[Salvation]

One Bread, One Body

One Bread, One Body

 

<< Tuesday, October 23, 2012 >>

St. John of Capistrano

Ephesians 2:12-22
View Readings

Psalm 85:9-14

Luke 12:35-38

A.D. MEANS AFTER DEATH

"This means that you are strangers and aliens no longer." —Ephesians 2:19

 

Before we were baptized into Jesus Christ (see Rm 6:3), we "were strangers to the covenant and its promise" (Eph 2:12). We "were without hope and without God in the world" (Eph 2:12). We were far from God (Eph 2:13, 17). Without Christ, a barrier stood between ourselves and God (see Mt 27:51) and between Gentiles and Jews (Eph 2:14).

Jesus changed all this through His cross (Eph 2:16). "This means that you are strangers and aliens no longer. No, you are fellow citizens of the saints and members of the household of God. You form a building which rises on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the Capstone" (Eph 2:19-20). "Once you were no people, but now you are God's people; once there was no mercy for you, but now you have found mercy" (1 Pt 2:10).

Before we lived in and for Christ, we were dead (Eph 2:1). After becoming new creations in Christ, we began to live. Therefore, we:

• owe the Lord constant thanks and praise forever,
• must love people enough to tell them the good news of Jesus, and
• should rejoice in the Lord always (Phil 4:4).

We are in A.D., not B.C. Praise; witness; rejoice!

 

Prayer: Father, may my every breath be a "thank-you" to You.

Promise: "It will go well with those servants whom the Master finds wide-awake on His return." —Lk 12:37

Praise: St. John was governor of his city. He was captured and imprisoned during a battle. While in prison, he gave his life to Jesus, and when released, he went into the seminary and eventually became a priest.

[Salvation]

FOR THE ELDERLY

Dear Lord,
as my life declines 
and my energies decrease,
more than ever hold me by Your Power,
that I may not offend You,
but daily increase in Your Love.
Give me strength to work in Your Service 
till the last day of my life.
Help me to ever have 
an increasing dread of venial sin,
or whatever would cause 
the slightest withdrawal of Your love,
all day long,
and at night keep me close to Your Heart;
and should I die, ere the morning breaks,
may I go rejoicing in that vision 
of Your entrancing beauty,
never to be separated from You.

Amen.