Memorial of Saint Irenaeus

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’
will enter the Kingdom of heaven,
but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.
Many will say to me on that day,
‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name?
Did we not drive out demons in your name?
Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?’
Then I will declare to them solemnly,
‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.’

“Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them
will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.

The rain fell, the floods came,
and the winds blew and buffeted the house.
But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock.
And everyone who listens to these words of mine
but does not act on them
will be like a fool who built his house on sand.
The rain fell, the floods came,
and the winds blew and buffeted the house.
And it collapsed and was completely ruined.”

When Jesus finished these words,
the crowds were astonished at his teaching,
for he taught them as one having authority,
and not as their scribes.
Matthew 7:21-29

Prayer

Dear Father your will is our will. It is to do your will above our own that will gain us everlasting life. To heed Jesus' words and to follow what he says, since his word is your word. When we do this we have then built our house on rock, it is solid. So true these words are that Jesus spoke of. Faith and complete trust in God in doing his will is the foundation of our lives. Jesus knew most of all what it meant to do God's will, he did it and we are reading about it some two thousand plus years later. Doing God's will is easy, it's ignoring our will that is hard. Let us build our houses on a solid foundation that is built on rock, faith, love and trust in God's will. May we learn to build our faith foundations in this way in order for us to have life. Amen