You don't learn to praise in a day, especially since you may have been complaining for years! New habits take
time to develop. But you can begin today, and practice tomorrow, and the next day, until it becomes part of you.
- Erwin W. Lutzer
(Spend time in prayer just giving praise to God. Feel the power of this prayer launching your soul Godward.) |
GAL 3:1-5; LUKE 1:69-70, 71-72, 73-75
LK 11:5-13
Jesus said to his disciples:
"Suppose one of you has a friend
to whom he goes at midnight and says,
'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread,
for a friend of mine has arrived at my house
from a journey
and I have nothing to offer him,'
and he says in reply from within,
'Do not bother me; the door has already been locked
and my children and I are already in bed.
I cannot get up to give you anything.'
I tell you, if he does not get up to give him the loaves
because of their friendship,
he will get up to give him whatever he needs
because of his persistence.
"And I tell
you, ask and you will receive;
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives;
and the one who seeks, finds;
and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
What father among you would hand his son a snake
when he asks for a fish?
Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg?
If you then, who are wicked,
know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy
Spirit
to those who ask him?"
Reflection on the Scriptures |
The kind of prayer St. Luke’s gospel points to is that we be faithful to personal prayer. We are to “persistently” (Luke’s word) ask a gracious God for the gifts that he desires to give us as individuals and as church: “Ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you.”
The church has much these days to bring to the attention of God as well as to ourselves. The sexual abuse by clergy, the divisions that plague us in the “one” holy and apostolic church of which each of us is a part, and the persistent and ongoing struggles with our own conversion to. Each of us is invited to seek diligently the Holy Spirit of God. God’s Spirit calls us continually to find our
bearings in Her/Him.
From God’s perspective we are the apple of his eye who, as a good father, desires more for us than we can even imagine. Our gospel recognizes the God of us all, the giver of all gifts gives “the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.” What an incredibly refreshing thought!
God of us all, keep us faithful to your word and your desires for us. Be with us as we negotiate difficulties and send us your Holy Spirit as our guide for prayer and actions in your service. Watch over us with your gentle care that produces both challenge and joy; thank you for the eyes of faith, hope and love.
- by Tom Shanahan, S.J.
Revelations of Divine
Love - by Julian of Norwich
Fourteenth Revelation, Chapter 52
“We have now matter of mourning: for our
sin is cause of Christ’s pains; and we have, lastingly, matter of joy: for endless love made Him to suffer” And thus we stand in this medley all the days of our life. But He willeth that we trust that He is lastingly with us. And that in three manner.—He is with us in Heaven, very
Man, in His own Person, us updrawing; and that was shewed in [the Shewing of] the Spiritual Thirst. And He is with us in earth, us leading; and that was shewed in the Third [Shewing], where I saw God in a Point. And He is with us in our soul, endlessly dwelling, us ruling and keeping; and that was shewed in the Sixteenth [Shewing], as I shall tell.
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