Catholic Faith and Reflections | Faith Seeking Understanding

Quote for the Day

Posted on October 8, 2014 by Deacon Bob

“Blessed is the brother that would love his brother in illness, when the brother cannot be of use to him, as much as he loves him in health, when he can be of use to him.” – St. Francis of Assisi

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Beware of Greed and Aware of the Holy Spirit

Posted on October 5, 2014 by Deacon Bob

Below is the Vatican’s translation of the Holy Father’s homily for the opening Mass of the Extrordinary Synod on the Family.

He warns the Synod Fathers against greed and encourages openess to God’s “dream”, the People of God.

HOLY MASS FOR THE OPENING
OF THE EXTRAORDINARY SYNOD ON THE FAMILY

HOMILY OF POPE FRANCIS

Vatican Basilica
Sunday, 5 October 2014

Today the prophet Isaiah and the Gospel employ the image of the Lord’s vineyard. The Lord’s vineyard is his “dream”, the plan which he nurtures with all his love, like a farmer who cares for his vineyard. Vines are plants which need much care!

God’s “dream” is his people. He planted it and nurtured it with patient and faithful love, so that it can become a holy people, a people which brings forth abundant fruits of justice.

But in both the ancient prophecy and in Jesus’ parable, God’s dream is thwarted. Isaiah says that the vine which he so loved and nurtured has yielded “wild grapes” (5:2,4); God “expected justice but saw bloodshed, righteousness, but only a cry of distress” (v. 7). In the Gospel, it is the farmers themselves who ruin the Lord’s plan: they fail to do their job but think only of their own interests.

In Jesus’ parable, he is addressing the chief priests and the elders of the people, in other words the “experts”, the managers. To them in a particular way God entrusted his “dream”, his people, for them to nurture, tend and protect from the animals of the field. This is the job of leaders: to nuture the vineyard with freedom, creativity and hard work.

But Jesus tells us that those farmers took over the vineyard. Out of greed and pride they want to do with it as they will, and so they prevent God from realizing his dream for the people he has chosen.

The temptation to greed is ever present. We encounter it also in the great prophecy of Ezekiel on the shepherds (cf. ch. 34), which Saint Augustine commented upon in one his celebrated sermons which we have just reread in the Liturgy of the Hours. Greed for money and power. And to satisfy this greed, evil pastors lay intolerable burdens on the shoulders of others, which they themselves do not lift a finger to move (cf. Mt 23:4)

We too, in the Synod of Bishops, are called to work for the Lord’s vineyard. Synod Assemblies are not meant to discuss beautiful and clever ideas, or to see who is more intelligent… They are meant to better nuture and tend the Lord’s vineyard, to help realize his dream, his loving plan for his people. In this case the Lord is asking us to care for the family, which has been from the beginning an integral part of his loving plan for humanity.

We are all sinners and can also be tempted to “take over” the vineyard, because of that greed which is always present in us human beings. God’s dream always clashes with the hypocrisy of some of his servants. We can “thwart” God’s dream if we fail to let ourselves be guided by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit gives us that wisdom which surpasses knowledge, and enables us to work generously with authentic freedom and humble creativity.

My Synod brothers, to do a good job of nurturing and tending the vineyard, our hearts and our minds must be kept in Jesus Christ by “the peace of God which passes all understanding” (Phil 4:7). In this way our thoughts and plans will correspond to God’s dream: to form a holy people who are his own and produce the fruits of the kingdom of God (cf. Mt 21:43).

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Deacon Bob’s Homily for Thursday, October 2, Memorial of the Guardian Angels

Posted on October 2, 2014 by Deacon Bob

Here is my homily from this morning. God bless you!

The best catechist I have ever had was my mother. Despite studying in Catholic grade and high schools, a Catholic college and in a Pontifical University in Rome, the best lessons of faith have come from my mother.

The first lesson I learned (I don’t have a specific memory of this, but I am sure it happened) was my mom took my right arm when I was but an infant, and she traced the sign of the cross on me, saying, “In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” Her first lesson was that there existed a Triune God.

The second lesson she taught was I was to to glorify this God. So, she taught me the Glory Be.

The third lesson was that God was my Father. So, she taught me the Our Father.

The fourth lesson was that I had a spiritual mother whose name was Mary. So, she taught me the Hail Mary.

Interestly, the fifth lesson was that I had a guardian angel sent by God to be with me. She taught me the prayer,

Angel of God, my guardian dear

to whom, God’s love, commits me here.

Ever this day be at my side

to light, to guard, to rule, to guide.

Amen!

Yes, the fifth lesson was there were angels!

We commemorate today our guardian angels. We know by faith, and through the testimony of Scriptures, that there are myriads of spirits in heaven who behold the face of God and give him praise and glory. These spirits become “angels” when God sends them forth to accomplish his will here on earth. They become angels when they have their mission.

I often hear parents say that a child who has died has become an angel in heaven. I understand what they are trying to say, I guess, but I always cringe a bit because we human beings never become angels. We have bodies; angels don’t. Yes, it is true that when we die, our spirits temporarily separate from our bodies, but we remain human nonetheless. We are sons and daughters of God. Angels are created spirits without bodies.

My friends, we can take comfort in knowing that each of us has been given a guardian angel, sent by God to be with us always. We can ask this angel to help us, to accompany us, to protect and instruct us. He is, in a very real sense, the presence of God’s loving concern for us as individuals.

I honor my mom for giving me those basic instructions in the faith. I treasure those lessons. Angels were a part of that. Lest we forget…

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Deacon Bob’s Homily for Wednesday, October 1, Memorial of St. Terese of the Child Jesus

Posted on October 2, 2014 by Deacon Bob

Here is my homily from last night. God bless!

I was talking to someone today who told of an elderly man who had died years ago. This man sounded like a very simple gentlemen who lived a very simple life. I could not help to later reflect on three of my great-uncles: Jim, Joe and Eddy. They were brothers. Jim married and had a family, but Joe and Eddy were bachelors who farmed together. They were very, very, very simple men. Joe and Eddy especially, lived a very simple life that never really kept up with the times. They understood things in a very simple way; nothing was complicated about them.

I have never met any other men more simple in lifestyle, or firmer in their faith.

We celebrate today the memorial of St. Terese of the Child Jesus. St. Terese died in the late 1890s at a very young age. When she was 15 years old, she entered the convent, and she struggled to understand what her particular vocation was to be. She searched the Scriptures, and came upon St. Paul’s epistles, and there learned what she would call the simple life. She discovered that to live life simply out of love was the way for her. So, she went about her day, embracing the simple things of life and doing all of it out of love. This included how she did the dishes, how she laundered the clothing, how she greeted her fellow sisters (some of whom treated her rudely). She discovered that simplicity in love was the way of holiness.

To you young people here today, I tell you that the world will try to get you to believe that the more complex, fancy and complicated you make your life, the happier you will become. It simply is not true. Even though most of you will never enter a convent, you too can embrace a life of loving simplicity. You can follow the example of St. Terese and follow the simple life lived in love. This will bring you happiness.

Yes, my great uncles Jim, Joe and Eddy were men of great simplicity and faith. They always treated me very kindly, so I believe they also were men of simple love.

May all of us ask for the intercession of St. Terese today. May we follow her example.

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Deacon Bob’s Homily for the 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 2014

Posted on September 24, 2014 by Deacon Bob

Here is my homily for this weekend. May God bless each of you!

26^th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 2014

Ezechiel 18: 25-28; Phil 2: 1-11; Matthew 21: 28-32

Do you want to become who you truly were made to be? In other words, do you truly want to be happy? Then, do what God tells you to do. God’s plan is always the best plan. Follow his script, his game plan, and his directions for your life.

Jesus has shown us how to do just that. Look at our second reading today from Saint Paul’s letter to the Philippians. Paul tells us that we must have the same attitude as Jesus Christ. What was Jesus’ attitude? Humility. Even though he was God, completely humbled himself. He did the will of his Father. His will perfectly cooperated with the will of the Father. The Son and the Father and the Holy Spirit are one God, thus Jesus’ will was one with the will of the Father. Jesus fulfilled the mission he was given. Jesus knew the plan of the Father was the best plan, and Jesus never doubted it, as difficult as it would become to fulfill for his human nature. Jesus’s will and the Father’s will were perfectly united.

Our wills, our lives, also must become one with the will of God the Father. To say our wills — that is what we choose to do — are one with God’s will — that is what God would want us to do — means our deepest passions in life are to become one with God’s desire for us. To say our will is united to God’s will ultimately means that we become one with the love of God for us.

It is hard for us to understand how provocative today’s Gospel parable was to the religious authorities of Jesus’s time. Prostitutes and tax collectors were the bottom rung of the religious ladder back then, and Jesus was saying that they were entering the Kingdom of God before the religious leaders. Anyone using a similar parable directed at religious leaders of today would provoke the same kind of anger Jesus provoked. Yet, what Jesus spoke two thousand years ago he continues to speak to us, we who are leaders in the Church.

Prostitutes, sinners, the ignorant, children, workers, minorities, criminals, prisoners, drunkards, addicts, unmarried mothers and fathers, the illiterate, the sick, yes perhaps even heretics and atheists, indeed all those on the margins of society and Church, all those on the peripheries, those not a part of religious circles – all these people are, not always but often, entering the Kingdom of God before us who live all day in the Church and are a part of the Church’s inner circle.

Those we consider transgressors of the Law and those we condemn may be the ones who in the final analysis end up obeying God’s will most fully.

Before any of us presume to go out to those on the fringes, on the peripheries, to all those people I just mentioned, in order to correct them or criticize them or teach them, we need to be very humble like Jesus was humble. We have to take on the attitude of Christ. We need, as Saint Paul said in the second reading, to take on the attitude of Jesus who emptied himself and became completely like us in all things but sin. This means we must not build walls that separate us. We must become like them in every way, except their sin.

Before we presume to correct someone else who seems disobedient and far from God and the Church, we must recognize how we are so very much like him. We must understand and know him, get close to him, approach him, accept him without accepting his sin or becoming sinful ourselves. We must not build walls, but approach. This is what Jesus did.

So we have the question before us: Are we willing to do this with the prostitutes and tax collectors of our time?

We must, as Pope Francis says, take on the smell of the sheep if we wish to lead the sheep and have them listen and trust us. God has a passion, a deep love for the wayward sinner. He has a heart for the man or woman on the fringes. He desires to be reunited with the one who is lost and confused. He wants us to go out to them, in all humility, like them in everything but sin.

God wants us to do what he sent his Son Jesus to do. He wants our lives to be united to the life of his Son, Jesus Christ.

Accomplishing God’s will, responding to his plan for us is what is important. Please don’t second guess God’s plan for your life! The second son in the Gospel today did that. He first agreed to God’s plan but then thought later his plan was better and he didn’t’ go. The first son at first thought his plan was the better one, but then realized that God’s will was the best plan of his life.

Don’t try to outdo God in planning your life. Unite your will to his. Choose what he wants for you.

God’s plan is the best plan you will ever receive.

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You are Chosen … to be Happy

Posted on September 22, 2014 by Deacon Bob

Here is a splendid video I ran across this morning. Enjoy!

http://youtu.be/liIdQ-m8Qtw

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Quote for the Day

Posted on September 19, 2014 by Deacon Bob

“So many of us in the world are aspiring to upward mobility, and I feel the Lord calling me to downward mobility, to embrace a life of prayer and poverty.” — Michael Gaworski, fbp

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Deacon Bob’s Homily for Thursday of the 24th Week of Ordinary Time, Year 2

Posted on September 18, 2014 by Deacon Bob

Here is my homily from this morning. God bless each of you!

Indeed, the Lord is kind and merciful! Our first reading this morning, along with the Gospel, speak of God’s great mercy and his forgiveness.

Paul recounts for us in the first reading how God showed his mercy and forgiveness toward him. Remember, Paul was a murderer. He had killed many Christians until he came to believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and had come into the world to redeem it and all people from their sins. Paul came to know a great forgiveness and mercy in his life by the grace of God given to him without merit because that core Christian belief had bee preached to him, and he had experienced Jesus himself. He came to recognize his sin, and in the face of that sin he experienced God’s forgiveness and his call. And what did he do in response? He loved. That is why he says today that he has worked harder than all the other apostles, which is his way of saying that he has loved more because his sin had been greater and the forgiveness he received was complete.

Then in our Gospel we hear of the sinful woman who approaches Jesus, falls at his feet, washes them with her tears, dries them with her hair, and anoints them with ointment. This woman, facing her sin, responded with love. She loved the Lord, not only in her heart but also in her behavior, in her actions. She approached Jesus with confidence in receiving forgiveness, despite her serious sins.

My friends, when we approach God in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, when we walk into that confessional, we need not fear. We walk in to put ourselves at Jesus’ feet like this sinful woman, and we do so in confidence that forgiveness is ours if we ask for it. What we do there is acknowledge our sins, and in doing so receive that forgiveness. What we do in that sacrament is love Jesus. Yes, do you ever think of it in that way? Our participation in that sacrament is an act of love for Jesus. We are, as it were, washing his feet, drying and anointing them. We love in response to our sin which has been forgiven.

“He who has been forgiven much, loves much,” we heard in the Gospel. Yes, my friends, when we face our sins, or the sins of others, our response must be love. Never condemnation, but love. We love because of the unmerited forgiveness which has been given to us by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Love, my friends. Don’t condemn!

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Quote for the Day

Posted on September 15, 2014 by Deacon Bob

“Strive to do everything for the love of God, whether you pray, or read; whether you are busy with household chores or lowly duties. Train yourself in all works of charity both for the healthy as well as for the sick.” — Blessed Baptista Varano, OSC

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Deacon Bob’s Homily for Wednesday of the 23rd Week of the Year, Year 2

Posted on September 11, 2014 by Deacon Bob

This is a late posting. Sorry! I have been very busy of late.

Here is my homily for yesterday evening’s Mass.

We have this beautiful responsorial psalm tonight on which to reflect. It speaks of a beautiful daughter being escorted into the palace of the king, born in with gladness and joy. Of course, this psalm symbolically represents us being born into heaven before God our King. In our Gospel, we have the Luke’s rendering of the Beatitudes in which we catch a glimpse of the mind of God, one might say.

Do you ever dream of heaven? I don’t mean a nighttime dream, but during the day…. do you ever imagine, dream of heaven?

Heaven, where, God willing and by his grace, we will one day come to a much more perfect and brilliant knowledge of the mind of God.

Yes, do you ever dream of heaven? O, all too often, as St. Paul reminds us in our first reading, we are preoccupied by worldly cares and concerns. Yes, we have a sharper understanding of the world’s mind than the mind of God. We let our imaginations get caught up with worldly desires. But Paul tells us that the world is passing away, and he would want to spare us the difficulties of the world if he could.

In heaven, we will know the mind of God in a much more perfect and brilliant manner than we can possibly imagine now. A part of the mind of God is expressed in the Beatitudes. We are always blessed by God, even now, and will be especially so in heaven, for God always holds us in mind. He never forgets and is never distracted from us. We are blessed in God’s mind, even now as we suffer in this world.

I would encourage all of you to dream of heaven. Take a few minutes every day to imagine, to dream, of what heaven will be like when we come to know the mind of God in a newer, more direct and powerful way. Sit back, close your eyes, and dream. God loves you.

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Deacon Bob’s Homily for Thursday, 23rd Week of Ordinary Time

Posted on September 11, 2014 by Deacon Bob

Here is my homily from this morning’s Mass.

We have St. Paul warning us today about creating scandal among those whose faith is weak. Why is it that faithful Catholics are a cause of scandal among those who do not believe?

We here present this morning believe that God sent his only Son into the world, and that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary, that Jesus is the second Person of the Trinity, that he is a divine person who has two natures: human and divine. We believe that he was sent into the world to redeem it, to redeem us, that he died and rose again from the grave and now sits at the right hand of the Father while still remaining with us here on earth through the power of the Holy Spirit who has been infused into our souls.

Yes, we believe this; we have this “knowledge” as St. Paul says today in the reading.

Why, then, do we cause scandal to the weak of faith?

Perhaps it is because faith requires action. Faith without works is dead and scandelous.

Perhaps, as we heard in the Gospel, we want to be forgiven, but we fail to forgive.

Perhaps it is because we do not want to be condemned, yet we condemn others.

Perhaps it is because we do not want to be judged harshly, yet we harshly judge others.

Perhaps it is because we want to be given to in our need, but we fail to give to others in their needs.

Yes, our faith demands action. If we truly believe, we must stop condemning, judging, hoarding and failing to forgive.

My friends, Jesus is among us, even in the lives of the unbelievers. We must not sin against Jesus. We must not condemn, judge, accuse, or withhold from Him by doing so with the person in our midst.

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Deacon Bob’s Homily for 23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 2014

Posted on September 9, 2014 by Deacon Bob

Here is my homily for the past weekend. Sorry for the late post. God bless all!

23^rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A

September 6/7, 2014

Ez 13: 8-10; Rom 13: 8-10; Mt 18: 15-20

We are in this together, this which we call life and the Church. We are in this together, yet we hear ringing in our ears a lot of familiar attitudes, sayings such as “It’s none of my business!” or “Live and let live” or “It is a private matter and I have no reason to oppose it” or “It is happening on the other side of the world. We don’t have to get involved.”

Yes, my friends, we are in this together, not just as individuals. Yes, as Americans, we value our individual liberties and freedoms, and we are reluctant to place the common good of all people over and above our individual cares and concerns. We are reluctant to see how we are responsible for each other.

Yet, we are in this together, this which we call life; this which we call the Church. We are one body, one parish, one Church. We are responsible for one another. What you do affects me and all of us around you. What I do affects you and all those around me. What we do here, in this parish, affects the broader community in which this parish exists. What we must do as a Church affects the entire world.

Sounds like a lot of responsibility, doesn’t it? Well, it is. That is one reason why being a Catholic can be very challenging. We must live our lives with the full knowledge that we are responsible for each other in every way. I may not bear the guilt of your sin, nor you mine, but I must bear your needs, as you must bear mine.

In other words, we must love one another as St. Paul tells us in our first reading today, and as our Lord tells us so often in the Gospels.

So many people love that scripture passage, “Love your neighbor as yourself” and so they should. I ask you, though, what you think are the implications and obligations of such a commandment.

“Love your neighbor as yourself” so often get diluted down into some sort of permissive attitude. Something like, “If they are good people, that’s all that matters. What they do or how they live is ultimately of no account. Just be a good person, and it won’t matter what you believe, or what religion you practice, or what sins you commit.”

I would say to you that is not what the love your neighbor commandment means.

Our first reading and the Gospel today are clear. There are times and places when we must call each other into account. There are times when we must do so, not to beat someone down in anger, not to castigate or humiliate, but call into account in love and to do so when someone is playing around with evil, playing with something dangerous in their lives, because to love means we assist each other to avoid evil, to help each other out of patterns of life that pull us away from God, goodness and the Church, out of sinful patterns in life that draw us into darkness, confusion, vice, and isolation.

We are in this together, so Christian love demands at times Christian correction. Remember, it is out of love, not hatred, not vengeance, not spite that we do so, but out of love.

The early Christians understood this and lived this in a very simple, loving, and effective way. The Church today continues to live this way. Two thousand years ago the sense of mutual responsibility for each other, the need for fraternal correction, was easily understood and accepted. The Christian community was central to their lives and the people were invested and committed to the Church. In 2014, cultural values have changed and we are more concerned about ourselves and not involving ourselves “in other people’s business.”

Don’t be nosey, but be loving. Don’t be condemning, but be faithful to the truth. Don’t be nagging, but be concerned and speak out to others of your concerns for a brother or sister in Christ.

Each of us, especially we the clergy – deacons, priests, and bishops – as well as you the laity, needs to examine our consciences and ask ourselves whether we are living only for our own well-being or whether we are living for others; whether we are excusing ourselves from the responsibilities we have to speak the truth, to approach each other in a spirit of love and correction, to recognize that when someone is on the fringes, vulnerable and misled we must pull him in, support him and show him again the path of light, truth, love, i.e., the path of Jesus Christ and the Church.

We the clergy must live, not in self-concern but in love for you. To do this, despite our sins, we must speak the truth who is Jesus Christ. And you, my dear people of God, must do the same for us.

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Deacon Bob’s Homily for Saturday, September 6, Votive Mass for the Blessed Virgin Mary and Opening Mass for Deacon Aspirants

Posted on September 6, 2014 by Deacon Bob

Here is my homily from this morning’s Mass opening the aspirancy year for deacon aspirants in the Diocese of Winona.

Homily for Aspirants
September 6, 2014
Winona, MN

Humble and bold. Two words we don’t often associate in our minds. Humble and bold… we find them both in the person of Mary.

The humble virgin Mary, docile to God’s will, God’s word, yet the most bold of all the witnesses of the Word made Flesh, of her Son and Lord, Jesus.

No, it was not Peter. No, it was not James or John or Paul who was the boldest yet most humble of all the witnesses of the Life, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus….. No, it was Mary, for from her heart came these words:

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord
My spirit rejoices in God, my Savior
For He has looked with favor on his lowly servant
From this day all generations shall call me blessed!

It was Mary who bore the most humble but bold witness to her Son. It was Mary who bore the Word of God in her heart and then conceived Word in her womb.

Only because of her faith in that Word that came to her, who she nurtured in her Immaculate Heart, was she then able to conceive and bear the Son of God, her creator and Savior, Jesus.

Mary kept close to her heart the Word made Flesh. She said, “Yes.” She said, “Fiat.” She said, “Let it be done to me.” St. Augustine would later write that Mary was more blessed for hearing God’s word and keeping custody of it in her heart than because of the flesh she gave to her divine Son. Since this was true, Mary was able to stand by her Son as he died on the cross, stand by Him without staining her Immaculate Heart. She knew it was by virtue of her faith in God’s Word that she had been able to conceive that Word in her womb, and it was by faith in that Word that she was able to give bold witness to her Son when he gave up his life on the Cross.
Mary, who surpasses all of us in her sanctity and her fidelity, remains like us, a member of the Church, and a member of the Body of Christ her Son, a witness to her Son’s death and resurrection.

You too are members of the Body of Christ. You also carry God’s Word in your hearts.

My brother deacon aspirants, you are more blessed and find greater dignity in the Word you nourish in your hearts and profess with your lips than in the office you may bear in the future. You are first, and most importantly, members of the Body of Christ, from which you must never separate yourselves.

You cannot become that Icon, you cannot become the Image of Jesus the Servant unless first you have welcomed the Word in your hearts, treasured it, nurtured it, obeyed it, followed it, trusted it. Mary would not have become the Mother of God had she not first accepted and kept the Word of God in her Immaculate Heart. You cannot become the Icon of Jesus the Servant if you do not first hold in purity of heart the Word entrusted to you. Mary could not have endured the passion and death of her Son without cradling in her heart the Word that had come to her. You cannot endure the trials and difficulties of ministry without knowing and nurturing and loving the Word entrusted to you.

Yes, diaconal ministry can be modeled after Mary. Deacons too are to give humble yet bold witness to the Gospel. Their’s is a vocation of humble service, not arrogant rule, but their’s is also a vocation of boldly proclaiming the Gospel. There is no place for the timid there. They must teach and preach boldly, with conviction and faith arising from a pure conscience.

My brothers, thank you for responding to your call. To all you wives here present, I thank you for the sacrificial love you live out on a daily basis in the support you give you husbands. Without you, we could do very little.

May God bless us all!

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Deacon Bob’s Homily for Thursday, 21st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Augustine

Posted on August 28, 2014 by Deacon Bob

Here is my homily from this morning. God bless all!

Stay awake! You know not the time or the hour.

Could our Lord be any clearer? God our Father has over the course of history revealed to us who he is. He has given us the presence of his Son Jesus Christ. He has given us the faith. He has blessed us with so much! And we now are to be faithful stewards, custodians, of what we have been given.

The faith which is ours has been given to us to preserve and protect. The Church treasures the deposit of Faith, and proclaims it to our world. Yes, the Church takes a lot of heat for doing so, yet it must. We too, as members of the Church, must defend and preserve the Faith with which we have been blessed.

Our faith has so many daily implications. All the men out there this morning, the majority of whom are married, God has given you a precious gift in your wife. Do you treasure her, preserve her? Are you keeping faithful custody of the gift of your wife?

We have been given the presence of God’s only Son. We have been given the Eucharist. Do we treasure this gift which we approach every morning here at the altar? Do we preserve and proclaim God’s presence in our lives? Are we faithful stewards?

God has gifted us beyond measure, and he has entrusted to us the preservation, development and passing on of his gifts until the day of his return. They are ours to treasure. They are ours to value.

God values us higher than any other created thing. He hold us in his awareness constantly.

Ought we not strive to do the same with Him?

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