No amount of the external things we do, no matter how pious looking they may appear, will ever bring us closer to God until we can change what is on the inside.

Go through life remembering those last few words of the prayer that our Lord taught us, that with all things, it is never the expectation that “my will be done”…but rather the hope that  “His will be done.”  This is the key to happiness, it is the key to the Kingdom, and it is the key to the Glory of God, who answers all who call upon Him with hope.

At every moment in our lives, even right this moment, our Lord stands at the door, waiting for us to let Him in.  The way that we crack the door is by practicing some small measure of virtue in order to allow Christ the opportunity to open our hearts the rest of the way.

There are times this year where life will become rather difficult.  There will be loved ones who come down with serious illnesses.  There will be stress that will make us all want to pull our hair out.  There are families here today who will experience the loss of a family member who has gone on to eternal life.  But through it all, we have to remember and lean on those words that we sang during Compline: “God is with us!”

Our secular culture has no room for angels or heavenly revelation.  People who claim to have spoken to angels are generally considered crazy.  But as Christians we know that God is not some remote, absent collective consciousness, that has little or no influence in our daily lives.  Instead, we know that He is the God of the living; a loving Father Who acts every minute of every day on our behalf.