Saturday August 20, 2022

For you this week:

• Reflection for Saturday: How I met God the Father
• Inside the Ministry: It’s finished!
• Next Event: Open House in Terry’s Corner
• This week’s WordBytes faith-builder: Nancy’s story: “Testing God with my finances”
• From our video ministry: Do You Know How Important You Are to Jesus?

This week’s Trivia Challenge: According to the prophet Isaiah, what is above the throne of God? (Check your answer at the end of this newsletter.)

Saturday August 20, 2022

Ezekiel 43:1-7
Psalm 85:9-14
Matthew 23:1-12
bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/082022.cfm
Podcast:
bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/2022-08-20-usccb-daily-mass-readings

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

And I saw that the temple was filled with the glory of the LORD.
Then I heard someone speaking to me from the temple,
while the man stood beside me.
The voice said to me:
“… this is where my throne shall be …”
(From Saturday’s first reading)

Reflection for Saturday: How I met God the Father

This Saturday is my dad’s birthday. He passed away in 2020 (age 91) on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Although he never understood why I honored the Virgin Mary or prayed the Rosary, I believe it was no coincidence that Jesus took him Home on that particular day. Have no doubt that the rosaries you pray for your loved ones are making an eternal difference!

Like many who are reading this, I never experienced a close relationship with my dad. The idea of confiding in him and feeling heard and understood — this was a concept that was so foreign to me, I didn’t even imagine it. How I met God the Father was a far cry from this relationship.

So, neither could I imagine that God the Father would hear me.

The spiritual director I had when I became an adult recognized the importance of this problem. She led me through a visualization in which Jesus introduced me to the True Father. In my prayer-imagination, I “saw” Jesus greet me at the door to the throne room of God. He opened the door and invited me in. I walked on a red carpet crossing over a vast, shiny floor. Then I arrived at the base of an enormous throne.

Sitting on the throne was a very big Father. I expected a stern expression. But he was smiling at me! Then, with the gentlest of voices, he invited me to sit on his lap. How could I? He was too large. He offered to lift me up, and when I gave him my hand, suddenly he seemed very reachable. The next moment, I was cuddled by him like a beloved child. I could feel the fabric of his kingly garments. I could feel the warmth of his chest against my cheek. I could feel the love in his heart. No question about it: I was loved. I was his beloved little girl. This is one main step in how I met God the Father.

That experience was the beginning of a Father-daughter relationship that has deepened ever since. It was the first step in the healing of my image of God’s Fatherhood.

Has your relationship with God been handicapped by father-wounds? In my book, The Father’s Heart, I share what I’ve learned from the journey and include the stories of others who’ve needed healing from their father-wounds. (See tothefathersheart.com)

Right now the Father wants you to know that you are his beloved child and he is favoring you with an opportunity for true friendship. Jesus is inviting you to approach the throne of your Father the King.

Inside the Ministry:
Our new design for emailed reflections

Tadaa! It’s finished! The special coding and new design for the emailed version of the Good News Reflections has been completed, tested and launched. It’s the last part of the site’s code updating projects. Now I’m doing the Happy Dance!

If you’re one of our daily reflections subscribers, we thank you for your awesome patience.

The final piece was making the new format work well in emails. Since Tuesday, subscribers have been receiving the new version.

While the new format was under construction, one bit of feedback we received from subscribers was the importance of the clickable heart at the bottom of the emails to share the reflection with others. It’s back! The heart is working again now.

Praise the Lord!

Next Event: Open House in Terry’s Corner
Coming soon!

I’ve had to spend way too much time serving as webmaster. Yes, I love this work. Yes, I started the GNM website way back in 1996 long before most other Catholic ministries even knew how to use the web. And I’ve played a necessary part in growing our web ministry and keeping the various sites going. We hired PHP experts when site design became more complicated. And now it’s time to hire a regular webmaster so we can free me up for projects that God has called me to do and no one else can do.

“Terry’s Corner” will give us the opportunity for some face-to-face group spiritual direction. I’ll schedule our first session as soon as I know we can pay for a webmaster. It will be an “open house” event; I’ll keep the Zoom room open all day so people can pop in whenever it’s convenient for them.

This will become top priority after we reach the $35,000 (USD) fundraising goal. See how close to the goal we are; visit gnm.org/donate.

This week’s recommended faith-builder:
Nancy’s story: “Testing God with my finances”

When Nancy was a single mother of two girls and the step-mom of five, giving to the church collection belonged to her pile of unpaid bills.

She says, “It never felt right about not giving. I tried to logic away my guilt by justifying in my mind God’s view of how I was handling the whole situation. My ‘logic’ had figured that God must be tallying my time and talent as being well over that 10% which he was asking from us. So, needless to say, I was a bit miffed to have to sit there and listen to this couple talk about a subject that always made me quite uncomfortable.”

That couple was Ralph and me. We had been traveling to various parishes in our diocese to share how God helped us in our personal struggle about sacrificial giving. Find out what happened when we came to Nancy’s parish! Go to wordbytes.org/finances/tithing2.

Do You Know How Important You Are to Jesus?

What God calls you to do, he equips you to do. He blesses you to do it because you’re not doing it alone. You’re doing it with Jesus. So when you’re called upon to do something that’s maybe not pleasant or off your agenda or something like that, if God’s calling you to do it, who do you say Jesus is in that question? Is he truly somebody who is guiding you, helping you, equipping you to be his partner in making this world a better place?

Watch Ralph and Terry discuss this on video @ gnm-media.org/know-important-jesus.

Answer to this week’s Trivia Challenge:
According to the prophet Isaiah, what is above the throne of God? The Seraphim, the highest ranking angels. They call out to one another, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts!” (See Isaiah 6:1-3.)

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.