Saturday, June 2, 2018

Jun 2 - Saturday 8th Week in OT


+ Today we have rather startling readings: startling in their simplicity, common sense, and forthrightness. To understand the readings more fully we need to focus in on a supernatural law and spiritual principle that resides deep in our minds, hearts and souls: and that is the ability to recognize truth and goodness (love) from inside out! We spend our whole live striving after the fullness of these things, truth and love, so when someone on the outside addresses these supernaturally charged entities of our beings, then we can “know for sure” that they are telling us the truth, that they are offering us an experience of self-sacrificial giving which is love. Even though we grapple with the details, and are ever filling in blanks, then erasing them, then putting them back, changing our minds – but all the while we are getting closer and closer to pure truth and pure love!

And so the first reading from the letter of Jude today tells us to use the one thing preliminarily for any of this to make sense at all, and that is the power of faith, the virtue of faith, the “application” or “app” if you will, of faith – that is freely given by God, the only one who can distribute it, to any who ask for it – and not just once, but daily, and even hourly if necessary – when things and circumstances seem to gets fuzzy. THE POWER TO OPERATE FAITH IS THE KEY TO EVERYTHING!

          So Jude says: use your most holy faith as your foundation and build on that, praying in the Holy Spirit. And this last part “praying in the Holy Spirit” is another golden key that unfortunately these days is used by the most miniscule percentage of those who claim the name Christian and are baptized into the life of the Mystical Body of Christ. This type of prayer is praying without words: desiring to pray so deeply, in a very private channel between you and God the Father – that you just sit in deep silence for a few minutes but then you pass air over your vocal chords and begin to simply let whatever syllable and patterns emerge that the Spirit causes to happen – and then you are led by the Spirit to control the intensity of it and format: whether to whisper it, shout it, sing it or what. It may sound like gibberish to you, but it is as clear as a bell in God’s ear what the Spirit is formulating for your prayer at that moment. And you will feel a deep sense of connection to God, and you will at the same time sense, feel, know that he is answering your prayer in the depth of your heart and soul. This method you can apply to any type of prayer you want. The one prerequisite is to ask for a moment, for the full release of the Holy Sprit’s gifts that were poured out upon the Apostles on Pentecost. Just ask, and then go about your business. That’s it! It is so simple, yet so very powerful.

In the gospel passage we see Jesus having a conversation with the priests, scribes and elders of the temple in Jerusalem about the authority that he spoke with and did the things he did: in teaching the people with a decisive and game-changing sort of way. The only reason they asked the question was because they were “stung to the mind and heart” in their own search for truth and love, and they recognized in Jesus one who had command over everything, everything that is: they knew that he was greater than Moses whom they had based their knowledge on. So Jesus plays a little mind game with them in asking the authority of John the Baptist’s baptism of repentance – and they were stumped – and so Jesus did not have to spell out for them where his authority came from because they KNEW, they SIMPLY KNEW he had more supernatural connections than anyone ever could.

Because of our baptism into the life of Christ Risen, and Confirmation and reception of the major gifts of the Spirit, and any time we ask for it, the “baptism, if you will, that Jesus spoke of that we all must likewise receive, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, asking for the full release of countless auxiliary gifts, like our own private prayer language to God, then when we encounter anyone and everyone in our day we can give them the peace, hope and joy of God, his consolations, his blessings, his forgiveness and his love as we give them a helping hand or a willing ear!

Have a great day in this Pentecost Season – building up the kingdom of God everywhere you go – “praying in the spirit” all the while!  



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