CATHOLIC SPIRITUAL INSPIRATION DAILY – BY ROVAN PINTO.

“The Lord bestows His blessings there, where He finds the vessels empty.” ― The Imitation of Christ by Thomas A Kempis.

We are all going to blessed by the Lord according to His purpose and plan at one or the other time in our life.

When we are in prayers first thing we have to do is empty ourselves from our selfish desires and pursue desires of the kingdom of God. But the truth is most of us after being in prayers for years we fail miserably.

This is the main reason that most of the Catholics ask for prayers instead of praying themselves. This happens because most of us pray to get material things from God and we are not interested in spiritual growth.

Most of our Catholics flock in retreats, novenas and pilgrimage hoping something good will happen to them automatically because of attending or visiting. But truth is nothing good is going to happen unless we build our confidence around it.

We have to empty our self from all the desires of the world and pleasure of the flesh from inside us so that we may be empty vessels so that God can fill that vessel with His blessings.

Today most of the catholic think good job, good bank balance, good family, good children, good vehicle and good health is blessing from God and because of that they come to church to receive it but in reality These are all fruits of the blessing. Blessing means favour and protection of God.

We may have all the fruit of blessing and if we do not have protection of God, we can lose all the fruits of the blessing in no time. We need favour from God all the time so that we may know that He has given us everything we do not deserve and also protection of God so that we may not only lose the fruits of the blessings but also our life.

Today as we are celebrating feast of Pentecost we have to analyze our life and see whether we have grown in the Kingdom of God, if we think we have grown in the Kingdom of God then we have to check and see how many souls we have brought back to the Kingdom of God who have gone astray. If we have not brought any souls to the kingdom of God after growing then our spirituality is selfish and zero.

Date: 31:05: 2020.

CATHOLIC SPIRITUAL INSPIRATION DAILY – BY ROVAN PINTO.

Faith is a supernatural gift from God. In order to believe, man needs the interior helps of the Holy Spirit. Catechism of the Catholic Church 179.

We are all growing in faith in different levels and initially everything will be easy as it is beginning stage as we move forward the challenges will get harder and hardest.

Faith is a supernatural gift from God and we should not think that we have worked for it and boast about it. We have to understand that God gives us gifts freely so that we can share with others freely, But unfortunately it is not happening in many churches and prayer groups.

God has blessed us with faith not only for ourselves but to help others and also to build the church, but the truth is today for most of us faith is become the way to achieve selfish desires.

Today we may have faith to move mountains but if we stop growing in it very soon we will find ourselves on the opposite side. I have personally met men of great faith 10 years back who are currently not in prayer because they came to prayer not to seek the Lord but to seek the solution for their problems once they got their solution for their problems most of them stop pursuing further and started their journey backwards towards the world.

It is very good if our journey starts from natural man who does not know anything about God towards Spiritual man who knows about God. The real danger is many have taken the path from spiritual man towards carnal man who knows about God but doesn’t practice it.

If our faith is not inspiring us to grow in virtues then surely there is something very wrong in our prayer. Let us not only live in faith when we have problems but to learn to live in faith when everything is going good in our life.

Date: 30:05: 2020.

CATHOLIC SPIRITUAL INSPIRATION DAILY – BY ROVAN PINTO.

Love to be real, it must cost—it must hurt—it must empty us of self. – Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

Love is the word many of us understand as the world teaches us and not according to what God teaches in His Word. Most of us because of this misunderstanding we love according to the world and not according to the Word of God.

According to the Word of God Jesus is demonstrating His love for us by suffering and dying on the cross. If we love somebody then surely we have to learn to bear all the hurt coming from that person.

Classic act of love we can see between husband and wife, parents and children, teacher and students. For example if a husband loves his wife then that husband should be ready to go through pain coming to him from his wife, as the husband learns to bear the pain and move on the love grows and the same vice versa. Without bearing pain and hurt no relationship will last for long. This is the main reason many relationship are strained today.

We have to understand when we are loving someone we have to be ready to do any sacrifice no matter how hard it is. Many a times being silent when someone we love yells at us is the best sacrifice we can do and if everyone would have followed this then there would be no relationship strained or broken.

We are all having ego and we have to accept it and surrender to the Lord instead of ignoring and messing up our life. When the person we love hurts us, because of our ego coming in between we are not able to bear it and instead we would love to counter attack and make it worst. We have to empty our ego, our selfishness only then we would be able to love someone even if they hurt us.

Date: 29: 05: 2020.

CATHOLIC SPIRITUAL INSPIRATION DAILY – BY ROVAN PINTO.

Word of God says in Mark 5:35-36 - while he was still speaking, some people came from the leader’s house to say, “ your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?” but overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, “do not fear, only believe.” 

In today’s world where most of us are going through hard times and the reasons may be many. For some who are battling with chronic illness it will be hard task to keep themselves safe from this virus, for some who may have lost job just before the virus  will have uphill task to feed themselves and their family, for some who have lost jobs after the virus will be difficult to cope up.

No matter what we are going through it will be hard to overcome without help of the Lord and we cannot expect help from the Lord without praying.

God clearly knows the suffering people in the world are going through and He will not allow more than what we can bear. Now after few months of this pandemic most of us are getting irritated, frustrated and angry and some of us are getting depressed thinking about future.

When we look with sight everything looks like it’s the end of the world and when we look with faith we will see some hope that Jesus is there and He will never fail us or forsake us but surely give us victory.

When we are in the middle of the crisis nobody will know whether we will live or die but only God knows and as He has promised in Psalm 91 no harm will come near us only if we believe in His Word or else there is possibility that we may also perish along with others.

People around us may speak whatever nonsense they want to put fear in us but we have to do as Jesus told Jairus “do not fear, only believe.” . If we do not fear about what is happening around us and only believe in Jesus then surely as Jesus raised Jairus daughter to life from the dead in the same way He will set us free from this pandemic.

Let us not waste our time in this difficult time but put our heart and mind in everything which will bring us closer to Jesus. God has given us golden opportunity to change but to take final decision is everyone’s freewill.

Date: 28: 05: 2020.

CATHOLIC SPIRITUAL INSPIRATION DAILY – BY ROVAN PINTO.

“Learned arguments do not make a man holy and righteous, whereas a good life makes him dear to God.” ― The Imitation of Christ by Thomas A Kempis.

In today’s world the biggest arguments we hear is about religion and many religion claim that they are superior than others and this cannot be proven until and unless we possess four main qualities of God.

Love

No matter which religion or denomination we belong first and foremost we have to have greatest quality of God that is Love. Without having love if we claim we are the best then it is as good as making fool out of ourselves in front of others. When we are having love we will be kind to others and also we will be patient with them.

Mercy

Secondly if we do not possess the quality of God that is mercy then we cannot prove ourselves as best.  If we and all people belonging to our religion or denomination have not grown in mercy then surely we first have to grow in it and then teach others belonging to our religion or denomination the same. God desires mercy as He has said Be merciful as I am merciful.

Peace

Thirdly God is lover of peace and if the religion or the denomination we belong do not cultivate peace among ourselves then surely we have not reached to the best but we are still work in progress .We first have to strive to make peace with God and then we have to make peace with everyone around us and When all belonging to our religion or denomination practice peace then we can say boldly that we are the best.

Forgiveness

Fourthly God is forgiving unconditionally and if we chose to forgive others unconditionally then we will be imitating God or else its showing that we have not grown in it. Those who do not grow in forgiveness cannot reach height of faith but they will be having crisis in faith all their life.

Let us check our community and see whether all who belong there have fully grown in these four important qualities of God or else let us focus on our self first and grow in these 4 qualities and then teach others in our community the same.

Let us not point fingers at any religion or denominations before making our community perfect. Let us strive in our community to build it for the glory of God and never be a part of any group which is breaking the church into pieces. God is always for Unity and devil is always for division.

We have to understand that judgement is not depending on which religion you belong or which denomination you belong but surely on how we worked in our life towards good.

Date: 27:05: 2020.

CATHOLIC SPIRITUAL INSPIRATION DAILY – BY ROVAN PINTO.

Word of God says in Psalm 94: 19 - when the cares of my heart are many, Your consolations cheer my soul.

We are all living in the world which is full of empty promises, disappointments, failures and pressure to name a few. When we are going through all this our heart will be burdened with many cares.

We have to understand that when we are having many things that disturbing us in our heart instead of sleeping in depression or ignoring or talking about it with others we have to switch immediately to Jesus and speak to Him as He is the only one who can console us and comfort us in midst of this.

We have to understand that it is very easy to go through good things in our life but when we are introduced to bad things most of us hesitate to go through it and because of this we will be in great danger of falling into depression.

In midst of bad things happening to us or bad situations coming against our only hope is Jesus. If we do not read and memorize Word of God it is not possible for us to put our confidence in Him. He can comfort us or console us only through His Word. That’s why Word of God plays a vital role in midst of our troubles. Word of God is given to us not to avoid problems as some preachers preach but it is given to us to derive strength from it to overcome it as per God’s will.

If God has allowed certain things in our life no matter who prays over us we will not be free from it until the day God has destined for it. God knows exactly the day and time of our freedom from the problem we are going through but we have encourage ourselves with the Word of God everyday till the day of our freedom and after that we have to continue the fellowship with the Word of God till the end of our life.

I am very sad to notice from past 10 years that most of the Catholics who were reciting Word of God everyday when they were in problems have stopped reciting it  after their problems are solved and because of this they call upon themselves more problems in coming years.

Date: 26: 05: 2020.

CATHOLIC SPIRITUAL INSPIRATION DAILY – BY ROVAN PINTO.

If you would rise, shun luxury, for luxury lowers and degrades. --Saint John Chrysostom.

We all are praying for something or the other and when we are blessed suddenly by GOD, we instead of living simple life we move into higher levels of life seeking luxuries of life.

When we seek the luxuries of life we show to the world that we care more about ourselves and always work for our benefits only. When we live like this we will not be operating with love but we will operate with selfishness.

Luxuries of life look very promising from outside but from inside we are degraded everyday by adding sin to sin. Today those who have lots of money commit more sin than people who have enough. People with lots of wealth think everyday how to spend their wealth in buying expensive things, expensive food, expensive alcohol and throwing party for thousands to show that they are rich.

These type of people are turning the world ugly and selfish. Today charity is dying and caring others is becoming rare. Rich are becoming richer and poor are becoming poorer. God has created rich and poor for the purpose so that rich may lead a simple life and share their excess with less privileged people around them. But in reality it is not happening even now in the time of global crisis.

If we closely watch at the global crisis the people who are mostly affected are rich people because they cannot party or call friends home because of virus. God also knows what’s happening in the world that’s why He put a stop to everything which is destroying the world.

Most of the richest people who are fallen trap to crisis go through depression and some have committed suicide because they do not know to manage stress. Stress cannot be managed with money power but surely with the Word of God.

Let us make a decision today even if we become the richest in our community instead of spending in luxury let us share with the poor and the poorest so that they can eat 3 times food daily.

Date: 25: 05: 2020.

CATHOLIC SPIRITUAL INSPIRATION DAILY – BY ROVAN PINTO.

To be human, "man's response to God by faith must be free and...Therefore nobody is to be forced to embrace the faith against his will the act of faith is of its very nature a free act."

Catechism of the Catholic Church 160.

Today we see many religions and also many Christian denominations who are more interested in conversion of people who belong to other religion or other denomination into theirs by either by showing them they are something better or by giving money.

Forced conversion of religion or denomination will not do any good to anyone but we have to strive to best in our religion or in our denomination and teach those who belong to live according our faith. We should not bother about people belonging to other religion or denominations because they have their own teachers and they have all right to practice their faith.

Today many of our brothers and sisters have left Catholic Church and joined other denomination or other religion not because they love GOD but because they love money and also fame. If we are going to join any other denomination or other religion for money and fame then surely we will not be satisfied in what we do till the end of our life.

Catholic Church does not allow forced conversion of religion or denomination because we have more than enough Catholics in the world (1.3 billion) so we do not have to add more but the religion or denominations which have less members are the one hunting for more members.

We have to understand that we have to follow whatever religion or denomination we are born into so that we may live in it and also die in it doing something good.

Everything we do let us do with freewill so that we may not join any religion or denomination because of influence of others but strive to excel in our own community.

If we are born in Catholic Church and in midway if we decide to leave Catholic Church it is as good as leaving our house of freedom and start living in somebody’s house under compulsion. Catholic is the faith GOD has allowed us to be born into so that we may practice Catholic faith and also die as a faithful Catholics.

Date: 24:05: 2020.

CATHOLIC SPIRITUAL INSPIRATION DAILY – BY ROVAN PINTO.

Word of God says in Romans 8:18 - I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the Glory about to be revealed to us.

We were all going through one or the other sufferings in our life and those who were outside the suffering were enjoying for a moment and all of a sudden they are also caught up in the global crisis of Corona virus from past few months.

Sufferings don’t come by chance in our life but it comes because of the great mercy of God to save our soul from the fire of hell.

When sufferings come in our life instead of running around behind retreat centre and preachers let us boldly go through it as there will be great reward attached to it. We have to follow the example of so many saints who suffered joyfully and with their inspiration we will get courage to boldly face it.

We have to consider ourselves blessed when God allows suffering in our life because through that suffering something great is going to flow into our life.

When we are going through sufferings we have to go through unimaginable pains and on top of that we have to bear all the gossipers, persecutors and false accusers. This will make us feel discouraged many a times. No matter what happens we should not quit and move forward so that we may see the Glory of God shining in our life.

Any suffering coming in our life makes us better person if we accept it joyfully and also we can become bitter when we complain and grumble. It is better to suffer here instead of suffering in purgatory temporally or in hell eternally after our death. God knows exactly when to deliver us and till then we have to be patient and co-operate with God to experience great outcome.

If we co-operate with God when we are going through sufferings then surely God will deliver us from that suffering in few month or few years according to His purpose.

If we rebel, complain and grumble by not co-operating with God then we may have to live with it for rest of our life like the Israelites who started from Egypt to the promise land with great hope and all who were aged 21 and above never reached the promised land but perished in the desert because of rebelling, complaining and grumbling.

Date: 23: 05: 2020.

CATHOLIC SPIRITUAL INSPIRATION DAILY – BY ROVAN PINTO.

Many people, after having walked in the practice of virtue for some time, give themselves up to rest, being satisfied with what they have done. But Grace never says, it is enough. - Imitation of Blessed Virgin Mary, by Saint Ambrose.

We are all practicing one or the other form of prayer and some of us when we are practicing prayer life we also practice virtues in our life.

Virtues are moral excellence or good moral quality a person develops after being in prayer. Every day after being in prayer some of us grow in prayer as well as virtues and when we grow in virtues for a while many of us think we have done very good and start resting for few days or few months.

We have to understand the moment we rest we will be journeying backwards instead of journeying forward and also within no time we will have to start from scratch again.

It is very difficult to build our virtues but it takes very little time to destroy it. We have to understand that no matter what height of spiritual life we are in still we should not get satisfied with it but desire for more perfection.

There are 7 virtues according to the Bible.

Cardinal virtues

1.        Prudence -Prudence is the virtue that disposes practical reason to discern our true good in every circumstance and to choose the right means of achieving it; 

2.      Justice -Justice is the virtue that consists in the constant and firm will to give their due to God and neighbour.

3.      Temperance -  Temperance is the virtue which moderates in us the inordinate desire for sensible pleasure, keeping it within the limits assigned by reason and faith. 

4.      Fortitude  or courage - Fortitude is the moral virtue that ensures firmness in difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of the good

Theological Virtues

5.      FAITH -Faith is essentially the power to believe in God’s revelation of Himself and His will for us and to obey that revelation and will.

6.      HOPE -Hope is  a combination of the desire for something and expectation of receiving it,

7.      CHARITY- Charity is the virtue by which we love God above all things for His own sake, and our neighbour as ourselves as part of our love of God.

We have to examine our life and see whether we are growing one or more virtues when we are in prayers, If we are not growing in virtues then there is something wrong in our prayers.

Date: 22:05: 2020.

CATHOLIC SPIRITUAL INSPIRATION DAILY – BY ROVAN PINTO.

Word of God says in Psalm 55:22 - Cast your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you; He will never permit the righteous to be moved.

In today’s world most of the people carry their burdens on their shoulders and without any reason they pierce themselves with unbearable pain.

God’s Word clearly says that we have to throw away our burdens on the Lord so that Lord will strengthen us and also lighten our burdens. God knows that we as humans can carry certain weight of burdens in our life but once weight of the burdens becomes more we have to act immediately and give everything which is burdening us to the Lord so that we can live peacefully.

Many of us because of carrying the burdens everyday and adding to it burdens every day we have called upon us sickness and different kinds of pains. God has always said to give our burdens to Him but we because being busy in the world most of the times forget to give our burdens to the Lord.

We have to carry whatever possible for us joyfully, once something is becoming heavy and stealing our joy then we have to understand that we have to give it immediately to the Lord so that our burdens may become lighter.

Most of us when we pray in the morning give all our burdens to the Lord and after that we start thinking about our burdens and start worrying about it, the moment we worry about our burden we will receive back from the hands of the Lord our burdens showing our lack of trust in Him and because this most of us who take our burdens back fall trap to oppression and depression.

Burdens in our life may have come because of our errors but Lord works something good through that burden if we trust in Him. Burdens have not come in our life to kill us but to build us so that we may learn to carry burden of the Lord joyfully. Burden of the Lord is nothing but saving all lost souls and bringing them back to His kingdom.

Date: 21: 05: 2020.

CATHOLIC SPIRITUAL INSPIRATION DAILY – BY ROVAN PINTO.

Word of God says in Romans 12:21 - Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Overcoming evil with good looks promising when it is only words but when we have to put it into action and really do it, every step forward looks impossible.

Today people who are inclined towards evil are many inside the church in disguise and outside those who are doing openly are more in numbers. That is why our challenge to overcome evil with good becomes a uphill task.

We all have got into influence of evil at one or the other point in our life and more days we stay there we will not only get corrupt but also make our neighbourhood corrupt. We think only by going to church and warming the benches we can overcome evil with good but in reality it is next to impossible.

If we have to overcome evil with good then first and foremost we have to make up our mind to fight the battle like a warrior. If not devil will not allow us to overcome but in turn we will become more evil than before.

Word of God is the only help we have to become good and I am very sad to see most of the catholic are not well versed with it, that’s why other denomination people take advantage of us.

Everyone one has good qualities as well as bad qualities but in reality we cannot see because the bad qualities have increased in us. In midst of this global crisis we have seen the worst to worst people turn out to be the best.

Devil and his companions are so busy that they do not allow our good qualities to grow. If our good qualities have to grow then surely we have to grow in the Word of God.

Initially few times we may fail to bring out the good qualities from inside us because of the pressure of the devil, we should not get discouraged or come to conclusion quickly but keep on trying till we succeed. We will surely with the help of the Word of God overcome evil with good.

Date: 20: 05: 2020.

CATHOLIC SPIRITUAL INSPIRATION DAILY – BY ROVAN PINTO.

 Christian prayer is a covenant relationship between God and man in Christ. It is the action of God and of man, springing forth from both the Holy Spirit and ourselves, wholly directed to the father, in union with the human will of the son of God made man. Catechism of the Catholic Church 2564.

Most of us take Christian prayer according to Bible or according to the teachings of the church or according to the teachings of saints for granted.

Most of us do not realize that Christian prayer is a covenant relationship with GOD which can never be broken as long as we live on this earth. First of all we have to understand the meaning of Covenant.

Covenant in the Bible means an agreement between God and his people, in which God makes promises to his people and, usually, requires certain conduct from them. In the Old Testament, God made agreements with Noah, Abraham, and Moses.

Only Christians have covenant prayer relationship with GOD which is not ordinary but extraordinary. This is the main reason that most of the miracles happen in Christian community and through Christian community to other religions.

Christian prayer has got power built in to bring forth any miracle great or small. We have to understand that GOD requires from us 3 things 1. Faith 2. Joy and 3. Peace.

If we are having faith we can experience miracles. If we have Joy our inner confidence in GOD increases and when we are at peace devil cannot come close to us.

To have faith, joy and peace we have to have fellowship with GOD everyday as we have fellowship with our family members. More we know JESUS more we will do everything to please Him and to stay united with Him. More we are in prayers more we will have faith, joy and peace in our life.

 Christian prayer is always inspired by the author of it that is Holy Spirit. Without Holy Spirit inspiring us we cannot write anything about prayer or about God. Let us understand that every prayer inspired by Holy Spirit will lead us to GOD.

Date: 19:05: 2020.

CATHOLIC SPIRITUAL INSPIRATION DAILY – BY ROVAN PINTO.

Word of God clearly says in Job 8:7 - Though my beginning was small. My latter days will be great.

We are all because of being bonded with the world most of us had a ordinary life as compared to the living God has promised.

We all according to the word of God have to lead a life of abundance and with most of us we do not see it.

We do not live a life of abundance because we are not ready to go through sufferings joyfully, whenever suffering knocks our door first thing we do is reject it or complain against it or gossip about it.

We have to understand without going through sufferings God has allowed in our life it is next to impossible to live a life of abundance.

We all may had a ordinary beginning because of chasing our dreams but when we learn to chase God by building our confidence around it and with the help of word of God we bear all the sufferings and overcome it surely our latter days will be great.

Everyone of us without having God in our life we had a Small beginning but surely because of having God as the centre of our life our latter days will surely be great and beyond our imagination.

Date: 18: 05: 2020.

CATHOLIC SPIRITUAL INSPIRATION DAILY – BY ROVAN PINTO.

“Fight like a man. Habit is overcome by habit.”― The Imitation of Christ by Thomas A Kempis.

Habits we have will either take us to wrong destination or right destination. If we have cultivated good habits then surely we are walking in the right path and if we have cultivated bad habits then surely we are walking in the wrong path.

Bad habits.

We all have one or more bad habits attached to us which may be fun to us but it can be annoying to others around us. Let us now identify some bad habits most of us have which will not allow us to live according to the Word of God. Some are talking evil, some are gossiping, some are drunkards, some are smokers, some are porn addicts, some are drug addicts, some are movie addicts, some are party addicts, some are mall addicts, some love violence, some love criticising, some love fault finding, some love to be lazy, some love politics, some love to correct others, some love to blame others, some are selfish, some are greedy  and so on as the list is endless. When we are having one or more of the bad habits we have to understand whatever we want to do we will not be able to do and whatever we hate to do we will be doing.

Good habits

We all may have cultivated one or more good habits after coming to prayers. Some of the good habits are

Start and end our day with prayer, reading the Bible, reading the book of saints, reciting scriptures daily, praying for others, praying for those who persecute, blame and condemn us, increasing in faith, speaking words of encouragement to the broken ones, praying for our enemies, rising early even on holidays, respecting others, forgiving others, helping the needy, blessing everyone and so on as the list is endless. We have to understand that we have to fight very hard to break a bad habit and cultivate a good habit.

Let us study the Word of God daily so that every bad habits in us we will break and cultivate good habits so that good habits may flourish and bad habits may fade in our life.

We have to understand that because of being in fellowship with the world and also with the pleasures of our flesh we have cultivated most of the bad habits and we have switch over to have fellowship God and His Word so that we may be inspired  by God to  cultivate good habits and give up our bad habits.

Every good habit we cultivate with the help of God will help us automatically to overcome every bad habit we have.

Date: 17:05: 2020.