Never Give Up – In Communion – Serving Christ – Living and dying for Christ
Vincentian Day of Prayer and Fast November 24, 2015
Dear Vincentian Family: Pray always for those we serve. Pray for one another and especially pray for you to always answer His call to serve. Lord, help me to be merciful in my thoughts about others and to look at my brothers and sisters as You look at Your children. We should pray each day for peace and let peace begin with ourselves, in our homes, relationships and with those we serve. We need to pray for our youth. They are making a difference with passion. When you see youth helping in every way, pray for them. I ask you to pray for a young couple in my parish hoping to make a difference. Please pray with me for Stefan and Hope. Are you are ready willing and able to make a difference. We need you Lord in our lives. Always show us the way. We need direction. Amen.
Never Give Up – Keep planting the seeds. God is our hope and we find Him in the midst of suffering. Turn to Jesus always and ask Him to use you. Ask Him to turn your sufferings for others. When we follow Jesus we embrace His suffering and bring this joy of healing to others. My first President in SSVP, Don Hunter taught me to plant the seeds. He called us “Johnny Appleseed.” We trusted in God and never gave up. Most times we never knew what our planting grew. We learned to trust in God and keep planting. We are often tempted to give up, but we are to resist. Bring our suffering and the suffering of the Cross to those who need us. The seeds we plant are the seeds of hope and healing. This is the hope of the Cross our eternal healer. “For God so loved the world, He gave us His only Son.” He did this for us, our salvation and for us as servant to keep planting the seeds. We keep going and planting the seeds of hope. If we never take our eyes off Jesus, we will never give up.
In Communion – To love God means to desire and pursue a greater communion with Him at all times. This communion increases primarily through our reception of grace in the sacraments, and through our obedience to His will. The Eucharist calls us to serve. We are not alone in this. We are armed for success with the body and blood of Christ. This communion with God leads us to the communion of saints we pray about. Our love of God calls us to serve and to believe in our journey. We are in communion and believe our journey on earth is a journey to heaven. This puts us in communion with our ultimate teacher and all the saints. We cannot do this alone. We have many tools given to us. One huge tool and wonderful gift is Scripture and the other is the Holy Mass and Eucharist. When we arm ourselves we will succeed and serve well. Vincentians in God’s army will win the battle of good for those in need. We are in communion with one another and the journey will be very pleasing to God. As we go to the Lord in prayer, let’s ask Him to speak to our hearts. He’s never too busy to talk with us about our cares, hopes and dreams.
Serving Christ – As Vincentians, we know we see God in all we serve. As Christians we see God in all people. Sometimes it is hard to find, but we must see the suffering broken Christ in order to serve in compassion. We need to forget prejudices and judgement, to see our Lord suffering and know we are called to serve. There was a man who was taught by his mother to not touch door knobs or things other people have touched. Many of us can relate. This man from a child opened doors with his elbows or if he had to pull with his baby finger and used hand cleaner and sanitizer often. He grew up to be a fine young man and decided to volunteer for the soup kitchen. He enjoyed his work. One day a broken dirty man came and the young man greeted him with a smile and the food. The broken dirty Jesus said, “Thank you young man. It is so special what you are doing. No one wants to serve me and I need food.” The young man hugged the homeless dirty Jesus and shed a tear. As he placed more food in the plate a drop fell and he licked the food from his finger. He did not think of the dirt, he only gave his love. This is how we are meant to serve. We serve God who is in everyone. Picture the broken Christ and serve well.
Living and dying for Christ – We strive to live every moment in God, for God and through God. It isn’t always easy and we stumble and pick ourselves up and continue to achieve holy living by putting our emphasis on living for God. Dying for Him is in our willingness to serve others. We die to our old self and renew life in service. We are not all called to be martyrs, but we are called to serve those in need and each other with love. If we want every moment of our lives to be lived for God and through God, we will make a difference every day. Pray for others often and of course for ourselves. We need God in our lives and we need His help to live and die for Christ. We are the shepherd who seeks the lost sheep without concern for anything else. We are the shepherd of the lost. They are like sheep and have lost their way. All of our sheep belong to God. All of our sheep are Jesus and we serve because of our love for Jesus. Pray, God helps us to find the lost sheep and always bring them love and hope. Teach me to live and die for Christ. Help me to die to my judgemental nature, help me to change and love all Amen.
Have a great week filled with love and blessings, Lynn
Lynn L’Heureux is Special needs co-coordinator & Advisor of the Society of St Vincent de Paul Calgary Alberta Canada
Hi Lynn. Your words of encouragement have truly helped us through difficult times in Marisol’s life. Please email me I would love to communicate with you. God bless