It makes a great difference in our feelings towards others if their needs and their joys are on our lips in prayer; as also it makes a vast difference in their feelings towards us if they know that we are in the habit of praying for them. There is no chasm in society that cannot be firmly and permanently bridged by intercession; there is no feud or dislike that cannot be healed by the same exercise of love.
... Charles H. Brent (1862-1929)
(Praying for others opens our hearts to allow the Spirit to influence our attitudes toward them. Which people in your life do you need to pray for at this time in your life?)
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Ex 2:1-15a; Psalm 69:3, 14, 30-31, 33-34
Mt 11:20-24
Jesus began to reproach the towns
where most of his mighty deeds had been done,
since they had not repented.
“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!
For if the mighty deeds done in your midst
had been done in Tyre and Sidon,
they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes.
But I tell you, it will be more tolerable
for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.
And as for you, Capernaum:
Will you be exalted to heaven?
You will go down to the netherworld.
For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Sodom,
it would have remained until this day.
But I tell you, it will be more tolerable
for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”
Reflection on the Scriptures
Jesus has been inviting His listeners to “repent” and some did, but not these towns to which He was visiting. The words “pendant, pennant, pendulum, depend, suspend, compendium and impending” all are hinged to the root, “Hang.” Jesus is recalling the history of how certain groups of Jewish leaders had let go of God’s hanging on to them. His call to them is to return to that Divine embrace and to let
go to their hanging on to false gods and practices. “Re-pent” literally means letting loose from being tied up and cherish the grasp of their ancient and faithful God.
There is nothing nor anyone to which or to whom we can hang on to as our absolute, or ultimate reality. I look around my room, my address book, phone list and memory-bank. There ar so many persons, places and things to which I am attached. Sweaters, pictures, figurines, knickknacks containing charged memories. I hang on to the hands of those who lovingly gave them to me and some of those I find prayerfully difficult
to un-depend.
We pray for the graceful freedom to let go of our “hang-ups” to be freer to receive the new “Mighty deeds” which of course, we fear will not be offered. Relax, rejoice and re-God!
- by Larry Gillick, S.J.
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
III. GOD'S SPIRIT AND WORD IN THE TIME OF THE PROMISES
703 The Word of God and his Breath are at the origin of the being and life of every creature:63
It belongs to the Holy Spirit to rule, sanctify, and animate creation, for he is God, consubstantial with the Father and the Son. . . . Power over life pertains to the Spirit, for being God he preserves creation in the Father through the Son.64
(Footnote references in the Catechism.)
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