Kylemore Abbey in Ireland Picture by Mary Muir
The Holy Spirit inspired our blog.
Wednesday of the Eleventh Week in Extraordinary Time
Whoever loves me will keep my word,
and my Father will love him
and we will come to him. Emphasis mine John 14: 23
When I first read the above statement, I thought that we meant the Father and the Son excluding The Holy Spirit, and quickly realized how wrong this thought was.
The Father and Son can only live in The Holy Spirit, they are never separated, at any time, and we know this from John 14: 10, Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? If the Father never leaves the son, then The Holy Spirit also is there, a thought so obvious now that we are typing it, that I can’t believe I hadn’t fully appreciated this for the past eighty-five years.
This is another great reason in our prayer life, I am trying NOT to pray, Father, Son and The Holy Spirit. The AND in my simple mind establishes a hierarchy, which of course we have all been taught just the opposite, that the Three Persons are equal.
Think about it. In our language we have a list of anything, and we place a comma after each item, and an and before the last item, and I have always thought that The Holy Spirit was the last person.
So how do I now pray? The Father, Son, Holy Spirit.
I read in Acts 17:25 that the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, don’t need our love, they are totally self-sufficient. And how we can give our love back to Them is by loving our neighbor.
But there is a hook.
The hook is how can I love you when I don’t love me. Jesus clearly states that “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27
(Loving yourself is difficult, at least until I learned the “Nine,” and then over the years my life turned to our life, and I will Never go back.) This I am now realizing is not fully correct – wait and read the Sidebar.
Remember St. John said in 1 John 4: If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.
As we have stated in earlier blogs in my younger years I, yes I, held many grudges and anger towards some people or groups of people who were in my life.
At one point God made it clear to me I, yes I, had to change, and change I have, by the grace of God, and as we said earlier I will never go back to the person I, yes I, was.
Why?
Love, Joy, Peace! Note: we didn’t place an AND before Peace because it was Peace that was the hook that God used to first catch me with.
Love, Joy, Peace changes everything, because They came to me.
Prayer:
If you want to grow in Love, Joy, Peace this is a result of growth in Patience, Kindness, Generosity, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control.
Sidebar:
Today is another first. This is the first time we deleted the original Sidebar, and when I reread what we wrote above, I realized this was also not exactly what we are trying to say.,
But,
We decided to keep the error. And re-explain ourselves and prayerfully this will be an even more powerful blog for you.
Dr. Tim Gray said something that opened my eyes wide, and we couldn’t wait to share that thought.
Dr. Gray said, “He (Jesus) said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” Brackets and Bold mine. Matthew 22: 37-40
Notice the progression: God – Neighbor – Yourself.
Did you notice anything?
Yourself comes LAST!
Yes, we are to love our neighbor before ourselves, and this was the error I made in the first part of the blog, and I, yes I, have been making this error for eighty-five years.
The Holy Spirit called to my mind the sixties, when the common thought became do what you want, it’s your body, it’s your life, and when you die it’s all over.
God and neighbor were thrown under the bus. At the beginning of the sixties Sexual Transmitted Diseases were almost unknown ( 68 cases per 100,00 people – Google) in the seventies that changed to 4.3% – Google).
The Church said be celibate before marriage. On January 22, 1973, Roe vs Wade went into law, and being celibate was considered old fashion.
I also noticed that the Joy I felt from helping my neighbor was. as I now appreciate the driving force to effect the change in me. Yes Love, Joy, Peace are the POSITIVE RESULT of our loving our neighbor, and you all know this.,
God brings people into our lives all the time. Family members, neighbors, fellow workers, and in our case prisoners, food pantry volunteers, and you, etc. , and we have the opportunity to become God’s hands, feet, voice, and most importantly Their Love.
And
The more you love your neighbor the more you grow in Love of God.
The “Nine” are the tools we are to use to properly interact with our neighbor so that we are a reflection of God’s Love.
For me this has been a mind blowing experience, and I am becoming a more conscious competent, which is exactly what my Father, Brother, Holy Spirit want.
I also just realized, (The Holy Spirit) why I enJOY writing our blog, because if just one person finds help then the effort was truly worth it.
Gail Update:
Gail came out of surgery Thursday 6/11/26 at 10 am and the doctors said it went really well. WE thank you for your prayers, comments, and concern. YOU are a FANTASTIC group to be a part of. Peace Fred
Picture:
This picture was taken of Kylemore Abbey in Ireland. A beautiful place over the water. It was founded in 1920 on the grounds of Kylemore castle and it is home to the Benedictine Nuns. It is set on 1000 acres of mountainside in Connemara Galway Ireland. Picture by Mary Muir
Please keep Snapping!
And if you want the ten calling cards shown above, email me and I will send you my address, send me a STAMPED self-addressed envelope and I will send you ten cards.
The offer for the cards is sadly for American readers only. The Post office won’t accept foreign stamps.
If you want a copy of the prayers we discussed.
Send an email to: fprince101@gmail.com
Remember, if you want to submit a picture, please do not include people. We have to get permission from that person to use their photograph.
