Saturday June 17, 2023
For you this week:
- Reflection for Saturday: Do you trust God the Father as a true friend?
- Inside the Ministry: Back to serve after a week of recovery
- This week’s WordBytes faith-builder: Getting Rid of the False God of Punishment
- This week’s recommended video: How to Experience God’s Loving Fatherhood
- You don’t want to miss: Meditation for the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
This week’s Trivia Challenge: How did the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary get started? (Check your answer at the end of this newsletter.)
Saturday June 17, 2023
Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
2 Corinthians 5:14-21
Psalm 103:1-4, 9-12
Luke 2:41-51
bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061723.cfm
Podcast:
bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/daily-mass-reading-podcast-june-17-2023
Saints Calendar:
gnm.org/saints-find/saints-calendar
So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come. (From Saturday’s first reading)
Reflection for Saturday:
Do you trust God the Father as a true friend?
I had a wonderful relationship with Jesus since my earliest childhood, as far back as I can recall. I grew up believing that Jesus was my Best Friend. When I felt lonely, I turned to Jesus. When I felt misunderstood by my father, Jesus sat with me in my room while I cried on my bed. When I forgot a homework deadline and felt panicked and sick to my stomach about it, I knew that Jesus loved me anyway. He encouraged me to do better, building my confidence (not my guilt).
God the Father, on the other hand, could increase my guilt (a mistaken idea). I thought of him as The Big Disciplinarian. I reasoned that, because I got enough discipline from my dad, why should I spend any time with God the Father? My parents didn’t offer me friendship, so it never occurred to me that I could have a friendship with God as my Father. Jesus was the one for that.
I learned early on that Jesus said in John 15:15, “From now on, I call you my friends. You did not choose Me; I chose you!” This meant a lot to me because (for example) in gym class I was usually the last kid to be chosen for sports teams. I was sure that the team captains would have preferred to not choose me at all. But Jesus, the God who came to save the world, chose me. ME! Jesus wanted me for a friend. Wow!
However, this was a very limited understanding of John 15:15. I missed the point that Jesus was making about the Father. Read the whole verse: “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you” (NIV, emphasis mine).
The reason why Jesus calls us “friends” is because he learned this from his Father. In fact, everything he taught he learned from the Father. Jesus made known to us what the Father had made known to him — because we are the Father’s friends.
Let me put this another way. Jesus had a friendship with his Father — not just a sonship. And what Jesus had, Jesus gave. If we are a friend of Jesus, it should be easy to experience friendship with the Father. But this was unimaginable to me.
Like many who are reading this, I never experienced a close friendship with my dad. The idea of confiding in him, and feeling heard and understood like I experienced with my true friends — this was a concept that was so foreign to me, I didn’t even imagine it.
So, neither could I imagine that God the Father could be a friend.
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.
That experience was the beginning of a Father-daughter friendship that has deepened ever since. It was the first step in the healing of my image of God’s Fatherhood. There have been many other milestones along the way.
Note: For the next several weeks, I’m going to provide more excerpts (like this one) from my book “The Father’s Heart” because I care about you and I want you to have the best possible friendship with Father God.
If you want to benefit even more by reading the whole book, order it from tothefathersheart.com.
Inside the Ministry:
Back to serve after a week of recovery
Due to my computer crashing, there was no newsletter last weekend. As I write this, there’s still a lot more work to do to restore the software that I depend on for serving you. Ugh. I love working with computers but it’s no simple matter to transfer all the files from a dead computer to the new one and to install all necessary software.
My computer crashed the same week we moved Mom to an assisted living facility. Double-ugh. I truly believe that God’s timing is always perfect, but I still don’t understand what he had in mind with this stress-on-stress. One thing I do know is this: After enduring a lot of stress, both body and mind need rest. Like computers, when we crash we need to recover; we need restoration. So I entrusted Good News Ministries to my very capable staff and let God bless me with some wonderful visits with friends, surrounding me with his love through their time and attention.
This is something we all need to remember while our world goes bonkers with its ungodly ways. Stress levels are higher than normal. Take a vacation from the things that have been disconcerting — even if it’s only for one afternoon of fun with a friend.
This week’s recommended faith-builder:
Getting Rid of the False God of Punishment
If you see God the Father as a Punisher who’s always on the look-out for you to do wrong so that He can slap you on the knuckles and ground you in your room of misery, you’re believing in a false god. When Jesus died on the cross for you, He took the punishment you deserve for your sins. When the Father gazes upon you now, He sees your sins nailed to the cross and He sees you as the beautiful gem He designed you to be.
For more on this, visit wordbytes.org/suffering/false-god-of-punishment.
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 video:
How to Experience God’s Loving Fatherhood
The Father is the Person of the Holy Trinity who’s most difficult to have a close relationship with. He’s the one who punishes us. He expects perfection. Right? Wrong! We need healing in our idea of his Fatherhood. God’s Fatherhood gives us total love and kindness and mercy. He gave us Jesus so we won’t have to face punishment for our sins. He is completely patient with us regardless of how imperfect we are. And He’s intimately and infinitely concerned about our daily trials.
Watch this short video @ gnm-media.org/how-to-experience-gods-loving-fatherhood.
Sit With Mary: A Marian Meditation (in honor of this Saturday’s Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary)
Pray with me in a Marian meditation about the challenging times in the life of the Blessed Mother Mary when she trusted God. In this video, we ask Mary for the grace that we need for trusting God in our difficulties.
Download the audio-only podcast @ footstepstoheaven.com/prayer/sit-with-mary-a-marian-meditation.
The meditation can be downloaded from gnm.org/footsteps102.
To get the book mentioned in this episode (The Father’s Heart) visit tothefathersheart.com.
Who else should hear this episode? Please share it!
Answer to this week’s Trivia Challenge:
How did the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary get started? The first recorded hint of a special devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary is found in a sermon by Saint Bernard (De duodecim stellis) in the early 12th century. In the 17th century, Saint Jean Eudes propagated the devotion in his diocese. Gradually it spread around the world. Then, during World War II, Pope Pius XII consecrated the world to Mary’s Immaculate Heart, and in 1944 he decreed that the whole Church should celebrate the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. So be sure to use this day to place our evil world today into the care of the Blessed Mother.
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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