November 25

Doubt, Disillusionment, Discouragement, Depression, Defeat, Despair, Death

As we enter the season of Advent we return to the centuries the Jewish people looked forward to God’s promised Messiah, the Anointed One who would free them from the bondage in which they were held by tyrants who ruled them and oppressed them with crushing burdens.

The Evil One seeks to oppress us with his own special demons, tyrants that seek to control us. They have names: Doubt, Disillusionment, Discouragement, Depression, Defeat, Despair and Death. We need to look to our Messiah, the One who redeems us (buys us back) from the Evil One and the demons he has loosed upon us. We should look not with mere wishful thinking but with earnest and sincere prayer during this forthcoming Advent.

November 18

The Gospel account for today’s Mass is Luke 18-25-43. A blind man asks Jesus to give him sight. But before Jesus cures his blindness he asks the blind man what it is that he wants. How strange! Obviously Jesus knows what the blind man wants. What’s going on here?”

This causes me to ask, “What do we want to see?” I think Jesus wants us to take a look at how God sees us. We are often too concerned with how others see us. Too often we are concerned with how we see ourselves. Too often I think we’re afraid to consider how God sees us, thinking that God is angry, vengeful, and totally unhappy with what we’ve done and what we’ve become.

Well, is God really that kind of a God? NO! He is a God that is a loving Father and we should open our eyes and try to see ourselves as our Father in heaven sees us.

In the words of the blind man we hear about today: “O Lord that I may see!”

November 11

Oh Lord, in my prayers I’m always telling you what I want you to do.

I’m going to hush up now and ask you to tell me what you want me to do.

But I’m going to need you to help me do it.

November 4

"My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest." (Exodus 33:13)

“And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” (Matthew 28:20)

God wants us to know this in times of trouble.