"I Trust in Him, and Have No Fear"

Courage. Strength. Faith. These three values go very much hand in hand, and their significance was a major theme of this past Sunday's readings. In the First Reading, we heard that though the path down which we travel may be full of roadblocks and resistance, we must be brave and persist, and cultivate strength of heart, soul, and will. In the Gospel, we witnessed Jesus personify this concept. Jesus knew that many did not believe that He was the true Son of God and our Saviour, and some were very forceful in their opposition to His goals and teachings. However, Jesus never backed down; He always persisted in spreading the loving Word of God, gently and humbly, yet also strongly and authoritatively.

Yes, we will all encounter some form of difficulty or resistance when we strive to do good and to spread the will and Word of God. We may face doubters, disbelief, and perhaps even ridicule. But, we are called to be strong, and we can derive this strength from our faith in the goodness of God. He will protect us, and He will not lead us astray. From any darkness, He will bring us light! From any coldness, He will bring us warmth. From any harm, He will bring us healing.

Let us strive to take courage in that knowledge!

In keeping with this theme, we sang two fun and uplifting hymns as our Processional and Recessional hymns: Blest Be the Lord and Yahweh. Here are some wonderful excerpts from each song.

Blest Be the Lord

Blest be the Lord, blest be the Lord

The God of mercy, the God who saves

I shall not fear

The dark of night

Nor the arrow that flies by day

I need not shrink before the terrors of the night

Nor stand alone before the light of day

No harm shall come to me, no arrow strike me down

No evil settle in my soul

Yahweh

Yahweh is the God of my salvation

I trust in Him, and have no fear

I sing of the joy which His love gives to me

And I draw deeply from the springs of His great kindness

Open our eyes to the wonder of this moment

The beginning of another day

As you can see, both songs not only extol the virtue of finding strength in one's faith in God, but also take it a step further and suggest that even in difficult times, we can find ways to cultivate joy and gratitude. This concept has been quite prevalent in my blog posts of late, and I think it is quite important and helpful to keep in mind, especially in tough times.

Now then, what we are called to do with our faith-inspired strength and courage?

We have been given many suggestions in the Liturgies of the previous two Sundays.

On January 20, we were encouraged to be "moved by the Spirit" - to let the Holy Spirit abound in our hearts and be inspired by it to take action to help others.

That Sunday, we sang Everyone Moved By the Spirit. Here are the two short verses from this song.

Come, O Spirit of Jesus

Come in the power of His name

Renew the depths of our hearts

Come, O Spirit of Jesus

Send forth the power of Your love

Renew the face of the earth

I think that the ordering of these two verses is significant. Before we can 'renew the face of the earth', we must first renew our own hearts! 

Through prayer, reflection, reading, and positive social interaction with others, we can continuously learn and grow and find ourselves more spiritually invigorated. We can find ourselves feeling closer to God, more attuned to His loving direction, and more ready to do His will. When this happens, we are better equipped to go out into the world and make a positive difference for others in a genuine and meaningful way.

On January 27th, we were given further suggestions and explanations as to what we can do. We were told that we have all been given unique gifts of the Holy Spirit; no one is exactly the same, and therefore, no one has exactly the same path to walk throughout life. We are called to discern what our special gifts are, to develop them as much as possible, and then use them to the fullest for the service of others.

The song You Have Anointed Me gave us some good suggestions for ways to help others. Here are the lyrics to this lovely song.

To bring glad tidings to the lowly, to heal the broken heart

You have anointed me

To proclaim liberty to captives, release to prisoners

You have anointed me

Your spirit, O God, is upon me

You have anointed me

To announce a year of favour, to comfort those who mourn

You have anointed me

To give to them the oil of gladness, and share a mantle of joy

You have anointed me

Your spirit, O God, is upon me

You have anointed me

As you can see, there are many, many different ways to use our God-given gifts to help others. Those mentioned above are just a few suggestions.

To reiterate the main theme for this week, using these gifts may not always be easy. We may encounter a variety of challenges and difficulties along the way. However, we can take solace in the knowledge that God is always there at our side, helping us along the way. Let us pray to God to grant us what I have come to think of as the 3 Ps: Patience, Perseverance, and Positivity. If we can cultivate these three virtues, I believe we can find true strength to accomplish an unlimited amount of wonderful things.

I would love to hear your ideas for ways we can be moved by the spirit and spread the love of God to others! Please feel free to leave some comments and get a discussion started.

God bless you, today and always!

Karen