Topic about various passages from Bible

[isadoramurta7]

You are not afraid of this truth

Jn 12:20-33. There were also Greeks among those who came to the festival to worship God. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked, "Lord, we desire to see Jesus."
Philip told Andrew about it, and then they both told it to Jesus. Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
I solemnly assure you: Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains there alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
He who loves his life loses it; and he who does not overestimate his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me. And where I am, there will my servant also be. If anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.
Now I am deeply shocked. And what can I say? Father, save me from this hour? After all, I came for this reason – for this hour. Father, glorify your name!" Then a voice came from heaven: "I have already glorified you and I will glorify you again."
The people who were standing there and heard the sound said, "There was thunder," but others said, "An angel spoke to Him." So Jesus explained: "This voice came not for my sake, but for your sake.
Now judgment is taking place on this world. Now the ruler of this world will be removed. But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself." He said this to signify how he would die.
The episode from today's Gospel tells about the Greeks who one day came to the Apostles and asked to meet Jesus. It is characteristic that they did not come to Jesus immediately, but wanted to know Jesus through the mediation of the Apostles.
When you went to another city or country for a pilgrimage or a trip, you usually used the services of a guide. Without his knowledge, it was impossible to understand the history of the country and its monuments.
The guide did its job, but in the end you probably decided that you need to live in a given country to know and understand it well. It is similar with spiritual life and with knowing the secrets of the Most Holy Personality of Jesus Christ.
His Person is like a huge city that it is not enough to visit with the help of a guide, but it is best if you simply live in it. We need to "dwell" in God, "settle" in Him and discover the treasures of Life and Wisdom in Him.
It is not enough to get to know Him only from the outside, like some attraction or an "ancient" figure from antiquity. And one more thing: you need a guide! Such a guide in our spiritual life is every priest in whom we sense a deep knowledge of Christ - one who is "at home" in prayer and the Bible.
What role did the priest - spiritual guide - play in getting to know Jesus in your life?
Jeremiah wrote that at the time of the Messiah's coming, God will be closest to man, even tangibly knowable, so that no one will wander anymore, looking for the truth about God in human wisdom.
When Philip stood before Andrew, telling him of the Greeks' desire, they both knew that the world had been presented with the opportunity to know God directly in Jesus. Jesus is the best "guide to the interior of God" and at the same time he is God himself!
We can learn more about God from no one in the world than from God Himself, and that is Jesus.
Why didn't Philip go straight to Jesus, but asked Andrew about the possibility of the Greeks knowing Jesus? As if he didn't want to decide for himself whether it was possible to allow unknown people with unknown intentions to get to know Jesus. For Philip, Andrew and the rest of the Apostles, Jesus was not only a miracle worker and preacher, but the Son of God who privately explained to his friends the secrets of his life.
However, these Greeks were not tourists who wanted to take a closer look at some miracle worker out of curiosity. They wanted to enter the depths of the mystery of Jesus' life and stay there.
What is your knowledge of Jesus like? Is it enough for you that God exists? Do you believe in Jesus because this is the tradition of your nation and family, or because you yourself have chosen Him as the Lord of your life? Knowing Him is inextricably linked to knowing yourself. Aren't you afraid that you will learn not only the truth about Jesus, but also about yourself?

[Wycliffes_Shillelagh]

Is there any way I could persuade you to add some spaces between paragraphs?

[isadoramurta7]

A sign of hope. Bernadette's testimony


Standing at the cross of Jesus was His Mother, His Mother's sister, Mary, wife of Cleopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his Mother and the disciple whom he loved standing next to him, he said to his Mother: "Woman, here is your son." Then he said to the disciple, "Behold your mother." And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.


In our everyday life, amidst many difficulties, there are signs of hope. One of such signs for us is Mary. On the feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Poland, the Jasna Góra Icon of the Black Madonna stands before our eyes.


Our thoughts and prayers go to the Polish Cana, to the One who experienced "great things". Mary is a great sign of hope for our entire nation, but also for each of us.


A young girl named Bernadetta confessed: "Thinking about today's ceremony for several days, I was wondering who the Mother of God is to me," she confesses. The first, slightly depressing thought that came to my mind was that I was not praying to Mary enough and thinking about her too little.


Somehow I forget about Her in prayer. I have already decided to deepen my very general knowledge about Her, Her Person and way of life.
When I think about Her now and when I pray to Her, (...) I am delighted, above all, by Her trust and obedience to God. She is all for God from beginning to end. (...) Her attitude of listening to God's voice arouses in me a great desire to imitate her.


That's why I'm asking Mary to pray for me, so that I can trust and trust, so that I can look for God in everything, and not for myself.


We also ask for the intercession of the One whom the Apocalypse shows as a Woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a wreath of twelve stars.


The awareness of Mary's intercession makes us walk through life more confidently. The Church is our home, and in this home is the Mother of God. However, these words can also become a tired cliché that no one responds to anymore. So where do we get the freshness of faith?


From everyday life permeated with God's presence in the word, sacraments and events. Extraordinary spiritual ecstasies and wonderful liturgical celebrations are needed, but in special moments. However, the simplicity of a life filled with the Gospel is necessary in every day and in every Christian home.


And this is worth remembering, especially on the Queen of Poland's Day. Today, in a special way, we look at Her, asking in prayer not only for our homeland, but for all people who honor Her. As Benedict XVI teaches,


"Marian piety is an essential element of spiritual life. Let us not forget to turn with confidence to Mary, and she will certainly intercede for us with her Son.

[isadoramurta7]

What is going on in my life


Matthew 14:22 Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to the other side, before he sent the crowds away.When he had done this, he went up alone to the mountain to pray. Evening fell and He was alone there. The boat was already many furlongs away from the shore, being tossed by the waves because the wind was against it.But in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. When the disciples saw Him walking on the lake, they were afraid, thinking it was an apparition, and they screamed out of fear


. 27 Immediately Jesus said to them, "Take courage! It is I, do not be afraid! »Then Peter answered, "Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water." 29 And he said, "Come." Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the strong wind, he became afraid, and as he began to sink, he cried out, "Lord, save me!"Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, saying, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" As they got into the boat, the wind died down. And those in the boat fell down before Him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God."In the first reading, the apostles specially choose 7 people who will distribute bread and alms and help poor people who have nothing to eat. They will engage in charitable works.


So they noticed that dealing with the poor distracted them from the word of God, distracted them from God, distracted them from something much more important than just bread. The same motif appears in the Gospel, where the apostles, after multiplying the loaves, make a strange journey through darkness, perhaps more strange than through a lake.This crossing is a symbolic, metaphorical image that takes place in the life of each of us, when we leave bread, when we leave physical and material life, and care for this earthly world.Because it is enough to kneel down to pray in the evening, leaving dinner behind, and one already experiences darkness, experiences a storm, because anxiety already comes. I think: I don't want to pray. I will postpone this prayer, and I will not pray otherwise.This is such a prosaic example, but it already shows what happens to a person when he begins to pray. Every entry into the world of prayer, into the world of God, into the Eucharist, into confession, wherever one would encounter God, is immediately associated with a certain struggle, with a certain struggle with darkness, which is not experienced when, for example, one eats dinner or breakfast. , or dinner.


Here one has no worries, except about gaining too much weight and losing the right figure, but one does not have this experience of darkness. Nowhere does a person experience the struggle within himself more than when he leaves the physical bread and enters the spiritual bread, prayer.The world in which Jesus is, every event described in the Gospel, in the Gospels, even the darkest, sheds light on our lives.Whatever is written there is a kind of reflector for us, evoking certain reflections. Every event, even the most dramatic, has the power to comfort and sustain our spirits, precisely by the power of the Holy Spirit who permeates the entire Bible and also pervades those who accept this Bible with all their hearts.And this is what this fragment from the Gospel of Saint John is like today, it tells about a dark and at the same time dramatic event, which, however, ended in salvation and explanation for the apostles thanks to the presence of Jesus.But is it only about an experience that can be had, for example, on the Baltic Sea, or on Lake Balaton, or on the Canary Islands, or elsewhere, that will make the boat or ship shake?NO. Not only this, the Gospels are certainly not intended to teach us how to go to the sea or spend our holidays on the Masurian lakes. It is a completely different experience, it is about the experience of darkness that always accompanies us when we leave the world and worldly concerns and enter the world of prayer.Everything in the Bible is like a matrix, a form into which, by putting our life experiences, it all takes shape and forms into a sensible, understandable, ordered sequence of facts.Let us imagine that everything we experience in life is such a shapeless mass, heated and melted by our experiences, a mixture of feelings,
experiences, various observations, words, and only this shapeless mass, when placed in the Gospel, as in a matrix, it it's just taking shape.This is what the Bible is for, to give meaning and shape to what we experience. This is why we read the Bible, to understand ourselves and what is happening to us, and what is understandable and sensible is easier to accept.I think that each of us notices this in life, that if something makes sense and is understandable, it is easier to accept it.However, if something seems senseless and completely incomprehensible to us, even if it is useful, a person is reluctant to accept such an experience. That's why God gives us the Bible and says: "take this Bible, use it to make sense and understand what you are experiencing."It's easier to agree with something whose meaning and value I understand. Even if it was a dramatic and dark experience, when I understand that some suffering, for example, was necessary for me, and I see its true value, I can even be grateful for it.However, even if I experience something nice and pleasant, but I don't understand why it is happening in my life, I don't understand its meaning or value, I don't know if I should even be grateful for it.It sometimes happens that in difficult moments, or those that have broken us painfully, when we are unable to cope on our own, we come to someone and ask for advice, or some explanation, or even to listen to what is pressing on us somewhere, what is for us a storm, darkness, some internal discharges.We go to someone close, trustworthy, friendly, and revealing our secret, full of pain and darkness, to him, we grasp his every word, every instruction. Especially when someone explains something to us with love, wants to help us, then we code everything, accept it,and suddenly, after listening to this advice, this translation, we say: "well, indeed, now I see that it makes some sense", and then it becomes easier to accept it, and we accept it.Well, Christ is such a friend who not only knows how to listen, but above all knows how to put our lives in order, who knows how to explain everything to us, and he gives his explanation in the Holy Scripture,especially all those moments that are the darkest and darkest. Jesus is able to explain and organize them, give them meaning, all this thanks to the cross, thanks to the Bible, without it it would be impossible.Every event of my life, your life, every moment, every day, every night, every joy, every pain, can be met with understanding from the Bible, with understanding from Christ,as soon as he entrusts to the Holy Scripture what happened to us.Sometimes it is the opposite, that the Holy Scripture meets us with a proposal of certain events so that we can think about them before we experience them.So, for example, today we read about the storm of life, about darkness, about how the apostles experienced fear even of Christ himself, because they saw him walking on the waves, and it seemed abnormal to them, so they thought: "it is definitely not from God ".He was terrified by all this, and when we reflect on such Gospel proposals, in other words, meditate on them, we anticipate events, we simply prepare for such events in our lives,because it is easier to accept something that is even dramatic and dark, if a person he has prepared for it in advance, and this is the meaning of, for example, reflecting on the scripture, meditating on the scripture, because one is preparing for what may happen to him.

[isadoramurta7]

Unexplained depression, repeated failures

Jn 3:14-21. Jesus said to Nicodemus,
Just as Moses in the desert lifted up the serpent, so it is necessary to lift up the Son of Man, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

For God did not send his Son into the world to judge it, but to save it. He who believes in Him is not subject to judgment; but he who does not believe has already been judged, because he has not believed who the only begotten Son of God is.
And the judgment is this: light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not cling to it, lest his deeds should become exposed.
But he who lives in the truth draws near to the light, so that his deeds may be seen as having been done in God.

All the rulers of Judah, the priests and the people, perpetrated iniquities, imitating all the abominations of the Gentile nations. – We hear thousands of times that something happened in the West a long time ago, so it's high time for Poles to follow in the same footsteps.
This is how homosexual relationships, abortion, euthanasia, political and economic fashions are argued. Jerusalem burned because no one's heart burned with love for God anymore when reading the sacred verses of the Torah.

History returns. Today, people wear amulets instead of scapulars, instead of kneeling at the confessional, they lie on psychoanalysts' couches or go to fortune tellers. Children carry Pokemon in their pockets instead of angel medallions.
Young people read "The Da Vinci Code", which shreds their intelligence more effectively than a knife shreds Chinese cabbage. The posters invite you to transcendental meditations, which promise to take you to another dimension for only PLN 50.

Why is this happening? Harald Baer states: "The explosion of occultism is a phenomenon of protest against ossified Christianity." Fascination with occultism is a manifestation of the insufficiency of the mystical element in the Church, as well as a certain ignorance.
Quackery, fortune telling, clairvoyance, Eastern meditations and many other alternative spiritual paths push man into evolutionary regression.
Of course, for a more complete picture, we also need alternative medicine, homeopathy, magic healing, a bit of spiritualism, hypnosis, bioenergy therapy, dowsing, and mysterious trances.
Maybe a pendulum over the cutlet to check whether it is spiritually positive, and a few silver acupuncture pins on the tip of the upturned nose. What is the result of such searches?

Unexplained depression, erratic behavior, uncontrolled desire, sexual deformities, uncontrollable anger, obsessive thoughts and feelings, constant fear, anxiety, nervousness or neurotic behavior, suicidal thoughts, indifference to spiritual matters, blasphemous thoughts against God, aversion to the sacraments, repetitive failure.
Not all spirituality comes from the Holy Spirit, there are also spirits darker than the night and leading a person into something worse than ordinary ignorance. "Magic is the power of the defenseless," explains Hubert Kohle.
Is it any wonder that in Poland we have twice as many exorcists than ten years ago? Is it any wonder that they are overburdened and besieged by terrified penitents?

Nicodemus came at night and talked to Jesus in the darkness. He was in the dark. In fact, it was the darkness that forced him to look for Jesus. What forces us to conversion is the enslavement of darkness, the visible action of dark forces.
Whoever meets the requirements of truth comes closer to the light. Many people return to God only when their ungodliness brings them to such torment that life becomes unbearable for them. How to get out of this? The first thing is to return to Jesus Christ, even in the darkness of night!
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[podnad]

The passage from John 3:14-21 reveals a profound truth about the nature of faith and judgment, underscoring that Jesus came not to condemn but to offer salvation. This contrasts sharply with the current cultural and spiritual crises described—where ancient spiritual practices are often replaced with modern superstitions and pseudo-spirituality, leading to various forms of distress and confusion. The observation that many turn to occultism and alternative spiritual practices as a protest against perceived inadequacies in mainstream Christianity highlights a deep spiritual yearning and dissatisfaction. This dissatisfaction, along with the prevalence of unexplained depression and erratic behavior, suggests a need for a return to the foundational truths of faith. Just as Nicodemus sought Jesus in the darkness of night, individuals today might find their way back to spiritual clarity and peace through a renewed relationship with Jesus Christ, who offers light and truth amid the darkness of spiritual disorientation.

[isadoramurta7]

A spirit of abominable desolation


We clean our souls, but we may not invite Jesus inside every evening. And the evening is an important moment.
Our house can be cleaned after confession and decorated with prayers. Unfortunately, it may be empty. It is simply an abomination of desolation. It looks like a church without a tabernacle.
So what if I can even invite church hierarchs and so on, they pass by in their red clothes, but there is no tabernacle. The abomination of desolation is a prophetic concept, first signifying a temple without the presence of God.

This Jerusalem temple without the Shekhin, but also a believer who does not care about the state of sanctifying grace. He believes, but he is not in a close relationship with Jesus, he has nothing to do with Jesus at all, not to mention what He imagines about God, because it may even offend Him.

This is what the Lord is calling us to today, let's listen to one more word: Matthew 12:44. Then this unclean spirit, seeing that it cannot find peace in the wilderness and in waterless places, says to itself: "I will return to my house, from whence I came." And when he came to him, he found him unoccupied, swept, and garnished.

This word is important: unoccupied, empty. The Latin text could be translated: "found unoccupied, cleansed and decorated with brooms." Three features are highlighted that characterize a person capable of accepting, without noticing, this demon and his seven cronies, because the inside of a person is unoccupied.

Someone was missing there. Whom? God. What are these seven other ghosts? You don't have to be very clever to guess that these are the 7 deadly sins. The parable gives us the cause of all our sins, whether there are 20 of them, these deadly sins, or 7, or 5, the number is arbitrary.

One thing is important: all sins depend on whether the heart is occupied by God or not.
If I don't look him in the eye during the day, it's a matter of minutes or hours before the guys with this one unclean spirit will come back. It's a matter of time. Then the evil spirit goes and takes with him 7 other spirits more malicious than himself.

They go in and live there, and the man's subsequent condition becomes worse than his former condition. So it will be with this perverse generation. The evil spirit enters without any problem, why? Because the house was unoccupied.

This "unoccupied" is 15 minutes, half an hour in the evening, when darkness is approaching. Your soul can become the prey of evil spirits at any time. If you haven't invited Jesus into your heart yet.

In the biographies of the most holy people we can see what Satan's work means. They often felt very overwhelmed, and only because they had a huge attachment to Jesus, these evenings were truly Jesus-like, and because this attachment was strong, they did not become possessed and did not fall into sins.

And even if they fell, God raised them up and they converted. In violent winds you need to be tied tightly to some mast to be stronger than the wind. We know a myth about Odysseus, who tied himself to the mast of the ship when the voices of sirens deceived him, he no longer trusted himself and became tied to his own strength.

To be attached to Jesus is to be attached with feelings, otherwise there is a risk of invasion by these seven and eighth evil spirits. Some saints tested what the action and power of evil spirits meant. This is not pleasant at all.

Father Docampo, who lived in the 16th century, was beaten with his own hands and involuntarily destroyed images of Our Lady. Saint Teresa the Great writes in one of her texts one day: "Satan was causing me terrible pain and causing such confusion in my soul and body that it seemed impossible for me to bear it any longer.

Saint Teresa: Through movements that I could not resist, I was torturing myself pain, hitting my head, shoulders, whole body on objects around me."
Some saints were tempted by Satan to commit suicide. They almost started putting it into practice. He can, for a very small reason, cause a grudge against God, accuse God, and annihilate himself.

The evil spirit made them curse their lives, for example, Saint Magdalene, in one of her great trials, suddenly left the chapel, ran quickly to the refectory, took a knife to kill herself. She didn't know what she was doing next time, so she ordered herself to be tied up so as not to succumb to similar tendencies.

This is what wrestling with evil spirits of action means. However, these actions did not incriminate these saints because they were involuntary, they were done in the suspension of consciousness, so that others looking at this event would realize who they were dealing with.
It's not about some little devils from souvenir shops in Krakow. These are not souvenirs, these are powers, either one power or the other power, will rule over you and all thanks to one night with Jesus.

Quite often our souls and the souls of saints were attacked by various ideas, blasphemous and hideous. Sometimes people cannot distinguish it from sin, they cannot tell whether there is something wrong with them, and this is an attack of the evil spirit.

If there was no connection with Jesus, people could go crazy because of it: nightmares, dreams, some visions, terrible images. Saint Alphonsus had shameless visions that even tempted him to doubt his faith.

Saint Alphonsus Liguori, even at the end of his life, had such attacks that he screamed at the entire monastery, not letting others sleep. It was similar with Saint. John Vianney and Padre Pio. We all know what attacks they endured. They were strong wrestlers and they made sure to be with Jesus every day. What could be with us.

The advantage of evil spirits is that we do not believe in them or we underestimate their power. This makes our alertness very sleepy. When I read about Saint Francis, who turned 43, she had a lot of ecstasies and visions at that time,
and these phenomena were interrupted by attacks of demons who even beat her cruelly, disappeared immediately as soon as the household members, attracted by the noise, came to the room, and they say: "I think Franciszka is thinking of something."

Saint Catherine was thrown into the fire several times and emerged unharmed, but this could have terrified her. Saint Agnes was beaten at least twice a week. Saint Magdalene was thrown down the stairs. While she was sitting with her sisters, an invisible hand removed the chair and it fell to the floor. Strange things were happening.
Teresa of Avilla was 62 years old, and an evil spirit threw her down the stairs and she broke her arm. These are not just some games somewhere in our imagination, these are sometimes attacks directly on our body, even on our lives.

Everything I have just said here is also to remind us that it is not only about being with God, but also about being safe. Because life is dangerous, nothing will fulfill man except God.
When God is in us, we do not pursue anything, and sin has no access to us. And even if he tried to get to us, he can't get inside.
Today we have confession, we must take this into account, not only to confess our failures, to feel decorated and cleansed, but also to do something to keep this soul occupied. And that it would be occupied by God, and when the evil spirit and his friends would knock, a voice would come through the door: "Occupied." So that he can't get in there.

This is the important first sin, the only one that leads to all the others: lack of friendship, lack of concern for Jesus to have a place in our hearts, in our tabernacle, every day, every evening. Lack of concern for having the right image of God who wants to have a friend in us, because God has good intentions towards us, the best intentions, he believes in us.

He does not criticize us, does not despise us, does not accuse us. If the presence of Jesus is not in us, we fall into the 7 deadly sins because we feel empty within us. Loneliness that is unbearable. I said earlier: loneliness of spirit that cannot stand the absence of God, and then we run after everything, because in order to fill ourselves with something, to fill the hole that our soul has become.

Then the fall begins on seven fronts: we fall into pride, into contempt for others and ourselves, into haughtiness, into pride which is a mask for shame, into humiliation, ridicule, poor perception of others, poor perception of ourselves, conceit. , which is the belief that you are right.
This is a place for slander, slander, judgments, criticism and vulgarity. We do all this because we feel an emptiness within us. Vanity is a vacuum that seeks decoration to hide it.

We fall in anger and get angry at others, we do not forgive, we become malicious and annoying because we feel emptiness and vacuum, lack of love capable of forgiving, and only Jesus has such love. We fall into impurity, looking for the fulfillment of our souls with the saturation of our bodies, but this is not the level, this is not the kind of fulfillment.

We can console ourselves with masturbation, pornography, fornication, adultery. Searching for love, idolizing it because we feel the emptiness of loneliness, we have not secured the love of Jesus, we have cut ourselves off from the love of God. We have denied God his love for us and we obsessively seek fulfillment in the flesh.

We fall into laziness, feeling reluctant to serve God, we lose the desire to serve the community, because God appears to us as empty, because we have a bad image of God, we do not want to feel fullness in Him, we do not believe that He can fulfill our longings.

Then we get bored with Him, we are discouraged by Him, but not with God, but with a false image of God. Mateusz thought so too. We fall in greed, both material and emotional, greed, rapacity, possessiveness, intellectual greed, this is also a large scope for terrible mistakes, professional greed, even spiritual greed, because we feel emptiness and misery within ourselves, and we want to feel fullness , but nothing achieves this effect. As Mateusz found out.

We fall into gluttony and drunkenness, this is already a very serious signal that we have a void somewhere, trying to fill it with feasts, exquisite dishes, sweets, alcohol, chemical stimulants, and this sin also includes other addictions, the latest Internet addictions, or any sensual greed .

Because we confuse the heart with the stomach, and again it is about an empty interior. We fall in jealousy, destroying those who have the joy of love, mistakenly thinking that destroying someone else's love will restore our sense of wholeness. It will not return us to a sense of fullness, we will feel even more empty and devastated, because we expect the love of man rather than God, mistakenly thinking that man can give us more love than Jesus.

Because we have a wrong image of God. All these sins, brothers and sisters, point to one sin, this eighth spirit, the spirit of hideous emptiness. It is none of these seven sins, it is simply nothing, it is a soul that does not have the presence of Jesus within it.

Tonight I invite you to confess your sins, but let us also remember why we are doing all this, where it all begins. Why do we feel such anxiety and emptiness, and who do we need, who have we left aside in all this?

I think that in this temple today there will be several customs chambers, and we will sit like Matthew, and we will not pay off customs duties, but forgive debts, forgive sins, forgive debts, forgive customs duties, forgive everything that you feel in yourself as a sense of debt to God, but all this to make room for Him, to always have God before our eyes.

[isadoramurta7]

The presence of the kingdom of darkness. What to do? 

Earlier I touched on the image of the church, the image of the temple. We all create an image and at the same time an invisible spiritual edifice of the church. There are elements in the church and in the temple that are more visible and less visible. The foundation is decisive, but it is not visible.
The foundation is essential, as is everything else in the temple.
When Jesus chose the apostles, he chose people who were unnoticed by others, overlooked, invisible - people who are not noticed every day. Some fishermen pulled Matthew the tax collector out of a hole, and so on and so forth.

And as we read in the Book of Revelation in chapter 21, the apostles are the foundation for the new Jerusalem. Why? They were unnoticed, so they had to remain like that until the end, or rather forever - they are forever unnoticed, they are invisible, they are invisible, they are very spiritual.
This is a very good message for those people who think, "No one notices me." That's good. This is perhaps a calling to be as invisible as God. God is also unnoticed, and God is also unseen.
And when we read the Bible, we see that He was particularly fond of choosing people who were not usually noticed by people as his closest friends. Hence there was a wide place in God's eye for them.

There are also load-bearing elements in the temple. Souls that bear others are the supporting elements, because they have to endure a lot, and the burden of responsibility for others rests on them. There are also pillars, just like the pillars here in this temple, which have the gift of supporting, supporting, intercession and prayer.
Columns are sublime, generous people, moral and spiritual authorities for many. In every temple there are few pillars, few columns. There are more bricks in the wall than columns, there are few people who are really authorities, but a lot depends on them.

There are walls, souls fixed in goodness, not wavering, giving shelter to the terrified. There are decorative elements in the church, ornaments of the community, beautiful souls, carved by the chisels of suffering.
There are people-altars, full of sacrifice, ready to sacrifice for others. Perhaps they even like to rest their heads on this altar or kiss it. There are windows with stained glass, people who give light to others.
Our task is not only to find ourselves in God's eyes, but also to find our place in the church community.

Benedict XVI says: in Christianity, salvation is not individualistic. No one is saved here on his own, no one can be saved without being interested in others, without having anything in common with others, bypassing others.
Another thing is that this church temple is often built of rejected stones. It is very important. When we find ourselves in the temple, in the church community, we regain a double sense of value. Not only because God believes in me, but we begin to experience that others also believe in me and that I believe in others.
This is also a very important element of self-esteem.
Matthew saw that he was someone who gave light, I think, he wrote the gospel about God's faith in man. You find yourself when you allow others to find you. This is the meaning of the church.
When you give someone light, it means that you are a window in that building. When you support others, it means you are a pillar.

When you are a shelter, it means you are like a wall. When you sacrifice, you are an altar. When you let someone into the heart of Jesus, you are a gate, and so on and so forth. But in the temple, as we can see here before us with our eyes, it is very important to have an image.
We don't have a picture of what it looks like, see for yourself. It is then difficult to rest your eyes on something. In the temple it is important when there is an image, an icon, when there is a likeness to God.
How important are the people in the church, in whom we look and see a credible image of God. There are people whose face is a mirror of the face of Jesus. The most beautiful compliment that can be paid to a person is when they are told: "Looking into your face, I see that God is looking at me."
Even more important than this is the presence itself. Everything I say now determines the rest. Dwelling The Jews called it the Shekhinah or the Mishkam.

When Jesus calls the first apostles in the Gospel of John, they ask where you live. He says, "Come and see." He didn't show them a specific house number. He showed them that if they followed them, then they will feel the dwelling of God, the shechinah.
The dwelling of God is to be close to Him, and not to live in a specific number.
Even more important is the presence of God, also in our inner temple. We must make an effort not only to have the right image of God, but also His authentic presence, because our heart must also be a tabernacle.
If this temple had all the elements I mentioned, or maybe even more, but there was no tabernacle, then the temple would make no sense. She would lie like a body without a heart, she would lie like a corpse.

The prophets warned against such phenomena, calling it the abomination of desolation. It is possible that something like this could happen, that anything could happen, but the most important thing would be missing.
Saint Bernard says that when the disciples were going to Emmaus, Jesus, while translating the scriptures and explaining to them the meaning of death and resurrection, at one point made them understand that he wanted to go further, that he wanted to leave them.
Bernard writes that he did this so that the disciples would stop him even more and do good. For, as the Scripture says, the day was drawing to a close and it was evening, so dark times were coming.
In this simple sentence, prosaic, maybe even banal, you can see so much. They didn't want to spend time in an empty apartment without God, in an apartment without Jesus. And they said, "Come with us," and in that inn, the Eucharist took place there.

So do we when we are tempted in the dark. When we lose the light, we should not let Jesus go. I think that it is also especially in the evening. When that time of night comes, we should especially stay close to him, stop him with begging, not let him go, so that God doesn't ask us: "Spend at least 5 minutes of your time with me" and we don't want to.
We should have the zeal of the apostles who said, "We will not let you go." Let's pay attention to this. They tried very hard for Jesus when it began to get dark, when night was approaching, when the kingdom of darkness was becoming present.
The activity of God, especially the activity of angels and saints, is accompanied by the counteraction of the enemy, the activity of Satan, as Saint John of the Cross claims and wrote about it. The Earth is a battlefield, and it is important who lives in our soul, whether the true God or a counterfeit image of God.
You have to try very hard, especially when the night is approaching, both the real and the symbolic one.



Matthew recorded such a parable, one of Jesus' parables, which talks about an evil spirit that is expelled from a human soul. We know this parable, but because someone did not make an effort to bring God's presence inside, the house stood empty.
That is, it was as if the soul was empty and experienced terrible visits, even an invasion of intruders. When we do not make an effort to let Jesus dwell in our soul, other spirits enter. The spirit must have its own spirit. He hates a vacuum.
The stomach can bear hunger, the heart can bear loneliness, but the soul cannot bear the absence of the spirit. But which one?
In the 12th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew we read: "When the unclean spirit leaves a man." This word "unclean" means not only unclean in a sexual or dirty, unhygienic sense. It is not a holy spirit at all, it is not a pure spirit.

And when it leaves man, it wanders through waterless places, writes Matthew. Seeking rest, but finding none. Because its essence is anxiety. In this parable, a man is compared to a house, because the idea is to express more clearly the idea of the interior.
Mateusz wanted to illustrate this: "My interior is like a home." It is the interior that is most important in this matter, the most important thing. Whoever really lives inside of us, life cannot tolerate emptiness.
You can endure many things in life, but you cannot endure emptiness. This apartment was like a frame made of gold, but empty - without a portrait, without a painting and without a presence.

I read in Saint Catherine, or rather, when Saint Francis Xavier quotes Saint Catherine of Siena, who once had a very strong attack of unclean temptations. The temptations were quite shameless, perhaps even perverse, so the saint was terrified and at the same time wavered, thinking that sin had already conquered her.
There is a moment when temptations attack us and it seems that we have already sinned, even though we did not agree to it. And the will determines whether there was a sin or not.
And the saint staggered, terrified. It is true that her will did not consent to these offenses even for a minute, strengthened by God's grace, but when these attacks continued, she began to call out to Jesus. And she had a vision that he stood before her, and she asked him, "Lord, where were you when my heart was so full of darkness and filth?"

And then Jesus replied, "I have just been in your heart." She was surprised: "What is it like in my heart? Are you now setting up your home in hearts that are so dirty, dark and disgusting?"
Then Jesus explained everything to her. "Tell me," he said to Catherine, "did these disgusting thoughts make you happy or sad, delight or pain?" She replied, "Deepest sadness and pain."
Then Jesus explained to her: "And who poured so much sadness and pain into your heart if not I, who was hidden at the very bottom of your heart? Believe me, Catherine, if I had not been there, the thoughts that so pressed against your will , would defeat you.
You would give them access to you and play with them with pleasure. But because I was in your heart, you did everything you could to resist temptation. And because you were unable to do everything you wanted to do, your disgust grew even more. So that the fight served to strengthen your virtue and increase your merit.

She succeeded because Jesus actually lived in her, and the temptations did not arouse in her delight, pleasure, fascination or attraction, but only disgust, pain and sadness. And then she could recognize that she had been in unity with Jesus all along.
But we can delude ourselves that Jesus lives in us, because I am a priest, priest, monk, Catholic, Christian. I go to church, I cleanse my soul, I go to confession. But do I invite Jesus into my interior?
What is the point of going to confession, confessing all these 7 deadly sins, and then not receiving Holy Communion at all? So what is the point of cleansing yourself ethically or morally, improving yourself, trying to be better, and confessing your sins, and not accepting Jesus at least once a day, not saying anything to Him?
This does not mean that you have to attend the Eucharist or Mass every day, because there is also a kind of spiritual communion, through adoration of the Cross, the face of Jesus, the Word of God. It's about a friendly meeting.

[isadoramurta7]

The Secret of the Cathedral Builders

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xAGyVZ2BBhQ


Jn 2:13-25. The Jewish holiday of Passover was approaching, and Jesus went to Jerusalem.
In the temple courtyard he found sellers of oxen, sheep, and doves, and money changers. Then he made a whip of ropes and drove everyone out of the temple grounds, including the sheep and the oxen.

He scattered the money of those who exchanged it and overturned their tables. And he commanded the pigeon sellers: "Take all these things out of here, and do not make my Father's house a market place."
The disciples remembered the text of the Scripture: Zeal for your house consumes me. The Jews asked Him, "What sign will you give us that you have the authority to do this?"
Jesus replied, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." The Jews replied, "It took forty-six years to build this temple, and you want to build it in three days?"

But he was talking about the temple of his body. So when He rose from the dead, the disciples remembered that He had said just that, and they believed the Scriptures and the words of Jesus.
While Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover, many people believed in His name because they saw the signs He performed. But Jesus did not reveal Himself to them, because He knew everyone.
He also did not need anyone to bear witness to Him about man, because He Himself knew what was hidden in him.

Usually, the sign of the cleansing of the temple is interpreted as a symbol of banishing from our conscience idolatry, which involves great greed. This is true, but if you looked at your life you would see that it is made of fear, anxiety, ambition, greed, lust and pride.
It is impossible to breathe healthily in such a building, its walls are toxic with fungi and therefore everything needs to be demolished. You defend your life plan, but you are not happy in it. Something must be destroyed in order to be rebuilt.

Are you allowing Christ to destroy and drive away your trade with the world? Do you allow Him to destroy your narcissistic beliefs that everything is due to you, that everyone should serve you, and everything should be according to your architectural plans, outlined by egocentric desires?
We complain that our lives are falling apart, that things are not going as we planned, that our egocentric architecture is not being realized. But if something falls apart, it is only because it has an idolatrous foundation.

If your life is in shambles, that's good, because you can finally put the construction in the hands of the carpenter's Son. Disintegration is the result of a false foundation of beliefs.
What do you really think about love? Haven't you imagined that love means constantly forcing others to idolize you and assure you that you are the most wonderful person in the world?
Isn't it true that you care more about other people's opinions than about the Bible? Haven't you convinced yourself that you have to be guided by your heart, i.e. by blind affections that have led you into a trap of hatred, dependence and jealousy?

And your false modesty, wasn't it actually the fear of making decisions and looking at others? What about your idea of perfection? What does it really have to do with evangelical perfection, and perhaps much more with the perfect and neurotic will to subjugate children and spouse, dog and aquarium fish?
Isn't your nobility really a concern for appearances? Or isn't the guise of savings hiding exploitation of others and simple fraud? And your prayers, aren't they orders? Don't you confuse being good with being good only for yourself?

You think you are exceptionally good and honest, but this may only exist in your imagination. Who you think you are must collapse, because it is not the truth, it is just a screen behind which fear, self-hatred and powerlessness are hidden.
There are many questions that cause our life edifice to crack, lashed by the lashes of truth. There are even more answers that give us a chance to rebuild. But they are all in Christ.
If you die with Him, you will also live in the new dwelling of the Spirit. The new edifice of existence is to be built on the words of God, on the Ten Commandments. They will never become outdated.

[isadoramurta7]

The hidden truth



Mark 9:2-10. After six days, Jesus took Peter, James and John and led them away from the people to a high mountain. There he was transfigured in their presence.
His clothes became brilliantly white as no fuller on earth can whiten. And Elijah appeared to them with Moses, who were talking with Jesus.
Then Peter said to Jesus, "Rabbi, it is good that we are here. We will build three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." He didn't know what to say, they were so scared.

And a cloud appeared and overshadowed them, and a voice came from the cloud, "He is my beloved Son. Listen to him!" Immediately afterwards, when they looked around, they saw no one. Only Jesus was with them.
As they were coming down from the mountain, he commanded them not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept it a secret, but wondered among themselves what it meant to rise from the dead.

Beneath the surface layer of every suffering, beneath every loneliness and self-contempt, there are desires for eternal happiness.
God spared Abraham's son, but not his own, but delivered him up for us all. And since He died for us, and what's more, He rose from the dead out of love for us, He really won us, and no accusation, remorse or perfidious condemnation of Satan can raise even the slightest doubt as to God's irreversible saving will.

The question remains: if God says about Christ: "This is my beloved Son", why did He allow Him to be handed over to such a cruel death? Didn't Abraham love Isaac?
Hugely, and yet he agreed to his death, he was even ready to kill him himself! He was ready to kill him because he loved God even more. God loves his Son, but he agreed to his death because he also loves us.

And how, since he did not spare his Son. Out of love, you save someone, even at the cost of suffering, even at the cost of death. Only the love that counts is stronger than the strongest thing, that is, death.
I will only believe in a heart that allows itself to be hit by me and yet does not close itself, but opens up to me even more. That's why Jesus died on the cross. He gave me proof of his love. Only life that counts is not afraid of death, because it is stronger than death.

We rarely realize how dangerous a world we live in. The truth about the world only reaches us when we face death. The painful truth about the impossibility of achieving lasting happiness in this world rarely reaches us with complete transparency, even though we are constantly wandering in illusory dreams.
Death will take everything from us, so it is important to know whether death is really the end or the beginning.

Beneath the surface layer of every suffering, beneath every loneliness and self-contempt, migraine and impotence, obesity and diabetes, neurotic tension and anxiety, mourning after death and compulsive sexuality, uncontrollable emotions and depression, and even suicidal temptations, there are desires for eternal happiness.

The more they strive, the more painful it is that they will not be fulfilled here. God did not want us to be torn apart by these desires and the impossibility of fulfilling them.
He does everything to make me cling to Him now, so that NOW becomes FOREVER.
After the Transfiguration, the apostles no longer saw anyone with them, only Jesus himself. This was the point: to see no one else but Jesus! Christian mysticism calls this state UNIO MISTICA, Jewish mysticism uses the word DEWQUT, i.e. adherence to God, an unbreakable bond with God.

It is both a delightful ecstasy and a constant awareness of His closeness in every miserable moment of existence. Then the world turns off, like the city lights at night after an electricity failure, and the only light remains only His figure, shining white as the moon.

[Amo]

A sign of hope. Bernadette's testimony


Standing at the cross of Jesus was His Mother, His Mother's sister, Mary, wife of Cleopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his Mother and the disciple whom he loved standing next to him, he said to his Mother: "Woman, here is your son." Then he said to the disciple, "Behold your mother." And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.


In our everyday life, amidst many difficulties, there are signs of hope. One of such signs for us is Mary. On the feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Poland, the Jasna Góra Icon of the Black Madonna stands before our eyes.


Our thoughts and prayers go to the Polish Cana, to the One who experienced "great things". Mary is a great sign of hope for our entire nation, but also for each of us.


A young girl named Bernadetta confessed: "Thinking about today's ceremony for several days, I was wondering who the Mother of God is to me," she confesses. The first, slightly depressing thought that came to my mind was that I was not praying to Mary enough and thinking about her too little.


Somehow I forget about Her in prayer. I have already decided to deepen my very general knowledge about Her, Her Person and way of life.
When I think about Her now and when I pray to Her, (...) I am delighted, above all, by Her trust and obedience to God. She is all for God from beginning to end. (...) Her attitude of listening to God's voice arouses in me a great desire to imitate her.


That's why I'm asking Mary to pray for me, so that I can trust and trust, so that I can look for God in everything, and not for myself.


We also ask for the intercession of the One whom the Apocalypse shows as a Woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a wreath of twelve stars.


The awareness of Mary's intercession makes us walk through life more confidently. The Church is our home, and in this home is the Mother of God. However, these words can also become a tired cliché that no one responds to anymore. So where do we get the freshness of faith?


From everyday life permeated with God's presence in the word, sacraments and events. Extraordinary spiritual ecstasies and wonderful liturgical celebrations are needed, but in special moments. However, the simplicity of a life filled with the Gospel is necessary in every day and in every Christian home.


And this is worth remembering, especially on the Queen of Poland's Day. Today, in a special way, we look at Her, asking in prayer not only for our homeland, but for all people who honor Her. As Benedict XVI teaches,


"Marian piety is an essential element of spiritual life. Let us not forget to turn with confidence to Mary, and she will certainly intercede for us with her Son.

So much for focussing upon Jesus. Those who pray to or seek intercession from the dead, will be answered or interceded for, by the god of the dead. Jesus Christ is not the god of the dead, but the God of the living.

Luk 20:34 And Jesus answering said unto them, The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage: 35 But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: 36 Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection. 37 Now that the dead are raised, even Moses shewed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. 38 For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him.

Ecc 9:5 For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. 6 Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun. 7 Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works. 8 Let thy garments be always white; and let thy head lack no ointment. 9 Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun. 10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.

Psa 146:1 Praise ye the LORD. Praise the LORD, O my soul. 2 While I live will I praise the LORD: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being. 3 Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. 4 His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.

Heb 7:24 But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. 25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. 26 For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; 27 Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's: for this he did once, when he offered up himself. 28 For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated for evermore.

Mary is not the mother of God incarnate, who existed for eternity before her. She did not die on the cross for all of humanity, to become the divine intercessor of all the saved. This position belongs to our Lord Jesus Christ alone, who being God Himself is untiringly capable of intercession for all, at all times, knowing and addressing the salvific needs of all as no other can. Bring your prayers and burdens to the Lord Jesus Himself, and no other preached imposture. For all such is an affront to God. The holy scriptures teach nowhere that humanity should turn to any of the dead for intercession with God. To the contrary, God strictly forbade such for all of His people.

Prayer to Mary or the "saints" is wholly extra biblical, and dangerous to one's soul.

1Ch 10:13 So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the LORD, even against the word of the LORD, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to enquire of it; 14 And enquired not of the LORD: therefore he slew him, and turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse.

So will be the fate of all who seek guidance or anything else from the dead, in the place of God. Look unto Jesus Christ the living God, who conquered death for all the saved. Look unto the living God for life and truth, not the dead or the god of them.

Heb 2:14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; 15 And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. 16 For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. 17 Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. 18 For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.

Heb 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. 14 Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. 15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

It is God who knows your very thoughts, actions, and condition of heart. Not Mary or anyone else. It is the Lord Jesus Christ alone that can intercede for you before the Father, and forgive your sins. Nor is He as God in need of help doing any such thing, all things pertaining to each of us "are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do." Jesus Christ is the one whom everyone of us has to do. Our entire life is in relation to Jesus Christ alone in the end, whether one cares to accept this truth or not. All will answer for their acceptance or rejection of Him alone who was, is, and always will be the perfect image of the Father. Not Mary or anyone else. Any and all who attempt to stand in this place, or are preached to do so, are antichrist.

Act 4:11 This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. 12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

Jhn 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Please do not entrust your intercession and therefore salvation to any other than Jesus Christ alone. There is no other name given among men by which we must be saved, and no one comes to the Father but by the Son.