St. Jerome Catholic Church in Phoenix recently shared some of their parochial vicar's favorite Scriptures.

Fr. Jilson Panakkal noted that if pressed to name his ten most inspiring Scriptures from the Bible, Luke 10:8 would certainly be on the list. 

“God is the eternal host," Panakkal said in the church's Oct. 18 bulletin. "He sets our table. Shouldn’t we accept what is set before us?”

For instance, while they may be challenging at times, our families have been given to us by God and they are in our lives for our ups and down and the good and bad moments. 

When we think about the life of Job, we see that a man who was blessed with a great deal of family members also lost all of them, Panakkal said. When his wife tempted him to curse God, Job refused and stated that we must be ready to accept both good and bad things from God. (Job 2:9-10)

“There is a thought-provoking incident in the life of King David,” Panakkal said. “David was fleeing Jerusalem to escape the onslaught of his son, Absalom. Oh his flee, the king met one man called Shimei who kept cursing and throwing stones at King David and his men.” While one of his men wanted to kill the individual, David stopped the violence and posited the idea that perhaps he had been told by God to curse David and his men. 

Perhaps one of the most challenging passages we read as humans is when we look at the words of Jesus Christ while he was in the garden of Gethsemane. 

Jesus prayed to God the Father a number of times, asking that if possible the suffering be taken from him, that it might not happen. (luke 22:42) Nevertheless, Jesus accepted the lot that was before him, even knowing that it would be filled with agony.

“Jesus invites all those who labor and are burdened to take his yoke and learn from him," Fr. Panakkal said. "For his yoke is easy and his burden is light."