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

The Apostles and the brothers who were in Judea
heard that the Gentiles too had accepted the word of God.
So when Peter went up to Jerusalem
the circumcised believers confronted him, saying,
‘You entered the house of uncircumcised people and ate with them.”
Peter began and explained it to them step by step, saying,
“I was at prayer in the city of Joppa
when in a trance I had a vision,
something resembling a large sheet coming down,
lowered from the sky by its four corners, and it came to me.
Looking intently into it,
I observed and saw the four-legged animals of the earth,
the wild beasts, the reptiles, and the birds of the sky.
I also heard a voice say to me, ‘Get up, Peter. Slaughter and eat.’
But I said, ‘Certainly not, sir,
because nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’
But a second time a voice from heaven answered,
‘What God has made clean, you are not to call profane.’
This happened three times,
and then everything was drawn up again into the sky.
Just then three men appeared at the house where we were,
who had been sent to me from Caesarea.
The Spirit told me to accompany them without discriminating.
These six brothers also went with me,
and we entered the man’s house.
He related to us how he had seen the angel standing in his house, saying,
‘Send someone to Joppa and summon Simon, who is called Peter,
who will speak words to you
by which you and all your household will be saved.’
As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them
as it had upon us at the beginning,
and I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said,
‘John baptized with water
but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’
If then God gave them the same gift he gave to us
when we came to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,
who was I to be able to hinder God?”
When they heard this,
they stopped objecting and glorified God, saying,
“God has then granted life-giving repentance to the Gentiles too.” Acts 11:1-18

In the early Christian Church Peter has a vision explaining that Gentiles are to be saved, too. Jesus did not come to save only Jews, but He came to save all. Our first Church council, Council of Jerusalem, separates the Jews from Catholics. It is the first time “The Way” becomes catholic which means “universal”-all are called to be saved through Jesus Christ.

Jesus said:
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate
but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber.
But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.
The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice,
as he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
When he has driven out all his own,
he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him,
because they recognize his voice.
But they will not follow a stranger;
they will run away from him,
because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.”
Although Jesus used this figure of speech,
they did not realize what he was trying to tell them.

So Jesus said again, “Amen, amen, I say to you,
I am the gate for the sheep.
All who came before me are thieves and robbers,
but the sheep did not listen to them.
I am the gate.
Whoever enters through me will be saved,
and will come in and go out and find pasture.
A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy;
I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” JN 10:1-10

​”I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved.” God calls each one of us by name for He is the Good Shepherd. Our Creator who knows and loves us more than we know and love ourselves and desires nothing more than for us to be home with Him in heaven. Love is not forced, so He gave us a free will to choose. Freedom exists for the sake of love. Since we have to have a free will for love to exist this allows evil in the world.

God is love and for love to exist He had to give us a free will. We have to freely choose love. We have to freely choose God. He also gave us His only Son to show how much He loves us. Jesus Christ is the gate and if we choose to enter through Him we will be saved. We must be baptized “in the water and the Spirit”. In baptism, we die and rise with Christ. We are called to evangelize and tell every nation this Good News. Repent and be saved. Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Christ through the Gate (our heavenly home, the hearts greatest longing).

Today’s challenge: Thank Jesus for sacrificing Himself for the good of all mankind. Pray for our priests today. It is Good Shepherd Sunday. Thank a priest or invite them over for supper.

#Christian YOLO

Be a servant, become a saint!

No Bible no breakfast, No Bible no bed. -Fr. Larry Richards