#77: Dispositions to conceive a child

Among everything that you can do for your family, only children are eternal. Everything else is just, used up, sold or forgotten, but your children from the moment of conception begin to exist forever. Even if your children die their souls will live forever.

What God promised Abram is also at your fingertips: that your descendants will be countless as the stars in the universe. (Gn 15,5) Think about it, the calculations are easy to do, if your children have in turn their own children, and this goes on generation after generation, your descendants after thirty generations can easily be more than a billion and after 60 generations more than a trillion.

Today's reflection is based on a passage from the first book of Samuel, which tells the birth of the prophet Samuel. The passage is in 1 Samuel 1,19-28. I recommend that you pray before you read ahead to ask the Holy Spirit to His light.

Points for reflection.

1. Life is a gift from God. The union of gametes is not enough for life. God intervenes in the moment of conception and adds the soul to form a complete human being with body and soul.

2. Fertility is a blessing. Every blessing is in answer to prayer, so prayer done by the couple favors fertility. The couple can earn the trust of God with good behavior and be blessed with children.

3. Choose names for your children that will remind them of their vocation.  Man’s universal vocation is life in the Holy Spirit. (Catechism, paragraph 1699)

Let us ask the Virgin Mary, Queen of families, to teach us to value human life and our role as co-creators with God of future generations of men.

Thank you for making this reflection with me. Yyou are appreciated and loved in Jesus Christ. You are the reason for my blog.

May God bless you.

I'd love to learn what this reflection has meant to you. Do not go without leaving your comments, your purposes, whatever you want.

#76: What does pervert mean?

The worst way to help someone, who has become a pervert and has abandoned the way of Jesus Christ, is to pretend that it does not matter, to say that we love that person and that everything is fine.

A pervert is one who commits acts of infamy and walks to his eternal damnation. Even though his condition may be the result of circumstances that pushed him to do so, this person needs a life change to find true love.

The pervert is one who has a sexual behavior that is detrimental to society. A person with a conduct detrimental to society has three characteristics:

• He does not seek to form a new family.
• He is exposed and becomes a carrier of venereal disease and other ills.
• His life is impoverished with a group of other negative people.

Acts of infamy are those who bring dishonor to the person and his family. Dishonor isolates the individual in disgrace for three reasons:

1. Perverts are disgusting like flies and cockroaches for the things they do.
2. People are afraid of perverts that can carry diseases and hurt their children with physical or spiritual ailments.
3. Friendship with a pervert can bring dishonor to you even if your conduct is above reproach.

It may be recalled here that although we call things by their name, as Catholics we are called to reach out to the neighbor without distinction of persons. If there is anything that we can do to help, we should help, if only in our prayers. We hate the sin not the sinner.

The reflection of today is based on a passage from the book of Judges that recounts a crime committed by the inhabitants of a town called Gibeah. The quote is Judges 19, 22-30. I recommend that you pray before you read ahead to ask the Holy Spirit for His light.

Points for reflection

1. You should choose well the place where you're going to have fun, and the people you hang out with. If you don’t, people will take you where you do not want to go and make you do what you loathe. Just as good deeds are observed and imitated, evil can sprinkle onto you, and before you know it, you can be involved in a problem beyond your control.

2. Do not expose your family to any physical or moral danger. Choose well your holiday vacation spot. Avoid a situation where you could lose your family. Do not encourage immoral activities that may turn your children tomorrow into adult perverts.

 3. Share your mistakes and experiences, not to encourage others to sin, but to warn them of the consequences. Some people like to show off about their experiences and laugh at their sins, but this is a grave offense against modesty. You, on the contrary, be prudent and look for the good of your audience first.

Let us ask Mary, Virgin most prudent, to teach us the virtue of purity to remove any perversion from our own behavior.

May God bless you abundantly.

#75: Christmas is a time for hospitality

Christmas dinner  requires many preparations motivated by the pleasure and joy of spending time together as a family. The preparations would be lengthy to describe here, but I'm sure every family has a tradition on this subject, and year after year the same recipes are repeated and anticipated by everyone.

Something not to miss in each family is that someone should be responsible for inviting the lonely. We must invite the relatives who have no family of their own so that no one spends Christmas Eve by themselves.

Today's reflection is based on a passage from the book of Judges. The quote is Judges 19, 11-21. I recommend that you pray before reading ahead, asking the Holy Spirit to enlighten you.

Points for reflection

1. The holy man of God goes out into the world and meets all kinds of people, but at a reasonable hour, towards the end of the day, he seeks shelter to rest among his own.  His own are those who share his faith and traditions.

2. Sacred Scripture in this passage, through the conduct of the old man, teaches us that despite the fatigue that can be felt after working all day, we must remain vigilant to the opportunities that God gives us to serve others.

3. A wise man should be prepared so as not to inconvenience, but also should be humble and let himself be helped by those who have the willingness to do so. The practice of virtues is dependent on each other’s need to give and receive. For this reason, you do as much good when you give as when you ask for help.  When you give you do a good deed. When you ask for help, you let another person perform a good deed that will serve him in his final judgement.

Let us pray to the Blessed Virgin Mary, house of gold, to intercede for us so that we may expand our hearts and learn also to share our home with others.

May God bless you abundantly. 

#74: Guidelines for marital reconciliation

The couple's relationship over the years of married life has stages of communication and closeness that are exchanged for times of estrangement.

The stages of communication and closeness usually coincide with important dates such as:

• anniversaries,
• birthdays,
• the birth of a child
• the reception of a sacrament in the family.

On the other hand, the times of estrangement  are a consequence of the selfishness of the couple, which is trying the patience of both spouses every day. So the days lived routinely tend to separate the couple, while special days achieve the opposite effect, uniting the spouses.

The key is to have a married life full of special moments. Some of these moments spent with family in addition to those already mentioned are:

• the recitation of the Holy Rosary
• Mass,
• missions,
• works of mercy,
• prayer before meals.

Every day that the family does not have a special moment, the marriage is placed in danger. You should not wait to split up to start looking for ways to procure closeness with your spouse.

The reflection of today is based on a passage from the book of Judges. The quote is Judges 19, 1-10. I recommend that you pray before you read, to ask the Holy Spirit for His light.

Guidelines for marital reconciliation in the light of Scripture.

1. After a serious offense to your marriage, that by which your spouse probably deserves death and all your hatred, the first thing to do is forgive. In order for there to be reconciliation in your marriage, you must first forgive. To be able to return to the joyful life you must first forgive.
2. To be able to forgive you must first learn to be humble. The proud cannot forgive. To forgive is the ability of the humble. No one deserves to be forgiven, but forgiveness is an act of mercy. The humble know that God has forgiven and forgotten their sins without deserving it, and in return, they know how to forgive and forget the offenses of others.
3. The extended family must work together to achieve unity of the couple. Reconciliation is the responsibility of the whole family. Each with prayers, kindness, hospitality and whatever each can do to help to reset the unity. Otherwise, the people responsible for putting more distance between the couple are cursed, maybe not forever, but they commit serious sin. Each scan their own conscience and do not forget to forgive.

Let us pray to the Virgin Mary, to intercede for the unity of families, especially our Christian families, whom are called to be visible symbols of God's love.

May God bless you abundantly.

#73: Recommendations to Begin Anew

In the span of a lifetime there are several opportunities to start again. Some go to another city. Others move to a different home nearby. A family moves into the neighborhood, while the other migrates to another country. A parent loses a job and starts a business. Another marries for the first time and begins a new family.

This types of changes or important events in life require three things in common:

•             information and plans

•             resources and logistics

•             determination and perseverance.

Before undertaking the change you need information to make a good plan. Once you've made your plan, you need to get the resources and means to travel safely. Finally, once all the loose ends are tied together, the decision has to be taken as a family and they must all agree with the change of life, because most of the time there is no turning back.

Today's reflection is based on a passage from the book of Judges that tells the migration of the Danites, a tribe of Israel. The quote today is Judges 18, 11-26. Before reading, I recommend you to pray and ask the Holy Spirit for enlightment.

Points for reflection.

1. Your life is changing for the better if you are now closer to God. You might have left behind something you like, but if you now have a closer relationship with God, then the change was for the better, both for you and your family.

2. The whole family should pursue together the change of life and not be living apart. If you live together, the man cares for his wife and the woman in turn cares for the children.

3. Hold on to God like a drowning man clings to what keeps him afloat. God is your strength to endure what is to come as a result of the change of life. Do not be fooled by strangers that want to take you away from God.

Let us ask Mary, who had to migrate to avoid the soldiers from destroying her family, to teach us to be strong and confident in God.

May God bless you abundantly.

#72: The two mistakes of individualism

God is the center and the meaning of human life. Individualism therefore is fundamentally wrong as an ideology because it place the individual at the center, pretending to achieve freedom in this way.  Two mistakes are evident.  First to place the individual at the center and above every institution or person, even though that place belongs only to God.  Second to have liberty as the main goal, when only God is the true goal and meaning of life.


Christians are servers by vocation, because we see Christ in others and know that what we do for them is as if we did it for God himself. Christians advance in the way of life, not from place to place, or from one object to another but from one person to another. When a Christian meets another person she stops to greet, talk and see if she can offer help. The individualist, in contrast, walks around other people, if not pushing them and putting them aside.


Now let's consider a passage from the book of Judges. The passage is Judges 17, 7-13. I recommend that you pray before you read ahead, asking the Holy Spirit to enlighten you.

The story we read might as well have been written about Jesus Christ.

• Christ was born in Bethlehem but lived there for a while as a foreigner because His parents had their home in Nazareth.
• Christ is a priest like the Levite in the passage, and He is also looking for a place to live. Christ wants to live in your heart.
• The relationship we have with God is Father to son.
• True prosperity comes from the individual's relationship with God, when God is the center of the individual's life.

Let us ask the Virgin Mary, Help of Christians, to accompany us on our journey through life.

May God bless you abundantly.

#71: The land of your enemies.

Do you imagine how your life would be, if you were captured by your enemies and sent to a strange land from where you could not return?

First you would lose your belongings. Your enemies would strip you away from them.  Once you were taken, what ever was left behind would be picked up by other people.  Even if you could somehow miraculously return, you would find nothing of what you own today.

Your enemies would make it impossible for you to maintain contact with family and friends.  As the days, weeks and years went by fewer people would remember you.  You would live friendless, surrounded only by those who hate you.

In that strange land, you would not even have the chance to use your talents, or practice your profession. Even communicating would be hard, for nobody would care about what you had to say. You would be treated as a prisoner or at best as a slave, forced to undertake the most humiliating of chores and unthinkable acts to delight your enemies.

Life in the land of your enemies would be existence without hope. A perpetual torture where you could not even decide when or how much to sleep.  There would be no one to exchange a kind gesture with.

The true land of your enemies is hell and your real enemies are demons.  I do not write this to scare you. I just want you to contemplate with clarity a place where you will never want to live.

Today's reflection is based on a passage from the book of Deuteronomy. The passage is found at Deut, 28, 47-68. Before you read I recommend that you pray to the Holy Spirit and ask for His light.

Points for reflection.

1. The Christian life is a life of joyful service to God and man, motivated by love. This service is the way to pay forward all the blessings of God. Over time we develop an ever closer relationship with God that allows us to perceive what we have received and the opportunities that each day we have to serve our neighbor.2. God has given much to you to help Him, however, if you live in a selfish manner and do not help, you will become useless, a waste of God's resources. Your soul will dry up and your defenses will be low against the enemies of the soul.3. Christ has bought us with His death on the cross so that we can have a happy eternal life. The damned in hell have no savior. Those condemned are just shadows and ashes of the human beings that they were. It is important to reflect upon and appreciate the sacrifice that Christ made for you to  correspond to such a huge gesture of love and not fall into the ranks of the apathetic and damned.
Let us pray to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of all saints, we too may one day join the choir of angels.

May God bless you abundantly.

#70: Three rules to choose your couple without committing a mistake.

There will come a day, dear friend, long before you are wise and mature, when you will choose a partner for the rest of your life. Since that day you will make a decision without being well prepared, I want to share with you three rules for choosing a partner without making a mistake.

Rule #1.

Choose a healthy person of the opposite sex with whom you can have a family. Beyond her physical appearance or social position, pay attention to her health and habits, because raising a family requires a lot of teamwork and there are few opportunities to rest.

Rule #2.

Even if you're really in love, get advice from your parents. It is important to know what your parents think of your partner before entering into a commitment, not only because you marry a person, but you're going to live together with her family and she in turn will live together with your whole family too. Keep in mind that the grandparents and uncles can be a great support for the new family being formed. So try to choose your in-laws well.

Rule #3.

Choose a person who loves God above all things. This is the most important rule. If your partner has this quality you are going to be benefited in the following ways:

• the relationship will be long and fruitful
• your house will be real home
• your children will grow with an upright conscience
• your estate will increase
• the couple's love will grow year by year

To enrich the subject we should make a reflection from a passage in the Bible. The reflection of today is based on a passage from the book of Judges that recounts the marriage of Samson. The passage is found in the book of Judges chapter 14, numbers 1 to 11. If you intend to read the passage I recommend praying before to the Holy Spirit to ask for His light.

Points for reflection.

1. It's great to have communication with your parents, but it is better to listen to them with humility and follow good advice to avoid much needless suffering.
2. We must reflect on the things that happen during the day and accept them willingly. Over time we learn to see God's hand in all events and we can discover God's will. The opposite attitude is to grumble about everything that happens in your life and not see the benefit that the experience may have for your soul.
3. If you abandon Christ´s way you encounter the dead. In the reading, death is represented by the corpse of the lion, which was overcomed by the power of God infused to Samson. Do not waste time browsing among the spiritually dead because they can hurt you.
4. The honeycomb and the bees described in the reading represent something sweet and dangerous. It may be an analogy of the sweetness of the pleasures that will never truly satisfy you. Stay away from the honey that steals the life of grace. Only God can fully satisfy you because we were created by Him and for Him, the sweetness of God is greater and it remains.

Let us ask Our Lady, Queen of Heaven, to teach us to sanctify ourselves through our marriage together with our partner.

Thank you for making this reflection with me. This is a place where you are appreciated and loved in Jesus Christ. You are the reason for my blog. May God bless you.

I'd love to know what this reflection meant to you. Do not go without leaving your comments, your purposes, whatever you want.

#69: Where is the way to heaven?

Heaven is a spiritual place of eternal happiness. To get there we first have to prepare for a good death, for no one can enter heaven without leaving behind the physical body.

In order to prepare for a good death you have to live a righteous life. The righteous life is lived by advancing along the way to heaven without deviating from the path.

Q: Where is the way to heaven?

A: Christ is the way to heaven because heaven is a place of perfect union with Christ.

The reflection of today is based on a passage from the book of Judges. Before reading the passage pray and ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten you.

22 When Abimelech had ruled Israel for three years,
23 God put bad feelings between Abimelech and the citizens of Shechem, who rebelled against Abimelech.
24 This was to repay the violence done to the seventy sons of Jerubbaal and to avenge their blood upon their brother Abimelech, who killed them, and upon the citizens of Shechem, who encouraged him to kill his brothers.
25 The citizens of Shechem then set men in ambush for him on the mountaintops, and these robbed all who passed them on the road. But it was reported to Abimelech.
26 Now Gaal, son of Ebed, came over to Shechem with his kinsmen. The citizens of Shechem put their trust in him,
27 and went out into the fields, harvested their grapes and trod them out. Then they held a festival and went to the temple of their god, where they ate and drank and cursed Abimelech.
28 Gaal, son of Ebed, said, "Who is Abimelech? And why should we of Shechem serve him? Were not the son of Jerubbaal and his lieutenant Zebul once subject to the men of Hamor, father of Shechem? Why should we serve him?
29 Would that this people were entrusted to my command! I would depose Abimelech. I would say to Abimelech, 'Get a larger army and come out!'"
30 At the news of what Gaal, son of Ebed, had said, Zebul, the ruler of the city, was angry
31 and sent messengers to Abimelech in Arumah with the information: "Gaal, son of Ebed, and his kinsmen have come to Shechem and are stirring up the city against you.
32 Now rouse yourself; set an ambush tonight in the fields, you and the men who are with you.
33 Promptly at sunrise tomorrow morning, make a raid on the city. When he and his followers come out against you, deal with him as best you can."
34 During the night Abimelech advanced with all his soldiers and set up an ambush for Shechem in four companies.
35 Gaal, son of Ebed, went out and stood at the entrance of the city gate. When Abimelech and his soldiers rose from their place of ambush,
36 Gaal saw them and said to Zebul, "There are men coming down from the hilltops!" But Zebul answered him, "You see the shadow of the hills as men."
37 But Gaal went on to say, "Men are coming down from the region of Tabbur-Haares, and one company is coming by way of Elon-Meonenim."
38 Zebul said to him, "Where now is the boast you uttered, 'Who is Abimelech that we should serve him?' Are these not the men for whom you expressed contempt? Go out now and fight with them."
39 So Gaal went out at the head of the citizens of Shechem and fought against Abimelech.
40 But Abimelech routed him, and he fled before him; and many fell slain right up to the entrance of the gate.
41 Abimelech returned to Arumah, but Zebul drove Gaal and his kinsmen from Shechem, which they had occupied.[1]

Points for reflection.

1. Sins give us immediate pleasure but have negative consecuences on our happiness that far exceed the alleged benefits we got. One consequence is the temporal punishment that we must purge. The temporal punishment is suffering that God allows in order for us to value the life of grace and return to Him.
2. Alcoholic drinks will loosen the tongue and under its effect you can say things that bring you serious problems. It is better to stay sober and alert to take care of yourself better.
3. When people want you to fail, they will give you false or incomplete information to mislead you to make bad decisions. If you find yourself surrounded by enemies make sure you obtain reliable information and verify it by several sources. The Catholic Church is a source of reliable information on matters of faith because the Church wants your salvation.

Let us pray to the Blessed Virgin Mary to teach us to live with Christ as she did throughout her life.

God bless you.

[1]Judges 9, 22-41

#68: A world without God is exclusionary

The greatest atrocities that history has witnessed were made by men and women who sought to build societies without God:

• the invaders killed citizens
• settlers killed Indians
• the Nazis killed their neighbors
• Communists killed their bosses
• feminists killed unborn children

The world without God seemed small and they felt the need to reduce human numbers so more was available for those remaining. The justification for these killings was based in:

• hatred,
• revenge
• liberty
• military or racial supremacy
• and ecology

They forgot that God created the world out of nothing and that under this truth, the world is inexhaustible. If God wants it, He can provide whatever is necessary so that the world continues to exist.

Today's reading is from the Book of Judges. Jotham appears in this passage, also Abimelech his brother and the men of Shechem. Jotham, the youngest son of Gideon, cursed Abimelech because he killed his seventy brothers and proclaimed himself king. Since Abimelech was supported by the men of Shechem, Jotham  also cursed them.

Ask the Holy Spirit for help and continue reading.

7 When this was reported to him, Jotham went to the top of Mount Gerizim, and standing there, cried out to them in a loud voice: "Hear me, citizens of Shechem, that God may then hear you!
8 Once the trees went to anoint a king over themselves. So they said to the olive tree, 'Reign over us.'
9 But the olive tree answered them, 'Must I give up my rich oil, whereby men and gods are honored, and go to wave over the trees?'
10 Then the trees said to the fig tree, 'Come; you reign over us!'
11 But the fig tree answered them, 'Must I give up my sweetness and my good fruit, and go to wave over the trees?'
12 Then the trees said to the vine, 'Come you, and reign over us.'
13 But the vine answered them, 'Must I give up my wine that cheers gods and men, and go to wave over the trees?'
14 Then all the trees said to the buckthorn, 'Come; you reign over us!'
15 But the buckthorn replied to the trees, 'If you wish to anoint me king over you in good faith, come and take refuge in my shadow. Otherwise, let fire come from the buckthorn and devour the cedars of Lebanon.'
16 "Now then, if you have acted in good faith and honorably in appointing Abimelech your king, if you have dealt well with Jerubbaal and with his family, and if you have treated him as he deserved -
17 for my father fought for you at the risk of his life when he saved you from the power of Midian;
18 but you have risen against his family this day and have killed his seventy sons upon one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his handmaid, king over the citizens of Shechem, because he is your kinsman -
19 if, then, you have acted in good faith and with honor toward Jerubbaal and his family this day, rejoice in Abimelech and may he in turn rejoice in you.
20 But if not, let fire come forth from Abimelech to devour the citizens of Shechem and Beth-millo, and let fire come forth from the citizens and from Beth-millo to devour Abimelech."
21 Then Jotham went in flight to Beer, where he remained for fear of his brother Abimelech.[1]

Points for reflection.

1. Atheists make their plans and projects without consulting God and only manage to diminish people. A person has a mission in life intended by God from eternity. Everyone has to find his mission in life and accomplish it. The mission that God has for each person is sweeter, more fruitful and wonderful than any human plan.
2. God's plans are always looking to increase life and love. The plans of men have a limited horizon and only consider how to share what their eyes see. God's plans are inclusive for the whole human race, while the men have plans for a limited number of beneficiaries.
3. Stay away from people who recommend that you hurt your brothers. These people seek a world without God, an exclusive world.

Let us pray to Mary and ask her intercession as we celebrate her feast day, to teach us to have an inclusive heart like hers.  She is Mother of God and of all human beings.

God bless you.


[1] Judges, 9, 7-21

67# Caution: the apostle's life is difficult if you live wrong.

God likes to make use of smaller, poorer and less powerful people to fulfill His divine plan. God chooses the weak so that no one will doubt that the merit of the good things attained belongs to Him. For example, for the evangelization of America, God chose St. Juan Diego, an Indian not a Spanish, to carry the message of the Virgin Mary to the bishop.

If God asks something from you, do not be scared, nor feel cocky, because He chose you to make sure no one doubts, starting with you, that His is the merit of anything good that follows. The history of salvation is God's work and we are unworthy collaborators.

The apostle's life is difficult if you live wrong. The apostle is a witness of God. The apostle preaches what God inspires him and what God has done in his life. If the apostle forgets to pray and he forgets to ask God for help in every job, then everything starts to go wrong, because the work is of God, not of the apostle. Remember Jesus Christ praying. Christ is the role model for all good apostles.

In today's reading taken from a passage in the book of Judges, we find Gideon, a farmer turned warrior by God's request, pursuing the enemies of Israel even though he was outnumbered by a ratio of fifty to one. Fifteen thousand enemy soldiers against three hundred badly supplied men. I recommend, before you read, that you make a prayer to the Holy Spirit to enlighten you.

4 When Gideon reached the Jordan and crossed it with his three hundred men, they were exhausted and famished.

5 So he said to the men of Succoth, "Will you give my followers some loaves of bread? They are exhausted, and I am pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna, kings of Midian."

6 But the princes of Succoth replied, "Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your possession, that we should give food to your army?"

7 Gideon said, "Very well; when the LORD has delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into my power, I will grind your flesh in with the thorns and briers of the desert."

8 He went up from there to Penuel and made the same request of them, but the men of Penuel answered him as had the men of Succoth.

9 So to the men of Penuel, too, he said, "When I return in triumph, I will demolish this tower."

10 Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with their force of about fifteen thousand men; these were all who were left of the whole Kedemite army, a hundred and twenty thousand swordsmen having fallen.

11 Gideon went up by the route of the nomads east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and attacked the camp when it felt secure.

12 Zebah and Zalmunna fled. He pursued them and took the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, captive, throwing the entire army into panic.[1]

Points for reflection.
1. The apostle sets out to win souls to God with all the disadvantages. His only advantage is God, but God alone is enough to win, because the souls are thirsty for God.
2. The apostle has to beg for help and often can not find it because people ask for proof in exchange. The people asking for proof also thirst for God, but have stopped looking for Him because they do not want to lose the privileges they have earned.
3. The path of the nomads is the way of those who are in transition, the path of youth. Young people constitute a social group where the apostles can win many souls to God.

Let us ask Mary to teach us to be good apostles letting ourselves be guided by the loving hand of God.
God bless you.


[1]   Judges,  8,  4-12