Harden not your hearts today,
but listen to the voice of the Lord. PS 94:8
GALATIANS 4:22-24,26-27,31-5:1
My Soul's Beloved,
You have the power to use everything, even the foolish choices we make when we get tired of waiting for You to fulfill Your promises, You can use them to teach powerful and useful lessons. You waste nothing but can draw good from every situation. We see here that God uses the poor choice Sarah made in telling Abraham to have a child through the slave woman because she got tired of waiting for God to fulfill His covenantal promise to give him a son through her.
Because of Sarah's impatience, we have two separate sets of descendants from the sons of Abraham, Ishmael born of the slave girl Hagar in the ordinary way, and Isaac the child of promise born of the free woman in an extraordinary way when Sarah was 90 and Abraham a 100 years old. St. Paul uses these two women as an allegory to describe the two covenants:
The first who comes from Mount Sinai, and whose children are slaves, is Hagar. The Jerusalem above, however, is free and is our mother, since scripture says: Shout for joy, you barren women who bore no children! Break into shouts of joy and gladness, you who were never in labour. For there are more sons of the forsaken one than sons of the wedded wife. So, my brothers, we are the children, not of the slave girl, but of the free-born wife.
We are the descendants of the barren woman with whom God made an eternal covenant and that covenant was ratified with the Blood of the Son of God and sealed in the Holy Spirit. This is why, we who belong to the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church founded on the Rock of Peter, are the children of the free-born wife. You, my Beloved, have set us free from the yoke of slavery to sin. It is this Church that has heard Your voice, listened to it, adhered to it, and passed it on faithfully from one generation to the next in unbroken continuity, and so it will be until You return. By the power of Your Presence and the fullness of Your Holy Spirit who abides in the Church, our hearts shall never be hardened but we will always live in the fullness of Truth, embracing all that You taught and did without dilution or change, until You return to claim Your Bride.
PSALM 112(113):1-7
May the name of the Lord be blessed for evermore!
Praise, O servants of the Lord,
praise the name of the Lord!
May the name of the Lord be blessed
both now and for evermore!
From the rising of the sun to its setting
praised be the name of the Lord!
High above all nations is the Lord,
above the heavens his glory.
praised be the name of the Lord!
High above all nations is the Lord,
above the heavens his glory.
Who is like the Lord, our God,
who has risen on high to his throne
yet stoops from the heights to look down,
to look down upon heaven and earth?
From the dust he lifts up the lowly,
from the dungheap he raises the poor
who has risen on high to his throne
yet stoops from the heights to look down,
to look down upon heaven and earth?
From the dust he lifts up the lowly,
from the dungheap he raises the poor
May the name of the Lord be blessed for evermore!
LUKE 11:29-32
My Soul's Beloved,
LUKE 11:29-32
My Soul's Beloved,
Signs abound if only we are willing to see them. The greatest sign of all is the Sign of the Cross. Raised between heaven and earth, all who lift their gaze on the Son of Man crucified on it and repent and believe in the great work of salvation wrought on it for the salvation of the world, will be saved.
Announce a healing service and hordes will attend. Mention some spiritual phenomenon in some place and again crowds will descend to tickle their ears with something new. All that is needful is already revealed. The New is hidden in the Old and the Old comes alive in the New. The rich deposit of faith both revealed and handed down in Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition is the entire treasury of the Christian faith held in the heart, mind, soul, and bosom of Holy Mother Church. These she will teach and hand down without error until You return in glory.
We unite our own hearts and minds to Your prayer for unity which the Father has already heard and answered. May we see its fulfillment soon Lord so there will be but one flock and one shepherd and thus hasten Your glorious Second Coming. Maranath! Lord Jesus, Maranatha!
The crowds got even bigger, and Jesus addressed them:
‘This is a wicked generation; it is asking for a sign. The only sign it will be given is the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. On Judgement day the Queen of the South will rise up with the men of this generation and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and there is something greater than Solomon here. On Judgement day the men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation and condemn it, because when Jonah preached they repented; and there is something greater than Jonah here.’
‘This is a wicked generation; it is asking for a sign. The only sign it will be given is the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. On Judgement day the Queen of the South will rise up with the men of this generation and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and there is something greater than Solomon here. On Judgement day the men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation and condemn it, because when Jonah preached they repented; and there is something greater than Jonah here.’
No comments:
Post a Comment