"Warning"

"WARNING"

    As I sit down to write todays blog there is a “Blizzard Warning” for my area and they are saying we can get up to two feet of snow. Because of this, the stores were packed and people were out in droves to get supplies. This gets me thinking about how we are all set and prepare ourselves only when we hear of the impending “doom” that will come. That each snow storm it is the same no matter what. Yet, when it comes to our lives and more directly our spiritual life, our faith, a good amount of us are not ready nor do we prepare. 

    We hear during Advent to “prepare the way”. We are told during Lent “Repent, and believe in the Gospel”. Yet, we do not scurry and run to confession, grab our bibles and read the word of God, we do not go down on our knees and pray, we do not grab the rosary and ask the saints for intercessions. But.... when we hear snow, something that could be from two inches to two feet people react the same. Yet... when the outcome may be Heaven or Hell, we sit back. Realistically think when you have gone to the store for the “supplies” did you reallllllllly need to? Did you have stuff at home that would have more then covered it for the day or the most two days that you may not leave home?These “storms” we prepare for are short term, but our spiritual life goes into eternity. 

    We do not know when we will take our last breath. Why then are we not prepared or stocking up on “spiritual growth”? My personal thought is many feel they have time. Many think of the now and the future can wait. If we could see the weather forecast, say for the next month for sure, no chance of it being wrong... would we stock up in advance or wait till the day before? Let’s face it. We know we will all die at some point. It is a guarantee. The “storms” that are predicted can change and end up being nothing at all. Yet, we still prepare for something that is uncertain and not prepare for what is certain. Death is certain. Standing before the Trinity is certain. Why not prepare? Focus on the certain things in life and fully put our all in those certainties. 

   Our eternity is in our grip. How we prepare or not is under our 100% control. We have been told. We have heard in 2 Peter 3: 10:

“ But the day of the Lord will come like a thief,^* and then the heavens will pass away with a mighty roar and the elements will be dissolved by fire, and the earth and everything done on it will be found out.”  

Then later on in verse 17: 

“ Therefore, beloved, since you are forewarned, be on your guard not to be led into the error of the unprincipled and to fall from your own stability.” 

We have been forewarned. Forewarned by the Prophets, by John the Baptist, by Matthew, by Mark, by Luke, by John, by Peter, by Paul and most importantly by Jesus. Now act on it. 

      Live each day as your soul depends on it. Cause it does. Stock up on spiritual blessings. Unlike what we stock up with when a storm is coming, these spiritual blessings will never go bad. They will last through eternity. For those we are around my area and who are all stocked up for the storm, I ask that you take some time and stock up on those spiritual blessings. Put down the remote and pick up the Bible to read. Read something about a Saint. Watch the Bible series. Pray. These are the things we all need to stock up on. They will not just get us through the storms of life but gets us right through eternity. 

Until tomorrow, God Bless, and Be safe and Prepare. 

Tuesday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 318

Reading 1

HEB 10:1-10

Brothers and sisters:

Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come, 

and not the very image of them, it can never make perfect 

those who come to worship by the same sacrifices 

that they offer continually each year.

Otherwise, would not the sacrifices have ceased to be offered, 

since the worshipers, once cleansed, would no longer 

have had any consciousness of sins?

But in those sacrifices there is only a yearly remembrance of sins, 

for it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats 

take away sins.

For this reason, when he came into the world, he said:

Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,

but a body you prepared for me;

in burnt offerings and sin offerings you took no delight.

Then I said, As is written of me in the scroll,

Behold, I come to do your will, O God.

First he says, Sacrifices and offerings, 

burnt offerings and sin offerings,

you neither desired nor delighted in.

These are offered according to the law.

Then he says, Behold, I come to do your will.

He takes away the first to establish the second.

By this “will,” we have been consecrated 

through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Responsorial Psalm

PS 40:2 AND 4AB, 7-8A, 10, 11

R. (8a and 9a) Here am I Lord; I come to do your will.

I have waited, waited for the LORD,

and he stooped toward me.

And he put a new song into my mouth,

a hymn to our God.

R. Here am I Lord; I come to do your will.

Sacrifice or oblation you wished not,

but ears open to obedience you gave me.

Burnt offerings or sin-offerings you sought not;

then said I, “Behold I come.”

R. Here am I Lord; I come to do your will.

I announced your justice in the vast assembly;

I did not restrain my lips, as you, O LORD, know.

R. Here am I Lord; I come to do your will.

Your justice I kept not hid within my heart;

your faithfulness and your salvation I have spoken of;

I have made no secret of your kindness and your truth

in the vast assembly.

R. Here am I Lord; I come to do your will.

Alleluia

SEE MT 11:25

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth;

you have revealed to little ones the mysteries of the Kingdom.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel

MK 3:31-35

The mother of Jesus and his brothers arrived at the house.

Standing outside, they sent word to Jesus and called him.

A crowd seated around him told him,

“Your mother and your brothers and your sisters

are outside asking for you.”

But he said to them in reply,

“Who are my mother and my brothers?”

And looking around at those seated in the circle he said,

“Here are my mother and my brothers.

For whoever does the will of God

is my brother and sister and mother.”