NO OTHER LOVE

No other love is greater than the love that God has for each one of us. If only we are fully aware of this then we will all be compelled to share this great love. Let us always be reminded of this so that our thought, word and action resounds this truth. Amen. Hallelujah!

1 John 4:7-16
...11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also must love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us. 13 This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us, that he has given us of his Spirit. 14 Moreover, we have seen and testify that the Father sent his Son as savior of the world. 15 Whoever acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him and he in God.

If we will just constantly nourish and fill ourselves with the words of God in scriptures like in today's psalm then there is really no reason for us to fear rather be always filled with joy. Amen. Hallelujah!

Psalm 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9, 10-11 (or Psalm 146:1b-2, 3-4, 5-6ab)
R: I will bless the Lord at all times.

...I sought the LORD, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. (R) 5 [6] Look to him that you may be radiant with joy, and your faces may not blush with shame. 6 [7] When the afflicted man called out, the LORD heard, and from all his distress he saved him. (R) 7 [8] The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them...

Today is the feast day of St. Martha and I must admit that she is one of the saints who is close to my heart. First and foremost because of the fact that St. Martha's Church has become my official parish since I arrived here in the US. It is where I have gone for daily masses the most. She is a hardworking prayer intercessor who never stops in her labor for the service of God. Just like St. Martha we should all be firm believers that God answers all our prayers no matter how impossible it may be. Although the qualities of St. Martha depicted in a certain bible passage where she complained to the Lord that she is the one doing all the work does not speak very well of her we could still learn something from it. We should look at the example of the industrious and service oriented attitude of St. Martha especially when our lazy and careless sides get the better of us. It happens to the best of us when we sometimes run away from work and hesitate to be involved. As we make ourselves available for God's work we too like St. Martha in today's gospel can eventually transcend from that worried and anxious woman to a person of faith. Amen. Hallelujah!

John 11:19-27
21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 [But] even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die...