“WHAT PROFIT IS THERE FOR ONE TO GAIN THE WHOLE WORLD YET LOSE OR FORFEIT HIMSELF?” LK 9:22-25
Humbly submit your will to God (Thy Will be done) and consecrate yourself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through Mary and Joseph.
Why do we have to deny ourselves? We have inherited a fallen human nature, a loss of grace/holiness. A loss of relationship with the Father. We have an inclination to sin each day we wake (concupiscence/addictions). Oh, how many times I have followed my own desires instead of the Lord’s.
What cross? Our daily crosses. Everyone suffers. It is relative to the situation your are dealt in life, but everyone suffers. Jesus gives purpose to our suffering and fashions our daily crosses to what we can deal with and sometimes what we can’t deal with, we can offer them up and receive grace which is necessary to reach heaven.
He wants us to ask Him to help carry them, 28 [a]“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,[b] and I will give you rest. 29 [c]Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”
The saints thanked God for their crosses. Our crosses are where we learn to embrace Christ and recognize we need Him falling to our knees to ask for Him to give us what we truly need, His grace, comfort, peace, strength and joy.
It is impossible to be holy without God’s grace. There are no self-made men or women in the Catholic Church. Salvation is a complete gift along with our lives. Therefore, we must lose our life to save it. We must become suffering servants like the Master Suffering Servant. Finally, our lives are not about us, they are meant to be given away. Look at a crucifix and really try to figure out the Truth about our lives.
When we believe Jesus resurrected and everything He says is true, we come to His feet each day in the Gospels to learn how to be a good and faithful servant. We are asked by Christ to lose our life for the sake of the Gospel. Our suffering has purpose and the saints even looked for ways to suffer more. Why? Jesus gave all. Even more important, He loved doing the will of the Father.
The will of the Father was for Jesus to give up His life for the world. We could never even come close to paying Him back. He paid the ultimate sacrifice to save you and me. He continues to sacrifice today to stay with us hidden behind bread and wine, so that we will have spiritual food for the journey.
He forgives when we are truly sorry and have fallen. Each time we fall and go through suffering, we become stronger and closer to Him. He strengthens us, never leaves us, always forgives, and is waiting daily for an invitation to be with us in our suffering. He loves us just the way we are in our brokenness, so much so, He gave up His life to save us. That’s true love, a love we are all restlessly seeking! Rest in that love this Lent.
Last, and most importantly, the greatest way to follow Jesus is by being detached from material things. ”What profit is there to gain the whole world but forfeit one’s life.” We are so distracted from what matters most. It takes daily submission to God’s will, prayer, silence, bringing ourselves to the sacraments, and continual learning and instruction by Jesus in the Gospels.
We are human and we quickly forget. We are a mystery to ourselves. We need a rock, never changing Truth, to come back to so we do not get off the beaten track. I need Him constantly throughout my day. He has left us with the Holy Spirit to help us understand His Truths and pass them on to others.
If we want to follow Him, we are called to die to self, offer up our daily crosses, strengthen our faith through His teachings, put on the Armor of God, and begin to fight Satan and grow in holiness! It is impossible to follow Him, without His grace and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Today’s challenge: Lent is here, make a commitment to grow in holiness, fight Satan, and make time to pray and reflect on the Scriptures. Establish a good habit of this during Lent so that it continues throughout the rest of your life so you can look back at next year’s Lent and say, “I have grown in holiness the last 40 days.” Reflect on suffering and its benefits!
Be a servant, be a saint today!
#Christian YOLO
without Gods grace and love we wouldn’t be able to acheive true happiness because God is the one behind all of our lives.
Even when i mess up God is there for me to get back up and keep moving because he loves us so much.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us that He is going to suffer, die, and rise on the third day. He also shows us that we must also make sacrifices and we do that during Lent. We must give up our physical wants to receive our spiritual needs. Is Jesus worth suffering for? Or would we rather just do what we want and not listen to Jesus’s voice for 5 minutes of our day. It doesn’t take all day to build a relationship with Jesus. 5 minutes of our day that we spend doing nothing, we could spend with Jesus. Make sacrifices and build a relationship with Him in the little things we do.
We must drop everything and love God. We hear this all the time and why is it so difficult? It might be because faith and Jesus not something you can physically see. We must learn to trust and see God working in our everyday life.
Today’s scripture says “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” This means that we don’t need money or fame to follow God. He loves us no matter what. If we love Him and pray for others we are doing what we are called to do.
“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” This stuck out to me because he is telling us we need to leave our worldly possessions and just follow Him. Some people think their phone or TV or other things are more important than God. Others are very devoted to God and love Him fully. We need to be like the others that are devoted to God, not think of worldly possessions as our “god”. We need to sacrifice ourselves to Him fully and unconditionally.
I think that this is telling me that we are all getting so attached to material things and putting those things before God. God wants us to be fully devoted to Him and he wants us to put Him first. We need to focus less on the physical things and focus on our faith.
I liked when it talked about how every time we suffer we get stronger and closer to God. I think that it’s an important thing to know, He does everything with/for a purpose. He doesn’t want to watch us suffer, but sometimes suffering is what’s best for you or even the world. Suffering is just part of life, sometimes suffering isn’t to bad, but it could also be the hardest thing that has ever happened to you, it’s just important to remember that all suffering you have, has a purpose.
Todays gospel tells us that God will suffer but he will be raised up on the 3rd day. But it also says that anyone who wants to be a follower of God has to be able to deny his/her wants to follow him. He says anybody that would save their life over caring for someone else will lose their life but to sacrifice yourself for the sake of ones friend will be saved by God in heaven to the eternal feast.
Our every action matters every small thing will decide if we have a long peaceful life in heaven or not a long life and spend eternity in suffering. We may tell ourselves that it’s okay when we sin but we will be filled with regrets watching all of our sins flash before our eyes and decide our forever life.
2/15/24 Today, Jesus tells us that whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for His sake will find it. We have to give our lives to God in order to live. We are not fulfilled with material possessions, but rather, God’s love. So, if we chose to idolize earthly things that make us feel fulfilled, we will be miserable because we won’t feel fulfilled with God’s love.
For what is the use of finding your life, just to lose it. These are powerful words, because they tell us that everything God does, he does with a purpose. There may be things that we don’t understand, but He does. If you gain your life, and then lose it again, you have effectively lost more than you gained. This is what happens when we sin. We gain our lives, then lose them, then gain them again after Confession. After so many times, though, we start to lose our hunger, our thirst for God. This is why mass is so important. Mass is a mystery, a concrete thing bumping into a supernatural thing. This mystery allows us to relearn our zeal for God and Jesus. To recognize exactly what Jesus has done for us, and to understand that in our deepest soul, we want to love and serve him. When you fall, or sin, go to confession. Ask Jesus to forgive you, then Allow him to fill you up to run the race and fight the good fight!
A part that stuck out to me was:
“For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?”
I think God is trying to tell us about being faithful. When you get asked the question would you die for your faith most people would probably say yeah I would do that but in the moment where it’s life or death depending on your faith would you really die? Would you really give up your life for Jesus? I think that part of our personal relationships with Jesus a really big thing is trust. Trusting Him and His plan for us is not easy, but it is necessary to have a strong reliable relationship with Him.
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.
Everyone suffers and has a cross to carry, we ask Jesus to help us carry our cross because sometimes we can;t deal with it on our own. We ask God for His grace because our fallen human nature causes us to sin, God’s grace is necessary for us to get to heaven.
Jesus will forgive us if we fail and if we are truly sorry.
We are so focused on the little things but we should be focusing on God.I have grown in holiness the last 40 days.” That verse means that at the end of Lent we should grow as a person in our faith.We are human so we might forget or do the wrong things but God always love us and allows us to have a second chance with Him.
I think that God is telling us that we should not be of this world, this world is a sliver in our Gods time, and this life is just for preparing us to go into heaven, so many people get caught up in material goods, and those things are great but those are not the things that are going to get us into heaven with Jesus, and I think that this is so important because in this world especially here in the U.S we are care too much about what shoes we have, or what clothes we wear, and those things do not matter if we want to get to heaven.
“The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes” I think that means that some people wont like us because we are christians. Jesus had to constantly answer questions because people didn’t believe that he was true God and true man.
This gospel says that we have a fallen human nature and that we should seek God. If we drop what we have and pray, we will find God and enter heaven. Since we are humans, we will forget to pray and we will sin, but God forgives us and loves us. The amount of love God has for us is overflowing. He gives us food, drink, and clothing for the journey we will spiritually and physically go through. If we take up our crosses, then we will be able to follow Him.
What I got from this Scripture Reflection, was that Jesus wants us to be happy, but not just ask for his help on bad days. Jesus wants to help us in every single way possible. He wants us to come to Him if something bad happened, He wants us to come to Him if something good happens. Either way, we should Go to Christ under every cicumstance.
I think today Jesus is telling us how important it is to know who we are. It doesn’t really matter if we take over or really accomplish anything if we don’t know who we are or what we value. After we figure out who we are, what we are good at and what we need to work on, then we can give ourselves and what we are struggling with to God. We can’t give up ourselves if we don’t know who we are. To know who we are giving up.
Jesus love us no matter how much we sin. He strengthens us, never leaves, and always forgives us. Every time we sin we become closer and closer with him. He loves us so much that he died on the cross for us. Even though he loves us so much that he died on the cross for us, we still don’t take time out of our day to talk to him.
What stuck out to me in this scripture is that there can be no holiness without God’s infinite grace. There is no self-made man or woman in the Catholic Church. Everyone is made in God’s image and likeness.
I think what God is trying to say today is that we should not care about earthly possessions. I mean the overall goal is to get to heaven so when we are caring too much about what car we have or if we have the coolest thing. Then we worship it like a false god thinking that it is so cool to have it and that makes us cool but the things you have does not make you, you.
Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,[b] and I will give you rest. 29 [c]Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” For me this is telling me that once you go to him all your worries and things your stressed about will be relieved from you and God will take it in his hands. That is only if we come to Him and believe in the Holy Spirit.
Today’s Gospel really was meaningful because I think it is talking about like if you don’t go to confession then that sin is an unforgivable sin unless you decide to go to confession and repent and say man why did i not go confession very much before.We are looking for god in the wrong places God is not found in social media he is found in prayer fasting and Alms giving. Yesterday when i was very hungry because there were no snacks i thought about Jesus on the cross at Calvary.
To me this Gospel is warning us that Jesus is going to suffer and die. Jesus wants us to give up the stuff that doesn’t matter and follow him. he is telling us to make sacrifices and not get so attached to the things we don’t need like phones. We need to sit sacrifice and follow Christ.
The scripture says when we disobey God and we get a sin God is suffering. I could use this in everyday life because I need to remember that when I am sinning I am hurting God. Even though God sent his son to save us from sin doesn’t mean we can sin any time we want.
Today something that stuck out in the scripture today was that Jesus said whoever saves themselves in this world dies in the next. But whoever follows me in this world lives in the next. This stuck out to me so much because Jesus says this a lot follow me in this world and you will live forever in peace or something along the lines. He also says that you must be rejected by all the wicked things in this world. Priest’s Pharaoh’s elders scribe everyone. In order to live in eternity with me for the next world. He says in the beginning of the scripture if anyone wants to follow me or come with me you cannot just be casual you must take up your own cross and follow me till the end.
Have faith in the Lord, He has always been with you and will always be with you. Follow in the Lord’s way of life through the Commandments and you will live an amazing life. The Lord wants you to go to Heaven, you just have to come back to him. Ask for forgiveness and you will be forgiven. Always have Faith in the Lord.
Today Jesus is telling me to take up my cross and carry it. Every day we need to try harder than the day before to do good. Lent is a great time to start! There is no other way of life than through the Father. If we really want to get and know Jesus we have to deny all material things and come to the Father.
Jesus is telling us that we need to deny ourselves the comforts of the world. To truly follow him is the path of discomfort in our worldly life but true joy, love, and fullness for all eternity with God. He gives us the example of how the prophets gave everything up to follow and do God’s will in its entirety, not just the parts that seem the most fun or comfortable to us now.
Today’s Gospel really was meaningful because I think it is talking about like if you don’t go to confession then that sin is an unforgivable sin unless you decide to go to confession and repent and say man why did i not go confession very much before.We are looking for god in the wrong places God is not found in social media he is found in prayer fasting and Alms giving. Yesterday when i was very hungry because there were no snacks i thought about Jesus on the cross at Calvary.
“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Jesus tells us that we will change ourselves if we decide to truly follow him. We will have to endure many hardships to get to the ultimate prize-Heaven.
In the gospel it said, “What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?” I think that in the gospel it means that if you have everything you want here but not have anything in heaven that it would be bad. I think we need to focus on what we need to do to get to heaven and not what we need to do to get wealthy and rich because that will not lead us to heaven unless we share and help others with what we have.
I think what God wants us to realize is that we should not be disappointed if we make a mistake because we have an inherited fallen human nature. “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,[b] and I will give you rest. “ That stuck out to me because he is saying that those who praise and pray to God he will give rest because they have done good for him.
What stuck out to me was that Jesus said one who loses his life will be saved but one who wants to be saved dies. This stuck out to me because our life here on earth will end no matter what we do. What we need to do though is die for God and Jesus so we can be with him in heaven
Jesus forgives us, even after we fall down. He will always be there to pick us back up. So don’t be afraid to fall. Jesus loves you.
“Come to me” to me this is more than just a short phrase it is God telling us that if you listen to him he will bring you to the best pace ever. Heaven and it will not just be God but Jesus in the flesh.
“Then he said to all, ‘If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” I like how it says that Jesus said this to all. Not just his disciples, who were already following him, but he said it to everyone. And I think he still says that today. He calls everyone, not just the people who are already following him. He wants every person to come after him no matter where you’re at spiritually. He just wants you. Like Father Mike Schmitz said yesterday, “He looks at you and says mine. You. Are. Mine.”
“WHAT PROFIT IS THERE FOR ONE TO GAIN THE WHOLE WORLD YET LOSE OR FORFEIT HIMSELF?” What that is saying to me is that you give up Christ just so your friends will like you or other people will find you cool. When we gain the “whole world” and “lose ourselves” its saying that we gain popularity in person or on social media but we lose Christ, the person who created us and everything around us. he is all that matters in life.
Jesus loves us no matter what. We shouldn’t focus on earthly things. We should focus on God and Jesus. Getting into heaven is our life long Goal. To seek Jesus is what we should do. We should be praying not focusing over what is happening down on earth.
“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself
and take up his cross daily and follow me.” This scripture sticks out to me, because it tells us that we cannot follow Jesus without letting go of our own wants. We need to sacrifice right along with Him. Even if we have the entire world in our hands, there is no point if we have lost our own souls in the physical world.
God is trying to tell me everyone is made in God’s image and likeness. Jesus gives purpose to our suffering and fashions our daily crosses to what we can deal with and sometimes what we can’t deal with. We can offer them up and receive grace which is necessary to reach heaven. The will of the Father was for Jesus to give up His life for the world. Jesus loved us so much that he died on the cross for us and we could never come close to ever pay him back.
I think this is telling me that we are so focused on everything else in life and we are not focused on God. God wants us to put him first and not other things in life.
Jesus wants us to give up stuff that doesn’t matter like phones, video games, and TV. He wants us to follow Him. Jesus loves us no matter how much we sin. Jesus will always love us no matter what. He is never gonna leave us and he always forgives. Even tho Jesus died for us and our sins we still don’t take time out of our day to pray or to thank him for everything.
Jesus is saying that we need to truly believe. If we just deny him, then what is the point? we need to give him our all and support and worship the very person that died for us. Jesus needs us to have a REAL faith. We were put here for a reason. Saint Jose said that “this suffering will be gone in a blink of an eye but heaven will be forever.” We need to follow Jesus and put every other false god we worship behind us.
Jesus says that “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself
and take up his cross daily and follow me” which means that we must suffer on earth in order to live eternally with him in Heaven
In this scripture I think that God is trying to tell us that we need to be like God as in we need to forgive, love, be nice and kind but I also think that He is telling us we need to try not be like him, as in trying to be a “god” because there is only one God. We need to start thinking, He is all powerful and we as humans will never have close to the amount of power that he has. So we might as well not even try to be the same as Him but yet we have to, because we need to be kind like He is and all that stuff. What I’m trying to say is that we will never be as Good as He is but we can be the best that we can be.
I think that God is trying to say that we value our material goods too much. And that those material goods will not get us to heaven. Because if we spend too much time with our material goods than we will not make it to Heaven which is the ultimate goal for our souls to get to Heaven.
We can’t know Jesus without experiencing what he experienced. There will be times in our lives when we will be rebuked for our faith. God knows this will happen and he asks us to take up our cross and bear it anyway. He doesn’t promise a perfect life on Earth, but the reward, that is worth anything that might happen on Earth. It’s heaven! It seems almost impossible when you think about it. But all you have to do is take it one day at a time. Every day try to make a little bit of time for God. It will continue to grow and then all the sudden you are spending more and more time, true time, with God.
“What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself” this tells me that there would be no profit if he would gain the whole world like God. God is the creator of all things and if we don’t see what we will do in life, it’s like we just give up on him. In scriptures we need to humbly submit ourselves to God. This means that we should give our life up to God as others do like priests, bishops, and the pope. If we don’t do this we will never get to the promised land that he has chosen for us to live in joy and peace. We now live in violence and shouldn’t sit in silence, we need to be brave and courageous for God will be there wherever we go. It’s time to stand up and put our lives for Christ and we need to know that God himself is our lord and savior.
Jesus says “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself
and take up his cross daily and follow me” witch mean that if we want to enjoy eternal life with him we must “take up our cross” and suffer with him.
Our crosses are where we learn to embrace Christ and recognize we need Him falling to our knees to ask for Him to give us what we truly need, His grace, comfort, peace, strength and joy. Our crosses represent that we are sinners and we need to ask God for forgiveness. We can go to confession and say that is it. NO. You have to pray every day. Make it a daily thing and after doing so long it will become a habit. It is ok if you miss a day or two. You just have to make sure you don’t give up. I learned that I need to pray my rosary daily. That is my daily prayer.
we now more than ever need his grace, comfort, joy, peace and strength
in order to carry out our daily lives
this lent I am trying to challenge myself to give up things
I have never given up things that I made the center of my life
to try to hear what god is trying to tell me and his grace, comfort, joy, peace and strength
is what is going to get me to.
In the scripture Jesus is saying that we need to truly believe and that God made everyone is made in his image. Jesus forgives us, even after we fall down. He will always be there for us no matter what. We should not be disappointed to make a mistake, because we have an inherited fallen human nature
I think it is telling us that we are getting so attached to things and putting those things before God. and God wants to put him first.
What Jesus is saying in this passage is that if you follow the Commandments you will have an everlasting, great life with God. If you don’t and worship any false gods you will live a life of despair and hatred. You should always be following the Commandments and be praying to God everyday.
Jesus says “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself
and take up his cross daily and follow me” witch mean that if we want to enjoy eternal life with him we must “take up our cross” and suffer with him, Our goal should be to do anything you can to go to heaven. I feel like everyone forgets and think it will be fine and he will forgive us but we need to have a goal to become a better Christian
When God sent down Jesus to help us, he planned to give humanity the best life that we could ever live. People still call Catholics insane. We are not insane. Pagans are desperately trying to find an answer for the question of creation. They are so sure that there is no God out there. There have been hundreds of miracles that to this day are still unexplainable by modern science. They are reaching for a handhold that is not there.
Everyone sins. Why make it worse when you can love God and be with him spiritually. There is no greater sacrifice than Jesus dying on the cross for US. All while following God’s will. There is no way of avoiding sin, everyone does but you can love the lord and do his will and be with him forever.
“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” We should strive to follow God and be a good example in everything that we do. Lent isn’t just about fasting and giving up things. It is about praying and preparing for Jesus to die. We should be willing to make little sacrifices in order to help others.
“If, however, you turn away your hearts and will not listen,
but are led astray and adore and serve other gods,”
We get way too attached to material things in life and loose focus of what we really need to be focused on, God. Are we following God or are we following our phones or other things. Material things are not going to last but what we have with God will last forever.
we should stop what we know is wrong and focus on what we know is right because one snap like a twig and you’re gone, from the mortal world. I’ve done things that i know is wrong but still do it anyways cause it profits off me. I’ve lied, stole, punched, kicked, yelled, and blamed other. I’m a bad person and most people won’t forgive me which is fair. I’m not the best person in the world and not the worst. I still have my friends, family, and people I trust but still doesn’t make me forget what I’ve done.
What stuck out to me was take up his cross daily and follow me. This stuck out to me because Jesus took up his cross and we have to take ours up, even the saints took their crosses up. We have a choice to take our cross or to leave it behind. I f we choose to take our cross and take the sacrifice we might end up somewhere amazing like Jesus and the saints, but if we choose to leave it behind who’s where we will go, we might get lost with out it. So, carry your cross and see where it takes you.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
When most people hear this they are probably confused. He is saying is you have to take up your own cross and spread the gospel. when he says whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, this is talking about becoming a martyr. Hes not saying you have to literally die in his name, you can also spread the Gospel even if people are saying bad things to you and ridiculing you. This I feel could also qualify as martyrdom.
Jesus tells us that he will die and that is world shaking but what he says next is the real game changer. He tells us that we must deny our self and take up our own cross. What does that mean though. We don’t actually take up our crosses but we must put all of our sins and burdens on that cross and lift it up to Jesus. He wants us to give Him everything. That’s what your cross is. All your sins are on that cross that Jesus died on.
Jesus says that we must deny ourselves and take up our cross, it means that we must be humble and realize that getting to heaven will not be easy so we must fast and pray and do alms giving. In these forty days of lent is God testing us to be a more caring and loving person. He wants us to “take up our cross” and follow him so that we can get to heaven. Taking up your cross doesn’t have to be something big like ending world hunger, It can be a simple thing like holding the door for someone or doing an extra chore at home.
This is saying that we have to be ready at any momnet to sacrifice ourselves for God, because he sacrificed his only son to save US
“What cross? Our daily crosses. Everyone suffers. It is relative to the situation you are dealt with in life, but everyone suffers.” This part stuck out to me because everyone suffers. Everyone is too scared to tell someone about their suffering because they think they are alone and they are the only one suffering. Not many people realize that they are not alone and other people understand what they are going through. God will always know if you are hurting or suffering. You can’t hide it from Him. You aren’t alone i promise.
Material things are becoming a distraction to Christ. If we want to follow him we have to make sacrifices so we can grow closer to him.
WHAT PROFIT IS THERE FOR ONE TO GAIN THE WHOLE WORLD YET LOSE OR FORFEIT HIMSELF?
these word are very powerful. I take them to mean that the worlds acheivments, money and progress is ultamaitly useless. Heaven is the real goal in life. What good is it to spend your life winning and making money if you forget your savior. If you throw your faith away for earthly things, your throwing away heaven. Im not saying that earthly things have to be sinful or bad, but it is if it takes the place of God
“Come to me”
God wants us to follow him and he wants us to be with him for the rest of our lives. If we follow Gods path we will never lose him.
I think Jesus is trying to tell us that He will suffer and die but 3 days later He will rise from the dead and perform the greatest miracle of all time. We sometimes need to realize all that He did for us and remember all that He went through and that what we are going through is a part of His plan. We will always be ok if we just pray and He will guide you to eternal life
what are our crosses? are they the ones that Jesus carried on his way to calvary? are they the ones that Jesus got nailed into? no they are our spiritual crosses with all our sins on it. we have to take up our sins in repentence and follow Jesus to heaven.
“Reflect on suffering and its benefits!”
Everybody on earth is carrying their own cross, and going through their own suffering. Although we may feel like it isn’t fair, and that God doesn’t care about us, its not true. The suffering is part of God’s plan for us, and we just have to live through it all, and continue to pray and spread God’s word.
Instead of rejecting our crosses each day because its too hard we need to grab are cross and lift it over are heads because are cross is our burden that God gave to us its what we need to overcome to truly know love and serve God so we can be with him forever in heaven.
In this scripture reflection I remembered how broken I am and that the only way to be fixed is by turning to God and repenting.
Everyone needs to wake up to the fact that material things are taking over our lives. They have been and they will be more and more over time if we don’t fix that problem, it will be so much easier to love Jesus and everything if we just don’t pay as much attention to those material things.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us that He is going to suffer, die, and rise on the third day. He predicts His own death 3 times. THREE TIMES. No other human has predicted his/her death 3 times. Or fulfilled 100 prophecies like Jesus has. Jesus is our king and He will be forever. If we can follow Jesus then we can do anything. Mark 10:27 “For all things are possible with God.”
We need to stop worrying what everyone thinks of us but of what God thinks of us. It doesn’t matter what others think of you but it does matter what God thinks. Your trying to make it into heaven it doesn’t matter if your the most popular at school.
Jesus tells us to take up our crosses. He mean to give up our worries and the things that our burdening us and give it to the cross. To carry it. To get past those things we have to take them up and acknowledge that they are there. Jesus takes them and heals us.
Today’s Scripture tells me that we all carry our own cross and we all suffer, but we can’t deal with it by ourselves so we have to ask God to help us with our struggles.
Jesus tells us that he will die and be risen up. he predicts his own death and nobody realizes it. he does not gloat or sin at all, and people ridicule and taunt him. it is like we have to sin to fit in sometimes. we feel that fitting in is so extremely important that we will do anything to do it.
Everyone suffers. I really like this since everyone puts on a fake smile and shows that they are fine when they are not and it is okay to be not fine. We act like we have to be perfect all the time and we are human, we can be ourselves around people to show them I just need to talk to someone since this is bothering me. We all suffer but some people suffer more than others and we just have to persevere and keep trying even when things get tough keep going suffer more even if it means you can’t stand anymore if it is something you believe in, it is something you would die for. I will ask you a question. If you would have to suffer even more for God and your faith would you?
In this Gospel Jesus tells us that we must carry our crosses to get to eternal life. What is our cross? Well it’s different for everyone but everyone has one even if you don’t acknowledge it. Everyone struggles with something. Nobody is perfect no matter how hard they try. It is simple because we are human, we are not meant to be perfect even if the world tells us we should be. Jesus loves us for our imperfections and faults that we all have even if everyone hates you Jesus will always love you.
Jesus tells us that he will die and be risen up. he predicts his own death and nobody realizes it. he does not gloat or sin at all, and people ridicule and taunt him. it is like we have to sin to fit in sometimes. we feel that fitting in is so extremely important that we will do anything to do it. this is wrong, no matter what we think.
What it’s saying is that God will suffer but he will be rose up on the 3rd day. And even though we will mess up in our lives God will always forgive us, and we don’t have to worry. Without Gods grace and love we wouldn’t have true happiness in the world. Also that for Lent to give something up and if we mess up that God will forgive us and it will be ok.
The greatest way to follow Jesus is by being detached from material things
we find ourselves saying where a believer of christ but do nothing to proove it. if people worshiped jesus liked they worshiped things like singers, actors and many more different things. if only we worshiped and obsesed over god as much as we do with random things we like.
I think what God is trying to say is that we shouldn’t care as much about our earthly possessions and start paying attention to what God has to say to us or what he has to say about us.
“Come to me” I don’t think this is just a short phrase but I think that when Jesus says this he wants us to drop everything and go to him, worship him, and praise him. So if you ever hear his voice do this and you will be rewarded.
“WHAT PROFIT IS THERE FOR ONE TO GAIN THE WHOLE WORLD YET LOSE OR FORFEIT HIMSELF?” LK 9:22-25. Jesus tells us to not be of the world, but of the kingdom to come. you can´t take things of the world with you to heaven
What stuck out to me in this scripture is that there can be no holiness without God’s infinite grace.
It is impossible to be holy without God’s grace is what stood out to me. It stood out to me because we have to pray everyday and also be with God. Also we are focused on everything else except God.
“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” This stood out to me because its saying that what ever happends he will always be there for us. Another reason why this stood out to me is because it saying that if we are in trouble or are in need of something God is here and he can help.
God is telling us to pick up our cross and follow him. It is up to us to decide how we live our life. God is helping us along the way through it all. God is practically giving us the correct answer it is all up to us on what we choose. We can’t make ourselves God is the one who made us. We have a choice to choose what happens next.
“If we want to follow Him, we are called to die to self, offer up our daily crosses, strengthen our faith through His teachings” This is very meaningful and has a lot of words behind what is said. It is also very true especially if we want to follow him and get into heaven.
It is impossible to be holy without God’s grace is what stood out to me. It stood out to me because we have to pray everyday and also be with God. Also we are focused on everything else except God..
Jesus is trying to tell us that we are spending too much time focusing on material objects, when we need to be realizing that God is trying to tell us something very important. in scriptures they say we need to be following god at all times. Some of us are called to be priests or nuns.But for some of us, that is not the case.And even if we aren’t called to be a priest or nun, we are still fully capable of bieng a good catholic.
Jesus says that “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself
and take up his cross daily and follow me” which means that we must suffer on earth in order to live eternally with him in Heaven.If we really want to get and know Jesus we have to deny all material things and come to the Father.
The scripture is telling me that we need to put him first and not material things. We need to do the right things now because we never know when our life is going to end. For us to spend eternity with God we need to take up our cross.
“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” We have to get over ourselves if we want to make it to heaven. If we don’t realize our own faults, acknowledge our own sin, or see what is wrong in life we may become over burdened with the bad, and not the good. We have to make good choice and carry our cross like our savior.
“He forgives when we are truly sorry and have fallen. Each time we fall and go through suffering, we become stronger and closer to Him.” This stuck out to me because he tells us that even if we do something bad he will forgive us if we want to be forgived you can’t expect him to forgive us if we dont care. God also said if we fall we become stronger and closer too him I think hes saying even if people hurt us God will stand up for us and help us back up and that how we grow closer to him.
I think he is saying that everyone must suffer in order to get to heaven. The world isn’t all about pain and suffering though either, God wants us to be truly happy. We need God to help us strengthen each other and not break others down.
The scripture is talking about how the Lord was able to explain his death in such detail unlike anyone before. I believe the lord is telling me that I should never save my life just to stay on earth but to save my life in the Lord so that I may go to heaven and join the Father the God almighty and to never save my life just to stay but stay and preach the gospel of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Believe in our one and only God who has saved us from sin with is only son our Lord. He said on the third day he would rise just as we will rise at the end of time to reunite with our bodies in heaven just like Jesus.
God is telling us that he sent his only Son to die on the cross to save us from sin. God gave us grace so that we can have free will and choose how we live. Even though we have free will and Jesus dying on the cross to save us from sin, we can’t sin on purpose whenever we want. We must suffer like Jesus suffered for us when he was on Earth with us, so we can go to heaven and be with Him and God forever.
This scripture reflection is telling me that God wants me to take up/ on my own cross. Jesus wants me to give up things that don’t matter that much like phones, video games, and social media. Jesus wants to have a relationship with us and he need us to want that for are selves so we have to try and do that. Even if we hurt Jesus he will always love us.
I think that God is trying to tell me that when Jesus died he rose again and in the scripture it basically says that what profit can do what He did.No other profit can do what Jesus did and we have to know that and believe that. Nobody will ever do that until Jesus comes again so we have to realize that and believe that God died for us.
God is trying to tell us that we cannot turn away from God. If we do so, we will not have a very good life, and will suffer eternally once we die. Either you choose God, or Satan. Life? Or death? We keep our promise with God, and that is to make it to Heaven. If you obey God and do his word, you will get to see him once we die. But if you disobey God, you will suffer eternally in Hell. Follow God and you will have an amazing and healthy life.
“It is impossible to be holy without God’s grace.” This stuck out to me because it’s true! We can’t live without his grace, we can’t live without his love, we can’t live without God. At all. He is the reason we are alive, he is the reason we have a point to live, without him we would be nothing. We are awful, and sinful beings but God still loves us. He doesn’t give a crap that we are the way we are, he only cares that we follow and serve him. He wants US to follow him, he wants Us to spread the gospel, he wants US to be kind like he was. He is waiting for the day we follow him, he wants that day to be soon, so we can go to heaven and live with him, we don’t deserve his grace.
” What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?”
People are willing to lose theirself for the whole world to like them.
“Our crosses are where we learn to embrace Christ and recognize we need Him falling to our knees to ask for Him to give us what we truly need, His grace, comfort, peace, strength and joy.”
The world needs to realize that all we need to do is ask Jesus for what we truly need.
I think we are distracted from worshiping God. We need to pray more and spend more time with God. It only takes just some time to create a bond.
Jesus calls us to give up our lives for Him, as He did for us. We give up our lives not by Crucifixion, but by being servants for Him and the Church. Being a good and righteous servant requires knowledge, so we must educate ourselves, it requires stamina, so we must train ourselves, and it requires holiness, so we must pray. There are many ways in which each of us is called to serve. The most important way we serve is by praying. Prayer is the backbone of what it means to be a man or woman of God. Even if we do everything else wrong in life, we MUST still pray. My favorite prayer is the prayer that Jesus said when teaching us how to pray: “Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name. They Kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven. Give us, this day, our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
These words are some of the most important words that have ever been said by humankind.
Thanks for the reflection and inspiration! I love your passion for Christ! Hope you have a fruitful Lent and I hope all is going well for you. Mr. G
Of course and Thanks 👍🙏
It is impossible to be holy without God’s grace. There are no self-made men or women in the Catholic Church. Salvation is a complete gift along with our lives. Therefore, we must lose our life to save it. We must become suffering servants like the Master Suffering Servant. Finally, our lives are not about us, they are meant to be given away. Look at a crucifix and really try to figure out the Truth about our lives.If we don’t figure out this grace we might not make it to heaven.
do not look for material things to make you happy. Look for God to make you happy.
Helping someone we don’t know is a beautiful thing. God went out of his way for many people, whether they were foreigners or not. He saw everyone as equal, which is the same way we should see our neighbors. Since God is love we can follow Him to love others.
God suffers when we sin and so do we but God wants us to succeed and be good people.
My favorite part of scripture was ‘He wants us to ask Him to help carry them, 28 [a]“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,[b] and I will give you rest. 29 [c]Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” ‘ This phrase never fails me to feel good and in love with God more then this phrase. We need to receive and accomplish our cross before God’s coming.