Footsteps of Christ
“For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone
who believes in him may not die but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into
the world to be its judge, but to be its saviour.” John 3:16-17
God wants to be loved just like he loves us. The only way
to do this is to follow in the footsteps of Jesus.
Jesus was sent by God Our Father as a God in human form.
His teachings and actions demonstrate the way of life that we should live. But we as human
beings rebel against these teachings and laws (see Ten
Commandments), stepping further away from God’s love. The only reason why God
gave us these teachings and laws is because he does not want us to get hurt. He knows that
following these laws is the best way to live; that is why heaven is created this way.
Jesus was sacrificed on the cross for us so that we may stop
our rebellion and return back to Him. Jesus is the One that gives us
hope, the One that saved us from sin: “For there is one God, and there is one who brings God and mankind
together, the man Christ Jesus.” 1
Timothy 2:5
It is not
possible to buy Gods offer of eternal life; we can’t win it, earn it and can’t
exchange anything for it. But we can stop rebelling against God and accept His salvation.
There
are many things we need to do to receive His salvation. One is through prayer.
Prayer
We need to keep in touch with God regularly, and this is done through
praying. We should pray in a quiet place, somewhere where there are no interruptions. We
should be relaxed during pray and focus on God, so that we may feel his presence. We
should tell him how we feel, our troubles, our worries and anything else that is on our
mind that includes asking Him to teach us. We should then thank Him for listening to us
and thank Him for everything that He has given us.
It is also necessary to attend church
regularly. Church is a place where we can meet with the community and worship God
together. The church is where God lives, so every time we go to church, we are stepping
into God's home.
In Matthew 6:5, Jesus
teaches us how to pray and teaches us the most important pray of all 'The Our Father.'
Fasting
Fasting is a sacrifice we make for our sins.
It brings us spiritually closer to God. When fasting we should put on a happy face and not
let anyone see that we are fasting. When fasting, our appearance should be neat and tidy
so that no one suspects a thing and only Our God will see this.
Jesus fasted for 40 days in the desert where
he was tempted. He did this to get away from people and get closer to God. During this
period Jesus sacrificed everything that made him comfortable. He left all this behind so
that His Father’s Will could be done.
Suffering
The
following message is received by Carmela Carabelli by the Merciful Jesus.
My
beloved child, listen to Me and pay attention to all that I say to you. I
speak to you of the necessity of suffering. Mankind asks why do we have
to suffer, and it puts all its attention and all its care into avoiding
suffering. Now I ask you: is it necessary to suffer? And I reply to you Myself.
Suffering entered into the World with sin and as long as it lasts, expiation is
necessary. Without suffering, there is no remission of sin. Every offence
supposes a victim that pays. I was the first Victim and I paid for everyone; but
My sacrifice does not apply to souls unless they adhere to it by their own
suffering. That is why no one can be exempt. From birth to death, from the first
tears that the baby sheds in emitting its first cry announcing life, to the last
ones that run down the face of him who gives his last goodbye to life, life is
but a succession of small and big sufferings which transform existence into a
Calvary. Now, I am going to teach you to make these sacrifices, these tears,
these Crosses, not only acceptable but dear to your heart and to Mine. Remember,
however, that if the grain of wheat does not rot in the earth, it does not
produce the ear. Each one of you is My grain of wheat that makes up the Host,
the Victim, the Mystical Body. That is why each one of you must ripen after
saving decomposed in suffering. It is not only a mystical law that I am telling
to you about, but it is also a natural law. Without sacrifice, you achieve
nothing. Observe in the world how many sacrifices there are in achieving great
discoveries: how much sweat, how many sleepless nights, how much labour, how
many human victims! Every enterprise requires its share of suffering. You say:
"Nothing is won with nothing." And that is truly so. If, then, in all
human activities, there exists the law of pain as the means of accomplishing
little and great things, all the more reason why this law must enter into the
things of God. It cannot be otherwise, for if the Father Himself, in His
infinite Goodness and Wisdom, wished Me, His Son, to submit to this law, it is
because there is no better law, no other means more efficacious, no other way
more direct than that of suffering. In the beginning this had not been the
desire of the Father in creating man who was destined for joy, for happiness and
the glory of Paradise. From the very beginning of this earth, living in
communion with God, man, king of creation, was destined to enjoy an anticipated
paradise. The act of rebellion with which your first parents stained themselves
broke the filial relations existing between man and God, and suffering was the
logical consequence. But, though living in abjection and in tears, man would not
have been able to lift his eyes to God and ask for pity. His cry would not have
reached as far as Heaven if l, by clothing Myself with human nature and making
Myself one of you, had not, as Victim, asked the Father for pardon for all
humanity. Only after My Sacrifice, and only if your sacrifices are united to
Mine, do they have a redemptive and purifying value. Here I wish to draw your
attention to how many useless sacrifices there are in the world, sufferings
which will not be remunerated, which will have no reward. Those are the
sufferings which many souls are subjected to or even endure while living in
mortal sin. I will explain: if you want to light up a room, you turn on the
switch. Well then, grace is the switch which permits the light of God to enter
into you. Illuminated by this light, which is divine Life, everything assumes a
particular importance and all little things, even one tear, can be used for the
good of all. For him who lives in the state of mortal sin, everything is pitch
black, everything is wasted, tears, pain, suffering and, what is more, despair,
revolt , discontent enter into his heart because he lacks God's help, when it is
not faith that is at fault . If you want to have strength to endure life as it
is, obtain it from the Heart of God, who knows how to transform pain into joy.
Only in this way can you make a gift of suffering to your brothers and sisters,
and you assist them to pay, and allay the sufferings of others, as I have done,
and as many Saints have done in the Church. By means of grace and suffering,
each Christian is able to present himself to the Father and say to Him: "I
am your Son, I am Jesus," and the Father, through His intermediary, bestows
blessings on humanity.
Love
“My commandment is this: love one another, just as I love you.” John
15:12 Jesus teaches us. It is important to live for others as well as for
yourself. When we live for others, we our living for Christ because Christ lives in every
one of us. When we do a good gesture to someone, we are doing it to God, the One that
loves us most.
The thing that drives sin is a lack of love
for others. If only we knew how damaging our sin would be before we actually committed it,
we would reconsider it. That is why love is the greatest weapon against all evil.
The greatest love that one can have for another is to sacrifice their own life for
them. Now we understand how great Jesus' love is for us.
Forgiveness
Jesus taught us that the greatest commandment is to
love another. But if someone does wrong against us and we do not forgive them, we are
therefore showing a lack of love.
The
Words Spoken By Jesus Himself to Carmela Carabelli. June 6.1968 -
...Remember
the parable of the man who owed a hundred talents to his master and who, not
being able to pay them, was pardoned by him. But on going out of his master's
house, the man met a friend who owed him money; he maltreated him and demanded
the money. When the master learned of this, he summoned his servant and had him
imprisoned. That is exactly how it is going to be: to forgive is an
indispensable condition for being pardoned. You will be measured with the same
yardstick with which you measure. Do you want to know if the Father's judgement
towards you will be full of goodness and mercy? See if, in your life, you
practise goodness and mercy. If it is easy for you to discover your neighbour's
fault s, to judge them with severity, how will you be able to lay Claim to
indulgence and mercy? Remember that I have given you the example in everything,
but the most beautiful example I have given you was from the top of the Cross:
"Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."
Never call down punishment upon anyone. Invoke light, repentance, conversion,
love. Always ask God to bless those who offend you, calumniate you, those who do
you wrong, and forget the wrong that you receive. Always find a good word to
say. If the wrongdoing is blameworthy in itself, he who does it is not always
guilty. Leave the care of judging to God. Judgement is always very difficult,
for real evil comes from the inside, it comes from the mind and heart, so how
can you know what is deep inside a person? You judge according to appearance,
but very often, some bad actions are made with good intentions. Remember that
God knows how to draw good from evil itself; that is why you should leave it to
him to act. Many times throughout the day you recite the prayer that I Myself
taught you, the "Our Father". Pause for a moment on those words which
should make many of My children tremble, those who do not know how to forgive
and harbour in their hearts desires of vengeance and implacable hatred:
"Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against
us." What a lot of things you all have to forgive! All of you, you are all
sinners! Your weakness is such that at the very moment that you promise not to
sin any more, you fall. And each day, you bring to Me your burden of miseries
and faults. Well then, you bring to God your sins and He pardons you and forgets
all that you do against Him. But on one condition: forgiveness. You are not the
only one in the world; you live with your family, in society, and the members
who compose it are all imperfect, even the Saints.
Self Denial
Self-denial means to sacrifice our pleasures and
focus on God's Will. In Luke 9:23, Jesus tells us that self-denial is the
way to salvation: “If anyone wants to come with me, he
must forget himself, take up his cross every day, and follow me.”
Jesus through His teachings and actions taught us self-denial. He showed us that
through self-denial, we commit to God, thus denying lustful temptations that the world is
offering. But denying ourselves is not easy, but rather hard. We need to surrender to God
and let Him take charge of our lives. If we chose not to deny ourselves we will be tied up
in our sins and be forever lost.
As a step closer to God, we should now think
of something that we love and sacrifice it the name of Jesus Christ.
Faith
For one who does not have faith in Jesus does not have eternal life. Faith is a
belief in Christ and relying on Him. God will
save only the people that believe in Jesus, for there is nothing else that can be done to
earn eternal life. This is because we have all sinned and we are far from God’s
saving presence. This is God’s gift to us if we choose to accept it.
Jesus teaches us that with faith we can do
absolutely anything we desire:
“Have faith in God. I assure you that whoever tells this hill
to get up and throw itself in the sea and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that
what he says will happen, it will be done for him.” Mark 11:22-23
The Gospel
We should regularly take some time out and
read the Bible. When reading we should listen to the words carefully because they are
instructions given to us on how to live. They will help us fix errors in our lives and get
us back on the road to salvation. The Bible is the truth, full of wonderful teachings that
will set us free, as Jesus teaches us in John 8:31-32.
“I have set an example for you, so that you will do
just what I have done for you.” John 13:15 –The Footsteps
of Christ