If faith is the gaze of the heart at God, and if this gaze is but the raising of the inward eyes to meet the all-seeing eyes of God, then it follows that it is one of the easiest things possible to do.
... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), The Pursuit of God [1948]
(What helps you to do this? How does this "act of faith" influence your attitudes?)
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Acts 20:17-27; Psalm 68:10-11, 20-21
Jn 17:1-11a
Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said,
“Father, the hour has come.
Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you,
just as you gave him authority over all people,
so that your son may give eternal life to all you gave him.
Now this is eternal life,
that they should know you, the only true God,
and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.
I glorified you on earth
by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do.
Now glorify me, Father, with you,
with the glory that I had with you before the world began.
“I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world.
They belonged to you, and you gave them to me,
and they have kept your word.
Now they know that everything you gave me is from you,
because the words you gave to me I have given to them,
and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you,
and they have believed that you sent me.
I pray for them.
I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me,
because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours
and everything of yours is mine,
and I have been glorified in them.
And now I will no longer be in the world,
but they are in the world, while I am coming to you.”
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Reflection on the Scriptures
Do I want to be liked by everybody? Well, I don’t go out of my way to make people hate me. The truth, however, can be hard to receive and the fact is that proclaiming the love of God through Jesus Christ can get you killed or, if not killed, hated, dismissed, canceled. Do I want eternal life? This comes through knowing God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This life is one of joy and peace but it also
includes suffering and hardship. This is especially true for anyone who would dare to share their faith. If you want to be liked by everyone, keep your faith to yourself. If you want others to know Jesus, share your faith. But be prepared for the temptation to shave off the rough edges. Being servants and keeping commandments isn’t something that a lot of folks want to hear. So, make it easy for them. I may be liked but I will also have blood on my hands. Or, tell the truth and follow your
master to the Place of the Skull.
God walked with his friends in the garden of Eden. Jesus suffered in the garden of Gethsemane. If we follow Jesus, he doesn’t promise us a rose garden. Eternal life is to know God; it’s not to be liked by everybody.
- by George Butterfield
The Son of God Became Human
From The Catechism of the Catholic Church
Part One, Section Two, Chapter Three
Article 8: I Believe in the Holy Spirit
II. THE NAME, TITLE, AND SYMBOLS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
Symbols of the Holy Spirit
695 Anointing. The symbolism of anointing with oil also signifies the Holy Spirit,30 to the point of becoming a synonym for the Holy Spirit. In Christian initiation, anointing is the sacramental sign of Confirmation, called "chrismation" in the Churches of the East. Its full force can be grasped only in relation to the primary anointing accomplished by the Holy Spirit, that of Jesus. Christ (in Hebrew
"messiah") means the one "anointed" by God's Spirit. There were several anointed ones of the Lord in the Old Covenant, pre-eminently King David.31 But Jesus is God's Anointed in a unique way: the humanity the Son assumed was entirely anointed by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit established him as "Christ."32 The Virgin Mary conceived Christ by the Holy Spirit who, through the angel, proclaimed him the Christ at his birth, and prompted Simeon to come to the temple to see the Christ of the Lord.33
The Spirit filled Christ and the power of the Spirit went out from him in his acts of healing and of saving.34 Finally, it was the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead.35 Now, fully established as "Christ" in his humanity victorious over death, Jesus pours out the Holy Spirit abundantly until "the saints" constitute - in their union with the humanity of the Son of God - that perfect man "to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ":36 "the whole Christ," in St. Augustine's
expression.
(Footnote references in the Catechism.)
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