A cup is a container for holding something. Whatever it holds has to eventually be emptied out so that something more can be put into it. I have learned that I cannot always expect my life to be full. There has to be some emptying, some pouring out, if I am to make room for the new. The spiritual journey is like that -- a constant process of emptying and filling, of giving and receiving, of accepting and
letting go.
- Joyce Rupp, The Cup of Our Life
(What does the cup of your life look like at this time? What is filling your cup? What are you pouring out?)
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1 Sm 1:9-20; 1 Samuel 2:1, 4-5, 6-7, 8abcd
Mk 1:21-28
Jesus came to Capernaum with his followers,
and on the sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught.
The people were astonished at his teaching,
for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.
In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit;
he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?
Have you come to destroy us?
I know who you are–the Holy One of God!”
Jesus rebuked him and said, “Quiet! Come out of him!”
The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him.
All were amazed and asked one another,
“What is this?
A new teaching with authority.
He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.”
His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee.
Reflection on the Scriptures
God desires to share our pain, our disappointments. God wants us to know that, and wants to be the first place we turn. God wants us to physically know that the Giver of all gifts is real, and filled with endless compassion, understanding and great love. I believe that even if God had a different plan, and Samuel had not been born, Hannah would have left her time of prayer feeling heard by God and closer to
God, and more ready to face the trials of her life. And she would have continued to pray that way, always growing closer to God along the way. May we always do the same.
- by Cindy Murphy McMahon
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
V. THE SPIRIT AND THE CHURCH IN THE LAST DAYS
The Holy Spirit - God's Gift
740 These "mighty works of God," offered to believers in the sacraments of the Church, bear their fruit in the new life in Christ, according to the Spirit.
741 "The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes with sighs too deep for words."134 The Holy Spirit, the artisan of God's works, is the master of prayer.
(Footnote references in the Catechism.)
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