The last and highest result of prayer is not the securing of this or that
gift, the avoiding of this or that danger. The last and highest result of prayer is the knowledge of God — the knowledge which is eternal life — and by that knowledge, the transformation of human character, and of the world.
… George John Blewett
(Knowledge of God . . . how do you experience this?)
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GN 3:1-8; PS 32:1-2, 5, 6,
7
MK 7:31-37
Jesus left the district of Tyre
and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee,
into the district of the
Decapolis.
And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment
and begged him to lay his hand on him.
He took him off by himself away from the crowd.
He put his finger into the man's ears
and, spitting, touched his tongue;
then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him,
"Ephphatha!" (that is, "Be opened!")
And immediately the man's ears were opened,
his speech impediment was removed,
and he spoke plainly.
He ordered them
not to tell anyone.
But the more he ordered them not to,
the more they proclaimed it.
They were exceedingly astonished and they said,
"He has done all things well.
He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak."
Reflection on the
Scriptures |
There is a tension with our sharing of the good news,
we find in the gospel message for today. Too often we think it is about us and our experience. That can confuse other people. The message of the good news is that Jesus is the fulfillment of the promises of God for healing and resurrection, not just for our bodies, but our spirits as well. If we only spread the message about the good things that God has done in our lives, we are not telling WHO HE IS, just what he does for us in rather shallow ways. When we think it
is all about us, we become too self-centered in our faith and often we even expect miracles. I know that I am sometimes guilty of that. So what happens if you haven’t had a good miracle lately? That is why a lot of people give up on God. They stop listening and looking for God in their lives when they don’t get what they think they need. The good news is that we can come to God by faith, not through miracles of healing the body. The message we need to share
with the world is that of openness to the on-going process of redemption and salvation in the words of Jesus. In and through our faith in the fulfilled promises of God we are both healed and made whole spiritually. Given what sinners we all are, that is indeed a miracle! We pray, then, with joy and gratitude for Jesus who is God’s promise to free and shelter us from our sins. That should take a huge load off of most of us.
- by Barbara Dilly
Revelations of Divine
Love - by Julian of Norwich
Thirteenth Revelation, Chapter 35
“I desired to learn assuredly as to a certain creature that I loved. . . . It is more worship to God to behold Him in all."
AND when God Almighty had shewed so plenteously and joyfully of His Goodness, I desired to learn assuredly as to a certain creature that
I loved, if it should continue in good living, which I hoped by the grace of God was begun. And in this desire for a singular Shewing, it seemed that I hindered myself: for I was not taught in this time. And then was I answered in my reason, as it were by a friendly intervenor [110] : Take it GENERALLY, and behold the graciousness of the Lord God as He sheweth to thee: for it is more worship to God to behold Him in all than in any special thing. And therewith I learned that it is more worship to
God to know all-thing in general, than to take pleasure in any special thing. And if I should do wisely according to this teaching, I should not only be glad for nothing in special, but I should not be greatly distressed for no manner of thing [111] : for ALL shall be well. For the fulness of joy is to behold God in all: for by the same blessed Might, Wisdom, and Love, that He made all-thing, to the same end our good Lord leadeth it continually, and thereto Himself shall bring it; and when it is
time we shall see it. And the ground of this was shewed in the First [Revelation], and more openly in the Third, where it saith: I saw God in a point.
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