It is foolish to put our trust and hope in mortal man.

TRUST GOD AND HE WILL BE THERE FOR YOU ALWAYS.

"Thus says the Lord: Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a barren bush in the desert that enjoys no change of season, but stands in a lava waste, a salt and empty earth. Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose hope is the Lord. He is like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream: it fears not the heat when it comes; its leaves stay green; in the year of drought it shows no distress, but still bears fruit." (Jeremiah 17: 5 - 8).

Sunday 13th February 2022, in the 6th Week in Ordinary Time.  Jeremiah offers us curse or blessing as Moses before him.
"See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse." (Deuteronomy 11: 16).

What are the things that make our hearts turn away from the Lord? In one word: IDOLATRY! Something we love more than we love God. They could be any or all of the following:
Money, Job, Health, Family, Possessions, Food, Worries.

The Prophet Jeremiah continues:
"Blessed are those who trust in the Lord; the Lord will be their trust.
They are like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream: It does not fear heat when it comes, its leaves stay green; In the year of drought it shows no distress, but still produces fruit." (Jeremiah 17: 7 - 8).

All the gold, silver and diamond belong to God. He provides food to all living things. Our future, destiny and security lie in His mighty hands.
How foolish it is to place your trust in mortal man who cannot save himself. Nobody gives that which has not says an old Roman proverb.

Things that move our hearts to trust in the Lord and receive blessings and be blessing to others are: Prayer, Word of God, Eucharist, Penance, Ministry, Spiritual Reading.

"Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, by loving the Lord, your God, obeying his voice, and holding fast to him. For that will mean life for you, a long life for you to live on the land which the Lord swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give to them." (Deuteronomy 30: 19 - 20).

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God is faithful to His promises and provides All our needs.

GOD WILL PROVIDE.

“My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will collapse on the way, and some of them have come a great distance.” (Mark 8: 1.....10).

Saturday 12th February 2022 in the 5th Week in Ordinary Time.  Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want." (Psalm 23: 1).

Do you find yourself in constant want or need? Example: I need a new car, shoe, job, suit, house, whatever? If the Lord is truly our Good Shepherd, we ought to be content with what He provides. The promise to provide and protect is one of the great privileges of the children of God. Hence in the Our Father, we pray every day: GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD. Also: DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

In spite of these great assurances of divine provision and protection, there are noticeable insecurities about these in the Christian communities.
The restless spirit harbors the spirit of the world. We are warned not to compromise with the spirit of the world but to allow the word of God to shape our vision of the world. (Cf Romans 12: 2).

"They all ate and were satisfied."

How do you feel when your Good Shepherd feeds you? If you are not satisfied, then what and who can satisfy you? The spirit of the world is a restless spirit, full of discontentment. Reject him. Tell him boldly:
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He is my Provider. I shall eat and be satisfied.

Daily Bible Verse @ SeekFirstcommunity.com

God provides All our needs as He promised.

GOD WILL PROVIDE.

“My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will collapse on the way, and some of them have come a great distance.” (Mark 8: 1.....10).

Saturday 12th February 2022 in the 5th Week in Ordinary Time.  Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want." (Psalm 23: 1).

Do you find yourself in constant want or need? Example: I need a new car, shoe, job, suit, house, whatever? If the Lord is truly our Good Shepherd, we ought to be content with what He provides. The promise to provide and protect is one of the great privileges of the children of God. Hence in the Our Father, we pray every day: GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD. Also: DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

In spite of these great assurances of divine provision and protection, there are noticeable insecurities about these in the Christian communities.
The restless spirit harbors the spirit of the world. We are warned not to compromise with the spirit of the world but to allow the word of God to shape our vision of the world. (Cf Romans 12: 2).

"They all ate and were satisfied."

How do you feel when your Good Shepherd feeds you? If you are not satisfied, then what and who can satisfy you? The spirit of the world is a restless spirit, full of discontentment. Reject him. Tell him boldly:
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He is my Provider. I shall eat and be satisfied.

Daily Bible Verse @ SeekFirstcommunity.com

Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.

TO JESUS THROUGH MARY.

"And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him off by himself away from the crowd. He put his finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, “Ephphatha!”—that is, “Be opened!”—And immediately the man’s ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly." (Mark 7: 31.... 37).

Friday 11th February 2022, in the 5th Week in Ordinary Time is the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. It is also a Day of Prayer for the Sick.

In 1858, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to 14 year-old Marie Bernarde Soubirous  in Lourdes, France. She was to become St Bernadette Soubirous. The first apparition was followed by seventeen others. Many healing miracles happens in Lourdes. Lourdes has become a major pilgrimage center in the world. Six million pilgrims visit Lourdes yearly.

We have a miracle of healing in the Gospel Reading for today. Jesus healed a man that is deaf and with a speech impediment. "Jesus looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, “Ephphatha!”—that is, “Be opened!”—And immediately the man’s ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly."

Do you need spiritual, physical or emotional healing? Ask Jesus with faith today. Ask with expectant and persistent prayer. It is Ok to go to Jesus through Mary. That is the way of Lourdes, Fatima and Guadalupe, etc. Believe that Jesus is still making the deaf hear and the dumb speak and cancer disappear and so forth.

"Let My adorers take their place before Me. Their faith, their hope, and their surrender to My merciful love will cause a great tide of healing love to pour forth from My sacred side and radiate from My Face. Thus will My adorers, without leaving My sanctuary, become also My apostles: messengers and instruments of My merciful love and of My burning desire to gather in the lost, to bind up the bruised, to tend the wounded, and to heal the broken-hearted." (IN SINU JESU page 231).

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Feast of St Scholastica, Virgin and Foundress of the Benedictine Sisters.

IF YOU PRAY WELL, YOU LIVE WELL. IF YOU LIVE WELL, YOU DIE WELL. IF YOU DIE WELL, ALL IS WELL.

"Soon a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him.  She came and fell at his feet.
The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter." (Mark 7: 24.....30)

Thursday 10th February 2022, in the 5th Week in Ordinary Time is the feast of St Scholastica, Virgin and Religious. (480 - 547). Italian. Religious nun.  She founded the Benedictine Nuns that continue to serve the Church for 1500 years. Scholastica is the twin sister of the great St Benedict. St Scholastica is the patron saint of education, convulsive children and  Benedictine Nuns.

Our Gospel today is a battle royale between Jesus and a strong woman. Jesus at first refused to grant her request perhaps to try her faith and persistence. Prayer is a battle.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that Prayer is a battle.  Read the entire paragraph below and mark it very well.

"Prayer is both a gift of grace and a determined response on our part. It always presupposes effort. The great figures of prayer of the Old Covenant before Christ, as well as the Mother of God, the saints, and he himself, all teach us this: prayer is a battle. Against whom? Against ourselves and against the wiles of the tempter who does all he can to turn man away from prayer, away from union with God. We pray as we live, because we live as we pray. If we do not want to act habitually according to the Spirit of Christ, neither can we pray habitually in his name. The "spiritual battle" of the Christian's new life is inseparable from the battle of prayer."  (CCC 2725).

This Syrophoenician prayer warrior has practiced the battle of Prayer for a long time before her encounter with Jesus.

Other battles of Prayer in the Bible:

#1.  Abraham praying to God to spare Sodom and Gomorrah. (Genesis 18: 16 - 33).

#2.  David praying that God spares his child of adultery with Bethsheba.  (2 Kings 12: 13 - 18).

#3.  The struggle of the persistent widow with the unjust judge. (Luke 18: 1 - 8).

St Augustine teaches that you can overcome God through persistent prayer. St Patrick writes that Persistence overcomes Resistance. Persistent Prayer produces results.

“For saying this, you may go.
The demon has gone out of your daughter.” When the woman went home, she found the child lying in bed and the demon gone."  (Mark 7: 29 - 30).

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A PURE HEART CREATE IN ME O GOD.

CREATE IN ME A PURE HEART O GOD!

"From within the man, from his heart, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile.” (Mark 7: 14... 23).

Wednesday 9th February 2022, in the 5th Week in Ordinary Time.

Jesus says that the source of all the sinful habits are from inside the mind. Thoughts, words and actions defile a person and food does not defile.

Psychologists have recognized the importance of the mind in behavior:
Sow a thought, you reap a deed.
Sow a deed, you reap a habit.
Sow a habit, you reap a character.
Sow a character, you reap a destiny. It is true that your character becomes your destiny.

David after his adultery prayed:
"A clean heart create for me, God; renew within me a steadfast spirit.
(Psalm 51: 12).

What cleanses the heart?
The word of GOD, Prayer and Sacraments. 

"Intercession is not incompatible with adoration. The soul who adores Me present in the Sacrament of My love will be united to Me in My everlasting intercession before the Face of My Father. My intercession is everlasting even in the glory of eternity because I chose to keep the wounds in My hands and in My feet and in My side. They constitute an uninterrupted pleading for the sake of all: for those in glory that they may go from light to light and from sweetness to sweetness; for those on earth that they may find in My wounds healing, purity, and holiness; and for the souls in purgatory that by the merits of My holy wounds they may be refreshed and delivered." (IN SINU JESU, Friday, March 28, 2008).

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The Feast of Saints Josephine Bakhita and Jerome Emiliani.

"Unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven, says the Lord." (Matthew 18: 3 Communion Antiphon. ).

Tuesday 8th February 2022, in the 5th Week in Ordinary Time. We celebrate the feast of two saints today:
++ St Josephine Bakhita (1869 - 1947). Sudanese. Virgin and Religious. Josephine was brought to Italy as a slave. By Divine Providence, she became a sister of the Canossian order. Her exemplary and holy life was noticed. She bore patiently and heroically her last illness. Pope St John Paul II brought her relics to Sudan where she was canonized in 2000. St Josephine Bakhita is the patron saint of Sudan and victims of human trafficking.

++ St Jerome Emiliani. (1481 - 1537). Italian. Priest. Jerome was wayward as a young man. When he was surprised by grace, his life changed 180 degrees. He founded a religious congregation (Somaschi) which looked after the sick, the poor and orphans and abandoned children. St Jerome Emiliani died of the plague while ministering to the afflicted.

In our key Scripture from Matthew 18: 3 from the Communion Antiphon, Jesus praises the humility of a little child.  What is humility?
Just like love, humility is patient and kind.  Humility is not jealous, conceited or proud. It does not keep a record of wrongs. In short, humility is love. St Josephine Bakhita is an examplar of humility. To climb from a little slave girl to the height of sanctity was done through patience and humility.

St Augustine says that Humility is the queen of virtues. He added that you can still get into Heaven by breaking every Commandment in the Book. But you can never get into Heaven without Humility.

Saints Josephine and Jerome pray for us.

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Ask Jesus for healing with faith and persistence.

"As they were leaving the boat, people immediately recognized him [Jesus]. They scurried about the surrounding country and began to bring in the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak; and as many as touched it were healed." (Mark 6: 53.... 56).

Monday 7th February 2022, in the 5th Week in Ordinary Time.

"They begged Jesus that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak; and as many as touched it were healed." When it comes to healing and mercy, for Jesus, Asking is Receiving. Do not be shy to ask Jesus for healing. Jesus has healed me of minor pains and discomforts because I asked Him. In July 2021, Jesus healed my sick heart. What if I did not ask Jesus to heal me? I might be living with a pacemaker in my body. Who knows what else?

In our key Scripture for today, we observe the importance of faith in healing. The woman with the issue of blood was full of faith and desire to be healed. Prominent doctors tried but could not help her for twelve years. She heard of Jesus and believed in Him. She quietly crept behind Jesus and touched the hem of His clothes. She was instantly healed.  It is likely that the people of the village in Mark's narrative today knew of the story of the woman with the issue of blood. They brought the sick on mats to where Jesus landed in a boat. The relatives of the sick prepared their loved ones to come to faith through testimonies of healings by Jesus. The sick who believed and touched Jesus were healed instantly.

What is the lesson here?
You may make a pilgrimage to Lourdes, Fatima, Guadalupe or Medjugorie. Without faith, you go and come back disappointed.

The spiritual law here is simple to grasp. Whenever anyone in need comes to Jesus with expectant faith, he receives whatever he needs in accordance with the will of God. In all the pilgrimage sites mentioned above, many have received physical healing. Others have received spiritual and emotional healing. "All ate and were satisfied."

How is this so?
"Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in his eyes." (Romans 12: 2).

In God's will in our peace. How? Because God knows what is best for us not just today but for eternity.

"My divinity, and My pierced Heart, eternally open, a wellspring of healing mercy and of inexhaustible life for souls. For now, this is all that I will say to you. My Heart speaks to your heart. It is My joy to speak to you in this way. Trust Me with everything. Be at peace. Allow Me now to bless you from the tabernacle before you, in which I am hidden, but living and full of mercy for all who approach Me here." (IN SINU JESU, Thursday, June 26, 2008).

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