"It is easier for a camel to pass through the 'Eye of the Needle' than for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of Heaven." (Matthew 19, Mark 10, Luke 18)
A rich young man approached Jesus and asked, "Good Master, what must I do to attain eternal life?" Jesus answered, "Why do you call me good? There is only One, who is good. But if you want eternal life, keep the ten commandments given to Moses at Sinai." "This I have always done," he said. "What else do I lack?" Then Jesus said, "If you would have eternal life, go and sell all you have, and give to the poor, so that you will have riches in Heaven. Then come and follow Me." When the young man heard this, he was crestfallen, for he had very much wealth, and he walked slowly away.
Jesus looked to his disciples, and said, "How difficult it is for someone who thinks he is rich to choose instead the Kingdom of Heaven. Truly, I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the 'eye of the needle' than for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of Heaven." Hearing this, the disciples were astonished. "Who then can be saved?" Peter asked. And Jesus said, "For man, it is impossible, but all things are possible for God."
Now, in the Bible, we don't get to hear the rest of the story about that young man. Did he ever come back? We don't know. But I suspect that he began to question whether his desire for eternal life outweighed his satisfaction with the wealth his family had accumulated. No one wants to be poor, but the scriptures promise a life of blessings and abundance in Heaven for those who are accepted to enter.
That is what he was asking: How high is the threshold that we must pass to enter Heaven? We wonder if that young man ever figured out what Jesus meant by his answer. Was there a principle involved, but left unspoken? Jesus didn't even tell the disciples, as he didn't want to spell out yet another law for us to haggle over, and nit pick, and get wrong because of our stiff-necked self interests. So we have to go back to the most basic level and try to see how Love can be applied in this situation.
Jesus did give a specific answer, applying the rule of Love, to illuminate what was lacking. "Give all you have to the poor." On the surface, He was saying that we should choose to be poor, so that we can follow Him. But maybe there's another level.
As an aside note, I've heard that there was a shortcut trail, called "eye of the needle" through the desert between Qumran and Jerusalem. It had a passageway so narrow that a camel would have to be unloaded in order to squeeze through. Trade caravans wouldn't use it, because a stuck or balky camel could ruin the trip. But a brave traveler in a hurry to reach the city might consider it doable, if he was on foot and not carrying too much. If this is so, the disciples had a clear idea of the difficulties involved. Now, back to the story.
The way we do economics in this world, and the way Jesus seems to say that economics works in the Kingdom, these are clearly different. Jesus always spoke in favor of giving workmen a fair daily wage, even if they arrived late to work. He seemed to think that accumulating profit for one person implied that others were not getting all they deserved. But this is not merely an issue of fairness, but rather one of sharing in love. Several times, Jesus had his disciples feed the crowds that followed Him, by setting the example of sharing what they had with everyone, and trusting God to supply all that was needed with his abundance. Where others need our help, we are to give, and when we need help, we are told to ask, persistently if necessary. But in their daily lives, Jesus and his dozen followers shared everything in common. This is easy when you are poor, but takes a lot of thought when you have to manage a large estate as a trust for those who must depend on it.
So Jesus just gave that rich young man an easy answer. Liquidate your assets and share them with all who have contributed by their hard work, and anyone else who needs a helping hand. He could have said, Contract with all your workers to have a share in your farms and businesses, and divide the proceeds among them. But that would have been to establish an unstable economic system in a hostile environment. All He really wanted was for the man to release his concerns and come to follow in his footsteps to learn about the Father and his Kingdom. As you see, the easy answer was the better one in this case.
But it didn't sound easy to the rich young man. Selling all you own is a difficult task, especially if much of it has sentimental value. And most people already have their own household items. If you want to sell a farm, or a business, your only buyers are other rich people, who want to profit. So how do you divide your wealth among the poor? If you give away small plots of land, you want to give them to people who will farm successfully. You can give away furniture, if people have a place to keep it. A house you can sell, and give the money to charity, if you don't have any family of your own. Indeed, having your own family makes all of this generosity problematic. But, with determination, it can be done, however slowly, and family conflicts can be endured.
One last question then remains. Where is Jesus, now that you have finally arranged to distribute all your wealth and have become poor yourself? It probably took a long time to accomplish the task that Jesus set for you. Maybe He has already been arrested and crucified, and you were not there to witness the events or hear many of his teachings. Do you go to find his disciples, and join with them to build this new separatist sect, with all of their peculiar, even heretical, theology? And now, you hear the incredible claims that some of his disciples have seen him alive, raised from the dead?!
But isn't that what you said you wanted, all those many months ago? Eternal life. If Jesus can rise again, maybe he really does know the answer. Let's go see and listen.
Sunday, July 26, 2020
Friday, July 24, 2020
We Should Care About the Jews
A Response to Messianic Jews, and to the Church established among the Gentiles.
Traditions are fine and beautiful. Of course, you can follow them. They tell you how to do things that may not be completely clear in the Torah. And they help you to maintain your ethnic identity and boundaries (if you want and need boundaries). BUT, if the oral traditions contradict the scriptures of the Torah, or the Prophets, or even the Writings that have been canonized as truly given by God, then those traditions are WRONG, and must be ignored.
Following a rabbi who contradicts the Scriptures is the same as being blind, and allowing another blind man to lead you. You will both end up in a ditch. Doing that, or despairing of the difficulty, was a cause for many of the problems that you struggled with before the Roman Diaspora. If you so desire, of course, you can still celebrate Shabbat, and Pesach, and Yom Kippur, etc. It is only necessary to add to the Holy Days, or to subtract, whatever you must in order to acknowledge that the Messiah has come, and He is Jesus, or as you say, Yeshua.
Yeshua did not come to abrogate the Law of Moses, but to show how it should be fulfilled by seeking how to interpret it by its intent and spirit. He did not hang up on trying to find every possible application, or discerning each angle, or turning the oral law to fit all situations. Such nit-picking leads to what he called "straining out a gnat, but swallowing a camel" if you miss the point. The idea was to keep it simple, so that the yoke would be easy, and the burden stay light. Six hundred and thirteen laws are too many to remember, especially if they can be boiled down to a couple dozen or fewer. And you certainly don't need any more.
But as I said, traditions are fine if you want to keep them, so long as you remember their purpose. Let them help you to define who you are. And try to be meek before the Lord; acknowledge when you have a stain on your conscience. He is always ready to forgive all who repent.
_____________
I still find it odd that so few seem to ever remember that the ancient Israelites, when they first asked for a King to lead them, were refused. That was because God had it in mind to be the One to lead them. He knew that a man would screw it up, and probably lead them astray, or refuse to obey what He asked them to do. But, in the end, Adonai relented and allowed it, and history proved Him right, over and over, until He had to take the Kingdom away from them.
Instead, He gave them the promise of a Messiah, who would be a righteous King, one descended from his favorite, David. And so, to get what He planned (to be the King), and to keep his promise, He chose to be born Himself as a man - to be the long awaited Messiah - and show what it means to be a servant of all the people, and to lead them as the King.
But the Jews never understood that the Messiah had two roles to fulfill: to be a servant, and to be a King. They clung so tightly to the expectation of a Son of David, that they forgot to connect those other prophecies in the scriptures of Isaiah. And it was far too "spiritual" for them to grasp that the Enemy was not going to be some political ruler among men, no matter how cruel or oppressive.
The real Enemy who fights against us, and challenges the way we should worship and follow God, is Satan. Satan lies to us, and tries to bind us in sin, and tells us that we can never properly serve God, but that we owe allegiance to him. Satan wants us to fail and be condemned as rebels. We are thereby forced to struggle against Evil, just so we can choose to follow Good.
That is why Jesus came - to fight against Satan and his legions of demons. He came to proclaim liberty to the captives, and his most prolific miracles were those that cast out demons. And those demons knew Him, and knew they were beaten. This was the war that began so long ago, which led to our captivity to the powers of sin. A war that still continues, and some of the worst chains of demon possession are those of addiction, to whatever once appealed to our vanity. Jesus came to set us free, and to put us back in a right relationship with God, and He can still do that for you today.
And the penalty for sin, the ransom that Satan demanded while he held us captive - kidnapped from the Garden of Eden - was paid by the death of the Messiah on the cross - a righteous man, in place of all the sinners who would believe. Jesus is raised up as a standard, a flag to follow, just like the dead snake on a pole that the freed Israelites were told by Moses to follow across the desert, when they were afraid and threatened by poisonous serpents. Jesus is the seed of the Woman, who was foretold to come and smash the head of the evil serpent in the Garden, and He did it.
His success was proven by his rising from the grave. And Jesus' resurrection also proved that his authority to teach and do miracles came from the Father, even when He claimed to be able to do things that only God can do, or made exceptions to the strict observance of the traditions that had been elaborated by men.
And this is the battle that we continue to fight to this day, because we are born into this world, under the occupation of the Rebel's legions. We struggle to get free of the snares of Satan. But we only need to claim the promises of the King, and we will be given the power and authority to put Satan's minions in their place. When we follow the Messiah, and choose the Way of Life and Truth, then lies must give up and retreat. We are promised Victory, forever!
________________
And yet we still wait for the Messiah to come. We are waiting for the King to return and place all of the nations under his feet. We wait for the eternal Kingdom to begin. For surely, Jesus' proclamation that "the Kingdom of God is among you" did not mean 'this is all there is to be, and it's all up to you.' The Church has been trying that, without success, for 2,000 years. Jesus promised, according to the Scriptures, that He would come again, in the Glory of God's Kingdom, to begin his millenial rule.
So why is He taking so long? Perhaps because we have not yet fulfilled all that He asked us to do first. We have not done the one thing He was doing when He was here among us. He preached the gospel to the Jews! We need to help Him to save as many of his own people as possible.
For many generations, we have neglected to offer the Jews the good news in a way that they can relate to. Many of them yearn for a personal relationship with God, but we have not shared our faith with them. We have disdained their faith and traditions, and snubbed them because of their ethnicity - which was given to them by God! And yet, they were promised a great role, as an illuminated priesthood, leading all of the Gentiles through the proper observances in the renewed Temple in Jerusalem. How can they come to know the King of the Jews, if we don't tell them all that we know? To be illuminated, they must be saved!
And now there are some who claim to be "Messianic Jews" who barely sound like Christians, and most certainly believe as heretics, because they don't know what we have learned through the centuries. We must both embrace them and share the Truth as we know it, to bring them into the community of the Church. For 2,000 years, we have fought against the heretics, and we shall not now follow them, even if they are Jews. Their heresies were the cause of Jesus' arguments with them in the first place, and their ignorance must not be the cause of our being led astray in the end.
The Church, in all its proper denominations, must make a concerted and coordinated effort to evangelize the Jewish people, and actively refute the objections of the rabbis who have been keeping them in darkness for so many centuries. But we must do it with kindness, not arrogance, humbly admitting that we have been at fault for all this time, by not speaking to them as the brothers and sisters whom they have been all along.
And if we are to properly love them, we must treat their traditions with respect, even as we put them in their place on the dusty shelves of history, among the mistaken ideas that used to hold us back from the Truth. But what they want to keep, once they know Jesus as Lord and King, we should let them keep, so long as it does not contradict the Scriptures, or change the basic theology that we have drawn from the Scriptures.
And we must be gentle and careful not to impose our own particular "oral traditions" in the place of theirs, or Jesus may be as angry with us as He was before. If it turns out that they have their own fourth kind of "denomination" alongside of our Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant, perhaps that is as it should be, so long as they accept the creeds that we do. There are four Gospels, after all, and one was written for the Jews.
Traditions are fine and beautiful. Of course, you can follow them. They tell you how to do things that may not be completely clear in the Torah. And they help you to maintain your ethnic identity and boundaries (if you want and need boundaries). BUT, if the oral traditions contradict the scriptures of the Torah, or the Prophets, or even the Writings that have been canonized as truly given by God, then those traditions are WRONG, and must be ignored.
Following a rabbi who contradicts the Scriptures is the same as being blind, and allowing another blind man to lead you. You will both end up in a ditch. Doing that, or despairing of the difficulty, was a cause for many of the problems that you struggled with before the Roman Diaspora. If you so desire, of course, you can still celebrate Shabbat, and Pesach, and Yom Kippur, etc. It is only necessary to add to the Holy Days, or to subtract, whatever you must in order to acknowledge that the Messiah has come, and He is Jesus, or as you say, Yeshua.
Yeshua did not come to abrogate the Law of Moses, but to show how it should be fulfilled by seeking how to interpret it by its intent and spirit. He did not hang up on trying to find every possible application, or discerning each angle, or turning the oral law to fit all situations. Such nit-picking leads to what he called "straining out a gnat, but swallowing a camel" if you miss the point. The idea was to keep it simple, so that the yoke would be easy, and the burden stay light. Six hundred and thirteen laws are too many to remember, especially if they can be boiled down to a couple dozen or fewer. And you certainly don't need any more.
But as I said, traditions are fine if you want to keep them, so long as you remember their purpose. Let them help you to define who you are. And try to be meek before the Lord; acknowledge when you have a stain on your conscience. He is always ready to forgive all who repent.
_____________
I still find it odd that so few seem to ever remember that the ancient Israelites, when they first asked for a King to lead them, were refused. That was because God had it in mind to be the One to lead them. He knew that a man would screw it up, and probably lead them astray, or refuse to obey what He asked them to do. But, in the end, Adonai relented and allowed it, and history proved Him right, over and over, until He had to take the Kingdom away from them.
Instead, He gave them the promise of a Messiah, who would be a righteous King, one descended from his favorite, David. And so, to get what He planned (to be the King), and to keep his promise, He chose to be born Himself as a man - to be the long awaited Messiah - and show what it means to be a servant of all the people, and to lead them as the King.
But the Jews never understood that the Messiah had two roles to fulfill: to be a servant, and to be a King. They clung so tightly to the expectation of a Son of David, that they forgot to connect those other prophecies in the scriptures of Isaiah. And it was far too "spiritual" for them to grasp that the Enemy was not going to be some political ruler among men, no matter how cruel or oppressive.
The real Enemy who fights against us, and challenges the way we should worship and follow God, is Satan. Satan lies to us, and tries to bind us in sin, and tells us that we can never properly serve God, but that we owe allegiance to him. Satan wants us to fail and be condemned as rebels. We are thereby forced to struggle against Evil, just so we can choose to follow Good.
That is why Jesus came - to fight against Satan and his legions of demons. He came to proclaim liberty to the captives, and his most prolific miracles were those that cast out demons. And those demons knew Him, and knew they were beaten. This was the war that began so long ago, which led to our captivity to the powers of sin. A war that still continues, and some of the worst chains of demon possession are those of addiction, to whatever once appealed to our vanity. Jesus came to set us free, and to put us back in a right relationship with God, and He can still do that for you today.
And the penalty for sin, the ransom that Satan demanded while he held us captive - kidnapped from the Garden of Eden - was paid by the death of the Messiah on the cross - a righteous man, in place of all the sinners who would believe. Jesus is raised up as a standard, a flag to follow, just like the dead snake on a pole that the freed Israelites were told by Moses to follow across the desert, when they were afraid and threatened by poisonous serpents. Jesus is the seed of the Woman, who was foretold to come and smash the head of the evil serpent in the Garden, and He did it.
His success was proven by his rising from the grave. And Jesus' resurrection also proved that his authority to teach and do miracles came from the Father, even when He claimed to be able to do things that only God can do, or made exceptions to the strict observance of the traditions that had been elaborated by men.
And this is the battle that we continue to fight to this day, because we are born into this world, under the occupation of the Rebel's legions. We struggle to get free of the snares of Satan. But we only need to claim the promises of the King, and we will be given the power and authority to put Satan's minions in their place. When we follow the Messiah, and choose the Way of Life and Truth, then lies must give up and retreat. We are promised Victory, forever!
________________
And yet we still wait for the Messiah to come. We are waiting for the King to return and place all of the nations under his feet. We wait for the eternal Kingdom to begin. For surely, Jesus' proclamation that "the Kingdom of God is among you" did not mean 'this is all there is to be, and it's all up to you.' The Church has been trying that, without success, for 2,000 years. Jesus promised, according to the Scriptures, that He would come again, in the Glory of God's Kingdom, to begin his millenial rule.
So why is He taking so long? Perhaps because we have not yet fulfilled all that He asked us to do first. We have not done the one thing He was doing when He was here among us. He preached the gospel to the Jews! We need to help Him to save as many of his own people as possible.
For many generations, we have neglected to offer the Jews the good news in a way that they can relate to. Many of them yearn for a personal relationship with God, but we have not shared our faith with them. We have disdained their faith and traditions, and snubbed them because of their ethnicity - which was given to them by God! And yet, they were promised a great role, as an illuminated priesthood, leading all of the Gentiles through the proper observances in the renewed Temple in Jerusalem. How can they come to know the King of the Jews, if we don't tell them all that we know? To be illuminated, they must be saved!
And now there are some who claim to be "Messianic Jews" who barely sound like Christians, and most certainly believe as heretics, because they don't know what we have learned through the centuries. We must both embrace them and share the Truth as we know it, to bring them into the community of the Church. For 2,000 years, we have fought against the heretics, and we shall not now follow them, even if they are Jews. Their heresies were the cause of Jesus' arguments with them in the first place, and their ignorance must not be the cause of our being led astray in the end.
The Church, in all its proper denominations, must make a concerted and coordinated effort to evangelize the Jewish people, and actively refute the objections of the rabbis who have been keeping them in darkness for so many centuries. But we must do it with kindness, not arrogance, humbly admitting that we have been at fault for all this time, by not speaking to them as the brothers and sisters whom they have been all along.
And if we are to properly love them, we must treat their traditions with respect, even as we put them in their place on the dusty shelves of history, among the mistaken ideas that used to hold us back from the Truth. But what they want to keep, once they know Jesus as Lord and King, we should let them keep, so long as it does not contradict the Scriptures, or change the basic theology that we have drawn from the Scriptures.
And we must be gentle and careful not to impose our own particular "oral traditions" in the place of theirs, or Jesus may be as angry with us as He was before. If it turns out that they have their own fourth kind of "denomination" alongside of our Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant, perhaps that is as it should be, so long as they accept the creeds that we do. There are four Gospels, after all, and one was written for the Jews.
Tuesday, July 14, 2020
Things in the Universe We Can't Explain
There are eight things about the Universe that every world view has to be able to explain. Whether we examine them by philosophy and logic, or use science and mathematics, these eight problems don't seem to have a solely natural avenue for understanding. Rather, they appear to require that something "larger than life" adds something to each equation.
1. The Origin of the Universe
2. How Finely-Tuned the Universe is
3. The Origin of Living Beings
4. Evolving Creatures by Design
5. Consciousness and Mind
6. Free Agency and Responsibility
7. Objective Moral Standards
8. The Existence of Evil
If you can't explain how these came to be, using only natural elements (space, time, matter, physics & chemistry) then you have to admit the necessity of "supernatural" causes.
PLUS ...
If you find any evidence of intention or purpose, you have to expect and search for a person who was active.
GOD.
No matter how hard our best minds have tried, the plain, natural explanations just don't get the job done, and often for some rather obvious reasons. The "God of the gaps" is real. He made the Universe, and our minds, so we could figure it out and appreciate how amazing He is. But there are places where "random chance" is beyond fantastically improbable, and only his active interference can "bridge the gap" and make things happen.
At some point, everyone must confront the possibility that they are holding some kind of bias, either for or against "the Truth," and ask themselves, "Why?" and "Why not?"
If you start out with the impervious assumption that there are no supernatural events or agents, then you are not being honest with yourself, because that last possibility is exactly what you are trying to determine. You have to temporarily suspend your disbelief, or you will end up with circular reasoning, proving that only your original assumption could be right, even though it's totally inadequate.
This is what we want to know:
"What is the best, most reasonable, or just plausible, explanation for these events?
- does it cover all of the evidence and facts?
- does it tie up loose ends, or make any testable predictions?"
The bottom line for most atheists and skeptics is that accepting the conclusion that God exists would require some kind of response. They would have to choose:
A. to seek a relationship with God, or
B. to refuse to acknowledge His claims.
And each of these choices has eternal consequences. Quite simply, they just don't want to know.
Or, if they are like the persistent agnostic who just can't drop the question, maybe they really do want to know. They want to know for sure, to be as certain as they can get, because something is telling them it is the most important question in the world. And eventually they will decide to trust the evidence that is available, and choose to cross over into faith.
At which point, you just might begin to wonder, if God is real, then who is Jesus? And then you need to ask if there were any eyewitnesses who recorded their stories for those yet to be born, and you find the four Gospels.
Matthew was a former tax collector, who wrote for Jews in Palestine and abroad.
Mark was Peter's secretary, recording his story for preaching in Rome's underground.
Luke was Paul's traveling companion, who helped share the Gospel with the Gentiles.
John was the "beloved disciple," became the Bishop of Ephesus, and died in exile.
And Paul's letters were obviously written before he was martyred in Rome, in the middle 60s AD. The churches that he wrote to saved them as treasured documents useful for the formation of the Church and the salvation of souls.
Clearly all of these accounts of Jesus' mission to be the Messiah were recorded within the lifetimes of witnesses who could have verified their accuracy. And all twelve of his disciples were willing to suffer, and even die, for the message they were asked to spread. Apparently, they thought Jesus was uniquely special, even the Son of God.
The same God who created the Universe so that he could share his love with us, who revealed Himself to Abraham and Moses and all the Prophets, who loved King David and promised him an heir and an eternal dynasty. The God who sent his only Son to call us to repentance, so that we could be adopted and saved for eternal life in Heaven, where we can share in God's love and be changed into his likeness.
This is the God who adds something "larger than life" to the equations of his creation. He is the explanation that makes the unexplainable make sense. He covers all of the evidence, and ties up all of the loose ends. And He is calling you to cross over into a life of faith.
1. The Origin of the Universe
2. How Finely-Tuned the Universe is
3. The Origin of Living Beings
4. Evolving Creatures by Design
5. Consciousness and Mind
6. Free Agency and Responsibility
7. Objective Moral Standards
8. The Existence of Evil
If you can't explain how these came to be, using only natural elements (space, time, matter, physics & chemistry) then you have to admit the necessity of "supernatural" causes.
PLUS ...
If you find any evidence of intention or purpose, you have to expect and search for a person who was active.
GOD.
No matter how hard our best minds have tried, the plain, natural explanations just don't get the job done, and often for some rather obvious reasons. The "God of the gaps" is real. He made the Universe, and our minds, so we could figure it out and appreciate how amazing He is. But there are places where "random chance" is beyond fantastically improbable, and only his active interference can "bridge the gap" and make things happen.
At some point, everyone must confront the possibility that they are holding some kind of bias, either for or against "the Truth," and ask themselves, "Why?" and "Why not?"
If you start out with the impervious assumption that there are no supernatural events or agents, then you are not being honest with yourself, because that last possibility is exactly what you are trying to determine. You have to temporarily suspend your disbelief, or you will end up with circular reasoning, proving that only your original assumption could be right, even though it's totally inadequate.
This is what we want to know:
"What is the best, most reasonable, or just plausible, explanation for these events?
- does it cover all of the evidence and facts?
- does it tie up loose ends, or make any testable predictions?"
The bottom line for most atheists and skeptics is that accepting the conclusion that God exists would require some kind of response. They would have to choose:
A. to seek a relationship with God, or
B. to refuse to acknowledge His claims.
And each of these choices has eternal consequences. Quite simply, they just don't want to know.
Or, if they are like the persistent agnostic who just can't drop the question, maybe they really do want to know. They want to know for sure, to be as certain as they can get, because something is telling them it is the most important question in the world. And eventually they will decide to trust the evidence that is available, and choose to cross over into faith.
At which point, you just might begin to wonder, if God is real, then who is Jesus? And then you need to ask if there were any eyewitnesses who recorded their stories for those yet to be born, and you find the four Gospels.
Matthew was a former tax collector, who wrote for Jews in Palestine and abroad.
Mark was Peter's secretary, recording his story for preaching in Rome's underground.
Luke was Paul's traveling companion, who helped share the Gospel with the Gentiles.
John was the "beloved disciple," became the Bishop of Ephesus, and died in exile.
And Paul's letters were obviously written before he was martyred in Rome, in the middle 60s AD. The churches that he wrote to saved them as treasured documents useful for the formation of the Church and the salvation of souls.
Clearly all of these accounts of Jesus' mission to be the Messiah were recorded within the lifetimes of witnesses who could have verified their accuracy. And all twelve of his disciples were willing to suffer, and even die, for the message they were asked to spread. Apparently, they thought Jesus was uniquely special, even the Son of God.
The same God who created the Universe so that he could share his love with us, who revealed Himself to Abraham and Moses and all the Prophets, who loved King David and promised him an heir and an eternal dynasty. The God who sent his only Son to call us to repentance, so that we could be adopted and saved for eternal life in Heaven, where we can share in God's love and be changed into his likeness.
This is the God who adds something "larger than life" to the equations of his creation. He is the explanation that makes the unexplainable make sense. He covers all of the evidence, and ties up all of the loose ends. And He is calling you to cross over into a life of faith.
Wednesday, July 8, 2020
Pray without Ceasing
The following litany is my offering for continuous devotion. You may choose among them, and use as many or as few as you like, as the occasion calls for. Or draw up your own list, to memorize and pray as often as you can remember to do so.
......
Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of my heart, be forever pleasing in thy sight, oh Lord, my God, and let me rest beneath the shelter of thy wings.
Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, Creator and Ruler of the Cosmos. Set us free from the inclination to sin, and shelter us from the troubles of this world.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Teach me the Way of your Truth, so I may know you and have eternal Life in Heaven.
O Holy Spirit, Voice of Grace, come dwell in my heart and enlighten my mind. Lead me surely so that I may live and pray in accord with thy will.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and always. Ask that we may be granted unwavering faith in Jesus, and be counted worthy of eternal life.
O blessed Saints in Heaven, pray for us poor sinners who still stumble, that we may clearly see our paths, and always follow what is right.
Happy angels and archangels, Hosts, Powers, Dominions and Principalities, guard us who believe, even if we wander, and shield us from all evil.
Beloved Lord, our Father, God,
In times of distress we come to Thee, asking for your comfort and protection from the ills and troubles of this world, for ourselves, our families, and all our friends. [We pray also for those working to preserve the health, supply, safety, and faith of our community.] We ask that you continue to care for us, to shepherd and protect us even under stormy and dark skies. Grant us ever deeper faith, so that we may embrace the hope of rescue, and experience the reality of your presence here with us.
We ask in Jesus' name, Amen.
Dearest Lord Jesus,
Please heal our nation, and the whole world. Give us worthy leaders of faith, who follow closely after you, and give you glory. Protect our people from the works of Satan, and defend us from our enemies in times of strife. Encourage us to always seek justice, virtue and righteousness in both our public and our private lives. Bless us with your wisdom, reminding us to preserve our beloved homelands, and be a Light shining before us, helping us to always choose the right paths.
We love you, and we praise you. Amen.
Holy Father,
May there soon be peace and justice,
with love and reconciliation for all
who abide in Jerusalem, your Holy City,
and may they give you all the glory.
Oh, my Jesus!
Forgive us our sins.
Save us from the fires of Hell.
Lead all souls to Heaven,
Especially those most in need of thy mercy.
- St. Faustina
My Lord and my God!
Grant me perfect contrition for all my sins. I have failed you, and betrayed your love, and I am deeply sorrowful. I am appalled by the way I have caused you to suffer on the cross, and I promise to do my best to avoid future sins. My only deepest desire is to be with you, to know you, and to please you. Please write your words upon my heart, and dwell within me.
My Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Oh Gracious Lord,
Bless me always with your graces, that I may grow in virtue and faithfulness. Let me be ever ready to accept your gifts, so that I will be sooner transformed, and become more and more alike to your Radiant Love. And let those graces that others fail to accept flow into my heart to reveal your perfect Presence.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
Grant me, O Lord my God,
a mind to know you,
a heart to seek you,
wisdom to find you,
conduct pleasing to you,
faithful perseverance awaiting you,
and a hope of finally embracing you.
Amen.
- St. Thomas Aquinas
O' my Jesus,
Grant me the grace I need to take up my own cross, and help me to follow in your footsteps. If I must bear suffering, let it be to share in yours. I only ask that you remember me when you return to us with your Kingdom. And if it be thy will, may I share in your risen glory, and sit to listen at your feet.
Amen.
Oh, My Lord,
Thou hast given so much to me!
Give me one thing more: a grateful heart.
Not thankful when it pleases me,
as if thy blessings had spare days,
but such a heart
whose pulse may be thy praise.
Amen
- George Herbert
Lord, I do believe!
Help me to overcome my doubts,
and to understand your ways.
Bless me often, Lord.
Show me how you walk with me,
and shower me with your grace,
so my faith will continually grow.
In Thine own Name, I dare to pray,
my Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God,
Come and dwell always in my heart.
Open my lips, and help me to proclaim Your Gospel,
and to tell of the mercy in your Father's Kingdom,
as well as I am able,
and grant that I may be found worthy
to share in the glories of Heaven.
Amen.
......
Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of my heart, be forever pleasing in thy sight, oh Lord, my God, and let me rest beneath the shelter of thy wings.
Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, Creator and Ruler of the Cosmos. Set us free from the inclination to sin, and shelter us from the troubles of this world.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Teach me the Way of your Truth, so I may know you and have eternal Life in Heaven.
O Holy Spirit, Voice of Grace, come dwell in my heart and enlighten my mind. Lead me surely so that I may live and pray in accord with thy will.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and always. Ask that we may be granted unwavering faith in Jesus, and be counted worthy of eternal life.
O blessed Saints in Heaven, pray for us poor sinners who still stumble, that we may clearly see our paths, and always follow what is right.
Happy angels and archangels, Hosts, Powers, Dominions and Principalities, guard us who believe, even if we wander, and shield us from all evil.
Beloved Lord, our Father, God,
In times of distress we come to Thee, asking for your comfort and protection from the ills and troubles of this world, for ourselves, our families, and all our friends. [We pray also for those working to preserve the health, supply, safety, and faith of our community.] We ask that you continue to care for us, to shepherd and protect us even under stormy and dark skies. Grant us ever deeper faith, so that we may embrace the hope of rescue, and experience the reality of your presence here with us.
We ask in Jesus' name, Amen.
Dearest Lord Jesus,
Please heal our nation, and the whole world. Give us worthy leaders of faith, who follow closely after you, and give you glory. Protect our people from the works of Satan, and defend us from our enemies in times of strife. Encourage us to always seek justice, virtue and righteousness in both our public and our private lives. Bless us with your wisdom, reminding us to preserve our beloved homelands, and be a Light shining before us, helping us to always choose the right paths.
We love you, and we praise you. Amen.
Holy Father,
May there soon be peace and justice,
with love and reconciliation for all
who abide in Jerusalem, your Holy City,
and may they give you all the glory.
Oh, my Jesus!
Forgive us our sins.
Save us from the fires of Hell.
Lead all souls to Heaven,
Especially those most in need of thy mercy.
- St. Faustina
My Lord and my God!
Grant me perfect contrition for all my sins. I have failed you, and betrayed your love, and I am deeply sorrowful. I am appalled by the way I have caused you to suffer on the cross, and I promise to do my best to avoid future sins. My only deepest desire is to be with you, to know you, and to please you. Please write your words upon my heart, and dwell within me.
My Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Oh Gracious Lord,
Bless me always with your graces, that I may grow in virtue and faithfulness. Let me be ever ready to accept your gifts, so that I will be sooner transformed, and become more and more alike to your Radiant Love. And let those graces that others fail to accept flow into my heart to reveal your perfect Presence.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
Grant me, O Lord my God,
a mind to know you,
a heart to seek you,
wisdom to find you,
conduct pleasing to you,
faithful perseverance awaiting you,
and a hope of finally embracing you.
Amen.
- St. Thomas Aquinas
O' my Jesus,
Grant me the grace I need to take up my own cross, and help me to follow in your footsteps. If I must bear suffering, let it be to share in yours. I only ask that you remember me when you return to us with your Kingdom. And if it be thy will, may I share in your risen glory, and sit to listen at your feet.
Amen.
Oh, My Lord,
Thou hast given so much to me!
Give me one thing more: a grateful heart.
Not thankful when it pleases me,
as if thy blessings had spare days,
but such a heart
whose pulse may be thy praise.
Amen
- George Herbert
Lord, I do believe!
Help me to overcome my doubts,
and to understand your ways.
Bless me often, Lord.
Show me how you walk with me,
and shower me with your grace,
so my faith will continually grow.
In Thine own Name, I dare to pray,
my Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God,
Come and dwell always in my heart.
Open my lips, and help me to proclaim Your Gospel,
and to tell of the mercy in your Father's Kingdom,
as well as I am able,
and grant that I may be found worthy
to share in the glories of Heaven.
Amen.
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