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Has it occurred to you to forget the unthankfulness and pay more attention to gratitude? Gratitude is the best medicine, the most beautiful rose, the most potent weapon. Jesus said to the Samaritan, who was the only one of the ten healed who came to thank Jesus: “Arise and go; your faith has made you well” (Lk 17:19). In the conduct of the Lord Jesus, we see that when He walked, He gave birth well and did not enjoy human praise, glorification. He did well and quietly. Jesus teaches that he who gives a gift should not act so that he expects the other to return it. Jesus does not want the principle of reciprocation to apply to us. However, in the Gospel, he teaches us about the behavior of the Samaritan of gratitude. Elsewhere, we read, for example, “And be thankful” (Col. 3:15)! St. Paul not only commands, but we can recognize him as a man of gratitude. It is possible to ask the question: on what does gratitude consist? Indeed, it is not just an emotional matter, a momentary thing, when someone has shown us service, help, love, or attention, a kind of goodness. It is an inner strength that manifests itself in outward signs. Gratitude is a manifestation of goodness, of the inner man. It is the response of inner attitudes displayed by exterior signs.

Jesus points to this fact when he meets the ten lepers whom he heals. Why didn’t Jesus heal them right away? He wanted them to share in the healing and believe in him. We gain even more in union with Christ when we do his will. The Samaritan, recognizing that he is healed, returns to Christ to thank the body for healing. Jesus’ words: “Arise and walk, your faith has made you well” (Lk 17:19), also speak of the healing of the soul or the increase of faith. And gratitude for the increase of faith, the healing in faith, deserves our greater attention. Pay attention to your faith. To be grateful to God for the gift of faith. Attitudes toward gratitude, opinions about gratitude, and especially daily practice speak not only about the kind of people we are but also about the kind of Catholic Christians we are. Let us ask ourselves: Doesn’t God deserve our gratitude? For what? For the gift of life, health and sickness, work, hands, eyes, hearing, heart, family, children, vacations… But also for supernatural gifts, the gift of redemption, the gifts we receive through the sacraments, the Mass, prayer, and acts of Christian mercy.

The old teacher was celebrating her eighth birthday. Children were her life. For them, she did not marry; she forgot her happiness or renounced it… For several decades, she wiped the noses and tears of first graders. Many have forgotten her. What joy she had when grandfathers and mothers, her former children, and her pupils came to congratulate her. Let’s put ourselves in the situation: what does an older adult feel during the Christmas holidays when they are supposed to be alone? What joy, how he gives thanks when the neighbors in the entrance, from the street, notice him, although they are not family, and invite them to the Christmas Eve table.

Gratitude pays off. This is not just a statement but a human experience, and one day, we will see that it is also an essential key to heaven.

Pope Francis: “You can be flawed, anxious, and sometimes irritable, but remember that your life is the biggest business in the world. ” Only you can prevent it from falling. Many respect, admire and love you. And you don’t know it, but there are people for whom you are unique. I want you to remember that happiness does not have skies without storms, walking without accidents, working without fatigue, and personal relationships without disappointments. To be happy is to find strength in forgiveness, hope in struggles, trust in fear, and love in contradiction. Being happy doesn’t just mean appreciating a smile but also thinking about sadness. It is not only about remembering success but also about learning from failure. It is not only the joy of applause but the joy of anonymity. Being happy means recognizing that life is worth living despite all the challenges, sadness, misunderstandings, and moments of emotional and economic crisis. Being happy is not a destiny but a conquest for those who know how to travel in their being. To be happy, stop being victims of problems and become actors in your story. It’s like walking through deserts outside yourself, but you find an oasis deep within your soul. It is thanking God every morning for the miracle of life; being happy means not being afraid of your feelings. It’s all about talking about yourself. Have the courage to say “no” even from those you love. It’s all about having the confidence to take criticism, even if it’s unfair. It’s hugging children, cuddling parents, poetic moments with friends, even if they hurt us. To be happy is to live as a free, comfortable, and straightforward creature in each of us. Being an adult means saying, “I was wrong.” Have the courage to say, “forgive me. It is to have meaning to say, “I need you.” It is the ability to say I love you. May your life become a garden of opportunities to be happy. May you be a lover of joy from your sources. May you be a friend of wisdom during your winters and peace. And when you mess up along the way, you start over. Well, you’ll be more passionate about life. And you’ll find that being happy doesn’t mean you have a perfect life. But he uses tears to tolerate water. Use your losses to sharpen your patience. Use Fallas to create peace. Use pleasure to banish pain. Use obstacles to open windows of intelligence. Never give up… Never give up on the people you love. Never give up on happiness because life is a show not to be missed! » Pope Francis invites everyone, regardless of where they are, faith or religion, to a moment of collection, meditation, or prayer for The whole planet to unite in prayer for PEACE. If you can forward this, please, humanity will thank you.

Opening oneself to God and accepting God into one’s life is not only a step forward for every person but often a kilometer, a mile…

Let’s realize Jesus’ challenge: “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed” (Lk 17:6).  Jesus had compassion for the suffering. The sick need help. God likes it when we ask him for ourselves and those who suffer in our surroundings. When we are ill and others care about us, let us be led to Jesus. When our faith is as tiny as a grain of mustard seed, why not entrust ourselves entirely and entirely to Jesus? Jesus rightly asks a Christian to want to open up to him, to be able to open up to him, to hear His words and talk about him. He says that if we believe Jesus has power, why not seek him? If our faith is as tiny as a mustard seed, why not trust Jesus completely?

Let’s ask ourselves what kind of Christian am I? At first glance, today’s man appears as a sovereign who is self-sufficient with his reason. But is it so? Let’s look closer at our lives because we, too,? Do are “children of this age”. How often do we turn to different horoscopes? Do we believe in folk superstitions?! All this is a substitute for the true and living faith that we lack.

The apostles begged Jesus: “Strengthen our faith” (Lk 17:5). This happened after he presented two essential requirements: that they should not offend anyone and that they should forgive their brothers and sisters without limit. The disciples saw and recognized that they didn’t have enough strength for that. Their faith was in crisis at that moment. They could have reacted by fleeing cowardly, but they wanted to stay with Jesus and fulfill his demands. That’s why they asked for the gift of faith. Jesus’ reaction is interesting. As if he wanted to tell them that their faith is worthless if they are not convinced that God can do all things for them.

What is our faith? Do I believe that God can do what I ask Him to do? We say about ourselves that we are `believers.’ Is it a fact or an excellent title that can also be an empty label on our person? By faith, we not only believe that God exists and that what he has revealed to us about himself is true. She must intervene in our whole life. Through faith, we direct our actions and thoughts towards God. We know his requirements and live according to them. Like the disciples, it may seem Jesus is asking the almost impossible. Sure, we can’t do it alone. But let’s look at God. He is omnipotent, after all. Everything is possible for him. He knows best what is good for us and what will benefit us. What he asks of us is for our good. God does not want our suffering. He offers us a whole life.

The well-known spiritual author Josemaría Escrivá professes his knowledge of the value of “living in faith.” “What is the difference between people without faith, sad and indecisive about their meaningless existence, subject to changing circumstances like a wind rose, and our life as Christians, full of hope, joy, and strength, because we know and are convinced of our supernatural destiny.”

Let’s not let our faith be taken away. She is a great treasure; without her, life can cease to have meaning. We complicated draw on faith even when living according to the Gospel seems difficult. Jesus promised that if we ask the Father for something with faith, we will receive it from him, and he will take care of us. Thus, only firm and unshakable faith in God will keep us on the right path and lead us safely to God. Knowing how to listen to God’s word to open oneself to God’s word is essential for our life. We hear God speaking through other events, painful and pleasant… We must listen. To open ourselves to the words that God wants to give us.

A priest came to the parish, and the parishioners liked his first sermon so much that they talked about it all week. The following Sunday, however, the priest gave the same sermon. The faithful smiled that the priest must have forgotten. They didn’t like the sermon anymore. When he preached the same sermon the following Sunday, the parishioners were already waiting for him after the mass and told him why he was still preaching the same sermon. And do you know what the priest said to them in pride? “Why should I give a second sermon if you don’t change your life…?” Yes, they did not open themselves to God’s word. They remained deaf to God’s word.

God’s word is not spoken for the beauty of words but for the quality of our salvation.

St. Martin – what can this ancient saint even tell us today? After all, he lived in the 4th century, after all, life is entirely different today. It is true, that people really live completely differently, but a person does not become a saint because of the time he lives in but because of the qualities that he cultivates in faith. Martin was the first to be venerated as a saint, although he was not a martyr, and his cult spread almost throughout Europe: today, St. Martin renaissance in the form of St. Martin’s goose and wine.

Why is the St. Martin’s goose baked? Even the legends need more than that. One says that the saint was so disturbed at a rural sermon with their chatter that they had to be roasted as punishment. Another legend says that Martin, out of modesty, did not want to accept the rank of bishop and hid in a shed with geese, but they betrayed him with their wheezing. St. Martin’s wine is no better; its history is concise and takes us back to the reign of Emperor Joseph II. At that time, it was customary on the day of St. To toast Martin with new wine for the first time. On that day, the service ended for the winegrowers who farmed with the big landlords, and its continuation was negotiated over a glass of wine and a roast goose meatball.

Thus, these goodies became a symbol of something more profound, a symbol of one important characteristic of St. Martin, and that was undoubtedly his merciful heart. According to legend, this soldier of the Roman army, riding a white horse, parted with a beggar over his cloak. The following night, Christ appeared to him in a dream wearing half of his cloak, and St. Martin was baptized. It is not whether the writer’s imagination enhances the legend but what it wants to tell us.

Christ tells us in the Gospel:  “I want mercy and not sacrifice.” The term mercy is from the Latin miseree – which means to have mercy and cor – heart. It is no accident that mercy comes from the heart, not the mind. Father Tomáš Cardinal Špidlík writes in one of his books:  “Whoever has a light suitcase at the station should help the one who cannot carry the luggage onto the train. The unfortunate nature of the luggage is that it is cumbersome; it can hardly be carried without the help of others.”

One would expect the warning to be addressed to the one with an insufferable nature not to annoy his fellow man so much, but for now, we are being called upon to change. The apostle Paul says in his letter to the Galatians: “Bear one another’s burdens and thus fulfill the law of Christ.”  (Gal 6, 2) Helping someone with a suitcase probably does not cause us any problems; a person feels as if he is pleased with his good deed. But it is worse with the baggage of the unfortunate nature of the neighbor because instead of muscles, we need a good dose of mercy. Maybe we could also  “bear” the tragic nature for a while, but bear it today and daily. Sooner or later, we are at the end of our tolerance. And so mercy is transformed into sacrifice. This sacrifice ultimately leads us to personal holiness, as St. Martin.

Christians and eternity Catholics have purgatory; Orthodox have a toll booth, and Evangelicals do not pray for the dead.
What is the Catholic, Orthodox, and Evangelical Churches’ view of what happens after death?

Catholics have Purgatory. Orthodox have Purgatories; Evangelicals do not pray for the dead.

While the Catholic Church teaches purgatory and prays for the salvation of souls, the Evangelical Church does not believe in purgatory and does not pray for the salvation of the deceased. This is because they think prayer cannot change the soul’s fate after death.

“Those who die in God’s grace and friendship with God, but are not perfectly purified, although they are certain of their eternal salvation, undergo purification after their death to attain the holiness necessary to enter into heavenly joy,” the Catechism of the Catholic Church says about purgatory in paragraph 1030 and continues in paragraph 1031:

“This final purification of the elect, which is quite distinct from the punishment of the damned, is called Purgatory by the Church. (…) The tradition of the Church, referring to certain texts of Sacred Scripture, speaks of the purgatorial fire: it is to be believed that before the [last] judgment there is a purgatorial fire for certain light faults, because [He who is] the Truth says that if anyone has blasphemed against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, neither in this age nor in the age to come (Mt. 12:31). From this statement it can be understood that some trespasses may be forgiven in this age, while some in the age to come.”

The Catechism further explains that this teaching is also based on the practice of praying for the dead. “From the earliest times, the Church has venerated the memory of the departed and offered supplications, especially the Eucharistic sacrifice, for them, so that they might be purified and attain the beatific vision of God. The Church also recommends almsgiving, indulgences, and penitential works for the deceased,” the catechism adds in the next paragraph.

If, at the moment of death, a person has light sins that he has not repented of or atoned for the temporal punishments for sins, he enters purgatory: “By purgatory, we understand the process in which the soul is purified to be able to look to God; in this lies eternal bliss. Since the consequences of original sin mark us, most people die in need of this purification.”

Purgatory is not a temporary hell, but descriptions of the saints better not be read at night. What happens after deathPurgatory is not a temporary hell, but descriptions of the saints better not be read at night. What the saints say about purgatory and how to understand it.

Catholics may encounter the objection that purgatory is not mentioned in the Bible.

Although the Holy Scripture does not directly mention purgatory, according to Ziolkovsky, we nevertheless find already in the Old Testament that souls who have died in sin need purification. The prayer of the living can help them to do this. Jude the Maccabean ordered a propitiatory sacrifice to be made for the dead so that they would be freed from sin (2 Mach 12:46).

“The Church took up the doctrine of the provisional ‘prison’ of the dead, and from this evolved the doctrine of purgatory. We find this belief in many Church Fathers, such as Augustine, Gregory the Great, and Cyprian,” Ziolkovsky continues. This doctrine was later given a universally accepted and visible form in commemorating all the faithful departed, which has been celebrated in the Church for about a thousand years.

According to Ziolkovsky, the belief in purgatory also has its universal justification since, in other cultures and religions, there is also the belief that man dies in the moral failings that he has not atoned for on earth and the belief that there is a way for this to happen.

“To reject the Catholic doctrine of purgatory would require us to admit reincarnation, which effectively solves the same problem, or to admit that hell does not exist – and if it does, then only temporarily. The Church has rejected This theory of apocatastasis,” Ziolkovsky writes. The idea that evil will not be punished contradicts the human desire for justice.

Catholics, therefore, pray for their dead at every Mass.

Greek Catholics.
The Greek Catholic Church also prayed for the deceased from the earliest times.

“Those who have died are remembered at every Divine Liturgy. In addition, prayers for the deceased are part of the daily services every Saturday, especially during Saturdays of Obsequies. Memorial services are held at funerals at fixed intervals, for example, on the third or fortieth day after death or the anniversary of death. In this way, we emphasize that the dead in Christ are still part of his body and that we are still bound to them by the bond of mutual love. Suppose we have been joined to his body and maintain ourselves as temples of his Spirit. In that case, this relationship lasts beyond the grave, which is why we continue to pray for one another in faith,” explains the editor of the World of Christianity and Greek-Catholic priest John Krupa.

Krupa points out that prayer for the dead recognizes that those who have died in faith continue to move forward toward God. And that is why we pray for the forgiveness of the sins of the dead: “But we know that these prayers no longer reach a person without the Spirit.”

According to a Greek Catholic priest, the prayers of the righteous cannot save those who have turned away from God. We pray for the righteous to be forgiven of their sins because “the righteous falls seven times a day” – everyone sins, even if only in small ways.

“So when we pray for the departed, we pray that the Lord will bring to full union with him those who are his own. We know that this is his desire and promise, so our prayers do not change his attitude, but confirm it,” concludes John Krupa.

Evangelicals: the human soul is in God’s hands after the death of man
Contrary to Catholic doctrine, Protestant churches do not believe in purgatory. According to the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Slovakia (ECAV), the human soul is in God’s hands after death.

“God the Father created it, put it into a human body, and after death calls it to Himself again. Jesus Christ is the one who purifies it before God, and the Holy Spirit is the one who enables it not to be lost in the world, but to remain in constant communion with its originator – God,” explains evangelical pastor Stefan Kiss for the World of Christianity.

“At the last farewell to the deceased, the priest liturgically hands him over into God’s hands, and what happens to the soul next can no longer be influenced in any way,” the evangelical clergyman adds.

Thus, unlike Catholics, Evangelicals no longer try to help the deceased with prayers or influence God in how He deals with the soul. Evangelicals’ prayers for the dead are merely remembering them, thanking God for the person’s life, and professing faith that God will deal mercifully and kindly with the deceased.

“Part of these prayers is a plea for the continued strengthening of the faith of the bereaved so that one day all may meet again,”

According to him, the Evangelical Church does not even know the doctrine of purgatory and reiterates that the deceased are solely in the hands of God. The object of all prayers and acts of worship, including the funeral farewell itself, are the living, who are to be comforted and for whose strength of faith we must always ask. According to Stephen Kiss, we do not know precisely what happens to the soul after death, but we know from hints in the Bible that the soul goes to or from God.

“Scripture does speak of the last day and that then God will judge the living and the dead, but on the other hand, Scripture does not speak of the dead being subject to a time where they wait for that day. So if we consider time as a quantity here but not there, we get a vague idea of what might be going on,”

The implication, according to the evangelical clergyman, is that even the last day and the last judgment in terms of eternity can take place for every person as they pass through the gates of death.

“That other day, from the point of view of our time, can occur for everyone at another time, and from the point of view of eternity, it is once – and that is when a person leaves this world. If we wanted to say that the dead are somewhere waiting for the Last Judgment, which will begin on such and such a day in such and such a year, we would be raping eternity and squeezing it into our reality, and we must not do that. Eternity trumps temporality, not the other way around. That is why we believe that eternity operates completely independently of our time; under God’s guidance, God can usher each person into eternal glory immediately after their death,” the evangelical priest states.

The Orthodox believe in air toll booths.
The Orthodox Church proclaims that a person’s soul must pass through the so-called air tolls or customs after death.

“These are a kind of spiritual passages through which the soul must pass after the death of the body and which are localized in the earth’s atmosphere. This doctrine comes from several revelations that the Orthodox saints had. At each customs house, the soul is ‘cleared’; two besi (demons) try to hold the soul back from its ascent to heaven. They search it to see if they can find something of their own in the soul. If the besos successfully contain the soul, they drag it down to the underworld. If the soul passes through all the customs, it can arrive in paradise,” explains the Czech Orthodox weblog Ambon.

The portal says that a person’s soul, after death, stands at these customs in the face of various passions. At the same time, one sees the demons of these passions in all their horror at the customs house.

“At that moment, something significant happens. The soul stands before the passion and can be swept away by it because it sees something that is its own, something that it has lived with during its earthly life, something that it has nourished, something that it has longed for, something that it has not fought against but, on the contrary, has cultivated. Then, naturally, the soul connects with this demonic spirit,” the Ambon portal adds.

The Orthodox believe that the soul that wanders through the tollhouses can be helped by the faithful on earth with prayers. “That is why the Church prays fervently for them during their post-mortem wanderings,” the Ambon portal writes. It also stresses that these prayers have nothing to do with indulgences.

“Through prayers, fasting, virtues, and good deeds, we help the deceased by being in the Church, in one body,” the text on the Czech Orthodox portal concludes.

The history of the Lateran Basilica is linked to many moving events. The basilica was built on the site where the Lateran Palace once stood. Pope Silvester I solemnly consecrated it on November 9, 324. Charlemagne was baptized there in 774. It was here that Pope Innocent III approved the rules of St. Francis of Assisi. The first Jubilee Year was proclaimed there. Five ecumenical councils were held in this basilica. This basilica was destroyed several times but was always rebuilt. The last time a Sicilian mafia bomb damaged it was in 1993, shortly before Pope John Paul II called for the conversion of those who had the deaths of many people on their conscience. Every pope enters this basilica as a Roman bishop, the shepherd of the universal Church. The consecration of the Lateran Basilica in the fourth century also meant religious freedom. The Christian communities that met in the catacombs for the Eucharist were now able to celebrate their faith in the basilica.
But I don’t just want to draw your attention to the historical facts. On this day, Catholics show communion and unity with the Holy Father. We also have the opportunity to reflect on the meaning of the Church. In the document Lumen Gentium, the Second Vatican Council also referred to the family as a small church, a domestic church, when it is gathered in the name of Jesus. But why is it so essential for us Christians to go to church? Indeed, we could also worship God at home. The answer is that Jesus came into the world to redeem all people and not each individual separately. He came into the world to form a community of believers united with him. We can call the church the “house of God among men.” The church is the place of God’s presence. It doesn’t matter whether the church building is Gothic, Baroque, Romanesque, or modern in style. The important thing is that people gather there who are called by Jesus. The Latin name for the church is “Ecclesia,” and the Greek “Ek-kaleo,” which means “to call together, to invite.” The church is, therefore, the place where those who are invited in Jesus’ name gather. What a house is for the family; the church is for the family of God. A person’s life is connected to the church.
A professor writes beautifully: “I was born and brought into the church. Here, I became a child of God through baptism. Here, I received my first Holy Communion, and through the sacrament of Confirmation, I became a mature Christian. This is where my sins are forgiven. This is where my parents sealed their covenant in the sacrament of marriage. I also celebrated my first communion here. And I will say goodbye to this church on my last journey into eternity.
What does the church mean to us? For some, it hardly means anything anymore, and they neglect Sunday Holy Mass. This is an unfortunate phenomenon. Quite a few people say that they go out into nature to pray. But there are other substitutes for Holy Mass. These people have forgotten the mission of Jesus, who wants us Christians to meet together to pray and express our praise to God. Of course, we can also pray privately, but we must not forget the community of believers in the church. In addition, the word of God is also proclaimed to us in church and interpreted in the sermon. We don’t hear that in nature.
In his Confessions, St. Augustine tells of a philosopher who was a pagan. However, he became interested in Christianity, and when he was convinced of the truth of Christ’s teachings, he said to a priest: “I am almost a Christian!” The priest said: “I don’t believe you because I’ve never seen you in church.” The philosopher asked in amazement: “Do the church walls make people Christians?” Then, one day, he read the following in the Bible in the Gospel of Luke: “For whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and the majesty of the Father and the holy angels.” Now he realized that he was ashamed because what would his colleagues say if he went to church? So he returned to the priest and said to him: “I will go to church from now on because I want to become a Christian.” By going to church, you are openly professing your faith.
A church is a house of God because God, who became man, really dwells in the church. Many people found their faith in the church. There was also a writer who always visited Notre Dame Cathedral when he was in Paris. He once said: “When I enter the cathedral, I feel that faith enters me.” I want to conclude with a beautiful psalm of the joy of entering a church: “How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord of hosts. My soul distorts with longing for the temple of the Lord. My heart and my body rejoice in him, the living God.” May these words accompany us when we go to church!