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Reflection on Phi 1:29
Post date: 2024-05-26Autor: BCP
This verse is preceded by the Apostle’s words: “Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel, and not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that from God.” (v.27-28) The Apostle continues: “You are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have.” And next: “Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfil my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition of conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.” (2:1-3)
We need the full armour of God
Post date: 2024-05-22Autor: BCP
Prayer is of the greatest benefit when we have the full armour of God and we know which Bible verse to use as the sword of the Spirit – the Word of God spoken in the Spirit and at the right time – the word of prophecy – rather than the letter of Scripture or a phrase. The spirits of darkness in the heavenly realm – kosmokratoras – cannot be fought against by firing in the air or by using guns, rockets or atomic weapons. That is child’s play to them. They fight against human souls through occultism, magic, deceit, by leading them into a false faith in pagan pseudo spirituality...Through the obedience of faith in union with Jesus crucified the greatest power – the almighty power of God – works through us. The condition is to be in the will of God, in the presence of God.
In the light of God shall we see light (Psa 36)
Post date: 2024-05-16Autor: BCP
We should discover and come to know certain mysteries hidden in God. The mystery of good and evil, the mystery of the history of humanity and spiritual warfare with demons, the mystery of God’s love, God’s greatness and other mysteries which we will know in the light of God in heaven. Now we see in a mirror (1Cor 13:12), dimly, but then we shall see God and the truth face to face.
We are called to preach that Christ died for our sins and rose again…
Post date: 2024-05-13Autor: BCP
After the descent of the Holy Spirit, the apostles went and proclaimed two things: that Christ died for our sins and that He rose from the dead… God accompanied their evangelization with mighty signs and wonders. So it should be today.
Reflection on Heb 13:14
Post date: 2024-05-13Autor: BCP
The Apostle Paul reminds the believers of his day, and us, of a profound truth that we often forget. We have no permanent home here on earth. On the other hand, we need to have and make a home here. Unfortunately, the current decadent culture, which is also massively promoted by the supranational political system with its gender ideology, seeks to break up the basic unit of society, which is the family. The family is made up of father, mother and children; they share a home. The mother has always created the atmosphere of the home. Even the grown-up children, who had their own families, would come home in times of hardship, seeking encouragement and comfort from their aged mother while she was alive. In recent years, sadly, elderly parents are being placed in retirement homes or there is even a growing tendency in Western Europe to terminate their lives as soon as possible through euthanasia, or assisted suicide. All this is brought about by this deadly, decadent ideology, which is spreading en masse and affecting Eastern Europe as well.
Where is our home, our fatherland? (+german version)
Post date: 2024-05-09Autor: BCP
We need to realize that heaven is our home, our fatherland. Jesus has reserved a place for us in heaven. It is our place. It would be best if we could enter this place immediately in the hour of death and not be tormented somewhere in Purgatory because of our indifference, lukewarmness or weak faith. Let the fire of zeal burn in us so that we may be saved from another fire. Let us make an act of perfect contrition every day. Let us also love Jesus, be aware of what He has done for us.
Reflection on Heb 10:25
Post date: 2024-04-30Autor: BCP
This verse is preceded by the words: “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds.” The groups meeting together at the time when the Apostle was writing this letter were probably as small as ours. However, these words applied and still apply above all to small prayer groups, which have carried the burden of the Church and called on God for light, strength and salvation. We perceive that the biblical demand for koinonia, the formation of brotherly fellowship, is very relevant today. A group of Christian men meet together for prayer and pray to God for themselves and for the souls entrusted to them. At the same time, they seek to encourage one another to remain faithful to Christ and to the commandments He has given us in the midst of this world, despite the various pressures. Christ’s commands are not burdensome, though in certain circumstances they may require great sacrifice. But then the reward in heaven is all the greater if we persevere.
THE NUTS AND BOLTS OF THE GOSPEL
Post date: 2024-04-21Autor: BCP
How much we have been deceived by different views of Scripture. We have forgotten to live the Scripture. The Scripture gives us directions for life. So we need to begin to learn slowly and seriously the nuts and bolts: e.g. Jesus says, “If your brother has something against you, go and be reconciled to your brother.” In other words – e.g. your brother vents his anger and rebukes you unjustly and now there is a tense situation. He becomes aware of his guilt afterwards, and is overcome with sorrow. He does not know what to do, how to apologize, and tension increases. An old proverb says ‘Silence is gold’, but in this case silence is hell – the atmosphere grows more and more tense and affects the people around too. Gloomy faces on both sides, and self-pity is working at full speed. The devil and the old self bring thousands of arguments against the brother and present his behaviour as a supreme crime. What to do? Who should make the first step, or rather, who is obliged to? According to the Gospel, he who has been wronged is obliged to make the first step.
“… but you will see Me.”
Post date: 2024-04-20Autor: BCP
Jesus says to the apostles: “… but you will see Me. Because I live, you also will live.” (Jn 14:19) Will the apostles see Christ? Yes, they will see Him risen on the third day after His death, and then He will appear to them during forty days. And they will also see Him in the light of glory at the moment of their physical death, when they will see Him as He is. They will see Him! The first of the apostles to see Him in this way was one of the brothers for whom their mother had interceded that they should sit one on the right hand and the other on the left of Christ. Jesus then asked them: “Can you drink the cup I am about to drink?” James and his brother John said to Him: “We can.” Jesus said to them: “You will indeed drink My cup.” And they indeed did. The first to drink the cup of suffering was John, who was the only one of the apostles who experienced union with Christ’s death by being willing to die, and that was why he remained standing faithfully at the foot of the cross. His brother James was the first of the apostles to lay down his life for Christ as a martyr. He was beheaded with a sword. Later, all the others gave their lives for Christ. They saw Christ! We too will see Him, and for all eternity we will see His face. But the condition is to remain faithful to Christ until the end – until death.
What will you say to the risen Jesus?
Post date: 2024-04-20Autor: BCP
When you do somebody wrong – either unknowingly or, worse still, knowingly – there is tension between you. When you then realize it, you suddenly see your fault and you see that the person you have wronged has been hurt and suffers. I remember one example from Italy: A group of thieves – young boys – broke into a jeweller’s shop and killed the jeweller during the robbery. They were caught and sentenced to many years in prison. There was a woman with little children present at the trial. She was the jeweller’s widow. At the sight of her and her children, one of the boys suddenly understood what evil he had done, what pain he had caused them. His conscience was stirred and he begged their forgiveness. And the woman said she forgave him… Forgiveness is a very precious and important thing. Forgiveness opens the door to the heart and home of the person whom we have hurt.
Reflection on Heb 12:1
Post date: 2024-04-13Autor: BCP
This Scripture verse truly is preceded by an example of a whole multitude of witnesses throughout chapter 11. And this chapter ends as follows: “And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.” Then follows the verse which we are going to recite for two weeks. It begins with the words: “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses…” And then it continues: “…let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” The next verse is a continuation of the previous one: “…looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith…” And we read further: “…who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin.
The way to a new life is through the death of the old self
Post date: 2024-04-13Autor: BCP
Our cross is truly the greatest gift from God; it is meant to strip us completely of the old self, of the slightest clinging to anything, and to clothe us in thoughts of essential things – death, heaven, hell, and the abandoned, humiliated and crucified Jesus.
The way to a new life is through the death of the old self
Post date: 2024-04-12Autor: BCP
Our cross is truly the greatest gift from God; it is meant to strip us completely of the old self, of the slightest clinging to anything, and to clothe us in thoughts of essential things – death, heaven, hell, and the abandoned, humiliated and crucified Jesus.
My Lord and my God!
Post date: 2024-04-07Autor: BCP
Christ appeared to the apostles on the evening of His resurrection. God willed that the Apostle Thomas should not be with them. The apostles said to him: “We have seen Jesus! We doubted at first, thinking in fear that we were seeing a ghost. But Jesus said to us, ‘Look at My hands and My feet. It is I Myself! Touch Me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.’ Then He asked if we had anything to eat, and ate it in our presence, so that we might believe that it was really Him risen from the dead. The bones of the fish that Jesus ate are a testimony to that. Jesus is really alive. All of us, the ten apostles and the two disciples who went to Emmaus, have seen Him with our own eyes.” But Thomas would not accept the testimony of the apostles and did not believe that Jesus had risen from the dead.
Reflection on Heb 13:8
Post date: 2024-04-04Autor: BCP
Before Jesus raised Lazarus, who had been dead four days, Martha said to Jesus: “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” Jesus said to her: “Your brother will rise again.” She said to Him: “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus said to her: “I am the resurrection and the life.”
If we have Christ, in Him we have everything
Post date: 2024-04-02Autor: BCP
The Word of God says: “We were buried with Christ in baptism and also raised with Him.” (Col 2:12) This is not a literary expression or poetry. This is reality! How we were raised with Christ and how we received a new life is a mystery. There is nothing to think about. Scripture says so and therefore it is reality. God’s Word says: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” and “We are a living temple of the Holy Spirit”. If we are in a state of sanctifying grace, all that Jesus obtained for us at Calvary and all that belongs to Him He gives to us, so it is also ours. If we give ourselves to Him and are united to Him, then if we have Christ, we have all things in Him. St Paul says: “In Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
Skrze víru se máme otevřít realitě Kristovy smrti i Jeho vzkříšení
Post date: 2024-03-30Autor: BCP
Boží slovo také říká, že skrze křest jsme byli ponořeni do Kristovy smrti. Skrze víru se máme otevřít realitě Kristovy smrti, která přemáhá hřích, ďábla. V okamžiku své smrti Ježíš dává svého Ducha do náruče Otcovy. V Kristově smrti je velká moc, která vítězí. Potom přichází vzkříšení, nový život. V různých situacích našeho života máme vcházet do Kristovy smrti. To znamená vážně hledat Boží vůli a dávat v konkrétní situaci na první místo Boha. V té chvíli se zříci svého dobra, své pravdy, své zkušenosti a upřímně přijmout Boží vůli, Boží pravdu. To je spojeno se zapřením sebe. A potom v té situaci může Bůh svojí všemohoucností znovu udělat zázrak vzkříšení.
What is the greatest blessing?
Post date: 2024-03-27Autor: BCP
The greatest blessing is when God gives us the grace to be evil spoken of, unjustly suspected, reproached and humiliated for His name’s sake. The Lord Jesus trod this path before us, because He loved us. He was completely innocent. Yet He forgave and prayed for everyone.
Jesus wants mature people
Post date: 2024-03-27Autor: BCP
Jesus wants mature people. He can do more with one mature person in a year than He can do with hundreds of immature people in 200 years. The mark of maturity is actually the degree of dying to self with Christ. The essence of this death to self is in humility, in completely renouncing at every moment one’s own will, one’s own good, one’s own ideas or desires, and accepting everything out of love for Jesus. People who are completely forgotten, buried, those who have died with Christ, mature souls, who have offered themselves as a sacrifice to Jesus – it is their sacrifice that decides the future of nations.
Think about what your cross is every day
Post date: 2024-03-23Autor: BCP
Truly we know neither the day nor the hour, and nothing is more certain than death. Therefore, we have to redeem the time. How? By a living faith, by daily practising humility, that is, constantly renouncing our own wishes, good plans or intentions. Let us not stick to our own opinion, but bring everything to light, and humble ourselves every time we act spontaneously on our own. However, when others do something wrong, we should not condemn them but, again, humble ourselves in spirit: “Lord, I am twice as bad. I’ve made the same or even greater mistake so many times. And mine was a banal one that this person would never make.” Let us accept the concrete hardships as a cross to carry. Every day we should take a few moments to reflect on what our cross is – not abstract but concrete.