Fifth Sunday after Trinity, Sunday, June 30, 2013

Fr. Todd Bragg

St. Margaret Anglican Church

Indianapolis, Indiana

"Nevertheless, at Thy word I will let down the net." (St. Luke 5:1 ff)

Like a lot of the people mentioned in the Bible, we just don't know that many facts about certain people or as much as we would like to know.  For example, there are not a lot of facts about St. Peter that we know, but we do know the following facts about St. Peter:  He was the brother of St. Andrew.  He was the son of Jonah.  He was a fisherman from Bethsaida.  And he lived with his wife and mother-in-law and this fact probably explains why he spent so much time fishing!

We also know that St. Peter was known for a lot of dumb things that he said.  For example, think back to when St. Peter exclaimed that he would never forsake Our Lord.  Immediately, though, Our Blessed Saviour told St. Peter:  "Before the cock crows, you will deny Me three times . . . ."  and look at what happened.  St. Peter did deny Our Lord exactly as He predicted.   While it is true that St. Peter did stick his foot in his mouth on more than one occasion, St. Peter is also responsible for many wonderful things that he said.  Look at St. Matthew's Gospel, for example, to hear a conversation between Our Saviour and St. Peter:

"Whom do men say that I am?  And they said, Some say Thou are John the Baptist; some Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the Prophets.  He saith unto them, but whom say ye that I am?  And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.  And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art Thou, Simon Bar-Jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealoed it unto thee, but My Father Which is in Heaven." (St. Matthew 16:13-17)

In today's Gospel from the Fifth Chapter of St. Luke, we see that St. Peter even though he did not understand still had faith.  He had been out fishing all night and did not catch anything.  I am sure that he was exhausted, he was tired, he was worn out, he was probably disappointed at working so hard and having nothing to show for it and yet here was Our Saviour telling him to put out his nets one more time.  I am sure St. Peter was thinking to himself:  What does this guy know?  But even though he might have had doubts; even though he might not have understood or been able to comprehend, he had faith to follow Our Lord's command.

We hear in Hebrews:  "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1).  Think back to the example of St. Mary when the angel appeared to her.  She even admitted that she did not understand because she said "How can this be?"  And yet St. Mary gave her "fiat," which is basically a fancy way of saying "Yes" to God.  As Christians, we are called to give our "fiat" every day.
Elsewhere in Hebrews we hear:  "For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end."  (Hebrews 3:14)  Notice that word "steadfast," we are called to be steadfast to the Lord.  It did not say that we will be perfect or that we will always understand or that we will always comprehend.  Sometimes we will say stupid things that we wished we could take back.  Sometimes we will mess up but, like St. Peter, he remained steadfast even when he messed up.  We, too, are called to be steadfast even when we make mistakes.

Listen to this passage from the Letter to the Romans:  "How then shall they call on Him in Whom they have not believed?  And how shall they believe in Him of Whom they have not heard?  And how shall they hear without a preacher?  And how shall they preach, except they be sent?  As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!  But they have not all obeyed the Gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?  So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." (Romans 10:14-17)

Faith comes from understanding and understanding comes from listening.  Notice the difference between hearing and paying attention.  There is a difference between listening and hearing.  I can hear something but does not mean that I am paying attention to what I am hearing.  As Christians, we are call to listen to God; in particular, to pay attention to what God is saying to us.  Thus, we will be like St. Peter as our example.  We will mess up sometimes because we are humans and will make mistakes.  But we will remember to be steadfast by hearing the Word of God and we will do this by first making a point to pay attention and listening to what God has to say to us.

Fourth Sunday after Trinity, Sunday, June 23, 2013

Fr. Todd Bragg

St. Margaret Anglican Church

Indianapolis, Indiana

"I reckon that the suffering of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed in us."  (Romans 8:18 ff)

Now before I begin my sermon, I would like to answer a question.  You know, often I receive questions via email, via letter or via word of mouth.  So this question goes to this effect:  "Dear Fr. Todd, can you please tell us what is the average life of a priest is like?"  Sure,  let me tell you what an average day is like.  Up at 5:15 AM every morning where I first get stressed by 5:20 AM by three of my bosses, the one with fur and the two with feathers about feeding them.  Then I get ready to leave and I stress about me getting out of the house where I get stressed about if I will get to work on time.  As a result, I get stressed out by getting stuck behind an accident or construction zones.  Then by the time I get downtown I am worried if I will get a parking space.  By the time I get to work, here comes my boss clutching a handful of papers stating that I need to get all of these done by the end of the day and then I spend the time worrying if I will get my work done in time or not before the end of the day.  Then at the end of the day I am stressing about traffic once again but the opposite direction.  Well, you get the general idea.  How many of you every get stressed?  Do any of you here ever get worried about things in your life.  

Listen, most all of us get worried or stressed by things in our life at one point or another.  We hear in Psalm 119:  "Trouble and anguish have taken hold of me." (Psalm 119:143) and we also hear that there is "tribulation and anguish upon the soul of every man." (Romans 2:9)  So, obviously, worry and stress and anxiety come over the soul of every person at one point or another.  Whether it be bills or health issues or work related matters or taxes or relationships, etc., etc., etc.  Most of us worry at one point or another in our life.

If you want to find a very interesting book in the Bible to read, go ahead and read the Book of Job.  The book of Job, as I am sure you may or may not know, boils down to this:  It is the story of a righteous man whom the devil is absolutely sure that Job is only faithful because he has it so good in life with his possessions and what he owns, etc.  So the devil causes all kinds of bad things to happen to Job because he is convinced that Job will turn on God.  Well, guess what?  Job lost his children and he lost his house and he lost his flocks of animals but despite all of his losses, he still remained faithful to God.  So the devil tried again and took another shot at turning Job against God.  He then put sore boils on Job from head to foot and Job sat out in the middle of the field and his three friends saw him and they said to him, "Hey, Job, what in the world did you do that was so bad that God is cursing you with all of these bad things?"  But Job remained faithful and did not blame God.  He blessed God no matter what.  Listen to Job, "Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the Name of the Lord."  (Job 1:21)

Hear also, "Behold, thou hast instructed many and Thou hast strengthened the weak hands.  Thy words have upholden him that was falling, and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees." (Job 4:3)  We are reminded by Job that God gives strength to those who are lacking.  God gives strength to us when we are weak.  We are called to be faithful to God, no matter what.  If there is one lesson that we learn from Job:  it is to remain faithful to God, no matter what befalls us.  Job was faithful to God in the good times and the bad.  Job remained faithful to God when things were good, but he also remained faithful to God when things went sour.  This is how it should be for us as well in our lives.  We are not assured that everything will always go well in our life, but we are assured that God will always remain faithful to us.

"When thou are in tribulation, and all these things come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the Lord Thy God, and shall be obedient unto His voice.  For the Lord Thy God is a merciful God; He will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which He sware unto thee." (Deuteronomy 4:30-31)  God is always faithful to us.  God is faithful to the part of the Covenant that He signed.  He made a covenant to love you, to care for you, to protect you.  It is us who do not live up to our end of the covenant because we are imperfect.  This is why we heard in today's Gospel that we do not always forgive as we ought or love as we ought to, or forgive as we are called to forgive.  We are imperfect but God's love for us is perfect.  

"But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope."  (I Thessalonians 4:13)  We are called to be a hopeful people.  We are a people of hope.  Our hope is Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.  He is our hope.  He is our salvation.  He is the One to Whom we turn all of our attention.  When our human side gets caught up in stress and worry, look to the one true hope:  Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.  As we were reminded today, "the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory, which will be revealed in us." (Romans 8:18).  No sort of trial or tribulation.  No amount of worry or anxiety will compare to the glory that God has offered to us.  All we have to do is accept it.  Accept Our Blessed Lord as your Saviour.  Accept Him as your hope.    Keep Him in your life and remain faithful to Him no matter what.  Just like Job, remain constant, remain firm, remain faithful to Our Blessed Saviour, the same Saviour that remains faithful to us.

Please visit the St. Margaret of Scotland website:

St. Margaret of Scotland Anglican Church

Third Sunday after Trinity, Sunday, June 16, 2013

Fr. Todd Bragg

St. Margaret Anglican Church

Indianapolis, Indiana

“Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour” (I St. Peter 5:5ff)

If we look at the section of this first epistle of St. Peter just prior to what we heard today, we will discover that St. Peter is more than likely communicating with the deacons of the Church because we hear him refer to the “young” and how they should respond to their elders in the Church.  He is not referring to young people in regards to how old they are but rather “young” referring to those who are in service to the elders of the Church.  In other words, he is more than likely referring to the deacons and how they should serve those in higher authority above them.  Of course, it goes without saying that throughout Holy Scripture, whether it be Our Lord speaking  . . . or St. Paul . . . or in this case, St. Peter, even if the group is very specific, there is something to be learned by all of us, even if it is two-thousand years later.

So is the case today with St. Peter’s Epistle that we heard today.  If you look early on at the very beginning of the passage that we heard, the part where it says  . . . . . “to clothe oneself . . . “  if we look at the original word that is used, it is a very specialized word, “egkombousthai,” which in essence means a special garment tied with a knot, tied around the neck in a knot to keep it in place.  And this was a special garment which was basically used as a protective garment worn by slaves when they were doing dirty jobs.

Remember, as we have spoken in times past, that there were different rankings of slaves or servants in a household.  The lowest job, the most menial job of any slave was the job of cleaning the feet of those coming into a house.  Keep in mind that back then, unlike today, where we have so many different kinds of styles of shoes, we can go to Payless Shoes or what are some of the other shoe stores?   K & G or whatever it is called, I’m not into fashion, so I would not have a clue.  But back then, in essence, they only had sandals or even bare feet that they would walk around in.  Thus, they would walk in all kinds of conditions:  muddy, rainy, dry, dirty, etc.  And their feet would be covered in dirt and all kinds of  . . . . well, we are in church, so let’s keep this polite, shall we? . . .  other dirty things covering their feet and it was the job of the slave to clean all of this dirt off.  Thus, more than likely, he would be wearing this protective garment while he did this.

When St. Peter uses this symbolic imagery, one can only imagine that he was thinking of the example that Our Blessed Lord had given the Apostles.  Think back to St. John’s Gospel when we heard the following:  “He riseth from supper and laid aside His garments and took a towel and girded Himself.  After that, He poureth water into a basis, and began to wash the disciples feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded.”  (St. John 13:4-5)

Again, from St. John’s Gospel we are able to envision Our Lord, when St. John states that He “girded Himself,” we hearken back to what we were saying earlier about tying the garment about with a knot to keep it secure for the work that needs to be done.  Interestingly enough, this word . . . you know, the word I can not pronounce . . . should I attempt it again?   OK, here goes, “egkombousthai” also refers to a long, flowing stole-like garment which was worn as a sign of honour, to show that some was of pre-eminence, of great importance.

Thus, we can not help but think of Our Blessed Saviour, Who was of great importance, was the teacher, and the rabbi, and the preacher and the worker of great miracles before the Apostles, and yet at the same time, He showed Himself to be humble enough to wash the feet of those who were His apostles.  The teacher serving those who were His disciples.  He showed by example what we are called to do:  to serve and not to be served.

On Thursday of this week, I was off work, and so I made a point to go visit Bishop Mote’s grave.  Many of the members of this parish knew Bishop Mote so well but my image of Bishop Mote is seeing him after church suppers, cleaning up dishes or washing dishes or going around pouring coffee for people.  Certainly, I remember as a young priest, I was scheduled to say the Tuesday evening and Friday evening Masses and my memories of Bishop Mote were him serving Mass for me.  Now, keep in mind, I would beg Bishop Mote to say the Mass and I would act as server for him but he insisted that he would serve for me.  What humility!  Here was Bishop James Mote, the first bishop consecrated of all the Continuing Churches, for that alone, he was owed respect, but here was a bishop insisting to serve Mass for me, a young priest.  What an example of humility I had in Bishop Mote!

The other thing to keep in mind that I would like to point out about today’s reading is St. Peter insisting that we should be aware of the devil.  If you are guilty like I am, you do not take the devil seriously enough as we should.  Think about movies or TV shows, where you might have the image of a angel on one shoulder and then somebody dressed up in a red suit with a tail and horns on the other shoulder and that is what we think about the devil.  But St. Peter warns us to be careful of the devil, who “as a roaring lion, walketh about” seeking our destruction.

We hear in the Old Testament book of Job:  “And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence camest thou?  Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.”  (Job 1:7)

Just as St. Peter pointed out, so too, does Job remind us that the devil is busy prowling around seeking our ruin.  He is busy keeping us from God.   When you think about it, when we have distractions in our life, could it be that they are just that:  distractions to distract us from the Almighty?  The devil does not want us to have a relationship with God.  He does not want us to have time with God.  He does not want us to have interaction with God.  Why?  Because the devil wants us all to himself.

St. Paul gives us the answer:  “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness.” (Ephesians 6:11).  We are called to be holy and to be mindful of the dangers around us.  We are also called to be, in imitation of Our Blessed Saviour, humble and servants of those around us.  Keep holy and keep humble is the lesson of the day that St. Peter would have us know.

Visiting Bishop Mote's Grave Today

On Thursday, June 13th, 2013 Frances and Fr. Todd Bragg made a visit to Bishop Mote's grave on the far-East Side of Indianapolis.  It was a beautiful day for a visit.  Unfortunately, it had been a long time since Fr. Todd was able to go and pay his respects but everything worked out just fine to go visit on such a beautiful day.  It took a while to find the marker but when we did, we were so excited and so happy.  Posting some pictures of our visit to visit Bishop Mote.  I think of Bishop Mote all the time because he truly was one of the finest priests I ever knew.  A humble man to the end, always ready to serve others, and I never knew him to think of himself as better than anyone else.  We all loved Bishop Mote very much and still miss him to this day.

If you notice that there is one specific word that seems to be left off of the marker:  "bishop."  To the casual observer, it may seem strange that this marker does not make mention that he was a bishop but to those dear souls that had the good fortune to know Bishop Mote, it is only natural that it does not mention "bishop."  Bishop Mote was by far one of the most humble priests that I have ever known in my life.  After a life-time of service, Bishop Mote did not lord it over people that he was a bishop or that he was the one in charge.  In fact, just the opposite, you would more than likely find Bishop Mote washing dishes or cleaning tables at a church dinner.  Bishop Mote was a true priest.  He followed Our Lord's example by serving and not being served.  So, again, to those who knew Bishop Mote, it is perfectly within character that there is no mention that he was a bishop on the marker of his grave.  He was truly a humble man to the end . .  . 

If you would like to find out more about Bishop Mote, please go to the St. Margaret website and click on the following link:

Bishop Mote, "Play Dirty and Pray!"

Second Sunday after Trinity

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Fr. Todd Bragg

St. Margaret of Scotland Anglican Church,

Indianapolis, Indiana

Readings:  I St. John 3 and St. Luke 14

"Let us not live in word, neither in tongue: but in deed, and in truth" (I St. John 3:13)

If we look through the three Epistles of St. John, you will not find the name "John" mentioned anywhere in these three epistles as the name of the specific author.  While tradition has listed St. John as the author due to the similarity and resemblance of the Gospel of St. John, the actual name "John" is never listed in any of these epistles attributed to him.  The closest thing we get to a name or an "autograph" in these epistles is when the author refers to himself as "the Elder."

As is usually the case, we have to look at the overview of these books to see what is the underlying message that was the reason for writing the epistle originally.  In other words, what was the purpose or the intent for writing these epistles originally?  In this case, I think if we dig deep enough, we will soon find that the intent or purpose of St. John was to show that Our Blessed Lord lived in the flesh in order to deal with humanity and as a matter or course, we are to deal with people in a similar fashion.

Now, you must be asking yourselves:  Fr. Todd, how else are humans to deal with other humans other than in a human fashion.  This is certainly a valid question and I would answer it this way:  We can sit around and talk about God; we can sit around and talk about God; we can sit around and talk about how we are supposed to treat others around us; in other words, we can be very objective about the whole thing and talk and talk and talk, but if our deeds do not match up with our words, our words will ultimately mean nothing.  Again, St. John writes:  "Let us not live in word, neither in tongue: but in deed and in truth."  In other words, don't just talk about God and how you love God, but let your actions match up with what you speak, let your deeds match up with what you believe.  

Now if we look elsewhere in Scripture, we won't have to look very far until we find similar ideas.  In St. James Epistle, we hear the following:  "Even so faith, if it hath not works is dead, being alone.  Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith and I have works:  show me thy faith without works, and I will shew thee my faith by works."  (St. James 2:17-18)  Now St. James gets a bum-rap by Martin Luther, among others, because they accuse him of stating that we can somehow work our way into Heaven through our works and what we do.  If you would ask me, St. James, along with what we heard St. John state today, are basically both saying the same thing:  what you believe should match up with what you do in life.  Let your deeds match your beliefs.

St. John states elsewhere in the 21st verse of chapter 3:  "Who loves God must love his brother also."  Love as we talked about last week is what God shows to us and what He expects us to show to others around us.  And the point that St. John is making that the love that we have for others will be demonstrated in what we do; how we act; how we treat others; how we respect others; etc.  Like we talked about earlier:  it's one thing for us to talk objectively about "love," and it's quite a different think altogether to put "love" into practice.  As I learned a long time ago from Bishop Deyman, God rest him:  God has called us to love one another but He did not promise that we would like one another all the time.  There are some people that will get under our skin, and quite honestly, we will get under the skin of others around us.  We are instructed to love one another and not to like one another.  

Again, going back to St. James, we hear the following:  "Pure religion and undefiled is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world." (St. James 1:27).  St. James once again is reminding us that our love for God will show itself in how we treat others, especially the less fortunate in our society.  God uses each one of us as His instruments in the world.  Each one of has a choice.  Each one of us had a choice to be here this morning.  Whether we came from a very short distance or a long distance, the point is the same that each one of us made a choice to be here.  The same thing is true when it comes to God, in general.  God offers us salvation and we have to make a choice to accept that salvation.  God offers and we accept. 

Finally, read with me again the final part of today's epistle:  "And this is His commandment, that we should believe on the Name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as He gave us commandment."   (I St. John 3:23)  Let us show our love for God through the way in which we love those around us.  Let us love not just in words, but rather, let our deeds, as St. John reminds us, show how much we love and how much love we have.

First Sunday after Trinity

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Fr. Todd Bragg

St. Margaret of Scotland Anglican Church,

Indianapolis, Indiana

Readings:  First St. John 4:7-21; St. Luke 16: 19-23 

Sometimes you may wonder how a preacher picks and chooses what he will speak about on a given Sunday.  For example, you may wonder to yourself, "how does Fr. Todd pick if he is going to speak in regards to the Epistle or the Gospel of the day."  Well, today is pretty easy to pick out which reading I was going to choose to preach on.  The Epistle coming to us from First St. John Chapter Four, verses 7-21 is self explanatory.  No preaching is required whatsoever after listening to this epistle.  In fact, I would recommend strongly that you take home a copy of the bulletin home with you and read this section of St. John's Epistle  every day this week.  In fact, you could probably read this passage every day this year and benefit greatly from it.

This leaves us with the Gospel, then, coming to us from St. Luke's 16th Chapter of his Gospel.  As is often the case with so many preachers, and I am one who would be counted in this group, Our Blessed Lord very often tells stories that compare and contrast in order to show the difference.  Thus, I consider myself to be in very good company indeed because I often like to do that as well to support what I am trying to point out.  In this passage we hear the very famous story that Our Blessed Saviour gives in regards to the Rich Man and Lazarus.   Our Lord points out the their lives could not be any more different.

On the one hand, we have the example of the rich man, which interestingly enough, is not named in this story.  We don't know very much about this man other than he was very rich:  "There was a certain man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen." (St. Luke 16:19)  We know that back then only rich people wore purple linen.  This was not that poor people were prohibited from wearing this type of clothing, per se, but rather it was that they could not afford it and thus only rich people would wear these types of clothing.  In the O.T. book of Judges we read the following:  " . . . .   & collars and purple raiment that was in the kings of Midian."   (Judges 8:26)

On the other hand, Our Lord gives us the example of Lazarus, the poor man.  From Our Lord's description, we know that Lazarus was poorer than poor.  In other words, from what St. Luke relates in this passage, Lazarus was not just asking for a meal, he was simply wanting the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table.  He would have been content with the crumbs from the table:  "And (Lazarus) desiring to be fed with the crumbs from the rich man's table." (St. Luke 16:21)  Also, we are reminded that the dogs licked Lazarus's sores.  Now, keep in mind that back then people did not regard dogs the same way that we regard them today.  Thus, for Our Lord to point out that dogs were licking the sores of Lazarus was to point out, basically, how far Lazarus had hit rock-bottom.  

Now, it is probably often the case when people hear this passage that they might be quick to assume that being rich is not compatible with Christianity.  I mean, if we were to base it solely off of what we hear in this story, then we would probably be correct to assume this.  Remember, also,  the part in Scripture where it states "it is easier for a Camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter Heaven."   But I do not believe that Our Lord is using this story to condemn wealth or riches, necessarily.  What He is doing, though, is to remind each one of us to keep our priorities in order.

Whether it be a beautiful house in a nice neighborhood, or the latest electronic gadget such as an Ipad, or the latest fashionable clothing, etc.  All of these things could be considered as signs of wealth.  But on the other hand, the problem does not come from owning these items but, rather, if these items divert our attention away from God, this is where the problem arises.  In other words, it is not a sin, in and of itself, to own a nice home but if owning that nice house . . . or nice car . . . or clothing . . . or ipad . . . takes our attention away from God, that is where the problem lies.  

Let's face it, we should not place all of our hope in these things to begin with.  For example, houses, over time, fall into disrepair of one sort or another.  Cars will develop rust and break down.  The latest fashion styles ultimately go out of style.  Plus, on top of that, we can work and work all of our lives and then when we die, everything we have worked on will be left behind anyway.  We can not take any of it with us.  Job reminds us:  "They spend their days in wealth and in a moment go down to the grave."  (Job 21:13)  

In my estimation, it is not a sin to be rich and to own good things.  Let's face it, it is God Who have given us every good thing that we have.  It is God that has blessed us not only with health, but also blessed us with knowledge and ability in how to do work.  God gives us the knowledge and the ability and we give the effort.  We read the following:  "And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God." (Ecclesiastes 3:13)  And elsewhere in Ecclesiastes we read:  "Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion and to rejoice in his labour; this is the gift of God."  (Ecclesiastes 5:19)  It is God Who has given the ability to each one of us to work.  And what we earn is the fruit of our labour.  

St. James reminds us as well:  "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Lights, with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."  (St. James 1:17)  We should always acknowledge that all of the gifts we possess:  whether they be a nice home, clothes on our back, a good job, food on our table, etc, we should acknowledge the fact that they are blessings that we have received from God but that we have done our part as well to earn them.  

We are called to set our priorities straight as Christians.  We are called to acknowledge God first in everything.  So often in our society we put everything else first and God last.  We should always acknowledge all the gifts that God has bestowed on us and enjoy them but never forget Whom made these gifts possible.

So far, you have heard me focusing on all the other gifts that God bestows upon us:  our homes, our food, our jobs, our clothing, etc.  But let us not forget the most important gift that Our Heavenly Father offers to each one of us:  the gift of salvation:  " . . .  but the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ, Our Lord."  (Romans 6:23).  God freely offers to us salvation and life eternal with Him.  God offers but it is up to each one of us to accept the salvation that He offers to us.  Make a point to reflect on this gift as well.  Make a point to reach out to the God that first reached out to us.  As St. John reminds us in his epistle today:  "We love Him, because He first loved us."  (I St. John 4:7-21)  So, reach out to the Lord and thank Him for the many gifts He has bestowed on us in our life including the gift of love and salvation He freely offers to each one of us.