Humbly submit your will to God (Thy Will be done) and consecrate yourself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through Mary and Joseph.

On a sabbath Jesus went to dine
at the home of one of the leading Pharisees,
and the people there were observing him carefully.

He told a parable to those who had been invited,
noticing how they were choosing the places of honor at the table. “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not recline at table in the place of honor.
A more distinguished guest than you may have been invited by him, and the host who invited both of you may approach you and say, ‘Give your place to this man,’
and then you would proceed with embarrassment
to take the lowest place. Rather, when you are invited,
go and take the lowest place so that when the host comes to you he may say, ‘My friend, move up to a higher position.’
Then you will enjoy the esteem of your companions at the table. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled,
but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” LK 14:1, 7-11

Today, Jesus uses the wedding banquet to teach us about humility.  He will go on to use a parable to teach us about the rich and the poor, the difficult task of being a true disciple of Christ, and that we will be persecuted for it.  That sounds great doesn’t it!  It is interesting how the harder you work for something and the more you give up the greater the satisfaction and the reward.  The same goes for getting to heaven.  When we cooperate with God’s grace and put forth effort God can achieve holiness in us. 

Today, Jesus focuses on humility.  Humility helps us defeat Satan who is constantly trying to make us rush, distract us, make us worry, anxious, and break up our family/separate us from our spouse.  He will put all kinds of negative thoughts into our minds.  Satan brought envy into the world because he wanted to be God. Humility is knowing who you are in perspective to who God is. It takes a lot of prayer, reading Scripture, receiving the sacraments, catechism, and spiritual readings to learn those things. Next time you pray ask Jesus to see yourself the way He sees you. Be ready to be humbled. We need to bow down to God and recognize we need Him.  Actually, Jesus tells us in the Vine and the Branches analogy, “you can do nothing without me”.

This is the first beatitude, a poor spirit.  We need God’s mighty powers to help us to fight the fallen angel.  We need to recognize we can not do it alone.  We must rise each morning and remind ourselves of the Truth in the Scriptures, pray the Our Father, sit in silence and allow God to give us perspective for each day.  Each day we wake we start over and we think with our limited minds. We inherited a fallen nature so we have a leaning towards sin. We must prepare ourselves for the battle with our first thoughts being the Our Father and storming heaven to help us each day. Then we must receive Jesus and be open to allowing Him to transform us to rid ourselves of sin and help build up strength against it.  

Next, we must bring ourselves to Mary who is our greatest intercessor against Satan (she repels him) to protect us in her mantle.  St. Joseph, protector of the Holy Church and Terror of Demons, we have learned this year is also a great intercessor for us. We must look to the saints who have seen through the Devil’s schemes and lies and defeated him asking them for their intercessions.  We are entering battle each day.  Use the spiritual powers God gave you of intellect, will, and memory to be humble recognizing we need God and His powers to defeat Satan, overcome persecution and our fallen human nature, and win as true disciples of Christ.

Today’s challenge: Be humble

Be a servant, become a saint!
​#Christian YOLO