Of all people, the Virgin Mary is the supreme model of humility. The Lord Jesus, God and Man, said: “Learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart.” He said clearly that this is what we should learn from Him. He clearly demands it from us. We should practically deny ourselves, accept our cross and follow Him humiliated, abandoned and crucified. Humility is the basis of all virtues. The opposite of humility is pride which leads to eternal death, while humility is the key to heaven. Humility overcomes the devil and the old self in us. Different forms of jealousy, comparing with others, competitiveness even in spiritual life, sadness when someone is successful – this all is a sin of pride! We need to humble ourselves in thoughts time and again. But then we need to do so in words, deeds and gestures as well. Sadness is often a sign of preoccupation with ourselves, failure to achieve our plans or dreams etc. Unless we grow in this virtue, we will never have true unity with Christ or any man either. Humility overcomes the spirit of pride.

Even an unbelieving person, when suddenly confronted by a difficult situation, subconsciously cries out like a small child: “Mummy!” We can have recourse to Mary as our Mother. Jesus gave her to us as our Mother. Eve is the mother of the human race. Mary became our spiritual Mother. The task of a mother is not only to give birth to or receive children, but to feed and rear them. Mary accompanied Jesus on His Way of the Cross. None of the people knew Him so intimately, none was in so deep unity with Him as His Mother. And Jesus gave His Mother to us, His children. We have the same Mother: you and I and Jesus.

Turning to her in life situations is not like turning to God, but to someone who is older and more experienced – like turning to mother. We are inexperienced children in our spiritual life. We should have recourse to her especially when we are overwhelmed by worries and weaknesses so much that we are unable to turn directly to Jesus. This is mainly when we are subject to various temptations and are like drunk: we say “no” to sin but actually in our innermost being we agree with sin and our soul is in confusion.

Martyrs and Other Saints

+ Elijah – Tuptalo

August

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“As for His gifts, to some He gave to be apostles, to others prophets,

or even evangelists, or shepherds and teachers.

So He prepared those who belong to Him for the ministry,

in order to build up the Body of Christ.“

As for His gifts, to some He gave to be apostles, to others prophets,

or even evangelists, or shepherds and teachers.

So He prepared those who belong to Him for the ministry,

in order to build up the Body of Christ.

These are gifts and at the same time vocations, the purpose of which is not to glorify the individual, but to prepare those who are chosen perfectly for the ministry. For what ministry? For the building up of the Mystical Body of Christ. Previously, there was a mistaken idea among people that when someone becomes a priest or bishop, he is competent in all the ministries, as if he were an apostle, teacher, prophet, shepherd and evangelist at the same time. However, if someone is to perform one ministry thoroughly and gain experience, he cannot fully devote himself to another ministry. In fact, it is not possible to perform any of the ministries without a common denominator, which is self-denial, that is, denial of our ego. We should serve with the awareness that we serve Christ Himself and His Mystical Body – the Church – and we should not seek our own glory or self-realization in doing so. When someone holds an office without being a true Christian and striving to follow Christ, he automatically makes the office a means for building his own career and manifesting his proud ego. In that case, these ministries are ineffective, if not harmful.

In one of the gospels, Jesus tells a parable of two debtors – one who owed ten thousand talents, the other who owed a hundred denarii. You forgive something small and the Lord forgives you millions in debt. What folly it is to know this and not act on it. We need to put this into practice on a daily basis. By eagerly forgiving others and walking in truth and light, we get healed and free from all sorts of indefinable or definable gloomy emotions or feelings of guilt. These are false emotions. Ask yourself – Where is Jesus in all this? And where are you? Are you in your self or in Christ when you have such thoughts? If you are in Christ, God’s word is your guide as interpreted in the Spirit and in truth, rather than by the evil spirit in the wilderness.

At Elijah’s word: “Lord, let fire come down from heaven”, fire came down and consumed the bull on Mount Carmel, and then it came down twice more and consumed fifty soldiers each time. However, that fire had come down into him first. The Prophet Elijah had experience of the fire of God. This fire had already purified his soul. So this fire should purify us. For example, I say: “Lord, let fire consume this thought!” I can imagine fire and say: “This thought is a lie. It has taken flesh in my feelings. I did not want it to but there is a mechanism of sin in me which immediately embodies it. I unite with it although I do not want to. Lord, let fire consume it all. If I have seen any impure images or billboards, now I bring it all to Your light. Let Your fire purify my heart of all impure thoughts or feelings. Let it consume all envious, critical or other thoughts. Let it burn!” Jesus said: “I came to cast fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” And I call: “Let it burn, I want it too.” You brought fire and You want us to be baptized with fire, so that this fire may consume all that is not of God – all despair, all rebellion against God, all jealousy, envy. Now I suffer purgatory here on earth.

“And do not be conformed to this world,

but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what

is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.“

And do not be conformed to this world,

but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, 

that you may prove what is that good and acceptable

and perfect will of God.

Today’s world is characterized by many inventions which meet people’s needs quickly and easily: instant foods, instant electronic communication, instant information stored in high speed computers, etc. These are the hallmarks of today’s ‘instant’ generation. Christians must remember, however, that there is no such thing as ‘instant maturity’ in the Christian experience. Becoming a Christian begins a lifetime adventure of knowing God better and loving Him more.

God’s Word says: “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,  that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Rom 12:2) Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold, but let God re-mold your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all His demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.

A man walked across a desert and carried a cross together with Christ. There were two sets of tracks seen in the sand: one of the man and the other of the Lord Jesus. When the man turned round at nearly the end of his way, much to his surprise he could see only one set of tracks in the sand. He turned to the Lord: “Lord, when I started my way of following You, You promised to walk with me all the way. But now I can see that in the hardest moments of my life there was only one set of tracks in the sand. How could You leave me alone when I needed You most?”

And Jesus said: “I never left you alone, never. That one set of tracks you could see was left in the sand from the moments when I was carrying both you and your cross.” This example expresses a profound truth.

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works

and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Let your light so shine before men, that they may

see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

During the previous two weeks, we reflected on the Scripture verse from Acts 1:8: “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” In other words, we are called to bear witness to others, as we discussed in the short reflection on witnessing. This means being witnesses, or martyrés, like the apostles, even at the cost of persecution, ridicule or the loss of our lives. We must be witnesses to the living Jesus, who was crucified and rose from the dead! For forty days after His resurrection, He appeared not only to the apostles, but also to several hundred other people, thereby proving His divinity.

Watch this video on: https://rumble.com/v6ve9pj-to-save-africa-10.html  
https://crowdbunker.com/v/jHA7KyYQ8i   https://youtu.be/Hn2dWd4epBs   
https://www.bitchute.com/video/CfXqwqwCwDQd/   
https://cos.tv/videos/play/61997121551501312   

15 June 2025

God prompted the prophet Ezekiel in the Babylonian captivity to prepare the conditions, through prophetic prayer, first for a spiritual resurrection and then for a physical deliverance.

The prophet Ezekiel testifies: “The hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. Then He caused me to pass by them all around, and there were very many bones; and indeed they were very dry.” (Ezek 37:1-2)

Watch this video on: https://crowdbunker.com/v/N9H8To29mt  
https://rumble.com/v6v9ebn-to-save-africa-9.html   
https://www.bitchute.com/video/RRW6iJknw8Yy/   
https://cos.tv/videos/play/61931817856960512   
https://youtu.be/SXEYCEh0qbg   

“You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you;

and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria,

and to the end of the earth.”

You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you;

and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria,

and to the end of the earth.

It is the Holy Spirit, not we, who converts an individual. We, the privileged ambassadors of Jesus Christ, can communicate a verbal message; we can demonstrate through our life what the grace of Jesus Christ can accomplish. But let us never naively think that we have converted a soul and brought him to Jesus Christ. No one calls Jesus Lord except by the Holy Spirit (1Cor 12:3).

THE CHALLENGE

1. In Mark 5:18-19, notice Jesus’ words to a man He had healed.

a) Where did Jesus send him?

b) What did Jesus tell him to do?

c) Why do you suppose Jesus gave these particular instructions?