Offering Our Weakness | Thoughts from Father Reed

When desperate, I will readily pray for help! I guess that’s only human. For example, I will pray to find just about anything I've lost, especially if it's car keys or some other essential thing to daily life. Of course, I pray continuously for those of you who are struggling with health or family.

But I accuse myself of often forgetting to pray for inspiration or strength in the middle of just a regular day.

This is one lesson that St Thérèse of Lisieux, a Doctor of the Church, still teaches. That the all-powerful God is interested in every detail of our lives….every detail, for every one of us.

But Thérèse has an even deeper lesson for us. She teaches us that all those things in our lives which are weak, all the failures--the things that we would like to cover over and to hide away--these are the things that God is drawn to the most!

The little way of St Thérèse demonstrates for us that our weakness, our littleness, is the very stuff of salvation.

In our Christian Faith there is a basic mistake that we can make and that is to make our religion about what we do for God. We keep the commandments, we go to Mass; we say our prayers, we fast, we give money to charity. We have to do these things.

But our Faith is not first what we do, it is rather about what God does for us.

God has given us this great saint, the Patroness of CatholicTV, to teach us about something in which we think we are experts: love, which is the essence of God.

When Blessed Pope John II made her a Doctor, a teacher, of the Church he said that she taught us the ‘science of love’. And that is: God has loved us first. We can know that love, experience it, live in it. But we cannot earn it, merit it - we can only receive it as a free gift.

Sister Thérèse, continues to be love for us. This patroness of missionaries and, of course of The CatholicTV Network, she is a true friend to all who look to her for intercession.



Father Robert P. Reed
President of The CatholicTV Network

Wisdom from... Scripture

Lluís Borrassà, St Peter's Altar  (15 c)

In today's epistle John tells us:

There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment, and so one who fears is not yet perfect in love. (1 John 4:18)

While we shouldn't presume our own merit, we also shouldn't fear what God has in store for us. Our fears of punishment from God often betray a lack of confidence in God, or a lack of confidence in our own love. But when we truly remain in love, we remain in God (1 John 4:16), and we have no need of fear.

Paul offers us three theological virtues: faith, hope and love; not scrupulosity, fear and self-loathing. Let yourself love God and neighbor freely, and take some time to explore where your life is rooted. Do you act morally out of fear of punishment? Or do you act out of love in all things? Where do you remain?

Loving perfectly can seem like no easy task, but in reality it is no task at all, since Jesus has already completed the task for us. By offering of himself and His Spirit, he has made it possible for us to exist in love, rather than making an effort to love. By acknowledging that he is the Son of God, we allow him to remain in us and root our lives in love (1 John 4:15).

It can be hard to hear this simple message of hope through the noise of the everyday. We can allow ourselves to stray from love and move into fear when we get distracted by judging other people or by the judgments of other people, or by the well-meant, but sometimes misguided urgings of our friends and neighbors.

Today, take a moment to speak to God in prayer and examine where you remain. God can help you tune out the complicated messages of the world, and turn up the simple message of the gospel: do not be afraid! (Mark 6:50b)

Interview of Oscar-Winning Director of ‘God of Love’, Luke Matheny Now Viewable at CatholicTV.com

An interview of Luke Matheny is now available at CatholicTV.com at www.CatholicTV.com/Catholic-Movies-This-is-the-Day (interview begins at 19 mins. 10 secs). Luke directed, wrote, and starred in the short film “God of Love”.

The brief interview, which was conducted by CatholicTV’s Fr. Robert Reed on “This is the Day”, includes video of Luke and his friends celebrating news of his film being nominated for an Academy Award as well as clips from the movie.

CatholicTV’s President Fr. Robert Reed said, “All of us here at CatholicTV and all of us in our audience congratulate you.”

Luke’s film also won an Excellence in Filmmaking Award at the Angelus Student Film Festival.

CatholicTV’s show ClearVoice also interviewed Fr. Willy Raymond from Family Theater Productions, which sponsors the Angelus Student Film Festival. The interview with Fr. Willy is now viewable at www.CatholicTV.com/Catholic-news-ClearVoice-8 (interview begins at 8 mins. and 38 secs)