MISCELLANIOUS LESSONS FROM VARIOUS AUTHORS

- Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. Be thankful! Col. 3:15Image result for let the peace of christ rule in your hearts


-  GUARD YOUR HEART, YOU WILL BECOME A BEARER OF GOD'S REVELATIONS. The heart  needs cleansing constantly, delivered from all thoughts and keeping only the unceasing prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner."

- We need this silent prayer, entering the holy of holies, conversing purely with God and our "nous" returns from its attachment to physical things which make it wander. __ St Gregory the Theologian.

- We must prepare for the union with God. External silence is helpful for man to realize the dreadful confusion in his or her heart and this to reach the acquisition of inner silence of the nous. (Matt. 6:6)
When you pray, enter into thy closet, and shut thy door, pray to thy Father in secret.

- Christ told the Pharisees in Matt 23:26: "Cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter that the outside of them may be clean also. Paul said: " Mortify your members (Col 3:5) Meaning the mortification of passions and inner senses. St Maximos said: "All that is seen needs to be crucified and all that is thought need to be buried."

- "Be Still and know" A Study in the life of prayer by Michael Ramsey.
To be with God wondering, that is adoration.
To be with God gratefully is thanksgiving.
To be with God with Others on the heart, that is intercession.

- Be Still and know that I am God.
- The rule of St Benedict Prologue: Incline the ear of thy heart and receive cheerfully the admonitions of thy loving Father. The Lord said: "Who is the man that desireth life and loveth to see good days? If hearing this thou answereth, I am he" Then God saith to thee: "If thou wilt have true and everlasting life, keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile; turn away from evil and do good, seek after peace and pursue it. And when you shall have done these things, my eyes shall be upon you and my ears upon your prayers." Let us walk in his ways under the guidance of the Gospel, that we may be found worthy of seeing him who hath called us to his Kingdom


- Commit to a life of Prayer. A positive nurture of our relationship with God as Thornton wrote. Prayer is sometjing one is expected to find out by trial and error experiement.

- Aquinas says that Prayer is loving God in act so that the divine life can communicate itself to us and through us to the world.

- Sin is the ultimate foe and the destroyer of prayer, the most serious obstacle to spiritual progress. Jesus links sin to disease when he said: "Go, sin no more"

- Know THYSELF. Your limitations and necessary boundaries, exercise self examination and often use the sacrament of reconciliation, learn what triggers your anger, guilt and act accordingly. Discipline yourself to be open to God. Hunger for righteousness, Pray for your enemies, Fast for those who persecute you.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

HOLDING GOD'S PEACE IN TROUBLING TIMES

Image
There is a miracle we live with, that is a real mystery: The miracle of Christ living in us. This is a reality of God’s Kingdom in our midst. Jesus said: “those who truly love me will be loved by me and my Father; we will come and make our home in you.” The tough part to realize as the antithesis is that: God loves us but he does not force it onto us! We are the ones who choose to love him back by our actions because we cannot fake-love Jesus. When we truly love Jesus, he takes our mortality and turns it into life. In Jesus Christ, we are able to keep his words, and produce fruits worthy of repentance. When God is at the very center of our lives, and in charge, everything is possible. I see this picture in the book of Revelation where God Almighty and the lamb are the temple of the new Jerusalem and the tree of life continue to produce fruits on the edges of the river. What I saw in that picture, is a place of perfect love and undisturbed order of heaven, leading to the restoration of...
Read more

Jesus Says Follow Me

Image
Follow me! As it turns out, following Jesus is not as easy as many people make it out to be. We discover that it sounds easy, but in real life we have so much going on in our lives that sort of prevent/ inhibit us from truly following Christ properly. That’s why our parish has been exploring the Benedictine spirituality: An ancient way of following Jesus. Today’s scriptures are giving us a preview on what it takes to follow God’s ways. I thought about Ruth. She staunchly followed her mother-in-law Naomi and promised to be her family till the end. It was a formidable sacrifice leaving her family behind. I also thought of Lot’s wife. She turned into a pillar of salt when she disobeyed God’s order not to look back. There are applicable lessons here: God’s instructions ought to be listened to/obeyed. In Hebrew, the word to listen is the same as to obey. True listening! Unfortunately, all our responses carry a price tag. For Lot’s wife, looking back was a choice with heavier consequences. ...
Read more

Easter Vigil

Image
Many of us have experienced some kind of intense tragic event with such profound sadness/ devastation. This was mine: When the war began in my native home, we lost everything within just 3 months. So many lives were lost; some families were wiped out. The Kingdom of darkness was at work. Pure Devastation. I also thought of the recent devastation of the earthquake that left thousands dead and few survivors under the rubble, waiting for a miracle with a faint cry. In cases like these, survivors painfully wait and hope for rescue. These stories send us chills and put us on the edge, hoping for the rescue moment. And tonight is such! It is the night when the line between death and resurrection becomes thin! We have good reason to rejoice, even in the midst of our sorrow! On one hand, we heard the story of Israelites under the darkness of Egyptian slavery, crying out to God in desperation, prompting God to haste the rescue! Just like them, we also may have longed for God to rescue us in ou...
Read more