Overturning the Tables of the Evil Spirit by Andy Otto

I’ve always struggled with the story of Jesus, in a seeming rage, turning over the tables of the moneychangers in the Temple. But after reflecting on how the evil spirit pesters us constantly, I have a new understanding of what was going on in that Gospel story. Jesus was not reacting to the buyers and sellers themselves, but to the evil spirit at large. The holy place of the Temple, a house of prayer, became corrupted with greed. That greed was caused by human beings, yes, but architected by the evil spirit.

Jesus had witnessed many ways how the evil spirit could corrupt. He was even personally tempted by the evil spirit in the desert. But in the Temple Jesus had had enough. The story reveals that Jesus shared our human nature, our built-in human response when we’ve had enough with the evil spirit. We notice unhealthy patterns in ourselves and the world at large, we notice how the evil spirit seems continually to draw humankind toward self-destruction, and sometimes the evil spirit causes us to hit rock bottom. At that point we respond like Jesus, with anger, and turn over tables. We’re fed up with evil and sin, so we must take drastic action. We must be forgiving and gentle with ourselves, but we can’t be gentle with the evil spirit.

In the Temple that day Jesus was turning over the tables of injustice. He was reacting to the evil spirit that fuels systemic sin, corruption, and drives humankind toward brokenness and destruction. In fact, this story is often called the “Cleansing of the Temple.” How do we cleanse the evil spirit from the world? Unfortunately, we can’t change others, but we can be attentive and make sure that the good spirit is driving our choices. And while we do what we can to bring the good spirit into the world, we may still get fed up from time to time and need to overturn the tables of the evil spirit.

https://www.ignatianspirituality.com/22113/overturning-the-tables-of-the-evil-spirit?utm_source=YOC&utm_medium=email&utm_content=lld&utm_campaign=lent2018

The Woman at the Well

The following reflection is based on John 4:5–42.

Why did the Samaritan woman come to draw water at noon, the hottest time of the day?

What are the places in my life where I am embarrassed, where I avoid interaction with others?

What are the noonday wells of my life?

Imagine yourself as the woman in this passage. Jesus approaches you and tries to reveal his thirst to you—perhaps his thirst for intimacy with you—but you put him off. You are not worthy. It won’t work. When he offers to satisfy your thirst, you put him off. You are convinced he can’t satisfy your needs, at least not at this well and without a bucket.

Ask: How do I put Jesus off, with excuses, problems, or barriers? Examples might include saying, “I don’t have time,” “I haven’t done this before,” “My stuff is too complicated,” or “I don’t know how to find you in this mess.”

When Jesus shows the woman that he knows her, she comes to understand she is in the presence of someone special—perhaps the One she has thirsted for all her life.

Do I let Jesus show me that he knows and understands me?

The grace will come when I see that I have been at the well a long time and have long been thirsty. When I can name the new thirst, the Water that now satisfies that thirst, I can overcome my remaining resistance to trust. When I see that Jesus reveals himself to me by revealing me to myself, thereby showing me my need for him as Savior, I will rejoice and tell the whole world, too.

https://www.loyolapress.com/our-catholic-faith/liturgical-year/lent/articles/articles/the-woman-at-the-well?utm_source=YOC&utm_medium=email&utm_content=lld&utm_campaign=lent2018

Pope Francis on the Parable of the Merciful Father by Pope Francis

I am always struck when I reread the parable of the merciful father; it impresses me because it always gives me great hope. Think of that younger son who was in the father's house, who was loved; and yet he wants his part of the inheritance. He goes off, spends everything, hits rock bottom, where he could not be more distant from the father. Yet when he is at his lowest, he misses the warmth of the father's house and he goes back. And the father? Had he forgotten the son? No, never. He is there, he sees the son from afar; he was waiting for him every hour of every day. The son was always in his father's heart, even though he had left him, even though he had squandered his whole inheritance, his freedom. The father, with patience, love, hope, and mercy had never for a second stopped thinking about him, and as soon as he sees him still far off, he runs out to meet him and embraces him with tenderness, the tenderness of God, without a word of reproach: his son has returned! And that is the joy of the father. In that embrace for his son is all this joy: he has returned! God is always waiting for us; he never grows tired. Jesus shows us this merciful patience of God so that we can regain confidence, hope-always! A great German theologian, Romano Guardini, said that God responds to our weakness by his patience, and this is the reason for our confidence, our hope (see Glaubenserkenntnis [Würzburg, 1949], p. 28). It is like a dialogue between our weakness and the patience of God; it is a dialogue that, if we have it, will grant us hope.

I would like to emphasize one other thing: God's patience has to call forth in us the courage to return to him, however many mistakes and sins there may be in our life. Jesus tells Thomas to put his hand in the wounds of his hands and his feet and in his side. We too can enter the wounds of Jesus; we can actually touch him. This happens every time we receive the sacraments with faith. St. Bernard, in a fine homily, said: “Through the wounds of Jesus I can suck honey from the rock and oil from the flinty rock (see Deut. 32:13), I can taste and see the goodness of the Lord” (On the Song of Songs 61:4). It is there, in the wounds of Jesus, that we are truly secure; there we encounter the boundless love of his heart. Thomas understood this. St. Bernard goes on to ask: But what can I count on? My own merits? No. “My merit is God's mercy. I am by no means lacking merits as long as he is rich in mercy. If the mercies of the Lord are manifold, I too will abound in merits” (61:5). This is important: the courage to trust in Jesus' mercy, to trust in his patience, to seek refuge always in the wounds of his love. St. Bernard even stated, “So what if my conscience gnaws at me for my many sins? 'Where sin has abounded, there grace has abounded all the more' (Rom. 5:20)” (61:5).

Maybe someone among us here is thinking, My sin is so great, I am as far from God as the younger son in the parable; my unbelief is like that of Thomas. I don't have the courage to go back, to believe that God can welcome me and that he is waiting for me, of all people. But God is indeed waiting for you; he asks of you only the courage to go to him. How many times in my pastoral ministry have I heard it said, “Father, I have many sins”? And I have always pleaded, “Don't be afraid, go to him, he is waiting for you, he will take care of everything.” We hear many offers from the world around us; but let us take up God's offer instead: his is a caress of love. For God, we are not numbers, we are important; indeed we are the most important thing to him. Even if we are sinners, we are what is closest to his heart.



https://www.loyolapress.com/our-catholic-faith/scripture-and-tradition/catholic-living/pope-francis-on-the-parable-of-the-merciful-father?utm_source=YOC&utm_medium=email&utm_content=lld&utm_campaign=lent2018

Fulfillment @ Work

Matthew Kelly

Our God is a God of purpose. He's a God of purpose. He does things on purpose, with purpose, for purpose. And there are a lot of people who think that, “Oh, we have to work, you know, because Adam and Eve messed things up in the garden.” Not so.

If you pick up your Bible, and you open up Genesis, what you'll read is that, long before the fall, God put Adam in the garden. And what did he put him in the garden to do? He put him in the garden to turn and till the soil. He put him in the garden to work.

We need work. Work is important to us. We need something to do. And the reason is because work is part of God's original design for humanity, not a result of the fall—not a result of Adam and Eve messing up in the garden so we've all got to go to work every day. No. It's part of God's original, purposeful, intentional design for the human experience.

So what's the purpose of work? What's the meaning of work? The purpose of work is that when we work well, when we work hard, when we pay attention to the details of our work, we become a-better-version-of-ourselves. And it's like you can almost feel it happening.

We live in a culture that says the meaning of work is to make money. Absolutely wrong. Do we need money? Yes. Do we need to pay our bills? Absolutely. Does that need to be part of the consideration when we take a job? No question. But it is not the primary purpose of work. It's a secondary outcome of work. The primary purpose of work is that when we work hard, when we apply ourselves to our work, when we pay attention to the details of our work, we actually become better human beings. We become more perfectly ourselves. We become a-better-version-of-ourselves. We take a step closer to the-best-version-of-ourselves. We grow in virtue, we grow in character.

We live in a culture where work's got a bad reputation: “Oh, I've gotta go to work.” No. We getto go to work. We get to go to work. And work plays a very important role in the development of the human being.

    FOCUS

            We all spend too much time working not to be able to experience a deep satisfaction                  from our work.

ACT

Work hard and well, paying attention to the details of your work—even if your work is menial or less meaningful than you would like it to be. Consciously acknowledge that each hour of work, each task, is an opportunity to grow in virtue and character and become a-better-version-of-yourself.

PRAY

God, lead me to the work you created me to do, the work that will grow me in the ways you want me to grow.

https://dynamiccatholic.com/bestlentever/lent-reflections-2018/fulfillment-at-work/?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWm1Kak5EWTBOekZoWXpoayIsInQiOiIxWG80QWVUa0g4cUlqZG91VVpvclwvNmwxMG55ZHp4NTYwZ0VCbEsxdW93ZUpXc0UyQWM0amIyV3lCbjgycFBpeE4zXC90Y1BCZjVEYzlcL1lVMXBYcmJhT2psVk9BeGFtTWdFRjdTVWhmYXBkdE9IalM3dlpueWR1RldiaFMwZ0h4RCJ9

Does Baptism Save People?

Baptism is a ceremony through which you publicly enter into an agreement with your Creator. He agrees to forgive your past sins. You agree to love and obey Him. We do this because God has told us to.

Followers of Christ are instructed to be baptized in Acts 2:38. The Church of God is instructed to baptize in Matthew 28:19-20.

The actions of having someone put you under water and then bring you back up again have no power in and of themselves. However, in the context of a baptism, these actions are a necessary sign of a spiritual transformation taking place within.

So how is a person saved?

First, let’s establish what exactly you need to be saved from: You need to be saved from death.

Scripture tells us that through our sins we have earned only death, but God has the power to give us everlasting life (Romans 6:23). By the power of God, you can be saved from that death (John 5:24).

Your path from death to life follows this basic pattern

Awareness of sin

Sin is disobedience to God’s laws and is an offense before Him. It only makes sense that before you can consciously turn away from your disobedience toward God you first need to become aware of what those laws are and how you have offended God. One of the many roles of the Church of God is to proclaim the laws of God.

Conviction that you need to repent

With knowledge of God’s commands and standards comes awareness of your own guilt and offense toward God. You can ignore that guilt or you can choose to reconcile with God. He wants to reconcile. In fact, your sense of guilt is prompted in you by His Holy Spirit (John 16:8; Romans 2:4; John 6:44).

Baptism

To reconcile with God, the penalty for your offense before Him must be paid. God is willing to pay the penalty of death on your behalf, though, which He does through the death of Jesus Christ.

Through the act of baptism you publicly declare your acceptance of that payment on your behalf. You enter into this agreement with God before witnesses. Note: The public nature of this declaration is accomplished by presenting yourself to the Church of God to be baptized rather than performing the actions by yourself in private.

Going down into the water is a rite confirming the death of the old person you once were. Rising up out of the water confirms your entry into the newness of life (Romans 6:4). You are now cleansed of your guilt before God.

Receive the Holy Spirit

Your guilt may be gone, but you have not yet received the gift of everlasting life. This gift of eternal life begins with the receipt of the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands from a minister of God (Acts 8:14-17; 2 Timothy 1:6-7; Acts 19:5-6). The presence of the Holy Spirit within you is:

A down payment from God of the eternal life you will receive in fullness when resurrected (Ephesians 1:13-14).

The very power of God which will raise you from the dead—the same power of God which raised Jesus Christ from the dead (Romans 8:11).

Follow the lead of the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit will guide and prompt you to walk in God’s ways for the remaining days of your flesh and blood life (Romans 8:4). Through overcoming temptation and trial you will grow and mature into the fullness of Christ.

Resurrection

When Christ returns, those of us who have remained faithful in love and obedience to the very end will be granted the prize of eternal life. Our salvation from death will be complete (1 Corinthians 15:54-55).

A declaration of intent

The act of baptism is an important event on the path to eternal life. It is a sign that marks your day of decision. The day when you formally and publicly declare you are committed to walking the path that leads to eternal life (Philippians 3:10-11).

The time to get started on this important redirection of your life is now.

https://www.ucg.org/bible-study-tools/bible-questions-and-answers/does-baptism-save-people

Are You Happy ?

People are obsessed with happiness. People are obsessed with being happy. There's a reason, a really good reason. The reason is because God created us for happiness. God created us for happiness. He created you to be happy. God wants you to be happy. It's the will of God that you be happy.

Now, that doesn't mean happiness all the time. And that doesn't mean euphoria all the time. And that doesn't mean that there isn't a place for suffering and sacrifice in our lives. But God created us to be reasonably happy in this life and eternally happy in the next life. It's that “reasonably happy” thing we're not that comfortable with. We don't want to be reasonably happy; we want to be euphorically happy all the time. That's why people do so many stupid things. Most of the stupid things we do, we do because we're looking for an elevated experience. Why do people become addicted to drugs? They're looking for an elevated experience. They're not satisfied with being reasonably happy. They want to be euphorically happy. And of course, then they want to be euphorically happy all the time. And so they need more and more of this substance to create that false euphoric happiness and . . . and well, we know how that goes.

The other thing that I think is really important for us to remember is that, very often, we are the creators of our own unhappiness. Because the reality is, happiness is a choice. A thousand times a day we have a choice between happiness and misery. And yes, there are some things that are outside of our control, but a thousand times a day we have a choice between happiness and misery.

Are you choosing happiness, or are you choosing misery? We create unhappiness in our own lives. How are you creating unhappiness in your life at the moment?

If you are in a place where you don't like who you are and where you are . . . if you are in a place where you don't like your life . . . what do we do about that? Just do the next right thing. It's always the path that leads to happiness. Just do the next right thing. Don't worry about what you have to do tomorrow—just do the next right thing. It's amazing how quickly adopting that attitude, that approach, can change the happiness levels in our lives.

https://dynamiccatholic.com/

Catechumens retreat

We had a spirit filled retreat on 3 &4 Feb 2018 at Montfort retreat centre, a very quiet place on top of the mountain, I can only hear bird chirping, no noisy car ... blessed !