Spirituality without a prayer life is no spirituality at all, and it will not last beyond the first defeats. Prayer is an opening of the self so that the Word of God can break in and make us new. Prayer unmasks. Prayer converts. Prayer impels. Prayer sustains us on the way. Pray for the grace it will take to continue what you would like to quit.
- Joan D. Chittister, O.S.B.
(More encouragements for prayer. What do you need to continue what you would like to quit?)
|
1 Sm 16:1-13; Psalm 89:20, 21-22, 27-28
Mk 2:23-28
As Jesus was passing through a field of grain on the sabbath,
his disciples began to make a path while picking the heads of grain.
At this the Pharisees said to him,
“Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?”
He said to them,
“Have you never read what David did
when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry?
How he went into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest
and ate the bread of offering that only the priests could lawfully eat,
and shared it with his companions?”
Then he said to them,
“The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.
That is why the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.”
Reflection on the Scriptures
In today's scripture, hope was essential for Samuel, allowing him to overcome his fear of Saul's wrath and embrace God's call. Hope in David's potential was also alive in his anointing - his calling. Indeed, hope is essential to being Jesus' companion. It makes what does not exist in the present exist for us in the future, even if we do not know when. It is what fuels our labor for a more loving and just world
that is the hope of God, himself. At a more personal scope, hope makes us believe that who God wants us to be - fully ourselves - is indeed possible.
Even at the moments most filled with darkness and despair, hope is there. Think about Jesus' companion, Peter. Peter denied Jesus not once, not twice, but three times in his hour of need. The anguish Peter must have felt at fulfilling what Jesus had foretold. Can you imagine? And yet, we know that even in that moment and even if Peter couldn't see it, hope was there - hope in God's limitless mercy and love. Hope in
Peter's fulfillment of God's plan for him.
Who is God calling you to be? Where is Jesus leading you? Despite the unknowns, proceed with hope. Because hope is already with you. Because God is already with you.
- by Scott McClure
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
IN BRIEF
742 "Because you are children of God, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!"' (Gal 4:6).
743 From the beginning to the end of time, whenever God sends his Son, he always sends his Spirit: their mission is conjoined and inseparable.
744 In the fullness of time the Holy Spirit completes in Mary all the preparations for Christ's coming among the People of God. By the action of the Holy Spirit in her, the Father gives the world Emmanuel "God-with-us" (Mt 1:23).
(Footnote references in the Catechism.)
|
|
