March 18, 2023
For you this week:
- Reflection for Saturday: The Healing Shadow of Jesus
- Inside the Ministry: Want to know God the Father as your Doting Daddy?
- Next Event: Turn Your Crosses Into Resurrections
- This week’s WordBytes faith-builder: The Healing Wounds of Jesus
- Footsteps to Heaven podcast: Secrets to Success with Young Adults
This week’s Trivia Challenge: When did Stations of the Cross begin? (Check your answer at the end of this newsletter.)
Saturday March 18, 2023
Hosea 6:1-6
Psalm 51:3-4, 18-21
Luke 18:9-14
bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031823.cfm
Podcast:
bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/daily-mass-reading-podcast-march-18-2023
Saints Calendar:
gnm.org/saints-find/saints-calendar
“Come, let us return to the LORD, for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.” (From Saturday’s first reading)
Reflection for Saturday:
The Healing Shadow of Jesus
When is a saint not a sinner?
A saint is anyone who has chosen to follow Jesus to heaven. We are baptized into sainthood. We are all saints! However, Jesus points out in this Saturday’s Gospel reading (Luke 18:9-14) that there’s pride in claiming to do all the right things and using this to prove that we are righteous. A truly holy person knows that he or she can be tempted to sin and continually relies on strength from the Holy Spirit while putting energy into a real effort to be holy.
So let me rephrase the question: When is a saint living out his true identity instead of living like a sinner? When he repents, of course.
In Saturday’s first reading (Hosea 6:1-6), we can identify with the affliction as well as with the desire to return to God: Until we’re healed by his forgiveness, we’re afflicted with the sorrow and regret of realizing how easily we stumble on our journey of faith. We want to be godly, and so, if we really take an honest look at how unlike Jesus we sometimes are, we feel wretched.
How do we cope with feeling so badly about ourselves? Most of us handle it by distracting ourselves from our wretchedness.
This is why Saturday confession lines in many churches are short. We’d rather live in the illusion that we don’t need the Sacrament of Reconciliation. However, the fact is, God doesn’t look at us and see ugly wretches. Remember, Jesus substituted himself for us. He who never sinned took our sins upon himself. When God our Father looks at us, it is through the filter of Christ’s blood. He recognizes us as a holy child who wants to be free of sin. And thus he is very pleased with us.
By placing ourselves behind Jesus, in the protection of his shadow, we have a great advantage.
So be the saint that you truly are by stepping into the confessional to ask Jesus to give you the power of his Holy Spirit to overcome your sins and to avoid them in the future. Go to Mass fully aware of how easily you sin, then receive God’s forgiveness in the Penitential Rite. Finally, go home realizing that you have been empowered in your sainthood through the graces received in Confession and in the Holy Eucharist.
Inside the Ministry:
Want to know God the Father as your Doting Daddy?
Sign up now for Terry’s Corner, live get-togethers via Zoom. The group will begin meeting on Wednesday April 19. (Time will be decided based on your preferences; be sure to take the poll.)
The first sessions will come from my book “The Father’s Heart” — but if you don’t have it, that’s okay. You’ll be blessed whether you read my book or not. Order your copy of the book now to allow 4 weeks for printing and shipping. Visit charispublishing.com/products/30-days-to-the-fathers-heart-terry-modica.
Tell me: What time of day works for you? Vote for your preferences @ calendly.com/d/zy9-9zz-thc/terry-s-corner.
To register, visit us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIkf-ytrTgrH9bh45RVR8nhp_zIR3zhKTOt.
I hope to see you there!
Next Event:
Turn Your Crosses Into Resurrections
What crosses are you carrying? Where is this hardship taking you spiritually? Maybe it feels like you’re alone. Maybe Jesus doesn’t seem to be carrying any of your burdens. Maybe you think that the reason you suffer is because he doesn’t care about you.
You are invited to meet Jesus and feel his strong arms lightening your burdens. Sign up for Turn Your Crosses Into Resurrections. Through a daily series of short videos, you will feel Jesus ministering to you. You will learn to turn tragedies into triumphs, grief into joy, and the deaths of your hopes and dreams into resurrections — just in time for Easter Sunday!
It begins March 28th and ends on Good Friday.
Sign up free @ elists.gogoodnews.net/dada/mail.cgi/list/workshops.
This week’s recommended faith-builder:
The Healing Wounds of Jesus
Jesus revealed to Saints Gertrude, Bridget, Mechtilde and Catharine of Sienna that those who meditate on His Passion are very dear to him.
“The Healing Wounds of Jesus” is a mystical and scientific compilation of how Jesus suffered for you according to the revelations of saints and mystics and by modern scientists.
Meditate on the Passion of Jesus @ wordbytes.org/healing-wounds-of-jesus.
WordBytes is a library of Catholic faith-building articles by Good News Ministries. Come on in and explore! Visit WordBytes.org today.
Secrets to Success with Young Adults (new podcast)
Meet Will Deatherage. He has been helping Good News Ministries fill some of our staffing needs with his agency Catholics for Hire (catholicsforhire.com). My original intention for featuring him on my podcast show was to help him grow his business. Whether you need to hire someone to do digital work or you’re looking to be hired in the digital field, this show is for you.
But as it turns out, this show is also for parents and catechists who wonder how to encourage the faith of young adults. This young entrepreneur has a vibrant passion for the Faith, so I asked him: “How did you avoid the traps of lies and evil that have ensnared so many of our young people?”
His answers are worth listening to even if you don’t have young adults in your life right now. God might be calling you to engage someone else’s wayward adult children and help them find their way to faith in Christ and active participation in Holy Mass.
Listen to this podcast @ gnm.org/footsteps101.
Or watch the video @ gnm-media.org/secrets-to-success-with-young-adults.
Sign up for early access to podcasts. New episodes of the podcast show Footsteps to Heaven are published before this newsletter goes out. You can be notified as soon as new ones are published! Subscribe at gnm-media.org for the podcast videos or at footstepstoheaven.com for the audio-only version.
Answer to this week’s Trivia Challenge:
When did Stations of the Cross begin? An ancient tradition holds that the Blessed Mother was the first to walk the Stations of the Cross by visiting the places where Jesus suffered on Good Friday. After Constantine legalized Christianity in 312, this pathway was marked with shrines, carvings and frescoes that are still used by pilgrims today. In the 5th century, the Church began to “reproduce” these holy places for those who could not travel to the Holy Land. Today you can do it virtually through our online Stations of the Cross @ gnm.org/prayers/way-of-the-cross.
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
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