#79: Religious Freedom Is Essential For Peace

The most valuable thing that we have is friendship with God. I refer to that condition of the soul by which we can receive communion without committing sacrilege. I mean the life of grace, when the Holy Spirit dwells within you. I mean the key that unlocks the door of heaven, the clean soul, purified not by your merits but by the sanctifying grace which purifies you. 

Neither ten good deeds, nor a hundred can cleanse your soul. Only priests can administrate the sacrament of penance, which has this effect for the recipient. 

Neither ten books with beautiful thoughts, nor a hundred can feed your soul, only priests can consecrate bread and turn it into the body and blood of Christ, which has this effect for the recipient. 

To enjoy this great good, we need to live in a society that respects religious freedom. Each individual must be free to practice religion in public and private settings. This includes freedom of access to places of worship and freedom of religious ministers to serve the congregation and administer the spiritual benefits. 

Today's reflection is based on a passage from the first book of Samuel. The quote is 1 Samuel 6, 1-21. I recommend that you pray before you read ahead to ask the Holy Spirit for enlightenment. 

Points for reflection.

1. Those have power should consult wise men and follow their recommendations: return to the people their sacred objects and also repair the wrongs with a valuable offering. In this way, the powerful regain the esteem of the people. In every house and every school parents and teachers should allow their children to have religious experiences. Do not be afraid of what a person or a religious community can do; in contrast, fear a gang of godless men.

2. The people must participate freely in worship activities. The joy of participating in the spiritual goods is shared with the community. If your community has religious freedom, take every opportunity to meet God in the sacraments, especially the confession of your sins and communion. Also participate in other acts of devotion, such as:

• pilgrimages 
• rosaries 
• adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. 

3. Finally there are those who choose not to go. They are those who do not appreciate the sacred things. They feel no hurry to meet God. They have lost their sense of wonder. Their attitude towards God is the same as more or less everything else: “whatever”. They live on the benefits that Christianity has given us through the transformation of the savage tribes into civilized society but are not interested in corresponding to God with a little of their time. These are like the 70 men from the reading who saw the ark but were not there to celebrate the return with offerings, and died. A man without religion is like a zombie, a walking dead.

Let us ask Mary, Queen of confessors, that we do not lack spiritual assistance in our lives.

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

God bless you.

Please leave your comments so that others may benefit from your thoughts.

#78: Three symptoms of separation from God

The love between two people is manifested every day through faithfulness. Faithfulness is manifested through communication with messages filled with love.

Two people are thus united by a circle of love that binds them together. Love is the uniting principle and the couple remains faithful to each other through constant exchanges of loving messages.

The communication is made not only with words but with all the ways that people have to express themselves and by the acts done in favor of their loved one. Thus, the words, details and services rendered to the beloved, are ways to communicate love.

The same is with God, but with the difference that love, loyalty and communication are perfect in one direction and flawed in the other. From God to you, love is perfect and its manifestations are insurmountable. From you to God, infidelity, disordered attachments and infrequency in prayer, sometimes even breaking the circle of unity and deforming it.

Sin is like an infidelity in the loving relationship between two people. If God is first in your life, you will not allow sin in your life, nor will you even go near to places where people commonly go to sin.

Today's reflection is based on a passage from the first book of Samuel. The quote is 1 Samuel  4, 12-18. I recommend that you pray before you read ahead to ask the Holy Spirit for enlightment.

Symptoms of a person separated from God.

1. A person separated from God becomes a spectator of the negative changes occurring around him. While the apostle is a leader who looks after the beloved ones of his Beloved, the spectator just sits apathetically.

2. A person separated from God is found away from the road or at best on the roadside. In other words, this person spends much of his time in sinful activities or near those who are engaged in sin. Sin has shaped his body and has impacted on his physical appearance and mood.

3. A person separated from God loses, one by one, the temporal things to which his heart is attached and ends up neglecting his health and life of grace. At the end , his life is empty and his spiritual blindness does not allow him to regain the path to happiness.

These people separated from God need good advice, though often they do not want to listen. If this is the case, then at least pray for them.

Let us ask Holy Mary, Morning Star, to guide our steps towards full union with her Son Jesus Christ. Remember the motto: "To Christ through Mary."

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. God bless you abundantly.

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

#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