“God chose us in him *
before the world began
to be holy *
and blameless in his sight.”
Ephesians 1:3

• Let’s rejoice in God for He takes us in His loving arms whispering to us that we are His children and that He wants us to share in His pure love with Him. We are called to be as holy as we can possibly become to share in that pure love. You may believe it’s to overwhelming for yourself, that there’s no way you could muster that, that your not good enough. Well, I got a secret, none of us can live up to this. That’s why we have our brother Christ Jesus showing us how as He gives us the grace to climb that mountain. What we’re striving for is not only to spend eternity with Him but to build a relationship with Him. Remember He said, “the kingdom of Heaven is within you” He wants us to share in that pure love now. If the great Saints, who were just human beings like you and I could reach the heights of Heaven, we can too. How did they do it? They opened their heart to grace and the Holy Spirit. Christ knocks on the door but it is we who must open that door. We must let God know we want to enter into relationship with Him. We must want to act as He did for “faith without works is dead” What He shows us is for us to show compassion toward others; to show respect for all of Gods children; to care for the less fortunate; to visit the sick. He shows us only good things. Basically, to care for others before we care for ourselves. If we have anger in our heart, to forgive and ask for healing in our broken heart. We also grow in relationship with God through prayer. We can recite the Liturgy of the Hours each day, we can pray the Holy Rosary and meditate on the life of Christ, we can recite the Jesus Prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me.” We can even spend time in Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament on YouTube if we can’t find a Church that has it in your neighborhood. Hopefully, when this pandemic ends we can start going back to Church and receive the Holy Eucharist at Mass once again. Prayer is conversation and communion. When an elderly couple grows old together they use less and less words for they are just happy to be content in each other’s presence. It is the same with our relationship with our loving God. It leads to communion and with Gods grace we can begin this journey today. Have a blessed week.

Your brother in Christ Jesus,
bMark
Hermits of the Holy Cross