Thursday August 22, 2024

God can help you overcome the sins that are currently controlling you.

Good News Reflection for:

Thursday of the 20th Week of Ordinary Time
Memorial of The Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary
August 22, 2024

Today’s Prayer:

Good Father, grant me the grace to be obedient to your will and to approach each mission filled with love and courage. Amen.

UNITE IN COMMUNITY PRAYER!
Powerful Catholic prayers are available on our YouTube channel.

Today’s Readings:

Ezekiel 36:23-28
Ps 51:12-15,18-19
Matthew 22:1-14
bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/082224.cfm
USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/daily-mass-reading-podcast-august-22-2024

Living in the land of holiness

What this world needs now, to deliver it from so much evil happening in so many different ways, is a stronger, holier Christian body of believers. In today’s first reading, God speaks to us with assurances that, because of our desire to love him and follow him, we will grow in holiness. No doubt about it!

Are you holy now? Yes! When you were baptized, your sinful nature died and you received life in the HOLY Spirit. The problem is, we don’t always act according to our true nature. We reject our own goodness and thus we sin — or said more accurately, we reject the Holy Spirit within us.

If we accept the invitation of Jesus to join the great wedding banquet, like he explains in today’s Gospel reading, our heavenly King graces us with a feast of his goodness. And our Queen Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, who lived her entire life in the fullness of grace, adds her prayers to ours and shares with us her gift of grace.

This is how God proves his holiness to the world. He proves it, as Ezekiel prophesied, through us and our ever-increasing holiness. What sins are currently controlling you? God can help you overcome them! Read Ezekiel’s words as a promise from God to you personally:

“I will take you away from that world of sinfulness, because it’s foreign to your true nature, and I will bring you back into my kingdom, your real home.

“I will sprinkle purity (clean water) upon you to cleanse you from all your impurities. I will cleanse you from the muck of your idols, from everything that you hold dearer than your true God.

“I will remove your stony heart and give you a new heart — the Sacred Heart of my Son — and place within you a new spirit — my Holy Spirit. This Spirit will empower you to live by my statutes and decrees.

“You shall live in the land of holiness — my kingdom — which I gave to your ancestors, the saints who went before you.

“You shall be my child, and I will be your God. Indeed, this is already so, because you desire it! All I ever needed from you was your permission to lead you, to change you, and to embrace you. Thank you for giving this to Me in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, in the penance rites of Mass, and in your everyday love for Me.”

To reflect further on this, go to our WordByte called: “How the Witness of Hope Can Change the World” @ https://wordbytes.org/spiritual-growth/hope-can-change-world.

© by Terry A. Modica, Good News Ministries

Access more in our new Calendar of Reflections.

 To distribute the Good News Reflections in your church bulletin or in RCIA or faith sharing groups, please contact us.

 You can also receive this & more faith-builders by text message on your phone.

 Keep it going! This reflection reached you thanks to benefactors. Please support this ministry today.

 Post your prayer request.

 How else can we serve you today? Visit our homepage.

Search more reflections in our continually growing database.

Homebound, Prison & Hospital Ministers are invited to print and distribute them without further permission.

Continue your prayer time with these:
Pray with Saints | Pray the Rosary | Other Prayers | Random Quotes.

Order and share Terry Modica's books

Socialize with us at:
        

Please share this with others by inviting them to visit this page. You may also print this for your personal use and you may share the print-out with others.