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The one who prays with understanding patiently accepts circumstances, whereas one who resents them has not yet attained pure prayer.
- Philokalia (Vol. 1) - (Ask the
Spirit to a deeper purity in prayer and patience to lovingly journey in the circumstances of your life.) |
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RV 15:1-4; PS 98:1, 2-3AB,
7-8, 9 LK 21:12-19 Jesus said to the crowd:
“They will seize and persecute you,
they
will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons,
and they will have you led before kings and governors
because of my name.
It will lead to your giving testimony.
Remember, you are not to prepare your defense beforehand,
for I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking
that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute.
You will even be handed over by parents,
brothers, relatives, and friends,
and they will put some of you to death.
You will be hated by all because of my name,
but not a hair on your head will be destroyed.
By your perseverance you will secure your
lives.” USCCB lectionary
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Reflection on the Scripture
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“They will manhandle and persecute you.” —Luke
21:12 Jesus tells us we will be delivered up even by our parents, brothers, relatives, and friends (Lk 21:16). This will result in some of us being put to death. Jesus has made it very clear that, before there can be peace, there will be division in families. “A household of five will be divided three against two and two against three; father will be split against son and son against
father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law, daughter-in-law against mother-in-law” (Lk 12:52-53). Our families will be under extreme pressure in the future and severely tried. Jesus reveals the future not to discourage us but to encourage us to plan accordingly in the present. For example, if we were building a car and we knew this
car would be driven through a crossfire of bullets, we would build an armored car. So, if we’re building a family and we know this family will be attacked by the devil, then we will build an “armored family.” “Put on the armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm against the tactics of the devil” (Eph 6:11). “You must put on the armor of God if you are to resist on the evil day” (Eph 6:13). On Thanksgiving Day, many of us will be gathering with our families. We can engage in
superficialities, keep quiet about Jesus, and pray by ourselves. Or we can ask the Spirit to work through us in building strong, deeply committed, holy families. Would you talk to your family differently if you knew they might betray you? Prayer: Father, send the Spirit to give me a realistic view of my family’s future. May I build my family for the future spiritual
warfare. Promise: “I then saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire. On the sea of glass were standing those who had won the victory over the beast.” —Rv 15:2 Presentation Ministries
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From Meditation to Contemplation by James Arraj (all rights reserved) Cooperating With the Grace of Infused Contemplation In order to perceive
this new reality, the soul must abandon all its discursive activity and become like that which it is to receive. “Since God, then, as the giver communes with him through a simple, loving knowledge, the individual also, as the receiver, communes with God, through a simple and loving knowledge or attention, so that knowledge is thus joined with knowledge and love with love. The receiver should act according to the mode of what is received, and not otherwise, in order to receive and keep it in the
way it is given.”(“Living Flame of Love,” S 3, 34) The beginner must overcome his feelings of anxiety he is doing nothing because he is not working with the natural faculties. His work, rather, is receiving. “They must be content simply with a loving and peaceful attentiveness to God, and live without the concern, without the effort, and without the desire to taste or feel Him. All these desires disquiet the soul and distract it from the peaceful quiet and sweet idleness of the contemplation
which is being communicated to it.”(“Dark Night of the Soul,” 1, 10, 4) Online book
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