The Divine Connection is an intimacy with God that begins with the gift of faith and produces hope, love, a deep inner peace and a profound joy that comes from living in harmony with God and Man. This joy survives even in times of pain and suffering. The deep joy God gives transcends human emotion as it is born not out of a ‘feeling’ but out of a sense of ‘divine mission’ to embrace God’s Holy Will and to fulfill the plans God has for us.

To me, the secret of a life fulfilled is all about SURRENDER to the Holy One, Jesus Christ who desires to walk with us, create with us and be ONE with us through every challenge we need to embrace and every choice we need to make.

At the beginning of my spiritual journey, I did not understand that God wanted intimacy. I kept hearing Jesus say two words to my heart and these words were “Trust Me.” I will confess to you that I had never really trusted anyone completely. My history as an abused child instilled in me an attitude of “Don’t trust anyone but yourself.” God was determined to challenge that premise that made me who I was, distrusting.

I was an anxious, worried woman and Jesus slowly but surely changed my life and my disposition. Slowly he healed my inner pain. As I realized I could trust Jesus I began to grow less worried and more confident in the divine healer, Jesus Christ. I realized I was being sustained and transformed by an emerging divine connection that would grow to be more and more intimate.

Today, hear the voice of Jesus calling you to enter into His peace:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Matthew 11: 28-29

Too many people in the world are anxious, distressed and without hope. They have yet to find the source of true peace: Jesus!

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” John 14:27

Fear is the source of anxiety. It feeds depression and a general sense of hopelessness. But the divine connection, an intimacy with Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, fills us with hope and peace and an understanding that we don’t have to face life’s challenges alone, for God will be with us!

God has a plan for you! Do you feel you are living his divine plan?

The words spoken by God to the Prophet Jeremiah are words that God speaks to each and every one of us:

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

Prosperity, hope, a future with God – that’s the promise of the DIVINE CONNECTION.

This connection with God is born out of faith, trust and continuous communication.

“Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29: 12-13

If you feel like your life is incomplete, know that this sense of feeling a void is one of the ways God calls us to come closer to Him.

What prevents us from becoming all that God wants us to be is often a combination of ignorance and arrogance. We think we have all the answers. We don’t know how much we need God.

God says, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13

As I sought God, He drew me into some mysterious places. I found Jesus working with youth living on the streets. I found Him working with depressed and suicidal people in a distress center and I found Him in the people who were struggling and yearning for a better life.

As I began to study the Word of God, I prayed, “God teach me! Teach me! Teach me!”

The first thing Jesus taught me was “Trust Me” and “You can’t do anything without Me.”

God shattered the view I had of myself. I thought “I am a strong, independent woman. I trust myself.”

I had to humble myself and realize that I was not strong, I was weak. I was not independent, I was dependent on God’s grace and love.

As a child I used to look for Jesus in the clouds. It’s surprising I never bumped into a tree because I used to walk through the park with my face lifted up to the sky. I figured heaven was just beyond the blue sky and that Jesus was hiding under a cloud. One day, I thought, “I will see Jesus peeking through the clouds and I will smile at Him…and say “Got YOU!”

I never imagined I would find Jesus on earth, living, working and healing His people.

Jesus says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5

This notion of ‘remaining in Christ’ is also translated as ‘abiding in Christ’. That’s the DIVINE CONNECTION – remaining in Christ, abiding in Christ. As a branch is connected to the vine so it can yield fruit, so too are we to live persistently and intimately connected to Jesus the source of Grace.

Too often Christians enter into ‘faith encounters’ that never grow into deep, personal faith relationships.

Jesus doesn’t want us to think of Him as distant, up in the sky, or in the Church on Sunday morning for an hour. Jesus wants to be part of our life, today, tomorrow and always, moment by moment as we live in the perpetual presence of God.

Jesus is on earth in so many ways trying to connect with us. He’s trying to connect with you in this reflection. He lives in the hearts of so many people, helping us to connect with one another and love one another . Jesus lives in the Holy Spirit that inspires and teaches us how to live in accordance with God’s Holy Will.

Remember Jesus spoke of the Holy Spirit as the gift that the Father would send us.

“Wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” Acts 1: 4-5

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus’ love that desires to guide and transform our lives. Pray TODAY for the Holy Spirit to help you to look at your life and see what God wants you to see.

The divine connection is a relationship with Jesus that needs to be continuously nurtured. If you feel God is far from you, perhaps it is because you are far from God. God is like the perfect gentleman that desires to marry a woman He has fallen in love with. He will not force Himself upon her. He courts her gently and persistently and then He waits for her consent before He approaches her.

Before the Holy Spirit overshadowed the Virgin Mary, she gave her consent pronouncing herself as ‘the handmaid of the Lord” she said, “Let it be done to me according to your word.” Luke 1:38

So with humility, with trust, with penitent hearts and with desire to be all that God wills us to be, let us give Jesus our consent to work out His divine plan in our lives. This plan will not be fully consummated until we submit to His Holy Will in every possible way. Sounds impossible?

“Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” Mark 10:27

God waits for His people. What He desires from us is usually MUCH, MUCH BIGGER THAN ANYTHING WE CAN IMAGINE!

Heaven knows, I kept God waiting far too long out of a mix of ignorance and arrogance. I thought I had all the answers, except I was not asking the right questions! I didn’t know God had a plan for me. Opening the Word of God was the beginning of the most important discoveries. As I learned more and more about Jesus I found myself falling in love with my Crucified Saviour. When I began to contemplate the Passion of Christ, God opened a WOUND OF LOVE in my heart – a place exclusively made for God Himself.

The WOUND OF LOVE carved by the memory of the Passion of Christ changed my heart, my priorities, my disposition and my whole life.

I saw on the Cross, Our King – Jesus Christ, who loved His Pilgrim Bride so much that He would die for her! The Pilgrim Bride is the Church of Jesus Christ, His Beloved, who today is called to be intimately, divinely connected to Jesus in a Holy Communion where God’s Will and God’s Work is fulfilled by those that love Him.

But when Jesus returns will He find faith?  This is a question Jesus asked. (Luke 18:8)

“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” Hebrews 11:6

Faith is a gift that God freely gives. If you don’t have it, pray for it and YOU WILL RECEIVE IT!

“Everything is possible for one who believes.”  Mark 9:23

St. Paul reminds us to receive Jesus in the Sacrament of Love (The Eucharist) reverently with Holy Desire and with Faith:  “For if you eat the bread or drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking God’s judgment upon yourself.” 1 Corinthians 11:29

I have been in Catholic schools where I have found the Crucifix sitting on a shelf collecting dust. I once purchased a Crucifix from a store in Italy because it was being used to prop up electrical cords. I surprised the salesperson with the question, “How much does the Crucifix cost?” “Oh, it’s not for sale.” she said.  I took out all the Euros I had in my wallet and left with the Crucifix. It now rests over my bed.

How much did salvation cost?

When we lose sight of the price of salvation we can lose our divine connection. But if we are persistently aware of the price Jesus paid to set us free from our sins and create a place in Paradise for us, we never take for granted the price of our redemption and we remain deeply connected with Jesus.

Here is the SECRET I discovered:

If we enter into the Passion of Christ not as a spectator but as the BRIDE OF CHRIST, God will open up a WOUND OF LOVE in our hearts that will FOREVER YEARN for the love of Jesus Christ.

The Wound of Love will always be OPEN DESIRING THE SPIRIT OF JESUS’ LOVE, THE HOLY SPIRIT, TO FILL IT.

The Wound of Love will never permit the Bride of Christ to forget the Divine Sacrifice of her Bridegroom Jesus Christ, for His Sacrifice is the Greatest Sacrifice the world has ever known and will ever know! It is the divine sacrifice that enables the divine connection, a relationship that will bear love’s fruit on earth, transforming even the coldest and hardest hearts.

The divine sacrifice of Jesus Christ is a portent of grace that opens our hearts to the possibility of a divine connection that commences with the sacrifice that God will never, ever reject – TRUE REPENTANCE.

“My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.” Psalm 51:17

Regardless of what you have done to offend God, God wants you to trust in His willingness to forgive you!

LET US REPENT!

Jesus sees us struggling and making mistakes and He yearns to help us, forgive us and heal us.  All we have to do is say ‘I AM SORRY JESUS!’

I encourage you to create some silence in your life and sit and listen to Jesus speaking to your heart.

You will hear Him say, “I am yours! And You are Mine!”

I invite you to join the Bride of Christ that stands united at the foot of the Cross of Jesus every day @ the Time Jesus died for us, 3pm (in our local time zones). LET THE MEMORY OF THE PASSION OF CHRIST OPEN A WOUND IN YOUR HEART THAT WILL NEVER FORGET how much Jesus Christ, only Begotten Son of God, suffered to save you and me and enable us to live in a divine connection with God moment-by-moment, day-by-day, until we are One with Him in Paradise forever.

Three o’clock is NOT ORDINARY TIME IT IS A SACRED TIME.

Jesus died for us @ 3pm! Let this time keep opening up a deep, intimate wound of love in your heart that will keep you listening for the prompting of the Holy Spirit to love, to forgive, to pray, to give and to receive the mercy of Jesus Christ.

Please join Christians all over the world that are stopping to pray for every soul on earth @ the Hour of Mercy DAILY, 3PM – IT’S THE TIME JESUS DIED FOR US! Remember Jesus as you pray for all souls to come to repentance.  And if 3pm locally is not convenient for you then pick 3pm in another time zone and know that there are people all over the world praying with you as One Body of Christ.

Bridegroom of all Souls –  Lord Jesus Christ,

I love YOU Jesus, my God! Thank You for teaching me so many things and giving me the privilege of telling so many people what you taught me.

You are My heart’s desire Jesus! My heart longs for You!

“We love because He first loved us!” 1 John 4:19