![]() There is so much noise and confusion in our modern world that it is sometimes very difficult to hear God’s voice, speak to our hearts. The desert fathers sought to know God more deeply by removing the extra things in life that were distracting, living simple, and focusing their lives on God. Words can fail to find a home in our hearts sometimes, but love never does. God’s love is like that as well for those who do not personally know Him, or understand Him. A single candle lit and set in a window in someone’s home at night, will shed its light many miles away. It’s like lighting a single candle, far away in the blackness of night. and they come to discover God, for what God is not. There are also many people who live in godless situations in their life, that have only experienced selfishness, or abuse, neglect, materialism, etc. God created us to know Him, to love Him and to serve Him, but these are only words until we embrace them for ourselves. Only God can satisfy this place inside of us, because we were created for Him. Eventually, no other things in this world can ever satisfy the deep down longing and emptiness inside of us, that only God can fill. Sometimes people come to rediscover God, because of the darkness in their lives. It is this way with people in our day and age too. It took a while in this ‘desert’ to finally hear God’s voice alive in their hearts. The Israelites abandoned God, to worship a false God, Baal, who could not fulfill the deepest desires of their heart. We go through things as adults sometimes, and have to figure things out for ourselves, rather than depend only on what others have taught us. If you notice that the ‘desert’ that the prophet Hosea spoke of in the first reading, is much like the ‘sleep’ of the young girl in today’s gospel. It just means that nothing is impossible for God. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t regularly and consistently, pray for them and set a good example by how we live our lives though. We should not be overly afraid for our family and friends, especially young people who have strayed from our faith and no longer come to Mass. Nothing is completely set in stone with God. And yet, in both cases God didn’t give up. ![]() On the surface of things in the gospel, the official’s daughter appears to be dead and lost forever to her father as well. The nation of Israel had abandoned God and was lost to Him on the surface of things, in the first reading. ![]() Both of the readings for Mass are about bringing what was dead, back to life. Whoever put the readings together for Mass in the Catholic church, did so for a reason. What do these two readings have in common? The first reading for Mass each day often sheds a different light on the gospel than what we may have picked up on before. She shall respond there as in the days of her youth when she came up from Egypt.” When you go on to read the gospel reading for today though, Matthew wrote about an official’s daughter whom everyone thought was dead, but Jesus brought her back to life. In the first reading for mass the prophet Hosea speaks on God’s behalf, when he said, “Thus said the lord: I will allure her I will lead her into the desert and speak to her heart.
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