Humbly submit your will to God (Thy Will be done) and consecrate yourself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through Mary.
Jesus said to his disciples:
“The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected
by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed and on the third day be raised.”
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.
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?” LK 9:22-25
Why do we have to deny ourselves? We have inherited a fallen human nature that causes us to desire things of this world. 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, we can offer them up and receive grace which is necessary to reach heaven. 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, and joy. It is impossible to be holy without God’s grace. Therefore, we must lose our life to save it. We must become suffering servants like the Master Suffering Servant. 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 must 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. 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. 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 solid 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. How shallow is our faith if we cannot pray in public and dialogue with others what we believe.
“Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words
in this faithless and sinful generation,
the Son of Man will be ashamed of
when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”
Ouch! I have a lot of work to do! If we believe in the resurrection of Jesus which makes all of His Words True, we must begin to live in our hearts and minds like Christ. Christ is not dead, He is fully alive today with us. He resurrected!!!!! If we want to follow Him, we must 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. ”Come to me all who are heavy burdened and I will give you rest.” ”My heart is restless until it rests in You.” Amen.
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 this year.”
Be a servant, become a saint!
#Christian YOLO
I have learned that everyone suffers. We need to hold our selves to accountable so we can be the best versions of ourselves we can be.
stay true to God because he forgives and i am human and make mistakes
I learned that you are meant for something to get to heaven. We need to help others and do what God wants us to do.
We must forget about ourselves and our worldly desires and put God above all else. We must carry our daily crosses and work through the suffering for christ as he did for us.
We all have certain crosses we fight with everyday. Everyone has different challenges they have to face throughout the day. If we pray to God and ask for His help, He will help us get through the day.
Do what you need to do to get closer to Christ, without him we wouldn’t have hope of the new life.
The thing that we need to learn about this is we are so small and puny compared to God it is amazing that he would come down on a cross and die for us.
To live with the Holy Spirit, you must die in Christ.
Jesus is revealing to us that we need to take up our cross everyday if we want to follow him.
This is a great reflection about how we want to possess many things here on Earth. But none of these things will come with us to Heaven. You always find the strength to get up early enough to make a reflection on the day’s gospel. Great job! Keep up the great work!
We need to take up our crosses daily. We each have our own crosses to endure. We also need to become unattached to material things and attached to God and His Will. HIS Will, not our will. Jesus wants to help us with our crosses like Simon did with His, we just have to come to Him. Amen 🙂
that all you seek him and want him fully and give up everything God will save you
we have to follow jesus if we want to have eternal life with him in heaven.
We have to be able to suffer to grow in holiness.
We should give up everything if we are willing to spend the rest of our lives with Christ.
We need to follow Godś will for us. We have to continue to grow in holiness by saying no to our temptations and learning to give everything up for Christ.
if we want to fallow God we must leave everything behind and take up the cross with our savior during lent.
To grow in holiness we have o suffer for what we love.
This story is talking about how Jesus will die and how and when he will raise from the dead to go up into heaven.This story can have a lesson but it can also have a meaning not just in the story but in life.
Everyone has sacrifices to make and we must take those sacrifices without complaining. Jesus dies for us on the cross and so the least we can do is offer up the little things to him.
This is trying to tell me that I need to give up things because God gave us so much and gave so much suffering so I should pray to Him.
We must sacrifice what we have and our comfort to get to heaven. #Christian YOLO
We need to take up our cross and follow Jesus. There is no way we can repay him but we can thank him. God’s spirit is within us to guide us through lent. During lent, we all suffer but we have to think of how big Jesus suffered and how much greater he suffered. No matter what we go through we just have to know he will always be with us and any bad decisions we make he will always forgive us.
You will never be happy unless you find peace with God.
it will be hard to get to heaven and others will put us down
we all need to get out of our temptations so we can focus on GOd more than anything like our screens.
Jesus is saying that he must leave there things and take there crosses.
we should follow God even if we have to suffer.
You need to be happy with God by having peace with him
You will never be happy unless you find peace with God
We need to want to go to heaven. Not just think it is so easy.
we need to take up a cross like Jesus did.
I need to humble myself and make daily scrafices to go to heaven
Jesus is telling me that this lent I must leave behind wordly things and follow Him
I think Jesus is trying to tell me that you must give what you have to those who need it and what ever troubles you have go through life carrying your pain and offering it up to God
Jesus is saying that if we want to ho with him to Heaven then we must make ourselves last and Him first. As well as if we are following Him to save our lives then we will lose our lives but if we are following Him and even under pressure of death we still do then we will save our lives.
I think in this Gospel we hear how you must not enjoy other things more than God or put objects before him or even spend less time with Him in a day than electronics or whatever is separating you from Him. He wants us to be totally his not totally ours in all things we do whether we are with Him in prayer or even just hanging out with friends.
Jesus is telling me that we need to not try to save are stuff we can not take it with us.
Jesus is saying that we will always be forgiven by God.
This is saying that Jesus forgives when we do wrong
i think the passage is saying we are either all in or all out
We must fight the good fight and we must keep God’s grace in us.
we need to take up our own crosses everyday in stead of just sweeping it under the rug and saying “I’ll deal with it later”.
we shall not look at pornography or any bad image that may be on the internet
This is saying that when we suffer for God and offer it up we will be rewarded forever with Heaven.
We need to follow him. Not fight him spiritual. And know what he has to say to you.
To get through daily temptations and not to give in into those daily temptations. God has many great plans for us than what the devil has in mind for us.
This lent i want to strive towards God and his greatness. Reading the reading everyday i think we help me stay in the right mind set. This lent I know is going to be hard because i going to want things that I can,t have like sweats..etc, but not having those things helps me strive toward greatness and God. I am going to continue to pray so God can help me this lent and so i can come close to him.
I think god is trying to tell me that I should try to give my all before i give up.
We need to serve others not ourselves. We can carry small crosses each day by making a small sacrifice each day. We need to die to self
Jesus talks about how we can offer up our suffering to God.
We should offer are selves up to God and be fully devoted to him and even die for him
This message has told me to put others before myself because I need to focus on them more than me.
It is telling me that I need to stop doing what I want and start doing what God wants me to do.
Yes it may be hard for you to deny yourself and to follow God, but God wouldn’t ask us to do it unless he knows we are capable to do it, he will not set us up to fail. So throughout lent if we give something up and also do something new or good for another person we are denying ourselves and putting others before us that is one step to getting to heaven.
Jesus goes through a lot suffering for all of us to get to Heaven and He let us follow NOT by force but by influence.
“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.“ These are some of the most important words in the bible. It states in absolute clarity what we need to do to get to heaven. This is the way to God and we should all follow this paths in our lives.
I haven’t really had a good Lent because I never really tried but this year i’m going to do my best, so that in 40 days I can say I am closer to God, better person, and grew in my holiness.
If we want to be with God, and give ourselves entirely to him. We have to first know who we are. You can´t give something that you don´t know.
Always be humble and kind
Always trust and believe in God and love God always.
Today, Jesus is telling us to stop putting ourselves down and to live like we matter, because we do matter(at least in God’s eyes). People love us just the way we are, like our parents, friends, and families. They know that we matter. Why don’t you? It doesn’t matter if people have better stuff than you or the better parents than you. No, it doesn’t matter, because you were created in God’s image and likeness, and no one can change that. Ever. So, if you are getting made fun of, don’t believe them, walk away, and tell a trusted adult. If you decide to “fight it out”, the other people will get mad and probably destroy you in fighting match (if it comes to that). Jesus is always with you, and if someone calls you out, you will probably win because Jesus is on your side. God Bless and Thank You!!!
i think God wants us to be open with him ans share everything with him like he is our best friend. God can tell us what to do and has we should follow his will.
You must humble yourself to enter the kingdom of God.
God is bigger than us and we are small compared to us and he is more powerful than we will ever be.
I learned that we don’t need the best cross or holy items to be holy. You need to give yourself completely to god.
we need to do God’s will that he has for us. And there is nothing else in the world that is more important than our souls, and keeping it in the state of grace. we need to carry our cross instead of just dealing with it later.
Jesus is teaching me that if we want to follow him into the kingdom of Heaven, we will have to suffer and make sacrafices.
If you want to enter Heaven you must give all you have to God and love him above everything else because God knows the way and He is The Way if we give up everything and follow him we will find eternal happiness in Heaven.
Jesus is telling us that we cant bring all of our goods into heaven.
God is telling us that we matter and we need to be open to him.
We spend so much money on ourselves on things we don’t really need, but only want. We can’t take everything to Heaven only our souls. It’s a miracle that we wake up every morning because he can end our lives whenever he wants. This Lent we should sacrifice a little time in the day to pray and thank God that he kept us alive that day.
I am nothing compared to Jesus, and neither are my needs or wants or whatever it is that holds me back from God. I need to just sit down and relax. We need to stop what we are doing and just sacrifice something for God.
If we have needs or wants or things that take up time, we should stop and spend some of that time with God. Our human lives are nothing compared to God and we should give up something for him as he had given up his life for us. He did something so special and all we can do is pray and sacrifice a meal or a snack. We should spend as much time as we can to be with God and always try to be open with him.
Jesus will always forgive us and we must have to suffer some things because we are human.
in the Gospel, Jesus is saying how the whole world doesn´t revolve around just me or just you. Someone else has a bigger problem. You can think your life is hard but have you looked around? People could be struggling really badly but do you seem to notice? Look at everyone see how they are doing. ASK how are you. Smile hang around that really weird kid if it makes that kid feel better. Don´t be sad or depressed because YOUR life is sooooo bad. Take a look around and realize how everyone is. If making someone else feel better but it means you have to loose your best friend, then it means that they aren´t your friend that person who you made feel 1000000 times better is the one you are looking for.
”My God’s not dead
He’s surely alive
He’s living on the inside
Roaring like a lion
God’s not dead
He’s surely alive
He’s living on the inside
Roaring like a lion”
-God’s Not Dead
We must see that God is with us everyday leading our way through life. He created us, then died for us, then rose to save us, and now he leads us everyday on the path that he created for us. We have to believe that he is with us and humble ourselves to be with him. When Jesus was on Earth he had a family and he didn’t want to leave his mother but he did for us. He knew that that was what he came for and that that was why God put him on this Earth. So, in this season of Lent we need to try very hard to grow closer to him and we should be able to say that we have gotten closer to him and that we aren’t afraid of our calling. We need to find the path he is laying out for us and be his masterpiece.
this is really good story and we need to love Jesus
god is big we are small
Stay close to God and never turn on him because he will never turn on you. he will always protect and love you.
We all have crosses to fight but we can fight them together.
Jesus is trying to tell us that we need to focus on him and others and not the things that we have or get.
I need to suffer and sacrifice to reach Jesus and receive him fully.
We cannot take our possessions into heaven so we should put God first while we on earth, so we can get to heaven.
If we don’t submit ourselves to God we’ll never get to heaven.
I think that he is telling me that when I am herting offer it up to God and Jesus
Jesus is telling me that I need to start doing what He wants me to do instead of what I want to do
Anyone who wants to follow Jesus must first give himself up to God. He loves us and wants to be with us.
I think GOD is reminding me of the first commandment (you shall not have false gods before me)
Jesus is telling us to be more open to him
we need to care about jesus and forget about our objects
JESUS MA HOME BOI
I learned that our things that we have that we wont take up to heaven
We have “crosses” we have to get through every day. They aren’t easy, and they aren’t meant to be.
What Jesus is trying to say is that we need to follow him and if we die not following him because we didn’t pick up our cross daily then we will die but if we take up our cross daily and follow him then we will be rewarded and enter into the kingdom of Heaven. We need to stop saying I will when I get older or I’ll do that later because Jesus could come at any time and we could be at risk to go to hell. We need to just decide, are we going to be a saint and get to Heaven or not be a saint and go to hell.
We should do our best to do God’s will and make God the center of our lives.
That God if forgiving even when we make mistakes