Amen, amen, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.

How many of us are guilty for asking God to give us the winning lottery ticket – in Jesus’ name?  “Dear God, I promise to do so much good with the money – I’ll fund charities; I’ll give to the poor; I’ll buy a new house with a Lucas Lagoons swimming pool so all who know me can enjoy my company in comfort; a new Tesla so I can help save the environment too; a few new clothes so I can donate my existing wardrobe to Goodwill or St. Vincent DePaul.  In Jesus’ name I ask this of You.  Amen.”  How has that worked out for you?  I can tell you for me, I’m sitting here at  5:30 AM typing this so I can be to work on time this morning.  I don’t think that is what Jesus was trying to tell us in the Gospel this morning.

My humble take on His message this morning is that I need to have a full conversion into His love.  I need to seek Him as my source for everything.  I pray for that full conversion every morning as part of my intentions when praying the Rosary.  To be quite honest, I’m not there yet.  How do I know?  Because I still think of me first in a lot of things.  When I come home from work, the first thing I ask of my family is what did you make ME for dinner; maybe I should try what are WE having for dinner.  How about asking everyone how THEIR day went instead of asking if anyone cared how MY day went?  Maybe giving my success at work a nod to God’s grace instead of a nod to my business savvy.  Christ never thought of Himself before others.  I am trying to abandon this ego of mine that defaults to me first but learns to focus on Christ’s mission for me here on earth and what I can do to help others.  My ultimate goal quite frankly would be able to pray for the healing of someone in need – ask for their healing thru God – and for them to be cured.  I know this is possible because Jesus gave us the power to heal.  Anything we ask of God through Christ our mediator will be granted to us.  I think the key to achieve that full conversion is to place all our trust in God. He can/will do this (full conversion) and  when He does, we need to be able to give all the praise and thanks to God.  And so I continue on my path to that full conversion.  With the grace of God it will happen; with the love of Christ I will be come that Man of Faith I need to be; with the strength and wisdom of the Holy Spirit may it happen sooner than later.

Do something great for our Lord today – pray for that full conversion.  And if in that full conversion you happen to win the lottery, don’t forget that I was praying for you too.  Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

God’s will, not mine, be done.

Be not afraid; just have faith.

Jesus, I trust in You.

He must increase; I must decrease.

Lord, if You wish, You can make me clean.

But you man of God chose righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience and gentleness.  Compete well for the faith.

Eternal God, in Whom mercy is endless and the treasury of compassion – inexhaustible, look kindly upon us and increase Your mercy in us so that in difficult moments we may not despair nor become despondent but with great confidence submit ourselves to Your holy will which is Love and Mercy itself.