Uncategorized Archives - Redeemed Online

Lent 2018 Survey

April 24, 2018 by Andy Lesnefsky 16 Comments

You rock. Thanks for being you. I wanted to thank you for being a part of our Lenten #ShareJesus campaign.

We would love to hear from you. We wanted to ask you for 5 minutes of your time to share some feedback and your thoughts.

Fill out my online form.

We’ve got some big things in the works for 2018 and hope you will be a part of them:

We are hoping to launch a new daily podcast that provides a 2-3 minute audio reflection based on the daily Mass readings to help people continue to grow in their relationship with God and to help them share Jesus with others.
We will be continuing with releasing weekly videos. Like our current video series for Easter, we will be taking a few weeks at a time to dive deep into a topic or theme.
We are looking at revamping our website and adding some new functionalities to it.

These things can only happen with your support. To launch the new podcast and grow our current initiatives, we need to increase our monthly support from $800 to $1100. Our monthly supporters give through Patreon.

If you aren’t familiar with Patreon, it’s an easy way for those interested in our work to support it. It helps us expand our reach. By contributing as little as $1 per month, patrons will enable us to dedicate more time to creating by helping cover the many costs of our work and advertising.

Thanks for being a part of what we are doing at Redeemed Online. I would be honored if you were interested in becoming one of our patrons and helping us lay the foundation for what we know will be a great ongoing project.

If you’re not in the position to become our patron, no worries at all! Your continued involvement and prayers mean the world to us. We would be happy to hear any feedback (good or bad) you could share in regards to our work.

Thanks so much for your support!

How is Your Prayer Life?

April 11, 2018 by Andy Lesnefsky 5 Comments

As we continue to journey closer to Jesus this Easter, let’s take a minute today to take stock of our prayer life. How is your prayer life?How do you pray? Are you growing in prayer?

Saint John Vianney reminds us, “My little children, your hearts are small, but prayer stretches them and makes them capable of loving God. Through prayer we receive a foretaste of heaven and something of paradise comes down upon us. Prayer never leaves us without sweetness. It is honey that flows into the souls and makes all things sweet. When we pray properly, sorrows disappear like snow before the sun.”

This Easter seek to make prayer your “first thing.” Jesus longs to be the person you wake up thinking about and the person on your heart as you lay down to sleep at night. Jesus is jealous for your heart. Give him some extra time today and meet him in prayer.

Watch this week’s video now:

Latest Podcast Episode: Sleep, Prayer Problems, and St. Joseph

We need it to live and it should be a natural part of our lives. This episode takes a look at prayer and the humility of God. He is not only present in the Eucharist and in our church, but he meets us in our heart.

St. Joseph is our featured saint this episode.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN

Some extra help for your Lenten journey

February 13, 2018 by Andy Lesnefsky 2 Comments

We are only a few hours from the start of Lent. We want you to have your best Lent ever.

How? Our invitation to you is to focus on the who of Lent and not just the what of Lent.

Here’s the replay of our live video on making the most of Lent. I was supposed to be live with my brother Bob but he got his van stuck in a muddy ditch (don’t worry he eventually made it home.)

Need some inspiration for Ash Wednesday? Here are some of our previous #ShareJesus videos on Ash Wednesday:

Fr. Leo Patalinghug

Fr. Mike Schmitz

Michael Gormley

For all you parents out there, we want you and your family to have an amazing Lent, so we are offering our course for Catholic parents at 50% off with the coupon code Lent. This course is designed to help you grow in relationship with Jesus as a parent and to empower you to better share your faith with your kids. Get the course with this limited time savings today! Click here.

Lastly, if you haven’t invited a friend or family member to join #ShareJesus for Lent, don’t wait any longer. Invite them today.

God bless you and your family!

Andy

The Christmas Myth

December 29, 2017 by Andy Lesnefsky 41 Comments

Just because everyone believes something doesn’t make it true. I need to remind myself of 4 Christmas myths every year at this time.

Webster defines a myth as “an idea or story that is believed by many people but that is not true.” Here are the myths of Christmas:

1. Christmas is the “perfect holiday”

I remember several years ago trying to rush my family along to get to Mass on time. I just wanted to be on time. Is this too much to ask? We were going to the overflow 4:15 pm Mass in the gym because we knew we would never make in time to go to the 4 pm in the church. I was mad because in my mind I wanted the Hallmark Channel Christmas but instead we were sitting in the hallway outside the gym unable to get into Mass, because we were late of course.

Somehow in the midst of this, God gently reminded me he was born in a smelly, disgusting animal feeding trough. If your Christmas isn’t perfect or even painful, lonely, or sad, remember it’s a myth that Christmas is supposed to be perfect. The first Christmas was a beautiful moment in what seemed to be a terrible situation.

God showed up there anyway.

2. Christmas is fake.

Large inflatable Christmas decorations make me angry. There’s probably something wrong with me, but they really do make me angry. A neighbor used to have an oversized inflatable snow globe that had rotating parts. I would sometimes slow down and just stare at it. Perhaps I was contemplating slashing the inflatable with a knife.

This year everywhere I look there are Star Wars Christmas decorations. I love Star Wars, but seriously?

The greatest myth of Christmas is most likely that Christmas is about whatever you want it to be about. Know this: Christmas is real. God entered into our world in a messy manger scene. This is the pivotal moment of human history.

If you haven’t really experienced this, that’s okay. It’s okay because it’s not too late. God became man in Jesus Christ. This reality changes everything because in Jesus we see who God is, we see who we really are, and we are invited to share in the greatest love story ever.

3. I’ll be ready for Christmas.

Yes, you can bet we were ready at my house for Christmas. This is not my doing. It is thanks mostly in part to my amazing wife, target.com, Amazon Prime and the UPS guys who always seem to be bringing a package.

I won’t be ready for Christmas though because I haven’t prayed as much as I wanted to this Advent, got my act completely together or finally achieved the sainthood that I thought I was going to accomplish this Advent.

You can’t be fully ready for God. Remember, you are human. He is God. You don’t deserve, nor will you ever deserve, his love. It’s his gift. That is the gift of Christmas.

4. It’s over.

Those awesome radio stations that play non-stop Christmas music will be seemingly blown to bits by the Death Star on Dec. 26 at 12:01 am because Christmas is over. Before the weekend ends everyone’s decorations will also disappear.

The reality is Christmas is a season for us as Catholics. Don’t stop the party, the singing, and the prayer because we celebrate the great reality that God is with us in the person of Jesus Christ.

Christmas isn’t supposed to be perfect. It’s real. You’ll never be ready for it, and don’t stop celebrating it yet.

Wishing you the best Christmas ever,

Andy

1. Christmas is the “perfect holiday”

2. Christmas is fake.

3. I’ll be ready for Christmas.

4. It’s over.

I would love to connect with you.