we need help with, and lastly giving alms.
Jesus teaches us 3 things to do during Lent.
Fast: We give up things that we like or want to do like certain foods or maybe spending time on an electronic.
Pray: Jesus prayed in the desert and we should pray too. We can pray for others or for ourselves.
Give: We should give our time to helping people and to doing good deeds. We can help our parish or help someone in our family.
On Ash Wednesday as Catholics and Christians we are called to go to Mass even more than usual. The Ashes symbolize that you are a sinner but God’s got you. God loves and he takes your sins away from you. I like getting ashes on my forehead because it shows people that I am Catholic. It also shows that I have God with me.
In this scripture it tells us not to announce that we are praying, but to pray alone in silence, telling nobody. This stuck out to me because it is a sign of integrity. I am usually used to telling my parents if I did something for them but this is completely the opposite.
“When you fast,
do not look gloomy like the hypocrites.
They neglect their appearance,
so that they may appear to others to be fasting.
Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.
But when you fast,
anoint your head and wash your face,
so that you may not appear to be fasting,
except to your Father who is hidden.
And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.” In today’s scripture reflection I feel like Jesus is telling us to be humble and not to follow his teaching but not complain about it because us fasting is helping us and he had it way worse than him and should not be gloomy like the hypocrites.
Jesus said, “When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them.” Jesus wants us to pray in the quiet of our rooms and other silent places. Jesus does not want us to show off that we pray. We should be in a silent place so that we can hear Jesus respond to us.
What stuck out to me was that Gods grace is necessary to live. I feel that people now do not take that as seriously. The problem with that we need him he does not need us we must love God.
“AND YOUR FATHER WHO SEES IN SECRET WILL REPAY YOU.” to me this is saying that God sees us and will reply to us when the time is right and when he knows we are ready
I think that in this reading God is trying to tell us we need to be as much like him as we can every day of our life, and that means we have to always think to ourselves, ” what would Jesus do”. That is one of the most important questions we should be asking ourselves, ” what would Jesus do”. WE NEED TO BE MORE LIKE HIM.
Turning away from god is the worst thing we can ever do, but we have to think “what can we do to fix that”.
Fast, Pray, and Give to those who have less. Those are what gets us closer to him in heaven.
For lent we need to do three thing prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. In today’s scripture it said not to brag or to tell people about what you are doing. You should do it without anyone knowing.
Today the gospel talked about how God sees all that we do. It shows us that we do not need others to know when we pray cause that does not matter. All that matters is God and you don’t need to show others when all that matters is Him. He is the center of our life and we can work towards heaven and him by prayer, fasting, and alms giving. These things help others and help you get closer to God.
We need to realize that we need God and once we do then we can start doing the good deeds humans where made to do and be more Christlike and repent because we are all sinners.
Jesus is calling us to be humble. During lent we need to pray to Jesus and ask for help from him. We fast because we need to repent from our sins. We pray, fast, and do Alms giving to help us.
Today God sees what we do in the real world because he is God he knows what we do. The fact that Jesus died for us, is a huge blessing. Now these days we are always sinners, we basically sin everyday, and lent is a huge way to show what we focus on more than God, like electronics, sweets, and social media. This stuff shows us that we worship a false God and that we are letting God down. We need to realize the power that God has over all of that, because we don’t need any of that when it’s not important. What we need mostly is a relationship with God and that’s it. lent is another way to get closer to God. If we can fast for 40 days then we can keep doing it like challenges. God knows what we are doing and if we see that and we don’t stop we will have consequences for our actions, and that leads us far away from God and that’s a bad relationship
We should not boast about how much we pray or how many good deeds we have done. God can see everything and will see your good deeds and will repay you. People don’t need to know what goods we do, we shouldn’t brag about the things we do. We should keep them to ourselves.
Today we learn about how we can become closer to God during lent. We can’t keep giving in to temptation because we are just letting the devil win. These three things are tools to help us get closer to God.
Today the gospel talked about how God sees all that we do. We must pray, fast, and almsgiving. All that matters is God don’t need to tell others when all that matters to him.
I believe that Jesus wants us to be humble. he sees what we do in secret, if we help someone we don’t have to go around and brag about it. Because all that matters is that we helped others and that’s what God wants u to do.
“Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them;” This really sticks out to me, because I like how Jesus is calling us to be as meek and humble as Him. He wants us to do the deeds not for attention, but for true love of God. We shouldn’t be searching for attention, but instead avoiding it, as Jesus did.
Today in the gospel, Jesus talks about What we belong to is how we live and what we are willing to die for.” “What we believe in is what we belong to. This really stuck out to me because it really asks if we are willing to die for God. And it asks if we believe that God really sent down His one and only Son down to earth and die for our sins!
I think Jesus is trying to tell us that we shouldn’t announce to the whole word that we are praying. I think he wants us to pray to him and spread the gospel but I don’t think he wants us to brag about it and think we are better than others.
Jesus is trying to teach us how to Pray and fast during Lent so we can grow very close to him.
What we believe in is what we belong to. I have never thought of it that way. If you are addicted to something like smoking or on your phone. You would be wanting to smoke or get on your phone instead of praying. You have made a bad habit. If you go to pray first then you have made a good habit. You are putting Jesus first instead of a phone. This shows me that praying is the first thing I need to do when I wake.
I feel like Jesus is telling us to be humble and we really do need to be humble. When we make ourselves servants to others or to God it’s not showing that we’re weak or that we let people walk on us. That’s always what I thought humility meant. But humility is a great act of love. By lying our lives down for God, we are saying that we love God so much that we are willing to give up everything for him. And that’s not showing weakness. If anything, that’s the most heroic thing a person can do. Just give themselves fully to God and say that something is much more important to them than the things of this world. And that’s a brave thing to do. A beautiful thing even.
God is watching. We have to watch what we do on this earth so we can make it to heaven. We can’t point out other’s flaws and then commit them ourselves. We have to pray, fast, and give alms. That is how to become holy.
What Jesus is saying in this passage is that when you do your Lenten sacrifice you do not have to announce it. You should still do your Lenten sacrifice by any means and should pray even more than regularly during Lent. Jesus wants you to prepare and wait patiently for his second coming and rising from the dead.
Fasting is good for you. In more ways than most people think. To fast is to give a material good up for God. Fasting brings us closer to God which is all we need in life. We focus too much on the things in our life to properly focus on what is important and what is happening right in front of us. Fasting helps us refocus on God.
In todays Gospel God tells us that when we fast and pray and give alms (Not if) not to do it out of trying to look the Holiest or the best but to do it in secret so that we can use lent as a time to give God our sins. Lent is a time for self reflection and repentance. Its not for punishment but self improvment.
we fast so that we can get over addictions, get over what makes us sin and stop doing it. It helps us get closer to god and we should do it.
We all have something important to us, or many things important to us. The season of Lent helps us deepen the importance we have for our family, friends, and most importantly Jesus. Lent is more than just fasting and giving up things. It’s a time of prayer, waiting, and learning more about Jesus and what He did for us. This is why we attend stations of the cross, ash Wednesday, and palm Sunday.
We are told not to boast that we are giving something up or that we are giving alms or if we are even fasting. The reason people boast in this situation is because they want people to feel sorry for them. They want people to come up to them and have sympathy for them. Jesus told us not to do that. To do everything in secret, even praying. Today and all the rest of the days in lent let us act like we want to fast or give alms or give something up because our little fast will never compare to Jesus dying for us and he did that willingly. So let us willingly give alms, give up something and fast because Jesus died for us.
He tells us we need to fast Jesus says “When we fast” no it we fast, “When we pray” not if we pray, “When we give alms” not if we give alms. We should always strive to fast, give alms, and pray because these are the things that bring us closer to God. We need to understand that these things are not some ways to get to God, we need to use ALL of them to get to God.
What stuck out to me was “Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them.” This stuck out to me because whatever you do, you shouldn’t do it because of other people you should do it for Jesus. Doing it for other people won’t matter in the long run, but what will matter is if your doing it for Jesus.
Most importantly, our relationship with God, prayer and reflection on the Scriptures, silence and listening. We might feel empty the first week when we give something up, this is okay, we must walk through the desert, fall to our knees and tell God we need Him to help us. This part really stuck out to me because its telling us that giving something up and fasting is not easy. It can be very challenging for us to fast and give something up, but Jesus suffered so much and then to top it all off He died for OUR sins. Not His sins (because he didn’t have any), but OURS. He wants a relationship with us and He wants us to pray and talk to Him. During lent we have to really push through and suffer a little bit, but for how much Jesus suffered, ours doesn’t even compare.
“And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.” God is always watching. He will be there for you during every single moment, the good and bad. We shouldn’t pray or do service because others are watching, we should pray and do service because of our love for God. Mother Teresa said, “Do little things with great love.” We should do acts of service in order to help those in need. God sees all the little things that you do even when no one else is around and he appreciates those deeds so much. Don’t strive to be Holy for others, strive to be Holy for yourself and your love of God.
“Jesus died to have a relationship with us” Every time I read that sentence I feel like it gains more and more meaning. Knowing that Christ would die for me and will love me eternally makes me feel so happy and I know that if I make mistakes he will still love and care for me.
In this scripture God told me that I need to read the bible more often and to always trust in his plans. Share the gospel that God teaches and always remember that he is with us.
Do not fast but be angry the whole time or not eat meat on Friday and have a bad mood, Jesus went died on the cross for us the least we could do is change up our daily schedule a little bit and still be happy.
Do not fast but be angry the whole time or not eat meat on Friday and have a bad mood, Jesus went died on the cross for us the least we could do is change up our daily schedule a little bit and still be happy.
God’s grace is necessary to live of course we have people like athiests living here on Earth but that’s not what He is talking about He is talking about we need His grace to live peacefully in heaven
Jesus died to have a relationship with us. Every time I read that sentence I feel like it gains more and more meaning in my life. Knowing that Christ would die for me and will love me eternally makes me feel so good and I know that if I make mistakes he will still love and care for me. He will never stop loving me.
Jesus is telling us that to really pray we need to Fast, Give Alms, and Pray. We must do these things to enhance our prayer life and to make it stronger.
Jesus is telling us in the Gospel that we as followers of Jesus must follow certain rules, or certain ideas. And He tells us that we need to fast on certain days and pray in silence and not be like people who will say, “Oh I prayed today isn’t that fantastic!” We will not say that we prayed and brag to the whole world that you prayed. We will keep ourselves humble like Jesus was.
During Lent, fasting and giving things up isn’t something to joke about and it should be taken seriously. We shouldn’t brag about it, but we should be silent about it.
In this scripture reflection I was reminded that the reason Jesus died for us is because He loves us so insainly much and that during this time we should fast and prepare for the lord to come.
In the gospel it talked about doing are fasting and prayer in secret because nothing is secret to God and we don’t need to speak down to others about how good we are for fasting and praying that we need to pray to stay in a relationship with the Lord and that we need to fast to help us fight off are temptations and the devil himself its not to go around and tell people that you were praying and fasting for a certain amount of time to seem better than them we need to be humble and not let status and a feeling of above others to be the reason we pray
What stood out to me was fasting. Jesus fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. To be more Christ-like and closer to him we have to fast. Fasting is a way of showing discipline. If we have discipline in the small things like candy, TV, or social media we can have discipline staying away from or fasting from the 7 deadly sins.
“Jesus died to have a relationship with us, so that we may know Him, imitate Him, and return to the Father.” We just have to believe in our faith and know where God wants to take us. God can take us anywhere but He chooses where we go specifically till the right moment. We just have to believe there is a reasoning behind it all. There is always a reason for something, and there is always an answer we just have to follow Jesus and believe that where we will go is going to be good.
What is prayer, fasting, and almsgiving? prayer is our way of speaking to God through our faith and responding to our calling. fasting is our sacrifice that we put prayer into its empty space and time. almsgiving is opening our hearts to others and giving alms to the poor. through these things, we grow closer to God during these 40 days and we praise, love and serve God even more than we did before. lent is a sacrifice. so let’s offer up this sacrifice to God.
We need God, most of us don’t realize how much we need Him. Most people, including me, need to wake up to the fact that we aren’t going to be able to make it to Heaven without him, without praying daily, obviously you can miss a couple days here and there but still. Wake up
Something that stuck out to me was Jesus teaches us 3 important lessons in being Christ-like because we need to find a way to remember about those things throughout our day. It would get us all closer to God as well. All God wants from us is for us to all be closer with him, and that he loves us even if we make a few mistakes.
Jesus died for us the least we can do is give up some candy for lent. It just is crazy to think about the fact he loves us so much that he died just to have a relationship with us. This lent i will do my best to spend more time with Jesus.
We need to bring more thing to God and also trust in the Lord
“AND YOUR FATHER WHO SEES IN SECRET WILL REPAY YOU.” I think Jesus is trying to tell us that God notices us and if we need anything we can go to Him.
“And your father who sees in secret will repay you.” This stood out to me because its basically saying that God is always watching what we do.
Once we realize that God is an essential part of our lives we are elevated to a new level of relationship with Jesus.
Today, Jesus teaches us 3 important lessons in being Christ-like. This really revolves around our entire lives. We need to always keep these 3 lessons in mind. Jesus gave up himself just so he can have a relationship with us. His kindness is like none other.
And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.This stood out to me because I think that God is trying to tell us that when we do good things God might repay us like when we do our best not to sin and when we do confession and have a clean soul then God will let us in heaven.If we do good on earth God can repay us with going to Heaven.
Jesus is trying to tell us to participate in fasting and giving alms for lent.
What I got from this scripture reflection was, God is the most powerful being to ever live. Nothing is more powerful than God, not even anything we could ever think of.
In this scripture reflection I was reminded that the reason Jesus died for us is because He loves us so much and that during this time we should fast and prepare for the lord to come.We just have to believe there is a reasoning behind it all.
Do not do things to be seen do them in secret so the father may do not try to look holy be holy in the gospel I think the Lord is telling me that we need to do Gods will not our will. Amen LOVE OUR LORD YOUR GOD
“What we believe in is what we belong to. What we belong to is how we live and what we are willing to die for.” stuck out to me because We are honoring the Lord and showing him loyalty.
This scripture reflection is telling me that Jesus died for us so we need to give up something for 40 days. Jesus is the only thing that matters. I also feel like Jesus wants us to get closer to him this Lent and try are best to do so.
We all have something that is important to us, or that we love and can’t live without. Lent is a time of sacrifice, we have to be willing to give something we love to grow closer to God. Many times people give up something that they really don’t care about, you can do that but it wont help you to grow closer to God. If you are tempted to use your object you gave up that is when you pray to God.
During Lent there are 3 things to do, pray, fast, and give alms. Praying should help us build a better relationship with God. Fasting should take away something that we may put first sometimes and help us realize God should be first before everything. Giving alms can help us grow closer to God and help us get guided back to God.
We must not forget why we do Lent, it is not a punishment but a reciprocation so we may not let our selfish habits take over. There are reasons and ways we can control ourselves in the face of this temptation. Fasting is abstaining from things we may not need such as a luxury, it doesn’t mean we have to not eat but to watch what we eat. Prayer and Alms giving are two of the other ways we can keep our bad habits to a minimum.
I realized that none of them are putting yourself first, we live in giving to our Lord. We need to be humble and not let status and a feeling of above others to be the thing we long for.
“jesus is truth” This stuck out too me because Jesus gives us the information for us too belive in him we should find out who we are and what jesus is calling us to do.
God is telling us that Lent is the best time to get closer to him. If we say “no” to ourselves once a day we can be closer to him and not let the stuff that makes us addicted get in our way of being with God in Heaven. “AND YOUR FATHER WHO SEES IN SECRET WILL REPAY YOU.” This part struck me because even though Jesus is dead, we can still see Him if we pray to Him.
“And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.” If we pray to the Lord, fast, give to others all in secret, God will repay us justly. We keep our faith not for the praise of others but for our own glory to God. If we show off our faith we may receive praise, when it should all be going to God.
God is trying to tell us, that we don’t always have to go out ans start screaming out the gospel. These crosses on our foreheads symbolize that we are sinners. God takes pity on his people, that’s us, we are the people who have sinned. “BE merciful O lord, for we have sinned”.
Fasting is our way to be free of bad habits, like being online to much, gossiping, and just to help lead us away from sin. When away from sin we can spend more time with Jesus in prayer. You could even start with an easier thing to give up and work your way up.
I was reminded that I must love the Lord above all things. Above my phone, above my tv, above my sin, above my pride, above all of it. Lent is a time that I never look forward to, but I know deep down that I need it! In particular today, Jesus is calling on me to be humble and pure in the heart. When you do something extravagant for lent, it is our first inclination to tell someone, but it’s important to remember that it’s not about us, and other people knowing how “great” and “holy” we are for doing it. It’s just not about that. It’s about my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who suffered, died, descended into Hell, and rose from death into a new life, allowing me to be here today. There is something so powerful in this truth that I cannot describe… That’s what it means to have Faith. My brokenness will never stop the Light of the Lord from poking through to my own darkness and others’. As it says in the song: “There’s no wall You won’t kick down, Lie You won’t tear down, Coming after me. There’s NO SHADOW YOU WON’T LIGHT UP, Mountain You won’t climb up, Coming after me”
“loving him, and walking in his ways” if we follow him in his ways then we will learn about the love he has for us, and the love we can share with others, meet all with people with kindness and love, that is what God wants us to do.
Prayer,fasting, and alms giving partily reprecent lent.
Prayer you try to take up new hadits to help you grow in faith.
Alms giving give till it hurts and then you know you did the right thing.
Fasting jesus fasted in the desert for 40 days we can show a little restrant.
He must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me
We have to carry our own cross to get to heaven. We have to walk with Jesus. It is so so so important that we take up our cross it shows a lot of things, that we love and care for Jesus, that this is what you want to do with your life, and that you would do anything to support your Catholic faith to prove that this is what you believe in and that you would do anything for your faith.
i think this is saying that when we pray to God he repays us and helps us.
In today’s gospel I think Jesus is saying if you’re a lukewarm catholic your not going to get to heaven. Heaven is for the people that are all in for Christ and it’s for the people that die for Jesus just like he died for us. Heaven is a great place and to get there we have to do great things for God.
The gospel talked about how God sees all that we do. It shows us that we do not need others to know when we pray cause that does not matter. He is the center of our life and we can work towards heaven and him by prayer fasting, and alms giving these things help others and help you get closer to God.
today, Jesus tells us that it is important to fast he dosnt say if you do it, he says when you do it. Jesus wants us to give things up for him and to try and do even a smidgen of what he did for us.
Jesus died to have a relationship with us, so that we may know Him, imitate Him, and return to the Father. We are called to fight Satan and profess a creed. Fr. Mike Schmitz says, “What we believe in is what we belong to. What we belong to is how we live and what we are willing to die for.” This is our Christian identity branded onto us at Baptism. Jesus died so we can be with him.
Jesus is telling us to be humble and we really do need to be humble. When we make ourselves servants to others or to God it’s not showing that we’re weak or that we let people walk on us. That’s always what I thought humility meant. But humility is a great act of love. By lying our lives down for God, we are saying that we love God so much that we are willing to give up everything for him. And that’s not showing weakness.
Jesus is telling us to be humble and we really do need to be humble. When we make ourselves servants to others or to God it’s not showing that we’re weak or that we let people walk on us.
Then the fever left her and she waited on them.”. God has the power to bring the dead back to life, to turn sickness into health. He has the power to do all of that and much more. He also has the power to destroy the world with a thought. We could all be dead and in hell before we knew what had happened. He loves us so much that he is willing to put up with all of the heretic religions in the world. He chooses not to kill anybody. He instead chooses to save us and bring us to heaven if we lived a good life.
Fasting helps us to grow closer to God because we are turning away from the bad temptations in our life and turning to Him instead. Temptation is difficult to overcome that’s why we need God’s grace and mercy, we ask Him to help us through prayer and talking to Him daily.
“AND YOUR FATHER WHO SEES IN SECRET WILL REPAY YOU.” This stuck out to me because God is very humble. He doesn’t want to make a big scene. He wants to talk to you in private. He wants to repay us with eternal life in Heaven but we have to want it and show it. We need to show Him we are making an effort to talk to Him and he will talk back to us.
We just have to believe in our faith and know where God wants to take us. God can take us anywhere but he chooses where we go specifically till the right moment we just have to believe there is a reasoning behind it all.
“cut off our hand or pluck out our eye,” That stuck out to me because it talks about how we need to cut out whatever is causing us to sin or come back to that sin. For example if someone is struggling with a smoking addiction they need to try and cut it out by not going to the store that sells them. Cutting out sin out of our lives helps us become better Christians.
“What we believe in is what we belong to. What we belong to is how we live and what we are willing to die for.” So what God is trying to tell me is that if we believe in him then we could be willing to die for him if we truly believe and love him.
In lent, rather than just praying our daily prayers, we have to pray more, Fast on Fridays, and give alms. We do this because Jesus suffered these 40 days as well.
Jesus died on the cross for us. He sacrificed his life to save the world. In this scripture Jesus tells us.