Being Vulnerable in Prayer

In today's Entrance Antiphon, we pray:  When I cried to the Lord, he heard my voice; he rescued me from those who attack me. Entrust your cares to the Lord, and he will support you."

Wow! I had just poured my soul out to the Lord in personal prayer, complaining about a phrase in Sarah Young's book, Jesus Calling, in which, through  her, the Lord says to the reader:  "Let me help you through this day. The challenges you face are far too great for you to handle alone. You are keenly aware of your helplessness in the scheme of events you face" (March 7th).  I felt humiliated by those statements and told Jesus just that! What I heard back in prayer was: Trust me. I am with you. I hold you by your hand. I am at your side. Pause to remind yourself of that fact. Rely on Me. I am standing by waiting for you to seek my help."  I said "thank you," and, in my prayer, the Lord then continued:  Do not put yourself down! Everyone is helpless in face of the day's events in their lives.  You are no exception!  I am your strength. Remember that fact and that I come to you every morning in the Eucharist to give you the strength you need each day, one day at a time."

Then, I read the Entrance Antiphon for today's liturgy and realized that, by trusting my cares to the Lord,  God not only supported me but also rescued me, not from outside attackers, but from myself!

Your experience of God in prayer today?

A love story!

When I told this morning that I loved Him, the following dialogue ensued:

Jesus, I love you.

And I love you to the point that I gave my life as ransom "money."

And they tortured You so horribly.

The price I paid to rescue you was high. Satan was not going to surrender his will easily.
I battled Satan all the way through my passion and death. I triumphed in the resurrection. So, too, will you in my name.

My Lord and my God!

Jesus, my Lord and my God!

This is my belief. What is yours?

Nothing is Impossible with God

In today's first reading, Zachariah  8: 1-8, a small remnant of the Chosen People, those who survived the Babylonian exile, will be returning to Jerusalem, their sacred city that is now in shambles, completely ruined. Israel, a once world power, has been reduced to a small remnant of people.  Through the prophet Zachariah, God says to them:  I will return to Zion, and I will dwell within Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city [God allowed the Israelites to be conquered by other nations whenever they abandoned the covenant]...God also promises, through the prophet Zachariah, that  the elderly, once again, shall "sit in the streets of Jerusalem and  that this city shall again "be filled with boys and girls playing in its streets." God says to the people: "Even if this should seem impossible in the eyes of the remnant of the people, shall it in those days be impossible in my eyes also...?"

God is a warrior who goes to battle for us to rescue us from those places where we have been exiled or exiled ourselves from the Truth. No matter how far away from the Lord you and I may have drifted, no matter how unfaithful we may have been, God is always faithful to His covenant to be our God, our Savior, our Helper in need.  He says to us,  as He said to the remnant of His Chosen People, "Lo, I will rescue my people from the land of the rising sun, and from the land of the setting sun. I will bring them back to dwell within Jerusalem. They shall be my people, and I will be their God, with faithfulness and justice."

We are on our way to the New Jerusalem, our Eternal City, where justice and peace and love prevail, where there will be no more tears, no more war, no more devastation, a place where all will live in harmony with God, others and self.  This Victory, already won on the Cross by Jesus' obedience to the Father unto death, will be our victory as well, through Christ Jesus. The Victory begins here in our everyday life when we embrace God's holy will for us and for others, when we act in accordance with God's holy Will, when we seek God above all else and put God at the center of our lives, or more correctly, accept the fact that God already exists in the center of our very being, in our deepest core self, that is, our  God-self or our True Self.

This is my belief? What is yours?