Joy is the Result of Giving and Forgiving…. By: Ivan Rodrigues-Bangalore- India

3rd Sunday of Advent
December 12, 2021Today’s Prayer:

Beloved Lord: May doing good be for me an everyday practice, sustained and guided by Your Spirit of love. Amen.Today’s Saint Quote & Prayer:
gnm.org/SaintQuotes/
Today’s Readings:

Zephaniah 3:14-18a
Isaiah 12:2-6
Philippians 4:4-7
Luke 3:10-18
bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/121221.cfm
USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/2021-12-12

When my Brother and myself met the Lord in the form of Holy spirit , I could not control my tears for almost a month and my Brother the laughter. My Brother was more funny because he used to laugh for no reason , I started asking him why you are laughing and he said I can not control, something with in me makes me to laugh and be joyful. I had my tears for the love of God and was a renaissance of God’s great mercy and forgiveness. Joy is an anointing of the Holy spirit when we repent for our Sins and decide to follow Christ. Advent is a process to receive Jesus in our lives and get anointed with the love of God and this love of God gives us immense joy of the Holy spirit.

When I preached my second retreat in Riga Latvia , on the final day of anointing and praying over for the anointing , we had a strange experience with people who were prayed over, when they came to pray over, they looked sad and depressed but once we prayed over they started to laugh and dance with the joy of the Holy spirit. One person started hugging and kissing the whole congregation, I called him next day and asked him what happened to him on the last day of the anointing , he said immediately as we prayed over , an unending joy started bubbling from with in him and a force was driving him to love every person he met there after. This joy remained with him for a while and then slowly diminished in his daily routine, I started wondering why this joy stopped in his daily life. We need to repent and believe in the Lord daily to receive the anointing of the Holy spirit. All the people who met Jesus in his lifetime did not leave Jesus once they experienced his love but followed him leaving everything behind them , some people literally followed him leaving everything behind them and became his disciples and others shared whatever they stored for their future like Zacheus the tax collector.

Being with Jesus in our day today activities is the key to receive the Joy of the Holy spirit. It is a promise and an act of Salvation plan ,” those who believe in me I live with them and they live with me” . When Lord Jesus died and rose and ascended in to Heaven , all those believed in him got anointed automatically on the day of Pentecost. Joy is a result of repentance , a result of forgiveness, a result of giving and sharing. We have a Christmas tradition of sending Christmas Greeting Cards and Sharing of Christmas Sweets – Kuswar , let us keep up this tradition of sharing and caring specially with those who do not have anyone to share with , let us visit the poor and lonely in this Christmas Season and the joy which we will receive can not be received from this Worldly Christmas Parties of Drunkards and merry makers, instead let us make a point to reconcile with those people whom we hate the most and forgive them as Jesus forgave his enemies who crucified him and the joy of the Holy spirit will draw towards us from the Well of Salvation. Christmas Day is the celebration of the Love, Joy , peace received in our preparation in advent , if we do not repent for our life of selfishness and unforgiveness then this Christmas Day will be like one more Christmas Day which we have seen in our past life .

Prayer : Lord I want to change my material life and forgive everyone , help me with your grace in this Season of Advent , a Season of Preparation to receive the mighty anointing of the Holy-spirit. Amen.

REPENTANCE IS THE DOOR OF BLESSINGS IN OUR LIFE- By: Ivan Rodrigues -Bangalore-India

Second Sunday of Advent
December 5, 2021
Today’s Readings:

Baruch 5:1-9
Ps 126:1-6
Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11
Luke 3:1-6
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/120521.cfm
USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/2021-12-05

I pray always with joy in my every prayer for all of you, 
because of your partnership for the gospel 
from the first day until now.
I am confident of this,
that the one who began a good work in you
will continue to complete it 
until the day of Christ Jesus.

Gospel of Christ is the only message for every human being to be a reason to become a complete man or Woman or experience the fullness of Christ in their life. There is no other Gospel message in this World which can give a better value than the Gospel of Christ. The Gospel of love of Christ works in our lives in layers of witnessing for Christ and these layers are not created in days time but requires our continuous relationship with Christ.

The Witnessing to Christ begins with a transforming experience which we read in the lives of many great Champions of Christian faith and the first step of this faith begins with Christ himself, God takes the first move to gather us from the dungeon of darkness in our life. This first move is the beginning of the Salvation plan in our life which was already completed by Christ in our life. We are called to walk according to the plan which is the Gospel of love.

Christ has already begun the Work of Salvation in every person of this World whether he or she believes him or not or lives in darkness of SIN or attached to the Worldly life, by his death and resurrection, ascension in to heaven and descending the love of God the Holy spirit upon the Whole World. The Human being must do only one thing in their life is to receive the love of God by repentance. Repentance is a decision or a will to follow the Gospel of Christ and leave the sinful ways of the World which have taken us away from the love of God. Repentance is the only way to receive the love of God in our life.

The love of God is enough in an Individuals life , they do not require anything else in their life. The love of God has goodness, forgiveness, Charity, Compassion, Sacrifices, Providence, Charisma of miracles. It is a bundle of Blessings in our life. Human Being’s work is to draw these water of blessing from Well of Salvation and this process of drawing is called repentance. If we read the Word of God and all the teachings of the Church , it repeats only one Word Repent and believe in the Gospel of Christ Jesus.

Repentance is not an one time activity but a serials of activities or a process. It begins with the transformation experience but this transformation is not complete plan of salvation in our life. There are some people who experienced the love of God and think they have become saints through these experience. Transformation experience is the trailer of the whole picture or a flash of the particle of a experience of the love of God but the whole picture of the Salvation plan is with our partnership with him till he comes back on the last day of our life.

Our partnership with him to build a relationship with him to listen to him and know about his ways in the Gospel of love and follow him by doing those very things of the Gospel or walking in those ways of the Gospel come what may because he has walked before us and made a way for us through the Gospel and through the pilgrim Church which guides us to the path of Salvation. Repentance is examination of our Conscience and a decision to walk through his ways at every moment of our life. So the Repentance becomes a navigator to understand our journey of life where we have gone wrong and which way we must walk .

When we walk with him in his ways we receive every Blessing from the hands of God . Pain, Suffering , Persecution is part of the process which separates us from the Worldly life or makes us pure and Holy Children of God. The beauty of our journey is , though it may look like we are doing so many things to follow God but the fact is he catches our hand like a small child and keeps us on his shoulder some time and walks with us though out our life by leading us, guiding us, providing us,protecting us, counselling us, healing us and moreover loving us all the time. We have to be only available in his presence or not to do our own will or be rebellious to his ways but to obey his commands and march with him to the eternal Salvation. Christ is our Commander he starts our march and ends it in his Wisdom and knowledge we must only follow him and do as he says in the Gospel to Repentance.

Prayer: Lord enlighten me with the Gospel of Repentance.