Partners with God – Jesus on our Team – Guiding Light of the Holy Spirit – The Trinity is Life

Vincentian Day of Prayer and Fast Tuesday November 10, 2015

Dear Vincentian Family:  Have a great week.  Open your eyes to see the goodness around you.  Look at others with the eyes of God and love as He loves.  Pray always, especially for Pope Francis our bishops, priests and seminarians.  Pray for the Vincentian Family, our youth and of course for those we serve.  Let your love show through your smile and make a difference each day. Pray with the saints and pray for all souls.  In Canada Nov. 11 is Remembrance Day.  A day to honour and remember our veterans in all wars.

Partners with God – Our zeal for holy living feels like condemnation to those who do not want to live the same way.  Sometimes we get discouraged, but do not despair because God is always with us.  We pray to ask Him to help us in every situation.  Surrender yourself to Him and pray for guidance.  Then the next step is to listen to Him.  Pray always that our God is at the centre of our lives, so we may serve Him better.  We certainly do not need to be a fanatic, scaring others away, but “The Lord has made known His salvation.” (Psalm 98)  I know I need it.  Do you need it? He is already helping us and now it is time to ask Him for more guidance and true partnership.  He really longs to help us with any evil in our life and He wants to help us serve in love and friendship to all in need. Do we allow the good news of Jesus to penetrate every area of our lives? Is He really the Lord of our lives — completely?  Sometimes we are called “religious fanatics”, because they feel uncomfortable around our example of holiness. Love others, but turn to God’s way.  God and us, together we make an awesome partnership.

Jesus on our Team – Jesus wants to make us winners, always. We need to unite our hearts and minds, in true charity, to serve those who need what I am or what I have, expecting nothing in exchange. This is our team cheer and Jesus is leading the way. He asks us to serve Him in the poor and each other.  We cannot be self-righteous or self-serving.  We do not serve to inflate ourselves.  His pep talk is to love ourselves of course, but only as we are serving Him in the poor and we humble ourselves to be servant.  We are to bring hope, love peace and joy to our friends and neighbours and as well to our Vincentian Family.  We cannot ever think we are superior.  We walk together with Jesus as we are part of His team.  Those we serve must feel the love of Jesus through us.  We are a team and Jesus wants us to be a team of winners. Of course we always pray before our visit.  If we are bringing food, it is also good to bless the hamper and those receiving it.  After the home visit, take some quiet time to share your experience with Our Lord and if you have a concern, lay it before Him.  He will find a solution and you will feel good.  Jesus doesn’t want anyone to be a loser. Even when they disagree with us and we’re right, he wants them to feel lifted up into the victorious realm of love, where we are all winners.  Go Team Go!

Guiding Light of the Holy Spirit – “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever” (John 14:16).  We pray to Father, Son and Holy Spirit to always guide us.  We need the Guidance of the Holy Spirit.  We must never lose His presence. The Spirit will guide us, lead us to the place we should be to serve the precious and priceless people placed before us in need of our service.  We must always treasure this gift.  We are given so much help to do our calling.  These good deeds, loving service and obedience to our God are not a toll we pay to cross over into heaven.  They are the fruits of our journey.  The fruits of the Spirit guide us lovingly.  We are given the Holy Spirit freely.  It is really like we are adopted into the Family of the Trinity.  I know this is not theologically correct, but it makes me feel good to know I have a powerful Spirit helping me do God’s work.  We need to stay connected and always believe.  We are chosen to serve and we have everything we need when we read the Gospels, pray and fast for those we serve.  Sometimes it is good to fast from some of the luxuries we have in food and other things, just to feel slightly the hunger Jesus feels in the poor.

The Trinity is Life – True life begins with the Trinity. Do you ever wonder why the Church focuses on our service to others?  All around us are those who think of themselves and live very good lives. They are keeping people from being homeless or feeding the hungry.  Well maybe they are, we really shouldn’t judge.   When we are at Mass together we really are one with Father, Son and Holy Spirit and one with the community.  The nature of God calls us to be one.  So I see Him taking a little bit of extra time with us to show us the way.  We are called to be humble and a servant.  We have the Trinity to bring our service to life.  The Trinity is our guiding light.  We are lead with hope to serve Jesus.  We are a family of Vincentians a community in our Churches and we also have this close knit family and community in the Trinity.  God made us in His image.  Jesus died for us and the Holy Spirit gives us wonderful gifts.  We are truly blessed in this family community.  When God made all of creation He said it was good.  But when He made us He said, “This is very good.” (Genesis) .  For me, loving others is our job.  Serving Christ is our job. Thanking God is our job.  We are held together by the Holy Trinity and Father, Son and Holy Spirit live in us and give us all love.

Blessings, Lynn

Lynn L’Heureux is Special needs co-coordinator & Advisor of the Society of St Vincent de Paul Calgary Alberta Canada.