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Reflection on Rom 8:9
Post date: 2022-05-29Autor: BCP
What does it mean to be in the flesh, in other words to be carnal, and what does it mean to be in the Spirit, in other words spiritual? To be in the flesh means to have a carnal mind, which takes seriously neither God nor God’s judgment nor eternity. Scripture says that the works of the flesh are envy, murders, quarrelling, impurity, sorcery etc. What does it mean to be in the Spirit? To have our mind most deeply united to the Spirit of God. Then the following applies to us: “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” (Rom 8:16) Our spirit is the innermost essence of our being. The human spirit was created by God in His image; it is immortal. Our flesh is mortal. Our being is spiritual in essence: we are a soul with a spirit clothed in a body. In this earthly life, our body is like a spacesuit that we take off at the hour of death.
Word of Life – Rom 8:9 (29/5/2022 – 12/6/2022)
Post date: 2022-05-28Autor: BCP
“But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.”
True love of yourself (+german version)
Post date: 2022-05-20Autor: BCP
The first commandment says: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” However, we must love ourselves in the right way – so that we may be saved. I must love myself in such way as to keep the most precious treasure – eternal life – and I must desire this treasure for everyone, even for my enemies or murderers, like the saint martyrs. If I wish to love myself truly, I need to repent. This is pure love for myself – to put things in order in my heart. To give the first place to God and the cares of God, and to seek first the kingdom of God.
True love of yourself and your neighbours
Post date: 2022-05-19Autor: BCP
Saint Augustine says: “Chastise me here, O God, and spare me the tortures (fire) of hell.” Lord, I want to be a holy egoist. I want to love myself truly and so I do not want to be in Purgatory for a single minute. If through chastising I will be saved from Purgatory, please chastise me. But I love my neighbours too. I do not even want my enemy to go to hell or Purgatory. If You want to purify him by Your fire through suffering, e.g. a disease, Your will be done. I love both myself and my neighbour, and I believe that the punishment which You will send on both me and him will save us.
Word of Life – Mt 5:20 (15/5/2022 – 29/5/2022)
Post date: 2022-05-15Autor: BCP
"For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven."
Reflection on Mt 5:20
Post date: 2022-05-15Autor: BCP
If we want to be honest about love, we need to lay the foundation of righteousness (or justice). Today, people often speak about love. You can hear this word in every other sentence; however, to many it means anything but true love. Righteousness towards God means to give Him what belongs to Him – the first place in our life, true worship, submission, and observance of His laws and commandments. Then we are obliged to practise righteousness towards our neighbours. Here, unfortunately, many Christians, even persons consecrated to God, lack a proper understanding of righteousness. The current trend is a purely subjective egocentric approach looking to one’s own interests and rights. The rights and interests of others are mostly ignored. This is the cause of quarrels, hatred, etc.
Stand guard over your nation! (video)
Post date: 2022-05-13Autor: BCP
Stand guard over your nation! + Elijah Patriarch of the Byzantine Catholic Patriarchate
When will the resurrection of the nation come? (video)
Post date: 2022-05-09Autor: BCP
When will the resurrection of the nation come? + Elijah Patriarch of the Byzantine Catholic Patriarchate
Lord, give us Your word
Post date: 2022-05-07Autor: BCP
The whole world is undergoing a crisis of faith; we are witnesses to mass apostasy from Christianity. Thank God that we can fight for the purity of faith. God has put us on a battlefield to fight for the whole Church. Seeing how big this problem is, we say in prayer: “O God, what shall we do? We are not in a position as David against Goliath but rather as if we stood with a sling against an atom bomb. We have no chance. But we trust that You are Almighty, that You will overcome in this fight and that there will be spiritual resurrection. And how? We are in darkness: we face a problem and see no solution; nevertheless, we believe that if You give Your word of prophecy, the Spirit who is behind Your word will come. And by Your Spirit You can change and renew everything.
The key = “in Christ Jesus” (video)
Post date: 2022-05-05Autor: BCP
The key = “in Christ Jesus”. + Elijah Patriarch of the Byzantine Catholic Patriarchate
Word of Life – Ecc 12:13 (6/2/2022 – 20/2/2022)
Post date: 2022-02-06Autor: BCP
"Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man."
Word of Life – Jn 16:33 (23/1/2022 – 6/2/2022)
Post date: 2022-01-28Autor: BCP
"These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."
Reflection on Jn 16:33
Post date: 2022-01-28Autor: BCP
These are important words; we have to realize that we only have true peace in Christ. He says in another place: “The peace I give is a gift the world cannot give.” This peace is connected with a living faith, commitment to Christ, and a clear conscience. A person who does evil and has abandoned Christ can only have a false peace and never a true one. Jesus foretells that in the world we will have tribulation. Every man on earth has tribulation and cannot escape it. It arises from a number of sources: not only from other people or from the system of the world and a certain disharmony in it, but also from our helplessness and the fact that evil works in us. We ourselves are often the authors of our own suffering. Therefore we must learn to perceive material, mental and spiritual laws, and thus acquire life wisdom. But it is mainly the Holy Spirit who gives us the light of true wisdom and enlightens us. Many times young people can have the wisdom of the elders if, as the Scriptures say, they seek to know and keep God’s Word.
Reflection on Jn 16:32
Post date: 2022-01-28Autor: BCP
After the words “each of you will be scattered”, the Greek original of the Holy Scriptures continues: “eis ta idia”, that is, “to his own”. The term “eis ta idia” is used once more in the Gospel of John to describe the moment when Jesus entrusted His Mother to the disciple. Jesus said: “Behold, your mother.” And the Apostle and Evangelist John, who stood by the cross and heard those words in person, writes: “And from that hour that disciple received her – eis ta idia – into his own.” We can say – inside himself. It required an act of faith. It was a spiritual transplantation of a new heart. We are the offspring of the first woman, Eve, who is in us along with the genetic code of original sin. In spiritual terms, we can liken it to a devilish spiritual mRNA vaccine, which injects a spiritual poison called sin. Every day we see how original sin works in us; this is the greatest reality.
Word of Life – Jn 16:32 (9/1/2022 – 23/1/2022)
Post date: 2022-01-11Autor: BCP
“Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.”
Reflection on Heb 1:1-2
Post date: 2021-12-29Autor: BCP
As we read the Old Testament, we learn that God indeed spoke to the chosen nation at many times, especially through the prophets and in many other ways too. God also spoke by demonstrating good, whether it was deliverance from Egypt, passage through the Red Sea, or miracles in the wilderness, and He also spoke through various trials, and then through warning punishments, not only in the wilderness but throughout the history of Israel. Often the nation was blind and deaf, and then God sent upon it harsh trials such as wars, Babylonian captivity... God gave man free will, but the evil that man does brings suffering both to him and others, and therefore God punishes him, either here in time or in eternity if he does not repent in earnest. God spoke and rebuked the nation through the prophets, but the nation responded by stoning and killing His prophets, and their sons built their tombs.
Word of Life – Heb 1:1-2 (26/12/2021 – 9/1/2022)
Post date: 2021-12-25Autor: BCP
“In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe.”
Word of Life – Heb 12:1-2a (12/12/2021 – 26/12/2021)
Post date: 2021-12-13Autor: BCP
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus.”
Reflection on Heb 12:1-2a
Post date: 2021-12-13Autor: BCP
The Word of God says that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. They are especially spiritual beings, angels, who are witnesses of our life. God speaks to us through them, too – for example, a saving thought flashes through our mind in a crisis situation. Unfortunately, we often cast it aside and pursue the vision of sin. Therefore, the Scriptures encourage us to throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. Our life is like a strenuous run to reach the heavenly goal through various obstacles. In this run we are to have our eyes fixed on Jesus! He is, as the Scripture continues in verse 2, “the author and perfecter of our faith”, because He guides our faith from the beginning to the end along the narrow way of the cross until we obtain the eternal crown in the joy of heaven. We should be aware that we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses – angels.
Word of Life – Jn 16:9-11 (28/11/2021 – 12/12/2021)
Post date: 2021-11-29Autor: BCP
“Of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.”