The 8 Beatitudes

So, what is a beatitude? Well, it is a special happiness or blessing of Spiritual nature, not human nature. In today's Gospel (MT 5:1-12) we hear the Sermon on the Mount, here Jesus promised the happiness of eternal life to those who live the Christian life, which he summarized in the 8 beatitudes:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the land.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the clean of heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you
and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me.
Rejoice and be glad,
for your reward will be great in heaven.
Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

The beatitudes remind us of one main thing we are blessed, and we are God's chosen people forever. But what does it mean to be blessed? Well it is an adjective, and it means to be holy or consecrated; We are consecrated and/or sacred to God. The beatitudes also remind us that we are blessed in struggles, and suffering, and that God is present in these times. One last thing our sacrifices are blessed and they are meaningful to God.

Here is "Your Love Never Fails" by Newsboys

Thank You Lord for blessing us in every moment of our lives. Thank you especially for blessing us in our sacrifices, sufferings, and struggles.

God Bless,

Sarah

Change

Change is something we all go through in our lives. Whether big or small, and whether good or bad. Now for some people change can be really hard, for others though really easy. But there is one thing we need to understand about change, which is: the changes in our lives are all foreseen and willed by God, so if we realize this the changes in our lives become much easier to go through because we know that it is God's will for us. This is where the Trust comes in. We don't see the whole plan like God does we only see it from where we are at this moment in time. So, if we think God is making the wrong choice for us we are wrong. God only wills for us what is beneficial to our souls. Now look at that sentence the key word in there is soul. God cares for the well-being of our soul not of our material goods that we think we may need because those are just temporary HE is eternal. In today's Gospel (John 15:18-21) Jesus tells us if we belong to the world the world will love us, but that is not the love we want. We want the love of Jesus not the love of the world:

Jesus said to his disciples:
“If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first.
If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own;
but because you do not belong to the world,
and I have chosen you out of the world,
the world hates you.
Remember the word I spoke to you,
‘No slave is greater than his master.’
If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.
If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.
And they will do all these things to you on account of my name,
because they do not know the one who sent me.”

So if we love Jesus we will no doubt be persecuted. Now being persecuted means a couple different things, and we can be persecuted in many different ways, but if we keep our eyes on God we will get through anything because he is always with us. One very important thing we need to remember is that we do everything for the Lord, and in his name. When we forget this our lives are subject to becoming dysfunctional. I can say this from experience because it has happened to me recently. So my advice here is keep your eyes on God do not be of the world, and remember everything happens for a reason, and sometimes we can't see the big plan of our lives, but in these moments we need to especially trust in God.

As always I will end with one of my favorite songs: Guilty by Newsboys. This song is actually in the movie God's Not Dead 2, which I saw earlier this month, and it was absolutely awesome and I would recommend it to everyone! Here is a link to the video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHroHbYHtrU

                                                                 

Thank You Lord for guiding our lives. Thank You for always being with us. Help us to be your light in the world, and give us the strengthen to trust you all the time but especially in hard times.

God Bless,
Sarah