predication.net

Let’s try to imagine what the Holy Trinity looks like. What does the Father look like, as the Son, and as the Holy Spirit? So what, did it work? Perhaps we had before our eyes an old grandfather sitting on some kind of throne, next to him sits a young man in his prime, and above them flies a bird, like a dove. Or we saw a large triangle from which a large eye looks at us. These are probably the most common images or depictions of the Holy Trinity that we have known since childhood. But let’s think again and try to imagine our image of the Holy Trinity. Something that would be ours and not observed.

I think we’re all on the same page. Somehow we are not succeeding, we are not working. Can’t we do it? St. Augustine was also troubled by this idea that what about the Trinity? What it looks like, how is it possible, that it is one essence and there are three persons in it, and what are the relationships between them? He thought about it a lot. Once, thinking about the Holy Trinity, he was walking along the beach and saw a little boy playing there. When he came closer to him, he saw that the little boy was carrying water from the sea and pouring it into a hole he had dug in the sand. Then he ran to the sea again, scooped up, poured, and ran off again and… “What are you doing?” he asked. And the little boy replied, “I’m pouring the sea into this hole.” Augustine knew that this was impossible, so he said to the boy, “But you will never succeed.” Then he received this answer: “I will sooner pour the sea into this hole than you will comprehend the Holy Trinity.”

The Lord Jesus reminds us that “when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will lead you into all truth” (Jn 16:13), that we will be able to understand the Holy Trinity more. If St. Augustine didn’t succeed, we would hardly have succeeded. Although dogmatics can say at least something about it, talking about how the Father begets the Son and from them, the Holy Spirit proceeds is useless, because it is also quite difficult, and it is not so necessary for the salvation of man. We can therefore ask, “What can the Holy Trinity give us, the people of our time?”

From these dogmas, we know that the Trinity consists of three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. We know of the Father that He created the world, and He ever created all that exists. Just as the Father created the world, so we create the world around us. The Father created, that is, created from nothing, something. We can’t do that, but we can create, which means, something that is, transform it into something else. We can say that what happens in our vicinity is also influenced by us. Consider only such a basis of our being – family. We all live in a family environment, everyone has their family members. Whether it is a father, mother, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, cousins, uncles, aunts… or those born later – grandchildren or even great-grandchildren. Since we are family members, we have the power to influence the family atmosphere. Thanks to us, it can be more cheerful or nervous at home, also thanks to us, love or hostility, laughter or crying, smile or anger can prevail at home. It takes so little to do what the Father did when He created the world. Every time He did something, He looked at how we read Sacred Scripture “and saw that it was good.” All too often, we may do things we don’t even look after, regret later, and then have to suffer the consequences. “My father is angry with me, my husband doesn’t talk to me, my mother-in-law hates me, my son-in-law doesn’t even come to see me…” And maybe it takes so little to look at our actions before letting them go. And to say, “Yes, it’s good.” Then we don’t have to worry about it creaking in our family.

The Son Jesus said of Himself, “I have not come to be served, but to serve.” As we know, people loved Jesus, Heaven did not look at himself, but he always had his gaze fixed on the one who needed help, and advice. Brothers and sisters, how are we? What is our priority? Your good or the good of your neighbor? So it is clear that we must first take care of ourselves to feel good, only then we can take care of others. This, in turn, no one can say that his neighbor is more important to him than himself. That could perhaps be treated. But are we willing to do something for the one next to me? And this is without distinction of skin color, gender, speech… Jesus doesn’t want much, but he wants willingness. And when there is willingness, everything will be.

What about the Holy Spirit, which has multiple names? Sanctifier or Comforter. We do not have such a power of sanctification, but the power to comfort, which each of us has. A mother comforts her little children when they cry to her that something happened to them. The teacher pleases schoolchildren that the second letter will correct this, or that they can go to answer and thus correct a bad grade, the doctor, pleases patients that his health is not so bad that he has to look at the catalog of tombstones. But very often he knows and can please an ordinary smile, a few warm words in the address of someone who is not doing well. A little attention from a husband to his beloved wife. The willingness of children to help at home with cleaning, washing dishes, vacuuming… a visit to a sick person in the hospital who is there alone, or just a friendly visit from a friend. But everyone knows that you don’t need much for a nicer day. Instead of shouting at subordinates in the morning, the head of the company chooses to wish them a beautiful and cheerful day. Instead of exclaiming in the morning, “Get up and move, go to school,” Mom wishes good morning. When leaving for work, instead of “Have fun,” the husband gives a kiss on the cheek to his wife. And this is how one could talk indefinitely. Everyone knows what pleases those around him.

There is a tremendous indescribable love between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is not so often between us, but probably more often it is the opposite of that love. Being kind to your loved ones is easy, anyone can do that, even a little boy likes the one who gives him candy. But there are not only those in the world who suit us, and it is probably the case that there are more of those whom we would send somewhere easier, but this is not what God wants from us. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are each different, yet they are one. We are also different and yet we are one humanity. And not just one, but one humanity. I know, one thing is to say “love yourself” and the other is to do it. And I know that it is not always possible, but there are many ways to prevent conflicts, quarrels and so eternal disagreements between persons. Maybe just bite my tongue at the right time and keep a note to yourself, or not look for what bothers me in a person, but try to find what is positive in him or about him. And there is no such person who does not have something good in himself, because we are all created in the image of God, and God cannot be the embodiment of evil.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, let us try to look at people at least a little differently than before, especially those who get on our nerves, on whom we find it difficult to find kind words. Our surroundings will be free of tension, quarrels, intolerance, and love, joy, and smile will begin to prevail. And that’s what we’re going to live with then. You just need to start first. I wish you to always and everywhere be able to give this smile and joy so that you can enjoy beautiful relationships at home, in families, at work, at school, on the street, city or village, in words everywhere. And so we will all imitate the love lived by the Holy Trinity.

During the last week of Easter, we will discuss one of the six truths of our religion every day – as an echo of the biggest holiday of the year. Some people like small objects for good luck, amulets or talismans, which they expect to help them in life. Then we have people whose goals in life are various things, such as nowadays television, car, and food, and that gradually becomes a god for them. However, let’s admit, dear brothers and sisters, that sometimes this happens in our lives as well. But today’s Gospel reminds us: “Hear, Israel, the Lord our God is the only Lord” (Mk 12:29).

Jesus did not say anything new in today’s Gospel. Already in the book of Deuteronomy, we find that God gives the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai and obliges the nation of Israel to observe them. It is the first and greatest commandment that God gives to people. The Lord is God and we are to love him with all our hearts. In the aforementioned book, it is further written that we should follow this path of commandments to live and prosper (cf. Dt 5:33). And God has mercy on those who love him and keep his commandments. He blesses those who truly love him. In today’s Gospel, Jesus confirms this when he answers the lawgiver: “You are not far from the kingdom of God” (Mk 12:34). But on the other hand, in the book of Leviticus it is written: “And the person who turns to those who summon spirits and soothsayers and will commit idolatry with them, I will set my face against such a person and will cut him off from her” (Lev 20:6). When the chosen nation arrived in the promised land, they found pagan nations who practised polytheism, occultism, divination, conjuring, witchcraft, and other forms of magic. Moses forbade these practices, even under the threat of death. Let’s remember what Moses did with the people who worshipped the golden calf. All this was against God because it insulted his holiness.

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church or religion classes, we were taught that only God should be worshipped. Worshipping God or, in other words, adoration is the main virtue of religion. Other virtues are prayer, sacrifice, promises, and vows. In opposition to these virtues, sins stand against the virtues of religion. They are superstition, idolatry, divination, sorcery, magic, spiritism, atheism, and disrespect for God, such as tempting God, sacrilege, sacrilege. I mention these sins on purpose because they affect us, either directly or indirectly. Even in our personal life, it often happens that we have very good periods and other times when nothing works out, and we are chased by one misfortune after another. Then it’s as if God doesn’t exist, we look for Him and He hides. We are desperate, so we are looking for help. First maybe with a priest, then with loved ones and friends, and when that doesn’t help either, we grab the last straw. We go to healers and card readers, ask spirit summoners, or visit occultists, thinking that they will help us. These are difficult moments in life. Other times we might do it out of curiosity, just like that. And so we come under the power of darkness and often don’t even know it. The devil is the father of lies, full of hatred. He tries to deceive us, deceive us, and thus deprive us of grace and, ultimately, of God’s kingdom (cf. Mk 13:12). When we visit such people because of illness, it often happens that people are relieved and feel healed. But after a certain time, they start to have severe depression, even despair, and further psychological problems, and sometimes it even leads to the urge to commit suicide. It is even worse when we do it out of curiosity, wants to know the future, or have other “honest intentions”. Here the young people are most at risk, and we find that even then the devil is at work. It is like approaching a rabid dog that he is tied in. In vain that we have the best of intentions when we cross the border of his territory, he will bite us.

“A twelve-year-old boy is very seriously ill. He suffers from a severe skin and respiratory disease. The doctors can’t help him, so his parents – on the recommendation of friends, visit a magician who will perform an occult magical ritual on the boy. After a few days, the boy feels very well. He has no health problems. But a few weeks later, an unusual phenomenon occurs. The boy begins to demolish the furniture of the apartment, and when this happens again and the punishment of the parents does not help, the parents again go to the doctors, whose findings are negative. After various attempts, the child’s mother turns to a Catholic priest. He asks the mother to call him when the child’s aggression returns. After a few days, the priest is called because the child is again destroying the flat. The priest finds the child in peace. Nevertheless, she takes him into the next room and begins to pray over him. After a moment of prayer, there is a huge rage in the boy, who this time attacks the priest. He curses the priest vulgarly, kicks him, scratches him, and has such strength that the priest is not enough for him. The boy screams and asks an “unknown person” for help during the priest’s prayer with the words: “…don’t leave me, …stay, …I want you, …let him leave you.” After an hour of prayers, the boy calms down and both the priest and the boy become very exhausted.

A person can only go so far. God appears to man to help him (cf. Dt 18:9-15). He loves us immensely and wants to be with us all the time. He completely revealed himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ and thereby gave us everything. What more could he give us? He gave himself to us. It is up to us whether we give him our whole heart, whether we belong to him entirely, or whether we pursue something else. God gave us a precious gift – and that is freedom. It is up to us how we use it. We know God and his love for us. Let us follow him faithfully, let us walk with him on the path of life, so that he may bless us in everything we do and do. Let it be seen in us that we belong to Christ, so that we may testify to our faithfulness to him.

True happiness is only in God. During these days, let’s consider the fact whether my life belongs only to God, or I have my own “gods” that I hardly give up

We know a lot about prayer. We pray after all. Even today, we can talk about prayer because Jesus himself wants to talk about it. Jesus tells the disciples: “Ask and you shall receive…” (John 16:24).

We know that after one conversation with his Father, Jesus was approached by the apostles to teach them to pray. Then he taught them the prayer that we call the Lord’s Prayer and which we consider the most beautiful because the Lord Jesus himself taught it to us. He warns us to take advantage of his friendship with us and pray in his name, his and our heavenly Father. It is something like when our good friend tells us, “Don’t worry, just go and say that I am sending you.” Through his suffering and death, Jesus obtained from the Father a new source of gifts and graces for us. Jesus wants us to address our requests directly to our common Father in his name. This procedure wants us to realize what a prominent position we have been given by his passion and death, that we can directly turn to our Father and we will receive what we ask for, precisely because of the merits of Jesus Christ. We will feel even more joy in such a procedure. Jesus encourages us, even more, to successfully act and hear our needs from our Father when he notes: “On that day you will ask in my name… For the Father himself loves you, because you loved me and believed that I came from of God” (John 16:26-27).

It depends only on each of us how we use this great opportunity to receive graces and love for ourselves and the world. The Lord Jesus, in his love for us, very much wants us to ask in prayer and for our meetings in this conversation to be frequent, as the apostle emphasizes: “Brothers, pray without ceasing !” This is a wonderful confidence for us when we are about to have such an immediate meeting with God, who not only created all this around us and in us, but also directs it. Let’s make the most of it, because it matters a lot even for the most serious meeting in our life, at the hour of death. God has done everything for us to learn to ask, to thank, to apologize, so that in our life here on earth we find time to glorify our God. Our prayers will thus gain value and our meeting with Jesus will turn into a fruitful dialogue, a conversation between two lovers – God and man. We can leave such a meeting happy and enriched, to which none of the wealth and beauty of this world can be compared. Jesus will give us everything that will benefit our salvation when we take the time to meet him in prayer.

He is only waiting for us when we find time. He does not need our prayers. He wants to bless us again and again, strengthen us, and fill us with his peace, love and especially his graces

Jesus already spoke words of encouragement and consolation during meetings on earth: “Truly, truly, I say to you: You will weep and wail, and the world will rejoice.” You will mourn, but your sorrow will turn into joy” (John 16:20).

The sorrow of the disciples of Jesus over the departure of Jesus will turn into joy through the action of the Holy Spirit, who will let them know through faith that the physical absence of Jesus is replaced by his mysterious presence in the Sacrament of the Altar, in his word, and that means always and everywhere where it will be read and to explain his teaching, “…I will be among them” (Mt 18,20). The sorrow and abandonment of the apostles lasted only a short time. Once Jesus told them that they would not see him for a while. He meant his death. Then they will see him again, and he meant the time after his resurrection to his ascension. Such time data – for a while – can also be understood in relation to the new Church, when the Lord Jesus will be present in it under mysterious ways until his second coming to this world. The apostles did not dare to ask the Lord Jesus what “just a little while longer” means. For many people even today, this is an actual problem. They try to find out, calculate, and speculate about the second coming of the Lord Jesus to the world. After all, the Lord Jesus said that about this day when he will come, not even the angels know.  The issue of whether the Lord Jesus has left for good does not bother us, because we are convinced of the presence of the Lord Jesus among us by the teachings of the Church. Jesus is still present among us. It is enough if we correctly understand the participation in the Holy Mass. The process by which the apostles’ sorrow quickly turns into joy is compared by the Lord Jesus to a woman in labor. When the child is already born, the woman quickly forgets the pains she had to endure. A mother’s love far surpasses all pain. This is also the case with the apostles, who quickly forget their sorrow when they are convinced that Jesus lives and forms one community with them. They are no longer fearful, uncertain apostles, but after receiving the Holy Spirit, they become new people.

We, too, are gripped by sadness when we do not see the Lord Jesus, and it is even more difficult when we are affected by inner turmoil, uncertainty, and dryness, as well as prayers without any joy, Holy Communion without a sense of enrichment. So it is those moments of encounter with Jesus when we do not feel him, and he seems far away. We must have confidence and courage. At such a moment, it is good to have a spiritual leader close to you, preferably a confessor, and to be guided by him, or even we ourselves should realize that even if we do not feel the joy of the presence of the Lord Jesus, he is still here. This means that we do not have to worry after the departure of the Lord Jesus. He is always present among us, even if our eyes cannot see him. He is here. He wants us to remain faithful to him even in difficulties. 

Who brought you to church today? Who sent you there? While you were forced? The kids could play computer games, you left the pots on the stove and left them. After all, what happens here happens the same every day, doesn’t it? And therefore, who caused you to come here? Is there something special about this temple that you preferred over other activities? Is there anything better? Or did you take it as your duty? After all, there are so many movies, interests, and other uses of time, why spend your time here? These minutes will never come back, the part of life we ​​lived here will never change! Never! We sacrificed a few minutes of our lives to God. This moment will forever be recorded in our life, it cannot be changed!

“When they saw him, they worshipped him. but some doubted. Jesus approached them and said to them: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go then…” (Mt 28:16-20). Jesus sends his disciples to be his witnesses and live his life. It happens every day after Holy Mass when the priest says: Go in the name of God.” Jesus’ departure from Earth connected the cross and the crown. The Ascension took place on the Mount of Olives, at its foot lies Bethany. When they passed through it, they also passed through the Garden of Gethsemane, and through the place where he wept over Jerusalem. His heart was not filled with bitterness from the cross, because the ascension was the fruit of the crucifixion. As he said, it was fitting that he should suffer and thus enter into glory. He shows us an example of how we can reach heaven – through suffering, the cross, and through love. He sends people, he sends us. Jesus goes to his Father and sends us among people. Our task consists of learning, in keeping everything that the Lord has commanded us; our mission lies in the love of God. We are in this world because God’s love caused it. Everything in our life develops from love. After all, the apostles, when Jesus was ascending to heaven, were staring at the sky. The one they loved is leaving them. But God encourages them through the angels: Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into heaven?

This Jesus … will come as you saw him go into heaven” (Acts 1.9-11). When he ascended into heaven, he blessed them. They should wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit. They filled with joy and did so. Although, even though they stayed in the city, they did not just wait passively. But the Scripture says: “…with great joy, they returned to Jerusalem. They were still in the temple and glorified God” (Lk 24.52b-53). They waited for the Holy Spirit in joy and prayers. They did not know when he would come, but they remained in the temple, praising God and waiting, encouraged by the promise of Jesus.

Jesus is leaving, who is going to prepare a place for us in his kingdom, and power is coming from on high. Jesus did not leave completely, only physically, because, in each person of the Holy Trinity, there is the whole of God. After all, then the Lord’s words that he will be with us for all days until the end of the world would not apply. He is with us precisely through the Holy Spirit. Jesus’ ascension ends his physical activity on earth and begins the action of the apostles, our witnesses. Jesus is the King of heaven, he told Pilate himself (cf. Lk 23:2-3). According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, heaven does not denote a place, a kind of space, but the majesty of God and his presence in the hearts of the righteous (CCC 2802). However, Jesus is a different King than the worldly king (cf. Jn 18.36). His kingdom is not of this world, his kingdom is a kingdom of love and peace. He is the King who thinks more of the good of his creatures, to their happiness. “Those. who die in God’s grace and friendship with God, and are perfectly purified, live forever with Christ. They are forever like God” (CCC 1023), because they see him face to face. He. The King. came, descended to his creation, and became their servant. Jesus became our servant (cf. Phil 2, 7) so that he showed us an example of humble and devoted following of God.

When a boy or girl is in love, they can stare at their partner. When the disciples looked up to heaven, they expressed their love for Jesus. Jesus ascended physically to heaven, but in doing so He descended spiritually into the heart of man. The Lord can dwell in the heart all the time, it depends on the openness and purity of our heart. By ascending to heaven, he wants to arouse in us the desire for heaven. Jesus’ ascension does not want to take us physically out of this world but wants our hearts to be always in God’s presence, to be in heaven. When Jesus prayed, he said: “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one” (Jn 17:15). Christ sends us to families, to various jobs, to communities. To be physically among people, but with the heart to be ascended to heaven, to the glory of God. Being in the presence of the Lord can be proved by our mind is always fixed on God, that we awaken the intention to do everything for the love of God. It is sometimes difficult to do this, but daily prayer will slowly begin to introduce us to it. Whenever we remember God, then we can arouse our love for God so that at the end of our lives we too can honestly say: It is finished” (Jn 19.30). Jesus won for us eternal life, which we will live in communion with God, we contemplate, we always look at his face and we are happy. And all we need is the desire for God, for heaven, and the pursuit of a pure life. we contemplate, we keep looking at his face, and we are happy. And all we require is the desire for God, for heaven, and the pursuit of a clean life. we contemplate, we keep looking at his face, and we are happy. And all we need is the desire for God, for heaven, and the pursuit of a clean life.

St. John Maria Vianney says: “We could be holy and even work miracles, but if we lack love, we will not get to heaven.” God has shown us his love, and now it is our turn to show our love for him. May we example, Abraham, who obeyed God with love and wanted to sacrifice his only son? And many others… Such heroism is possible only out of love for God. “Because God is the king of the whole earth. sing to him a song of praise, God reigns over the nations. God sits on to his holy throne” (Psalm 47:8-9). So why did we come here, who drew us here to the temple? It is this God, his love. The King of the entire earth and heaven, who still gives himself to us today in the forms of bread and wine. He ascended to heaven today and wants to take us too. therefore he used maybe our friend, Mom or Dad. Grandma or we came because we long for heaven. into which only the saints will enter.

Lord Jesus, you are the one to whom all power is given in heaven and on earth, King of Israel, thank you for giving us life today with you and your Father in heaven Thank you that today we have become owners of paradise we are with you mystically and at the same time realistically raised to heavenly heights. Through you, we have gained extraordinary grace from what we have lost. Please make us holy, so that we always do everything with love, and that we keep everything that you have commanded us. Teacher, teach us to be always in your presence, to be a witness. Lord, arm us with power from on high, I want to reach heaven, help me. Holy Spirit, I am waiting for you, come! 

Many wished for the death, the demise of the Church, which is the work of Jesus Christ, but which is governed by the Holy Spirit through the visible head, the hierarchy of the Church headed by the Pope. There were also periods in the Church when many believers fell into despair and fear for the Church. However, they forgot that the Church is not the work of man, but of God. Therefore, it will not hurt us to reflect on a passage from the Gospel today and strengthen our faith.

“You will be sorry that I am leaving. For if I do not leave, the Comforter will not come to you. But when I leave, I will send him to you” (Jn 16:7). These words must have surprised the apostles when they heard them from the Lord Jesus. He wants to leave them. They do not understand and do not understand, and therefore he explains to them that when he leaves, it will be true for them and the future Church until the end of the world, because they will only gain by doing so, precisely through the action of the Holy Spirit. a long time of waiting for the Messiah, a different idea of ​​Jesus. There were still many unclear places for them, and therefore his absence after his departure will cure them of the earthly understanding of the teaching they received. This will come to them through the “advocate”, that is, through the third divine person – the Holy Spirit, who is the true God with the Father and the Son. This Holy Spirit became the link in the invisible process between the Lord Jesus and the visible head of the Church on earth until the end of time. Under the influence of the Holy Spirit, the world will recognize that it was not the Lord Jesus, but the world that committed the crime, unbelief. So we can understand that the one who does not believe condemns himself, because he does not cooperate with the one who not only created this, redeemed it after committing sin, but controls him until the end of the world. The world will realize that the death of the Lord Jesus is not a defeat for us, on the contrary, a victory. Christ’s resurrection is the greatest defeat for the unbelieving world. None of us doubts that the Holy Spirit is active among us Although Jesus – our Redeemer and The Saviour has left us, under the influence of the Holy Spirit the whole world can progress more and more and get to know the person of the Lord Jesus more deeply.

We can say that although we have not met the physical Christ as a person, our faith is no less, no less weak. By the departure of the Lord Jesus to the Father, we became able to receive the Holy Spirit and under his influence we can grow in faith and love. We boldly put aside fear for the future of the Church. Even if we don’t see it in rosy cocolorseven if we encounter amazing resistance and hatred towards the Church, the words of the Lord Jesus apply, which have proven themselves many times over two thousand years: “… the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (Mt 16:18