For you this week:
- Reflection for Saturday: Do you know why God is rejoicing over you?
- Inside the Ministry: New! Recordings of Saint prayers for meditation
- Terry’s Corner: Coming soon! The Father’s Heart
- This week’s WordBytes faith-builder: Are you suffering because God abandoned you?
- This week’s recommended video: What’s the Value of Sacrifices?
This week’s Trivia Challenge: Who does God tell Abraham to sacrifice to prove his loyalty to him? (Check your answer at the end of this newsletter.)
Saturday March 4, 2023
Deuteronomy 26:16-19
Psalm 119:1-2, 4-5, 7-8
Matthew 5:43-48
bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030423.cfm
Podcast:
bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/daily-mass-reading-podcast-march-4-2023
Saints Calendar:
gnm.org/saints-find/saints-calendar
Today you are making this agreement with the Lord: He is to be your God and you are to walk in his ways. (From Saturday’s first reading)
Reflection for Saturday:
Do you know why God is rejoicing over you?
In your prayer time, imagine God the Father beaming with a smile because he is very pleased with you. Imagine him telling the angels around his throne how wonderful you are. What is he saying?
God has made a covenant with you: “I will raise you high in praise and renown and glory!” (see Saturday’s first reading, Deuteronomy 26:16-19.)
Because you are keeping your part of the covenant — trying to grow stronger in faith — you are, in effect, giving glory to God and praising him. Through your deeds of faith and the behavior that comes from growth in faith, you’re acknowledging that his ways are good.
God the Father therefore is glorifying you and praising you! Yes, really! He is so pleased with you that he’s telling the angels how wonderful you are. Yes, really!
When our deeds are not in keeping with true faith, and if we refuse to go to wherever Jesus is leading us on the journey of faith, then we’re breaking ourselves against the covenant that God has made with us. We are breaking our relationship with God.
The promise is always there, like an unbreakable wall protecting us from evil, because God never fails to fulfill his part of the covenant. Thus, when we fail to live up to our side of the covenant, we only break ourselves. — Oh ouch!
It’s easy to say with our lips that the ways of God are good, but when our behaviors do not agree with the covenant that God has made with us, we hurt ourselves. We break. We feel pain, stress, worry, fear, lonely and unloved. And we hurt others at the same time.
The ways of God can feel painful, too. In this Saturday’s Gospel passage (Matthew 5:43-48), Jesus tells us to love our enemies. — Oh ouch!
It hurts to give love without being loved in return. But this is a different kind of pain; it’s the pain of the Cross. It’s perfect unity with Christ. In the midst of this pain, the Lord is our God, and our covenant relationship with him strengthens us and blesses us. He glorifies us.
Rejoice that you suffer with Jesus and experience the joy of his glorious resurrection rather than suffer the self-destruction of turning away from Jesus. Yes, really!
Inside the Ministry:
New! Recordings of Saint Prayers for meditation
Yet another upgrade to our Daily Prayers with the Saints ministry is a meditative recording of each of the prayers. GNM volunteer Karen Mayhew is making the recordings, staff member Fernando Ramos is setting it to music, and you can listen to them in the daily emails “Daily Saints: Heroes of the Faith“; sign up @ elists.gogoodnews.net/dada/mail.cgi/list/saints.
You can also get them on our website @ gnm.org/daily-saints. Find the prayers by the date of the Saints’ feast days. Go find today’s and give it a listen!
The meditations are posted on Podbean as an audio calendar of Saints (we are just getting started; eventually there will be one for each day of the year). Visit dailyprayerswithsaints.podbean.com.
The prayers come from my book Daily Prayers with the Saints, which is being updated as I work on the new website posts. If you’ve purchased this book, let me know and I will send you the updated version for free when it’s finished.
Thank you for keeping this huge project and the GNM team in your prayers.
Terry’s Corner: Coming soon
The Father’s Heart
After Lent, I’ll open up the GNM room on Zoom for live discussions on my book The Father’s Heart. You’ll have the opportunity to ask me questions, be heard, and learn from the successes of others, all within the privacy of confidentiality.
It’s a great way to discipline yourself to get the chapters finished so that you can have the best ever relationship with Father God.
The study group will meet on Wednesdays, starting on April 19, for 8 weeks. (Time will be decided based on your preferences.) Get your copy of the book now! 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.
This week’s recommended faith-builder:
Are you suffering because God abandoned you?
There are many ways in which Jesus presents Himself to us. Most of them are unexpected. Sometimes we don’t even recognize Him, and so we feel abandoned.
Jesus is present when we suffer, but if we expect Him to remove our pain quickly to prove He cares about us, we will fail to recognize what He is doing that is more loving. We want short-cuts to healing and short-cuts to happiness, but God knows when this would be detrimental for us. Despite what our expectations insist upon, He is present to us in the long-term plan, for which someday we’ll be very grateful.
For more on this, visit wordbytes.org/passion-spirituality/unexpected.
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:
What’s the Value of Sacrifices?
Saint Teresa of Calcutta said, “Lent is a time when we relive the Passion of Christ. Let it not be just a time when our feelings are roused, but let it be a change that comes through cooperation with God’s grace in real sacrifices of self.”
In this video reflection (an old classic recorded in 2011), I examine how our sacrifices can make a difference beyond our own lives when we have true solidarity with the Passion of Christ.
Watch the video @ gnm-media.org/whats-the-value-of-sacrifices.
Answer to this week’s Trivia Challenge:
Who does God tell Abraham to sacrifice to prove his loyalty to him? His precious son Isaac. God prevented the sacrifice by producing a ram to use. As a foreshadowing of Jesus, this Bible story reminds us that God the Father proved his loyalty to us by sacrificing his only Son, Jesus. This should silence any doubt that he loves us deeply and dearly. Of course, he knew that he would raise his Son from the dead, but he did not prevent the terrible tortures inflicted upon him. By the wounds of Jesus, we are healed. By the resurrection of Jesus, we are victorious over evil.
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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How to Win Victories in Spiritual Warfare
Knowing God’s Will and Doing it Well
Lessons from the Blessed Mother
Daily Prayers with the Saints