I wrote a meditation each day on the Bible verses for Easter to Pentecost.
The text quoted in the King James Version, and the arrangement of the readings is the Catholic lectionary. (So that might strike people as a bit confused! But not really.)
I like today's reading especially: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16 KJV)
I like it most because it gives me simple hope. By this I mean that I try to be a saint - a Christian - and I need the prayers!
This is on my website. The link is this: Meditations on the love of Jesus Christ | God so loved the world
This is the text of the King James Version for this day, and my thoughts about it:
16 ¶ For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
18 ¶ He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
Our relationship with God is a call to love. Our Father loves us unsparingly. He gave to us and for us His only begotten Son. Christ gave himself to free us from sin and death, to reconcile us with God. All we are asked to do is to believe in Jesus and to respond to God’s immeasurable love with a reciprocal love, through faith in Christ.
It is through love and faith that we discover our dignity. We are called to enter into the body of Christ, to love God with all our strength, as with all our soul, and so to discover life. This is a spiritual process. We are to understand love as being through the life of the spirit. This love is not to do with fleshly attachments. Indeed, we are to put to death that which is old, of the flesh, so that we may fully enter the life eternal of the spirit, and this through Jesus.
It may seem an impossible task. So it would be without grace to assist us. Our poor efforts alone could not do it, just as Nicodemus, with all his knowledge of the letter of the Old Law, has realised the limits of the Old Law and come to speak with Jesus to discover the New.
We are called to faith, to belief in Jesus. This is the light of the world. It is through Christ that we are enabled to live in the spirit and have everlasting life. We are to give ourselves to Jesus, so that he may take charge of our thoughts and words and actions. Through faith in Christ, our freedom from sin and death, our salvation, becomes no longer an impossible task. God will work through us.
We are asked by Jesus not to be afraid. When we do evil, when we sin, when we fall short of being what we should be, we may flinch from the light of Christ. Our sins cloud our spiritual sense. We may wish to hide from the light, because it is in the light that our sins are exposed. Jesus always calls us to return to him. His arms are always open to us, to receive, as it were, us prodigal sons.
Our faith in Christ is synonymous with our love of Christ. This great love is intended to be always reciprocal. Through faith, through love, we experience God’s forgiveness. Then we know that there is no need to cling to the darkness, in order to try to hide our sins. That will only make things worse. It is in the light that we may be honest, as we are when we acknowledge our sins, and discover once more the joy of our life in Christ.
It is as we ask Christ to know us fully, through and through, in the light, that we are enabled to know ourselves, and to love ourselves, and to live in dignity.
‘He it is who makes a single flock of holy sheep from every race under the heavens without exception… This is why we celebrate the Lord’s Pasch with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. The leaven of our old malice is thrown away, and a new creature drinks deep and feeds upon the Lord himself. For our participation in the body and blood of Christ has this effect: it makes us become what we receive; it enables us, with our whole being, in our spirit and our flesh, to bear him in whom and with whom we have died and risen again.’ Pope St Leo the Great
The text quoted in the King James Version, and the arrangement of the readings is the Catholic lectionary. (So that might strike people as a bit confused! But not really.)
I like today's reading especially: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16 KJV)
I like it most because it gives me simple hope. By this I mean that I try to be a saint - a Christian - and I need the prayers!
This is on my website. The link is this: Meditations on the love of Jesus Christ | God so loved the world
This is the text of the King James Version for this day, and my thoughts about it:
16 ¶ For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
18 ¶ He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
Our relationship with God is a call to love. Our Father loves us unsparingly. He gave to us and for us His only begotten Son. Christ gave himself to free us from sin and death, to reconcile us with God. All we are asked to do is to believe in Jesus and to respond to God’s immeasurable love with a reciprocal love, through faith in Christ.
It is through love and faith that we discover our dignity. We are called to enter into the body of Christ, to love God with all our strength, as with all our soul, and so to discover life. This is a spiritual process. We are to understand love as being through the life of the spirit. This love is not to do with fleshly attachments. Indeed, we are to put to death that which is old, of the flesh, so that we may fully enter the life eternal of the spirit, and this through Jesus.
It may seem an impossible task. So it would be without grace to assist us. Our poor efforts alone could not do it, just as Nicodemus, with all his knowledge of the letter of the Old Law, has realised the limits of the Old Law and come to speak with Jesus to discover the New.
We are called to faith, to belief in Jesus. This is the light of the world. It is through Christ that we are enabled to live in the spirit and have everlasting life. We are to give ourselves to Jesus, so that he may take charge of our thoughts and words and actions. Through faith in Christ, our freedom from sin and death, our salvation, becomes no longer an impossible task. God will work through us.
We are asked by Jesus not to be afraid. When we do evil, when we sin, when we fall short of being what we should be, we may flinch from the light of Christ. Our sins cloud our spiritual sense. We may wish to hide from the light, because it is in the light that our sins are exposed. Jesus always calls us to return to him. His arms are always open to us, to receive, as it were, us prodigal sons.
Our faith in Christ is synonymous with our love of Christ. This great love is intended to be always reciprocal. Through faith, through love, we experience God’s forgiveness. Then we know that there is no need to cling to the darkness, in order to try to hide our sins. That will only make things worse. It is in the light that we may be honest, as we are when we acknowledge our sins, and discover once more the joy of our life in Christ.
It is as we ask Christ to know us fully, through and through, in the light, that we are enabled to know ourselves, and to love ourselves, and to live in dignity.
‘He it is who makes a single flock of holy sheep from every race under the heavens without exception… This is why we celebrate the Lord’s Pasch with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. The leaven of our old malice is thrown away, and a new creature drinks deep and feeds upon the Lord himself. For our participation in the body and blood of Christ has this effect: it makes us become what we receive; it enables us, with our whole being, in our spirit and our flesh, to bear him in whom and with whom we have died and risen again.’ Pope St Leo the Great
