True-blue Hydrangeas, side garden, Cape Elizabeth Picture by Gail Prince
“walking and jumping and praising God.”
Our Blog is Inspired by The Holy Spirit.
I don’t know about you, but after Lent, I feel drawn out.
Yes we have had a great Lent, by the end of Good Friday I am worn out, and you have to remember we are writing this at the start of Holy Week, so Easter and all its Joy haven’t happened for me yet.
So let me do a quick reset.
HE HAS RISEN!!
Hallelujah!!!
He has beaten satan!
He has established a new Kingdom,
Yes!
Right here on earth.
We’re free!
For the first time, man has a choice on how they choose to live.
Love, Joy, and Peace, or fear, envy, and anger, to mention three.
We should be filled with JOY!
But that’s not all,
We have been justified, by His Life, Death, and resurrection, so we know when we jump on the Hajuliah train home, we will join our Brother and be justified to His, our, Father.
Life does not end at death in fact for those who believe, life really starts now, and after death, it only gets better,
Because after death satan is thrown out forever!
Let us repeat.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah!!!
I am pumped just typing this.
Today’s reading comes from Acts chapter three.
Acts Chapter one; Jesus ascends into Heaven,
Acts Chapter two; the Holy Spirit is received by the Apostles, and Peter goes from hiding in fear of the Romans and Jewish authorities, and after being infused by the Holy Spirit to proclaiming Jesus as Lord and Savior, and convicts the crowd for their actions in crucifying Jesus.
Wow! What a change in Peter!
Acts said the crowd was “Cut to the heart” Acts 2:37 by Peter’s words and
Peter responded, “Repent and be Baptized.” Acts 2:38
What a change, “Repent and be Baptized,” and by extension be saved.
Where’s the anger from Peter, for what the crowd did?
None,
Just “Repent and be Baptized” so they can live in this new world, and that day many did.
Acts Chapter 3, Today’s reading, Peter and John are walking to the temple to worship God, and meet a beggar who is a cripple and asks Peter and John for alms.
But Peter looked intently at him, as did John,
and said, “Look at us.”
He paid attention to them, expecting to receive something from them.
Peter said, “I have neither silver nor gold,
but what I do have I give you:
in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, rise and walk.”
Then Peter took him by the right hand and raised him up,
and immediately his feet and ankles grew strong.
He leaped up, stood, and walked around,
and went into the temple with them,
walking and jumping and praising God.
Wow!
The purpose of the healing was for this man to walk around and Praise God.
Always remember, God doesn’t heal just to heal, God heals so you can proclaim His Glory, and maybe encourage others to try this new lifestyle.
That’s what the cripple did!
In readings later this week this will prove a difficulty for Peter and the Apostles, but as you will find out they handle the difficulty with Joy.
The questions we have to ask ourselves every day are:
Do I believe in the resurrected Jesus?
Am I “cut to the heart” by my sins?
Remember,
at the heart of all sin is the rejection of God the Father.
Do I accept that my sins are forgiven if I repent, and for Catholics that means the Joy of going to confession? We bet you haven’t heard the word Joy linked with confessions,
But that’s what it is, isn’t it?
Your sins have been forgiven and you are once again one with God.
Am I willing to thank God the Father for the Difficulties He has ALLOWED in my life?
Will I allow A God of Outrageous Love to heal me physically?
And when God does heal and forgive you,
Do you,
“walk and jump praising God.”
“The nine” We pray you will grow in the Love, Joy, and Peace of the Holy Spirit by growing in Patience, Kindness, Generosity, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control.
Sidebar:
Today’s Gospel reading is also a favorite of mine.
The reading is about two disciples who are walking on the road to Emmaus after Jesus has just risen from the dead.
Why is this Gospel reading one of my favorite readings?
When our oldest son Mike was going to be Confirmed, I volunteered to head up the service project.
I, sadly, didn’t know the Holy Spirit at that time, and I decided to throw a Christmas party for the kids who were patients at the Pineland Mental Hospital. We had almost thirty students in our group.
I did pray for help, and God provided enough adults so that we could have five teams of six students each who would throw a party at five different buildings.
We also asked the students to go out to their building before the party to determine the needs of the kids they would throw the party for.
Which they all did.
Remember, I didn’t know the Holy Spirit at this time, but the Holy Spirit filled me with the knowledge I needed to put this program together.
What I now realized I missed was the Joy of knowing God had my back.
The whole afternoon was to be built around the Mass.
We met at St. Bartholemew’s and started the Mass, and the Gospel reading was the Road to Emmaus, which I had picked beforehand. As a side note, I now really appreciated our priest for giving me full latitude in this project.
The Mass paused at the Offertory, and we climbed into our cars, radios off, and drove twenty miles to Pineland, where we would throw the Christmas Parties,
This was our “Offertory.”
Since I was leading this program I didn’t have a party, but I did visit all the parties which lasted an hour and I was brought to tears by what I saw.
Our students and the Pineland patients really bonded! We had to really encourage some of our students to leave, so we could continue with the Mass.
Why did everyone bond so fully?
We were told afterward that most groups come to throw a Christmas party and leave. We came in the first time to meet the patients and determine their needs, and by doing so started a bonding between our students and the patients, so when we came back the second time we were not strangers, and the patients were not strangers.
I witnessed patients with food all over their faces being loving and patiently fed by our students, students playing games with patients, and I couldn’t tell who was filled with the greater Joy.
The Holy Spirit working in my, actually all of our lives.
After the party, we went to the Pineland Chapel and continued Mass with the Consecration of the Bread and Wine.
During this part of the Mass, a Pineland patient walked in and started shouting.
Everyone ignored him.
All we felt was a very, very deep Peace.
Imagine thirty young students, fifteen and under, a patient walks into the chapel, making loud noises, and not even a snicker.
Only Peace!
At that time I couldn’t explain what had happened, all I knew, and all our students knew, and still remember, fifty plus years later, Gail happened to meet two students recently, and they mentioned the party, was the Joy and Peace they experienced that day.
On the ride home all the parents reported the students were quiet, something very deep had happened to all of us and no one knew exactly what it was.
Sad isn’t it, God was in our life and we didn’t fully appreciate all that was happening.
It would take me years before I truly appreciated what happened that afternoon, and how much the Holy Spirit was involved in this project.
I read all the I’s above and wanted to vomit!
But that was my world at that time.
The good news is,
Fifty-plus years of thinking about that service project still gives me a lump in my throat, and I now Joyfully acknowledge the Holy Spirit active in my, our, life.
We, Gail and I, once again wish you and your family a Joyful Easter.
