33 Days to Morning Glory…

Romans 13:11-14

It is now the hour for you to wake from sleep, for our salvation is closer than when we first accepted the faith. The night is far spent; the day draws near. Let us cast off deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us live honorably as in daylight; not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual excess and lust, not in quarreling and jealousy. Rather, put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.

The Word of the Lord… Thanks be to God! 

Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on us.

Are you interested in a closer relationship with Our Risen Lord, Jesus the Christ?  Then read on, dear brothers and sisters!

You, too, go out into My vineyard…

A Parable from the Gospel of Matthew (20:1-15):

For the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.  After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 

And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the market place; and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. 

And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing; and he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’  They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ 

What strikes me most about this passage is how Jesus “meets us where we are at”. He calls us into His service even when its the last hours of the “day”, and He gives us the same wage as those whom responded to His call in the first hours of the “day”.

And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. 

The Roman Denarius coin…

What is this wage, this denarius for us?  Nothing short of our SOUL’S SALVATION.  Does not scripture say that God desires that all men be saved (1Tim 2:3-4)?  Yet we often turn away from the salvation won for us by Christ’s Passion, death, and resurrection…  Still, God calls us to Himself :

…we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. To this He called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.  So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter.

One such tradition came from mouth of Christ Himself when, hanging on the Cross, He looked and saw His mother and the disciple whom He loved and said:

“Woman, behold thy son… Son behold thy Mother.” ~Jn 19:26, 27

The Church teaches us that St. John the Evangelist – 4th Gospel writer and author of the Apocalypse (See Coming Soon tab for that study) – stood-in for us, since we could not be there, and the giving of God’s Mother was in fact to ALL of us.  As such, He also places within her a VERY special mission:

TO BRING US TO HER SON!

The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary…

And when we come to Him through His Mother, we have humility burning in our hearts because the Woman is, by her very nature, humble. We read this clearly in the scriptures that speak of the Woman – that is Mary, the Mother of God – at the moment of the Annunciation (Lk 1:27, 28, 30-33) :

 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin…of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.  And he came to her and said, “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!”

And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.  And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus.  He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to Him the throne of His father David,  and He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of His kingdom there will be no end.”

Clearly stating that Mary IS the Mother of God. Yet her answer is not, “Oh, of course! I am so holy and free from sin, I know this is for me!”  No, not even remotely.

She instead wonders how God would choose such a lowly creature as her. She is married, but she and her husband have committed to remaining chaste (see the Life of Mary Advent reflection). How then is she to bear a son?

And the angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God…” ~Lk 1:35

The “power of the Most High” will overshadow her – something that only happened one other time in History.  Whenever God came to visit His people in the desert in the meeting tent (see Exodus 40:34-35), He would “come upon” the tent and “overshadow” the Ark of the Covenant, filling the tent with His glory and majesty. Which means God did the same this with Mary, the New Ark! (See Rev 11:19 – 12:1).

Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord…

And Mary’s response to all this glory was…

“Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word.”

Humility! Pure and simple.  She didn’t understand, but she believed that what was spoken by the Angel of the Lord, would be fulfilled in her (see Lk 1:45).  So it’s SUPER IMPORTANT that we imitate Our Blessed Mother (Lk 1:42), and have her bring us to her Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, who will in turn welcome us into His Kingdom, guaranteed!

Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that in due time He may exalt you. 1 Peter 5: 5b -6

Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the Will of My Father who is in heaven. ~Mt 7:21

And who did the Will of the Father best aside from Jesus?  His Mother, Mary!

“Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word.”

Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord…

Okay, so that leads me into 33 Days to Morning Glory!

To best describe what this is, and how it will affect your life, please click on the picture above and watch the two short videos. Frankly, they say it all!

Then after you’ve done that, click on the “Go Here” link at the bottom of that page to find out how you can participate in the next cycle of Consecration to the Sacred Heart through the Immaculate Heart at these last hours… And if you are particularly busy, this one is especially designed for YOU!

Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the householder,  saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ 

But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius?  Take what belongs to you, and go; I choose to give to this last as I give to you.  Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity? ~Mt 20: 9-15 (God is always generous to those who love Him… He who first LOVED us.)

Make sure you visit those Videos!

If you like what you’ve read and watched, visit HERE for the specifics of “how to” receive that “denarius” wage – Your secured Soul’s Salvation.