The Holy Spirit inspired our blog.
Wednesday of the Twenty-third Week in Extraordinary Time
Brothers and sisters:
In regard to virgins, I have no commandment from the Lord,
but I give my opinion as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy.
So this is what I think best because of the present distress:
that it is a good thing for a person to remain as he is.
Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek a separation.
Are you free of a wife? Then do not look for a wife.
If you marry, however, you do not sin,
nor does an unmarried woman sin if she marries;
but such people will experience affliction in their earthly life,
and I would like to spare you that.
I tell you, brothers, the time is running out.
From now on, let those having wives act as not having them,
those weeping as not weeping,
those rejoicing as not rejoicing,
those buying as not owning,
those using the world as not using it fully.
For the world in its present form is passing away.
Emphasis mine, 1 Cor 7:25-31
The above reading is the first reading; the Psalm was part of Psalm 45, and the Gospel reading was about the Beatitudes written by St. Luke.
The Holy Spirit called my attention to what was bold, and off we go.
I have read two or three books on St. Paul, and from what I could understand, St. Paul and many at that time thought the Second Comming of Jesus would be any day now.
If you think about it, that statement is true. I could die any day, and this is becoming more important the older Gail and I get. We learn of more people hopping on the Hallelujah train home to Jesus every month.
Gail and I have also noticed that time is going faster. It reminds me of the saying that life is like a roll of toilet paper: the closer you get to the end, the faster it goes.
So Pual’s advice I don’t understand, and Paul starts by saying, “ I have no commandment from the Lord,” and St. Paul ends with, For the world in its present form is passing away.
That last statement is true. When Jesus climbed up onto the Cross, Died, and then Rose from the Dead, and after The Holy Spirit was infused into our Souls when we were Baptized, the “world,” as we knew it, did start to end and change into the “Spirit World.”
Or
Did the “world” end for you?
Are you looking for Love, Joy, and Peace from life in the “world”?
It’ll never happen.
We just met with our new Bishop, a wonderful man whom the Holy Spirit told me to meet. We had a wonderful conversation, and we related to him much of what we have written about in our Blogs and books.
On the way out, he asked me how old I was. I told him eighty-three. He thought I was much younger and said it, and we responded, “That’s the power of Joy.”
The old world I used to live in is passing away, and I will do nothing to stop this big change in Our life.
We pray you are embracing a new life by listening to the whisper of the Holy Spirit and imitating your brother, Jesus, to do the will of Your Father.
Sidebar:
I just finished reading a great book written by a Nurse in Hospice. Unforgettable encounters during life’s final moments The In-Between by Hadley Vlahos, RN.
Yes, I bought it on Bookbub.com for $1.99.We are mentioning Bookbub again because they present five to six books daily in areas you choose to read.
Hadley was born and raised an Episcopalian; she had an abusive dad, went to college and decided to live in the “world,” got pregnant, had the baby, and decided to become a Nurse while working and taking care of the baby.
When she lived in the “world,” she dropped God and went her own way.
As a Hospice nurse, she encountered many experiences that had no natural explanation, one being people who are dying are visited by family and friends who are there to make the transition to their new life more manageable.
At the end of the book, she summarized her thoughts, briefly saying that something else happens after death, but she couldn’t identify what that was.
Sad.
She couldn’t see the forest through the trees.
She had experiences that made me want to yell, that’s God working in your life.
What she missed was the Joy of knowing she was doing God’s work and that God was always with her, taking care of her and her patients.
We are mentioning this book because we are all going to face death at some time, and I, yes, I learned a lot about Hospice and how it makes the transition from life to death easier for all parties.
Picture:
I was out kayaking when I came across some water lilies. They always make me stop and admire creation. “…not even Solomon in all his splendor was not clothed like one of them.” Mt. 6:29 Picture by Jerry Torres
Please keep Snapping!
If you want a copy of the prayers we discussed, email me.
fprince101@gmail.com
Remember, if you want to submit a picture, no people, please, because we have to get permission from that person to use their photograph.
