October 16, 2021

For you this week:

• Reflection for Saturday: You can be empowered to make a difference
• Next Smart Event: How to Hear the Holy Spirit
  
• Our most popular video: Be Filled with Joy by Hearing the Holy Spirit
• This week’s WordBytes faith-builder: Turn the Wait into a Giggle
  

Saturday October 16, 2021

Romans 4:13, 16-18
Psalm 105:6-9, 42-43
Luke 12:8-12
bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/101621.cfm
Podcast:
bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/2021-10-16

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

The Holy Spirit will teach you at that moment what you should say. (From Saturday’s Gospel reading)

Reflection for Saturday:
You can be empowered to make a difference

Never forget that you can be empowered to make a difference! My husband Ralph and I were first healed spiritually when we began going to Catholic Charismatic prayer meetings in 1977. One sure fact about having a personal relationship with the Holy Spirit is that we experience it most fully within the community life of Spirit-filled prayer meetings. Prayer meetings are not just about signs and wonders and other miraculous manifestations of the Holy Spirit such as prophetic messages and visions. They are where we are built up in faith by the witnesses of others. They are where we surround ourselves with like-minded, faith-filled Catholics with whom we can relax because we’re all striving for holiness.

Fruitful prayer groups are launching pads for involvement in the parish community and going out into the world in the power of God to bring more people to conversion and deeper faith. This is where we are commissioned by the Holy Spirit to change the world.

In 1997, Ralph and I were asked to speak to a youth group about the dangers of the occult and New Age teachings. Our goal was to convince them to trust the greater and better power of the Holy Spirit, so we invited them to be prayed over.

One of the girls told us that her arm had been injured in a car accident. Although several months had passed, she was still unable to raise her hand higher than shoulder level. Would we pray for a healing?

Ralph and I truly hoped that she’d get her miracle as proof of the loving power of God, but neither of us felt strong enough in faith to be instruments of that kind of healing. So we breathed a prayer of surrender, entrusted the outcome to the Lord, and prayed, taking authority in the name of Jesus over her damaged arm and shoulder.

Then we told her, “Lift your hand up high.” And she did! The Lord completely healed her.

Today more than then, young people need to witness God’s loving power. So too everyone who is barely alive in the Christian Faith. And those who have no faith. And people who are believers but are following the false teachings of the world. Everyone needs to be invited to a miracle-producing personal relationship with the Holy Spirit so that God will purify their minds and hearts.

We’ve been empowered and you can be empowered to make a difference too! Miracles are not meant to be rare events. Jesus gave us his Holy Spirit so that we can do what he did. “If you believe in Me, you will do the same works I do, and even greater” (John 14:12). Can you give witness to this? Can you build the faith of others by sharing a testimony of a miraculous event?

We’ve compiled true stories @ wordbytes.org/holy-spirit.

Please help us evangelize others by contacting us to add your story to our website. You’ve been commissioned by the Holy Spirit to change the world! You can be empowered to make a difference! “Do not worry about what you are to say. For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that moment what you should say.”

How to Hear the Holy Spirit

Have you wondered: “How can I hear the Holy Spirit better?” or “How does one have a personal relationship with the Holy Spirit?” or “How can I know the difference between the Holy Spirit’s voice and my own imagination?”

If you open yourself to the truths that will be shared in this course, your life will never be the same again. Wherever you are on your journey of faith, you will learn to recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit better than ever.

Visit gnm-media.org/hear-holy-spirit-intro.

The intro and 15 lessons contain short videos, a prayer, and discussion questions so students can learn from each other while deepening your own understanding.

Our most popular video:
Be Filled with Joy by Hearing the Holy Spirit

How much joy do you have in your prayer? Do you pray with the Spirit of Joy? Did you know that in hearing the Holy Spirit, you are listening to God dialoging with your inner spirit all the time, every day? Here’s the secret to recognizing this conversation and benefiting from it so that all your prayers can be filled with joy.

This video is one of the first videos I ever made for Good News Ministries (2010). Although its style and quality is not as professional as the videos I make today, it is by far the most popular one ever produced by Good News Ministries, with more than 43,400 views. Why? Because many people are like you — they want to know how to hear the Holy Spirit.

Watch the video @ gnm-media.org/hearing-holy-spirit.

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 faith-builder:
Turn the Wait into a Giggle

We all have relatives and friends for whom we’ve been praying with the longevity of St. Monica (whose wayward son eventually became the famous St. Augustine). We all have problems that should have, with all due common sense, ended yesterday. If not sooner. We all have dreams of the future — dreams that God gave to us himself — that we’ve been counting on, hoping on, waiting on.

Did you ever notice that God seems to have a knack for telling us that something wonderful is going to happen — and it sure feels like he’s pronouncing the word “soon” (read my lips: “s-o-o-n”), but it actually takes 11.9 years to materialize? What’s going on? Did he forget to adjust his watch for our time zone?

For more on this, visit wordbytes.org/suffering/turn-waiting-into-a-giggle.

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

Let’s connect in GNM’s community: See you there!

Keep your eyes on Jesus!
And when you have to look at others, see them through his eyes.