Matthew 23:37
How often would I have gathered your children together
as a hen gathers her brood under her wings
and you were not willing!
Tonight we traveled to St. John the Divine Episcopal, Houston, Texas to hear Father Mike Endicott of Monmouth, Wales, U.K.
I last met Father Mike in 2013, to pray for my son, who was having a young man difficult time in Dallas. Father Mike and his wife prayed for me and assured me because the Lord had heard my copious weeping for another person, my arm would be fine. I wondered if Father Mike was hard of hearing. I said thank you and went on to pray for my son with them. As the prayer ended, Mike said I would worry, but the Lord assured Mike my arm would be fine. I said thank you, but my arms are entirely well. And they were. In 2016, I showed my funny bump to the doctor I knew and liked so well at Pro Life, where we volunteered. He told me the shape of the bump led him to think it was cancer. And I went to a surgeon I researched and he said the same thing. We scheduled the surgery, and found it was a benign Lipoma in a strange shape. The next 2017 another surgery. Sometimes Lipomas leave something like seed benign cysts. Benign, Benign, Benign, Thank Jesus.
I had wept copiously for a Louisiana cousin, who had lost an arm. Later, I found out the report was incorrect but I'd cried heartily for my cousin. Perhaps this was the prayer God had heard me cry. Or for my son. My first Church had been too busy to pray for my arm in 2016. My 2nd Church in 2017 had the Care Pastor come to me with a friend and they prayed with great compassion. Thank Jesus.
This evening, Father Mike prayed such a beautiful prayer. I want to repeat the prayer with you. We also prayed for the winds blowing in all directions around the world in Strife of worldwide Pandemic brains. The UK has 4% Church attendance. Some of Europe is the same. Poland, so beautiful to Ukraine, has 80% Catholic Church attendance. Poland was heavily involved in sabotaging Nazis in World War II. Extreme heroics. UK worked at amazing levels to make sure the darkness did not surround the earth. The Churches read the Liturgy, yet wanted to pretend calm and ignore the strife of great fear. After World War II ended, the people let the fear reside and the upset over being unfed in a critical time begin to erode Church attendance. We pray for the worldwide Church to be a beacon of Truth and Comfort in Jesus Christ.
Friends don't let friends crash in difficult times. Pray for the worldwide Church of Jesus Christ to be effective in a time of great stress.
Abba, Father,
Come, behold the works of the Lord
God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy habitation of the Most High.
God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved;
God will help her when morning dawns.
The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;
he utters his voice, the earth melts.
The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Jesus has prayed, Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.
Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said,
rivers of living water will flow from within them
Jesus our Spring of water welling up to eternal life
For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground;
I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.
When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none,
and their tongue is parched with thirst,
I the Lord will answer them; I the God of Israel will not forsake them.
I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys.
I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.
With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
“Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.”
And let the one who is thirsty come;
let the one who desires take the water of life without price.
We need not suffer the sorrows and unending grief.
The making do, drag us to feel down.
Live Heaven today in our Love and faith. Well with hope.
The Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire
in scorched places and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.
Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters;
and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
Jesus tells us, His Promise within us. His Holy Spirit living within us.
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal,
flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.
For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
You, Father, sanctify us, Beloved,
having cleansed us by the washing of water with Your Word.
And I heard a voice from heaven like the roar of many waters
and like the sound of loud thunder.
Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out,
“Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.
He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.
We will be still and know the Lord.
We will pray and rest in Him expecting
to Behold the Works of The Lord.
Alleluia Jesus is Lord. Amen.
Matthew 25:40
Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least
of these brothers and sisters of mine,
you did for me
Jacob chose the lambs with spots