Tag: Prayer

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Sermon Notes – October 19, 2025 – “Take the Cotton Out of Your Ears”

“Take the Cotton Out of Your Ears”

Father Peter Fitzgibbons

October 18 – 19, 2025

Gospel: Luke 18: 1-8

1) And He spoke also a parable to them, that we ought always to pray, and not to faint, 2) Saying: There was a judge in a certain city, who feared not God, nor regarded man. 3) And there was a certain widow in that city, and she came to him, saying: Avenge me of my adversary.  4) And he would not for a long time. But afterwards he said within himself: Although I fear not God, nor regard man, 5) Yet because this widow is troublesome to me, I will avenge her, lest continually coming she weary me.  6) And the Lord said: Hear what the unjust judge saith.  7) And will not God revenge His elect who cry to Him day and night: and will He have patience in their regard? 8) I say to you, that He will quickly revenge them. But yet the Son of man, when He cometh, shall He find, think you, faith on earth?

Our Lord tells us to pray constantly.  He wants us to bother and annoy Him with our prayers.  Constantly praying for what you want is an exercise of your faith, hope, and charity, the three theological virtues.  It is what we are supposed to do, so never give up.  But you cannot hear what the Lord has to say if you are constantly talking.  If you want something from our Lord, let Him get a word in edgewise.  Take the cotton out of your ears, put it in your mouth, and listen. 

    Father’s Pearls of Wisdom      

  • Prayer is heart speaking to heart. 
  • When in doubt, do the next right thing and you will be progressing toward sanctity. 
  • Priests are men, not angels.
  • Get your donkey to Mass. 
  • Do not blame God for something that someone said or did.  It’s not fair.
  • Storm Heaven with your prayers. 
  • If you want to be beautiful or handsome, be holy.  It’s a lot cheaper, and you’ll be happier.
  • We don’t need more laws; we need more moral people. 
  • Doing only the minimum required limits love.
  • I’m a religious cook. Everything I make is a burnt offering or a sacrifice. That’s why God made Domino’s. 
  • Love is not an emotion.  It is an act of the Will
  • Forgiveness is not an emotion.  It is also an act of the Will
  • Embrace the suck. Do not look at unpleasant things as punishments but as opportunities to offer up our suffering for the salvation of souls. 
  • Christ said that doing the minimum is not enough for those who truly love Him.  So how much should we do?  That is easy . . . just look at the Crucifix.
  • Keep it simple – do what God tells you to do just for today, just for this hour. 
  • Read the black part of Scripture, not the white part. 
  • Jesus came to establish His Church and not to write a book. 
  • The Bible is not a history book.  It only contains what is necessary for salvation. 
  • Sometimes people call the Church an “it.”  No.  The Church is a “Who.” 
  • Stop complaining and come down from the Cross. We need the wood.
  • What is lacking in the sufferings of Christ is our participation in it. 
  • How do you find God?  Stop running.
  • We don’t have to like everybody, but we have to love them.
  • God’s medicine is the gift of the Sacraments. 
  • The only difference between mortal and venial sins for someone who truly loves God is the difference between punching and slapping their spouse.
  • Mortal sin kills the soul immediately. Venial sin kills it slowly with death by a thousand cuts. 
  • Anybody in hell is a self-made man or woman.
  • Hanging on to your faith is an act of Will. 
  • To get things done, all I need is a checkbook and a phone book, and I can make things happen.
  • If you want to be somebody in the Church, be a nobody like Christ.  Be humble.
  • We must die to self to live for others. 
  • Attention to basics is how we grow in spiritual life. 
  • Do the routine things routinely and they will become spiritual muscle memory.  
  • I don’t care how good you are, you cannot earn God’s love.  His Love is free. 
  • Nothing that we have done can stop God’s love for us.  Nothing. 
  • We always ask for too little while God offers us so much.
  • A lot of people have the King Baby Syndrome; “I want what I want when I want it.”
  • Show love.  It can be understood in any language. 
  • “I have no sin.” Then you don’t need to come to church. Don’t anybody start running for the doors! 
  • God calls each of us by name and asks us to be His disciples and evangelists. 
  • “Oh!  Do you mean I have to go to Mass every Sunday?”  Well, you catch all the Panthers games, don’t you?  
  • The more I learn, the more I realize that I don’t know everything. 
  • The greatest sermon is one that people can see.  We preach the love of God by our works of mercy. 
  • We all have a hole in our soul that we try to fill with all sorts of people, places, and things.  But it is a place where only God can dwell to make us whole and complete. 

How will you apply this message to your life?  ________________________________________

You can read all of Father Fitzgibbons’ sermons by going to AnnunciationCatholicAlbemarle.com, clicking on “Blog” then “Categories” and then “Sermon Notes.”  On a cell phone: click on “Blog” and then “Menu.”  Scroll to the bottom and click on “Categories.”  Sermon Notes are also available on the Church’s Facebook page at OLA.Catholic.Church.  Click on “Groups” and then “Sermon Notes.”

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Sermon Notes – October 5, 2025 – “Heart Speaking to Heart”

“Heart Speaking to Heart”

Father Peter Fitzgibbons

October 4 – 5, 2025

Gospel: Luke 17: 5-10

Prayer is heart speaking to heart.  It is wonderful to pray for things.  We are called to pray for every good gift.  We are also called to pray for those who persecute us.  People have suggested different ways in which to pray.  “Pray in the Spirit.”  Here is a news flash – everybody prays in the Spirit.  “Praying precisely this way is the key to getting what you want.”  Are you saying that if we have been praying and haven’t gotten what we ask for, we haven’t been praying correctly?  I have been praying to become a monsignor for 41 years.  Have I gotten it wrong all these years?  I’m beginning to think it’s not going to happen because that might make me more insufferable, unbearable, and a bigger pain in the keister than I already am.  God is trying to save me from grave danger.  

What we ask for in our prayers may seem good, but we do not know God’s plans.  “If you say this prayer 13 times a day in just this way, God will give you what you want.”   No.  That is superstition.  Sometimes He grants our wishes, and sometimes He doesn’t.  I had a lady come to talk with me and she was really upset.  She said, “I claimed this gift in prayer.  I stand on the Bible, and I claimed it!”   Are you saying that because you “claim” it that it is going to happen?  What about the parents of all those kids in children’s hospitals who “claim” it and their children did not survive?  Did they pray wrong?  Did God say, “Because you prayed incorrectly and did not “claim” it, I am taking your child?”  What kind of God is that?  Do you think that happens?  No.  Prayer cannot change God’s Will.  Look at Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.  He expressed His fear through His human nature when He said, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet, not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39).  What we ask for in our prayers may seem good, but we do not know God’s plans.  We cannot change God’s Will by our prayers.  Instead, we have to change us.  However, that does not mean we shouldn’t pray as if everything depends on it and use our friends in high places like the Blessed Mother, our Guardian Angel, and the saints.  When I invoke their intercession, I have great confidence that my prayer will be answered even though I may dislike the answer.  Storm Heaven with your prayers.  Become spiritually obnoxious with your prayers for what you want and need.  We are called to do that. 

If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, your faith can increase immeasurably.  How do we increase our faith?  By receiving the Sacraments.  What do I mean by that?  Faith, hope, and charity are divine virtues that are infused into our souls when we receive the Sacraments.  The other virtues are called habitual virtues that you get by doing.  I hear this a lot during confessions, “Father, I pray for patience.”  Oh, you’re in trouble.  Patience is an acquired virtue – you get it by doing.  Every idiot in Stanly County will be knocking on your door just to annoy you.  “Have you heard about Jesus?”  Yes, now go away.  When you pray for patience, you will encounter a lot of people who will stretch your patience.    

Increase your faith by receiving the Sacraments and then act upon that increase in faith by doing what God asks of you.  Do not be sad when your prayers are not answered immediately or as you would like.  Pray for the grace to accept God’s Will.  Giving up our Will is the hardest thing of all to do. Taking back our Will and rejecting God’s is what got us kicked out of Paradise.  But if we resign our Will and trust in God’s, we will find our way back to Paradise. 

Father’s Reflections . . .

Two days ago, we had a gentleman who was run over and killed in a car accident.  He was homeless, and the police are searching for any of his relatives.  I would ask you to offer a Hail Mary for the mother of that man.  Now I know that mothers all have their difficulties not to mention their husbands, but I don’t believe in my heart of hearts that any woman would want their child to be homeless, wandering around the streets at night and getting killed.  I’m sure that was not her wish for her son no matter how bad of a mother she was.  So please, if she is still alive, pray for her soul. 

A friend called me the other day.  She and her husband were college classmates of mine. She’s the one who tried to poison me while I was on vacation.  But I didn’t take it personally.  She told me that what she saw on the news about our military was really stressing her out.   I said, “Let me tell you about stress.  When the sirens went off during the first Gulf war, we had 21 seconds to close our eyes, stop breathing, grab our gas mask, seal it, and clear it.  Then we could breathe again.  After that, we had a leisurely one minute and 39 seconds to put on our chemical protection suits including boots and two sets of gloves.”  That is real stress unlike the stress you get in basic training where they might hurt your feelings.  When you start taking incoming fire, you will be begging to go to Fort Bragg or Parris Island.  So don’t get upset at people who comment on what’s going on in our military, because they have no idea.  They have never had a gunshot fired at or near them.

How will you apply this message to your life?  _______________________________________

You can read all of Father Fitzgibbons’ sermons by going to AnnunciationCatholicAlbemarle.com, clicking on “Blog,” then “Categories,” and then “Sermon Notes.”  On a cell phone: click on “Blog” and then “Menu.”  Scroll to the bottom and click on “Categories.”  Sermon Notes are also available on the church’s Facebook page at OLA.Catholic.Church.  Click on “Groups” and then “Sermon Notes.

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When God Answers with Hard Instead of Easy

We pray for God to make us stronger, to grow our faith, to deepen our walk with Him.

As we say our “Amen” and step out into life, more times than not, we are caught off guard by what is almost inevitably coming next – temptation, trials, suffering, hardship, disappointment, grief.

As much as we love “easy”, God in His infinite wisdom, merciful favor, and unfathomable love, knows the only way we will grow in our faith is to come face to face with that which builds our spiritual strength.

Easy doesn’t require faith.

Easy doesn’t build spiritual muscles.

Easy doesn’t draw us deeper into relationship with God.

It is in the hard times that we learn to depend upon our God and discover He is dependable.

It is in the hard times that our faith reaches with everything it has deep into the heart of God and there discovers everything it needs.

It is in the hard times, when we have nothing else, that we come to discover God is more than enough.

We pray for God to make us stronger, to grow our faith, to deepen our walk with Him.

When God, in His infinite wisdom, merciful favor, and unfathomable love, answers our prayer, may we not murmur, complain, resent or rebel.

May we instead, embrace His gracious gift and discover what is inevitably coming next – spiritual strength, a deeper faith, a closer walk with our God.~♥️

~Stacy L. Sanchez / Heartprints of God

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Give Your Heart to Him

For the one trying to pray for and to forgive someone who might not even have asked for your forgiveness –

Sometimes, most times in fact – it is beyond us to forgive without the help of the Spirit.

Sometimes, most times in fact – the best prayer we can pray is that which Jesus, Himself, prayed.

A prayer that is simply and powerfully this:

“Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” ~Luke 23:34

It doesn’t excuse the behavior, but it does guard our own heart against hatred and bitterness. In all things, especially in this – we can follow the example of our Savior.

Just like Jesus, we can give the hurt to our Heavenly Father.~❤

~Stacy L. Sanchez / Heartprints of God

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His Word is a Lamp at Our Feet

Gracious Heavenly Father,
As I pour out my heart before You,
I don’t even know where to begin
or how all of this is going to end.

(My child, I am the Alpha and Omega,
the beginning and the end.
I’ve got this and I’ve got you.)

The voice of the world,
the cry of my heart,
and Your still, small voice –
all intertwined together,
a muffled, muting combination.
How can I hear You, Lord?
How can I find You in all of this, Father God?

(My child, My word is a lamp
for your feet and a light for your path.
My Spirit will lead you into all truth.
I am The Way, The Truth, and The Life.
Ask, and you will receive.
Seek, and you will find.
Knock, and the door will be opened to you.
I am here,
in the midst of all the confusion,
and you will find Me
when you search for Me
with all of your heart.)

Oh, Father God.
I am weary of the battle,
weary of the fight.
I long for peace,
calm assurance, unending strength.

(My child, My peace I give to you.
Not as the world gives peace,
for My peace passes all understanding.
I am not the author of confusion,
I am Truth.
Truth you can stake
your very life on.
Rest in My faithfulness,
walk in My strength.)

Your will, Abba Father.
This is want I desire most.
Your plan, loving Lord.
This is where I want to be.
Your obedient child, Heavenly Father.
This is who I want to be.

(My child, I know the desires of your heart.
If you will but delight yourself in Me,
I will grant them all.
I love you, My child.
I always have and I always will.
I AM here. Be at peace.)

Thank you, Father God.
In Jesus’ precious name,
I pray. Amen.~

Heartprints of God

This is just one of forty-one prayers you will find in my book, “Gracious Heavenly Father: A Collection of Morning Prayers”. For more information and/or to purchase a copy simply look for the link in the first comment below or here: Stacy L. Sanchez

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The Rosary in a Year – Day 4 – Prayer with Mary

The Rosary is a Marian prayer, which means we can deepen our experience of prayer through meditating on Mary’s life and virtues. Follow along with Fr. Mark-Mary as he explains how Mary mirrors God the Father’s love, and shares a meditation on how we can experience the loving face of Mary in our prayer of the Rosary today. Today’s focus is “Mary, the mirror of justice,” and we will be praying one Our Father, three Hail Marys, and one Glory Be.

https://www.youtube.com/@TheRosaryinaYear