The Most Holy Eucharist

“Into whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this household.’” (Luke 10:5). In this passage, Jesus is telling the 72 missionaries – not the 12 apostles- on how to do ministry. For me, all I could do was repeat this phrase ‘Peace to this house’ and I am thinking of my own heart.

I am happy to tell you that I am now renting a space out for my office and recording studio! It is the upstairs of an old convent at my local parish. Over the past few weeks, I have been settling in. So far it has been going really well. I was able to record the vocals and organ/ambient parts for my new song here. I look forward to recording hopefully two new songs (for sure one) to share with you next month!

At home, we have nearly finished our bathroom. My father-in-law did a great job installing the tile floor and drywall along with some other things! All we need to do is paint, install the washer/dryer, and put the trim and door in and we are good to go! Both our wood burning stove and our propane furnace passed their ‘test runs’ as some of our nights and early mornings have gotten down to the 30’s outside. We continue to love living up north and are so happy God has provided this land and home for us. I played at the open mic in Iron River, MI on September 25th and sold a decent amount of CD’s. I also got a new monthly donor at $15 a month! Money is tight right now but I do have a plan to try to increase my support team this fall.

As I am settling in, I am trying to establish good habits. One of them has been to pray with the Scriptures after eating lunch and another has been to pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet in front of the Blessed Sacrament sometime during the 3PM hour. On a human level, I have been getting back into playing hockey and lifting weights. It has been a great feeling to get back on the ice and to try to fight my growing dad bod  My son Blaise will be starting hockey this winter and I am planning to be an assistant coach. We are super pumped!

In my prayer with the Scriptures I have felt peace. I want to encourage you to make a real priority to pray and read the Scriptures. In the past few years, I feel like I have often been more like Martha than Mary. Have I spent time in prayer? Yes. But I have also justified at times not praying in order to try to get more things done or to relax. The song that I made is definitely a great reminder to myself. “There’s a war within my soul. One that I’ll never win alone. I need you to fight for me. I need you, my sword, my shield.”

And there is also a war within our world. One that we will never win alone. More than any other time in history, we have so many means of communication. I do think it is important to try to figure out what is happening in our world, country, and our church, but we must not forget our trust and hope in Christ! “The Lord himself will fight for you, you need only to be still.” -Exodus 14:14. Do not let the bad news of this life take away the good news of the salvation He won for us! Jesus has won the war. All that remains is the many small battles for each soul remaining on earth. Starting with ourselves, let us make sure that we give everything to Jesus – our time, our hearts, our work, our families, our desires, our sorrows, our joys… Pray, Hope & Don’t Worry!

I was able to create this song and content thanks to my support team. If you are interested in joining or learning more about it:
JacobRuddMusic.com/support-team