3RD SUNDAY OF ST. MATTHEW
“Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness
and everything else will be added to you.”
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“Don’t be anxious,” God told us; He will provide for us;
He will give us what we need to eat, to drink and wear.
As the children trust their parents who provide for them,
So, we should trust God’s Providence as we pray to Him.
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God provides food to the animals and the birds of the air;
And adorns the flowers of the fields with His divine beauty.
Will He not feed, give drink and clothe His rational creatures!
He, Who, out of love for them, sent His Only-begotten Son!
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To everyone of His creatures God gave what it needs;
To live its life and do the work with wisdom and purpose;
To enjoy the beautiful world, the whole of His universe;
And fulfill its creative purpose without force and constrain.
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God placed man in creation in a glorious position;
To take care of His creation in cooperation with Himself.
Alas! Man proved unworthy of this great honor.
Because of his disobedience, he was deprived of the honor.
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With hard labor and sweat man now earns his bread;
As God told Adam after his expulsion from paradise.
But the merciful God gave man a hopeful promise,
He will see again God’s gifts someday in the future.
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God will send a deliverer to his descendants to save them;
To free them from the bondage of their enemy, the devil.
God’s Beloved Son will open paradise again for them.
Grace, love and hope He will secure again for mortal man.
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The incarnate Son of God fulfilled the promise of His Father;
He was born as God-Man, from the Virgin Mother.
To forgive us, He assumed and He carried all our sins;
With His painful death on the Cross, He forgave our sins.
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His beloved Son expressed all God’s love for all of us;
He humbled Himself and was born to relate to us.
Christ became like us in everything, but He committed no sin.
He deified our human nature; He united it to His Divinity.
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Jesus taught His ignorant, neglected people, in the desert,
And He gave them food when they were perishing from hunger.
He healed the eaten-away members of the body of the lepers,
And healed the motionless bodies of the paralyzed people.
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He had compassion and restored the sight of the blind,
And gave the ability to hear again to the deaf man.
He raised the dead from the tomb with his voice.
Gave life to the widow’s son and the daughter of Jairus.
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The Logos and Son of God was incarnated for us.
He promised to all of us that God will provide for us.
Therefore, we should not be anxious like the faithless,
Who do not believe in God, like the Antichrist.
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As Christians, we should try to do the Will of God,
And strive faithfully to enter into His Kingdom.
Adding to our repentance and virtuous way of life,
The grace of God will enable us to enter His Kingdom.
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Together with His other creatures, we should trust God.
His loving Providence will provide for us what we need.
In order not to be deprived of anything needful in this life,
Until we reach victorious our eternal destination in heaven.
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With love,
Fr. John P. Angelis
