At beginning of meeting: Responsorial Psalm from daily Mass - "Blessed be God who filled my soul with life! Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth; sing the glory of his name; give to him glorious praise. Say to God, "How awesome are your deeds!" Blessed be God who filled my soul with life! Come and see what God has done: he is awesome in his deeds among mortals. Bless our God, O peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard. Blessed be God who filled my soul with life! Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for me. I cried aloud to him, and he was extolled with my tongue. Blessed be God who filled my soul with life!"
Praise and worship reminded me of that talk on contemplation. Heaven came down and touched me and I was filled with the presence of our living God, just surrounding me and blessing me.
Scripture Reading Psalm 100, entitled "Invitation to praise God" - "Acclaim Yahweh, all the earth, serve Yahweh gladly, come into his presence with songs of joy! Know that he, Yahweh, is God, he made us and we belong to him, we are his people, the flock that he pastures. Walk through his porticos giving thanks , enter his courts praising him, give thanks to him, bless his name! Yes, Yahweh is good, his love is everlasting, his faithfulness endures from age to age."
Scripture Reading Psalm 95:1-3 - "O come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, let us shout joyfully to him with praise. For the Lord is a good God and a good king, above all gods."
Scripture Reading Psalm 27:1, 13-14 - "Yahweh is my light and my salvation, whom need I fear? Yahweh is the fortress of my life, of whom should I be afraid? This I believe: I shall see the goodness of Yahweh, in the land of the living. Put your hope in Yahweh, be strong, let your heart be bold, put your hope in Yahweh."
Confirmation/Vision - I can confirm the Scriptures, so far. As we were praising and worshipping, there was such a beautiful presence, everything was so golden. The Holy Spirit was going around as a cloud. In this cloud was this ??. All the praise was bringing us into this very glorious fields of his glory.
Hymn Lyric - "Alone With None But Thee" - "Alone with none, but thee, my God; alone with none, but thee, my God. I journey on my way; I journey on my way. What need I fear; what need I fear when Thou art near; when Thou art near, O King of night and day?"
Fr. Robert Faricy spoke on "Dryness and Distractions in Prayer". DRYNESS in prayer can come from 1) God, can be a grace, 2) unrepented sin, 3) not forgiving, 4) pride. 1) People with a serious prayer life, sooner or later will hit a dry spell. It can be discouraging. You feel you've lost the Lord, but ride it out, stay in the boat. That kind of darkness is from the Lord. He's refining you. He's purifying you. Don't be anxious. Be at peace. 2) Sin does not turn off contemplative prayer. Sin does not turn off being with the Lord. It's sin that you're not sorry for, unrepented sin. Sure, you're going to sin again, maybe more and maybe less, but that doesn't mean that the Lord won't forgive you. The Lord forgives you as soon as you turn to him and ask for forgiveness and say, "I'm sorry." 3) In Matthew's Gospel Jesus says, "If you do not forgive others, your heavenly Father will not forgive you." Why not? God is all-merciful. He can't because you've built up a wall around your heart by not forgiving other people and his forgiveness can't get through. You have to forgive for your sake. 4) Two kinds of pride: arrogance and narcissism. Arrogance - trying to impose my will on others, thinking I'm better than everyone else. Narcissism - wanting to be popular. I want attention paid, to be #1. The Lord tell us to be humble. Sinners know who they are, sinners. They know they need the Lord. Jesus came to save sinners. When I pray from the point of my poorness and nothingness and sinfulness before God, then I have access to the Lord. Then I am not blinded by my pride...... childlike before God. DISTRACTIONS in prayer - what do I do with them? I bring them to Jesus. I make my distraction the subject of my prayer. i.e. my brother has a heart attack. I'm worried about him. What can I do? I bring my brother into my relationship with Jesus. The key to contemplative prayer is perseverance. The real, truthful, sincere being with the Lord in light or darkness, in good times and in bad times. The key is hanging in there. The key is persistence. The key is not giving up. Don't give up on Jesus or give up your prayer time.
A miracle has happened. Thanks to the many prayers, Maria's sister had a spiritual healing and there's reconciliation with God and Maria. Thank you, Lord!!
50% Complete
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.