Not only pleasure will withdraw people from prayer, but also affliction sometimes; but there is this difference: affliction will sometimes extort a short prayer from the wickedest person alive, but pleasure and comfort stifles it altogether.
 - St. Thomas More [16th C.], Meditations and Devotions 

(Are you a "bad-weather friend" when it comes to God? Let God be your top priority, good times and bad, and you will know peace and happiness.)

DT 34:1-12;    PS 66:1-3, 5, 8, 16-17;    MT 18:15-20

R. Blessed be God who filled my soul with fire!

Shout joyfully to God, all the earth;
sing praise to the glory of his name;
proclaim his glorious praise.
Say to God: "How tremendous are your deeds!"

Come and see the works of God,
his tremendous deeds among the children of Adam.
Bless our God, you peoples; 
loudly sound his praise.

Hear now, all you who fear God, while I declare 
what he has done for me.
When I appealed to him in words,
praise was on the tip of my tongue.





The tax-collectors and Gentiles were regarded as "unclean" by the religious-minded Jews. However we know from the gospel accounts that Jesus often had fellowship with tax-collectors, ate with them, and even praised them at times! Jesus refuses no one who is ready to receive pardon, healing, and restoration. The call to accountability is inevitable and we can't escape it, both in this life and at the day of judgment when the Lord Jesus will return. But while we have the opportunity, we must not give up on stubborn offenders, but, instead make every effort to win them with the grace and power of God's healing love and wisdom. Do you tolerate broken relationships or do you seek to repair them as God gives you the opportunity to mend and restore what is broken?

"Lord Jesus, make me an instrument of your healing love and peace. Give me wisdom and courage to bring your healing love and saving truth to those in need of healing and restoration."





The Way of Perfection, by Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)

Explains the meaning of mental prayer.

How is it, my Lord, how is it, my Emperor, that Thou canst suffer this, Prince of all Creation? For Thou, my God, art a King without end, and Thine is no borrowed Kingdom, but Thine own, and it will never pass away. When the Creed says "Whose Kingdom shall have no end" the phrase nearly always makes me feel particularly happy. I praise Thee, Lord, and bless Thee, and all things praise Thee for ever -for Thy Kingdom will endure for ever. Do Thou never allow it to be thought right, Lord, for those who praise Thee and come to speak with Thee to do so with their lips alone. What do you mean, Christians, when you say that mental prayer is unnecessary? Do you understand what you are saying? I really do not think you can. And so you want us all to go wrong: you cannot know what mental prayer is, or how vocal prayers should be said, or what is meant by contemplation. For, if you knew this, you would not condemn on the one hand what you praise on the other.

- Chapter 22

(Keep in mind that she is writing to sisters in a cloistered contemplative order.)