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From the Desk of Fr. Louis

January, 19,2025

Our Will-Power and Divine Will

Love is one of the greatest stimulants to the Will-Power. Under the influence of love the Will-Power can do almost anything. Everyone has the Will-Power. You can experience this in your life by yourself. No matter what your task is, do it joyously and willingly and remember to be always sincere. Develop sincerity with others and even with yourself along with Will-Power. Through sincerity you can work more harmoniously with others.

Do some creative work every day. When your Will battles with new ideas spiritual or physical, it gains more strength. When it becomes stronger still in conformity with God’s Will, your Will has become Divine Will. Don’t look on yourself as a weak mortal. Jesus says, “You are the salt of the earth, light of the world”. You are the image of God and very precious. Just as a revolving wheel generates electrical current, when the Will-Power revolves around an idea, it too creates a current of energy that can be directed to achieve the task that you have intended.

January 12, 2025

Living the Will of God
God’s Will is the only way to peace of mind and happiness. If you see closely the
different forces of the nature are tied together by God’s directing power. Everything in the
universe works and moves in mutual harmony with the Divine plan. We are part of that universe
– just as importance as sun and moon and stars. We have to do and play our role which is
assigned to us by Divine plan. When you oppose the will of Divine, then you are spoiling God’s
plan because God always plans for your own good. When you go against God’s plan it means
that you are going against your own goodness.
When you try to please God, you will have greater joy. Doing according to your will
might give you temporary joy but ultimately you will not be happy. Hence every morning we
need to offer the day to God and live accordingly. This will help us to recognize God in our
neighbor and love and serve him. This will help us to love God more than anyone else. That is
why God has given in the ten commandments: “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me”.

January 5, 2025

Keep Your Good Resolutions
All the good resolutions that we make must be kept-up. The more we keep our
resolutions in our day today life, the more we will become stronger in our willpower and achieve
what we want. When we don’t keep our resolutions, our mind will get weaker and we will not
get what we want. Before we make our resolutions, make sure that these resolutions improve our
state of life. Once we make resolutions, never give up, lest we will weaken our willpower.
Resolutions cannot be changed because it is very difficult. You may change it if betters
your state of life or justifies it. Otherwise we will be carrying our weak mind wherever we go.
On the other hand, we should carry victory, strong willpower where ever we go and inspire
others. We do not win by flying away or giving up our resolutions. Victory is ours when we keep
our resolutions. By keeping the resolutions, the willpower is strengthened and it paves the way to
the higher willpower to achieve higher goals.

December 29, 2024

HAPPY NEW YEAR: 2025 - Make new determinations: Be What You Want To Be.

It is your Will Power that is going to determine what you are able to do - nothing else – not your past habits. Doubt can destroy everything but faith can accomplish anything. Let nothing weaken your conviction that you can be whatever you want to be. Not to use the will is to be inert like a stone. There is always a way to find if you think hard enough until it is luminous enough to reveal to you the way to your goal. The power of suggestion is very strong. The ability to accomplish is all in the mind. Remember that as a child of God you are endowed with the same potentialities as the most excellent among men. Cast away all negative thoughts and fears. Fear of death is ridiculous. We, all believers have a share in the Resurrection of Christ.

In every situation be calmly active and actively calm. Your trials did not come to you to punish you, but to awaken you – to make you realize that you are a part of Spirit and that just behind the spark of your life is the flame of Infinity; great light of God; all fulfilling love of God. Your fulfillment lies not in obtaining the objects of your carnal desires, but in the unfoldment of your soul qualities in making the efforts to succeed in worthwhile endeavors. Bad habits are the worst enemies you can have. You are punished by these habits. Every day should be a transition from bad habits to good habits that is the end of it. Stay away from those things that stimulate bad habits. Do not test yourself with temptations.

Enter New Year with new hope. Whenever you think of yourself, think of others. When you are making others happy, you are making yourself happy and pleasing God. Remember you are a child of God and be proud of it. No matter what comes, believe it is the Lord who is allowing that to you and you must succeed in conquering those daily challenges. Do His Will and nothing can hurt you. You are safe and secure in the hands of God. The Lord is my shepherd , there is nothing I shall want. Psalm: 23

November 22, 2024

How to outwit Temptation – 2/2

… Continued from last week.

Virtue and spiritual living are far more charming than sensual indulgence. When you are convinced that God is the most desirable treasure, nothing on the material plane can ever again tempt you. If you find true joy in this life, you will have it now and in the afterlife too. Which do you want: God’s eternal bliss, which may be yours by denying yourself a few pleasures now? Or worldly happiness now, which will not last? Convince your heart by comparison. Every effort that you make to climb upward will be recognizes by God.

Temptations are the worst enemies of your happiness. Be busy working with your mind fixed in the God Consciousness that is cultivated by meditation and prayer, for then you will be really happy and you will be really living. The surest way to avoid temptation is to lead natural life: a life of harmony with God. Don’t lead unnatural life, restlessly seeking happiness from a world that is powerless to bestow it. Then you will find gradually the power of God like a flood sweeping away all your undesirable traits. Anytime you feel that your will is being overpowered, meditate and pray until you feel the God’s presence.

November 17, 2024

How to outwit Temptation – 1/2

Satan and cosmic delusion, is always tempting us through our ignorance. Whenever you are slothful and careless, you help Satan to pull you toward his side. That is why Jesus said, “watch and pray that you may not be tempted” and taught us to pray: “lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil”. To set us free, God gave us Reason, Conscience, and Will Power. So long as you feel unwilling to deny yourself some particular pleasure that is detrimental to your welfare, you are in the region of Satan, and it will overtake you. But if you are convinced that temptation is dangerous to you because it promises happiness and in the end gives sorrow, you can outwit Satan.

Through the senses we learn to like things that are pleasing to see, hear, smell, taste and tough. The only way to avoid the trap of the evil is to realize by reason or experience that there are higher joys. The trouble is most people have not had any experience of the Spirit which is hidden behind matter. When temptation comes, you must stop the action or urge, and then use the God given reason. If you try to reason first, you will be compelled in spite of yourself to do the thing that you don’t want to do, because temptation will overcome all reason. Just say “NO” and get up and go away.

To be continued next week …

November 10, 2024

God Answers Our Prayers

The ocean cannot be received in a cup unless the cup is made as large as the ocean. Likewise, the cup of human concentration and human faculties must be enlarged by meditation and the prayer in order to comprehend God. God is both law and love. We reap what we sow. Ill health or any critical situation can often be overcome by obeying laws of good health and following the Will of the Lord. But when the power of human method fail to cure ills or overcome any critical situation, then we as children of God, must ask God to help. We must think, meditate, affirm, believe and realize daily that we are children of God – and live accordingly. Grinding our prayers vocally and mechanically, while inwardly thinking of something else, does not bring response from God.

If prayers are logical, devotional, deep soul outbursts, and then one is bound to receive the answers from God. If your prayers are unfulfilled, unanswered, you can blame only yourself. For a wet match cannot be ignited, so a mind saturated with doubts and restlessness is unable to produce the fire of concentration even when prodigious efforts are made to strike the cosmic spark. Once your prayers are over, go on your regular duties seeking not to know whether God will grant your demand but believe absolutely that your prayers have been heard by God. Sometimes it is very good that we do not receive what we think we want. A prayer-plant retains the same branches of words but daily yields fresh roses of God-feeling and inspirations, if one regularly waters the plant with meditation and prayer.

November 3, 2024

All Saints Day: November 1st

All Saints Day is a solemnity of all Saints celebrated on November 1st by the Catholic Church to honor all saints known and unknown. The feast arouses out of Christian tradition of celebrating the martyrdom of saints on the anniversary of their martyrdom. When martyrs increased during persecution, local dioceses instituted a common feast day in order to ensure that all martyrs, known and unknown were properly honored. In Catholic theology, the day commemorates all those who have attained beatific vision in heaven. The Church celebrates All Saints day because we believe that there is a prayerful spiritual bond between those in heaven and the living. This common feast was celebrated in Antioch in 373 AD as mentioned by St. Ephraim, the Syrian. The current date November 1st was instituted by Pope Gregory III (731-741), when he consecrated a chapel to all martyrs in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome and ordered an annual celebration. This feast was originally confined to the diocese of Rome but Pope Gregory IV (827-844) extended the feast to the entire Church and ordered to be celebrated on November 1st. Let us pray for their intercessions.

All Souls Day: November 2nd

All Souls Day is a day set aside for praying for the dead. According to Catholic belief, the soul of a person who dies can go to one of the three places depending on his or her life. The first place is heaven, where a person dies in a perfect grace and communion with God, goes. The second is hell, where those who die in a state of mortal sin are naturally condemned by their own choice. The intermediate option is purgatory, where the dead are free of mortal sins still in a state of lesser (venial) sins, go. In the purgatory, they are cleansed and purified to become holy and perfect to enter into heaven. Many Saints have said that the purgatory is a grace and mercy given to the dead for the purification. Let us pray for the souls in purgatory that they may be purified and enter into God’s presence and they in turn pray for us. Their prayers are more perfect and help us to live a perfect life. The month of November is dedicated to pray for the souls in purgatory.

October 27, 2024

Finding Joy in Life

We seek joy and happiness through the fulfillment of our desires. We do not want those things that bring sorrow in the beginning or at the end. When you favor happiness from short lasting pleasures like eating, smelling, hearing, touching, seeing, that happiness and joy lasts only as long as the sensation of taste, smell, hearing, touching and seeing last or until the mind becomes bored with a sensation and is tempted by new stimulus. No one desires transitory joy that leaves sorrow. Only the unchangeable joy found in God through regular meditation and prayer can quench our thirst for joy.

The ‘evil’ promises transitory happiness and gives sorrow at the end but the ‘goodness’ seems to offer sorrow by its requisite of discipline and will power, but will surely give lasting joy at the end. When you find God in meditation and prayer, you don’t need anything. In this joy, you will have everything you ever sought. So, do not seek fulfillment through material medium but seek unconditional, indestructible Joy – God within you by way of meditation and prayer. Do not forget that God is always in you with His mercy and grace even before you fall to lead you in to Himself because you are the child of God.

October 20, 2024

Expand Your Love

Great people always loved every one, the humanity. They have realized in their love that they are the wave and the part of infinite ocean. We are all in the family and when we love our neighbors, we become bigger. When we love our country, we become bigger still. When we love all nations, we become even bigger. And when we are one with God in prayer and meditation, we realize that the infinite ocean is the wave, and the wave is the ocean. Mankind will become true citizens of the globe. God is our Heavenly Father and we are His children. “Our Father …”

October 13,2024

Do your duties to please God

Do all your dutiful actions not for yourself but for God. By following the council of someone who is a man of wisdom, we can perform all our duties for God. If you want to be a doctor, seek the good doctor and learn his methods, the way he trains his mind and acts. The man of wisdom is guided divinely is able to guide you. What you want to do is not necessarily what you should do. It is easy to do what you want to do, but that is ego and slavery. What you should do is more important and it depends on your responsibilities as a child of God and the member of the family. To act according to the dictates of the wisdom is true freedom. We must perform those dutiful actions – physical, mental, and spiritual with the sole wish to please God.

The spiritual man has the goal and the way. Whether you are living in the world or in the monastery, within your mind you can renounce every feeling that whatever you do is to please God. Therefore, I feel no attachment to food or anything else though I enjoy it. Hence if I eat, all right; if I don’t eat, I don’t miss it.

September 15,2024

Deep Attention and Devotion in Prayer

When we personally pray, we need to use the words that come from our hearts, understanding thoroughly and dwelling upon their meaning. We need to address God with our love and feelings. Blind repetition of words without concentration and commitment, devotion or love do not bring any good in our lives. Grinding our prayers vocally and mechanically while inwardly thinking something else does not bring response from God. A blind repetition takes the name of God in vain, is fruitless. Devotional and concentrated prayers deepen the attention, spiritualizes the prayers and changes conscious.

God cannot be deceived by the mockery of prayers but easily moved by our sincerity, persistence, concentration, devotion and faith. When we pray with soul outburst, we are bound to receive the results. In all our prayers we establish ourselves as the child of God which is the most important aspect of prayer. When we face temptations and distractions while praying, we need to come back to prayer as soon as we know that we are distracted. Don’t dwell in distractions. While we are distracted in our prayer, let us not think that it is waste of time and get up and go but continue to prayer till the end of time you intended to pray. God might touch you towards the end of your prayer. But know that God is in you and listening to your heart.

September 1, 2024

Controlling One’s Desires
The true master is the one who controls his desires. By not controlling our desires, we punish
ourselves by our own indulgences, which create nervousness and anger and moods. We have no
joy in anything because we are controlled by our insatiable senses. When we have control over
our desires, we mean NO, when we say No to temptations. And we mean YES, when we say
YES to what we want for our good.
By our good desires, we have to cultivate God-centeredness in our hearts and life. Always be
busy with God and nothing can distract us. Lead a simple and contended life. The purpose of life
is to find God. So do not waste your time in useless way of life.

August 25, 2024

Conquer Evil by Realizing God

We always consider pain and suffering is evil that has to be avoided. We don’t understand why evil exists in the world. There are so many questions of this kind that we don’t have answers. But one thing is sure that we suffer evil because we have allowed ourselves to become so susceptible to the evils of this world. We must learn to be spiritually tough and strong.

Do all the things that you have to do, and enjoy what you do, but inwardly say, “Lord, I am your child, made in Your image. I don’t want anything but You”. The devotee who follows this principle, and attains God realization has conquered evil. He will find that for him there is no evil.

July 28, 2024

Be a Conqueror of Hearts

Contradictions of desires and conflicts of interests cause anger. When we are angry we can’t think clearly and see the truth and thus we can’t analyze the situation clearly. That is why our peace is to be guarded above everything else. If we can retain our inner peace, therein lies our supreme victory. If we do everything with sincerity and love in our heart, we do not have to fear anybody or anything. I am what I am before God and before my conscience. Be fearless, sincere, and loving in all you do.

Spiritual relationship is lasting, because God is our Father and we are His children. Hence we need to love everyone whole heatedly and impartially. God’s love is the supreme love. It is God who is loving us through our loved ones in the same way when I love others, it is God who is loving them through me. When the desire for self-interest is gone completely from consciousness and the only desire is to serve others and do the highest good for all, that is wisdom.

The compulsion to love our family and friends was given to us as our first lesson in learning to give love to all unconditionally. When man behaves in a humble way he strikes a beautiful chord in the hearts of other. A man of humility easily exercises a spiritual influence on others. The power of love is the greatest of all powers. We come on earth to love each other with God’s perfect love, free from any selfish desires. We should lovingly disagree as well as lovingly agree. Hence do everything for God. As long as you live, spread the truth and love – be like little children, unafraid, simple and kind. Spread the fragrance of love wherever you go.

July 21,2024

Balanced Life

We need to get educated in order to live a balanced life. Our ambition for business and other activities are meant to make us and others happy. Without this our activity will produce nervousness, greed, disrespect and finally unhappy and dissatisfaction. Hence realize the true purpose of any business or activity for the benefit of others as well as oneself.

“Sabbath is made for man and not man for the Sabbath”. God has given seven days out of which six days to work and one day for God and relaxation and introspection. Sunday is for attending religious services and spiritual self-discipline practicing concentration in prayer and meditation and time with the family that would attain inner peace and God communion and God-realization in our lives.

There are many people who are helplessly carried away by the work habits and too many social engagements on Sundays. We do need social gatherings, but actually our highest and the first engagement should be with God, Truth, higher studies, family life, association with good persons and knowing one-self and God who made you.

July 14,2024

Accepting Ourselves

The great secret of all spiritual fruitfulness and growth is learning to let God act in our lives. “Apart from Me, you can do nothing” John 15/5. Without God’s help, we are helpless however strong we are. And with God everything is possible. God’s love is infinitely more powerful than anything we can do by our own wisdom or our strength. Yet one of the most essential conditions for God’s grace to act in our lives is saying “YES” to what we are and to the situation in which we find ourselves. From there we need to approach God in trust.

What often blocks the action of God’s grace in our lives is less of our sins or failings, than it is our failure to accept our own weakness. God would never act unless we freely cooperate by accepting ourselves as we are. Similarly, if we don’t accept others as they are, we are not allowing God to act positively on our relationships and situations. There may be failures, defects and odd situations in our lives. May be sometimes without our faults we suffer, but still, we need to accept others with joy and offer them for the purification of our lives. Then God would bless us beyond our expectation. God knows how to bring good out of evil. Everything is in His control. When there is failure or success, know that God is teaching something, pay attention to it.

July 6,2024

I come to you the people the cluster parishes of St. Pius X – Solon Springs; St. Anthony of Padua - Gordan; and St. Mary - Minong with joy and happiness as your priest to be with you and to work along with you. We are all coworkers and me as a priest leading everyone to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. I am sure of your cooperation with me in this journey towards God as one body. I invite every visitor to be a part of our journey and our cluster parish. Visitors are our support and strength and they are unseen God. Everyone is welcome to the house of God, to be the part of our cluster parish.

Finding Joy in Life

Fr. Louis Maram Reddy

Submitted Pieces and Reflections

Angels on Our Shoulders

In partnership with Faith in Action this group of volunteers offers a multitude of services for our community. Grocery Grabbers will pick up your grocery order from Henson's County Foods and deliver to your doorstep. Books With Wings will deliver books you check out from the Minong Area Library, http://www.minonglibrary.org. Look at their brochure below and take advantage of their many services. If you would like to volunteer with the group the please contact Louis Columbus at 224-578-2537. Further information is on the brochure.

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