Andy Lesnefsky

The Identity Card of a Christian

July 5, 2018 by Andy Lesnefsky 3 Comments

Quote for the week: “Anyone who piously and earnestly ponders the Sermon on the Mount — as we read in the Gospel according to Mathew — I believe he will find therein… the perfect standard of the Christian Life.” – St. Augustine

Thought for the week: What makes you happy? In the Beatitudes, Jesus turns the common notions of blessing and happiness upside down. What makes us truly happy is to be holy and the Beatitudes point us to that. As Pope Francis reminds us, “The Beatitudes are like a Christian’s identity card. So if anyone asks: ‘What must one do to be a good Christian?’ the answer is clear.“

Prayer: Jesus, help me be like you in all things. I want to be holy but so often I choose things that will never bring me true satisfaction. Jesus, I love you. Help me to be meek, poor in spirit, a peacemaker, and never allow me to be discouraged in the face of trial. Amen

Watch and Respond- Join in the conversation: What do you think it means to be poor in spirit?

Holiness and Community

June 28, 2018 by Andy Lesnefsky 1 Comment

Quote for the week: “God sends us friends to be our firm support in the whirlpool of struggle. In the company of friends, we will find the strength to attain our sublime ideal.” – St. Maximilian Kolbe

Thought for the week: Be encouraged by this week’s video and focus on the small ways you can love those around you and try to build community.

Prayer: Jesus, I realize I need you but I also need others. Please help me to grow in community with others and see you in the people in my life. Help me to be authentic and vulnerable. I give today, my thoughts, my heart, and my entire self. Amen

Watch and Respond- Join in the conversation: How has community helped you grow closer to Jesus?

Latest Podcast Episode: Politics, Money, and Holiness

How in the world can politics and money have anything to do with holiness? In this episode, we discuss the Beatitudes and look at St. Thomas More.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN

Constant Prayer

June 21, 2018 by Andy Lesnefsky 1 Comment

How can we constantly pray?

Is it even possible to pray constantly? It sounds like a great thing, but it also sounds quite overwhelming.

Pope Francis points to constant prayer as a sign of holiness in the world in chapter four of his apostolic exhortation “Rejoice and Be Glad.”

Constant prayer isn’t one more thing we need to do. It’s an invitation to experience grace throughout our day.

In this week’s video, Shannon Keating talks about how we can make constant prayer a reality in our lives. Don’t miss it!

As a side note, Shannon is one of the incredible missionaries of Dirty Vagabond Ministries that works daily to help bring the gospel to inner-city kids. Would you also keep her work in your prayers today? As always, we love to hear your feedback! Please comment and share.

Latest Podcast Episode: Heresies, Holiness, and St. Irenaeus

Don’t accidentally be a heretic…Pope Francis encourages us to understand what holiness is truly all about. Check out our latest Podcast with St. Irenaeus as our featured saint.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN

Abandon Mediocrity and be Bold

June 13, 2018 by Andy Lesnefsky 1 Comment

The adventure can begin anew today. I believe that God is inviting each of us to receive “more” today: more love, more grace, more mercy. No matter the depth of our knowledge of God, he is infinitely greater and more perfect than we can imagine and he loves us more perfectly than we realize.

“The most beautiful and stirring adventure that can happen to you is the personal meeting with Jesus, who is the only one who gives real meaning to our lives.” St John Paul II

This week’s #ShareJesus video focuses on boldness as one of the attributes of holiness witnessed in the world as mentioned in Chapter Four of “Rejoice and Be Glad.” Boldness is an invitation to the adventure that begins with our personal encounter with Christ today.

Be bold. Be who God created you to be.

Watch this week’s video with Andy Lesnefsky.

Humor and Holiness

June 7, 2018 by Andy Lesnefsky 1 Comment

Humor and holiness might not seem like an important topic, but I believe Pope Francis is giving us an important reminder. As someone who takes great joy in humor, I felt some pressure to make this video intro witty or funny. However, in preparing this introduction, I stumbled across an amazing quote about humor, Jesus, and Saints from Archbishop Fulton Sheen.

It’s incredible and I’ll let it serve as the intro for this week’s video:

“One night there rang out over the stillness of an evening breeze the cry of the heart of God in the voice of a child. And when the Babe grew in grace and wisdom, He went into the public lanes and marketplaces and began to teach a new doctrine to men – the doctrine of the Divine Sense of Humor.

Everything He said, everything He did could be summed up in these words: Nothing in the world is to be taken seriously, nothing – except the salvation of a soul.

Such is the history of the Divine Sense of Humor, and now that we know what it is, we may ask who are they who understand and possess it, and here the answer must be that those who possess it in its fullness are saints.

I do not mean canonized saints, but rather the great army of solid Christians to whom everything speaks a story of God’s love. A saint can be defined as one who has a Divine Sense of Humor, for a saint never takes the world seriously as the lasting city.

To him, the world is like a scaffolding up through which souls climb to the Kingdom of Heaven, and when the last soul shall have climbed up through it, then it shall be torn down, not because it is base, but simply because it has done its work. He who came to this earth to teach us the Divine Sense of Humor showed us everything that was lovely and beautiful in His Character.”

How do you see a connection between humor and holiness? I would love to hear from you!

Watch this week’s video featuring Scott Lieb.

Latest Podcast Episode: Rejoice and Be Glad & Edith Stein

The Catholic Heroes Podcast is all about the call to holiness and that each of us can be saints, “Catholic Heroes.” I was beyond thrilled to read and study Pope Francis’s most recent Apostolic Exhortation, Gaudete et Exsultate, “Rejoice and Be Glad.”

We are going to take several episodes to take a deep dive in the exhortation. It’s an impressive study on what the call to holiness means for each of us today.

This episode focuses on the first chapter of the exhortation. The featured Saint of this episode is St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN.

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