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Where is God in the midst of this pandemic?  Did he cause the Coronavirus to punish us? Why doesn’t he stop this and save us? These are good questions and today I talk about the one reason God is allowing us to go through this.  Be sure to check it out in today’s edition of Opening God’s Word ! (You can find this podcast at janetcassidy.blubrry.net ) I hope you will share it with a friend! Have a blessed day in God’s Word! Janet Cassidy janetcassidy.blogspot.com janetcassidy.blubrry.net

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I caught a video recently of a little ten year old girl singing on America’s Got Talent .   She had an amazing voice and I’d like to tell you about it.   The problem is, I can tell you the song she sang and I can describe her powerful voice and how she carried herself, but no matter how accurately and enthusiastically I tell you about her, you will not be able to experience the beauty of her voice or her performance merely through my telling. That is because there are times that words fail us and the reality is, knowing about someone is not the same as knowing them. This morning I was thinking about the idea of encountering Jesus.   You see, today we celebrate Ss. Peter and Paul and I was reading about St. Paul’s conversion story (Acts, Chapter 9.) You know the one.   He falls to the ground, hears the voice of Jesus and can’t see for three days.   Eventually his sight is restored when he meets Ananias and he is converted and turns away from his p...

oday we celebrate the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (formerly considered a day to honor all twelve apostles). We honor Saint Peter, the first Pope, and Apostle to Jesus, as well as Saint Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles. (This post originally posted on June 29, 2016, but given that today is their solemnity, I thought it #worthrevisiting).  Saint Peter It was to Saint Peter that Jesus declared that whatever Peter and the Apostles determined to be bound on earth would be bound in Heaven, and whatever is loosed on earth would be loose in Heaven (Matt 16:19); and with that Jesus bestowed upon Peter, as the first Pope, the keys to Heaven. Peter came from humble beginnings and grew to become a fisherman, until that day when he met Jesus, and after that became a “fisher of men.” With a simple style of humble means, Peter grew in courage and perseverance, wisdom and understanding to become the first leader of the Church as Christ’s successor, and to this day, through apostoli...

Derek Chauvin, a police officer, killed George Floyd about a month ago. I don't know whether a court will call that homicide a murder, or assign some other label. I do know that there was and is no apparent excuse for ending Mr. Floyd's life.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America . News and Views A Drive-Through Nap The Mystery of the Transferred Tazer Duality and Death St. Cloud, Minnesota: An Arrest, Social Media and Riots Good Neighbors and Ersatz Facts Rumors and Looting Fear and NASCAR Flags Prudence and Perspective "A Highly Charged and Emotional Time" Freudian Slips, a "Cavalier" Comment Moral Panic, Then and Now "A Day of Reckoning:" He Said, She Said Attitudes "Hooray for Our Side" Irish Lives Matter??? Cartoons, Slogans and Some Logic Statue Panic? Public Safety and Making Sense Minneapolis: [insert feared technolog...

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                             Brittanica In today’s Old Testament Reading from 2 Kings (Chapter 25) we read about the fall of Jerusalem.   Jerusalem was THE home of temple worship and when the city was breached and its walls came down, the people ended up in exile in Babylon, it affected the way they worshiped for generations. How do you worship without your central place of worship?   In exile, they had to figure out how to worship differently. But today I want to talk about walls. Specifically, the silos that we create—or at least allow to exist—in our churches. Churches are not immune to establishing walls, not at all.   While we may not put up physical walls, it is easy to create territorial walls founded on the ideology that the work I do, or the group I belong to, or the way I think things should be done, is...

The Calling of Saint Matthew (detail) Caravaggio [ Web Gallery of Art ] Readings   (New American Bible: Philippines, USA) Readings   (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa) Gospel   Matthew 10:37-42 ( New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition) Jesus said to his Apostles: ‘ Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;  and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.  Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. ‘Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.  Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive th...

Here’s what you don’t want to happen. You show up at heaven’s door and God says “I never knew you.   Depart from me . . .” Yikes! But what if you spent your whole life speaking God’s name to other people, doing good deeds and trying to fight evil? According to scripture, Jesus says that just because you do all of these things, it does not mean you are guaranteed a place in heaven. He puts it like this: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.” “What then,” you ask, “is it going to take for me to get in?” Jesus continues: “only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven [will enter the kingdom].” It really is not enough for us to just go through the motions.   There isn’t a master checklist that we can follow that will get us in. You see, we can only do the will of the Father if we actually know the Father.   If we are in relationship with God, then we will know what his will is—or at ...

Is God expecting you to do big things for him?   Is the quiet, little way you are serving in your family, at work or in the church, enough? How will I know if I am doing what God wants me to do? As we celebrate the Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist today, the Book of Isaiah could be a foreshadowing of John’s life.   It can speak into our lives as well. At the beginning of Chapter 49, Isaiah, recalling what he has heard from the Lord, says: “You are my servant, he [the Lord] said to me, Israel, through whom I show my glory.   Though I thought I had toiled in vain, and for nothing, uselessly, spent my strength, yet my reward is with the Lord, my recompense is with my God.” If you have ever wondered if what you do is a waste of time and energy, just consider that one of God’s great prophets wondered the same thing!   The Lord, in speaking to Isaiah of the things Isaiah has done, tells him he has bigger plans, greater than that...