Saturday October 21, 2023
Good News Reflections:
Making scripture meaningful to your daily life
by Terry Modica
“The Holy Spirit will teach you at that moment what you should say.” (From today’s Gospel reading)
Good News Reflection for:
Saturday of the 28th Week in Ordinary Time
October 21, 2023
Today’s Readings:
Romans 4:13, 16-18
Psalm 105:6-9, 42-43
Luke 12:8-12
bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102123.cfm
USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/daily-mass-reading-podcast-october-21-2023
You can be empowered to make a difference
Never forget that you can be empowered to make a difference! My husband Ralph and I were first healed spiritually when we began going to Catholic Charismatic prayer meetings in 1977. One sure fact about having a personal relationship with the Holy Spirit is that we experience it most fully within the community life of Spirit-filled prayer meetings.
Prayer meetings are not just about signs and wonders and other miraculous manifestations of the Holy Spirit such as prophetic messages and visions. They are where we are built up in faith by the witnesses of others. They are where we surround ourselves with like-minded, faith-filled Catholics with whom we can relax because we’re all striving for holiness.
Fruitful prayer groups are launching pads for involvement in the parish community and going out into the world in the power of God to bring more people to conversion and deeper faith. This is where we are commissioned by the Holy Spirit to change the world.
In 1997, Ralph and I were asked to speak to a youth group about the dangers of the occult and New Age teachings. Our goal was to convince them to trust the greater and better power of the Holy Spirit, so we invited them to be prayed over.
One of the girls told us that her arm had been injured in a car accident. Although several months had passed, she was still unable to raise her hand higher than shoulder level. Would we pray for a healing?
Ralph and I truly hoped that she’d get her miracle as proof of the loving power of God, but neither of us felt strong enough in faith to be instruments of that kind of healing. So we breathed a prayer of surrender, entrusted the outcome to the Lord, and prayed, taking authority in the name of Jesus over her damaged arm and shoulder.
Then we told her, “Lift your hand up high.” And she did! The Lord completely healed her.
Today more than then, young people need to witness God’s loving supernatural power. So too everyone who is barely alive in the Christian Faith. And those who have no faith. And people who are believers but are following the false teachings of the world. Everyone needs to be invited to a miracle-producing personal relationship with the Holy Spirit so that God will purify their minds and hearts.
We’ve been empowered and you can be empowered to make a difference too! Miracles are not meant to be rare events. Jesus gave us his Holy Spirit so that we can do what he did. “If you believe in Me, you will do the same works I do, and even greater” (John 14:12). Can you give witness to this? Can you build the faith of others by sharing a testimony of a miraculous event?
We’ve compiled true stories @ wordbytes.org/holy-spirit.
Please help us evangelize others by contacting us to add your story to our website. You’ve been commissioned by the Holy Spirit to change the world! You can be empowered to make a difference! “Do not worry about what you are to say. For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that moment what you should say.”
© 2023 by Terry A. Modica
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