Perseverance

Gratia Vobis Ministries, Inc.

Today’s gospel from Luke is a story from when Jesus is walking through Jericho, the crowds are following him, and on the roadside is a beggar. He is not only poor, he is blind. He hears the crowd and asks what is going on. Once he finds out Jesus is passing through, he calls out…

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A Message and A Mission

Turbulent cloud

Years ago, I was on the hunt for a journaling bible; a bible that allowed notetaking on the margins. A bonus was if it had commentary at the bottom of the pages as well. A dear friend showed up at my door with her journaling-commentary bible that she thought I would get more use of…

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It All Comes Down to This

Gratia Vobis Ministries, Inc.

Everything begins and ends with love. It all comes down to this. I recently read a short story by an author I enjoy very much, What Men Live By by Leo Tolstoy. While this is a work of fiction, Tolstoy has some interesting points and left me thinking about them more than once. I will…

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On Suffering and Thanksgiving

Why We Seek God

In May, I fell and broke both of my wrists. Other GVM contributors have graciously stepped in to fill my Day 18 reflections for the past few months. To them, thank you! The long story short is that I quite literally was without use of my arms and hands for a bit. I learned very…

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Will You Pray for Me?

Will you pray for me? These are five of my favorite words. I love to pray for people. In my circle, the phrase Prayer Warrior was coined as a description years ago. It is comparable to a love language for me. Today as I was sitting in carpool to pick up some of our children,…

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The Bread of Life

Today’s gospel discourse is on The Bread of Life; the Eucharist. As a cradle Catholic who happens to love music very much, my mind cannot help but erupt into song while reading these bible verses. “I am the Bread of life, He who comes to Me shall not hunger, He who believes in Me shall…

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Walking with Jesus

I read this quote on Franciscan Media, “it should be no surprise that saints, indeed all Christians, will experience the same difficulties as their Master.” The responsorial psalm for today also reminds us that we are not alone in our sufferings. “Even though I walk in the dark valley I fear no evil; for you…

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Into the Desert

Today’s gospel account from the book of Mark is a very short, to the point, account of Jesus going to the desert, being tempted, and returning ready to minister. If we look up the definition of desert, some synonyms for the word are barren land, wilderness, and dust bowl. Dust bowl stands out as we…

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Soak

I shared with you last year that every January I choose a word and a saint to focus on for the year ahead. You may recall that last year the word was Gift. This practice of honing in on the word “Gift” helped me tremendously to acknowledge that even my crosses are gifts. Sometimes I…

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Resilience

Gratia Vobis Ministries, Inc.

Did you ever have one of the moments that you know will be etched on your heart forever because of how spectacularly moving it was? I believe we are only given a few, and many may miss the beauty in them if they are not keenly aware. I had one the other day. We had…

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