A book of prayers to the Holy Face of Jesus

Why God Must Come FirstWhen I tell people God comes first in my life, I have had people disagree with me usually with the argument that a spouse or family should always come first! My response is that it is for the very reason that I Love my spouse and family so dearly that God has to come first! Allow me to explain! The day I realized that I can’t Protect them, was the day I recognized God must come first! We can’t protect our loved ones from serious injury or disability! We can’t protect them from death! We can’t even protect them from themselves, with addictions, and obsessions that consume them! That is the day that I realized God has to come first, and why prayer is so important! Through our prayerful requests and a God centric life, we better our chances of preserving our loved ones of tragedy beyond our control! Another amazing thing happens when God comes first! When we love God first He responds with His love and grace in return and our “cup runneth over!” Our love and capacity to love explodes off the page! We are capable of a much deeper love! We even have a higher capacity to forgive! If tragedy does strike, that we can’t understand, God helps us by comforting our pain and helps us in our healing! If God comes first, we become the best version of ourselves, and isn’t that what we want for our families and loved ones? If God comes first, we become the best version of ourselves, and isn’t that what we want for our families and loved ones? We owe them that!​

Love is the Greatest connector and disrupter.  In Life we have both Values and Virtues that we hold dear. We also have vices and addictions that hold us down and keeps us from getting closer to God! God gives us free will because Love unlike other Virtues must be freely given, and God wants desperately for us to Love Him the way He Loves us, but it has to come from us seeking Him. And He will be ready to receive us with open arms as the Father did in the story of the Prodigal son. When the son through self examination and repentance (the disrupter) realized the love he had lost, went back in humility and asked for forgiveness (the connector) and the father awaiting him with open arms welcomes him back and celebrates. All vices can be broken with a Love disrupter and every virtue can be bridged with a Love connector. What Parent wouldn’t out of the virtue of Love give their child what they need to be closer to God? What parent out of the virtue of Love wouldn’t try to protect their child from the evil vices that could do them harm?St. Paul states those virtues clearly as “(f)aith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love.”  1 Corinthians 13:13. Love is the ultimate connector to the good virtues we need in life to move us closer to God and it is the ultimate disrupter to remove those vices that keep us from God! Where is the Love in your life? Is God front and Center? Where is the Love in your family? Are you out of Love doing everything you can to help move them closer to God? Are you out of Love doing Everything you can to prevent them from moving further from God? Start the communication today and think connector in your conversation!  All good conversations require good listening! Remember as you start that conversation that it is really hard to listen   

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 Render To Caesar What Is Caesar’s And To God What Is God’sGive to Caesar What Is Caesar’s  It’s tax time, and unless you have a refund coming you do not look forward to this time of year!I am reminded of the Pharisees who try to trick our Lord into saying something that might make him look like a rebel against Rome.  But Jesus wisely instructs to render to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s. While taxes are not pleasant, they are a necessary part of allowing society to function in a safe and convenient environment and to provide for the poor and needy in society! So we give to the government the required “monetary contribution” our state in life calls for! So what do we give to God that is God’s?  Maybe we should first ask what has God given us? We are all given time and free will and unconditional Love! There is nothing that we can do that will keep God from loving us! Love must be Loved and every gift demands its own response. So start with sincere thanks and count up the blessings! Then ask, with the time and free will we are given and the state in life in which we now hold, what does God ask of us? Here’s a hint:  We should never be complacent in our effort to be in union with God!  So give to God what is God’s.

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