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Because prayer is indeed a supernatural act, a movement of spirit toward Spirit, it is an act in which the natural creature can never begin or complete of itself. Though it seems to come by one's own free choice that one lifts the soul toward God, it is in truth this all-penetrating God, Who by His secret humble pressure stirs us to make this first movement of will and love."
- Evelyn Underhill [20th C.], The Golden Sequence
(To pray is to consent to God's Spirit praying in you and through you. Give your consent and enjoy the Lord.)
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1 COR 4:1-5; PS 37:3-4, 5-6, 27-28, 39-40
LK 5:33-39
The scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus,
“The disciples of John the Baptist fast often and offer prayers,
and the disciples of the Pharisees do the same;
but yours eat and drink.”
Jesus answered them, “Can you make the wedding guests fast
while the bridegroom is with them?
But the days will come, and when the bridegroom is taken away from them,
then they will fast in those days.”
And he also told them a parable.
“No one tears a piece from a new cloak to patch an old one.
Otherwise, he will tear the new
and the piece from it will not match the old cloak.
Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins.
Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins,
and it will be spilled, and the skins will be ruined.
Rather, new wine must be poured into fresh wineskins.
And no one who has been drinking old wine desires new,
for he says, ‘The old is good.’”
USCCB lectionary
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Reflection on the Scripture
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“I could not talk to you as spiritual men but only as men of flesh, as infants in Christ.” —1 Corinthians 3:1
Many times God’s people are sick, “in the grip of a severe fever,” and unable to serve God and His people (Lk 4:38-39). We become sick and non-functional when the body of Christ is dislocated and divided. Our debilitating divisions are partially due to our immaturity. Our immaturity and spiritual retardation are partly due to our lack of spiritual nourishment (see 1 Cor 3:2ff). Our lack of spiritual nourishment is partly
due to spiritual anorexia. We have lost our appetite for the things of God because we have stuffed ourselves with the things of the flesh. “The flesh lusts against the Spirit” (Gal 5:17), and “lust indulged starves the soul” (Prv 13:19).
We must let the Spirit lust against the flesh (Gal 5:17) and crucify our “flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal 5:24). Then we will not only “be as eager for milk as newborn babies — pure milk of the Spirit” (1 Pt 2:2), but we will also be hungry for the bread (Mt 4:4) and solid food (Heb 5:14) of God’s Word. Then, when we are nourished spiritually, we will be mature, be united and healthy, and be able to serve the Lord and His people in power. Let the Holy Spirit crucify your flesh, heal
your soul, and change the world.
Prayer: Father, may I be more hungry for Your Word than for my favorite food (see Ps 119:103).
Promise: “To other towns I must announce the good news of the reign of God, because that is why I was sent.” —Lk 4:43
Presentation Ministries
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Abandonment to Divine Providence
- by Jean-Pierre de Caussade
BOOK II,
CHAPTER III. THE TRIALS CONNECTED WITH THE STATE OF ABANDONMENT
SECTION V. The Life of Faith
The fruit of these trials. The conduct of the submissive soul.
In all these, faith finds its food and support. It pierces through all, and clings to the hand of God, the giver of life. Through all that does not partake of the nature of sin, the faithful soul should proceed with confidence, taking it all as a veil, or disguise of God whose immediate presence alarms and at the same time reassures the faculties of the soul. In fact this great God who consoles the humble, gives the
soul in the midst of its greatest desolation an interior assurance that it has nothing to fear, provided it allows Him to act, and abandons itself entirely to Him. It is grieved because it has lost its Well-beloved, and yet something assures it that it possesses Him. It is troubled and disturbed, yet nevertheless has in its depths I know not what important grounds for attaching itself steadfastly to God. "Truly,‚" said Jacob, "God is in this place, and I knew it not‚" (Gen. xxviii, 16). You seek
God and He is everywhere; everything proclaims Him, everything gives Him to you. He walks by your side, is around you and within you: there He lives, and yet you seek Him. You seek your own idea of God while all the time you possess Him substantially. You seek perfection, and it is in everything that presents itself to you. Your sufferings, your actions, your attractions are the species under which God gives Himself to you, while you are vainly striving after sublime ideas which He by no means
assumes in order to dwell in you.
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