Be Firm in All Your Undertakings

Our hope for you is firm, 

for we know that as you share in the sufferings, 

you also share in the encouragement. -

2 CORINTHIANS 1 : 7

Blessed be God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all encouragement, who encourages us in our every affliction, so that we may be able to encourage those who are in any affliction with the encouragement with which we ourselves are encouraged.

In times when we are down and low, please lift us up and make our hearts jump for joy. Provide us with all the encouragement and support we need in order to overcome our sorrows and pains. We just surrender everything to the power of  Your great and mighty hands.

Thank You so much for your encouragement that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. In Him I stand secure and firm, enabling me to endure the hardships of work that would lead me to the attainment of my dreams, goals, and aspirations.

May your grace and blessings continue to overflow in us so that other people will benefit as well. With much love and thanksgiving, I humbly pray, in Jesus Name. Amen.

HOPE IN GOD

The whole assembly cried aloud, blessing God 

who saves those that hope in Him.

Daniel 13:60

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. - 1 Timothy 6:17

May your kindness, O Lord, be upon us who have put our hope in you. - Psalm 33:22

Hope is God's Favorite Virtue

In 1929, French poet Charles Peguy wrote a long poem titled “The Gateway of the Mystery of the Second Virtue” as part of his trilogy on the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love. Peguy wrote how hope is God’s favorite virtue because “hope surprises me,” unlike faith and charity.

God says in repetitive, short lines that even if hope is the “littlest and frailest” of the three virtues, it surprises Him because despite the many tragedies in life, tomorrow comes. He describes hope as like a river flowing throughout creation with an abundance of grace coming from the pierced side of Jesus Christ.

Peguy’s poem is long but lovely like our First Reading today from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, the take-off point of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s second encyclical, Spe Salvi or Saved by Hope. Benedict wrote that hope gives direction or orients us towards salvation which, for St. Paul, involves the whole of creation that must be set free from the effects of Adam’s transgression. According to St. Paul, that process has begun in the Church and we, children of God, must understand our role in this plan of salvation. We must remember this great honor of being the first fruits of redemption.

All we need is to believe and say yes to hope. Like the tiny mustard seed, hope grows into a large bush where birds could nest. That is Peguy’s point about hope being surprising. When Jesus likened God’s Kingdom to a mustard seed and the yeast, He teaches us to have hope in Him, to believe that no matter what happens in this life, He is always there, loving us faithfully. Hope is believing in God even if things do not get better. “Man’s great, and true hope, which holds him firm in spite of all disappointments, can only be God—God who has loved us and who continues to love us to the end, until all is accomplished” (Spe Salvi, 27). Fr. Nick Lalog




Published:

March 30, 2020, 7:41 AM
October 29, 2019, 6:45 AM
August 16, 2011, 7:10 AM

HOPE IN THE LORD'S KINDNESS

The Lord has set His eyes on you who hope in His kindness. He shall preserve you in spite of the current difficulties you face. Always put your Hope in Him for bigger and brighter days to come. 

See, the eyes of the Lord are upon those who fear him, upon those who hope for his kindness, to deliver them from death and preserve them in spite of famine (Ps 33:18-19). May your kindness, O Lord, be upon us who have put our hope in you (Ps 33:22).



Reading:
PRAISE OF GOD'S POWER AND PROVIDENCE
Psalm 33:1-22

CHRIST MAGNIFIED!

My eager expectation and hope is that I shall not be put to shame in any way, but that with all boldness, now as always, Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. -- Philippians 1:20

COMPASSION FOR OTHERS

You give them something to eat.

Mark 6:37

Give to the poor.
Mark 10:21

How do you respond to those who are in need? Do you send them away or give them something?

Extend your mercy towards others, so that there can be no one in need whom you meet without helping. For what hope is there for us if God should withdraw His Mercy from us? -- St Vincent de Paul

God Repays

A man's almsgiving is like a signet with the Lord and he will keep a person's kindness like the apple of his eye. Afterward he will arise and requite them, and he will bring their recompense on their heads (Sirach 17:17-18).

YOUR BLESSINGS ARE MORE THAN WHAT YOU SEE

How many loaves have you? 

Go and see.

Mark 6:38

Count your blessings and you will be amazed that they are far more than what you see!

Dwell in your Own Land

MISSION
I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent . Would you build me a house to dwell in (2 Samuel 7:2,5)?

PROMISE
I will appoint a place and will plant them, that they may dwell in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and violent men shall afflict them no more. Moreover the LORD declares to you that the LORD will make you a house. (2 Samuel 7:10-11).

THE DAYS ARE COMING
"Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when men shall no longer say, `As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,' but `As the LORD lives who brought up and led the descendants of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.' Then they shall dwell in their own land" (Jeremiah 23:7-8).