St. Gabriel

As much has I love St Michael, St Gabriel is a popular choice in my family and he has the same feast day has St Michael. This is a excellent saint you will Love!

         Saint Gabriel the Archangel is one of three angels mentioned in the bible.(the other two are St.Michael and St.Raphael) Gabriel is mentioned throughout the Old Testament. But the best known story of St.Gabriel is The birth of Jesus is Announced.  The Archangel Gabriel goes to visit the blessed Virgin Mary, to announce the birth of Jesus will be soon."In the sixth month of Elizabeths pregnancy God sent the angel Gabriel to a town in Galilee named Nazareth." Lk 1.26. "The angel Came to her and said "peace be with you! the lord is with you and has greatly blessed you!" Lk 1.28  "You will become pregnant and give bith to a son, and you will name him Jesus Lk1.32.

In the book of Daniel after god saved him from the lions den, Daniel had dreams, Dreams he did not under stand. in the holy bible it says that god sent St Gabriel to go and explain the the dreams to daniel. gabriel appered many time to Daniel to explain about his dreams.

St Gabriel is a great angel. Gabriel is the Patron of communication workers. The name Gabriel means "Man of God" or "God has shown himself mighty".           

 Saint Gabriel is the Angel god sends out to send messages like to Zechariah. In LK 1.11-18 which says "An Angel of the lord appered to him, standing at the right side of the alter Where the incense was burned. When Zechariah saw him he was alarmed and felt afraid.But the angel said to him " Don't be afraid,Zechariah! God has heheard your prayer, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son. You are to name him John. How glad and happy you will be, and how happy many others will be when he is born! John will be great in  the lords sight. He must not drink any wine or strong drink. From his very birth he will be filled with the holy spirit, and he will bring back many people of Israel to the lord their God. H will go ahead of the lord, strong and mighty like the prophet Elijah. he will bring fathers and childern together again: he will turn disobedient people to the way of thinking of the righteous: he will get the lords people ready for him". and then it goes on (LK 1.18-20) below) Zechariah  said to the angel " How  shall i know if this is so?  i am an old man and my wife is old also"... " I am Gabriel," the angel answerd. " i stand in the presence of God who sent me to tell you this good news"

Archangel Gabriel as you see, is the commuication worker of God.

Shepherds

The shepherds of the time, the love of the lost sheep, the story Jesus says with it just makes this a more loving and comforting story to love and read more often. Every time I read it it brings me comfort and warmth of gods almighty love and power and his spirit working through me.

Sheep back then, were  something everyone would trade for something better, they would trade them in the temple, they would sell them for coins because they are dumb animals. They were also known as the sacrifice in the temple as well. People would make clothes out of the wool and only eat them at special meals. Today sheep/lamb are eating like bread back in that day, it's just become on of those things that has become are everyday food.....

The first time I heard of shepherds was when i was in kindergarten. When I heard the story of the birth of Jesus, and the wise men and shepherds going to him, and worshiping the baby, of course like most children i had no clue what a shepherd was exactly, so it was like a whole new world....


I the sovereign Lord, tell you that myself will look for my sheep and take of them in the same way as shepherds watch their sheep....... - Ezekiel 34:11-12


   The lord will watch and protect us even when we are down and run away from him. the Lord God is always there to protect us and to keep us safe and to keep us on the right path. So that on the last day we may go through that narrow gate and join God and all of his heavenly angels.

God is the source of all things human and divine and looks after all things human and divine. He came on earth in fact, to proof the he is human, Gods son, and that he is also divine. For he Rose from the dead, for he gave us Gods word, yet some of us still don't believe......

    So again there are the shepherds when Jesus was being born, watching their sheep. Watching them gaze on the grass and enjoy the life of sheep that they are.There isn't much written own about the shepherds except that they were keeping watch of their sheep and was told a message by the angels.

 So Jesus said again" I am telling you the truth: I am the gate for the sheep. All others who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. those who come in by me will be saved: they will come in and go  out and find pasture. The thieve comes only in order to steal , kill, and destroy. I have come in order that you might have life - life in all it's fullness. I am the good shepherd ready to die for his sheep".....- John 10: 7-11

This is just a small part of the reading. Jesus is saying to us that he is the one great shepherd that came from the father and is here to bring his sheep in through the gates of heaven. He his the gate that will lead us (the sheep) into the great green pastures of the kingdom. before Jesus came to earth all  of them were evil everyone else was evil before Jesus's time (except the prophets.) That is why Jesus came, to get all the evil out of everyone's heart and to make them clean to come into the heavenly kingdom with him for eternal life.

The robber is Satan  trying to snatch us away from God, making us sin, and do bad things... he is the one who will be put down for a thousand years in the fire of furnace and then walk among the earth to snatch us into hell, but if we believe in God and not fall into the temptation to sin, we will walk with god and live with him forever.


Jesus the great king is ready to lay down his life for his sheep, so that they might live forever and have eternal life. Well, he did. he layed down his life for us so that we might live forever with him in the green pastures and not  being snatched by Satan. He is ready any time to lay his life for us sop that we may live with him. More into the reading it says that no one lays down his life, or can take it away, it his him that makes the sacrifice.


  Then the most famous story of them all... The lost sheep. When Jesus counts only 99 sheep and goes and searches for the 100th sheep and leaves the 99 behind.. and brings that lamb back on his shoulders, gently bringing it back. That just goes to show that the Lord has so much love for us and will bring us back to him and bring us back to the right road with the others.....He loved us so much he would die for us......


Lets not forget my favourite Psalm    The Lord is my shepherd  nothing shall I want....  i just love that so much.... yo find in  the bible   go to Psalms 23:1-6

May the lord keep us on the right path, and come to find us when we are not! Amen!

That moment when.....

You know those weird moments in life, when things that you absolutely like get ruined, and then you can't use it for either a day or two or a month or never again? Ya those types of moments........

I believe that is God who is trying to bring us closer to him. We are to distracted by that one thing, and we "worship" it and we not think of God. So God will "punish" us.... He doesn't want any other item to be our God. He wants to be the one and only God.

Don't get me wrong, if God gets ride of something he will give you something else back in return..... either if it is the same thing, or something different. During the time he takes that one thing away from us, he expects us to think of him and worship him by praying to help us to remember that God is always their.

This is a time to reflect to get God, God, and to reflect has a person. It is almost like a time of "Lent" for us.... We are "giving up" this item for a while and  are expected by God not  use it much more after our time of reflecting.

God will guide us to him and what he wants from us........ if we don't he will guide us back. If he wants us to do something, he is like a  piece of tape that you can't get rid of from your fingers, you get  stuck on one figure and then on the other ect. God won't leave you alone for a while until you answer him..... until you let him in..... and then.... he will let you do extraordinary things.....

Now, it's not always what happened to it like you lost it or it magically grew legs or magically blew up. It could be God working through you, messing something up.... doesn't sound like God but, there is a reading in Matthew that Jesus says Not peace, but a sword..

 Let God work in and through you, and you will enjoy a feast on the final day in the heavenly kingdom!!!!

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AMEN!

 I am just a pencil in Gods hands, he does the thinking, he does the writing.- Mother Teresa 

July 24, 2011 Gospel

This weekend was the weekend of the parables of the Hidden treasure, of the Pearl, and of the Net. Three great parables that can be easily mistaken........ These parables might seem like one thing but could be another......


Firstly lets start with the first one shall we?

  The kingdom of heaven is like this. A man happens to find a treasure hidden in a field. He covers it up again , and is so happy that he goes and sells everything he has,  and  then goes back and buys the filed....


This is how I like to think of this amazing parable. So first i think of this is like a man who have found God in his life, and chooses to follow him.So he goes back sells is belonging and goes to follow God and the life and future God has for him. This man wants Gods love, word and truth, if he gave everything up for the kingdom.

This reminds me of many saints, one in particular........St Francis......... He had a wealthy, rich, life and he gave it all up to follow God and to follow Gods kingdom and word. Francis had a great life, helped the lepers, stopped a wolf from attacking the town. ( full info on Francis Click Here)


   Also, the kingdom of heaven is like this.  A man is looking for fine pearls, and when he finds one that is unusually fine, he goes and sells everything he has, and buys that pearl.




   This is just like the one above, but i will still say some words of wisdom :) So the pearl is the kingdom of heaven, and the person is well a human being. This man is searching for the kingdom, searching for God. He searches many clams, many places, and soon enough, after many oysters he finds that beautiful pearl. He finds that beautiful, rich, outstanding, rare pearl.  He searched and he found, he ask and he got he knocked and the door was opened for him.


 Also, the kingdom of heaven is like this. Some fishermen throw their net out in the lake and catch all kinds of fish. When the net is full, they pull it to shore  and sit down to divide the fish: the good ones go into the buckets, the bad ones are thrown back into the lake.




God is the fisher going to the lake, we are the fish.When God knows he got all of them he brings the net in. The good fish he keeps, the Good people he keeps in his kingdom of heaven, and the bad ones he throw down to hell or " The fiery furnace."

This story goes on about how Jesus explained it, but i don't think Jesus would explain this, because he is try to get people into him  and is they here the rest of the angels. I don't know it could go either way I mean because he is talking to a crowed of people  who would've believed, or not believe , it's not recorded. And when is it recorded that Jesus "explained" a parable anyway????

July 24, 2011 Gospel Reading

Find it in Matthew 13: 44 - 50

And tell me what you think/like/dislike about this reading!

Bread......

The fresh smell of the freshly baked bread coming out of the oven is just a delight. Bread today, we have for anything, to eat with our meals, to make a sandwich, to eat with lamb. To eat with lamb?!?!?! well yes the unleavened bread, with a lamb roasted on an open fire with a staff in your hand cooked with bitter herbs..... The instructions God gave how to eat the Passover meal.


The way we use bread and think of it has changed many ways from the time of Moses to Now.... Lets explore that shall we?

  The people called this bread, manna, It was like a small white seed and tasted like a soft thin cake and  made with honey. Moses said " the lord has commanded us to save some manna for our descendants.- Exodus 16:31-32

The bread that fell in the sky in the morning, and people were only suppose to gather what they needed for that day and not more, and to collect new in the morning, if not their manna would have bugs and mold.... The bread they would most likely eat with their evening quails. The only source of meat and nutrition, out their. If you live in  place with lots of trees and grass then you will most likely think of the wilderness has that the person is in a forest lost. But not in this case, they are in the pure dessert, waking the land of little vegetation, so the only food they had were the quails and the bread (manna) and water from a rock to drink, for 40 years.  

It was in the time of Moses when the Tabernacle  came into play for the most sacred bread offering to God,  and in that tent was the bread that only priest could est because it was known has the Bread of Heaven.  In the time their was a tent and that tent was where the covenant box was "stored" and where the dry wood staff with one green leaf was, and where the bread was.




Now then what supplies do you have? Give me five loaves of bread  and anything else you have.-  1 Samuel 21:3 


The  David and his men were hungry,  and the priest gave him the sacred bread that they offered to god and replaced it with fresh bread. But  the men and David had to be ritually pure.Bread was one of those things that were common like today it would of been like clothes on our backs we have many to chose from, and many to buy.



"I am telling you the truth" Jesus said "What Moses  gave you was not the bread from heaven; it is my father who gives you real  bread from heaven. For the bread the God gives is he who comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world"-John 6:32-33




Now we are getting the word from Jesus that the bread from the sky in the desert is not the bread from heaven. In this passage Jesus is talking about himself in trying to get people to come to him and his father.It is God that gives the bread from heaven. Then you think, Didn't God give the manna in the desert? Continue reading the passage  because then it brings in a he in to this and makes it almost sound like people eating  another person, but this bread is the human Jesus who gives us life so that we might live with God forever.


verse 35 of the same passage :  


"I am the bread of life" Jesus told them. " those who come to me will never be hungry; those who believe in me will never be thirsty" 


Now Jesus is telling them directly that he is that living bread that came down from heaven, and that those he come and believe will have everlasting life.....


Then we  move on to one of my favorite miracles Jesus did was make more than enough to feed five thousand. With starting out with five loaves of bread and two fish. Back then bread was the main thing that people carried around in their "bags"....


He takes the five pieces of bread  blesses it and gives it to the people with twelve baskets left over. With Five loaves of bread he fed a nation. now the mystery  is was their twelve baskets each of bread and fish? or just twelve altogether? That's a different post.


The most famous story, the night on that Thursday, the night before he died, He took the loaves of bread blessed it and broke it. The most holy Thursday of all, the night he gave himself to his disciples.... He gave them his body and his blood.  The night he showed that he to was a servant not only their master, the last night he spent with them before he died.






This leads us to the end of the gospels,  the road to Emmaus. They talk to a stranger (Jesus) lets him stay at their house, and Jesus breaks the bread and leaves and their eyes are opened, Because in how Jesus breaks the bread up high and passes it, the way Jesus does it is the only way they knew, because many other people break bread, not like Jesus.

The Narrow Gate

  Go in through the narrow gate, because the gate of hell is wide and the road that leads to it is easy, and there are many who travel it. But the gate to life is narrow and the way that leads to it is hard, and there are few people who find it. - Matthew 7: 13-14

Another reading that I love....

It's short with a powerful meaning....


The narrow Gate is the gate to heaven. Why is the gate of hell so wide and the road is easy to get on? because it's easy to sin, it's easy to turn from God, it's easy to love hate, it's easy to hate others, So that Gate is a lot easier to get through then the narrow and good gate.

When  we love God and show our love for others and treat others with love and kindness we are followers on the narrow path to the gate of heaven, that hard and narrow gate.  It's hard to get onto that narrow gate at the end, but it's as easy as spreading butter on bread to get through the open, and wide gates of hell.

In the world today there is not a whole lot of people who travel through the narrow gate, but there still are people  who do, People who don't, but could are the people caught up in war, gangs, murders, stabbings and more stuff like that which GOD DOES NOT WANT US TO DO THAT GARBAGE

People who go through that gate are the people who accept Gods word, who follow Gods voice, who choose to let God in their life, who make that seed grow into the biggest tree of them all, who spread Gods almighty love,peace joy, and happiness.Those who want to go through their and try hard will go through it.....Those who repent GO through.

Righteousness is the road to life; wickedness is the road to death-Proverbs 12:28

Salt And Light

You are like salt for the whole human race. But if salt loses it's saltiness, there is no way to make it salty again. It has become worthless, so it is thrown out and people trample on it.

   You are like light for the whole world. A city built on a hill  cannot be hid. No  one lights a lamp and  puts it under a bowl: instead it is put on the lamp stand, where it gives light for everyone in the house. In the same way your light must shine before people, So that they will see the good things you do and praise your Father in heaven. Matthew 5: 13-16

How are we like salt? 

We are like salt in many ways. Firstly, we have the faith, the word, the truth of God and we hang onto it, We have flavor, but once this word, faith, truth of God leaves we have not flavor, and then we are worthless no flavor, no word, no faith, no truth. But then we hear again that God will plant new seeds and give us new salt... not exactly what he his saying here. We get different meaning, word, and understanding  from what Jesus preaches. Secondly, we are like salt because we have that gift to share Gods word and if we don't we are worthless and God moves on... 

Salt is a useful thing in the kitchen and in comparing us to God... This is how i think of it sometimes. God, is the cook, and we are the salt to flavor that dish, if we don't have flavor God won't use us, won't accept us... God will always accept us, and use us, not thou, if we are not Good salt.

If we are the nice bright white salt then it is good in Gods eyes, while he prepares a dish full of word and truth, full of peace a joy, and we must let these gifts attach to us, and embrace them because this, indeed is how God wants us to live daily....

How are we Light?

We are light in many ways.... Firstly, we are light because we have the word of God, and  we preach it, and tell others about the message, we are the light. Secondly, we are that lamp trying to hid under the bowl, because we are scared and embarrassed to preach the word..... The God comes and lift that bowl and helps us get back on our two feet and start back on the right path. Thirdly, we are that house built on a hill, we can not be hid, our faith can not be hid, no matter how hard we try.... God is always there. 

Light is the most useful thing in our life, If we don't have light we can't do anything, we can't read, we can't cook, we can't watch t.v., we can't play hockey, baseball, we can't blog. We are light, we are useful in many peoples lives.... If we help someone, or even wave we are light to the person, we then therefore become their happiness, truth and passing on the love of God, through the great light he sends to us....

Mark 11: 12-14

The Curse of the fig tree.

I like to think this story/ curse has us. The tree is us and Jesus is the Gardner, and the harvester. Jesus planted this seed and now it grew. The tree is us, we have green leaves, to show our faith, but that's it.

Most of us Have some fruit, but that's us who have the deep roots of love and faith in God.

We are the tree I said, and therefore this story shows just how we have faith but don't practice it and do good things.... we don't bear fruit.......  This is how I think God will judge us. If we don't practice our faith he will judge us, if we don't  love and show our belief in God he will send us to hell. 

To bear good fruit we must show our love and faith in God we must, spread the word, we must love him and only him, and if we do we will bear good fruit and be light for others. They say the roots of a tree are as long as the branches..... So If we have great branches for  fruit  to grow,   our root,s our faith, will grow stronger and help us to become who God wants us to be.....

 The Love God has for us is great, even if we turn from him he won't turn from us...... But on the final day, if we have not turned back to him.... we might go to.... hell.... but we have to believe and  live how he wants and live to his expectations to get accepted. One of my favorite lines is "It is easier for the poor man to get into heaven then the rich".....

May God help us to become that Good tree and Not that bad tree that he curses and kills right to the roots....