St. Matthew renders the first Beatitude as “Poor in spirit,” to expand the meaning of poverty beyond those socially poor. Yet there is a preferential love that the Lord has for those who find themselves at the margin of life, powerless to compete with the “haves” who have managed to create “have nots.” Those that are poor, while on the edge of life, are also at the brink of the joy of relying only on the power of God alone to bless, rather than on the power of the world to curse.

“Woe” is the opposite of “blessed.” In other words, it is a curse. Luke speaks plainly. Be loosened from what you have, until you have nothing but the Lord.

Luke 6:17–26

What are “Bible Breaths”? Learn More…
Example: Blessed are the poor: Kingdom theirs v. 20

Sundays are dedicated to the Gospels from the Revised Common Lectionary.
In year C, we generally read from the Gospel of Luke.

For all the Firestarters I recommend the ebook.  You will have the entire program of well over a thousand of these introductions with you on your phone or tablet. Check the menu options at the site for more information.

Down through the ages, this verse has been repeated in liturgies before receiving communion. Did the centurion ever think that his faithfulness would be so long remembered?

We are never worthy of the Lord’s presence under the roof of our lives. That is not the issue. Rather it is Jesus’ great love for us that has him long to dwell with us. Yet there are dispositions of the centurion that prepared him for the miracle that flowered from his faith. Consider the irony: the man was a Roman soldier just like the ones that put the nails in the hands of Jesus. However, this man spent time hammering and nailing to make the furnishings of a place of worship under which roof he was not entitled to enter, because he was a gentile!

Note the human dispositions in the four stories of this chapter. Be sensitive to what happens inside you as you perhaps pray them each in quarter parts of the day.

Luke 7

Create your own Bible Breaths Learn More…
Example: Speak the Word: Your servant healed. v. 7

Fridays are dedicated to the Gospels.
In Advent through Epiphany this year we read Luke chapters 1 to 8.

For all the Firestarters I recommend the ebook.  You will have the entire program of well over a thousand of these introductions with you on your phone or tablet. Check the menu options at the site for more information.

The Eternal Word has leapt from heaven and woven itself into time. It is ready to be stitched into your life’s fabric, stretching you beyond the limits of time, back into eternity, completing the circle.

As you hold your Bible and inwardly hear the Word today, the Holy Spirit is active right now. Peter confesses this, finding the validity of the Word in the Transfiguration experience of Christ, which he witnessed.

What are those life experiences that are the grounding points for your own faith? These are moments of Transfiguration. Yet we are to be as Peter who could not stay on that mountain, but had to rediscover the Word transfigured in the walk down the mountain into the “valley of the shadow of death” upon the cross.

2 Peter 1:13–25

Find out all about Bible Breaths Learn More…
Example: Morning star rising in me v. 19

Thursdays are dedicated to the letters of Paul, other letters,
the Book of Acts, and the Book of Revelation.
In the seasons of Advent through Epiphany this year,
we read the letters of Peter.

For all the Firestarters in the original version, I recommend the ebook.  You will have the entire program of well over a thousand of these Firestarters with you on your phone or tablet. Check the menu options at the site for more information.