Again therefore Jesus said to them: I go, and you shall seek me, and you shall die in your sin. Whither I go, you cannot come. The Jews therefore said: Will he kill himself, because he said: Whither I go, you cannot come? And he said to them: You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world. Therefore I said to you, that you shall die in your sins. For if you believe not that I am he, you shall die in your sin. They said therefore to him: Who art thou? Jesus said to them: The beginning, who also speak unto you. Many things I have to speak and to judge of you. But he that sent me, is true: and the things I have heard of him, these same I speak in the world. And they understood not, that he called God his Father. Jesus therefore said to them: When you shall have lifted up the Son of man, then shall you know, that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself, but as the Father hath taught me, these things I speak: And he that sent me, is with me, and he hath not left me alone: for I do always the things that please him. When he spoke these things, many believed in him.
John 8:21-30 (Douay-Rheims Bible)

Prayer Reflection

Dear Father we can only imagine Jesus saying this to us today. He would by right tell us the truth, because many of us have chosen the world over your kindgom. But the sad part would be told that we would die in our sins. That part would make me think in the way of correcting my life. No one wants to die in sin. Except many live life as if Jesus does not exist and they put off until it is almost the end of life to mend a rift between them and you. Jesus tells us to believe in him because he had said I AM, and we all know I AM is you dear Father. You and Jesus are one with the Holy Spirit. Jesus did your Will and did as he was asked, some went on to believe and others walked away when they knew truth anyway. It is believing that you sent Jesus and that Jesus is your son that will save many. How often do we refuse to believe when we encounter in our daily life and the many things you give us the proof of your love. You have given me much more than many and I already had believed long before I was given tangible proof. But what would it take for others to believe so they will not die in their sins.

And Jesus went unto mount Olivet. And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came to him, and sitting down he taught them. And the scribes and the Pharisees bring unto him a woman taken in adultery: and they set her in the midst, and said to him: Master, this woman was even now taken in adultery. Now Moses in the law commanded us to stone such a one. But what sayest thou? And this they said tempting him, that they might accuse him. But Jesus bowing himself down, wrote with his finger on the ground. When therefore they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said to them: He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again stooping down, he wrote on the ground. But they hearing this, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest. And Jesus alone remained, and the woman standing in the midst. Then Jesus lifting up himself, said to her: Woman, where are they that accused thee? Hath no man condemned thee? Who said: No man, Lord. And Jesus said: Neither will I condemn thee. Go, and now sin no more.
John 8:1-11 (Douay-Rheims Bible)

Prayer Reflection

Dear Father we are the opposite of this reading. We pick up huge rocks and fling them at our neighbors on a daily basis. No matter what the sin, we are always perpetually reminded of them and not forgiven them. We know how truly wrong it is to sin, yet our world has deemed it okay to do it. How often we see it when we watch the television, one doesn't have to physically do the act in order to commit it. So why are we who are sinners always throwing stones at our neighbors for theirs? Jesus is the one without sin, and yet he forgave and didn't condemn but went on to tell this person to sin no more. Isn't that what we should be doing also, seeking forgiveness of our own sins and looking to not sinning anymore. Not judging others and flinging rocks at them as if we were without sin. Shame on us when we do this. Dear Father it is with hope that we find forgiveness in such a loving way as Jesus dealt with this woman in the reading today. That we too will seek the gift of reconciliation and come to not continue sinning as we so often do.

Now there was a certain man sick, named Lazarus, of Bethania, of the town of Mary and Martha her sister. (And Mary was she that anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair: whose brother Lazarus was sick.) His sisters therefore sent to him, saying: Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. And Jesus hearing it, said to them: This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God: that the Son of God may be glorified by it. Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister Mary, and Lazarus. When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he still remained in the same place two days. Then after that, he said to his disciples: Let us go into Judea again.

The disciples say to him: Rabbi, the Jews but now sought to stone thee: and goest thou thither again? Jesus answered: Are there not twelve hours of the day? If a man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world: But if he walk in the night, he stumbleth, because the light is not in him. These things he said; and after that he said to them: Lazarus our friend sleepeth; but I go that I may awake him out of sleep. His disciples therefore said: Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. But Jesus spoke of his death; and they thought that he spoke of the repose of sleep.

Then therefore Jesus said to them plainly: Lazarus is dead. And I am glad, for your sakes, that I was not there, that you may believe: but let us go to him. Thomas therefore, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples: Let us also go, that we may die with him. Jesus therefore came, and found that he had been four days already in the grave. (Now Bethania was near Jerusalem, about fifteen furlongs off.) And many of the Jews were come to Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother.

Martha therefore, as soon as she heard that Jesus had come, went to meet him: but Mary sat at home. Martha therefore said to Jesus: Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. But now also I know that whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee. Jesus saith to her: Thy brother shall rise again. Martha saith to him: I know that he shall rise again, in the resurrection at the last day. Jesus said to her: I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, although he be dead, shall live: And every one that liveth, and believeth in me, shall not die for ever. Believest thou this? She saith to him: Yea, Lord, I have believed that thou art Christ the Son of the living God, who art come into this world.

And when she had said these things, she went, and called her sister Mary secretly, saying: The master is come, and calleth for thee. She, as soon as she heard this, riseth quickly, and cometh to him. For Jesus was not yet come into the town: but he was still in that place where Martha had met him. The Jews therefore, who were with her in the house, and comforted her, when they saw Mary that she rose up speedily and went out, followed her, saying: She goeth to the grave to weep there.

When Mary therefore was come where Jesus was, seeing him, she fell down at his feet, and saith to him: Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. Jesus, therefore, when he saw her weeping, and the Jews that were come with her, weeping, groaned in the spirit, and troubled himself, And said: Where have you laid him? They say to him: Lord, come and see.

And Jesus wept. The Jews therefore said: Behold how he loved him.

But some of them said: Could not he that opened the eyes of the man born blind, have caused that this man should not die? Jesus therefore again groaning in himself, cometh to the sepulchre. Now it was a cave; and a stone was laid over it. Jesus saith: Take away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith to him: Lord, by this time he stinketh, for he is now of four days. Jesus saith to her: Did not I say to thee, that if thou believe, thou shalt see the glory of God?

They took therefore the stone away. And Jesus lifting up his eyes said: Father, I give thee thanks that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always; but because of the people who stand about have I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. When he had said these things, he cried with a loud voice: Lazarus, come forth. And presently he that had been dead came forth, bound feet and hands with winding bands; and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus said to them: Loose him, and let him go. Many therefore of the Jews, who were come to Mary and Martha, and had seen the things that Jesus did, believed in him.
John 11:1-45 (Douay-Rheims Bible)

Prayer Reflection

Dear Father this is a long reading but one filled with life rather than death. One of hope! As I read I couldn't help notice the phrase that I highlighted in red. That Jesus was glad, for their sakes, so that they may believe. And this was to his disciples too. They struggled with what they were witnessing and seeing first hand, just as Jesus was doing it. He wanted not only to give testimony to the you Dear Father that through you and Him they would have life eternal. Jesus did so very much to convince the disciples of the truth. Look in our own lives for the many times that he resurrected our faith when it was dying a slow death. What did he do to bring it back to life for you? Only thing, when he did restore it, did we continue to keep the light shinning that he so lovingly stoked back to life as if it were a burning ember. I'm sure there are countless times when he has touched us in such a way to do exactly that, but in our blindness we never saw it that way or attributed it to His saving grace. He wept for Lazarus, he weeps for us too because he loves us. Now what has he done in your life that restores your faith in Him?

Of that multitude therefore, when they had heard these words of his, some said: This is the prophet indeed. Others said: this is the Christ. But some said: doth the Christ come out of Galilee? Doth not the scripture say: that Christ cometh of the seed of David, and from Bethlehem the town where David was?

So there arose a dissension among the people because of him. And some of them would have apprehended him: but no man laid hands on him. The ministers therefore came to the chief priests and the Pharisees. And they said to them: why have you not brought him? The ministers answered: never did man speak like this man. The Pharisees therefore answered them: are you also seduced?

Hath any one of the rulers believed in him, or of the Pharisees? But this multitude, that knoweth not the law, are accursed. Nicodemus said to them, (he that came to him by night, who was one of them:) Doth our law judge any man, unless it first hear him, and know what he doth? They answered, and said to him: art thou also a Galilean? Search the scriptures, and see, that out of Galilee a prophet riseth not.

And every man returned to his own house.
John 7:40-53 (Douay-Rheims Bible)

Prayer Reflection

Dear Father one can almost associate this reading with todays political arena. Some would argue about the candidates and the place they came from too. Do they know the law? Do they follow the law, is another big question. But their law that is followed is a guideline to live, made from people but taken from a source that first started with your Word. The scriptures, the very Word of God. We too, in this time frame, question our political candidates of their worth. They too have to follow in the way of right living or suffer the consequences. Only difference, Jesus came to bring love from the Father, to show us how to do His Will. Not pick and choose who he's going to help in order to win votes. He helped them all, from the lowest to the highest. Why are we different in how we serve each other.

I have discovered that when life throws upheavals, sometimes it's best to step away for a bit to get a better focus on what is happening and why. I went through a big question with what's happening in mine and try to see the positive in it. Like when our Lord went to preach in the temples when against all odds his life was threatened. He still went out and did the Father's Will. The last few days brought home to me how close God is even when I felt there was no hope in a future at the place I work. Jesus never gave up or walked away from his ministry or from doing his Father's work. We humans have a tendency to go off and lick our wounds until they heal, or run away from doing what we are called to do. We tend to take it out on God when things happen and do other things that might go against the kingdom of God.

I had a brief moment after I was told not to come in to work for today, a moment of uncertainty, of fear about how I will survive. In that moment I also forgot Jesus' teaching about not worrying, about letting go and letting God. These are the hardest moments in our lives and yet Jesus went to bat for us time and time again. So today I am here writing and not giving up, but starting again and renewing my promise and fidelity to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to follow him. Giving honor and Glory to God for all the love that he has in his heart for mankind. That means I will continue to do His work even against all odds. And should someone come along to help with God's work, I pray they will be very trustworthy and true to our Lord. It's not an easy road to travel, but worth it.