How to Create Meaningful Christian Relationships Build a relationship that glorifies God!

Do you know what it means to love someone? Jesus does, and He made sure to give us important lessons so we would know what it means to have a meaningful Christian relationship. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 tells us "Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it

keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.” This is just a snippet of what God wanted us to understand about the universal signs of healthy relationships. Our faith strongly influences how we interact with others, and when you are ready to be romantically involved with someone as a Christian, you should be looking to glorify God in your relationship. You can create a relationship with Him as the foundation. Here is how you can create the relationship God intended for you.

Find God in Your Life In order to have a solid Christian relationship, you first have to have an intimate relationship with God. Have you spent much time on your own personal faith journey? Are you feeling close to Jesus, or have you been ignoring His call lately? Do something daily that is just between you and the Lord. Prayer, meditation, and daily devotionals are all great options. When you spend time with God, you rejuvenate yourself, get a clearer mind, and are generally a more positive person. This allows you to be more focused on building a deep, meaningful Christian relationship with others. A relationship with Him also teaches you what it means to have a healthy relationship. You will have a better understanding of what real love means. In addition, you can turn to God in times when the relationship isn ’t going well, and in times when it is. He wants to hear it all.

Share God With Each Other If you want to have a Christian relationship, that means you both should want to walk on your faith journey together. Sharing God with your partner is a great way for you both to grow and learn about Christ. Immerse yourselves in your faith, receive the salvation of the Lord, and your life will change for the better. You will grow and learn all of what makes a relationship work through studying the path of Christ. Discuss and grow with your partner through church, the word of the gospel and in prayer. Make Christ the foundation of your relationship and you will be stronger than you thought you could ever be. Come up with a daily ritual you all can do together. Maybe you will spend 20 minutes each night going over a devotional, or you will go to yearly mission trips as a couple. Whatever it is, make it something that makes you both feel more connected to each other and Christ.

Have Mutual Respect Respect is crucial to a healthy, Christian relationship. One of the most charming things in the world is to be around two people who respect each other. It shows in the sparkle in their eyes when they look at one another. There ’s no mistaking respect for any other personal quality, because no other quality looks and acts the same way. In order to learn to respect others, you must first learn how to respect yourself. To do so, you need to start seeing yourself the way God sees you. God created you and loves you, and He’s proud of you. You should be proud of yourself. When you look at others, admire them for being another amazing creation of God. Show them that same loving level of respect. Respect them for who they are and what God has in store for them.

Seek to Copy Jesus’ Relationships Do you know how Christ treated others? Sit down with your partner and read how Jesus dealt with situations and personal relationships. Through these lessons, you will learn how you should be treating each other. Jesus always put His love in everything He did. We should want to mimic that, and always put our heart into our actions and decisions. God left the Bible for us so that we could gain wisdom, truth and guidance in all things, including our relationships. If you are struggling to emulate Jesus in your relationship, take comfort in knowing the solution to any problem is only a prayer away. It may become difficult at times when two individuals are trying to be together, but take solace in the Lord because He will give you the strength needed to overcome problems and comfort each other with solutions.

You probably felt a huge sense of relief, and strived to be better in the future. Matthew 6:14: "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you."

Continued...

Away from home? Find a mass wherever you are by visiting www.masstimes.org

Prayer against Coronavirus

Lord Jesus Christ, our Divine Physician we ask You to guard and protect us from Coronavirus COVID-19 and all seri-

ous illness. For all that have died from it, have mercy; for those that are ill now, bring healing. For those searching for

a remedy, enlighten them; for medical caregivers helping the sick, strengthen and shield them. For those working to

contain the spread, grant them success; for those afraid, grant peace. May Your Precious Blood be our defense and

salvation. By Your grace, may you turn the evil of disease into moments of consolation and hope. May we always fear

the contagion of sin more than any illness. We abandon ourselves to Your infinite mercy. Amen.

Pedro de la Cruz

Practice Forgiveness We have learned from Jesus what it means to forgive. Jesus gave us the ultimate sacrifice, giving His life in order to forgive us of our sins. What a beautiful example. It goes to show that no matter what someone does, if they truly repent they can start again. While it can be hard to forgive others for their wrongdoing, it’s a necessity if we want to have healthy Christian relationships. It should be in our nature as Christians to forgive those who "trespass against us” because when we don’t, the relationship will surely crumble apart. No human is perfect, and we are all bound to make mistakes. If you are having trouble forgiving someone, remember a time when you were forgiven. You probably felt a huge sense of relief, and strived to be better in the future. Matthew 6:14: "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you."

Be Faithful Jesus was always faithful to God, no matter what He faced throughout His life. All the road bumps and issues Jesus faced never gave Him any unwavering doubt. To be faithful is to be reliable, unwavering and steadfast. This principle is described in the Bible as an attribute of God, a characteristic that some exhibit and some lack. When the Bible speaks of God's faithfulness, we see how over and over again, when God says He will do something, He does it. Jesus modeled faithfulness in His promise to never leave us or forsake us. We can do this in our relationships, as well. We make promises to our partner that we should always keep. They can be as small as “I will do the dishes” to huge commitments such as marriage. Even when things are down in your relationship, you should remain loyal and faithful as Jesus has taught us.

Jesus’ life was a perfect example of how we should live our own. He taught us what it means to truly love another person. It means being forgiving, showing respect, and being partners in a relationship. We should continually try to learn from Jesus’ example and keep Him at the forefront of our relationships. When we do, we build a strong foundation that even Satan can’t shake.

BERKS CATHOLIC NEWS: Registration is open for the 21-22 School Year! Please contact Nicky Smith for information on how to Be A Saint and how Berks Catholic prepares young men and women to Be College and Life Ready. All inquiries are confidential. Call 610.374.8361 ext. 244 or email nsmith@berkscatholic.org

Employment Opportunity Berks Catholic High School has an opening for a part time maintenance person. Please email aeinolf@berkscatholic.org for more Information.

We wish all of our Family of Faith a safe, happy

and blessed New Year in 2021!

St. John Baptist de la salle december 27th 2020

www.stjohnsfamilyoffaith.com THE HOLY FAMILY OF JESUS, MARY AND JOSEPH

MONDAY, DEC. 28 – the Holy Innocents 8:00 a.m. NO MASS TUESDAY, DEC. 29 – Fifth Day within the Oc-tave of the Nativity of the Lord/ St. Thomas Becket 7:00 p.m. Kurt Snyder WEDNESDAY, DEC. 30 – Sixth Day within the Octave of the Nativity of the Lord 8:00 a.m. Joann Kidron THURSDAY, DEC. 31 – Seventh Day within the Octave of the Nativity of the Lord/St. Sylvester I/Vigil for the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God 4:00 p.m. Angelo Aldi FRIDAY, JAN. 1 - Solemnity of Mary 8:30 a.m. Angelina Barrocca 10:30 a.m. People of the Parish

EPIPHANY OF THE LORD SATURDAY, JAN 2 4:00 p.m. Marlin Rautzhan SUNDAY, JAN. 3 8:30 a.m. George Hlodash, Sr. 10:30 a.m. People of the Parish

Please direct all bulletin and website inquiries to the Parish Communications Coordinator, Sarah Capato at 610.850.4978 or sarah@stjohnsfamilyoffaith.com.

Bulletin submissions are due Thursday, ten days prior to the Sunday of publication.

SATURDAY, JAN.2 – 4:00PM Lector: Maria Biancone EM: Cliff Brahmstadt, Renee Reali, Renee Premici, Bernadette Yohn SUNDAY, JAN. 3 – 8:30AM Lector: Tony Farina EM: Mary Stadelmeyer, Paulette Goodhart, Judy & Bob Peters, Chris Boland SUNDAY, JAN 3 – 10:30AM Lector: Trevor Schonen EM: Alverda & Craig Turnbaugh, Louise Kellenberger, Mary Beth Kakos, Judy Stephan

Sanctuary Candle for the Week of 12/27-1/2/2021 in loving memory of George Hlodash, Sr. (requested by Shirley & Linda Hlodash)

Weekly stewardship

SUNDAY:12/13:$6,821.25

Altar Bread for the month of December: In loving memory of Marlin Rautzhan

(requested by Gere Rautzhan)

Mass intentions for the week

Upcoming liturgical ministers

First Reading: Gn 15:1-6, 21: 1-3 Abram shows us the Lord keeps His promises, for his off-spring were indeed many, like the stars in heaven. We, too, must trust in the Lord, so like Abram, our families might prosper. Second Reading: Hebrews 11:8, 11-12, 17-19 By faith Abraham and Sarah were blessed with Isaac, and through him, many descendants because they trusted in God’s promise and believed in what they could not see. We see that faith, trust and prayer bring forth God’s mira-cles in our lives. Gospel: Luke 2:22-40 Jesus was brought to Jerusalem to be consecrated ac-cording to the law of Moses. A man named Simeon had learned he would not die until he had seen God’s anoint-ed. Upon seeing Jesus, he immediately declared he had witnessed “the glory of your people of Israel.” The proph-etess Anna also gave thanks and spoke of Jesus to all who would listen. Both recognized the power of Jesus, although he was still an infant.

Todays readings

Catholic Bishop Abuse Reporting Service If you have an allegation of abuse against a bishop, please con-tact the Catholic Bishop Abuse Reporting Service at www.ReportBishopAbuse.org or by calling 800.276.1562.

DIOCESAN OFFICE OF SAFE ENVIRONMENT Pamela J. Russo, M.S.W, M.S. Secretary, Youth Protection and Catholic Human Services P.O. Box F, Allentown, PA 18105-1538 610.871.5200 ext. 2204 or prusso@allentowndiocese.org

VICTIM ASSISTANCE COORDINATOR Mrs. Wendy S. Krisak Kalamar DIRECT LINE: 1.800.791.9209

Parish Safe Environment Coordinator: Bernadette Yohn 610.777.1697 or st.jbdls@verizon.net

Please take Note: Due to the Holy Day – Solemnity of Mary, our Vigil Mass on Thurs-day is 4 PM – there is NO 7 PM on that day. Masses for Jan. 1 are 8:30 & 10:30 AM.