What If …

 What If …

What would have happened if Noah said, ‘Don’t worry, it’s just a passing shower’?  (Gen 6:17)

Or if Joshua didn’t believe God and said to the people of Israel, ‘Let’s go - we all know you can’t knock a wall down by shouting’? (Jos 6:1-5)

When Jesus asked his Apostles “Are you going to leave me too?”; what would have happened if Peter said ‘Yes, I’m leaving I’d rather be fishing’ (Jn 6:66-71)

We all know what happened in those stories, and we all know in each one God’s Word wasn’t only listened to, but believed.  So now I ask; Why are there so many of us who simply don’t believe Jesus when he says “This is my body”, “This is my blood” (Mark 14:22-23) and “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you do not have life within you.  Whoever feeds upon my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day?” (John 6:53-54)

Do we not believe him when he references “eternal life”?  Do we not know that God cannot make a false statement?

We are all somewhere on our spiritual journey; some of us may be just beginning, others may be getting towards the end.  Regardless, NOW is the time to do something to improve your relationship with Jesus so that when you meet him face-to-face he will want to present you to the Father as his beloved and as an adopted son/daughter of God claiming their inheritance.

I hope you realize when you receive the Eucharist in Communion, you are closer to Jesus than you would have been sitting at the table during the last supper?

That same Jesus is waiting for you at this very moment in the Adoration Chapel.  Go to him; sit quietly in his presence and experience the change in your heart.

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A Worthwhile Change In The New Year

 Looking For A Change?

Every moment spent in the Eucharistic Presence of Jesus Christ increases His divine life within you and deepens your personal relationship and friendship with Him.  “I have come that you may have life, and have it more abundantly.”  “I am the Vine and you are the branches.  Whoever remains in union with Me shall bear much fruit for without Me, you can do nothing.” (Jn 10:10; 15:5)  We’ve all heard those words many times, but for many it’s like water off a duck, they simply don’t sink in.  This new year why not make a concerted effort to sincerely try to grow your relationship with God?  If you ask Him; He would love to help you.

There is no 11th Commandment that says if you visit Jesus in His Eucharistic Presence you have to spend this amount of time.  Nor is there a recommendation as to the proper way to pray.  Jesus is happy when you simply stop by for a visit and let Him do the work.  You can start with just a few minutes; but if you start with that, it won’t be long before your heart will be rewarded and you will want to spend more time with Him.

Starting this new year may be your ‘right time’ to step up and show God you want to better your relationship and will make the effort to visit him often in the chapel.  Chapel time is not the only way to show God how much you love Him, but it is a way near and dear to His Sacred Heart.  The harder it is for you to find time to visit, the greater the benefit.  God knows how precious our ‘time’ is, and when we offer a portion to Him its repaid a hundred times.  Give it a try and see for yourself.

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Learning To Pray With An Icon

What Do You Do With An Icon?   

If you are a regular Eucharistic Adorer in our chapel hopefully you’ve noticed the icons on the book shelf in the back.  They are meant to be not simply objects of admiration, but of education, reflection, and veneration.

In 325 CE a council of bishops was convened in Nicaea at which it was decided that, since Jesus had both a human and a divine nature, so inextricably intertwined that they could not be separated, looking at the face of Jesus was equivalent to looking at the face of God.  St. Paul, in his epistle to the Christian community in Colossae, wrote “Christ is the image of the invisible God”.  Thus the council decided that representing the human face of Jesus was deemed permissible and the veneration of icons was officially approved by the Church.

Icons and the people depicted in them are meant to be venerated, but not worshiped or adored.  The icons in the chapel are there to be picked up, taken back to your seat and used as an aid in your prayer life.  It’s a good idea to pick up a prayer card associated with the icon and read the description about that icon then spend some time looking at the icon and finding what is described on the prayer card.  

Icons are sometimes described as “Windows into Heaven.”  A good window is clean allowing you to see through it in both directions.  If you are making eye contact with a holy person depicted in the icon it’s thought the subject is also confronting you.  In the very personal space between the person of faith and the icon, an exchange happens.  One sees the image but also is seen.  What a priceless opportunity to say a prayer.

Using icons to enhance your prayer life is not for everyone, but the more you use them the more benefits realize and you begin to look forward to spending time with your favorite icons.

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"Time" - God's Precious Gift

A Good Steward Of Time

     "Though even thinking about the subject of time may prove discomforting, it is not a bad idea - especially at the beginning of a new year.

     As we look at 2026, we can think of it as a block of time.  We see 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days, 8,750 hours, 525,600 minutes, 31,536,000 seconds.  And all is a gift from God.  We have done nothing to deserve it, earn it, or purchase it.  Like the air we breathe, time comes to us as a part of life.

     The gift of time in not ours alone.  It is given equally to each person.  Rich and poor, educated and ignorant, strong and weak - every man, woman and child has the same twenty-four hours every day.

     Another important thing about time is that you cannot stop it.  There is no way to slow it down, turn it off, or adjust it.  Time marches on.

     And you cannot bring back time.  Once it is gone, it is gone.  Yesterday is lost forever.  Tomorrow is uncertain.  We may look ahead at a full year's block of time, but we really have no guarantee that we will experience any of it.

     Obviously, time is one of our most precious possessions.  We can waste it.  We can worry over it.  We can spend it on ourselves.  Or, as good stewards, we can invest it in the Kingdom of God.

     The new year is full of time.  As the seconds tick away, will you be tossing time out the window, or will you make every minute count?” (Author Unknown)

Spend one hour a week in the Adoration Chapel offering part of your most precious possession to the God Who made you and Who died for you, so that you could spend eternity in His presence where time will not be a limiting factor.

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Following Father's Example

Trusting Mary

“We are called to imitate the Father, and the Father entrusted everything to Mary: His beloved Son.  We are to follow this example and give ourselves fully to Mary.

What does giving ourselves to Our Lady mean?  It means going to Jesus and accepting the gift He has bestowed on us:  The gift of His Mother.  It means taking her into all our affairs, concerns, worries, and tasks - letting go of ourselves and being formed anew as children, by Mary.  We can learn to think and live as she, the Immaculate, does.  We can be in Mary’s “school” through daily recitation of the Rosary.  We can talk to her confidently as her children in prayer, entrusting to her our concerns; we can meditate on the Word of God with her, asking her to teach us how to trust and live her fiat at each moment.  We can learn about her virtues, so as to live as she did.

If we are called to a life of trust, from whom shall we learn but from Mary, for how did Jesus learn to trust in ABBA in His humanity, if not from her?”
 ( Stepping On The Serpent: The Journey of Trust with Mary p112)

Make this Christmas Season especially fruitful by placing your trust in our Heavenly Mother as Jesus did.  She wants to help.

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The Gift of Silence Leads to a Better Understanding of Jesus

Enter Into The Mystery

“If you seek God and want to find him; if you desire a life of the most intimate union with him, silence is the most direct path and the surest means of attaining it.  Silence is of capital importance because it enables the Church to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, imitating his thirty silent years in Nazareth, his forty days and forty nights of fasting and intimate dialogue with the Father in the solitude and silence of the desert.  Like Jesus, confronted with the demands of his Father’s will, we must seek silence in order to enter ever more deeply into the mystery of Christ.”  Robert Sarah The Power of Silence

If you seek to understand more deeply the mystery of Jesus a good starting point would be to share time with him in the silence of our Adoration Chapel.  Your mind cannot comprehend the happiness you bring to Our Lord when you are willing to spend some of your precious time in his presence in this unique way.  Discover for yourself the knowledge and peace that comes to us through Eucharistic Adoration.

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Blessed Are They Who Do Not See ...

Believe Without Seeing

Many people take Jesus’ love and Presence in the Blessed Sacrament for granted because they can’t see Him in His human form. When asked to make a commitment for a specific hour in the chapel they hesitate and let everything else come before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.  What they don’t realize is that faith will make this commitment easy! “Faith is confident assurance concerning what we hope for, and conviction about things we do not see.” (Hb 11:11)

Faith helps us realize this with conviction: The most important thing that you will do this week is spend an hour with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Your willingness to participate in Eucharistic Adoration is a precious expression of your faith that Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is welcomed, loved, and adored by you.

Don’t be afraid to commit to one hour each week for fear that there may be times that you can’t make it.  AdorationPro has a built in substitute system to take care of emergencies.  Just think of the words from Scripture: “You have nothing whatsoever to fear from Him.  Get up.  He is calling you!” (Mk 10:50)

When you get to heaven, Jesus will spend all of eternity thanking you and loving you for the fidelity in spending one hour with Him in the Blessed Sacrament each week.  This is why He says: “Blessed are they who do not see and yet believe.” (Jn 20:29)

We ask Our Lady of Guadalupe to hear the cries of the suffering and offer to her maternal compassion and protection all who seek her heavenly intercession.

I Thirst For You … Open to me, come to me, thirst for me, give me your life - and I will prove to you how important you are to my heart.

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