Church of ST JOSEPH Plentong

https://www.catholic.sg
30-January-2019-Wednesday
3rd-week-ordinary-time

*Many of us cannot encounter God deeply because we are outside of Him.  Unless our hearts beat with the heart of God, we will not be able to have the same passion and love of our Lord Jesus Christ.  It was Jesus’ personal experience of the Father’s love that gave Him His mission to proclaim the Good News to the poor.   Unless we share the heart of God, we cannot feel Him in our lives.*

*So how can we enter the heart and mind of God?  What other way than to begin by contemplating on the Word of God!  Through a greater understanding and appreciation of the Word of God, we come to understand the mind of Jesus.  We cannot grow in knowledge of Christ without the Word of God.  Catholics must develop a love for the Word of God. But it is not enough just to read the Word of God.  We need to feel the heart of Jesus.  This is where devotions in the Church have its place. Devotions to the Divine Mercy, the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary help us to beat with the hearts of Jesus and Mary.  But mere devotions alone lack depth as the gospel tells us. In the final analysis, true devotions must be rooted in the liturgy and in the scriptures and flow out of the liturgy as an expression of our love for the Lord, His mother and all the saints. When they fall in love with Jesus and come to know the heart of Jesus, they would give their entire life to the Lord.*

*Hence, through the reading of the Word of God and through the celebration of the liturgy and the pious devotions of the Church, we come to appreciate the inner life of our Lord, sharing in His mind and heart.  What is of utmost importance is whether the reading of the Word of God or our pious devotions help us to enter the mind and heart of our Lord, not just the mind or the heart, but both.  There is a real danger that some Catholics read the Word of God a lot and go for bible studies but they do not make time to interiorize the Word of God in prayer.  So they grow in intellectual knowledge of the Word but they lack the experience of affectivity with the Lord.  Unless we read the Word of God as if they are from the Lord, we will not be changed or transformed.  This is what St Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, “We also constantly give thanks to God for this, that when you received the word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word but as what it really is, God’s word, which is also at work in you believers.”  (1 Th 2:13) The truth is that God and love cannot be taught, logically explained or proven, but it must be an encounter and an experience.*

A Blessed, Joyful and Peaceful morning to all of you.