“Prepare the way of the Lord” is something we hear twice today, the first time as prophecy from Isaiah, and the second in Mark’s gospel as he quotes Isaiah. This is the reference to the one who will herald the arrival of God as man – Jesus. That arrival is what we are preparing for in this season of Advent. We are in a time of preparation, much like the time that John spent in awaiting Jesus’ manifestation as the Messiah. It is a time when we too must make straight His paths and level the ground of our existence in welcome for the Son of God’s birth here among us as man. The question we need to be asking ourselves is, how exactly do we do that?

The first thing that comes to mind is the preparation of our souls and bodies to make them a place of welcome residence prepared as a dwelling place for God’s spirit to reside within us. To do this means to clean house a bit, to create a place acceptable and pleasing to God. To start, we must find the spiritual “dirt” that sometimes must be swept clean. To acknowledge the areas where we have fallen short of God’s teachings, and to make resolution to address that so as not to continue with what has taken us away from those teachings. To obtain the absolution needed to truly clear away the detritus of these sins. This is our starting point, but there is still much preparation we must do.

Our Lord has always said that His house is a house of prayer and he includes us as part of that structure. We must be a house participating in prayer to truly show welcome to Him and to prepare His way for entry into each of our hearts. We cannot claim to be children of God without prayer; it would be like claiming to have a relationship with someone we never even communicated with, because like any good relationship, communication is key. Our Lord wants to hear from us and to be part of our lives. He longs for our inclusion of Him in everything we do – all of it, not just the stuff that we see as “meaningful” or “spiritual”. Our life should ideally be one that makes all we do a form of prayer. Our work, both at home and in our professional capacities, should reflect our reliance on God to get through each day and the gratitude for the gifts that he has given us to accomplish that work. Our times of solitude should always be ones where He is with us and in that sense we are never truly alone. Our time with our earthly loved ones should always include a place prepared for His inclusion. He is our God, we are all part of His family, and we should always have a place prepared for Him within our interaction with our earthly families. How would we feel if we were excluded from family time? It is no different for God, He would like to be welcomed into all of our time spent together. To feel loved and included. That is the nature of family.

We also need to consider our interactions with others, those who are part of our extended family in Christ. How have we been doing in terms of showing them the love and compassion that all are entitled to as children of God? Have we taken the time to care for them, or are we simply paying lip service to what we know to be Jesus’ teachings? There are many in need this time of year, and in our current situation especially, there are many who need our help. They need to know they have not been forgotten, they need to know that someone cares enough to reach out and just spend a bit of time with them. It can be as simple as a phone call, but it can have a huge impact on someone else’s day. To know they are not alone. This is what Jesus meant when He said that what we do for the least of our brothers, we do for Him. This is how we embrace our Lord here on earth. He is there in everyone we know, and in those we don’t know yet. How better to welcome the season when we celebrate His arrival as man than to show love and care for all those within whom He dwells.

Podcast Link

https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-rzwuk-f42b59

It is interesting to me that the first reading we have on the first Sunday of Advent leads off with a question from Isaiah that almost seems to put some of the responsibility for our behavior back on God. Isaiah asks our Lord “Why do you let us wander, O LORD, from your ways, and harden our hearts so that we fear you not?” This question is one that I have encountered in different forms before. It is as if we are sometimes seeking control to keep us from our bad behaviors or trying to place some of the blame for them elsewhere, anywhere but with us. Yet this is not how our God works – it never has been. He loves us enough to give us free will, so that we in turn are capable of exhibiting actual love toward one another, and toward Him. It is a choice and a responsibility in terms of how we choose to conduct ourselves. A loving God would not treat us as mere puppets and take over control of us; to do so would be to eliminate the possibility of a true form of love ever being exhibited by us. So, it is appropriate that we ponder Isaiah’s question a bit as we begin this season of repentance and taking responsibility for our actions, asking God’s forgiveness for those that fall short of what we know to be His teachings.

In our Gospel today, our Lord tells us specifically to be alert and to be watchful for His coming because we do not want to be caught off guard and unprepared. It is to that purpose that Advent is such a wonderful time of the year. We are called to really take a hard look at our actions and to honestly assess how we have been doing in terms of showing love for our brothers and sisters and for our Lord. We do this to prepare to celebrate the time of His birth, but also as an opportunity to have a kind of spiritual “tune up” that will help prepare us for the future. To remind ourselves to be mindful of His ways and to conduct ourselves so that He will find us doing right. To begin this, it is important to be in the right mindset of humility and to first acknowledge our own faults; this is part of any good examination of conscience which is so crucial to this season of Advent. You cannot fix a problem if you do not acknowledge that it is a problem to begin with. We must then honestly ponder what we could do differently and how to begin to address the issue, but with realistic expectations. We cannot simply say that we are going to do better. That is a shallow sentiment, and one that likely will not produce much fruit in the long run, as we are prone to forget such things. We must have a plan. We need to have specific steps that will guide us through a process of conversion and change our hearts to truly want to behave differently in the future. This is where it can be extremely helpful to write down some of our thoughts and to keep these reflections throughout the year and refer back to them as we progress and keep ourselves on track. We are human and will need these reflections to keep us moving in the right direction. Our Lord knows this, and He is patient with us, though He does want to see effort on our part. To begin, take some time now at the beginning of this season, withdraw a bit, and reflect and ponder. The shopping will wait. Give instead a gift that will be truly beautiful for all who are touched by it: the gift of a renewed spirit that desires to serve God and all those around us in a more loving and compassionate way. There is no cost to be paid for this, so you don’t need to wait for a sale, but the value of such a gift is truly priceless.

PodCast Link

https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-suu2y-f389a4

When did we give you a drink Lord, or feed or cloth you, or visit you? We should pray that if we each ask that question, His response will be that when we did that for the least of His brothers, we did that for Him. To receive that answer should be our lifelong goal. To have purposely lived a life of compassion for others; and taking care of their needs. This is not the easy path, but then it is not supposed to be. Taking that path means very often we will deny ourselves, so that we can focus on the needs of our brothers and sisters, yet that is exactly what we are called to do. If we are to follow our Lord, we are to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and then follow after Him. Like sheep, we will follow Him through that narrower gate if we do this. There is no shortage of need out there right now. Perhaps now more than any time in recent history, there are people who need compassion. There are many who are lonely and afraid, because they are isolated – in a sense imprisoned. There are many who are ill, and lack visitation because of the pandemic, yet there are ways to reach out to at least communicate and console them. There are many who need the basics of life – like food, water, clothing, and shelter, and these days the resources needed to sanitize ourselves and the things we come in contact with. This last one is especially important, as we saw not that long ago people having to go without because of a frenzy of buying that lead to shortages. Our generosity is needed now more than ever. There is a moral imperative that we distribute God’s gifts in such a way that all can exist. We cannot hoard, we cannot ignore, we cannot be too busy to get involved, else we risk traveling through that wide gate that so many follow because of its ease, and yet leads to destruction.

Our Lord is coming back one day to judge, and even now he is working to wipe out His enemies. The question is, are we helping Him? Before He hands over the kingdom to His Father, He must first destroy all the powers that work against Him. Every sovereignty, every authority and power that is not aligned with the message of Christ and working to follow His example and teaching must first be destroyed. All the institutions of greed, malice, and callous action must succumb. What will be left are those that are His true followers. Those who care for the sheep and are oriented toward true service to them. That list is remarkably short these days, and we need to be sure we are on the right side of it. We must make choices about not only our personal actions, but who we support to do so as well. We must be alert to where our affiliations take us, and if they are in line with Jesus teachings. We must each decide, how we are going to use the time we have here on earth. Are we going to follow the world and its pursuit of strength and power, or are we looking to care for the meek, the vulnerable, the most humble of the sheep, and be welcomed into Gods kingdom?

Podcast Link

https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-id63h-f2ee13

There is a common theme in our readings today, one of awareness, and of the responsibility to show ourselves as loving stewards of God’s gifts to each one of us. The book of Proverbs tells us about the value of a wife, who is loving and self-sacrificing to all, and describes the joy that she brings to anyone fortunate enough to be her husband, as well as to all those around her. She is indeed a treasure beyond price, and those of us who are blessed enough to be married to someone like this are indeed profoundly grateful. The loving care she provides through her following God’s call can only be truly compensated through thankful prayer to our Lord. Our own feeble attempts at making her aware of her importance in our lives usually fall short, and perhaps all too often don’t occur at all. This, however, does not dissuade her, and her reward will indeed be a heavenly one.

We are, in fact, all called to such selfless giving – every one of us.  Our purpose is to fulfill this kind of giving toward one another, and in doing so, serve our Lord in this same way. Saint Paul tells us that we must be cautious to keep this in mind so that we are not caught off guard by having neglected to serve our Lord in this way. If we are truly prepared by performing this loving service toward all, we will have no fear of being caught off guard, or of anything that might befall us, because we are in fact ready to meet our Lord when the day comes. This is, in fact, the true peace and security that we all seek: to be close enough to our Lord in our lives that the intimacy we have with Him leaves us with a focus and a longing for Him, rather than a dread or fear of that which is unknown.

In our Gospel today, we hear of a comparison of the actions taken by the three stewards. We hear of initiative vs. sloth and of the varied abilities of each of those involved to carry out their master’s call. There is a lesson here that applies to each of us with respect to our Lord’s expectations of us. We are all unique and we possess gifts of varying types and degrees. Yet we are all called to use them in God’s service to the best of each of our individual abilities and stations in life. We can all find a way to put ourselves at the service of others. Perhaps we teach, or heal, or build, or fix things, or perhaps we simply place ourselves at the service of others where we see some unmet need and do the best we can to help. None of this needs to be perfect; we simply need to be willing to try and to engage. That is what our Lord is looking for. He will fill in the blanks of what we are lacking if we simply try, and while doing so, we can place our faith in Him to provide the guidance and solutions that perhaps we do not yet see. To press on in humility and faith regardless of how insurmountable the situation may seem. This is the loving reliance and effort that God seeks from each one of us. To place ourselves in service to all, even when we don’t feel completely comfortable with our situation. The thing we have to keep in mind is that those we help may well not be in a comfortable place either. But there is a solidarity that we can provide in our efforts that will help them. Perhaps just as importantly, our mere presence may help them not to feel so alone. This can all take many forms, but the common denominator is love.

PodCast Link

https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-zsx97-f2464f

In our readings today, we hear of wisdom, and of hope in the resurrection. There is even a wonderful parable about the five wise vs. the five foolish virgins in our Gospel that illustrates for us the need to be both prudent and prepared at all times because we do not know the day or the hour when we shall encounter our Lord.

When we speak of wisdom, we are sometimes inclined to think in terms of personal wisdom, something that perhaps we are gifted with; yet that is not so much the true wisdom that we need to enter the kingdom of God. True, our own wisdom can be a grace that is granted to us by God, but the real wisdom that is needed is the inherent wisdom that comes from both faith in who we know to be the one true God, and the humility and knowledge of His teachings that will guide us on the path through that narrow gate that leads to eternal life. This wisdom is both our grace received from God, and our solace throughout our lives if we allow it to be. As Saint Paul tells us, there is no need for us to grieve or to fear what is seen as death in this world, because through faith in Jesus Christ, and belief and observance of His teachings, what others see as death, we should see as a simple passing from this physical existence that is so brief to one that is both beautiful in its perfection because we will be in God’s presence, and eternal in its duration. There will be no further need to track time as we do now because with the eternal this becomes irrelevant.  iHisHH

For all this to happen, though, we must first be welcomed into heaven by our God after having completed our earthly existence in such a way that we are found to truly be His followers. We must be like the wise virgins in our Gospel, who when the bridegroom came, were ready to enter the wedding banquet with Him, as they were fully prepared to do so upon His arrival. We too must be the same, so that when on that unknown day and hour, when our Lord calls us, we are ready to join Him without hesitation, as we are thus prepared through a life spent in adherence to His teachings, and a love of Him that has allowed us to do all that we have needed to in preparation – not out of obligation or fear, but out of love and anticipation of an eternity spent with the one we love most. You see, it is not just about following the lettering of His teachings that we read about in the bible; it is also about the attitude of truly desiring to follow Him. Of truly wanting to emulate and become more like our Lord, and thus following Him in the closest way we are capable of. To do this means not just reading the words of His teachings, and hopefully carrying them out, but also trying to truly gain an understanding through both careful study and the establishing of a close relationship with Him through prayer and time spent in contemplation. Any true relationship needs both communication and time spent together with the one whom we wish to have that relationship with. It is no different with God. To be truly able to fathom His meaning, and to really want to follow Him, requires a closeness that comes through time spent together.

We do not need to be perfect in all our understanding of His lessons, but we do need to show the desire and the effort spent to try to come as close as we can. It is through this that He will see in our hearts the preparations we have made and the place for Him we maintain within us.

Podcast Link

https://www.podbean.com/eu/pb-xr5sd-f19eec

In our Gospel today, we hear of our Lord’s teaching of the beatitudes, or His Sermon on the Mount. We hear of the meek, the lowly, and those who mourn – but we also hear of those who show mercy, who seek justice and righteousness, and who are the architects of peace. Finally, we hear that in seeking all these things, we will likely be persecuted for the sake of Christ, and when we are, we should indeed be glad because our reward in heaven will be great.

At first glance when we hear our Lords preaching, it sounds very pacifist, and perhaps to some degree it is, because we are not called to show aggression toward others, but instead compassion and love. When we hear the usual descriptions of meekness and lowliness, it can be easy to fall into a way of thinking that depicts someone who is perhaps moping about, or is otherwise quite subdued in their behavior, but this is not at all what is being taught in the Gospel. When our Lord speaks of the meek and the lowly, He is illustrating for us a way of viewing ourselves so as not to place too much emphasis on our own abilities, but rather to rely on the strength that comes from God. To avoid becoming too infatuated with self, and to truly realize where strength and grace is sourced.

We are also called to be those who seek justice, righteousness, and peace, and to be clean of heart, and merciful toward others. These are all attributes of one who possesses true strength and is unafraid to exercise it for the benefit of his brothers and sisters. One who is in fact bold, and is placing his faith in God’s grace to help them through their pursuits because they also possess the humility of spirit to know that the source of true strength is not within them, but is actually granted by their Lord, this is the spirit of the humble strength we are each called to exercise in promoting God’s teachings for the betterment of others. There is a catch though, we must understand that what we seek to do for the good of others, will often meet with rejection, sometimes even violently. We will be rebuffed; we will be persecuted by others who seek the temporal pursuits of this life and would rather dwell in darkness so that their deeds are not clearly seen. Even those in authority will seek to silence us through persecution for these same reasons – they serve a people who would rather pursue evil than live for God. We need only look at the examples within our own government of those who seek to silence anyone who maintains a belief in Christ and adheres to His teachings, rather than succumb to the moral relativism that they seek to promote, so that anything can then be justified as acceptable behavior. The people who adhere to God’s word are seen as a threat to the way of doing things that has led us to this place in history where Christians are being persecuted again at a personal and governmental level. That is good, because this is what we are called to do, and to continue with even when (perhaps especially when) we are being deeply persecuted for our belief in our Lord, and our unwillingness to compromise His teachings. This is when we must decide if we are to be those who will endure distress and persevere in our adherence to our beliefs. To be insulted, and persecuted, and called many evils, and to remain unintimidated, and undeterred in our actions and words. To be those who will seek to bring true peace and brotherly love, that can only come through Christ, and a life lived in light of His words and teaching. By doing this, all will know us as His followers, and in turn, will come to know Him as the only means of true salvation. This is the bold mission that the Sermon on the Mount is intended to inspire within each of us, the question is, will we allow God’s strength to guide us into successfully participating in this?

Podcast Link

https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-auzgi-f0f7da

There is a common theme in our readings, and in today’s Gospel, one of caring and of love. To love our God, and to love and care for one another. To show true compassion and caring for all of God’s children, and in doing so, to show our love for God himself by our actions.

A true intimacy with our Lord, requires our attention to Him, and to truly follow His word. As we were told in John 2:4, anyone who says I have known Him, but does not follow His word, is a liar. We cannot have duplicity in us with respect to God’s teaching and have actual intimacy with Him. As Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel, there are two commands that everything else in terms of God’s teaching are predicated upon. To love God with all our mind, soul, and heart, and to love one another. We are each of us created in God’s image, and this is critical to remember because every person is a reflection of God and needs to be treated accordingly. Can you imagine how you would respond if you were encountered Jesus on the street? Would you greet Him? Would you go out of your way to help Him and to show love for Him? The fact is we encounter Him every day in those we meet because they are created in His image, this then gives us much to think about in terms of how we address and interact with  every person we encounter. This is especially true of those who are aliens in our land, those who are perhaps vulnerable because of their poverty, their social status, their health, their beliefs, or their ethnicity. Love knows no bounds or limitations when it comes to any of this, there is only the clarity of vision that lets us see the face of Christ in every person we encounter. As a nation we are in a time of deep division. I am not speaking of politics, the ridiculous animosity that is so much a part of that is something that will always wax and wane. There is something far more relevant to us as people of faith – the human person, and through that human person, the image and mark of our creator. In love, there is no illegal alien, there is no race, there is no social standing, there is no sexual orientation, there is no view or judgement of a person’s ability to house, cloth, or feed themselves, or perhaps whether they are even particularly likeable as an individual. There is only a registering of compassion when we see another of God’s creations that allows us to look past all the extraneous elements that we sometimes get hung up on. There is a purity of thought and intention that speaks to the person, and to our God that each of us needs to strive for.  We need to picture ourselves on a daily basis, standing before our Lord and answering for how we treated each person we have encountered in our lives, and then using that perspective to keep ourselves focused on what is truly important. Every one of us wants and needs pretty much the same things. We seek to be loved, we seek to be included and to be accepted by others, we seek the basic necessities of food, shelter, and clothing, and we seek to have some sense of self-worth and respect. To walk past someone without basic acknowledgement or perhaps human charity sends a very painful and powerful message. One that reinforces their own feelings of being lacking in worth as a human being, and certainly does not convey any sense of the dignity of a child of God – we take all of that away with thoughtless lack of compassion that is all too easy to do, almost reflexively sometimes. This is what we must be ever vigilant against. We must instead be actively seeking for ways to assist our brothers and sisters created in God’s image. We must evangelize by our actions; we must seek to change our small corner of the world by addressing what we can. If we each do this, the effect will be felt because of the sheer number of those involved. This is what God seeks, to have us engaged and looking out for one another in such a way as to eliminate the desperation, the want, and the loneliness that is so prevalent otherwise. This is how we truly show ourselves to be children of God.

Podcast Link

https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-v3cz4-f043d3

As Isaiah tells us, there is but one God. He is unchanging in His nature, He is love, and He seeks to guide us toward what is best for us. We may not always understand His plan, but it is a plan that has existed since before the world began, as our God stands outside of time and space as we know it. He created all, and seeks what is for our good, so that we can come to perfect union with Him for eternity.

It’s easy sometimes to confuse what is important in our secular lives with what is important to God. Our Lord’s words regarding payment to God what belongs to God, and to Caesar what belongs to Caeser, make the distinction between these two kingdoms quite plain. It is the distinction between the Divine, and the temporal. At the temporal level, we all seek the same basic needs, food/shelter/clothing/etc. but with varying emphasis on the accumulation of the resources to obtain these things. When we are in need, or perceived need, it is easy to be drawn into a mindset that places the accumulation of resources at a level that is more emphasized than it needs to be. It’s easy to fall into this trap, as we innately become more focused on immediate needs when we perceive them. What we need to keep in mind though is the balance that needs to be struck between what we actually need, versus what the needs of those around us are, and the real need we have for drawing close to God, especially during times of need.

When we began to realize the seriousness of this pandemic, there was a tremendous focus on garnering material goods that we thought might eventually become scarce. To that end, we began to obtain these things in larger quantities than were immediately necessary and created the very shortage we feared, and that did leave many of our brothers and sisters in actual need for some of these basics. We created  a problem, where none existed because we focused on self, and on stuff, rather than consider the overall good of all God’s family. It’s true that some things can become scarce when something like this pandemic occurs, but we need to guard against too much focus on self and consider the broader picture. It’s all of us that need to come through this, not just ourselves. This is the capital that we pay back to God, to look out for one another, and in doing so to show love for Him in whose image we all were created. The natural fruits of this repayment to God, is the outpouring of concern and love for all.

The urge to gather material goods on the other hand, and to expend the funds necessary to do more than we actually need to in terms of meeting our actual needs is the mindset of paying tribute only to Caesar, to become too focused on the coin and the image upon it. The idol of money is an old adversary that is the downfall of many. I’m not trying to say we do not need money, the reality is that it is the means of commerce that we use for virtually everything, but we cannot let it become an idol to us, and to take on a more significant role than it ought to. This is the balance to be struck – to keep its role to serving our actual needs, and to stop short of it becoming the focus of our desires, and to unduly dictate our actions. We must also guard against its allure to spend more than what is needed, and in doing so garner more resources than what we actually need, while leaving others without the things they need.

What we are called to desire most is God, and to draw close to Him in all things. He will always take care of us, no matter the situation, the coin on the other hand is a fleeting consolation that has no desire to serve anything but itself. In the end analysis, we must decide what expenditure is more important to focus on, that which we owe to God, or that which we owe to the many uncaring Caesars that compete for our monetary resources.

Podcast Link

https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-cdxtp-efa613

We know that the Lord provides for us, the question is, do we know how to live with what He has provided? There is great abundance that surrounds us, and yet many go without the basics. The resources that we are graced with are quite sufficient for all, and yet, we allow this to happen. This is the problem with much of how we sometimes conduct ourselves – we are not looking out for our brothers and sisters with less, and so not showing love for them, and for our Lord. As Isaiah tells us, there is a veil that veils all people, and it often blinds us to the needs of others that should be obvious to us.

Saint Paul tells us that he learned to live both in need and in abundance, and that it was accomplished by keeping his needs properly focused – on Jesus Christ. In doing so, his other needs were always fully met. This is the natural outcome of a reliance on Christ. Whether he was in surroundings of material need or of plenty, his outlook and actions did not change. The exterior circumstance was not really that important, he knew this, because he was aware of the goal in life, which is to be with our Lord. That focus, on that goal, frankly, changes everything, if we let it. We can be loosed from the common concerns of the purely material and temporal aspects of this life and accept our circumstance with peace, because we know that He has a plan for us and will care for us. We can learn to share more of our own resources, and discover that we still have what we need, and feel the joy of having helped out others of Gods children, and the feeling of closeness to Him that comes with that. We will soon discover that this is what we are truly seeking. You see all the stuff that we try to accumulate to fill in that void of feeling, that desire we all seem to share but can’t quite satiate, is in reality the real need we have for that connection with Him. Only through drawing closer to Him will it ever be satiated and bring peace, and loose us from the angst that is so pervasive today.

All of us are called to God’s kingdom, we have all been invited to the feast, and yet like those unworthy guests in our Gospel, we often reject and evade what we know to be God’s plan. As much as we claim to seek peace and fulfillment in our lives, we often run from the very source of that peace and fulfillment – closeness to God. We sometimes reject His teachings as surely as those wedding guests who rejected those who invited them. There are many who invite us, they are called the Saints, and we read of them, but how often do we really take their message and apply it to our lives? If we fail to listen to them, as they invite us to God’s kingdom through their teaching and their words, then we are just as surely rejecting the invitation of the true King, as if we were mistreating His servants the way those described in today’s Gospel did. You have to ask yourself, why would we do something so self-destructive and short sighted? The answer is simply the inclination’s that still plague us from original sin. It is this, that we must daily guard against and be actively vigilant against in order to enter God’s kingdom. He tells us again and again that it is a narrow gate that leads to this kingdom, and it will only be those who are alert to their own failings, and who seek to take the harder path that will successfully navigate that narrower gate through God’s grace. We can’t do it on our own, no matter how hard we try, we must instead pay attention to, and RELY on God in all things, just as Saint Paul did, in order to reach the goal. We must show ourselves humble enough to follow our Lord like children and allow Him to lead us. It is only when we are this humble, vulnerable, and reliant, that our strength is augmented by our Lord to a point beyond anything we could conceive of as human beings. It is in our own weakness and reliance on God that we are truly strong enough to make it through that narrower gate.

Podcast Link

https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-hgzwn-eeee8e

For many of us the significance of the agrarian references in the readings today may not be initially obvious. The wild grapes that Isaiah references are grapes that grow a lot of foliage, but not much in the way of fruit. They are wild and spread, but do not give much in return. This is something that can be a trap that we can easily fall into as well. We can grow in our material possessions or perhaps our worldly pursuits, but completely miss the opportunity for the kind of growth that really matters, the bearing of fruit that will be pleasing to God and draw us closer to Him. However, if we are from God’s stock, and are pruned and cared for, we can be fruitful individuals. This can be accomplished through being part of God’s Church, and through prayer and petition to the one who is the true Master of the vineyard.

Saint Paul similarly instructs us to pray and petition God, and to give Him thanks, and to have no anxiety about anything. This lack of anxiety is our way of placing our trust in God, knowing that He will take care of all our needs, and that no matter what, we are part of His plan. If we trust in God and not so much in ourselves, the natural fruit of that will be this lack of anxiety. There is simply no need of it when our faith and belief is truly with the one who knows all of our days and loves us more than we can conceive of.

Our love for God and for His Son Jesus Christ is the path that we strive to be on. We want to be fruitful laborers in God’s kingdom and to fulfill our intended purpose as His followers. To be servants of our Lord, and to be those to whom the Kingdom of God will be entrusted, and subsequently to provide back to God the fruits of the harvest within us at the proper season as the bounty of our labors that He gives us the grace to achieve. It is important to understand, however, that while we are all God’s children, to truly be fruitful laborers takes effort on our part. To do this we embrace our Lord and follow His teaching and show our love for Him and for one another as evidence of this. Jesus gave us the needed direction through His word and example. We must be willing to follow and emulate Him, and to place our own earthly wants and desires well after this. To do this seems at first glance like a burden, but it is really just the opposite. There is freedom and consolation in knowing that we are following our Lord. There is a closeness and intimacy that comes with that, that cannot be completely explained, but must be experienced to fully understand. If we pursue this intimacy, then we will become like a small vine, one that will grow and bear much fruit.

Podcast Link

https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-9ppqg-ee2010