Month: August 2021

“Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.
Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.

– John 12:24-25

Live the Faith! Tip of the Week:

What does it mean to “die to yourself”? Sometimes that phrase can be scary or make us uncomfortable… and it should! The purpose of penance, fasting, and sacrifice are to make us uncomfortable. This is not because God delights in our suffering or wants us to feel pain, but because He knows that it’s the earthly comforts of this world that keep us apart from Him.

Let us each take up some sort of weekly penance or fast, so that we might better reject the world, die to ourselves and live for Christ. So that we might one day be able to truly say, “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me”.

“Then he said to all, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

– Luke 9:23

Live the Faith! Tip of the Week:

Christ was not comfortable. From the day He was born in a stable, He was poor and had no place to lay his head. His earthly life, though full of love, was also full of suffering and persecution.

Too often do we deny our own crosses. Too often do we choose comfort and pleasure over Jesus. Let us make an examination of our own lives this week in prayer, and try to identify the comforts and pleasures that are preventing us from taking up our own crosses and following Christ.