“Prayer is always the beginning of peace in our world because through prayer we touch the Heart of Jesus who is our peace. His way of love opens the path to forgiveness and reconciliation — with God and with others and following His way of love means we are called to be peacemakers. We need to always be working for greater understanding among peoples and greater awareness that we are all Sisters and Brothers in God’s family.” –Archbishop Jose Gomez
The Greatness and the Goodness of God
Praise of David
I will extol You, my God and King and bless Your name forever and ever!Every day I will bless You and praise Your name forever and ever!
Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; His greatness is unsearchable!
One generation shall laud Your works to another and shall declare Your mighty acts. On the
glorious splendor of Your majesty and on Your wondrous works, I will mediate. The might of
Your awesome deeds shall be proclaimed and I will declare Your greatness!
They shall celebrate the fame of Your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of Your
righteousness. The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast
love. The Lord is good to all and His compassion is over all that He has made.
All Your works shall give Thanks to You, O Lord and all Your faithful shall bless You! They shall
speak of the glory of Your Kingdom and tell of Your power, to make known to all people Your
mighty deeds and the glorious splendor of Your Kingdom.
Your Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom and Your dominion endures throughout all
generations. The Lord is faithful in all His Words and gracious in all His deeds. The Lord
upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look to You
and You give them food in due season. You open Your hand, satisfying the desire of every living
thing. The Lord is just in all His ways and kind in all His doings. The Lord is near to all who call
on Him in truth. He fulfills the desire of all who fear Him; He also hears their cry and saves
them. The Lord watches over all who love Him but all the wicked He will destroy. My mouth
will speak the praise of the Lord and all flesh will bless His Holy Name forever and ever!
Life in the Spirit
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the Law of the
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the Law of sin and death. For God has done
what the Law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: By sending His Own Son in the likeness of
sinful flesh and to deal with sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of
the Law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh but those
who live according to the Spirit, set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on
the flesh is death but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For this reason the mind
that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law — indeed it cannot and
those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
You are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who
does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him but if Christ is in you, though the
body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because f righteousness. If the Spirit of Him who
raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will give life to
your mortal bodies also through His Spirit that dwells in you.
So then, Brothers and Sisters, we are debtors not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh — for
if you live according to the flesh you will die but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the
body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not
receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear but you received a spirit of adoption. When we
cry, “Abba, Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of
God and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ — if, in fact, we suffer
with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.
Future Glory
I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the GLORY
about to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the
Children of God, for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of
the One who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to
decay and will obtain the Freedom of the GLORY of the Children of God. We know that the
whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now and not only the creation but we
ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the
redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For
who hopes for what is seen? We hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought but
that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words and God, who searches the heart,
knows what is the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the Saints according to
the will of God.
We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called
according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed
to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn within a large family and those
whom He predestined He also called and those whom He called He also justified and those
whom He justified He glorified.
God’s Love in Christ Jesus
What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not
withhold His own Son but gave Him up for all of us, will He not with Him also give us
everything else? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is
to condemn? It is Christ Jesus who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God,
who indeed intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship or
distress, persecution or famine, nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.” (Psalm 44:22)No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am
convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to
come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to
separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus Our Lord! –Romans 8:1-39
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