Saturday September 10, 2022

For you this week:

• Reflection for Saturday: You can stand firm in a sinking world
• Inside the Ministry: Thank you for your prayers
• This Week’s Video: Four Types of Friends

This week’s Trivia Challenge: Who was King David’s best friend? (Check your answer at the end of this newsletter.)

Saturday September 10, 2022

1 Corinthians 10:14-22
Ps 116:12-13,17-18
Luke 6:43-49
bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/091022.cfm
Podcast:
bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/2022-09-10-usccb-daily-mass-readings

Saints Calendar:
gnm.org/saints-find/saints-calendar

Even if a river bursts and floods that house, it will stand firm. (From Saturday’s Gospel reading)

Reflection for Saturday:
You can stand firm in a sinking world

As the world around us continues to sink into the mire and muck of immorality and evil propaganda, we who follow Christ need to be more alive in the faith than ever.

But how do we do it? When we stand up for the truth, the storms raging around us can knock us down.

Jesus is calling all Christians to put great effort into continuing his mission. Clearly, we’re not doing enough or else the world would be a better place.

Jesus has given you a rock foundation. He’s the foundation of your daily life, right? The goodness you have in your heart is Jesus himself. The world needs your goodness more than ever, even though it will reject you for it. Family members who have left the Faith need your goodness as a reminder of who Jesus is; stand firm, don’t give up on them. Fellow Catholics need your goodness to help strengthen them in their own storms; spend time with them and you too will be strengthened.

The world needs extraordinary Catholics. An ordinary tree produces good fruit when weather conditions are perfect. People of the world are eating bad fruit and thinking it’s yummy. But sooner or later they get sick from the worms and rot. When they look around for something better, will they see a healthy tree standing tall in the sinking landscape?

Not if the Church within their eyesight looks unremarkable.

I learned something spiritually important from the woods surrounding my house. When we moved into our home ten years ago, I wondered, “In a hurricane, are all those trees likely to topple onto our house and destroy us?” An arborist looked at them and replied, “You are much safer with all those trees than a house with one or two trees. Their roots intermingle. The trees are holding each other firmly in the ground.”

In the flood of evil that’s been rising, we need each other. We absolutely benefit from coming together — not just to worship at Mass but also to grow in the faith together, face to face, fellowshipping in community gatherings.

We absolutely need Christian fellowship to thrive in today’s world. This is how we can recover from disasters, smile in adversities, and reduce stress. The surest way to connect (or re-connect) with Jesus during a storm is to surround ourselves with others who have a heart of goodness revealing Jesus himself.

If Catholic fellowship is not available where you live, Good News Ministries has a list of online prayer communities. Visit gnm.org/prayers/find-a-prayer-group-to-join. If you already belong to an online prayer group, this page includes a link to fill out the form and get added to the list.

Better yet, talk to people in your parish about starting something locally — even if it’s just to dine together after Mass.

(Note: GNM has a free set of downloadable instructions on Developing Small Christian Communities @ wordbytes.org/parish-helps-scc.)

Inside the Ministry: Thank you for your prayers

Praise the Lord! Please continue to keep the GNM staff in prayer. Although this week has been better than last week, Graciela is going to need surgery soon to remove her gall bladder. My own health issues greatly improved for a few days. Then, on Wednesday, I went to the hospital ER with very painful gastroenteritis, a virus in my intestines. (What?!) I’ve been recovering at home on a mostly liquid diet. (Well, at least I’m finally losing weight!) The whole staff greatly appreciates everyone who is praying for us.

(We have prayer teams open to anyone who wants to be notified of GNM’s prayer requests: Choose from the opportunities listed @ gnm.org/prayers/post-a-prayer.)

I’ve learned that the chronic stress of having my parents live with us for 10 years, serving as their caregiver, took a huge, accumulated toll on my health. I’m admitting it here because there are many reading this who are caregivers. I cannot emphasize enough that long-term stress is damaging you — and Jesus doesn’t want to hurt you.

Even though Ralph and I took week-long vacations alone when we could, for restoration and renewal, and we went to Catholic Charismatic conferences for  spiritual nourishment, the shut-downs that were forced upon us during the pandemic ruined that and increased the stress. Add to this the stress of watching political corruption and the cultural push for greater immorality and persecution against freedom of speech. We leaned heavily on God and prayer for inner peace and strength. But we were isolated from Christian fellowship, which as explained in the reflection above is necessary for good mental and spiritual health. Our parish opened up for Mass but little else.

Guided by the Holy Spirit, Ralph and I figured out how to take weekend getaways. We spent the entire time away resting on a couch and recliner (after Mass, of course). It was good but not long enough for recovery.

The physical toll of chronic stress is dangerous. It eats away at our immune systems and organs and circulatory systems, undetected until a doctor is needed. For example, last November Ralph and I arranged for someone to stay with Mom (Dad had passed away in 2020) for a whole week while we vacationed nearby. Halfway through our respite, she fell and hit her head, unconscious. I spent the next several days taking care of her in the hospital and at home. At the same time, Ralph’s mitral valve sprang a leak, but we didn’t know it yet. My back developed a problem and I couldn’t stand without agony. Nor could I do much of anything but sit, leaning on an ice pack.

Long story shortened, the doctors said Ralph needed open heart surgery. Although I didn’t feel right about pushing Mom out of our home, Father God made it very clear — through signs and wonders and doctors and relatives — that it was time to help her find another place to live. 

After God led us to an apartment for Mom in a retirement community where she could get help as needed (and where she is now thriving better than in our home), we scheduled Ralph’s surgery. Thanks be to God and the prayers of many around the world, my back improved and the leak in Ralph’s mitral valve slowed down so much that his surgery was canceled. But he did spend a few days in the hospital. Two weeks later, he was back in the hospital.

There, he picked up Covid and gave it to me. It was mild, praise the Lord! Ralph recovered quickly but fatigue took over my life. My back worsened. A doctor did an out-patient procedure in my spine. Recovery from that was extremely painful and required lots of physical therapy. And the fatigue continued.

During all of this, I never quit believing that God had a wonderful plan. I could trust him even though he did not give me the quick healings that I begged for. I learned that I had entered a beneficially long period of restoration that would turn into a preparation for whatever comes next. Jesus put his hand on me and told me to accept this slowed-down lifestyle and not to be frustrated about it. My trust in God has sorely been battled by frustration over the GNM work and the house work that are not getting done, but I’m getting better at it. (Anyone want to come clean my house? LOL! I’ll accept the help.)

I’ve learned what my body needs so it can decompress from stress, heal from fatigue, and restore my immune system. Here are a few tips to share:

1. When you’re burning out from caregiving (or any other stress), remind yourself repeatedly that you are not the only solution for the people you care for. You are not their Savior. Your needs are as important to God as their needs. Yes, God asks us to make sacrifices, but caregivers too easily take that way too far. Open your eyes and heart to whatever God is offering you, to give you a break.
2. Time is one of the gifts that God gives us for restoration. Accept that you can’t rush decompression.
3. Slow down. Find the right pace for where you are at on the path of recovery. Take work breaks with something that rests the body while exercising the mind.
4. Peppermint fragrance clears fatigue-induced brain fog. 
5. Nourish your spirit in the context of in-person Christian community.

This Week’s Recommended Video:
Four Types of Friends

Think about what happened to the paralytic who had four friends who lowered him through the roof of the home where Jesus was staying so that he could be healed.

What I find interesting about this scripture is those four men who lowered the paralytic through the roof. In our society today, in our world today, we have become very individualistic. We prefer to be able to handle things on our own, and I believe this is contrary to what God intended and what scripture shows us in this example. It took four men — four friends — to lower this man to where he could be healed by Jesus.

I asked the Lord, as I was contemplating on the scripture, why four? Is there anything to be gained from looking at the number of friends this paralytic had?

Find out! Watch the video @ gnm-media.org/four-types-of-friends. Or if you prefer to read it, download the transcript at this link.

Answer to this week’s Trivia Challenge:
Who was King David’s best friend? Jonathan, the son of King Saul, who had a right to the throne as Saul’s successor. Jonathan was truly a good friend. He recognized God’s calling on David’s life and supported him in it. They stayed friends even when King Saul plotted to kill David so that Jonathan could rule the kingdom. 

God bless you!

Every morning, I lift up in prayer everyone who helps Good News Ministries in any way (donors, volunteers, prayer supporters, etc.) and all the prayer requests posted on our site. What can I cover in prayer for you? Post your prayer request.

How else can the team and I serve you today? Visit our homepage.

Let’s connect in GNM’s own SmartCatholics community, called Good News Faith Builders. I’m available to interact with you there.

Thank you for reading this newsletter.

Your servant in Christ,
Terry Modica, Executive Director
Good News Ministries
gnm.org

Find this and past issues at gnm.org/newsletter. Please share what will minister to others.