"their entire purpose is to give themselves for the happiness and fulfillment of others... Christians"

I read these shocking words at the end of a meditation by Very Reverend Robert Barron on the Gospel for this 5th Sunday of Ordinary time!  "One of the worst things that Christians can do is fuss about their own happiness and their own success, for their entire purpose is to give themselves for the happiness and fulfillment of others."  Wow!  You have to admit those words are so contrary to everything we are fed by the world around us!  Jesus is speaking those words to us today in the Gospel in the Sermon on the Mount about how we are to be salt and Light.  Both Light and salt "efface themselves for the sake of the other."  In a way I am relieved to read these words and know them to be Truth - I have never been highly motivated to accomplish any success in this world other than as a wife and a mother, and in that place there can only be happiness and success by dying more and more to self so that Christ may live in me!  Yes!  It is difficult, but so necessary!

 "You are the LIGHT of the world.  A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden.  Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house.  Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father."  Jesus to us in the Gospel today Matthew5: 13-16
It doesn't exactly sound humble to put it on a lampstand for all to see - yet, we have no light in us at all without Christ - the source of all LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT, and we must share that Truth with all those we meet this day - most especially those closest to us in our domestic Church/family.  Why is it that those the closest to us we treat the worst and have the least patience and love for in our day to day life?  Lord, help us to be YOU in our lives and to allow your LIGHT to shine on our entire house - even if it reveals those messes that we need to clean up and put some work into.  You are our source of LIGHT in the midst of the darkness, and there is so much hurting and pain out there.  Satan is laughing at how he deceives and misleads and causes sin to trip us up again and again... who wouldn't stumble and fall in the darkness as we either have no Jesus/LIGHT or it has been placed under a bushel by those that fear dying to self so that YOU,  O Lord, may give LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT to all those around us?  Jesus, we love and follow YOU down that narrow path carrying our Most Cherished Cross.  Jesus, we trust in YOU.  Amen and Hallelujah

Bless-bless, Barbara Luke
On John's work computer is this reminder of his great LOVE - Our Lady!  She is showing us the beauty of allowing the LIGHT to shine in the glow of the computer screen!  Not the ugly images of pornography, which is so rampant with only the touch of a mouse.  St Agnes, pray for this world that has been put in a house of prostitution, as you were and left there untouched.  You, St Agnes, can help us come out untouched too! 

Casting Crowns - Who am I?