Fifth Day        
Trust Jesus Blindly

Trust in the good God who loves us, who cares for us, who sees all, knows all, can do all things for my good and the good of souls. 

Love Him trustfully without looking back, without fear.  Give yourself fully to Jesus.  He will use you to accomplish great things on the condition that you believe much more in His love than in your weakness.  Believe in Him with blind and absolute confidence because he is Jesus. 

Jesus never changes.  Trust him lovingly, trust Him with a big smile, always believing He is the way to the Father, He is in the light in the world of darkness.

In all sincerity we must be able to look up and say "I can do all things in Him who strengthens me."  Because of this assertion of St. Paul, you must have a certain confidence in doing your work - or rather God's work - well, efficiently, even perfectly, with Jesus and for Jesus.  Be also convinced that you by yourself can do nothing, have nothing but sin, weakness and misery; that all gifts of nature and of grace which you have, you have them from God. 

Mary, too, showed that complete trust in God by accepting to be used for his plan of salvation in spite of her nothingness; for she knew that He who is mighty can do great things in her and through her.  She trusted once she said "yes" to Him.  She never doubted. 

Thought for the day: Confidence in God can do all things.  It is our emptiness and lowliness that God needs and not our plenitude.

Ask for the grace to have an unshakable trust in God's power and love for you and for all.

Prayer to Blessed Teresa of Calcutta:

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, you allowed the thirsting love of Jesus on the Cross to become a living flame within you, and so became the light of his love to all.  Obtain from the Heart of Jesus the grace trust in Jesus blindly through our efforts in Kepha in bringing dynamic orthodoxy and infectious joy to as many fathers and sons as possible.  Teach me to allow Jesus to penetrate and possess my whole being so completely that my life, too, may radiate his light and love to others.  Amen.

Immaculate Heart of Mary, Cause of Our Joy, pray for us. 

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, pray for us.

Third Day
Hear Him Say to You: "I Thirst"

In His agony, in His pain, in His loneliness He said clearly, "Why have you forsaken Me?"   He was so terribly lonely and forsaken and suffering on the Cross.  At this most difficult time, He proclaimed: 'I Thirst'... and the people thought he was thirsty in an ordinary way and they gave Him vinegar straight away; but it was not what He thirsted for - it was for our love, our affection, that intimate attachment to Him, and that sharing of His passion.

And it is strange that he used such a word.  He used 'I Thirst' instead of "give Me your love'. The thirst of Jesus on the Cross is not imagination.  It was a word: 'I thirst.'  Let us hear Him saying it to me and saying it to you.  It is really a gift of God.

If you listen with your heart, you will hear, you will understand. Until you know deep inside that Jesus thirsts for you, you can't begin to know who he wants to be for you.  Or who he wants you to be for him.

Follow his footsteps in search of souls.  Carry Him and His light into the homes of the poor, especially to the souls most in need.  Spread the charity of His Heart wherever you go and so satiate His thirst for souls.

Thought for the day:  Just think! God is thirsting for you and me to come forward to satiate his thirst.

Ask for the grace to understand Jesus' cry of thirst.

Prayer to Blessed Teresa of Calcutta:

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, you allowed the thirsting love of Jesus on the Cross to become a living flame within you, and so became the light of his love to all.  Obtain from the Heart of Jesus the grace to satiate the thirst of Christ through the people we meet today and to do small things with great love.  Teach me to allow Jesus to penetrate and possess my whole being so completely that my life, too, may radiate his light and love to others.  Amen.

Immaculate Heart of Mary, Cause of Our Joy, pray for us.

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, pray for us.

First Day
Know the Living Jesus

"Do you really know the living Jesus? - not from books but from being with Him in your heart?"

"Am I convinced of Christ's love for me and mine for Him? This conviction is the rock on which sanctity is built.  What must we do to get this conviction? We must know Jesus, love Jesus, serve Jesus.  Knowledge will make you strong as death.  We know Jesus through faith: by meditating on His word in the Scriptures, by listening to Him speak through His Church, and through the intimate union of prayer."

"Seek him in the tabernacle.  Fix your eyes on Him who is the Light.  Bring your hearts close to His divine heart and ask Him to grant you the grace of knowing Him."  

Thought for the day: Don't search for Jesus in far lands.  He is not there.  He is close to you.  He is in you.

Ask for the grace of an intimate knowledge of Jesus.  

Prayer to Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, you allowed the thirsting love of Jesus on the Cross to become a living flame within you, and so became the light of his love to all.  Obtain from the Heart of Jesus an increase in faith and holiness of all members of Kepha and all their family members and friends.  Teach me to allow Jesus to penetrate and possess my whole being so completely that my life, too, may radiate his light and love to others.  Amen.

Immaculate Heart of Mary, Cause of Our Joy, pray for us.  

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, pray for us.

The Men are Back!  Written by Kepha National Director, Corey Harned.  Click to read. 

Blessed Mother Teresa is one of Kepha's Big 3 and is our model for charity.   

Jesus, you made Blessed Teresa an inspiring example of firm faith and burning charity, an extraordinary witness to the way of spiritual childhood, and a great and esteemed teacher of the value and dignity of every human life. Grant that she may be venerated and imitated as one of the Church's canonized saints.

Hear the requests of all those who seek her intercession, especially the petition I now implore... (mention here the favour you wish to pray for).

May we follow her example in heeding Your cry of thirst from the Cross and joyfully loving You in the distressing disguise of the poorest of the poor, especially those most unloved and unwanted.

We ask this in Your name and through the intercession of Mary, Your Mother and the Mother of us all.
Amen.

As part of his series on praying to end abortion, Fr. Pavone describes the importance of the father when the mother is pregnant. 

Go to www.prolifeprayers.com for more info.

Are you tired of a half-hearted Catholicism that is uninspiring and lonely?

Do you want to live the dynamic Catholic life?

Are you hungry for a fraternity where Fathers stand beside their sons and men provoke each other to Heaven?

Are you ready to be 100% with the Holy Father?

Would you like to dig down deep to find your Iron Will buried within?

Do you believe you can achieve sanctity in a joy-filled Catholic brotherhood?

If so, then join us.  We are the Brotherhood of the Iron Will!

Do You Have What It Takes to be a Saint?  Kepha retreat in Central Oklahoma November 12-14.  Go to www.kepharocks.org/oklahoma for more info.

This was an interesting article about how the use of contraception can have deep implications most people are not aware of.  I would like to add to Fr. Longnecker's thesis that men, even though they do not use contraception like women do, are affected by its use as well.

Primarily they can lose their focus on what it means to be a father ie. sacrificing hinself for his wife and children, and begin to make pleasure their number one goal.  I have seen this countless times from my own experience.