Cristy Li

Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have,
for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.  –Hebrews 13:16
Image Courtesy: Archbishop Jose Gomez

• Jesus taught, “Give to everyone who begs from you
  and do not refuse anyone
  who wants to borrow from you.”  –Matthew 5:42

• Jesus taught us, “Do to others
  as you would have them do to you.” –Luke 6:31

What good is it my brothers and sisters,
if you say you have faith but do not have works?
Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and
lacks daily food and one of you says to them,
“Go in peace; Keep warm and eat your fill,”
yet you do not supply their bodily needs,
what is the good of that?
So faith by itself, if it has no works is dead.  –James 2:14-17

• You May Know the Joy of Salvation,
  Forgiveness of Sins and Eternal Life Today
  Through The Good News of Christ Jesus!

Whoever believes in Him (Jesus) may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but may have Eternal Life. –John 3:15-16
Image Courtesy: Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal World

God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Those who believe in Him (Jesus) are not condemned but those who do not believe are condemned already because they have not believed in the Name of the only Son of God and this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.

For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed but those who do what is true come to the light so that it may be clearly seenthat their deeds have been done in God.  John 3:17-21

Prayer for the Restoration of God’s Favor

Lord, You were favorable to Your land;

You restored the fortunes of Jacob.

You forgave the iniquity of Your people;

You pardoned all their sin.

You withdrew all Your wrath;

You turned from Your hot anger.

Restore us again, O God of our salvation

and put away Your indignation toward us.

Will You be angry with us forever?

Will You prolong Your anger to all generations?

Will You not revive us again,

so that Your people may rejoice in You?

Show us Your steadfast love, O Lord

and grant us Your salvation.

Let me hear what God the Lord will speak,

for He will speak peace to His people,

to His faithful, to those who turn to Him in their hearts.

Surely His salvation is at hand for those who fear Him,

that His glory may dwell in our land.

Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet;

Righteousness and peace will kiss each other.

Faithfulness will spring up from the ground

and Righteousness will look down from the sky.

The Lord will give what is good

and our land will yield its increase.

Righteousness will go before Him

and will make a path for His steps.  Amen!  –Psalm 85:1-13

• GOOD NEWS! You May Have the Joy of Salvation
  and Assurance of Eternal Life Today in Christ Jesus!

For the wages of sin is (eternal) death
but the FREE GIFT of God is ETERNAL LIFE
in Christ Jesus our Lord!  –Romans 6:23

• GOOD NEWS! You May Have the Assurance of Salvation
  and Peace of Everlasting Life in Christ Jesus Today!

Dying and Rising With Christ

What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him by baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with Him in death like His, we will certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His. We know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be destroyed and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin. If we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. We know that Christ being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over Him. The death He died, He died to sin, once for all; the life He lives, He lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under Law but under Grace.

Slaves of Righteousness

What then? Should we sin because we are not under Law but under Grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience which leads to righteousness? Thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted and that you having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification. When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death. Now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death but the FREE GIFT of God is ETERNAL LIFE in Christ Jesus our Lord!  –Romans 6:1-23

“Friends: No matter how far someone has fallen from God,
God is rich in mercy and He is waiting for sinners to come home, to repent.” –Archbishop Jose Gomez

Catechism of the Catholic Church

The Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation

Interior Penance

1430: Jesus’ call to conversion and penance, like that of the Prophets before Him, does not aim first at outward works ‘sackcloth and ashes,’ fasting and mortification but at the conversion of the heart, interior conversion. Without this, such penances remain sterile and false; however interior conversion urges expression in visible signs, gestures and works of penance.

1431: Interior repentance is a radical reorientation of our whole life, a return, a conversion to God with all our heart, an end of sin, a turning away from evil with repugnance toward the evil actions we have committed. At the same time it entails the desire and resolution to change one’s life, with hope in God’s mercy and trust in the help of His grace. This conversion of heart is accompanied by a salutary pain and sadness which the Father called animi cruciatus (affliction of spirit)  and compuncito cordis (repentance of heart).

1432: The human heart is heavy and hardened. God must give man a new heart. Conversion is first of all a work of the grace of God who makes our hearts return to Him. “Restore us to Thyself, O Lord, that we may be restored.” (Lamentations 5:21) God gives us the strength to begin a new. It is in discovering the greatness of God’s love that our heart is shaken by the horror and weight of sin and begins to fear offending God by sin and being separated from Him. The human heart is converted by looking upon Him whom our sins have pierced. (John 19:37; Zechariah 12:10)

Prayer to Jesus — Act of Contrition

O My God,

I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee

and I detest all my sins because I dread

the loss of Heaven and the pains of Hell

but most of all because they offend Thee,

my God, Who are all good and deserving

of all my love.

I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace,

to confess my sins, to do penance

and to amend my life.  Amen!

Related: Additional Prayers to Jesus -EWTN

You May Know the JOY of Salvation and ETERNAL LIFE Today Through THE GOOD NEWS of Christ Jesus!

Our Lady of Lourdes, Please Pray for a Christian Revival
& Renewal of Our Nation!
Image Courtesy: EWTN

Prayer

Be Blessed, O Most pure Virgin, for having vouchsafed to manifest your shining with life, sweetness and beauty, in the Grotto of Lourdes, saying to the child St. Bernadette Soubirous: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” A thousand times we congratulate you upon your Immaculate Conception and now, O Ever Immaculate Virgin Mother of Mercy, health of the sick, refuge of sinners, comforter of the afflicted, you know our wants, our troubles, our sufferings deign to cast upon us a look of mercy.

By appearing in the Grotto of Lourdes, you were pleased to make it a privileged sanctuary, whence you dispense your favors and already many have obtained the cure of their infirmities, both spiritual and physical. I come therefore with the most unbounded confidence to implore your maternal intercession. Obtain for us, O loving Mother, the granting of my request.

• Christian Revival & Renewal of Our Nation

Through gratitude for your favors, I will endeavor to imitate your virtues, that I may one day share your glory. Our Lady of Lourdes, Mother of Christ Jesus, you had influence with your Divine Son while upon earth. You have the same influence now in Heaven. Pray for us! Obtain for us from your Divine Son this special request. Amen!

Our Lady of Lourdes, Please Pray For Us!

St. Bernadette, Teach Us to Serve — Please Pray For Us!

Related: Novena To Our Lady of Lourdes

Jesus proclaimed, “I am the Bread of Life…
I am the Living Bread that came down from Heaven.
Whoever eats of this Bread will live forever
and the Bread that I will give for the Life of the world is My Flesh.”
–John 6:48; 51
Image Courtesy: EWTN

Brothers and Sisters: The Cup of Blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the Blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the Body of Christ? Because there is One Bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the One Bread.

1 Corinthians 10:16-17

Jesus said, “No one can come to Me unless drawn by the Father who sent Me and I will raise that person up on the last day. It is written in the Prophets, ‘They shall all be taught by God.’

(See: Isaiah 54:13;  Jeremiah 31:34; Micah 4:2) Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father. Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the Bread of Life. Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness and they died. This is the Bread that comes down from Heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the Living Bread that came down from Heaven. Whoever eats of this Bread will live forever and the Bread that I will give for the life of the world is My Flesh.”

The Jews then disputed among themselves saying, ‘How can this Man give His Flesh to eat? Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat My Flesh and drink My Blood have eternal life and I will raise them up on the last day; For My Flesh is true food and My Blood is true drink.

Those who eat My Flesh and drink My Blood abide in Me and I in them. Just as the Living Father sent Me and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats Me will live because of Me.

This is the Bread that came down from Heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate and they died but the one who eats this Bread will live forever.” –John 6:44-58

Related: For Today’s Holy Scripture Readings on the Solemnity of the Holy Body & Blood of Christ, Visit: -USCCB

The Lord loves those who hate evil;
He guards the lives of the faithful;
He rescues them from the hand of the wicked. –Psalm 97:10
Image Courtesy: EWTN

The Glory of God’s Reign

The Lord is King! Let the earth rejoice;

Let the many coast lands be glad!

Clouds and thick darkness are all around Him

righteousness and justice are the foundation of His

Throne.

Fire goes before Him and consumes His adversaries

on every side. His lightnings light up the world;

The earth sees and trembles.

The mountains melt like wax before the Lord,

before the Lord of all the earth.

The heavens proclaim His righteousness

and all the people His glory.

All worshipers of (graven) images are put to shame (Tehillim 97:7)

those who make their boast in worthless idols;

all gods bow down before Him.

Zion hears and is glad and the towns of Judah

rejoice because of Your judgments, O God.

For You, O Lord are Most High over all the earth;

You are (very much) exalted far above all gods. (Tehillim 97:9)

The Lord loves those who hate evil;

He guards the lives of the faithful;

He rescues them from the hand of the wicked.

Light dawns for the righteous and joy for the upright in heart.

Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous

and give thanks to His Holy Name!  –Psalm 97:1-12

Regarding Prayer

Jesus taught His Disciples:

“Whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites

for they love to stand and pray in the Synagogues

and at the street corners, so that they may be seen

by others. Truly I tell you, they have received

their reward but whenever you pray,

go into your room and shut the door and pray

to Your Father who is in secret

and Your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases

as the Gentiles do; For they think that they will be

heard because of their many words. Do not be like them,

for Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.”

“Pray then in this way:

Our Father in Heaven
hallowed be Your Name.
Your Kingdom come.
Your will be done,
on earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread
and forgive us our debts (sins)
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Do not bring us to the time of trial
but rescue us from the evil one.”

“For if you forgive others their trespasses,

Your Heavenly Father will also forgive you

but if you do not forgive others, neither will

Your Father forgive your trespasses.”  –Matthew 6:5-15

• Jesus said, “The time is fulfilled and
  the Kingdom of God has come near;
  Repent and Believe in The Good News!”  –Mark 1:15

• You May Know the Joy of Salvation and Eternal Life in Heaven Today Through The Good News of Christ Jesus!

“The Beasts of Revelation” Matthias Gerung (1500-1570)
Image Courtesy: Natl Catholic Register

What the Holy Scriptures Teach
About the Dangers of the Last Days

There will be terrifying (distressing) times in the Last Days. People will be self-centered (lovers of themselves) and lovers of money, proud, haughty, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, irreligious, callous, implacable, slanderous, licentious, brutal, hating what is good, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, as they make a pretense of religion but deny its power. Avoid Them!  –2 Timothy 3:1-5

“When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first but the end will not follow immediately.” Then Jesus continued, “Nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes and in various places famines and plagues (sound familiar?) and there will be dreadful portents (signs, warnings) and great signs from Heaven.”  –Luke 21:9-11

What the Catechism of The Catholic Church
Teaches About the Last Days!

675: Before Christ’s Second Coming, the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many Believers. (Luke 18:8; Matthew 24:12) The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage  on earth (Luke 21:12; John 15:19-20) will unveil the ‘mystery of iniquity’ in the form of religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism  by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh. (2 Thessalonians 2:4-12;
1 Thessalonians 5:2-3;  2 John 1:7; 1 John 2:18-22)

676: The Antichrist’s deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the claim is made to realize within history that messianic hope which can only be realized beyond history through eschatological judgment. The Church has rejected even modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under the name of millenarianism, especially the ‘intrinsically perverse’ political form of secular messianism.

677: The Church will enter the Glory of the Kingdom only through this final Passover, when She will follow her Lord in His death and resurrection. (Revelation 19:1-9) The Kingdom will be fulfilled, then not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy but only by God’s victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause His Bride to come down from Heaven. (Revelation 13:8; 20:7-10; 21:2-4) God’s triumphant over the revolt of evil will take the form of the Last Judgment after the final cosmic upheaval of this passing world. (Revelation 20:12; 2 Peter 3:12-13)

• Jesus said, “The time is fulfilled
  and the Kingdom of God has come near;
  Repent and Believe in The Good News!” –Mark 1:15

• You May Know the Joy of Salvation
  and Eternal Life Today
  Through The Good News of Christ Jesus!

Related: Sister Lucia dos Santos: Final Battle Between the Lord and Satan will be over Marriage & The Family

Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s Clear Warning About the Antichrist -Natl Catholic Register

What the Antichrist Will be Like, According to St. John Henry Newman -Natl Catholic Register

Catholic Podcaster Patrick Coffin: This is the Remote ‘Dress Rehearsal’ for the Antichrist -LifeSite News

Five Saint’s Who Had Terrifying Visions of Hell -ChurchPOP

It is Christ Jesus, who died, was raised
and who is at the right hand of God,
who indeed intercedes for us! –Cf. Romans 8:34

Jesus: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations
— remember, I am with you always
to the end of the age.” –Matthew 28:19A-20B

The Promise of the Holy Spirit

In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when He was taken up to Heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the Apostles whom He had chosen. After His suffering (passion and death on the Cross) He presented Himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the Kingdom of God. While staying with them, He ordered them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,” He said, “is what you have heard from Me, for John baptized with water but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” (See: Luke 24:49; John 14:16)

The Ascension of Jesus!

So when they had come together, they (Apostles) asked Him, ‘Lord, is this the time You will restore the Kingdom of Israel?’ Jesus replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by His own authority but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” When Jesus had said this, as they were watching, He was lifted up and a cloud took Him out of their sight. While Jesus was going and they were gazing up toward Heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward Heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into Heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him go into Heaven.’ –Acts 1:1-11

St. Paul’s Prayer

Brothers and Sisters: “I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the Saints and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know Him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance among the Saints and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power for us who believe, according to the working of His great power. God put this power to work in Christ Jesus when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the Heavenly places, far above all rule, authority, power and dominion, above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come and He has put all things under His (Jesus’) feet and has made Him the head over all things for the Church, which is His Body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” Amen! –Ephesians 1:15-23

Related: For Today’s Most Holy Scripture Readings for the Ascension of the Lord, Visit: -USCCB