April 29, 2023

For you this week:

• Reflection for Saturday: Hope for our lost loved ones
• Inside the Ministry: Consecration to the Holy Spirit begins May 2
• This week’s WordBytes faith-builder: Now is the time to supercharge your faith!
• Footsteps to Heaven podcast: How to Detect God’s Signs for You

This week’s Trivia Challenge: What did Paul tell the Philippians that we should limit our thinking to? (Check your answer at the end of this newsletter.)

Saturday April 29, 2023

Acts 9:31-42
Ps 116:12-17
John 6:60-69
bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/042923.cfm
Podcast:
bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/daily-mass-reading-podcast-april-29-2023

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

As a result of what Jesus said, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer walked with him. Jesus then said to the Twelve Apostles, “Do you want to leave me, too?” (From Saturday’s Gospel reading)

Reflection for Saturday:
Hope for our lost loved ones

Which relationships need to be resurrected? Who has been running away from you because they are running away from Jesus?

I think all faith-filled Catholics have loved ones who’ve left the Faith. When we follow Christ, if we go far enough to be noticeably Christian in today’s darkened world, we lose people who are dear to us.

The good news is: Jesus gave us his Holy Spirit so that we can rise above the bad news and know how and when to demonstrate the power of God so that others are converted by it. When enough of us are activated by the Holy Spirit, together we are a mighty army victoriously defeating evil. And thus, the Holy Spirit changes the world.

The challenging news is: The Holy Spirit changes the world through us — through people who are empowered by a personal relationship with the Third Person of the Holy Trinity. Are you ready to be available for this?

Pray whole-heartedly: “Yes, I will let the Holy Spirit change the world through me!” And: “Come Holy Spirit, You have my permission to change me so that Christ can work more effectively through me!”

Liturgically, we’re in the time of year when the readings of Mass make it very clear what normal Christian living is supposed to look like. Let’s take it seriously — because Satan does not want us to. For example, in this Saturday’s reading from the Book of Acts, Peter raises Dorcas from the dead. End result: Many came to believe in the Lord. Do we think that God no longer wants to demonstrate his power this way? Do we think we can evangelize today’s world without supernatural evidence that God is real?

I believe that Satan’s #1 strategy in today’s world is the disempowering of Christians so that many do not come to believe in the Lord. He accomplishes this by convincing us Christians that the only thing Jesus asks of us is to be nice. Forget raising people from the dead! It won’t work. So just be nice.

We — individually and as a Church — need to repent of this lie. We need to pray daily: “Lord, I do believe; help my unbelief!” We need to ask for the full anointing of the Holy Spirit: “Come, Holy Spirit, and renew the face of the Earth!” And keep asking until it changes us.

Faith is contagious. Until we — the body of Christ on Earth, as a community of believers — are fully activated in the Holy Spirit like the first Christians were, we cannot expect (or even hope for) the massive conversion of unbelievers like the first Christians saw. By surrounding ourselves with Spirit-filled people, we grow in faith. And this leads to the conversion of others.

Inside the Ministry:
Consecration to the Holy Spirit begins May 2

It’s about to begin! Your life will never be the same if you make a commitment to the Lord to spend a little time each day this Easter season to consecrate yourself to the Holy Spirit.

You can become more sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s promptings. Wherever you are on your journey of faith, you can receive more from your personal relationship with the Third Person of the Holy Trinity than what you’re currently experiencing. By opening yourself to the truths that will be revealed in this 40-day CONSECRATION TO THE HOLY SPIRIT, your life will never be the same.

Each day you will receive a prayer and a short video. You will learn how to hear the Holy Spirit and start living in the power of the Holy Spirit. Consecration day will be May 28, Pentecost Sunday. Afterward, we will continue in a Mystagogia Period for two weeks of learning how to pray in the power of the Holy Spirit, ending on June 11, the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. Plus a bonus video of empowerment on June 12th.

Please share this very important invitation with others. You can even use it to form a prayer group in your home, gathering friends and neighbors to watch the videos together and discuss them.

Before it’s too late, sign up @ elists.gogoodnews.net/dada/mail.cgi/list/holyspirit.

This week’s recommended faith-builder:
Now is the time to supercharge your faith!

Why is our faith stuck in a rut of insufficiency? Because Satan and his cohorts have been doing everything they can to disempower the Church. Why? Because we are a huge threat to them. If the Body of Christ on Earth today (you, me, and all who have faith in Christ) were to become fully active in the Holy Spirit and be who we really, truly, are — little Christs banded together and covering the whole Earth, doing what Jesus did — it is Satan and all evil-doers who would be disempowered.

Doing great things for God, with Jesus, and in the power of the Holy Spirit is precisely the plan of God. Jesus made that very clear in John 14:12 and many other times.

This is exciting to hear, but do we believe it? Why have so many good Christians lost family members to the other side, and why aren’t their demons driven away by our prayers?

This week’s WordBytes article includes 3 important actions to take so that nothing can stop us from being God’s instrument of divine power.

For more on this, visit wordbytes.org/holyspirit/now-is-the-time-to-supercharge-your-faith.

WordBytes is a library of Catholic faith-building articles by Good News Ministries. Come on in and explore! Visit WordBytes.org today.

This week’s recommended podcast:
How to Detect God’s Signs for You (recast)

One of the identifying signs that we are living as a “normal” Christian, activated by the Holy Spirit, is our joy. Saint Paul said, “Rejoice always in the Lord!” How do we do that in today’s crazy, evil world? How can we rejoice always? Rejoice means “re-joy” — joy again and again and again. The key? Joy amidst trials comes from knowing how to identify the signs of God’s intervention, that God has heard our prayers.

Satan wants us to be depressed and joyless. No one is attracted to the Church when the people in the Church are dour, unenthusiastic, or complaining.

We all suffer in this world. We all have trials that are difficult to go through. But the Lord wants everyone to know that he is there for each of us when we turn to him — even when everything seems to get worse instead of better. Especially then!

By knowing how to read God’s signs, we can discover that he truly cares about our problems. God’s signs, which he provides as often as we need them, gives us reason to rejoice.

I went into this in greater depth when I recorded “How to Detect God’s Signs for You” (May 9, 2019). Learn how to identify the divine interventions that he’s providing for you right now, today. In this episode, I share stories of miraculous signs that I have experienced in my own trials. The hawk in the photo was spotted in a tree in my back yard. It is the actual hawk that was one of God’s signs for me — as described in this episode.

Listen to this podcast today @ gnm.org/footsteps5.

Or if you prefer to read it, download the transcript @ gnm-media.org/how-to-detect-gods-signs-for-you.

Answer to this week’s Trivia Challenge:
What did Paul tell the Philippians that we should limit our thinking to? Whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy (Philippians 4:8).

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.

Thank you for reading this newsletter.

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

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