It is not necessary to maintain a conversation when we are in the presence of God.
We can come into His presence and rest our weary souls in quiet contemplation of Him. Our groanings, which cannot be uttered, rise to Him and tell Him better than words how dependent we are upon Him.
… O. Hallesby, Prayer
(Yes indeed . . . sometimes just to rest and “be”) |
HEB 4:1-5, 11; PS 78:3 AND 4BC, 6C-7,
8
MK 2:1-12
When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days,
it became known that he was at home.
Many gathered together so that there was no longer room for them,
not even around the door,
and he preached the word to them.
They came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men.
Unable to
get near Jesus because of the crowd,
they opened up the roof above him.
After they had broken through,
they let down the mat on which the paralytic was lying.
When Jesus saw their faith, he said to him,
"Child, your sins are forgiven."
Now some of the scribes were sitting there asking themselves,
"Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming.
Who but God alone can forgive sins?"
Jesus immediately knew in his mind what
they were thinking to
themselves,
so he said, "Why are you thinking such things in your hearts?
Which is easier, to say to the paralytic,
'Your sins are forgiven,'
or to say, 'Rise, pick up your mat and walk'?
But that you may know
that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth"
–he said to the paralytic,
"I say to you, rise, pick up your mat, and go home."
He rose, picked up his mat at once,
and went away in the sight of everyone.
They were all
astounded
and glorified God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this."
Reflection on the
Scriptures |
Pope Francis frequently speaks of the need to remember well, to be conscious of the Lord’s works in our own lives lest we repeat the mistakes of our wandering ancestors. This right remembering not only makes us right with God, but is a source of joy! In our own wanderings through this world, nothing can give us greater joy than to know the consoling presence of the Lord who walks by our side, faithful and loving, day in and day out.
How do we maintain this joy? By remembering past events when the Lord “came through for me” or when he gave me an assurance of his mercy. This generates hope in the present: “The Lord can do it again!” God is faithful, unchanging in his fidelity and in his mercy. What robs us of joy is forgetting ways
in which we have seen and experienced this. Forgetting leads to darkness, doubt, restlessness, moving away from prayer and, ultimately, moving away from joy.
What “works of the Lord” am I being invited to remember today? What specific past events, graces and gifts from the Lord do I need to
recall today to reinforce or re-establish my joy in the Lord?
- by Fr. Richard Gabuzba, S.J.
Revelations of Divine
Love - by Julian of Norwich
Thirteenth Revelation, Chapter 33
“It is God’s will that we have great regard to
all His deeds that He hath done, but evermore it needeth us to leave the beholding what the Deed shall be”
AND yet in this I desired, as [far] as I durst, that I might have full sight of Hell and Purgatory. But it was not my meaning to make proof of anything that belongeth to the Faith: for I believed soothfastly that Hell and Purgatory is for the same end that Holy Church teacheth, but my
meaning was that I might have seen, for learning in all things that belong to my Faith: whereby I might live the more to God’s worship and to my profit.
But for [all] my desire, I could [see] of this right nought, save as it is aforesaid in the First Shewing, where I saw that the devil is reproved of God and endlessly condemned. In which sight I understood as to all creatures that are of the devil’s
condition in this life, and therein end, that there is no more mention made of them afore God and all His Holy than of the devil,—notwithstanding that they be of mankind—whether they be christened or not.
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